Latest news with #roadster
Motor 1
5 days ago
- Automotive
- Motor 1
BMW to Keep Making Z4 Because People Keep Buying Them: Report
The BMW Z4 might be sticking around for longer than expected. The German roadster was rumored to bow out in October 2025, though a report dating back to 2023 suggested production had been extended to March of next year. Now, a new rumor claims Z4 production has been stretched even further, to May 2026—but only for American-market cars. BMW Blog , citing a trusted source at the Bimmerpost forums, says production of the US-specification Z4 M40i—the only trim available with a manual transmission—has been extended another two months. The source doesn't cite a reason for the extension, but we can make a couple of educated guesses. Photo by: BMW USA Sales of the Z4 jumped by 13.1 percent in 2024 after BMW finally made the manual transmission available in the United States. A spokesperson confirmed to Motor1 earlier this year that the stick shift "absolutely" contributed to the Z4's sales growth. "The response has been wonderfully enthusiastic," they said. Upon seeing the increase in sales, BMW likely decided to keep the Z4 around for a bit longer. And with the manual expected to disappear from the company's lineup entirely by 2030, the company potentially predicts sales will continue as buyers snag the very last manual Z4s before they're gone forever. The same Bimmerpost source claims May 2026 is also when production of the Toyota Supra will end. Avid enthusiasts will know the Supra and the Z4 share a platform, and are built on the same assembly line by Magna Steyr in Austria. So that makes sense. But while Toyota has already confirmed a replacement for the outgoing Supra, BMW has made no such promise. With sales of sports cars and convertibles declining every year, we wouldn't be surprised to see the company discontinue the car for good, at least in its current form. Our advice? If you want a manual Z4, grab one while you still can. Because time is running out. More on the Z4 Here's Why The Manual Z4 Is BMW's Best Car Right Now Every Manual Car You Can Still Buy in 2025 Get the best news, reviews, columns, and more delivered straight to your inbox, daily. back Sign up For more information, read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use . Share this Story Facebook X LinkedIn Flipboard Reddit WhatsApp E-Mail Got a tip for us? Email: tips@ Join the conversation ( )
Auto Express
14-05-2025
- Automotive
- Auto Express
New all-electric Mazda MX-5 previewed in this week's Auto Express
In this week's special issue of Auto Express we have a scoop on the new all-electric Mazda MX-5, with exclusive images previewing how the reinvented roadster could look. We also reveal the best car kit money can buy as we name the winners of our 2025 Product Awards. Plus, we get the lowdown on the latest Skoda Enyaq vRS and have official pictures of the new Volvo XC70. Advertisement - Article continues below In the drives section we get behind the wheel of the stunning Aston Martin Vantage Roadster to see if it's as good to drive as it is to look at, try out the seven-seat Volkswagen Tayron and hit UK roads in the Mercedes-AMG E 53 Estate. If that wasn't enough we have a campervan mega test as the new Citroen Holidays goes up against the Volkswagen California and Mercedes Marco Polo. This week's issue of Auto Express is on sale now and there's a whole range of ways to get your hands on it! Find out more below. The best value available to our readers is an Auto Express subscription. You can try your first 6 issues for just £1, plus all new subscribers will receive a free welcome gift when they join. Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below We deliver free, straight to an address of your choosing so you can be sure that you'll never miss an issue. If you wish to continue your subscription after your trial ends you save a massive 45 per cent on the shop price, paying just £32.99 every 3 months. Our money back guarantee means that should you need to cancel at any point we will refund any unmailed issues, you can't beat that value! Click here to visit our secure online shop and subscribe to Auto Express... If you prefer to read Auto Express on your desktop, tablet or phone, you can get the digital edition through our online partner Zinio. Single issues are available from £2.99 or a subscription for an entire year is just £90.99. Click here to download Auto Express digital edition from Zinio... If you don't want to get your next 6 Auto Express issues for £1 by subscribing (RRP £28), then you can still buy single issues in