Subaru Forester tops small SUVs in new crash test

The Subaru Forester and Mitsubishi Outlander Sport have won top honors from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, becoming the only small SUVs to ace the group's new "small overlap" crash test. The Forester, which Subaru redesigned for the 2014 model year, earned Top Safety Pick+ accolades by scoring a "good" rating on the small overlap test, in which the front corner of the vehicle on the driver's side strikes a five-foot-tall barrier at 40 mph. "With the redesigned Forester, Subaru's engineers set out to do well in our new test, and they succeeded," Joe Nolan, vice president for vehicle research at IIHS, said in a statement.

Citroën C-Elysée & Citroën C4 L

The Citroën C-Elysée & Citroën C4 L are two new Citroens aimed at budget compact saloon buyers in emerging markets. The biggest car market in the world is actually the compact saloon, even if Europe, and particularly the UK, has taken to the hatch and compact SUV instead. We recently had the Peugeot 301 arrive as an offering for more budget-minded car buyers in countries like Turkey, Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Greece, Middle East and Africa, and the new Citroen C-Elysée is the Citroen take on the same objective.

Tesla touts top sales at Detroit auto show

Tesla credits the "exceptional cold weather performance" of its Model S for 20 percent-higher-than-expected Q4 sales of 6,900 units, bringing total Model S sales worldwide to 25,000 so far. In fact, Tesla says its sedan does so well in the snow that the rear wheels are the only ones that need any torque. "This car performs outstandingly in winter conditions," said Tesla vp of vehicle engineering Chris Porritt in a video released the day of the Detroit Auto Show.