New York Auto Show 2016: the latest news and coolest cars – The Verge

You can have your Lambo and your Lyft, too

2016-03-25T13:38:14-04:00

Auto shows tend to be pragmatic affairs: they're usually arranged and promoted by local dealer associations with the simple, straightforward hope of bringing in people who need to buy a new car sometime in the next year. Yes, there are concept cars scattered across the halls - little glimpses of the distant future - but in between those concepts are hundreds of workaday Camrys and Jettas and Malibus, each with small crowds of daily commuters hopping in and out, touching the dials, playing with the shift knobs, forming opinions.

The New York International Auto Show, which opens to the public today, will be no different. I walked Javits Cente …

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The saddest booth at the New York Auto Show is full of Scions

2016-03-24T15:34:32-04:00

The lights around me are flashing bright white, then blue, then purple. "Where Are Ü Now" is blaring through speakers that hang from the ceiling above me. Both of these details are making me feel weird, because it's 1PM and I'm at the New York International Auto Show. Manhattan's hottest new club is apparently the otherwise quiet North Hall of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

The reason for the club vibe is a weird one: Scion, the funky youth-oriented car brand that Toyota killed off last month, has a booth here at the show. Why that's the case isn't totally clear - the most obvious answer seems to be that the booth was booked before …

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Mazda’s MX-5 RF and Audi’s R8 Spyder steal the show in New York

2016-03-24T14:22:30-04:00

Coming right off the parade of exotics and hypercars in Geneva, it's not easy for the New York Auto Show to make a splash. Still, there was enough news to keep us occupied for a couple days: we got a refreshed Godzilla with more power, a crazy Lincoln Navigator concept SUV with gull-wing doors, and a beautiful look inside the future of Hyundai's premium Genesis brand.

And then there were the drop-tops. Mazda basically shocked the world with the MX-5 RF, a beautiful targa version of its new Miata, while Audi chose NYIAS to show off the R8 Spyder. We'll take either one. (Actually, we'll take both.)

Tune in to watch me and our auto columnist …

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The Toyota Prius Prime’s high-tech interior has a ‘budget Tesla’ feel

2016-03-24T11:52:09-04:00

Even though the new Prius is just a few months old, Toyota has already made major changes to the interior of the new plug-in version, the awesomely named Prius Prime. Unfortunately, the only Prius Prime on display at the New York Auto Show yesterday was a locked-up model we couldn't get close to - we had to wait until today for Toyota to bring one out onto the floor that we could touch. The software is still early (a representative tells us that they're on the first release of four prior to the car's launch), but we were able to get a pretty good idea of where Toyota's going with this.

The updated interior, which will be an option on the pr …

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Genesis’ New York Concept is a sports sedan that’ll make you look twice

2016-03-23T17:56:14-04:00

Hyundai's upstart luxury brand Genesis - think Lexus to Toyota or Acura to Honda - has unveiled its next car. It's a sports sedan called the New York Concept and, refreshingly, it actually looks rather special.

It's not special in the sense that it's unlike anything else on the market, but at least it doesn't look like everything else on the market. One of my wife's most frequent complaints about all the cars I drive is that they all blend together. None of them stand out.

This car, I think, is interesting enough that it will break that mold.

Aimed at cars like the BMW 3 Series and the Mercedes C-Class, the design team …

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Nissan’s vintage Skylines are the most beautiful cars at the New York Auto Show

2016-03-23T15:37:08-04:00

There are a lot of beautiful cars here at the New York Auto Show, but the most head-turning ones on the floor aren't new. In fact, a few of them are really old. Nissan, which is here this week to show off the updated GT-R, has assembled a handful of classic Skylines dating back as far as 1969.

The GT-R was born from the Skyline brand, so it's a fitting homage to the car's heritage. And the collection here mostly runs the gamut. The most striking is probably the oldest one: the GT-R 1969 C10 Skyline, which was the first Skyline generation to parade around in Nissan branding. (Skylines started up as a part of the Prince Motor Company, which m …

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This tiny electric car could be the future of urban transportation

2016-03-23T13:20:09-04:00

The future of transportation is a tough thing to peg down. It could involve Hyperloops, or self-driving cars, or some strange mix of both. Two years ago, Nissan started up an experimental wing called "Future Lab" to address this shifting landscape. And the first project is the Nissan New Mobility Concept - a squat, four-wheel electric vehicle that Nissan has taken from Renault and modified for the United States.

Aside from different plugs, and a slower top speed of 25 miles per hour, it's essentially the same thing as the original Renault Twizy. The doors swing open like they would on a Lamborghini, which is cool, but the rest of the vehicle …

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The 2017 Nissan GT-R is a more civilized, more powerful Godzilla

2016-03-23T09:45:03-04:00

Nissan brought a substantially updated 2017 GT-R to the New York Auto Show this week, featuring more power, an updated look, and a touch of refinement inside the cabin.

Basically, Godzilla is more terrifying - but also somehow friendlier - than ever.

To be clear, this isn't an all-new car; that's still a year or two (or three) out. But what's amazing is that Nissan has managed to keep the GT-R basically at the peak of its game since its 2007 debut (not to mention the original concept car, which debuted some 15 years ago in 2001). The refreshed 2017 model features 20 additional horsepower and four more lb-ft. of torque from its 3.8-liter tw …

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Toyota announces the Prius Prime, a fancy Prius that plugs in

2016-03-23T09:20:02-04:00

Toyota today announced the Prius Prime, a plug-in hybrid version of the Prius, which I drove last year and quite liked. But the new name, quad-LED headlights, and fancy new taillight design unique to the Prius Prime suggest Toyota sees this car as something a little more than another Prius.

And, to be honest, I'm not quite sure why. Sure, it can go 22 miles in all-electric mode at up to 84 mph - but that's less than half of the new Chevy Volt, which GM says can go more than 50 miles electric. On the other hand, the Volt is supposed to get 106 MPGe on the EPA's combined city/highway (electric) test while Toyota thinks the Prius Prime will 12 …

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The Lincoln Navigator Concept is a massive, luxurious land yacht

2016-03-23T00:03:27-04:00

The new Lincoln Navigator Concept is a massive beast of an SUV. That's not surprising, given that the current Lincoln Navigator is also a massive beast of an SUV.

But this concept, which is meant to give us a good idea of what the next-generation Navigator will look like, is also meant to carry that weight in a much more elegant way.

"It was a very interesting challenge for the design team," said Lincoln president Kumar Galhotra in a meeting with The Verge ahead of the car's introduction here at the New York Auto Show. "The design language is all about elegant beauty. To take a vehicle that has that much volume and to make it elegant is a …

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