The Soul is a five-door hatch about a half-foot shorter than a Scion xB, one of the youth-market vehicles that likely inspired Kia to enter this little niche (the Honda Element is another, ditto the Nissan Cube; the all-new version of the latter will arrive here next spring as a 2009 model). The Soul began life as a very cool concept car in 2006, but the powerful, big-haunch look and a lot of the trick, appealing aspects have been finessed out in the obligatory production compromise.

Looks are the whole ballgame here, because beneath the radically angled window line and the buff fender bulges and the seat fabric that glows in the dark with the word “soul” is basically a good-sized but unspectacular economy box.

Two Hearts for the Soul

The five-place “urban crossover vehicle” goes on sale here in March. Two engines will be offered: a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine making 122 horsepower and 115 lb-ft of torque, and a 2.0-liter four putting out 142 horses and 137 lb-ft. The smaller engine comes only with a five-speed manual gearbox, while the larger has an optional four-speed automatic. A four-wheel-drive option would have been cool, but no go: it’s front-drive only. Read more »

This is Mazda’s new 2009 MX-5 – and in a world exclusive, CAR has driven the facelifted MX-5 seven months ahead of its UK debut to bring you the first road test of what is still the world’s most popular sports car. The news is all good…

The facelifted Mazda MX-5 looks pretty much the same. What’s new?

Visually, the roadster’s petite styling has been given a small but useful dose of aggression by that new five-point lower air intake, which aligns the MX-5 with Mazda’s recent 2, 6 and current RX-8. Those rakish front foglamp housings and new bumper also beef up the new MX-5’s visage, as do the more prominent side-skirts.

At the rear there’s a new bumper and more prominent taillights. The individual changes may be minor but collectively they effectively update Moray Callum’s original design with an added dash of brio.

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Is Maranello’s latest really an everyday Ferrari?

Are you ready for a Ferrari to drive to the office, the mall, the beach, the slopes—anywhere, everywhere? That’s the concept behind this revival of a name from Ferrari’s storied past—a fast GT that supplies style, brand panache, plenty of performance, and, thanks to its folding hardtop and “2-plus” interior layout, an unusually high level of all-around usefulness.

At the core of this concept is the hope that the California will attract buyers new to the brand, a notion that raises our eyebrows a degree or two since (a) the waiting list for a new Ferrari averages about 16 months, (b) U.S. Ferrari dealers have habitually given precedence to previous owners, (c) this car has no cup holders, and (d) its pricing will start at “about $200,000” in this country, according to the carmaker.

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During the Toyota Venza press presentation in gorgeous Farmington, Pennsylvania, we listened to Toyota describe the recipe for the perfect modern station wagon: Take one of the country’s most popular sedans—the Camry, natch—add more trunk room for your junk, raise the roof a few inches, and leave everything else where it is. The thing is, Toyota won’t call the Venza a wagon.

Nor, for that matter, does it consider the Venza a crossover, the term every other manufacturer calls its wagons when it’s too chicken to call them wagons. To describe the Venza, then, Toyota came up with a yet-undiscovered wagon-avoidance term: “the car, optimized.”

Mix of Highlander and Camry

Eyes rolled around the room. Isn’t “the car, optimized” the very definition of a wagon? Toyota’s feeling is that the Venza is about 70-percent car, 30-percent SUV, but in contrast to most crossovers and sport-utes, the Venza makes no promises of off-road dexterity. (Although, interestingly, the Venza offers the same 8.1 inches of ground clearance as does Toyota’s own Highlander.) It also doesn’t offer a third-row-seat option, so mechanically speaking, what you have here essentially is a “Camry, optimized.” Read more »

This 500-hp monster is the strongest commitment to the diesel engine yet.

Some folks are writing off the diesel. The future, they say, lies in electric vehicles, with hybrids as the transition technology. Diesel fuel is expensive, they continue, and there is the further popular conception that diesels are not “clean.” In reality, a diesel typically shaves 30 percent off fuel consumption, and diesel fuel savings are even more substantial at high speeds. New technologies make burning diesel clean as—if not cleaner than—gasoline combustion.

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