Bask in the glory that is the . Even before it was , we were bombarded with and , so to say that this car has been on our minds for quite some time is indeed an understatement. We’re ready for our hot laps, .
Following the flood of images and information that was released earlier this year, BMW has now released B-roll footage of the M5 doing what it does best: looking awesome and driving fast. Of course, the German automaker is keen to show off all of the M5’s details and tech goodies, so in addition to loads of hardcore driving scenes in the video, there are lots of slow panning shots to show off every last detail of BMW’s new supersedan. to see the hotness.
is reportedly working on a refresh for its mid-size pickup, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The refreshed Taco will debut in October, as part of the automaker’s plan to debut many all-new or refreshed vehicles this year. In addition to the Tacoma, the and will also receive substantial overhauls for the new model year.
Bob Carter, group vice president and brand manager for Toyota, says that the 2012 Tacoma will keep the same engine and frame, but will have a new exterior design, as well as an updated interior. Currently, the Tacoma is powered by a 4.0-liter V6 that produces 236 horsepower and 266 pound-feet of torque.
Additionally, Carter states that the Tacoma will receive new entertainment functions, and as we , the automaker’s new infotainment system will be part of the offerings. We’ll have more details come October.
There was a time when “land yacht” was not a nice thing to say about a Buick Riviera car, but these days it seems de rigueur. has to take on their sport-ute, uses teak decking on its , Audi’s gone out to see with the , even has given its wagons the theme. Now is following the same lead with its latest show car, er…van.
Benz has taken one of its Viano vans (a model not available on these shores) and turned it into the Vision Pearl concept. Dubbed a “yacht on four wheels,” the Viano Vision Pearl is decked out in a unique matte pebble-grey paint job, but it’s the interior treatment that sets it apart: White and grey leather, wood floor, brushed aluminum trim, auto-tinting windows, on-board wi-fi and a Bang & Olufsen sound system.
All-in-all, it brings us back to the Nautica edition Mercury Villager and the Plymouth Voyager when it had that little sailboat badge on the nose we knew as kids, but then maybe there’s a reason both those marques went under. One way or another, the Viano Pearl Vision will come to port at the come September, but you can check it out now with the pair of high-res images below and the press release after the jump.
Viano Vision Pearl concept van sets sail for Frankfurt
The may not be sold here in the United States, but its presence in the global automotive marketplace is huge. It’s Britain’s . Much like the off-roader or even the , the Defender’s core styling and functionality hasn’t changed much over the past few decades, and that’s just fine with us. However, it looks like the Defender’s candle has the potential to burn out soon, according to Auto Express.
Simply put, does not have a concrete plan in place regarding what to do with the Defender. In speaking to Auto Express, the automaker’s Colin Green said, “If we get it wrong we are messing up one of the industry’s biggest icons, and in that sense it’s a tremendous responsibility.” We imagine this is why has taken its sweet time in bringing out the C7 .
Currently, the Defender is set up to meet Euro V emissions through 2016, but after that, it’s unclear what will happen to the British stalwart. One option is to fit cleaner engines under the hood to extend the vehicle’s life, and the option of a complete redesign is still being kicked around. Auto Express suggests that an all-new Defender could be built on the same platform as the and , but it would increase cost.
Thankfully, Land Rover says that abandoning the Defender program is its least-preferred option.
Car accidents are never fun and often expensive. In certain parts of the world, accidents can be push expenses into the stratosphere, and Monte Carlo has reportedly just played host to such a fender bender. A woman was driving a near the Monte Carlo Casino when she doubled-down on a nearby . That scrape led to the Azure meeting a , and .
For the drooling bodyshop owners reading along, the UK’s Daily Mailnotes this collision involves over a million dollars worth of machinery. Total damage estimates are reportedly much more modest, however, somewhere in the neighborhood of $65,000, but , such estimates seems laughably low.
Adding insult to injury? The driver and passengers of the droptop couldn’t get out of their car. Hundreds of tourist snapped photos of the carnage while the occupants of the Azure could only sit and smile for the cameras.
