As you read this, Dodge is sending out a squadron of cars throughout Los Angeles to promote Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Did you know there was a new Star Wars movie coming out? Of course you did. Knowledge of the seventh film in the space opera franchise has been as difficult to escape as Darth Vader’s telepathic chokehold. From Christmas ornaments to macaroni, it The Force Awakens‘ product tie-ins are as omnipresent as the Empire itself.

Dodge has joined the fray, although what wheeled, internal-combustion, tauntaun-less carriages have to do with a fight for galactic dominance fueled mainly by spaceships is anyone’s guess. The automaker pulled a similar stunt in New York in September with a fleet of Stormtrooper-disguised Chargers, a partnership with Hot Wheels and Uber.

For LA, the formation has been changed a bit, with two Charger Hellcats and two Challenger Hellcats dressed as “First Order Stormtroopers.” These white and black muscle cars are accompanied by a jet black Viper ACR decked out like movie villain Kylo Ren.

The cars will be trackable on Twitter with #Dodge and #TheForceAwakens hashtags. Photo ops abound, and the Dodge social media team’s faves will be posted to the company’s Facebook and Instagram pages. Clearly, the ultimate Force in the universe is branding. Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens December 18, rated PG-13.

A new report finds the all-wheel drive version of the fourth-generation Toyota Prius is unlikely to make the trip to the United States.

According to trade journal Automotive News, Toyota doesn’t believe there is enough demand from buyers in the U.S. to justify investing in the development of an all-wheel drive model suited to our market. Company execs point out the Prius is a hot seller in states like California, where buyers generally don’t need the additional traction provided by all-wheel drive, and it’s not very popular in colder regions like the northeast.

In Japan, Toyota predicts that anywhere between 10 and 20 percent of the roughly 144,000 units of the Prius it expects to sell each year will be fitted with the E-Four all-wheel drive system.

Toyota also explains it’s worried about how well the all-wheel drive system will withstand extremely cold temperatures. E-Four was tested in northern Japan, a region that’s routinely slammed with snow but where the thermometer rarely dips to extreme lows. It’s not designed to function in places like Mount Pleasant, Michigan, where the average temperature in January is just above 13 degrees.

Although the odds seem to be stacked against the Prius E-Four, Toyota engineer Yoshihiro Ikushima told Automotive News that a final decision on whether to sell it here hasn’t been made.

Photos by Byron Hurd and Toyota.

A 1964 Porsche 356 Cabriolet owned by famous singer and songwriter Janis Joplin was sold for a record-breaking $1.76 million at an auction held in New York City.

Joplin purchased the 356 from a used car lot in 1968 with the intention of using it as her daily driver.

“Janis drove everywhere, all around San Francisco and down to Los Angeles when she was recording there,” remembers her sister, Laura Joplin.

She wasted no time in asking a good friend named Dave Richards to customize the convertible with a colorful “History of the Universe” paint job with mountains, trees, birds, and other drawings. The paint job — which has been fully restored — earns the 356 the honor of being one of the very first art cars. After her death in 1970, the Porsche was shared by her siblings Laura and Michael until it was loaned to the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1995. It remained on display until earlier this year.

The $1.76 million price tag includes a 10% buyer’s premium slapped on by RM Sotheby’s, the auction house that sold the car. The figure is nonetheless astronomically higher than the pre-auction estimate, which was set at $400,000 – $600,000, and it makes Joplin’s Porsche the most expensive 356 ever sold at a public auction.

The Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 is more than just a jumble of vowels and numbers; it’s the followup to the Italian automaker’s best-selling car of all time, the Gallardo. And when we say best-selling, we really mean it — nearly half of all the Lamborghinis in the world sport the Gallardo nameplate.

Those are some pretty big shoes to fill, but the Huracan may have already outgrown them. Whereas the Gallardo took a decade to sell 14,000 copies, the Huracan is poised to break that sales mark in less than half that time.

Curious to see if the Huracan is as good as its sales figures suggest, we hopped a plane to Miami to put the Gallardo’s successor through its paces.

Poster worthy
Over the last few years we’ve been spoiled with something of a styling revolution in the automotive world. These days just about every mid-size sedan looks like a European import and even the Chevrolet Corvette has adopted some Ferrari design cues. But, as with most things in life, the original is just better.