shops or online. This week's issue of Auto Express is on sale now for just £4.99. You can find shops near you that stock the magazine by clicking here. If you can't make it to the shops or are unable to find it somewhere convenient, you can buy individual print issues of Auto Express to be delivered directly to your door. Click here to buy single issues of Auto Express Find a car with the experts Not bothered by MoT advisories? That may be about to change Not bothered by MoT advisories? That may be about to change The number of MoT failures caused by worn tyres is on the rise, and experts are calling for mandatory follow-ups on advisories Mazda MX-5 goes electric: the iconic roadster's radical future Mazda MX-5 goes electric: the iconic roadster's radical future The next Mazda MX-5 roadster is set to be offered as a pure EV, and our exclusive images preview how it could look Confirmed: New VW Golf GTI will be electric – and it's a 'monster' Confirmed: New VW Golf GTI will be electric – and it's a 'monster' VW is taking the iconic hot hatchback brand into the electric era with the new Golf GTI EV already in development…
Digital Trends
13-05-2025
- Automotive
- Digital Trends
Take a look at this gorgeous Italian 60s-inspired carbon roadster, powered by a US V8
Watch out, sports car fans, as there's a new automaker on the block: Italian company Automobili Mignatta has unveiled the Rina, its first car and a gorgeous roadster with 1960s styling and a modern V8 to power it. The Rina chassis is made from a material called carbon monocoque, which a frame created from individual strands of carbon fiber that is most often seen in high-end road bikes, and which makes the car highly rigid while still being lightweight. Recommended Videos With a weight of just 2,205 lbs, the Rina should move at quite a clip, though the exact details of the naturally aspirated 5.0 liter US V8 engine haven't been announced yet. It has rear-wheel drive, and an option for carbon ceramic brakes, with 19 inch wheels at the front and 20 inches at the rear. The monocoque material is formed into a tub shape which integrates the driver and passenger seats, and the company says it has been optimized for both easy access to the passenger compartment and safety in the case of an accident. And the striking exterior recalls the classic Italian sports cars of the 60s, with its elongated headlights and open-top design. The interior has similar classic styling to the exterior, and though it's all very neat you won't find any modern infotainment systems here. Instead, there's a stripped down but elegant analog look, with no digital screens or support for modern conveniences like CarPlay. There are old-fashioned gauges with a speedometer in the center and a tachometer in an elliptical look, with aluminum and carbon materials in abundance. And to continue the interior materials theme, the seats are made of — what else — branded brown leather. As you'd expect from a niche car hand built in Italy, the Rina doesn't come cheap, with just 30 units to be built each year and a reported price starting at $290,000.
Edmunds
13-05-2025
- Automotive
- Edmunds
2026 Mercedes-Maybach SL First Drive Review: It's a Vibe
For Merc's SL roadster, the Maybach zhuzhing starts with a few design tweaks to the front and rear fascias, plus a smattering of Maybach logos in the lower grille, on the folding soft top and even painted into the multilayer black hood. I've heard the look described as everything from appealing to appalling; it's like a Louis Vuitton purse. For the moment, two colorways are available — Red Ambience and White Ambience — though Maybach will soon expand the SL's palette to include some 50 hues from Mercedes' Manufaktur personalization department. Right now, all you have to choose is whether or not you want those Maybach logos in the black hood, and if you want to stick with the standard multispoke wheels (you don't) or swap 'em out for big, chunky chrome monoblocks (the correct spec). Every Maybach SL, regardless of exterior color, comes with a white interior so crisp and bright it'll make your dentist proud. Do make sure you wipe off your shoes before they touch the plush white carpeting, and maybe don't wear overdyed denim if you're particularly prone to butt sweat on hot days. Unique quilted stitching adorns the seats, which have more padding and support than the standard SL's. Nestled behind you, there's a sculpted panel that goes over the SL's rear seat compartment, creating a nice cubby for your belongings, which will definitely be tossed around should you decide to attack corners with gusto.