There’s a good reason why Formula One teams make two cars with one seat each instead of one car with two seats. Well, there are a lot of good reasons, actually, one of which is being that F1 drivers don’t like riding shotgun, something that is immediately apparent after watching this video.
Even when in preparation for the last weekend on the neighboring circuit, they gave each driver his own car, even though they each packed five seats. Now it’s time for to take its turn, bringing its own talents to the storied Green Hell for a little fun and publicity footage.
After Michael Schumacher took his junior teammate Nico Rosberg around the legendary track for a quick tour, it was Rosberg’s turn to chauffeur his employer’s , David Coulthard, for a hot lap in the . This, despite the fact that Rosberg had never driven the circuit before. Good thing DC only found out that particular bit of information after the lap was done.
to watch the video, and if you pay close attention towards the beginning, you just might notice Coulthard getting in little dig on his longtime rival Schumacher.
“We have now reached the right moment to step on the accelerator of the - integration,” Sergio Marchionne said this week in a statement regarding his appointment of a single management team for both companies. According to Automotive News, four regional chiefs – North America, South America, Europe and Asia – will be in charge of Fiat and Chrysler effective September 1.
Marchionne will retain his position as Chief Operating Officer for North America. Gianni Coda, Fiat’s head of purchasing, will now run the operations in Europe, while Cledorvino Belini – formerly the head of Fiat Brazil – will take charge of South America. Michael Manley, head of , will oversee up Asia.
The newly formed Group Executive Council (GEC) is the highest decision-making executive body within the company, outside of its Board of Directors. In addition to the four regional COOs, each individual brand will have its own head, consisting of Olivier Francois (Fiat), Lorenzo Sistino (commercial vehicles), Harald Wester (//), Saad Chehab (/Chrysler), Michael Manley (Jeep) and Reid Bigland ().
Though today the letters stand for power and performance, if you go back four decades, almost nobody had ever heard of a tuning garage called AMG. That was until the tuner showed up at the 1971 running of the 24 Hours of Spa with… a luxury sedan. But not just any luxury sedan.
AMG took the 300 SEL 6.3, complete with wood dash and carpeted floors, bored it out to 6.8 liters and raised output up to 428 horsepower and 448 lb-ft of torque. With a top speed of 164 mph, the car qualified fifth out of sixty entries and went on to place first in its class and second overall, beating the likes of Niki Lauda and Hans Stuck. It was a pivotal moment that put AMG on the map.
Hans Heyer was one of the three drivers who alternated behind the wheel of the car dubbed the “Red Pig” that fateful day. And now forty years later, his son Kenneth Heyer is returning to Spa in a GT3 in matching livery to the original. It’s a trip down the memory lane of AMG’s history – though – reuniting one of its first race cars to its most recent, seven of which, all told, will be contesting the Belgian endurance race this weekend. Scope it out in our high-res image gallery and follow the jump for more details in the full press release.
We’re nearly certain that robots will one day rise up and take over the planet. We’ve watched The Terminator enough times now to see how the scenario will play out. Thankfully, robots aren’t advanced enough yet to ruin your life, but they might be smart enough to ruin your day… at least if you’re a car buyer waiting to pick up a brand-new
Production of the popular compact has reportedly been hampered by a machine that makes dashboard coverings. Apparently, the Detroit area supplier’s equipment takes unscheduled breaks, and only works intermittently. According to the Associated Press, this issue has put the hurt on Focus production, forcing to fly in needed parts from European vendors in an effort to try and keep assembly moving. That’s a spendy way to make sure the Focus get its dash material, but Ford doesn’t have other options at the moment.
Lounging Around In Suzuki’s Race to Electrify Your Living Room
In the Great Race to bring a full-fledged electric vehicle to market, is refusing to fall behind. And with a minimal R&D budget and a tenuous relationship with its partners at , a rag-tag band of engineers are out to prove that Suzuki can hang with the big boys of the automotive universe. And here is their star.
Like every other EV under development, Suzuki’s vehicle is a balance of compromises. But the engineers from its North American arm won’t let comfort be trumped by silly modern niceties like a windshield. Or headlamps. Or airbags. Or any kind of weather protection. No, this is among the purest EV experiencse ever crafted by the hand of man. We’ve driven it. And you can too.