Though admittedly not as flamboyant as the COUNTACHHH, or even the modern-day Aventador, the Huracan is still classic Italian pin-up material. The Lamborghini Huracan just oozes presence with its wide stance, sharp angles and low-slung roofline. Moreover, everything just seems to work on the Huracan — every angle and exaggerated air inlet fits perfectly into the car’s wedge-like shape. Park the Huracan anywhere and you’re sure to draw a crowd, even in glitzy South Beach where our day-long drive began.

Lamborghini offers the Huracan in plenty of look-at-me colors — including lime green and bright orange — that compliment the car’s outlandish nature, but the baby Lambo can look somewhat restrained and even classy when finished in a “normal” hue like silver. One of the test cars Lamborghini had on hand was a Huracan finished in silver over a saddle tan interior, which gave the car a kind of gentleman’s racer feel you’d typically associate with nameplates like Bentley and Aston Martin.

The interior of the Huracan, however, is decidedly more sports car than grand tourer. Space is at a premium in the Huracan, both for passengers and their things.

Thanks to its compact footprint, the Huracan’s front wheels protrude noticeable into the cabin. Both the driver and passenger have to sit with their legs angled slightly to the center of the car to maximize legroom, which is vintage Italian engineering at its best.

Space is at such a premium in the Huracan that it doesn’t even have cup holders. But that’s probably just as well as the front trunk area offers only enough space for a small bag, so it’s not as though you’ll be taking the Huracan on any long road trips. But, as we mentioned earlier, the Huracan is a bona fide supercar, so it’s understandable that overall packaging wasn’t a top priority during the design process. Instead, Lamborghini focused on the things that add to the driving experience.

For example, in keeping with the whole fighter jet theme, you must first lift a red toggle before you can hit the engine start button. More toggle switches line the top of the center stack, further adding to the cockpit feel of the Huracan.

The Huracan doesn’t use a single analog gauge, instead relying on a large LCD readout in the main binnacle and a few digital readouts for auxiliaries near the top of the dashboard. The main LCD readout is fine for things like engine speed and the speedometer, but the font gets a little small when using the display for other vehicle features, such as searching for a radio station.

Being an Italian supercar, the Huracan comes with plenty of, um, quirks. Controls for turn signals and windshield wipers are located on the steering wheel, which can be quite confusing until you get the hang of the layout. The HVAC system is also anything but intuitive, requiring trial and error before you finally figure out which button you have to hit in order to change the fan speed. Even the gear shifting procedure is somewhat flummoxing, with no indicated button for ‘drive’ and a separate lever for reverse. For the icing on the cake, the Lamborghini Huracan we tested, which carried a sticker price of $288,000, didn’t come equipped with cruise control.

Now, if a run-of-the-mill car like a Nissan Altima came with all of the Huracan’s quirks, we’d call them flaws. However, in the case of the Huracan, everything sort of comes across as fitting, adding to the drama that is driving an Italian super. Terms like “practical” and “well thought out” were not top of mind when designing the Huracan, and we’re perfectly OK with that.

Grab the bull by the horns
Although you can certainly nitpick the Huracan’s interior, it’s nearly impossible to find fault with the way the car drives.

Lift the red toggle and hit the start button and the Huracan barks to life before settling into a low rumble. There is plenty of bite to backup that bark, with 601 horsepower and 413 lb-ft of torque on tap from the Huracan’s mid-mounted 5.2L V10. Unlike the bigger Aventador, the Huracan uses a dual-clutch gearbox equipped with seven forward-speeds. The gearbox can be used like a typical automatic or controlled like a manual via the steering-wheel mounted paddles.

Before we were able to open up the taps, we had to pilot the Huracan through some city traffic. We were fully expecting a wild beast that would be a handful even at lower speeds, but found the Huracan to be perfectly docile around town. In its standard ‘Strada’ mode the seven-speed gearbox provides smooth shifts on par with a regular automatic, without the typical lurching of a dual-clutch transmission. Even the Huracan’s high-revving V10 was perfectly happy at lower speeds, lacking the peakiness than can sometime plague high-performance engines.

As you would expect, the Huracan’s suspension is firm, but it didn’t rattle our fillings out. Even after several hours both behind the wheel and in the passenger’s seat, we didn’t feel beat up. But while the Huracan’s city manners were a nice surprise, it’s the open road where the Italian bull starts to come into its own.

Acceleration borderlines on violent, with the combination of the Huracan’s 600-horsepower V10 and all-wheel drive system netting a 0-60 time of just 3.2 seconds. And while your body is being bombarded with g-forces as the Huracan rockets toward the horizon, your ears are treated to a symphony of ten-cylinders singing in perfect harmony all the way up to 8,500rpm. And that redline is just as lofty as it looks on paper — the 5.2L lump nestled just over your shoulder sounds as if it might just spin itself right out of its engine cradle.

