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Audi looks like it’s accidentally let slip the exterior design of its upcoming 2013 A3.The German automaker set about with a static display at Las Vegas’ CES ahead of the vehicle’s expected unveiling at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show. The display gives the world a sense of what to expect from the luxury compact’s front seats, center console and dash, which features a stand-alone LCD display that rises out from above the instrument panel’s center air vents. Like other Audi displays, the screen features various vehicle menus, including two that show off the full exterior of the three-door model.
Judging from these two quick glimpses at the hatchback, the three-door will feature a new, more aggressive face. From the looks of things, buyers can expect to continue to find a large, signature Audi single-frame grille flanked by more purposeful headlights and sporty air intakes set low int he front fascia. Head over to for a closer look at the vehicle inside and out. Don’t get too attached to what you see, however. Past reports have suggested the vehicle will only debut here in the States.
Polk has handed out its annual Automotive Loyalty Award for 2011, and walked away with a total of six honors, including two of the highest. The Dearborn-based automaker took home the top nod in both the Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer award as well as the Overall Loyalty to Make award categories. The manufacturer received both awards in 2010 as well. Ford also received the African American Market Loyalty to Make, and the Ford F-Series and brought down wins in the Mid/Full-Size Pickup and Compact SUV categories, respectively. Additionally, the drove away with the Luxury Car category.
Polk prides itself on organizing and distributing the industry’s only fact-based owner loyalty award, and the organization analyzes over 4.5 million household records and consumer transactions each year to determine the winners. Polk also examines state registration and lease information.
Ford wasn’t the only automaker to receive a node from the Polk Automotive Loyalty Awards. took home its fair share of hardware. Polk awarded its Most Improved Loyalty to Make award, and the and took home trophies in the Sports Car and Minivan segments. for the full press release.
Saying the Toyota 2000GT holds a special place in our hearts is akin to calling oxygen and water kind of important to our survival. The long-nose two-door was envisioned as a suitable competitor to the likes of the European sports cars rolling out Italy and the UK at the time, and in many ways, the was far superior. Built at a time when Japan Inc. wasn’t exactly known for beautiful automobile designs, the 2000GT may have been influenced by European cars of its day, but it has stood the test of time as one of the country’s all-time design greats. The low-volume coupe is a piece of automotive legend, which is exactly why choosing to use a 2000GT as a platform for an electric conversion strikes us equal parts blasphemous and awesome. But that’s exactly what Japan’s Crazy Car Project has done.
The engineers behind the exercise ditched the standard 2.0-liter inline six-cylinder engine in favor of a 161-horsepower electric motor. A 35kWh lithium-ion battery provides the system with power, and the hood has been covered with photovoltaic cells to help keep the car going. Likewise, the back glass is covered in a transparent solar panel. All told, the system can propel the vehicle to around 124 mph.
Inside, the 2000GT SEV features a modernized interior with plenty of tech-laden gadgets. The vehicle was built in cooperation with Toyota and debuted at the . Let’s hope they started with a real basket case, eh? to see a video of the car in action.
One man’s new toy can be another’s Moby Dick. Typically we’d mean that in a figurative sense, but has taken things one step towards the literal – or literary – with its latest advertising spot.
The commercial centers around a Captain Ahab-like tow truck driver who has, when the roads turn white with deep snow, hooked just about everything on the road. Everything, that is, except the elusive Quattro.
The 60-second spot – called “Ahab” – features the latest , and is scheduled to air tomorrow during the NFL division playoffs (making it something of a junior Super Bowl ad). It will be followed by a 30-second version that will air nationally on other broadcasts, and Audi is building a broader digital content campaign around the ad as well, including a Facebook app to follow. You, however, don’t have to wait for all that to see the clever clip: just .
What Are You Willing To Sacrifice For A Low Price?
