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Established in 1967, Flex Automotive has a chain of 50 dealerships across Japan, taking modern Toyotas and giving them retro looks. Now the company is coming stateside.Launching in San Diego, Flex will offer 1990s and 2000s Toyota Land Cruisers backdated to look like the FJ60 of the 1980s. There will also be a new U.S.-only offering based on the Tacoma pickup.The creations are called “Renocas,” an appealing blend of up-to-date underpinnings and nostalgia.Nobody does nostalgia quite like the Japanese. At first, it was Nissan with its quirky little Pike Factory cars. Then it was Japanese dealerships keeping the original Rover Mini on sale until 2000. Oddball coachbuilder Mitsuoka currently has a full order list for its Buddy, a Toyota RAV4 gussied up like a 1980s K5 Blazer. Now, a bit of that blend of old and new is headed to this side of the Pacific. Flex AutomotiveFounded in the late 1960s, Flex Automotive now runs a large chain of dealerships in Japan, each one specializing in either the Toyota Land Cruiser or the Toyota Hiace (a minivan not sold here). These are boutique shops, where customers come in and spec their Toyota carefully, creating something that looks old but drives new.Flex AutomotiveYou can obliterate the day’s productivity with the company’s online car configurator. It’s endless fun, although, sadly, the likes of the friendly-looking Euro Box are not available in the U.S. But the Land Cruiser options will be.Flex is opening up its first U.S. dealership in San Diego this winter, where it will be perfectly situated to part tech workers from their cash. What could better suit a 20-year-old with a six-figure salary than a weekend adventure machine that looks like a 1980s Land Cruiser, but is essentially brand-new underneath?The conversions—called Renoca for “car renovation”—are high-quality affairs, using steel rather than fiberglass. Flex’s Wonder evokes the details of the 1980s Land Cruiser models based on a 1990s platform, while its 106 applies that same ethos to a 1999 to 2007 Land Cruiser. The centerpiece for both is the front fascia, with its simple grille and round headlights.Flex AutomotiveThe company has also announced an upcoming Tacoma-based offering, which will be its first U.S.-only vehicle. No details yet, but based on Flex’s established recipe, expect the elements of Marty McFly’s black Toyota pickup applied to a more modern truck.Cult FollowingToyota pulled the Land Cruiser from the U.S. market, with the last run being the 2021 model year. Prices for used ones are through the roof already, which makes Flex’s boutique offering well timed. Pricing has yet to be confirmed, but it should be in the range of $20,000 plus the cost of a donor car. It’s not quite the Singer of Land Cruisers, but it is a really cool way to get the brand-new golden-era Toyota truck of your dreams.This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. More

Unlike most states, which have a department or committee that approves custom plates, Maine has no approval process. Drivers took advantage, printing out plates with any and all obscenities you could think of. That’s about to change, according to the Associated Press. Maine has begun to issue recall notices to people with obscene or offensive plates in an effort to clean up the streets, AP reports. The notices are going out to enforce a new set of rules established by the state’s DMV last year. Plate SpecialsThe rules ban derogatory references to age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, or disability. They also ban language that’s considered profane or obscene, and language that could incite violence. To give you an idea of just how obscene some of these plates can be, there is currently a license plate on a car in Maine that simply reads “F*** Y0U,” except on the plate, it’s spelled out in its entirety, according to Autoblog. A committee has been set up at the Maine DMV to review any custom plate requests going forward. The committee will also be responsible for handling complaints from the public on current plates. AP reports there are roughly 124,000 custom plates on the road in Maine right now, though only about 400 of those could be subject to recall by the state. So if you live in Maine and have an offensive license plate, don’t be surprised if you see a letter in the mail asking to give it up. This content is imported from OpenWeb. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. More

The 2023 Nissan Ariya EV has been transformed into a woody-style concept called the Surfwagon that’ll debut at this year’s SEMA show in Las Vegas.To our eyes, the Surfwagon’s wood-panel vinyl wrap and huge brightly colored spokeless rims with whitewall tires don’t mesh well. Nissan wants the Surfwagon to encourage electric-vehicle customization, which is great, but we think this concept is a weird one.Some things just don’t go together well. Oil and water, dumb people and scientific facts, and chunky electric SUVs with fake wood side panels. The latter example is the only one that’s relevant here, and it describes the 2023 Nissan Ariya Surfwagon concept that’s set to debut at this year’s Specialty Equipment Market Association show (now known as just SEMA).NissanWe’re gonna be blunt here. The woody-inspired Surfwagon concept that Nissan commissioned South Carolina-based Tommy Pike Customs to build looks weird. After all, the electric Ariya’s tall and bulbous shape isn’t exactly an attractive canvas to work with. Perhaps that’s why its wood-panel vinyl wrap looks so out of place to our eyes. It’s mostly the unnatural way the simulated wood trim pieces bend and break around the SUV’s body.NissanUsually, a set of whitewall tires mounted on brightly painted spokeless rims is a pairing that catches our attention. The Surfwagon’s wheel-and-tire combo definitely makes our jaw drop, just not in a good way. The 20-inch wheels have too much dish and the tires have too little whitewall, creating a strange aesthetic. We think it’d look better with smaller-diameter rims and fatter rubber with thicker whitewalls.Ariyas That Are Easier to Look AtObviously, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Nissan intends for the Ariya Surfwagon to encourage people to customize electric vehicles. Hey, we’re all for creativity and individuality, but that doesn’t mean we have to think this concept is pretty. We do think the roof rake for surfboards and the lowered suspension are nice touches, so there’s that.This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. More