Gear changes are immediate whether the Huracan is set to automatic or manual modes. Naturally we found the manual mode to be more engaging, but the Huracan’s automatic setting was the most responsive we’ve ever experienced. Hit the gas pedal and the Huracan instantly downshifts, sometimes selecting a gear that suddenly has the engine signing at six- or seven-thousand rpm. Likewise, step on the brake and the Huracan downshifts to keep the engine running at full song. No matter the situation, the dual-clutch gearbox is always waiting in the wings with just the right gear acting faster than your brain ever could.

Obviously it’s impossible to tap all of the performance potential of a 200+mph car on public roads, but Lamborghini was nice enough to let us loose on the tarmac of Sebring International Raceway before the final race of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo series to give us a better idea of the car’s upper limits. With the dials turned to “Corsa,” the Huracan is an all-out track slayer, displaying no body roll and a seemingly infinite amount of grip. The Huracan is also the perfect size (unlike the over-sized Aventador), helping it to zip in and out of tight corners.

The Huracan’s V10 pulls the car out of corners with ease, and our test car’s standard brakes (carbon ceramic are available) were perfectly up to the task of scrubbing off speed. Unlike Laborghinis of old, the Huracan is truly a driver’s car.

Leftlane’s bottom line
Bullet-train fast with stunning good looks, the Huracan safely retains Lamborghini’s quintessential DNA. But more than just a Lamborghini-shaped wedge that can hit 200mph, the Huracan is actually a livable car around town (at least as far as drivability is concerned) and can corner and stop just as well as it can accelerate in a straight line. With a package like that, it’s little wonder that the Huracan is flying out of Lamborghini dealerships at nearly twice the pace of the old Gallardo.

2015 Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 base price, $238,500. As tested, $288,095.
Navigation, $3,200; Transparent Engine Bonnet with forged style carbon fiber engine trim, $7,000; Sport exhaust, $4,200; Rear view camera with parking sensor, $3,900; Front suspension lifting system, $6,900; Giano wheels, $1,400; Multi-function steering wheel, $700; Dynamic Power Steering, $2,400; Floor mats with leather, $700; Contrast stitching, $700; Electric and heated seats, $2,800; Bicolor Sportivo, $3,500′ Branding package, $1,000; Gas guzzler tax, $1,700; Destination, $9,495.

Photos courtesy of Lamborghini.

Toyota has claimed the most Top Safety Pick+ awards for 2016.

A total of nine Toyota-built vehicles qualified for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s top crashworthiness honors. Winners include the Toyota Prius v, Camry, Avalon and Rav4; the Lexus CT 200h, ES, RC and NX; and the Scion iA.

Honda was next on the list with eight winners, while Volkswagen/Audi fetched seven and Subaru landed six. Notably, the Chrysler 200 was the only domestic model to qualify for ‘Plus’ status entering 2016.

The IIHS rating system became a bit more stringent for the latest model year, narrowing the total list of winners down to 48 vehicles from all automakers. The biggest change involves performance in the small-overlap crash scenario. Vehicles from the 2015 model year can earn the top award with just an ‘acceptable’ rating in the challenging test, however 2016 editions must receive ‘good’ ratings in all tests.

To qualify for the ‘Plus’ designation, vehicles must also demonstrate ‘advanced’ or ‘superior’ behavior in the automatic emergency braking (AEB) assessment.

The changes appear to have pressured many automakers to include structural improvements and AEB technology for 2016-model-year redesigns and mid-cycle updates. A handful of models did not receive the necessary tweaks, however, including the Audi Q3, Toyota Highlander and Toyota Sienna, among others.

“As vehicles continue to improve … we think it’s important to recognize that progress and encourage further advances by making our ratings more stringent,” said IIHS president Adrian Lund. “This year’s winners are certainly safer than the vehicles that earned our first Top Safety Pick awards 10 years ago.”

Despite an ever-increasing push toward autonomous automobiles, Lamborghini’s chief executive officer says the company’s upcoming Urus SUV won’t feature self-driving tech.

The Urus will break the typical Lamborghini mold by adopting a high-riding SUV body (although the company did produce the LM002 in the late 1980s and early 90s), but Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann says it won’t shatter the company’s image as a driver’s marque. To that end, Winkelmann told Leftlane News that the Urus won’t include the kind of autonomous tech that’s becoming evermore commonplace in high-dollar automobiles.

