Despite on production facilities in the U.S. and Europe, says it’s on track to topple its sales figures for this time last year. According to Jim Lentz, President of Motor Sales, by the time all the numbers come in for March, sales should be up 30-35 percent over 2009, even with the negative impact from the company’s recall bombardment.
Curiously enough, the biggest motivator behind the upswing is the . Toyota moved a total of 22,000 of the small SUVs during March, thanks largely to aggressive incentives and an overall market recovery. No matter the cause, the numbers are clearly good news for a company that’s seen its reputation plummet in recent months.
Surprise, surprise. The just released a report saying that all use while driving – even hands-free – is potentially dangerous and “risky behavior.” The study includes some pretty scary figures, including this one: At any time, 11 percent of drivers on the road are on their phones at the same time. Even worse, the NSC estimates that one out of every four automobile accidents occur because the at-fault driver was on the phone. The NSC combed over and referenced 30 scientific studies and reports for its findings.
While you can technically operate a cell phone and a vehicle at the same time, it seems that our brains aren’t hardwired to process that much information simultaneously. According to the study, the result is that while we may see everything on the road, our noggins are only making use of around 50 percent of the available information while we’re on the phone. Yikes. Want to know more? to visit the NSC’s official page.
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Sam and Dan kick off Episode #172 of the Autoblog Podcast with guest Jason Vuic, author of a .
Alex Nunez joins us afterwards for news items. We cover sights coming to the New York Auto Show, including the next Mercedes R-Class, Infiniti QX56, Cadillac CTS-V Wagon and Sonata Hybrid, among other topics. We babble for an hour and twenty and then split.
Autoblog Podcast #172: YUGOMANIA!
In the Autoblog Garage:
News:
Hosts:
, ,
Guest:
, author of The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History
Runtime: 1:16:45
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1980 Lotus Esprit with SHO conversion – Click above for high-res image gallery.
Strap yourself in, kids – we’re in for a whole new fresh batch of awesome. In the world of motor swaps, the 350 will slide its way into anything with four wheels (and some with just two). The Yamaha 3.0-liter V6 found in the first-generation , on the other hand, is a completely different story. That little bit of kit is only content to power the world’s most capable platforms, and since it boasts one of the sexiest intake arrays to ever roll out of a Detroit/Hamamatsu mashup, it looks right at home in the engine bay of, say a 1980 Esprit.
Which works out, since that’s exactly what one intrepid eBay seller has managed to create – a SHO-powered Esprit. The engine uses all of the periphery associated with the front-wheel drive Taurus, including the engine management, but is bolted to the Lotus five-speed gearbox. The seller even says all of the factory gauges remain in place and work accordingly – something most Esprits of this era can’t boast – even without a heart transplant. Assuming the Taurus mill is still churning out the same 220 horsepower it made from the factory, you’re guaranteed a modest bump over the factory output. Buy it now sits at $15,000.
Sounds like good Mr. Neff has found the perfect replacement for . for a video walkaround, including the chance to hear this odd British/American/Japanese hybrid firing up.
40th Anniversary Nissan 370Z party invitation – Click above to see the video
A while back the 40th Anniversary . The special package for the 370Z adds a healthy dose of show and a wee dash of go to the already heady mix of Z-car sportiness. It’s hard to believe we’ve had 40 years of Z-cars – the car that became the best-selling sportscar series of all time with its perfect blend of performance, styling and value. Coincidentally, Los Angeles area Nissan dealer Universal City Nissan is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year as well.
Sounds like the makings of a great party, doesn’t it? Universal City is pulling out all the stops, inviting Z-car enthusiasts and anyone else who wants to have a good time down for the celebration. Those who register at the company’s website will get a coupon redeemable for some free Kogi Korean BBQ, too, as if the unveiling of the 40th Anniversary Z wasn’t enough. Well, there’s actually more to the deal.
According to the , there’s a whole day of activities planned, starting with a visit to the Datsun Heritage Museum in Murrieta, CA. Guests will get a tour of the museum and snacks before the gang caravans up to Universal City Nissan in Los Angeles. That’s where the Kogi BBQ truck will be, along with a local radio station that will be broadcasting live and giving away 40th Anniversary swag.
The grand finale will be the unveiling of both the and the first made. Sounds like a great day of Z-car action. To whet our appetites, they’ve even put together a fun video scrapbook featuring 40 years of Nissan Z-car commercials and insider videos that we’ve embedded . So check it out and to the Universal City site to register.
