Renault Koleos

The Renault Koleos is a compact SUV which was first presented as a concept car at the 2006 Mondial de l'Automobile in Paris. Production is expected to start in 2008, and will also be performed by Renault subsidiary Samsung Motors in South Korea, as the Renault Samsung QMX.

Renault has some experience in the SUV market, after selling the Scénic RX4 and the Kangoo, but it has never produced a true SUV. A Koleos concept car was shown in the media as long ago as February 2000.
The Koleos's body design is based on the Renault Koleos and Renault Egeus concept cars. The engines selected for the Koleos haven’t been used in any car, but will be used in the Clio and Laguna. Some of the Koleos's future competitors like the Citroën C-Crosser and the Peugeot 4007 will also be presented by this time

Honda Fit named Japanese Car of the Year

The second-generation Honda Fit (a.k.a. Jazz in some markets outside the U.S.) has been named Japan's Car of the Year. Reuters reports that the little Honda hatchback beat out such heavyweights as the new Nissan Skyline (a.k.a. Infiniti G37 in the U.S.) and the new Subaru Impreza. Chosen by a 60-member panel comprised mainly of automotive journalists, the Car of the Year award in Japan has gone to Honda five times in the last 10 years. Last year's winner was the new Lexus LS sedan. You can check out the entire list of past winners here on Wikipedia. While we in the U.S. aren't able to purchase the new Fit yet, it's on sale in Japan and flying off the lot. Expected to sell around 12,000 units per month initially, Honda sold more than 20,000 in the car's first two weeks of availability. The new Fit's larger size and smoother looks should help it find a few more buyers in the U.S. as well when it goes on sale sometime next yea

Online voters name upcoming Alfa hatch "Furiosa"

Furiosa. That's what the new hatchback from Alfa Romeo will be called, by virtue of an international competition to choose the car's name.

The Italian automaker is getting farther away from the Alfa-numeric (pun intended) nomenclature and giving its models more emotive nameplates instead. The web contest offered online voters a choice of twelve names, and Furiosa got the most votes, beating out Agea, Enos, Everson, Fira, Milo, Mod, Nevo, Solea, Sparvo, Velvetta and Ventura. While some proposals had merit, some of the rejected names were a little cheesy (try to figure out which).

So we can stop calling it the Alfa Junior. The Furiosa is anticipated to make its debut at the Geneva show in March.

Fiat 500 officialy announced as CAR OF THE YEAR 2008

The international jury presiding over the Car of the Year award, made up of 58 specialist journalists from 22 European countries, has elected the Fiat 500 Car of the Year 2008 with 385 votes, ahead of the Mazda 2 (325 votes) and the Ford Mondeo (202).
In addition to winning the Car of the Year 2008 award outright, the super-compact Fiat distinguished itself by obtaining votes from most members of the jury: 57 out of 58 included it in their short-list, and 33 made it top in their personal rankings.