For the 2022 SEMA show, Nissan is presenting a 1987 Sunny pickup with an EV conversion done by Tommy Pike Customs.The Sunny now utilizes the 40-kWh battery and 147-hp electric motor from a Nissan Leaf.Completing the Leaf-powered Sunny’s look are 17-inch Rotiform wheels, a widebody kit, and a livery inspired by 1970s Datsun race cars.At last year’s Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show, Ford revealed the F-100 Eluminator concept, a 1978 pickup retrofitted with two electric motors from the Mustang Mach-E GT that married old-school looks with 480 horsepower and 634 pound-feet of torque. For the 2022 edition of SEMA, Nissan follows a similar path, electrifying a classic truck design, albeit with much less power, by shoving a Nissan Leaf powertrain into a 1987 Sunny. NissanThe truck, modified by South Carolina–based Tommy Pike Customs, uses a 40-kWh lithium-ion battery from a base Leaf S, paired with the single motor that’s good for 147 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque. That may not sound like a lot, but the Sunny is a small vehicle, and it has approximately twice as much power and three times as much torque as the car’s original gas engine produced. Nissan doesn’t say where the electric motor is mounted on the Sunny, but we hope it powers the rear wheels. The electrified pickup apparently retains the original manual transmission too, although Nissan doesn’t explain exactly how that works. It also receives the front suspension from a first-generation Nissan 240SX, along with heavy-duty rear leaf springs.More Electrified ClassicsThe Sunny looks fantastic thanks to a wide-body kit that accentuates its squared-off design, as well as a red, white, and blue livery that pays homage to Datsuns raced by Brock Racing Enterprises in the 1970s. LED headlights give the ’80s classic a modern look, while the 17-inch Rotiform wheels take inspiration from vintage motorsports. For now, the Leaf-powered Sunny remains a one-off, but maybe Nissan will start offering electric crate motors similar to what Ford does with its Eluminator powertrain.This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.This content is imported from OpenWeb. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. More

Volkswagen says its performance R sub-brand will be an EV-only lineup by decade’s end, according to a report in the U.K.’s Autocar.The transition is planned to occur gradually, and on a new EV platform, with several unnamed electric R models in planning already, VW reportedly said.Volkswagen as a whole is targeting 2035 to be a fully electric brand.Volkswagen, like so many other manufacturers, bound by regulations, and driven by an arms race of sorts, promised future electrification across the brand. For Volkswagen, that date is 2035, the year that sales of new gasoline- and diesel-powered vehices will become outlawed throughout the EU. Unfortunately, that also includes Volkswagen’s R performance sub-brand. The company confirmed in a recent interview with Autocar that the R performance brand will make that switch a full five years before the rest of the brand—in 2030.R Themed CarsThe only R brand model currently on sale in the United States is the Golf R, although vehicles including the Tiguan R and Arteon R are sold in Europe. Volkswagen confirmed to U.K. publication Autocar that the company is currently in the planning stages for multiple electric R models. “One thing is certain: the future of R is electric,” a company spokesperson is quoted as saying. VW also said future electric R models will receive trickle-down technology much like their internal-combustion counterparts. We hope that means seeing performance figures anywhere in the same universe as the prototype I.D. R, which set a Nürburgring EV record in 2019.Volkswagen”In order to become a fully electric brand by the end of the decade, we’re already taking the necessary steps today for the forthcoming transformation,” VW’s Reinhold Ivenz told Autocar. According to this story, future R models will be built on a version of the Volkswagen Group’s Scalable Systems Platform (SSP), which is the company’s EV platform set to succeed the current MEB platform in 2026. What does that mean for the current Golf R? It indicates that it’s unlikely the Golf R as we know and love it will make a direct transition to an electric vehicle, and the same goes for R versions of any vehicles that are going to be sold as ICE in the shorter term. However, VW does say it has “several” of the new R models in the works, so we can likely expect to start seeing those before too long.This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.This content is imported from OpenWeb. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. More