Common view of the 2010 Cadillac CTS-V Hennessey V700 – Click above for a high-res image gallery
We wouldn’t blame you if you threw a skeptical eye on the power claims. After all, more than 700 horsepower at the crank is hefty chunk of grunt, even from a supercharged small block. Fortunately, John Hennessey has been kind enough to allow the kids at Inside Line to stick his four-door beastie on the rollers for all to see. How’d it do?
The big-bad put down 636 horsepower and 656 lb-ft of torque. Run those figures through the time-tested 15-percent driveline loss, and Hennessey’s claims of world-dominating horsepower seem pretty close to the mark. No wonder the breathed-on Caddy is . for a video of the fire-breathing action.
Toyota Yaris 5-Door Liftback (UK market) – Click above for a high-res image gallery
manufacturing plants are beginning to feel the backlash from the company’s wave after wave of recent global recalls. The company just announced it will stop production at its European facilities for a total of 12 days in April. The plants are responsible for building the European and upcoming hybrid, but since demand for the company’s products are currently hanging out in dumpsters everywhere, workers will find themselves with a few extra days of unwanted vacation.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the European production stop comes on the heels of similar action here in the States. Toyota recently decided to “adjust production” at two of its factories here in the land of the free. Workers at those locations can expect the doors to be closed for a total of two weeks over the course of March and April.
2010 Audi TT-S – Click above for high-res image gallery
Starting April 9, the world will get its first peek at next year’s Audi TT at AMI Lepzig. So far, details are iffy on exactly what we can expect from the 2011coupe and roadster, but the car is due for a mild facelift. We’re guessing new front and rear fascias and a revised wheel program are likely to find their way into the soup de jour.
While the reworked TT models will be the highlight of the show, Audi has also promised to bring along a slew of its other products. Nestled among the 25 production models and two show cars will be the freshly-minted A1 compact as well as at least one of the show cars. AMI Lepzig will run from April 9-18. for the press release.
Long before shows like CSI misled the public about how long a DNA test takes and introduced the mythical world of “zoom and enhance,” airplane black boxes were making people think you could minutely recreate an air disaster if you could just get the box. Not so. Turns out that quite a few cars sold in the U.S. have black boxes as well, with the same limitations: you can retrieve a certain set of data from them, but its quality and usefulness varies.
has been phasing black boxes into its cars since 2001, but stresses that the data collected is for “general safety research, not accident reconstruction.” The data collected comes from several collection points like the acceleration and airbag modules. While it can help solve a case like the one of the zooming in New York, where the woman was actually pressing the accelerator and not the brake, in other cases it won’t prove effective, such as when the data being gathered is from the same corrupt source that’s part of the problem.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has laid out some uniform regulations to cover black boxes from 2012. Just about every automaker selling cars here uses them, but they collect different data and an owner’s access to that data differs across the country. Carmakers are generally in agreement with the new regs, but want to push the date back a year to fall in line with vehicle development timelines. The bigger issue, though, isn’t what a black box is going to record, but what it will do with those recordings, who can get to them, and how easily.
A few weeks ago, Drew Phillips and I looked at the Autoblog calendar and realized our wildest high school dreams were about to come true. Over the course of five days*, we’d have five rear-wheel-drive cars, 2,486 horsepower**, 2,391 pound-feet of torque, 38 cylinders, three superchargers, five sore clutches and ten badly abused tires.
The stars aligned out here in sunny, Southern California as the penultimate week of March had us driving the , , , Callaway 552SC and 2010 Jaguar XKR Convertible (reviews of the Callaway and Jag are on their way). After four, maybe five seconds of thought, we knew what we had to do. Kill the tires! Kill them all, and let the California Highway Patrol sort ‘em out. We’re calling our temporary scorched earth campaign Burnout Week. to see the smoke.
* Due to a flat not caused by a burnout, our week ran over to six days. ** Both the Mustang GT and the Hennessey V700 are most likely underrated. Therefore the total horsepower sum for Burnout Week might actually be 2,543 ponies.
Like others in our field, we pride ourselves on being able to offer our readers a surprisingly comprehensive assessment of a vehicle after only driving it for a few hours (as at an automaker’s first-drive event) or living with it for several days (as with a normal media vehicle loan). But even though we’ve got our testing methodology down, there’s simply no way to learn what it’s like to live with an automobile without… well… living with the automobile.