The Chinese like long-wheelbase versions of sedans, because execs like to be able to stretch out while the drivers ferry them about – and the country, if you didn’t know, has a whole lot of executives. sells a stretched there, and evidently feels the market looks robust enough for a long-wheelbase 3 Series Li. Why not just get a , you ask? Because the man says he wants a longer , and he’s got cash…
Reports indicate this is a China-only model that will bow at the 2012 . Its platform, though, is also expected to underpin the . That car might come to America, and if so it will offer some extra rear legroom for us and certainly be just as interesting to look at as this long-wheelbase model.
Click on the links below to get more looks at the extended 3, which offers clues to the front of the next-generation car.
has just released the fourth teaser image of its upcoming seven-passenger crossover, and while the , and images didn’t reveal much, this fourth photo shows a clear view at the vehicle’s front fascia. Decidedly more svelte than the larger , the JX takes styling cues similar to what we see on the sedan, and that’s certainly not a bad thing. The JX striptease will continue into the coming weeks until the crossover is officially revealed as part of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance festivities in mid-August.
Jeremy Clarkson is coming to an xBox near you. The Top Gear presenter has reportedly joined forces with Turn 10 Studios to lend his voice and automotive knowledge to the company’s upcoming Forza 4 videogame.
There’s a portion of Forza 4 called AutoVista, which is an in-game showroom where players can examine cars in great detail. Clarkson provides commentary in this area of the game, giving players his voiced-over viewpoint on specific cars.
We can only hope and assume that the commentary will include some of Jezza’s trademark catchphrases like “…in the world.” Regardless, adding Clarkson only rounds out , all of which should be enough to have at least a few Sony PS3 owners considering making the switch to Microsoft’s xBox 360.
In the wholly owned stable are its eponymous brand, along with Lancia, Abarth, and Alfa Romeo – plus, as of relatively recently, all of the brands. According to Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, of all of those brands, the one with the greatest global cachet is . Marchionne believes that Alfa had global chops as well, but Jeep remains “first and foremost.”
And while Marchionne remains keen on creating global production synergies with his expanding automotive empire, there is at least one sacred cow. According to a new Ward’s Auto report, the compulsively sweater-clad CEO has a few words that will make builders of the Jeep Wrangler in Toledo happy – he thinks the legendary SUV’s American heritage is too important to risk assembling it in any other country. This is heartening news, as had referred to growing global demand putting a strain on the Ohio plant, leading some to think that a satellite production facility could be established elsewhere in the world.
Because “saying hello to a owner isn’t just an act of kindness, it’s a sign of camaraderie,” is asking, “How do you say hello?”
That’s how a recent post on the official is asking drivers to submit a photo of suggested hand signals so that Nissan can determine which Leaf gesture “waves supreme.” Submissions must be in by Thursday, July 28. We can’t imagine anyone sending in anything inappropriate here. Sheesh.
The Leaf’s social networking site suggests three possible gestures: an open-palm wave, a two-fingered V-is-for-victory motion or the forming of a circle, which presumably ties in with . We’re rooting for “zero,” but with some 4,400 Leafs on U.S. streets, it’s unlikely the gesture will be used too often.
TV personality Stephen Colbert, however, has his own ideas. On the Wednesday, July 27 episode of The Colbert Report, the host openly mocks Nissan’s campaign, saying that the eco-minded drivers who buy electric cars “love manufactured traditions created by the marketing wings of multi-national corporations.” Colbert even goes on to suggest his own elaborate hand gesture, which you can watch in the video .
Got a wavy suggestion for Nissan? Submit it to Nissan’s Leaf Facebook page by clicking , and check out the full Colbert Report segment in the video .
wants you to appreciate how much work they did to make the 2012 Picanto not just another small car, but a maximized small car. So their advertising team did something that involved a month of work and 1,200 bottles of nail polish to paint animations on 900 press-on nails. The Picanto in the image above didn’t happen with CG keystrokes, but with a tiny brush strokes, and there are 899 others to keep it company.
