2011 Boss 302R – Click above for high-res image gallery
Is it time for the to come back to the stable? According to the Pony-obsessed crew over at Mustang Heaven it is. The site reports that with the return of the mighty 5.0-liter V8, is seriously considering bringing the hi-po Boss 302 version back to the streets. And what evidence do they have to bank on? Evidently, Mark Fields, the president of the Americas for FoMoCo, dropped a pretty big hint at this year’s 2010 Ford Dealer Show.
Fields was speaking about the special-edition Mustangs in the company’s recent past, including the Bullit, Mach 1 and C/S, and said that while he couldn’t tell the crowd what was coming down the pike, he could give everyone a small hint. Supposedly a 1970 Boss 302 purred across the stage behind him as he finished speaking.
Back in the day, if you were one of the Ford faithful and wanted to tango with the big-bad Camaro bruisers, you ordered up a Boss 302. The car came with special V8 that featured a set of healthy Cleveland heads, a four-speed manual gear box and a competition-bred suspension. If we’re very, very lucky, we can expect a similar build program to crop up on the new generation.
2011 Audi TT – Click above for high-res image gallery
This is the 2011 . It looks the same, it steers the same and it sticks the same. But there’s one major difference: torque. has managed to coax an from its ever-evolving 2.0-liter TFSI four cylinder. The result? The standard TT isn’t just the Bauhaus design icon that propelled Audi into the luxury limelight at the end of the last decade – it’s finally a proper sports car. And it’s about damned time. to see what we’re torquing about.
Gallery:
Exterior photos by Damon Lavrinc / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.
Chevy’s Dept. 180 slo-mo footage – Click above to watch video
Chevrolet’s video series follows Bowtie engineers as they test the quality of the brand’s vehicles by taking extreme measures, and there are some pretty interesting behind-the-scenes tidbits that make a a Chevy. But this vid is without doubt the best: Dept. 180 did the super slo-mo routine on its finest clips, shot at 900 or 1,000 frames-per-second, and strung them all together. It might be the best Chevy commercial we’ve ever seen. for the action.
Nissan Leaf EV – Click above to for high-res image gallery
For those of you who aren’t quite sure if an electric vehicle is something you can live with, you’ll have an easier way to find out early in 2011. According to TheNew York Times, Hertz – the same company that last month – will begin renting the in the United States and Europe shortly after customer deliveries begin late this year. At this point, it is unlikely the Leaf rental will available everywhere. Instead, the same regions where the car is first offered for sale will probably be in the lead for rentals. That means places like California and Hawaii will get the first batch of cars.
While tourists may be interested in renting the Leaf, they might want to check with their lodgings first to ensure there will be somewhere to plug it in. Not being able to charge the car at your hotel could put a real damper on your Hawaiian vacation.
1977 Mercedes-Benz C111-III – Click above for high-res image gallery
A rare 1970s-era C111 show car has gone on display at the company’s museum at Brooklands, but it almost didn’t make it.
According to reports from across The Pond, the truck transporting the vintage concept car from Germany to the UK was hijacked by criminals looking to make off with the C111. The attempt was thwarted, but though now repaired, significant damage was reportedly incurred to one of the showcar’s gullwing doors and to the front fender.
The C111 served as a rolling test bed for Mercedes during the 1960s and 70s, various versions having been outfitted with different engines – including turbos, diesels and even Wankels – securing a number of land speed records along the way. The example transported to Brooklands, however, is but an empty shell with no engine, leaving observers to wonder just where the seemingly none-too-bright thieves thought they were going with the car.
Lancia Delta Hard Black – Click above for high-res image gallery
Think of past models like the Integrale and the world-conquering and you’d be hard-pressed to imagine a Lancia going the subtle route, but the Italian automaker is releasing a subtle special edition of its Delta hatchback called the Hard Black. Decked out in matte black paint, the special Delta doesn’t lack for chrome, but the 18″ wheels can be had in optional black paint as well, while inside black leather and Alcantara coat the cabin.
