In case you do not want to drive a car with manual gear box, you can go for an automatic version of the sedan which starts at $15,250 for the base Rio.

The sedan variant of the 2012 Rio comes in three trims– the SX, EX, and LX. All versions are running with a four cylinder 138 horsepower 1.6L gasoline engine with direct injection. The powerplant can be coupled with either a 6-speed manual gearbox or a 6-speed automatic transmission.

The estimated fuel rating of the Rio Sedan is at 30 miles per gallon when drivin on city streets while it gets a bit better at 30 mpg on highway traffic. Next year, Kia plans to intoduce a start stop system that they call the ISG or Idle Stop & Go technology that will further improve the fuel economy numbers.

Across the Rio models, the follwing equipment come as standard: air conditioning; power steering; satellite radio by SinusXM with 3 months of free service; audio system with MP3 and USB provisions; ESC or Electronic Stability Control; HAC or Hill Start Assist; VSM or Vehicle Stability Management; and ABS.

The top of the line Rio Sedan SX can be yours for $18,250 which adds some aesthetic elements like metal pedals, LED accent lights in front, LED tail lights, steering wheel and shift knob wrapped in leather, folding side mirrors, vanity mirrors, voice activated entertainment and information system, and rear camera.

The £13,995 entry-level Ford Focus Studio will become available to consumers who go after the “61-Plate” consumers. Moreover, the new model is scheduled to launch this coming September.

So far, Ford Motor Company has only confirmed the speculations about it production and several spec details such as the 16-inch sporty-looking allow wheels, the USB-enabled CD/radio player, the electric mirrors and rear spoilers that will come in the same body color, and electrical windows. There’s also the Electronic Stability Programme (ESP) feature and the Ford Easy Fuel ‘capless’ refueling method.

Under the hood of the £13,995 entry-level Ford Focus Studio is a 1.6-liter Ti-VCT petrol engine unit with 84 bhp and 47.9mpg fuel efficiency. According to the managing director Nigel Sharp, the new Ford model is not only well equipped but also affordable and economical. The £13,995 Ford Focus Studio will come in a five-door hatchback model with three attractive, sporty, and cool body colors to choose from: Frozen White, Panther Black and Moondust Silver. According to reports, the brand new Focus Studio range will be priced from £13,995 to £24,000.

The facelift gives the Renault Twingo gives the compact car a more open and rounder grill compared to the last release. It also gets an enlarged badge of Renault. The information about the Twingo is very limited. We are pretty sure we will get more details as to its pricing and the engine that it will be using prior to the release of this city car.

The Renault Twingo is being produced in Slovenia and is marketed across Europe. According to some reports, the Twingo might be replaced by another compact vehicle that will have a rear wheel drive configuration in two years time. The said new Renault compact will share a platform with Daimler Smart passenger vehicle that can carry four individuals.

The man responsible for the redesign is Lauren van den Acker who is design chief of Renault. He has been spearheading the evolution of the Renault car design since taking the post last year. The newly designed vehicles by van den Acker though will only roll out the market starting 2012.

The Renault Twingo will hit the market later this year.

According to some media reports, the company is preparing their plant in Orion Township, a suburb in the area of Detroit, for the production of the Chevrolet Sonic and the Buick Verano later this year. The top executives of the company did not answer questions about the possible production of the 2-door Cruze.

The insiders clarified that the company is focusing on the production and launching of the Chevrolet Sonic. The company opted to produce the compact vehicle Sonic in Detroit instead of using their factory in South Korea. The setup in Detroit will have the new workers under a 2-tier earning structure.

GM has been building the 4-door Chevrolet Cruze exclusively at their Lordstown plant in Ohio but the successful campaign of the Cruze has the factory up against its production capacity even when the employees work over time.

The Chevrolet Cruze made a mark last May as it became the most sought after compact in the United States. This was the result of the industry survey but you need to factor out the shortage of the Japanese competition like the new Civic by Honda.

The Oriion plant is said to have been upgraded so it can help in the production of multiple models and the GM is still giving strong hints that they might indeed introduce a 2-door Cruze to further improve the image of the Chevrolet Cruze.

There is a whole lot of rumor going around in the automotive industry with the speculation that the 2013 Volkswagen Golf hatchback might go into production in the new VW Chattanooga plant in Tenessee, USA. According to an inside scoop, the carmaker is still mulling over the decision whether this new-generation VW Golf hatchback will be in production in U.S. along with the Passat, a model that was designed for Middle East, Mexico, South Korea, and Canada.

