BMW, buoyed by a new line of small cars, threatens to end the 8-year reign of Toyota's Lexus as the leading US luxury brand.

BMW topped Lexus in July for the third time in 2008. BMW, the world's largest maker of luxury cars, trails Lexus by 3466 sales after 7 months, erasing 90% of the gap from the start of the year.

The US debut of the 1-Series car in March bolstered BMW's offerings with a model that gets 28 miles per gallon on the highway, blunting the effect of record gasoline prices that are sapping sales of big four-wheel-drives. Lexus has added only a sports car and a 4WD with 400 horsepower, V8 engines.  read more »

I'm no longer going to express any shock that my island city continues to provide a seemingly inexhaustible supply of street-parked vintage cars and trucks; we got to 150 Down On The Street posts late last year, we're up to 200 as of today, and I've got enough photos in the can to get us to 250, no sweat.  read more »

Viva, Las Vegas, baby!  read more »

WASHINGTON -- The insurance industry named dozens of new cars and trucks, led by Ford Motor Co. and its Volvo subsidiary, to its annual list of the safest vehicles Tuesday, helped by the increased use of anti-rollover technology.

Ford and Volvo had 16 vehicles in the 2009 model year on the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's list of the safest new cars, followed by Honda Motor Co. with 13 vehicles.

Seventy-two cars, trucks and SUVs received the top safety pick designation for 2009, more than double the number of vehicles in the 2008 model year and three times the number in 2007.

"The sheer number of this year's winners indicates that automakers have made huge strides to improve crash protection," said Institute president Adrian Lund.  read more »

The letter F is an auspicious one in Lexus lore. Back in the mid-'80s, when the Lexus brand was still in the planning stages, Toyota insiders referred to the prospective luxury division as "Circle F." And the car that put Lexus on the map, the LS 400, was known internally as Flagship One, or F1. For 2008, the letter F is back: The company has decided to crash the ber-sport sedan party with the 2008 Lexus IS-F , a hard-edged performance car based on the IS-series sedan and aimed squarely at perennial magazine-cover fodder like the Audi RS4, BMW M3 and Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG.  read more »

The three year old Nissan Note now taking new face, Nissan Motor Co. announced today that the new 2008 Note compact car will reach Japan market on 16th Jan this year. The new 2008 Nissan Note will price between 1,354,500 Yen to 1,865,850 Yen (includeing consumption tax), and expectation of the sales targets is that 4,000 units per month. Since the original Nissan Notes debut in January 2005, it has garnered customer accolades for its quick acceleration, quiet and comfortable driving manner, comfortable roomy interior and convenient double-decker multi-configurable trunk.  read more »

We were the first to show you shots of the new 2009 Cadillac XLR, now we've taken a jump to ludicrous speed with the first photographic evidence of the 2009 Cadillac XLR-V. The new hotness from Cadillac is getting the same wire-mesh grille we expect from the V-Series, and what looks to be a gigantic Cadillac badge smack-dab in the center of it. And oh yes, did we mention the "supercharged" logo on the side of the new stylin' Caddy? The only question is whether that super-ed-up engine will be the 4.4-liter Northstar V8 (443 HP) or the 6.2-liter LSA V8 (550 HP). Which do you think it should get? Hit the jump for the full spy report from Brenda Priddy's spy photographer and frequent Jalopnik contributor Chris Doane.  read more »

Brenda Priddy's cagey Chris Doane's caught the 2010 Cadillac CTS Coupe on camera. The new Cadillac style is speculated to be actually named the 2010 Cadillac CTC when it officially reaches production in Spring of 2009. Set to be built in Lansing at GM's Grand River Plant, the new coupe will spin out alongside the larger and more in-charge sedan from the General's luxe brand. Otherwise -- there's not much more to say other than the remainder of Priddy's spy report below the jump.  read more »

Saturn has gone and made its Vue Hybrid even more hybrid-tastic. Now equipped with GM's advanced two-mode hybrid technology, the new 2009 Saturn Vue Green Line 2 Mode Hybrid promises a fifty percent increase in fuel mileage over the standard V6 model. All of that efficiency comes from a 3.6L V6 equipped with VVT and direct injection and not one, but two 55 kW electric motors integrated into the transmission. Those motors provide assist at different vehicle speeds in order to minimize fuel consumption. Pretty clever, eh?  read more »

Here's the very first shots of the General's upcoming Theta-based crossover that's all about being "Professional Grade" — the 2010 GMC Terrain. The Terrain's showing a big block-like grille peeking through the semi-transparent bra it's wearing. Our spy shooters even indicate they believe the mesh you see surrounding said badge may in fact be indicative of a Denali trim. All we know is the Terrain will be kissing cousins to the Vue, and the next-generation 2010 Chevy Equinox. Also, it looks mind-numbingly boring. But if you're still interested — for god only knows what reason — hit the jump for the full spy report from the quick-to-shoot spy snappers at KGP.  read more »