Mated to either a 200-horsepower, 1.8-liter direct-injection turbo four or a 190hp 1.8-liter turbo diesel, the Hard Black edition comes packed with adaptive suspension, dual-zone climate control and the Blue&Me connectivity system developed with Microsoft. Having been announced in Geneva, the Delta Hard Black is now going on sale in Europe for 31,300 euros (~$40k), leaving us to wonder with the anti-shine treatment. Not bad, we’ll take it.
2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT – click above for high-res gallery
has priced the 2011 versions of two vehicles leading its continuing sales charge, the Legacy and Outback. All of the Legacy models bar the Limited trim version have stood pat on MSRP, from the base 2.5i at $19,995 to the 3.6R at $24,995. The Limited models go up by $300 to cover folding exterior mirrors, harman/kardon audio, and XM satellite radio.
The 2011 Legacy 2.5GT will only be offered in Limited guise, and its price goes up by $405 to $31,395. Replacing its woodgrain with faux carbon-fiber dashboard trim and adding brightwork in the form of aluminum pedals and contrasting seat stitching addresses two of the few gripes we’ve had with our .
The Outback gets the smallest hike, just $200, going to $23,195 for the 2.5i, $24,495 for the 2.5i Premium, and $28,495 for the 2.5i Limited with CVT. Opt for the Power Moonroof Package for an additional $450, and you’ll get a new rear-view camera with a 3.3-inch display in the auto-dimming mirror with Homelink thrown on Premium and Limited models. Follow the jump for the rest of the details on the 2011 Legacy and Outback – with this kind of pricing restraint, we expect them to keep selling well.
2011 Ram Chassis Cabs for North America – Click above for high-res image gallery
Motor Trend named the pickup its Truck of the Year, but if you need something even heavier you’ll want to look out for the Ram Chassis Cab. They’ll be shipping out to dealers later this month and will come in (deep breath) three weight classes – 3500, 4500 and 5500, three trim levels – ST, SLT and Laramie, three transmissions – six-speed manual, six-speed automatic, and five-speed manual, and two engines – 5.7-liter Hemi or 6.7-liter Cummins Turbo Diesel.
Ram isn’t playing around with capabilities either, the Chassis Cab boasting the largest brakes in its segment, best standard GVWR and best warranty. Follow the jump to find out all you ever wanted to know about the 2011 Ram Chassis Cab offerings, but just looking at the pic above we smell a Decepticon in there somewhere…
The public outcry over an unscrupulous Canadian Mazda dealership that to a woman with a learning disability for over $25,000 Canadian dollars over sticker has been understandably strong. The wasn’t even new and it was rolling on steel wheels for crying out loud. It appears that fact wasn’t lost on corporate, as The Star reports that the dealer has been given the pink slip.
The Star quotes Mazda PR director Greg Young as saying, “We informed the dealer this morning that we were terminating the agreement because he had not adhered to the business standards, under the terms of the sales and service agreement.” The terminated contract means the Orangeville dealer can no longer sell any new Mazda vehicles or parts to customers or make repairs. The hammer of justice has fallen, and the sound was deafening.
That’s quite the punishment, there, but the Canadian government still hasn’t taken its turn at the firing squad. Under the Consumer Protection Act the dealer is subject to a fine of up to $250,000, while the employees involved could be hit with a fine of up to $100,000 in addition to potential jail time. The owner of the dealership could also lose his license to sell vehicles. The next likely step in this saga is that Mazda of Orangeville will seek an injunction temporarily blocking Mazda’s termination.
We had a feeling that justice would be done, but we didn’t know the long arm of the law would be that swift. Thanks to everyone for the tips!
If CEO Ed Whitacre has a personal soundtrack, perhaps it’s anything by the group Attack! Attack! While the world waits for news of GM’s first real profits, the company head is staking out a potentially huge acquisition, that being the auto financing arm of Ally Bank, which was once GMAC.
Ever since GM had to walk away from GMAC, dealers have had to rely on outside lenders in order to sell cars. One dealer said, “Getting a customer financed today is the hardest thing, even if they have good numbers,” but a GM-owned finance arm could be more proactive with lending, and therefore moving metal and making money.