The inside scoop also indicates that the Chattanooga-VW Golf decision is part of the German carmaker’s plan to trade almost 800,000 models to U.S. by year 2018. The current VW Golf hatchback carries a hefty tag price of almost $17,965. Moving the production to U.S. might just be a rational move after all as critics speculate that its sale would be does well in U.S. soil.

The all new Volkswagen Golf hatchback is planned to launch by early 2013 with MQB (Modularer Querbaukasten or Modular Transverse Matrix ) Architecture similar to the revamped Audi A3 model. This new technology allows the carmaker to employ a wide range of front-wheel, front-engine models. In line with this, the rumors also speculate that the A3 and Q5 models would be produced in the same Tennessee plant.

As far as press releases are concerned, the carmaker says that it’s not impossible that the entire VW compact line, which includes the Scirocco, Jetta, Tiguan, and Golf models, might be built in the same plant where the Passat is.

Although the carmaker did not exactly point it out, but maybe majority of the American consumers have not even heard of Aveo. The sales figures are really bad and advertising back up is not really there. Also, the Aveo does not hold much of an appeal when placed side by side with its competitors.

According to insiders, the upcoming Aveo will create a different story. It will not be marketed as an economy car but will get the standard features like heated side mirrors and air conditioning. It is also expected to have a handling and feel similar to the small cars of Volkswagen.

Chevrolet will also offer the car with a sedan variant and a 5-door hatchback which will be both manufactured in Michigan and other Chevy factories in different corners of the globe.

Overall, Chevrolet wants to tell us the new subcompact will be a different car compared to its older sibling. And this will require a name change. There is a big but to this story though since Chevrolet has a global branding strategy tagged as “One Chevy” and using a different name for the North American market will hurt this direction.

While Cruze is also being sold as Cruze in other parts of the world, and Spark sold as Spark, is there really a dilemma to have the Aveo pushed as the Aveo when it goes on sale in different continents starting next year?

During the Management Briefing Serminars, Krafcik mentioned that Hyundai’s market share in the US increased by 50% since 2008 when they became fuel economy’s market leader.  Moreover, Hyundai’s CEO said the getting their entire fleet to achieve 50mpg is a “huge leap.”  Still, he strongly believes that it can be done through determination and thorough research and development.  The American car company will employ powertrains improvements and the addition of light weight materials.  Krafcik said the 80% of its entire line up will still carry the traditional gasoline engines while the remaining 20% will carry the electric, hybrid, and other alternative innovations for fuel engines.

Since the car company does not build pick-up trucks or other heavy vehicles, it would be easier for them to commit their pledge in achieving the average of 50mpg.  Krafcik confirmed that the car company has no plans for developing car pick-ups.

Krafcik used the customized 2011 Sonata to stress the point and to give us an insight on what to expect from this car company henceforth.   The model was customized earlier this year.  Hyundai abstained from using the standard V6 engines when they found out that only 10% of the people who purchase middle-sized sedans want a V6 engine under the hood.  Ergo, Hyundai opted for a 4-cyclinder engine and it achieved an average of 35mpg on highway driving.

The urban ride from the Korean car manufacturer was originally designed at their headquarters in California. The aftermarket specialist company gave the exterior contrasting elements with some blackened elements of the body like the mirror caps, mid portion of both bumpers, and the roof. The Kia Soul also badged with Edition 001 sticker on its sides and rear to emphasize the customization done.

Irmscher also refines the ride by offering a set of Sports Star 18 inch alloy rims.

Checking out the interiors, Irmscher treats the Soul with some luxury seats on carbon-like finish with contrast red patterns on the middle. The leather finish is also applied for the peak of the dashboard, shift knob, and steering wheel.

The restyling to be an Irmscher Edition 001 can be done with all variants of the Kia Soul. Owners can go to Kia dealerships or Irmscher offices worldwide.

Whenever you brake early, you can make sure that you are not going to hydroplane and that you are going to crash.  Braking early also gives you a great advantage whenever you are trying to keep the distance between you and the car in front of you.

That is the next thing that I want to talk about, keeping the distance between you and the next car.  You want to make sure that whenever it is raining, you are lengthening that distance by at least one more car length, that way if something happens, you are still safe!

In fact, there are several reasons for that title.

Before I reveal the big mystery, however, I want you to do me a favor.

See this picture, here? It is the Nissan Micra.

I just want you to look at it from a while. Study it. Really pay attention to its details.

Do you see what I see?

See, what I see is a bunch of details that belong to different, big selling automobiles.

I see touches of the Volkswagen Beetle.

I see glimpses of the majorly popular Mini Cooper.

I see nuances of the Dodge/Plymouth Neon.

So I say, Nissan is copying off everyone else’s paper and should be ashamed of themselves.