While we still aren’t earmarked to get get the tiny hatchback in the U.S., we can certainly appreciate the creativity that has gone into this spot. for the video, and as Roy Campanella used to ask, “What will they think of next?”
Full Disclosure: Until just recently, I’d never driven a . It wasn’t as if I’d earned some black mark from the German sportscar maker – I’ve spent the better part my a career pontificating on the virtues of the plucky 914 and more than a few synapses thinking about scoring seat time in cars like the , and, if I were feeling really indulgent, the . Hell, after learning of the automaker’s prowess in the Transsyberia Rally, I even became a stout defender of the SUV’s right to exist.
At some point, I began wearing the fact that I’d never saddled up with any of Porsche’s products as a badge of absurd honor. It was simply impressive that I’d managed to survive nearly half a decade as an auto-scribe without so much as a brush with Stuttgart’s finest.
Those days are officially over.
I’ve wrapped up a week with the – the newest model to rankle the chains of the brand’s purists. As it turns out, the sprawling five-door is the perfect ambassador for an automaker that values handling and driver engagement above all else.
Here’s your warning: this appears to be a case that will have people again howling for legal reform. According to USA Today, on July 26, 2009 Diane Schuler drove her minivan the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway in New York, eventually colliding head-on with an SUV. Schuler was killed, along with her daughter and three nieces. The three men in the SUV were also killed. Let’s pause a moment right here and quote one of the parties in the subsequent events, who admitted that things “pale in comparison to the real tragedy of the day.” Among those events, though, is a feeding frenzy of lawsuits.
Toxicology reports determined that Schuler was both drunk and high at the time of the collision, findings her husband, Daniel, has consistently said cannot be true. Official on the day, however, would suggest she was certainly under the influence of something.
In fact, Daniel Schuler doesn’t believe his wife is at all at fault in the crash. He has filed suit against the state of New York alleging that the state’s “negligence, carelessness and recklessness” concerning highway upkeep and signage are the only reasons his daughter suffered fatal injuries. Specifically, he insists that highway conditions were unsafe, lanes weren’t properly marked and there weren’t barriers and cones to provide adequate warning.
Schuler has also filed suit against his late wife’s brother, Warren Hance, who was the father of three of the girls in the car who died. Schuler contends that since Hance owned the minivan that Diane was driving, Hance is also at fault. On top of all of that, a relative of one of the victims in the SUV is suing the sister of the SUV’s driver, alleging that the late driver’s estate bears some responsibility for him being hit head-on by Diane Schuler. If you were looking for a new definition of the word “mess,” this is probably it…
It’s been several months since unveiled its latest flagship sedan, and you know what that means, boys and girls: that’s right, a new S8 is almost upon us.
The performance version of the luxury limousine has been spied undergoing what looks like final testing, given a lack of camouflage or body cladding on the test mule snapped in our high-res image gallery. The face looks more aggressive than the stock A8 but rather subtle and still tastefully elegant, with bigger wheels filling the wells and larger brakes in turn filling the wheels.
But, of course you want to know what’s under the hood. Don’t we all. Following a similar trajectory to arch-rival , on the street is that the -derived V10 from the previous S8 will be replaced by the new twin-turbo V8 expected to find its way as well into the new , and . Output and efficiency are expected to increase, however, with power ratings mooted in the 500 horsepower range.
That’s a lot of beef, and if we had to guess, we’d say we’ll probably be scoping it out in person come September’s .
If you’re looking at the above image and think ““, well you’re not far off. Though it may look like a new stablemate for the , this is actually the latest Twingo, built by Renault (Nissan’s industrial ally) atop the same platform as the previous-generation Micra.
The solitary image released previews a facelifted Twingo that is set to be unveiled at the upcoming in September, and is the first product of new design chief , formerly of .
The limited refresh of the front and rear ends will apparently have to carry the tiniest of Renaults for another few years, but that’s nothing new for the model line. The previous model, the first-generation Twingo – a car with a markedly cuter aesthetic to this brash-faced subcompact – was on the market for a whopping fifteen years from 1992 to 2007 when the current second-generation model was introduced.
Follow the jump for the press brief and click the above image to view in high resolution.