The report indicates that if Whitacre were looking to acquire Ally, he might only want to deal with the auto finance arm, leaving the other lending branches alone. Still, he’d have to sort out Ally’s status as a bank holding company, and that might be too much to swallow. He could also form a partnership with other banks in the meantime, but it will take time to get banks on GM’s side in the way GM wants, and Whitacre isn’t a man out to waste time; he wants a deal in place by the end of the year before taking the company public.
[Source: - Sub. Req'd Image: William Thomas Cain/Getty Images]
While takes its leave of the European market for product unbecoming, another Chinese manufacturer, Great Wall, is planning to penetrate further into Europe. The company has been in global markets for about ten years and expects to ship 60,000 vehicles internationally this year, a return to its 2008 number. Some of those will include the Wingle pickup (pictured) that currently goes to Italy and Bulgaria.
Great Wall has three other offerings certified for the Euro-zone: the Hover SUV, the Florid, and the wonderfully named Coolbear sedan. Next year it will begin assembly of those vehicles in Bulgaria, but for the moment it looks like the Wingle will continue to lead the charge. Great Wall wouldn’t say what the next market would be beyond “a Northern European country.” That region might also give the Wingle more practice at how to cross a body of water, if you know what we mean.
Automobili Lamborghini Boutique opens in Vancouver, BC, Canada – Click above for high-res image
has opened a new store in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Only the retail location doesn’t sell sportscars. Nor tractors, for that matter. The new boutique is the third of its kind and focuses strictly on the Collezione Automobili Lamborghini, Sant’Agata’s fashion line.
The Vancouver location was opened this past Saturday by no less stylish (or important) an executive than Stephan Winkelmann, the rakish president and chief executive of Lamborghini. Situated at the city’s swanky Aberdeen Centre, the Vancouver store follows those opened late last year in LA and Beijing. (Talk about a bull in a China shop. Ha! We’ll be here all week.) With the Collezione, the Raging Bull brand is attempting to muscle in on ’s well-worn territory with a line of merchandise sold through an expanding chain of dedicated stores. Details in the press release after the jump.
Duct tape versus a speeding car – Click above to watch the video
You can fix anything – (repetition for emphasis) anything! – with duct tape. Right?
Says , “Duct tape is a polyethylene, reinforced, multi-purpose pressure sensitive tape with a soft and flexible shell and pressure sensitive adhesive.” Sounds pretty simple. And yet, as you are likely aware, the uses for such a product are seemingly endless. Just ask the Mythbusters.
The dynamic duo of Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, who may just have the coolest jobs on the planet, joined their three sidekicks on last night’s Discovery Channel broadcast to find out if there’s anything that duct tape cannot do. And, surprisingly enough, there isn’t. Almost.
There were a couple of enterprising uses tested by the Mythbusters that are of interest to us auto-obsessed types. First, is it possible to reassemble a torn-apart car using nothing but a few rolls of tape? Next, is it possible to stop a car from moving with the sticky silver material? Plus, there’s a twist on that last point… and the ‘Busters explore more than one definition of stopping a car.
After watching these videos, we’re thinking we’d better throw some duct tape in our trucks… you never know, if you know what we mean. As always, the videos (broken down into two parts) can be found . Enjoy!
may be working hard to get its new crop of to market, but we must not forget that a great bulk of the automaker’s sales will be made up of crossovers and SUVs, spearheaded by vehicles like the 2011Jeep Grand Cherokee and the upcoming Dodge Durango replacement (possibly called Magnum) in 2012. We’ve seen and of the reworked Dodge crossover, but forum member Andrew Currie has spent some time creating renderings of what the all-new CUV could look like. Very believable, if we do say so ourselves.
Details are still slim about the next-generation Durango-Magnum, but one thing’s for sure – it’s going to look a whole lot better than the aging Durango that currently sits on dealer lots. And if Chrysler can make good on its promise to offer better interior refinement, the new CUV should be a worthy competitor for ’s Lambda quadruplets and the upcoming new . Still, we’ll have to wait and see what Chrysler has in store, and we won’t be surprised if the production model makes its debut later this year at the Los Angeles Auto Show, or even early next year in Detroit.
