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Autoblog Podcast #317

Mitsubishi Mirage, Toyota thinks of beefing up US production, Marchionne on Alfa, Dart and minivans, Ford Atlas concept, Honda Gear concept
Episode #317 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Jeff Ross and Michael Harley bookend the other podcast topics with a pair from the Montreal Auto Show, the Mitsubishi Mirage and Honda Gear concept, and in between we talk about Toyota building all its US-market cars stateside, Hyundai building a Nurburgring test facility, Sergio Marchionne's latest words about Alfa Romeo, Dodge Dart powertrains and the future of Chrysler vans. Some chatter about the Ford Atlas concept finishes up the meat of the 'cast and then we wrap with your questions. For those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Keep reading for our Q&A module for you to scroll through and follow along, too. Thanks for listening!
Autoblog Podcast #317:

2015 Acura NSX burns to the ground at the 'Ring [w/video]

Assuming all goes to plan, automakers test their vehicles to the breaking point in the months and years leading up to that vehicle's actual release into the public. Which is good, because it's much better for a car to break in glorious fashion in the hands of the company that produces it than in the driveway of an owner who just spent their hard-earned cash to get it. Such was the case with this production-guise Acura NSX prototype that we saw running around the Nurburgring just the other day. We can't be 100-percent certain, but the burned-out carcass is wearing the same number plate as the car that was spotted earlier, so it's likely the very same NSX. We have no idea what was the cause of the blaze that turned this Acura into the car-b-q you see pictured above, but our spy shooters on the ground in Germany say it was not involved in any collision, having caught on fire all on its own with engineers behind the wheel. The good news is that nobody was hurt, though the car is quite clearly a complete loss. We're sure there's another ready to to test in the burned car's place... just as soon as the engineers at Honda figure out exactly what went wrong. Have a look at the smoldering aftermath up above, and feel free to scroll down below to see a video of the car in much better circumstances.

Honda rolls out new N-Box Slash kei car in Japan

Honda may not compete with the likes of the expanding Fiat 500 and contracting Mini families in the North American or European markets, but back home in Japan it has a whole series of retro hatchbacks, grouped together as part of its N series. And now there is one more. Called the N-Box Slash (or N/ for short), the boxy but stylish new hatch is built to fit into Japan's rigid Kei car class, which means a tiny footprint no longer than 11 feet long and five feet wide. That makes it even smaller than the already-diminutive Smart Forfour or Renault Twingo, but into that compact form, Honda has fit five doors and four seats under a tall roof. In fact those front seats even fold flat and flush with the rear ones to make for as big a bed as you could possibly fit inside its compact dimensions. Technical details remain scarce, but power likely comes from the same 600cc three-cylinder engine - turbocharged or not, driving the front wheels or all four - as the rest of the N series, which already includes the N-One, N-Box, N-Box+ and N-WGN. Feel free to read the original Japanese or Google-translated press releases below, just don't expect it or any of its stablemates to show up in a North American showroom any time soon. 2014.11.27 ???????N-BOX SLASH(?????? ?????)????????????? Honda??12?22?(?)???????????N??????1?5?????????N-BOX SLASH(?????? ?????)?????????11?27?(?)?Honda????????????????? N-BOX SLASH?????????????N??????????????????????????????????????????????"???????"?"??????"??????????????????????????????????????????5???????????????Honda?????????? ???????????????N???????????????????? ?????????????????????? http://www.honda.co.jp/Nboxslash/new/ ?1 ?N??????????????????????????????????????Honda??????????????M?M(????????/???????)?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????N??????1?????N-BOX(??????)???2?????N-BOX +(?????????)???3?????N-ONE(????)???4?????N-WGN(?????)? ?????????????? ?????????? 0120-112010(???????)?????????? ### (translated) 2014.11.27 Preceding publish new mini passenger car "N-BOX SLASH (NTT box slash)" in the home page Honda is, December 22 (Monday) to have plans to release "N" series ? 1 information about the fifth installment of the new mini-car "N-BOX SLASH (NTT box slash)", November 27 ( I was preceded published in Honda's home page on the tree).