The Sneak Peaks - Four One One

Hankook Giveaway
In case you hadn't heard by now, Import Tuner is teaming up with Hankook Tire and a handful of respected aftermarket tuners to build the ultimate Civic Si hatch. You can view the project in progress at www.winhankooktires.com, as well as enter to win a set of high-performance Hankook Ventus tires. Best of all, you can actually enter to win the car, which will be given away to a very lucky winner early in 2004. Why wait? Enter now!

Scion Counting on 100K
Toyota's snappy Scion cars could be selling in the 100,000-unit range within two years, if the brand's evil plan for cheap-car domination succeeds. Scion started selling the five-door hatchbacks in California this summer, but won't be in every state until the end of next year. By then, the Toyota mothership expects Scion to sell 100,000 vehicles a year. The two current models are to be joined by at least one more unnamed Scion model-maybe an xC, to go with the xA and xB? More important to Toyota, the average Scion buyer is topping off their sub-$15,000 car with about a grand worth of accessories, about three times as much as they'd normally sell with a Toyota-brand car.

Honda Looks On in Envy?
Scions early success has Honda thinking, "Gee, should we have given the Element its own store?" That's the word from Detroit and L.A that has Honda studying the possibility of setting up its own brand, skewed right at the under-25 market they wanted to hit with the extremely wacky Element SUV. That trucklet is attracting more old folks than Honda would have liked, but the company is said to be working on more inexpensive vehicles-one a light-duty pickup derived from the CR-V like the Element-that would bring in the younger buyers like fake tattooes and, well, real tattooes.

Toyota Going with More Hybrids
The mad rush to hybridize is hitting Toyota's trucks next. Sources say the company that brought Cameron Diaz her Prius gas-electric sedan will bring out more hybrids for a total of six in its fleet in the next three years. Next up is a hybrid version of the Lexus RX 330 SUV, to be followed by gas-electric versions of the Highlander crossover and Sienna minivan. Most interestingly, Toyota may also be working on a V8 hybrid that would spin out power equivalent to a V12 powertrain and may be planning that very same conversion for a big Lexus sedan of the very near future.