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Ever wonder how to really pronounce Japanese automaker names?

People tend to get very set in their ways when it comes to the pronunciation of words. Just look at the endless debates over whether or not to say the final 'e' in Porsche (which you should in terms of correct German enunciation). Or the argument about whether to follow the British convention and give the 'u' in Jaguar a special delivery or to say the 'ua' diphthong as more of a 'w' sound, as usually happens in the US.
This short video doesn't answer either of those automotive questions, but it does allow a native Japanese speaker to demonstrate the accepted pronunciations for several, major automakers from the country. One benefit is that it clears up the occasional debate over whether Nissan should be said with a long or short 'i' sound. Also, listen closely to how the female host says Mazda as Matsuda, the way it's actually said in the language. Even if this doesn't change the way you enunciate these brands, at least now you know the accurate way in Japanese.

MT digs deep, learns more about hot Lexus RC coupe

As we patiently wait for the all-new Lexus RC to be unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show in November, Motor Trend has dug up some tasty info on the Japanese automaker's new coupe for us to discuss. While we already knew some speculative, but credible, details on the upcoming two-door Lexus, MT reportedly has the dish on some details of the hotter RC F coupe (shown in the spy shots above).
The article says that the F will carry a six-figure MSRP and use a 455-horsepower, 5.0-liter V8 with cylinder deactivation, mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. Carbon fiber body components will help reduce curb weight, and the scooped hood is said to optimize aerodynamics as the car will reach a top speed of around 186 miles per hour. Specific high-speed handling improvements include specially developed Brembo brakes, a beefed-up suspension, Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 tires and an automatic decklid spoiler.
As for other RC models, MT mentions the hybrid and V6 variants we already heard about, but it also says that the car could get a 2.0-liter turbo engine. This will probably be the engine used in the base model, which is expected to start at around $40,000. Head on over to Motor Trend for the full article, including a rendered image of the RC F.

Lexus in no hurry to be a big player in China

For a while now, China's spiraling wealth, population and development has had the world's luxury automakers in an expansionist fervor, with many executives exhibiting the sort of gleefully maniacal behavior historically reserved for gold-rush prospectors. Yet Toyota, of all companies, is exercising a surprising amount of caution in the Asian nation.
As The Wall Street Journal notes, Toyota's premium brand, Lexus, sold all of 64,000 vehicles in China last year, while BMW cleared its books of 326,000. In fact, it didn't even bother entering the market until 2005, while rival Audi built its first car in the market a decade and a half earlier. Even now, Lexus doesn't build any vehicles in China, and with the country's notoriously high tariffs on imports, that's a major disadvantage. Yet the business daily quotes Lexus executive vice president Mark Templin as saying that the brand is nowhere near ready to start building cars in the market. "We're not having those discussions about when we're going to go to China... We have a lot of work to do before we get to that point."
Part of that work includes establishing a more expansive dealer network - Lexus only had 99 stores as of 2012, while rival Mercedes-Benz had over two-and-a-half times as many, and it's still expanding. Adding a lot of dealers without having a goodly number of competitively priced offerings for them to sell may seem like an odd strategy, but Templin tells the WSJ that the goal is to "cultivate our image for quality and customer service and let the customers that we have go tell that story for us."