The compact car market is white-hot. The new , and have lifted the segment to new levels of refinement while at the same time improving fuel economy to 40 miles per gallon on the highway and beyond. Instead of turning their attention back to trucks and SUVs, manufacturers are going even smaller. Automakers have begun pouring vast resources into the smaller subcompact segment, and the result has been a wealth of all-new models. The , and are all-new or updated and vastly superior to prior subcompacts that still linger in our memories like an unpleasant aftertaste.
has put its subcompact under the knife, too, as the features all-new sheetmetal, revised powertrains and a fresh interior. The previous Versa was known for being larger and less expensive than its competition, and its sales reflected that – it’s been the most popular model in its segment. But we’ve been curious to learn if this latest redesign may help or hurt the Versa’s standing, so we borrowed the keys to a top trim 2012 Nissan Versa SL Sedan for a week to find out.
With press days for the now behind us, our focus is shifting eastwards. Make that Far East, as the tuners have rolled in for the , where performance tuning arm Nismo has taken on its third compact and given it an attitude adjustment.
Following the recent debuts of the and comes this March Nismo, based on the small hatchback also known as the Micra or (in Taiwan) as the Verita. Nismo has given it a enhanced sportiness through lightweight wheels, updated grille and aero kit, new door mirrors and sportier seats and steering wheel inside.
It’s all capped by a pearl white finish with red highlights, but while the Nismo parts catalog is sure to offer bolt-ons for the March, this particular configuration is strictly a concept. Check it out in the pair of high-resolution images along with the press release .
March Nismo concept debuts at Tokyo Auto Salon [w/video]
Here’s a surprise: has announced the company will produce the first unveiled at the 2011 Tokyo Auto Salon in limited quantities. The automaker has confirmed the development at the . The vehicles will be built by partner Gazoo Racing and will feature a brawnier version of the same 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine found in the standard . With a little forced induction on its side courtesy of a supercharger, the engine should be good for 130 horsepower and 133 pound-feet of torque. That’s an increase of 36 ponies and 44 lb-ft over the stock configuration.
Like the concept, the production model will wear a not-so-subtle widebody kit, stiffer suspension and more aggressive brakes than its standard siblings. A six-speed manual transmission will be the only gearbox option. Indoors, buyers can expect to find custom seats and gauges that read all the way up to 124 mph.
Toyota and Gazoo Racing only plan to produce 100 of the muscle-bound iQ Supercharger models, and there’s no indication its cousin sold in the States will receive a similar treatment. What a shame. for a brief introductory video featuring the original concept as well as the full press release.
Fiat may have returned to the U.S. market, but Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn doesn’t plan on seeing the his French marque stage a comeback in the Land of the Free. According to The Detroit News, Renault will instead focus its efforts on introducing the brand to the Chinese market. Ghosn said Renault won’t return to the U.S. within the foreseeable future. That’s no real surprise given how fiercely competitive the fully mature U.S. market is compared to the explosive growth possibilities in . According to the report, Chinese car buyers took home 17.3 million vehicles last year. That number is up from just 600,000 in in 1999.
Ghosn made the comments at the Automotive News World Congress, which ran along with the 2012 Detroit Auto Show. The executive also made mention of the fact that has 65 models as of right now, and all of them are either profitable or on their way to becoming so. That wasn’t always the case – In 1999, the company featured 43 models. Only four of those were profitable for the company at the time.
Do the star-based safety ratings of the work? We’d point out that automakers work hard to ensure the best ratings possible, and shows that our roads are now safer.
NHTSA has made the five-star rating more difficult to obtain, and now Wards Automotive reports that the government agency is looking to advance the technology that helps avoid accidents altogether. The agency reportedly told attendees at a Society of Automotive Analysts event at the that it is considering credits that reward safety avoidance tech, though NHTSA didn’t detail what technologies would be highlighted.
Technologies that avoid accidents are likely to decrease the amount of accidents over time, and one technology NHTSA finds promising are vehicle-to-vehicle communications systems. V2V tech enables vehicles to “speak” to one another, and the agency feels it could drop fatalities from about 33,000 per year to 20,000. NHTSA is reportedly testing V2V communications, and several automakers are involved.
Volkswagen has repeatedly told the world that it will soon be the largest automaker in terms of global sales volume. As it stands, it may already be number two. Car Advice reports that VW sold 8.16 million units in 2011, marking the first time it has eclipsed eight million global sales.. finished 2011 with 7.9 million sales, in part because of production disruptions resulting from the March earthquake in Japan.
