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Mazda previews straight-six, affirms upcoming crossover with Toyota hybrid system

Buried in Mazda's generally bleak second-quarter earnings report were a few juicy nuggets of news. Though the company had an operating loss of $502 million and sales are down 21 percent in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hiroshima-based firm has big plans for the future. Enthusiasts and environmentalists alike should take note. Firstly, Mazda showed an image of its upcoming straight-six engine. Essentially, it's the SkyActiv four that powers all of Mazda's current lineup, but with two additional cylinders. Unsurprisingly, the company says that it can be engineered to fit any of the current SkyActiv guises — the standard octane-variable gasoline powered G, the diesel D, and the sparkless-ignition X. The big six will pair with a new eight-speed automatic and can be combined with either a plug-in or 48-volt mild hybrid system, promising big power and efficiency. Reassuringly, Mazda says it's committed to offering this six in a rear-wheel-drive platform, which will underpin the 6 sedan's successor, as well as a midsize SUV. Both the platform and powertrain are said to be compatible with all-wheel-drive layouts as well. Which brings us to the second bit of news. Mazda also pictured a four-cylinder engine with hybrid technology. The financial report confirmed that Mazda will employ  Toyota's wildly successful hybrid system in an upcoming SUV. It's not that Mazda is taking advantage of Toyota's free access to all its hybrid patents until 2030. Mazda and Toyota have a capital tie-up and are nearing completion on a $2.3 billion joint-venture factory in Alabama with a 300,000-vehicle annual capacity. According to the Huntsville Business Journal, the firms have hired 750 employees so far, with room for 3,250 more. In return, Mazda will launch a European compact based on Toyota's Yaris Hybrid. The move is necessary for Mazda, which has lagged behind in electrification and in meeting the fleet emissions requirements in the European market. In return, by 2022, Mazda may even share the inline-six engine with Toyota and Lexus. While the hybrid crossover and compliance with EU rules will no doubt help the environment, we not-so-secretly hope that these strategies will keep Mazda profitable enough to bring that straight-six, rear-drive sports sedan to market.

Toyota settles first wrongful death suit related to unintended acceleration

Toyota's sales seem to have rebounded from the unintended acceleration issues from 2009 and 2010, but the automaker is far from done dealing with this situation. Following a settlement worth up to $1.4 billion for economic loss to affected vehicle owners, Toyota has settled rather than going to trial in a wrongful death lawsuit stemming from an accident in Utah in 2010 that left two passengers dead. This isn't the first case in which Toyota has settled, but it was the first among a consolidated group of cases being held in Santa Ana, CA.
According to The Detroit News, this case was scheduled to take place next month, and it was for a November 2010 incident in which Paul Van Alfen and Charlene James Lloyd were killed in a Camry when, based on findings by the Utah Highway Patrol, the accelerator got stuck causing the car to speed out of control and hit a wall; the terms of the settlement were not announced.
The article says that while Toyota will settle on some cases, it doesn't plan on settling on all of them as it still wants to be able to "defend [its] product at trial." This will probably be the case in suits claiming that software for the drive-by-wire accelerator was the cause of an accident in a Toyota or Lexus vehicle. The question of whether or not the electronic accelerator played any role in this problem has been a hot-button topic since the beginning. Toyota has issued recalls in the past to attempt to prevent unintended acceleration caused by trapped floor mats and faulty accelerator pedals, but it also says driver error was to blame in some instances.

Autoblog's Editors' Picks: Our complete list of the best new vehicles

It's not easy to earn an “EditorsÂ’ Picks” at Autoblog as part of the rating and review process that every new vehicle goes through. Our editors have been at it a long time, which means weÂ’ve driven and reviewed virtually every new car you can go buy on the dealer lot. There are disagreements, of course, and all vehicles have their strengths and weaknesses, but this list features what we think are the best new vehicles chosen by Autoblog editors. We started this formal review process back in 2018, so there's quite of few of them now. So what does it mean to be an EditorsÂ’ Pick? In short, it means itÂ’s a car that we can highly recommend purchasing. There may be one, multiple, or even zero vehicles in any given segment that we give the green light to. What really matters is that itÂ’s a vehicle that weÂ’d tell a friend or family member to go buy if theyÂ’re considering it, because itÂ’s a very good car. The best way to use this list is is with the navigation links below. Click on a segment, and you'll quickly arrive at the top rated pickup truck or SUV, for example. Use the back button to return to these links and search in another segment, like sedans. If youÂ’ve been keeping up with our monthly series of the latest vehicles to earn EditorsÂ’ Pick status, youÂ’re likely going to be familiar with this list already. If not, welcome to the complete list that weÂ’ll be keeping updated as vehicles enter (and others perhaps exit) the good graces of our editorial team. We rate a new car — giving it a numerical score out of 10 — every time thereÂ’s a significant refresh or if it happens to be an all-new model. Any given vehicle may be impressive on a first drive, but we wait until itÂ’s in the hands of our editors to put it through the same type of testing as every other vehicle that rolls through our test fleet before giving it the EditorsÂ’ Pick badge. This ensures consistency and allows more voices to be heard on each individual model. And just so you donÂ’t think weÂ’ve skipped trims or variants of a model, we hand out the EditorsÂ’ Pick based on the overarching model to keep things consistent. So, when you read that the 3 Series is an EditorsÂ’ Pick, yes, that includes the 330i to the M3 and all the variants in between. If thereÂ’s a particular version of that car we vehemently disagree with, we make sure to call that out.