Minivan commercials typically showcase to potential customers as many creature comforts as possible in the span of 30 seconds. That makes perfect sense, right? uses just such a time-tested formula for its latest commercial, but there is a bit of a catch. See, while the ad shows off the Grand Caravan’s FLO TV, voice activated navigation and available WI-FI hotspot tech, it also appears to have been written by the Mad Hatter.
The ad is called Turncoat, and the tagline is, “It has everything, so you can do anything.” So far, so good. But wait. A bunch of guys are driving through the desert in three black Caravans on the way to the emergency room. Apparently, the world is looking for surrogates. Weird. We can’t even begin to understand what the hell is going on here, so we’re going to let you and view it for yourself. And if you get it, feel free to explain it to us in the post-jump comments.
Added bonus: Check out the second, equally puzzling Grand Caravan commercial after the jump. The spot appears to be a cross between West Side Story and CATS, the musical. Seriously.
The Hyundai Elantra is currently produced in Ulsan, South Korea, with about 100,000 of those vehicles earmarked for the U.S. each year. But while the Elantra is currently most successful export product, word on the street is that production of the affordable compact could come to the Korean automaker’s Montgomery, Alabama plant in April, 2011, with volumes reaching 150,000 units per year.
Wards Automotive reports that Hyundai is considering the move, though Hyundai was quick to tell the auto-focused publication that no decision has been made. To make room for the Elantra, Hyundai could consider moving Santa Fe production to West Pointe, GA plant. But while Hyundai has the available production capacity here in the U.S., the Elantra’s 2.0-liter engine would still likely need to be made in China and exported to the States.
If Hyundai does indeed bring Elantra production to the U.S., it would likely mean more high paying manufacturing jobs at a time when high-paying jobs are very tough to find, and that certainly wouldn’t suck.
For anyone looking for a very rare future vintage race car, a seller in Ohio has a deal for you! The seller has two of the three Northstar LMP02 race cars that were built and campaigned by Racing in 2002. One or both are available with a Buy it Now price of just $355,000. The cars are apparently fully functional with the Bosch and Pi electronics packages in place.
These were the second-generation cars that were purpose built by Cadillac for its third season of LMP1 competition. Modified Riley and Scott chassis were used for the first two years with only limited success; the newer car was designed by Nigel Stroud and was powered by a twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter Northstar V8.
That 600 horsepower mill was based on the unit used in the Indy Racing League and by in the German Touring Car Championship. Caddy’s LMP02s finished ninth and twelfth at Le Mans in 2002 and had a best finish of second in the Miami ALMS race. The Cadillac program was canceled at the end of the 2002 campaign after realized it couldn’t compete with the resources that was willing to put into its Le Mans program. A tip of the hat to Ryan!
The free press? It ain’t so free. It’s no secret that most publications face rising costs and declining revenues, both of which combine to create bottom lines that would shiver even cash-strapped timbers. So it should come as no real surprise that Consumers Digest makes manufacturers pay for licensing associated with the publication’s illustrious “Best Buy” awards. But that hasn’t stopped the from drawing a correlation between the number of nods the magazine hands out and how much cash the winners spend on licensing and advertising.
Here’s how it works: Consumers Digest hires freelance auto writers to review vehicles each year. Those vehicles are supplied by manufacturers through short-term loan agreements. Once all of the reviews are in, the editors choose which vehicles are deserving of a “Best Buy” award and which aren’t. Once the awards are announced, manufacturers typically want to toot their own horn and brag in advertising. Thing is, Consumers Digest won’t allow the carmakers to use their name without paying the piper first. In this case, that means handing over $35,000 for the mention of a first-place win.
Consumers Digest isn’t the only publication handing out awards that operates with this business model, but the Wall Street Journal compares the practice to – a squeaky-clean institution that buys every car it tests from dealerships and refuses to allow manufactures to cite its awards. It’s not exactly an apples to apples job.
Even so, the article notes that the number of “Best Buy” awards handed to increased by 17 percent compared to last year, and that Consumers Digest recommended around half of the vehicles it tested even in the midst of a wave of recalls from the company.
The Wall Street Journal piece does do a fine job of underscoring the fact that everything you read is best taken with a healthy helping of skepticism. Any publication that ranks products walks a fine line between credibility and keeping the lights on. Consumers would do well to remember that.