That’s an incredible feat made all the more impressive by a 14.3-percent surge in sales compared to the auto giant’s 2010 totals. Volkswagen has plenty of reason to celebrate, but it’s not quite time to erect a statue in honor of the year’s sales success. hasn’t yet reported full-year sales, but analysts expect that the final tally could reach nine million units.
The German automaker should feel pretty good about its accomplishment, but there is more work to do if VW is to reach its lofty goal of 10 million units annually by 2018. If VW can continue to roll out waves of successful new products and global auto sales continue to climb, we’re not going to bet against them.
Fiat/Chrysler sold about 4.2 million cars in 2010, and company CEO Sergio Marchionne expects to improve that by more than 33% come 2014, predicting sales of 5.7 units that year (analysts, on the other hand, predict average Fiat/Chrysler sales of 4.9 million in 2014). Operating profit for 2011 has been pegged at around $600 million, a rewarding bump from the $200 to $500 million predicted earlier in the year and dwarfed by the predicted $3 billion operating profit for 2012.
For Marchionne, though, those numbers need help from the outside: he says that an automaker needs to sell ten million units per year globally in order to reach “a new level of efficiency” and get development costs where he wants them. To wit, he is considering a partnership with a third car company to make that happen. He has repeatedly stated that he hasn’t spoken with anyone yet, but Italian paper Corriere della Serra has said that Peugeot is ready to talk, while other analysts have mentioned makers in emerging markets as potential partners.
This is hardly the first time Marchionne has mentioned his quest for -like scale – in fact, he’s been quite consistent on his desire to rationalize costs throughout the carmaking process. Based on that, it’s inevitable that he’ll tie up, the only questions now are who and when. He could wait until Fiat of Chrysler it doesn’t own and “merges” with The Pentastar, or if the right partner raises a hand, it might be sooner. Whoever it is, if it results in more novelties like the , we tentatively say we’re all for it.
All automakers are under pressure to hit more stringent Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations, figures set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). In 1978, the CAFE standards were just 18 miles per gallon, but they have increased gradually each year. This summer, the bar was raised high when . While that is a very steep ladder to climb, hit the 2016 CAFE requirements in 2011 – the Korean automaker seems to be jumping the rungs on the way up.
The announcement that Hyundai hit a 36 mpg average four years ahead of the requirement is impressive, but there is never good news without some controversy. A that the doesn’t meet its U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fuel economy in real-world driving. Hyundai acknowledges that consumers may not achieve EPA estimated efficiency, but the Elanta’s discrepancy was consistent with the other vehicles in its segment when tested by Consumer Reports (and just about every vehicle on the road, says our experience).
It is interesting to note that, while the EPA has not altered its fuel economy ratings on the 2012 Elantra, the automaker has added its ActiveECO feature to the model that reportedly improves fuel economy up to seven percent.
The second generation of the Kia c’eed is a dramatic rework five years after the C-segment fighter was introduced. It is fronted by Kia’s now-familiar design elements, attempting to go upmarket along its flanks with chrome trim around the windows and “styling typically found on a sporty coupé with the space and functionality of a five-door hatch.”
We don’t know what its innards look like, but says it has a “driver oriented dashboard and refined interior, with a strong focus on quality of materials.” suggest it will be offered with a choice of two gasoline and two diesel engines, which would be a reduction in choice from the five powerplants offered now. However, that same report says that one of the engines would be a turbocharged, 1.6-liter T-GDI making 250 horsepower, more than doubling the most powerful current option. On sale in Europe only, it will take on the , Alfa Romeo Giulietta and Seat Leon.
It will be unveiled at the in two months and go on sale in the UK in June. You’ll find a press release that’s rather light on details , and you can click on the image above to enlarge.
There’s no doubt a stock doesn’t have the guts to go toe-to-toe with its more powerful sibling, the . But make no mistake: That’s nothing a couple massive turbochargers can’t fix.
The twin turbos come courtesy of Heffner Performance, and they turn the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera into a monster with more than 600 horsepower force fed through the V10 engine and to all four wheels. For the sake of comparison, the naturally aspirated Aventador offers up 691 horsepower straight from the factory.