Simply put, a year’s worth of the day-in, day-out grind is likely to reveal more foibles and hidden charms than any number of test-drives could ever hope to expose. How does your backside feel after an 800-mile road trip? Does the clutch pedal feel like stirring molasses in subzero temperatures? How will the seat leather and interior plastics hold up over thousands of miles? Will the gearshift feel like a trusted old friend mile-after-mile? These are questions that can only be answered with a long-term driving experience.
To that end, we’re pleased to introduce the first-ever entry into the Autoblog Long-Term Garage: The 2010 Subaru 2.5GT. We fell in love with this, the most sporting of models , but the popularity of the model and its production-line companion, the , has been so great that it’s been impossible to secure a 2.5GT up until now. Subaru’s Indiana plant has been so busy building the necessary volumes of the brand’s bread-and-butter models that production of the 2.5GT – an enthusiast’s sedan, when compared to its counterparts – has only recently started to come on-stream.
We suspect our loaded-up Ruby Red Pearl Limited model has been worth the wait, but we’re prepared to take a year to come to grips with our final judgment. How will we feel about this rally-bred all-wheel-drive sport sedan after 365 days of everything from daily commuting to opposite-lock dancing on abandoned fire trails? Will its assertive flat-four thrum and newfound size win over converts – or leave us wishing we had picked a more obvious, safe-as-houses alternative?
More importantly – what do you want to know about life with the 2.5GT? We’ll be regularly updating you on our new Subie’s progress, passing its keys between our editors stationed around the country, putting its 265 horsepower through the paces in different climates and over various types of roads in order to see if it’s worth the asking price. While you’re pondering what questions to ask us in the Comments, feel free to check out our high-res gallery below as well as the spec panel after the jump laying out what makes the 2.5GT tick.
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We’ll be launching a new Long-Term model page for the 2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT in the next couple of weeks that will contain all of the information, insights and updates we publish. Stay tuned!
Nissan Leaf EV – Click above for high-res image gallery
Sure enough, if you want to lay your hands on the upcoming Nissan Leaf EV, you better get ready to shell out $32,780 of your hard-earned cash. The good news is, the Leaf qualifies for the largest federal tax credit available – a full $7,500. Once you factor in the bonus cash, the world’s newest plug-in will set you back around $25,280. will start taking reservations for the car on April 20, and the company is also offering lease options starting around $349 per month.
There will be a few other expenses associated with the purchase, the least of which is the $99 reservation fee. Buyers will need to pay an additional $2,200 for the necessary charging station and installation. Uncle Sam will throw another $2,000 tax credit your way for that equipment, though. If everything stays on track, buyers should see there battery-powered purchases arrive by December. Follow the jump for Nissan’s official press release in case your interested in being one of the first to buy.
BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics Concept – Click above for high-res image gallery
We were all wondering how was going to manage to bring its to the road, and now it looks like we may have our answer. According to Autocar, elements of the wild diesel-electric sports car will crop up in the next-generation M6. The report claims that the company will send the efficient drivetrain packing in favor of a more robust twin-turbo V8 powerplant sourced from the current .
Why would be interested in crafting the M6 into a mid-engine, V8 terror? It might just have something to do with the rabid success of the , but Autocar thinks a similar model would allow to do battle with and the oft-rumored baby . It all sounds good floating around the interweb, but color us skeptical.
Roush Barrett-Jackson Ford Mustang – Click above to enlarge
Two years ago, Shelby produced a special edition for Barrett-Jackson in the auction house’s trademark black and red colors. This year, the auctioneers are back in the special edition Mustang game, this time with Roush Performance. That means a 540-horsepower, 510 pound-feet Roushcharged Mustang riding on a Roush-tuned suspension and 20-inch chrome wheels.
The car pictured is doused in two hues from the Planet Color Barrett-Jackson Collector Color Series paints: Back in Black with a Red Hot Chili Pepper stripe. There will be 25 examples made from the 2010 ‘Stang, and another 25 available as a 2011 model, and customers can order them in any of the 25 special colors in the collection.
The coupe will be auctioned with no reserve at Barrett-Jackson’s Collector Car Auction in Palm Beach, Florida on Saturday, April 3. For those of you keen to know more, check out the press release after the jump.
