Not long ago, embarked on an epic trans-continental road trip that sought to retrace the route taken by a similar expedition in 1956 and raise £1m for the Red Cross. And after 8,000 miles traveled through thirteen countries – starting in Birmigham, England and ending in Beijing, China – they finally made it.
The was celebrated with the production of the millionth , the arrival timed to coincide with the . Along the way the rugged motorcade swung through Switzerland for the , hit some of Europe’s oldest cities, traversed a wide variety of terrains and climates, rolled through Chernobyl as the first private vehicles to tour the disaster site since the nuclear meltdown there 25 years ago, visited an array of museums and toured a former Soviet submarine base.
But before it could complete the final 72-hour leg into China, the crew had to detonate a controlled avalanche to clear an alpine pass. In other words, it was not your average road trip. Read more about it in the press release and scope out the high-resolution images in the gallery for a closer look at what the convoy encountered along the way.
German automakers display something of a fetish when it comes to turning ordinary vehicles into performance models. does it with its AMG line, with its M range, has its S and RS models… even has its R brand. Formidable vehicles all, but not everyone is willing to pony up the big bucks to get their hands on one and all that entails. So, each automaker also offers a line of accessories that give their stock models most of the visual attitude without the mechanical fortitude to back it up – or the sticker price that goes along with it.
The latest such cosmetic upgrade comes from Volkswagen and its R GmbH division, which have given the Polo a bit of a makeover. The Polo R Line benefits from sportier bumpers front and rear, side sills, a gloss-black grille, tinted windows, upgraded fog lights and an interior with sports buckets, leather-wrapped three-spoke wheel, aluminum pedals and black headliner. Of course, the requisite R badges appear throughout so buyers can at least pretend they got the performance model when all they’re packing is a 1.2-liter four with 105 metric horsepower that’ll take nearly ten seconds to get them up to 62 from a standstill.
for the press release and scope out the high-res images in the gallery above for a closer look.
The world is a distracting place. No matter where you are or what you’re doing, there are any number of things designed specifically to draw your attention elsewhere. It’s true when you’re driving, too, which is why automakers like have crafted technologies like lane departure warning.
Of course, even if we can all admit to arriving at a destination without being able to remember a single salient detail about how we actually got there, or vibrating the car across a set of rumble strips every now and then, it takes a talented marketing department to get the message across in a manner we’ll actually understand.
for a video showing one man’s aimless head doing everything but driving. But beware, this one is a wee bit *warning-NSFW-warning* due to a brief scene at a clothing-optional beach. Sorry, was that distracting?
The AMG division of has attracted two million views on YouTube. That’s as if every single person in Boston, Las Vegas, Long Beach and St. Louis stopped what they were doing and clicked the left mouse button to get a video fix on a three-pointed star and quad pipes.
To thank its fans, AMG put a at the top of the corkscrew at , then drifted it all the way down. Looks like fun. All you have to do is to watch the recognition.
celebrates 2M views by drifting C63 AMG around Laguna Seca
How can you not be excited to see getting back into with a modern-day interpretation of the classic E-Type? Well, there is that one little issue with the that Jag announced during the . In this day and age, a 380-horsepower V6 just doesn’t cut it, supercharged or not. At least not when .
Yes, we know the horsepower wars , but if Jaguar wants the F-Type to be taken seriously, it just plain needs a V8. And according to Car and Driver, it’s going to be getting one. At least, eventually.
C/D says the F-Type will eventually get a version of Jag’s 5.0-liter V8, although it doesn’t know which one. Speculation says the supercharged variants in 470- and 550-horsepower states of tune are the most likely, as the base V8 only makes five more horsepower than the planned V6. The report also surmises that the initial roadsters will be six-cylinders when they debut in 2013, with the V8 models appearing further on in the production cycle.
Inc. wants self driving cars on the road sooner rather than later.
It knows its autonomous vehicles work – engineers have already put its fleet of self-driving vehicles through 250,000 miles of testing. And they’re planning to put another 750,000 testing miles on their .
Now, executives are approaching car makers about building the self-driving vehicles, according to The Detroit News.
“From giving the technology away to licensing it to working with Tier 1s, Tier 2s, working with the OEMs, building a car with them, everything is open and we’re trying to figure out which paths make the most sense,” said Google project manager Anthony Levandowski last week at the . “We’re talking to basically every car company to see what their level of excitement is and how do we work with them.”
A Google spokesperson later added, “We’re talking with lots of auto companies about a variety of topics, but we haven’t decided how we may make our technology available to consumers. As Anthony said at the SAE conference in Detroit, ‘all options are open.’”
Levandowski says Google is racing forward to get self-driving vehicles on the road as soon as possible. It has begun talking to insurance companies to figure out how much it might cost to insure a self-driving car, according to . One of the sticky issues: If a self-driving vehicle causes an accident, is the driver responsible or the company that made the vehicle?
Google officials say they expect to mathematically prove that computer-driven vehicles are safer than those operated by humans, thus insurance prices should be lower. No word yet if that logic will fly, but insurance companies do love math, algorithms and actuary tables…
This past weekend, celebrated its return to DTM racing after a 20-year embargo of its home series. On the first practice day of the weekend at Hockenheim, Andy Priaulx was the , almost a second off the pace. By Saturday morning’s second free practice just before quallifying, BMW pilot Bruno Splengler, who was 20th on Friday, . In the end, it was Priaulx who was the top-finishing BMW, behind a spate of and racers. Not a win, but not a horrible start for being out of the series for 20 years.