Car and Driver
12-05-2025
- Automotive
- Car and Driver
2026 Aston Martin Vantage Roadster Is a Hot Car Made Even Hotter
Any good linguist will tell you that language is a changeable thing, a river of tumbling words reshaped through time and use. It's called semantic drift—the movement of a word's definition over decades or centuries. "Awful" went from being used in reverence to being used negatively. "Awesome," originally a description of terror, became a compliment. "Roadster," initially used for windowless and roofless American two-seaters, now comes into play with any droptop when "convertible" doesn't sound tough enough. Prewar Ford purists may hate that last one, but based on modern definitions, it's clear that Aston Martin's 2026 Vantage is a pretty awesome roadster. The Vantage, never a design we'd describe as soft or weak, was made even more muscular and wide-mouthed when the coupe was redesigned for 2025. Now, the roadster joins its fixed-roof sibling with the same broad, squared-off stance and burly twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8. Historically, sporty models have suffered in convertible form, taking on weight and chassis flex while losing the purity of their design. Aston Martin avoided some of these pitfalls by designing coupe and convertible in parallel, which allowed the engineering and design teams to incorporate features to counteract the structural and aesthetic downsides of taking a little off the top. View Exterior Photos Aston Martin The Vantage's bowed lines and big shoulders leave it quivering with pent-up energy like a big savanna cat crouched over a herd of antelope. One can imagine it panting impatiently in a parking spot, waiting to spring into action. The redesign is less delicate than the previous Vantage—perhaps slightly less pretty—with heavy fenders and that gaping maw, but it's still a striking car from any angle. We turn plenty of heads on our drive and catch more than one mountain dweller along the forested curves of Idyllwild, California, mouthing "wow" as we drive past. The Vantage roadster is almost all hood, with just enough rear-quarter real estate to house a set of fat Michelin Pilot Sport S5 summer tires (275/35ZR-21s front, 325/30ZR-21s rear.) The design work on the roof is obvious from the side, where the so-called Z-fold top disappears behind the seats without the telltale lump seen on many other two-seat convertibles. Not only does this Z-fold setup allow for a smaller stow—as opposed to the commonly used K-fold convertible top, which stands straight up before folding—it's also incredibly fast. The roadster can drop or lift its cover in just under seven seconds at up to 31 mph. That's nearly as quick as an NHRA Pro Stock car runs a quarter-mile, and it's way quicker than we can list off the various ways you can customize your Vantage purchase. View Exterior Photos Aston Martin The Aston Martin configurator offers hours of entertainment, with 13 different shades of silver and white, five different reds, 15 different purples and blues, and 18 different greens, including our example's satin California Sage. There are five different colors for the roadster top, four different styles of 21-inch wheels in a variety of finishes, and seven different tones for the six-piston front and four-piston rear brake calipers that clamp optional carbon-ceramic rotors. That's just the exterior. With a roofless car, the interior needs to be equally ready for public viewing, and Aston went with standard 12-way heated seats wrapped in vibrant leather and accented with a choice of carbon fiber in colored tints or satin-metal finishes. Physical buttons pepper the console, but the Vantage has modern conveniences like a 10.3-inch touchscreen, phone mirroring, and an optional Bowers & Wilkins sound system designed specifically for the Roadster. View Interior Photos Aston Martin The interior design is not as baroque in the Vantage as it is in the larger DB12, which is embossed and embroidered like a Victorian dressing gown, but the simpler leatherwork and smooth dash match the car's focused, elegant exterior. The Vantage is a luxurious car, but it doesn't want to be mistaken for a luxury car. It would be a waste of nearly 700 horses and that stiffened-up suspension to use the Vantage as a mere cruise ship. The Vantage roadster shares its driveline with the coupe, starting with an AMG-sourced twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 tuned for Aston-specific performance. The droptop makes 656 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque (just like the coupe) and