You have to drive something really special to stand out from the crowd at the Woodward Dream Cruise – something like a Google Street View Chevrolet Cobalt. When we at last summer’s cruise, we wondered if any shots of the vintage metal rolling around Detroit would actually make it into Google Maps or not.
Turns out that question has been answered. As of now, you can virtually tour Woodward Ave., complete with snippets of the cruise interspersed. If you were driving your own classic last August, there’s a chance you can see your car tucked among the rest of the metal. Hat tip to Jed!
The 500,000th Focus from Chongqing – Click for the full press release
has just churned out the 500,000th at its Chongqing plant in China. The company’s compact was first introduced to the Chinese market in 2005, where it has done well ever since. says that January saw sales explode, with 17,151 units rolling off of dealer lots that month alone. That figure marks a 78 percent sales increase over the same time last year.
The Chongqing plant currently builds both four- and five-door models, and will also start kicking out the next-generation car in 2012 after the new global platform gets introduced to the European and American markets. Hit the jump for the full press release.
How do you spell “Boondoggle?” That would be “A1 GP.” The national-team based, FIA-sanctioned motorsport series declared bankruptcy at the end of last year and all of its holdings and intellectual property are up for sale, including the 20 Ferrari chassis that the Italians had been withholding for debts outstanding.
If the price is much higher than a penny, we question why anyone would want to get involved. In six years the series never made money, teams have been going bankrupt and there are current and potential judgments from individuals and territories against the entire series. Billed as The World Cup of Motorsport, the venture sounded good, and the list of drivers it attracted is seriously impressive, but making the necessary dough is another story.
Still, the administrator of A1 GP Operations is optimistic enough to say he hopes to have a purchaser in place by the end of March. We’ll keep an eye out for that announcement, but we think a safe bet with that penny would be on not seeing another A1 GP season. You’ll find a press release on the sale after the jump.
Who do you call when automobiles are rocketing (intentional pun) out of control? As it turns out, the answer is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, aka NASA.
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has enlisted the help of NASA to solve the that’s led to the . A statement by the DoT says it is calling on NASA’s expertise in “electronics, hardware, software, hazard analysis and complex problem solving” to help solve a problem for which many credentialed experts have no acceptable answer. In short, NASA will be looking for any defects that could lead to an investigation, and its study should be completed by late summer.
The National Academy of Sciences will also conduct a second, more broad investigation that will tackle unwanted acceleration and electronic vehicle controls. The study will last up to 15 months, and the total bill for the two studies will cost American tax payers a relatively reasonable (if there are results) $3 million dollars.
The announcement of the two independent federal investigations comes one month after Congress demanded answers from Toyota and the DoT that would put Americans at ease. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood apparently senses the urgency to get this daunting problem resolved, adding “for the safety of the American driving public, we must do everything possible to understand what is happening.” So to infinity and beyond we go.
’s association with ex-company chairman Vladimir Antonov is what almost kept the Saab . But after a high-profile (still waiting on the report, Mr. A) and the scent of euros on the table, you didn’t really think Antonov was just going to walk away, did you?
The Russian said in an interview last week that was looking to build a production plant in Russia and will sign a memorandum of understanding to that effect “within a month.” Another report has put potential production of such a facility at 10,000 cars per year.
Spyker CEO Victor Muller has had nothing to say on the statement. Naturally, we have no idea if Saab is looking for a Russian plant, but we’d be shocked (not for the first time, we admit) to find it were doing so “within a month.” We’d have a much easier time believing that Spyker wants to get the new 9-5 and 9-5 SportCombi selling briskly and a better 9-3 on the way before it makes huge increases in production capacity in Russia. But that’s just us…
Most everyone is familiar with the Ward’s Auto award where , and took several honors for 2010, but a less prominent, though perhaps more eye-catching, award given by the magazine is the .
The award recipients are chosen through a process that examines all new vehicles for the given model year. For 2010, Ward’s had 40 vehicles, considered finalists meeting the requirements. Vehicles are placed in several different classes and judged based upon interior ergonomics, quality and feel of materials, comfort, fit and finish and overall value.
The winners in each class will be announced in mid-April, but you can continue after the jump to view the list of competitors in each class. It could be argued that many of the vehicles are deserving, but only one per class will be selected. The Buick Regal interior pictured above caught our eye, but tell us your own in the comments below.
