2014 Honda Civic Natural Gas, Hybrid on sale this month

Buyers looking to up their mpg will have two more options beginning this month. The 2014 Honda Civic Hybrid goes on sale Wednesday, returning 45 mpg combined, while the 31-mpg 2014 Civic Natural Gas sedan will start selling in 37 states on Feb. 15.

Porsche uses phone-formatted bar codes to connect with customers

Porsche is harnessing the power of smartphones, using Microsoft Tag bar codes to provide dealership customers with unique information about the cars they're looking at. Buyers can scan the square stickers with a properly equipped phone, and the application will take them to dedicated microsites where they can see stats, videos and pictures of the car, along with audio clips of a flat-six engine revving up. Through the microsite, buyers can provide contact info for a follow-up call from Porsche salespeople.

Bentley SUV will create a new niche

The Bentley SUV (EXP 9 F pictured) will create a new market sector. We all saw the Bentley SUV when it arrive two years ago at the Geneva Motor show, and the general consensus was along the lines of ‘What a truck’. But Bentley have taken that reaction on board and are busy redesigning the looks of their SUV (well, the exterior anyway – the interior was lovely) to give it a more appealing look, one probably more biased towards an SUV version of the Continental Series rather than the Mulsanne.