The Urus will undoubtedly serve as more of an everyday car than either the Huracan or Aventador, but Winkelmann cited a “willingness to drive the car” by Lamborghini owners as the reason for omitting autonomous technologies in the new SUV. In a nutshell, Lamborghini believes that if you’re buying an Urus, you still want the thrill that comes with driving a Lamborghini-badged vehicle.

Not surprisingly, Winkelmann says the Urus is being tuned for on-road performance, but added that the 4×4 will have some degree of off-road prowess. However, the Urus’ off-road clout will likely be limited to light backwoods duties.

Winkelmann stopped short of confirming a turbocharged engine for the Urus, but said the SUV represents “an opportunity to have a turbo” in the Lamborghini lineup. Previous reports have indicated that the Urus will use a twin-turbocharged 4.0L V8 for motivation.

The Lamborghini Urus will likely debut in either 2017 or 2018 before going on sale during the second half of 2018. Lamborghini is hoping to sell about 3,000 units of the Urus per year, which would double the company’s annual sales.

Renault and Nissan have resolved several disputes that had threatened their ongoing partnership.

One issue centered around perceived encroachment from the French government, which attempted to invoke a new law that would have allowed it to buy a 28 percent stake in Renault. The move reportedly would have given the government 30 percent voting rights.

The concerns extended to Nissan, as Renault owns a 43.3-percent stake in the Japanese automaker. France’s increased control over Renault would have consequently allowed the country’s officials to pull strings at Nissan. Unsurprisingly, the automaker has resisted such a scenario.

The automakers’ respective boards of directors have since hashed out an apparent compromise. The agreement would cap the French government’s voting rights at 17.9 percent, or up to 20 percent in certain scenarios, and bar enfranchisement of Nissan shares in Renault.

Reflecting Nissan’s broader desire to maintain independence, the companies have also drafted a contract that prohibits Renault from interfering with Nissan’s governance.

“While there were important short-term issues to address, it was imperative that all involved took a long view,” said Renault-Nissan Alliance chief executive Carlos Ghosn.

The companies earlier this year boasted that their partnership brought $4.2 billion USD in savings for the 2014 fiscal year, thanks to common technology and shared manufacturing. The alliance expects to exceed its goal of $4.8 billion USD in annualized savings by 2016.

Volkswagen appears to be readying an updated electric Microbus concept to unveil in Las Vegas at January’s Consumer Electronics Show.

The company released a teaser image showing a high-riding mystery vehicle. Its front fascia vaguely resembles the Microbus concept that originally debuted in 2001 before resurfacing again in 2011 as the Bulli.

A newer revision of the Camper van revival had been expected to appear in EV form with a 40-kWh battery, providing an estimated 186-mile range and enough power to deliver a modest 114 horsepower and 199 lb-ft of torque.

An electric platform has been cited as essential for the van to keep its iconic blunt nose without a rear-mounted internal-combustion engine. Conflicting reports claimed the company is also working on conventionally-powered variants, however, with a choice between gasoline and diesel engines.

“First and foremost the world premiere marks the beginning of a new era of affordable long-distance electromobility,” VW noted in its CES announcement.

Details remain scarce, though previous reports suggest the electrified Microbus will be headed to production. It will likely be presented with a larger battery than quoted in the early EV rumors, potentially bumping range up to 250-310 miles.

Production is said to be slated for 2017 at VW’s Puebla, Mexico, factory.

Aston Martin is reportedly undecided on the location for its new factory, though the list of potential regions has been narrowed down.

The British automaker earlier this year suggested Alabama was the ‘obvious choice‘ for the facility, which will be primarily focused on building the upcoming DBX crossover.

Despite the apparent confidence in the American South, the company is now considering alternative sites. One is said to be located in the Middle East, while two are at home in the UK.

“The board is reviewing the options and will make a decision by the end of the year or the first few weeks of January,” an unnamed source told Reuters.

Wherever the factory is placed, it will be important in Aston’s “Second Century” revitalization strategy. Amid a struggle to regain profitability, the company has vowed to replace every model in its lineup by the end of the decade. The DBX crossover is eventually expected to account for more than half of its total global sales, with a particular focus on the US and China.

Approximately 300 jobs were eliminated in October, representing 15 percent of the company’s total workforce. Most of the cuts involved managerial and administrative positions, rather than manufacturing jobs. The layoffs are not expected to affect the plans for another factory.

Live images by Ronan Glon.