Fisherman’s Vinyl Boat Seat on 2040-parts.com

Civic hybrid tests Honda's new strategy

Despite being the first to sell an electric-gasoline car in the United States and making hybrid technology a centerpiece of its fuel economy push, Honda Motor Co. has yet to have a hybrid hit. But the redesigned Civic Hybrid, launched April 20, is the first test of whether Honda's new strategy of tapping lithium ion batteries and, later, two-motor systems can break the streak.

Porsche Macan caught on video

The Porsche Macan – a Porsche Cayenne on a boil wash – has been spied out testing and caught on video. We’ve seen spy photos of the Porsche Macan before – Porsche’s take on the Audi Q5 – and they look more like a cut down Cayenne being used as a mule for the Macan’s underpinnings than an actual Macan. But it seems that the shots so far are actually the Macan as it’s heading for production, which means Porsche has, perhaps unsurprisingly, chosen the 911 school of car design as its inspiration for the Macan and just stuck a Cayenne on a boil wash.

BMW 2 Series tease begins (video)

New BMW 2 Series tease begins BMW’s plans to extend their model range continues, with the new BMW 2 Series due to join its larger sibling – the BMW 4 Series – as the 1 Class Coupe/Cabriolet. The official reveal for the new BMW 2 Series is expected at the end of next week, but ahead of that BMW has started to tease its new Coupe on video (below). We don’t get to see much – and what we do see isn’t a huge surprise – but we already know much of what to expect when the 2 Series starts to hit the road in 2014.