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Demise of kei cars on the horizon?

The kei car has long been a staple of the Japanese automobile industry and its car culture. Too diminutive for Western markets, the tiny cars and trucks are a strong influencer of design in Japan. Now, as The New York Times reports, the Japanese government has hit kei cars with increases in sales tax, gasoline prices and has reduced the kei car tax break introduced to make the cars popular in the first place by 50 percent.

Renault FRENDZY Concept off to Frankfurt

The bi-polar Renault Frendzy Concept Nothing floats Renault’s boat quite as much as a pile of batteries attached to an electric motor. Unless it’s an off-the-wall concept heading for a motor show. Put the two together and you have a Renault designer’s wet dream.

2012 BMW X1 Facelift at New York Show

2012 BMW X1 Facelift The still quite new BMW X1 is getting a minor facelift for 2012 and will debut at the New York Auto Show. It’s really only a couple of years since the debut of the BMW X1, but BMW are already giving it a tweak and a titivate in a 2012 facelift designed, it would seem, to make the compact SUV seem a bit more upmarket; more in line with the rest of the BMW range. Revealed ahead of a debut at the New York Auto Show this month – after which it goes on sale in the US from $31.5k – the latest version of the X1 gets a new front bumper and grill with silver bars, deeper recessed fogs and silver detailing in the lower bumper to give the nose of the X1 more identity and make it a but more urban-warrior trendy.