tops out at a claimed 202 mph (also like the coupe). A rear-mounted eight-speed automatic transaxle is the only gearbox Aston offers here, having dropped the dog-leg manual for the 2022 model year. The rear axle's power balance comes by way of an electronically controlled limited-slip differential. The roadster's mass sits neatly in a quoted 49:51 front-to-rear split, as opposed to the 50:50 distribution of the coupe, and 60 mph is claimed to arrive in just 3.5 seconds—a mere tenth of a second behind the hard top, the last of which we tested bettered its estimate with a 3.2-second dash. View Interior Photos Aston Martin The roadster is content to chug along sedately until you ask for more, at which point it leaps forward with exuberance and a hint of tire smoke. Like many automatic sports cars these days, the shifts in the standard dry-weather driving mode can fall behind the turns occasionally, but shift paddles and more aggressive shift maps liven things up significantly. We find the stability control unobtrusive for even enthusiastic street driving, but should you want to initiate more drift of the non-semantic kind, there are five drive modes (Wet, Sport, Sport Plus, Track, and Individual) and nine traction-control settings to play with. View Exterior Photos Aston Martin With traction settings dialed back, the Vantage slides like a dynamited fish—easily catchable. The brakes offer consistent stopping power, the steering is firm, and there's no sense of body flex, even with the top down. Simon Newton, Aston's director of vehicle performance and attributes, tells us the roadster's taut reactions are due to its adaptive dampers and updated undercarriage. Engineering for the roadster began when it was just a chassis, says Newton, with the droptop receiving a stiffer subframe than the coupe. But rather than adding material all over said subframe, Aston reinforced mounting points based on where the topless car would experience additional load. The result was better lateral and torsional stiffness without adding a ton of extra weight. Newton explains that they looked at the load paths and "put the material where it is needed best rather than applying it everywhere." In the end, Aston claims the roadster weighs only 132 pounds more than the hardtop. Aston Martin wants to seat the brand among the sporty performance set. The Vantage roadster offers a little more performance potential and a little less scarf-fluttering comfort than previous models, but it hasn't lost the link to old-world elegance that keeps Aston a favorite in spy movies and sports-car racing. And it brings more than enough style and attitude to stand out. It's the definition of a glamorous two-seater. That hasn't changed. View Exterior Photos Aston Martin Specifications Specifications 2026 Aston Martin Vantage Roadster Vehicle Type: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door convertible PRICE (C/D EST) Base: $200,000 ENGINE twin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injection Displacement: 243 in3, 3982 cm3 Power: 656 hp @ 6000 rpm Torque: 590 lb-ft @ 2750 rpm TRANSMISSION 8-speed automatic DIMENSIONS Wheelbase: 106.5 in Length: 177.0 in Width: 78.0 in Height: 50.6 in Passenger Volume, F: 50 ft3 Cargo Volume: 7 ft3 Curb Weight (C/D est): 4050 lb PERFORMANCE (C/D EST) 60 mph: 3.3 sec 100 mph: 6.7 sec 1/4-Mile: 11.2 sec Top Speed: 202 mph EPA FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST) Combined/City/Highway: 18/15/22 mpg Reviewed by Elana Scherr Senior Editor, Features Like a sleeper agent activated late in the game, Elana Scherr didn't know her calling at a young age. Like many girls, she planned to be a vet-astronaut-artist, and came closest to that last one by attending UCLA art school. She painted images of cars, but did not own one. Elana reluctantly got a driver's license at age 21 and discovered that she not only loved cars and wanted to drive them, but that other people loved cars and wanted to read about them, which meant somebody had to write about them. Since receiving activation codes, Elana has written for numerous car magazines and websites, covering classics, car culture, technology, motorsports, and new-car reviews. In 2020, she received a Best Feature award from the Motor Press Guild for the C/D story "A Drive through Classic Americana in a Polestar 2." In 2023, her Car and Driver feature story "In Washington, D.C.'s Secret Carpool Cabal, It's a Daily Slug Fest" was awarded 1st place in the 16th Annual National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards by the Los Angeles Press Club. Read full bio