There’s no data on which Heffner kit this Gallardo has been fitted with, so we can’t say exactly how many horses it’s hiding underhood – it could be as many as 1200. At any rate, after watching the video, all we know is that it’s more than 691. … and keep the racing confined to the racetrack, please.
Listen kids, if you’re going to pull off a successful Duke boys stunt, you need more than a J.C. Whitney horn. While we give these guys credit for the staging and the timing of the Dixie blast, there’s a lot of work that remains to be done. (Try brushing up on your , for starters.)
To watch the video, click . Just be careful to stick the landing.
QNX – now owned by Blackberry – ripped the guts out of a 997 Cabrio to showcase its latest blend of infotainment, navigation and connectivity solutions. If nothing else, it’s one of the better looking interfaces we found at .
The system integrates the standard music, nav and telephony functionality with one-touch Bluetooth pairing over NFC, a sweet-sounding VOIP system and the potential – in theory, at least – to run Android apps thanks to its Blackberry Playbook roots. Get a feel for it in the video .
has good news for anyone weeping about the fact that the has abandoned its body-on-frame ways. The company isn’t completely ditching legitimate SUVs for the crossover crowd. According to Car and Driver, the will continue to shun a unibody design for the conceivable future. The magazine spoke with engineers familiar with the development of the Xterra who said the vehicle will share its DNA with the Nissan Frontier for years to come.
That means buyers will still be able to enjoy the vehicle’s truckish charm and legitimate off-road chops. Those who want something a little softer or smaller can turn to the automaker’s , while the 2013 Pathfinder will now offer mall-goers a suitable alternative to the . The times may be changing, but for now, the Xterra isn’t.
is expanding its operations in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The company has announced it will invest $990 million into the facility over the next three years to allow the plant to produce up to 350,000 vehicles annually. Currently, the Spartanburg assembly plant produces the (pictured), and , and BMW says the company expects to see an increase in CUV demand in the coming years. BMW has already committed to broadening its presence in the crossover market with the introduction of the upcoming X4 model.
The BMW X3 helped BMW grow to become the best-selling luxury brand in the United States for the first time in the company’s history last year. The model saw a 156 percent increase in global sales to a total of 117,944 units, and 27,793 of those found homes in the States.
Right now, 70 percent of the vehicles built in Spartanburg are exported to other markets around the world. Last year, the facility built 276,065 vehicles, which marks an increase of 73 percent over 2010. The plant originally opened in 1994, and the German automaker is currently celebrating the 2 millionth vehicle produced since then. for the full press release.
On January 19th starting at precisely 10:30am, auctioneers at the mega-event in Scottsdale will begin bringing to the stage lots one through 151 as part of the auction house’s “The Scottsdale Sale”. The lots represent a wide range of significant and unique items from the estate of automotive journalism guru and personality David E. Davis, Jr, who suddenly and sadly on March 27th of last year following surgery.
The items are a vast array of Mr. Davis’ collection of rarities assembled during his nearly 60-year career history with automobiles, the people who designed and built them, and especially with those legends who risked their lives racing them. Lots range from lot number one through to lot 151, and these .
Among the array of a lifetime’s collectibles are included several pieces of desk art, original wall art, rare signed photographs of Dan Gurney, Juan Manuel Fangio, Carroll Shelby, and others, plus a great number of authoritative books, many now out of print. Not to mention a perfectly preserved crimson red 1951 Cadillac Series 62 Coupe – a favored Harley Earl design – with fewer than 9,000 original miles, listed as .
Our elite squad of spy photographers have managed to take a few quick photos of the , and from the looks of things, the luxury sedan may have one very special trick up its sleeve when it hits the market: a large, retractable glass roof. Taking a close look at the vehicle’s rear glass, we can clearly see a very squared-off window with visible tracks down both sides. That may indicate a mechanism capable of retracting and supporting the roof section as it moves back.
If that turns out to be the case, the 2013 Lincoln MKZ will boast a roof similar to what’s found on the . Unfortunately, the spy shots don’t show the roof in the retracted position, which means we’ll have to use our imagination until the vehicle gets closer to an official unveil at the 2012 New York Auto Show.
