Gerhard Horn

1 week ago | carbuzz.com | Gerhard Horn

I wonder if Sir Alec Issigonis would have liked what Mini has become. Today marks exactly 66 years since the first unit rolled off the factory floor on 8 May 1959. The original car was designed as a result of the 1956 Suez Crisis and the gas shortages that followed. This obviously led to smaller cars, much like Japan's kei car segment. But it's not the original Mini's size that makes it special, but rather the smart packaging that's still used to this day.

2 weeks ago | carbuzz.com | Gerhard Horn

A lot has been written about Nissan's future over the last two months, but two weeks ago, a piece of troubling news snuck under the radar. Geely, the Chinese owner of multiple famous brands, announced that it's 'exercising its put option' on Lotus. That's basically financial jargon for Geely is forcing Lotus to buy back the 51% stake it has in Lotus Advanced Technologies.

2 weeks ago | carbuzz.com | Gerhard Horn

If you're an automotive enthusiast, you must have some respect for JDM cars. Our list of JDM cars you absolutely have to drive includes obvious entries like the Nissan Skyline GT-R, Mazda RX-7, and the Honda NSX. But on it, you'll also find the Suzuki Cappuccino, which belongs to the kei car category. More specifically, it's part of the later kei car movement that introduced small cars with big personalities.

2 weeks ago | carbuzz.com | Ian Wright |Gerhard Horn |Brett Evans

Of the big markets in the US, we are lucky enough to cover one with a huge breadth and depth of variety and social importance. It's how we all have to, for better – or more likely worse in the US – get around unless someone spends their entire life in major cities with a public transport network. Here at CarBuzz, we have an obvious love of cars in all forms, but this little exercise has shown two kinds of enthusiasts inhabit the offices.

3 weeks ago | carbuzz.com | Gerhard Horn

The Shangai Motor Show is currently underway, and there's more than enough reason to pay attention. China is the world's biggest car market, followed by the USA in second place. And it's not even close. Last year, 31.46 million cars were sold in China, while only 15.97 million cars found new homes in the USA. Third is Japan, with 4.42 million. The new car market in China is so big that you'd need to combine all the sales of the rest of the top ten countries to achieve a similar figure.