In case you need to get more in the mood for the rest of the season’s racing action, BMW’s got one of those amuse-bouche teaser vids of the sinister in action. All you need to do is to check it out.
Dodge Dart, Chrysler Q1 sales, FR-S and BRZ versus MX-5, 2013 Nissan Altima’s Hyundai Sonata influence
Episode #279 of the is here, and this week, Chris, Dan, and Zach chat about the Dodge Dart, Chrysler’s first-quarter 2012 sales, a Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ smackdown at Motegi with a Mazda MX-5, and the influence of the Hyundai Sonata on the 2013 Nissan Altima. Your questions and comments power the end of the ‘cast, and for those of you who hung with us live on our , thanks for taking the time. We’ve embedded our Q&A module for you to scroll through and follow along, too. Thanks for listening!
Autoblog Podcast #280:
in Q1, especially in
In the Autoblog Garage
Hosts: , ,
Runtime: 01:41:32
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If you’ve gotten used to being centered around two model lines – and – based on the same platform, get ready to broaden your horizons as the Modenese automaker does the same. Maserati has a vast array of new products in the pipeline, including a pair of new sedans and a new SUV set to be built in Detroit, plus production of the 4C sportscar for sister-company Alfa Romeo. And now reports are emerging that its long-rumored plans to take on the with a new sportscar are coming to fruition.
According to the reports from Italy fueled by comments attributed to Maserati CEO Harald J. Wester, the model could revive the GranSport – a name last used on the ultimate iteration of the 4200 GT coupe that preceded the current GranTurismo. Only this time, it would be a mid-engined V8 supercar similar in approach to the .
If that sounds suspiciously close to the , the rumors suggest that it would undercut its big brother’s price at under $200k. After all, the sister brands didn’t seem to have any trouble bringing the Maserati GranCabrio and into the same arena, or to turning the Enzo into the MC12 – pictured above – the last mid-engined supercar the Trident marque produced. Which gives us hope that this particular product of the rumormill could amount to something. And when we’re talking about mid-engined supercars from Italy, that could be a very good thing indeed.
There are plenty of reasons to steer clear of a cruise. We typically shy away from the idea of cramming ourselves onto a vessel filled to capacity with overweight American tourists, all waiting to descend on some unsuspecting port of call like a scourge of consumerist locusts. Now, we have another reason to pass on the big boats.
WFTV discovered a parking lot owner in Cocoa, Florida was taking customer vehicles out for little joy rides. The news crew promptly set up a little sting by renting a red ChevroletCorvette Convertible and installing a GPS tracker. The car wasn’t on the lot for six hours before Jay Nieves, the owner of Premier Parking Spot hopped in.
The news crew filmed Nieves thrashing the car on a dirt road, parking it at his home overnight, doing sizeable burnouts on the street, transporting lumber and leaving the car with the top down and driver’s door wide open for extended periods of time. All told, Nieves clocked 60 miles on what he thought was a customer’s car before the news crew confronted him about the situation. Nieves promptly denied everything. for the full newscast.
General Motors has confirmed it will cut 100 research and development positions at its and will close another R&D lab in Bangalore, India.
The cuts are about a 25-percent reduction in the Warren facility and are part of a “global restructuring.”
“These moves will enable the organization to better focus on commercializing customer-focused innovation in a more efficient and cost effective manner,” GM spokesman Dan Flores tells The Detroit News.
If they aren’t offered new positions, affected workers will have 30 days to apply for other posts within GM before the layoffs commence in early June.
The sales figures you see below aren’t quite what they seem. If you look at just the left column where the battle between green and red cells is almost at a draw, you might think that April 2012 was a step backwards in terms of sales momentum for the auto industry. That column, however, is practically irrelevant this month.
Shift your head a little to the right and read the DSR (Daily Sales Rate) column. That’s the important column this month. People usually ignore this column because they don’t understand its purpose or because its data looks so similar to the left column, but this month it means everything.
Why? Because there were 24 selling days for the auto industry last month, versus 27 selling days in April 2011. Usually there’s only a single-day variance between months or no variance at all, but three selling days is a chasm to overcome and means that if you’re only comparing raw numbers like the left column does, the entire industry was at a three-day disadvantage last month compared to the same month one year ago.
The DSR column, on the other hand, shows the change in average number of vehicles sold per day during April of this year and last. This is the more accurate representation of how each automaker performed in April, and as you can see, nearly all continued their momentum of increased sales with the usual suspects occupying those bottom red cells.
Check out how the entire auto industry did in the monthly sales chart below, and visit our By the Numbers section to see all past months.
*Brands and companies are displayed in descending order according to their percentage change in volume sales. There were 24 selling days in April 2012 versus 27 selling days in April 2011, so there will be a difference between monthly sales volume and the average daily sales rate (DSR) for each brand/company. Also, brands are combined and reported as companies only if their sales figures are released jointly.
sales are up 37 percent through April, and has already sold nearly 50,000 units in 2012, placing the flagship model ahead of all other Pentastar vehicles, save for the .
That demand will be keeping the Jefferson North assembly plant in Detroit open through the July 4 holiday period, according to The Detroit News. Big Three plants have traditionally shut down for two weeks in July to facilitate model-year changeover, though that process will be accomplished with the lines running this year, according to the report.
Jefferson North is already running overtime including some Saturdays to keep up with demand for both the Grand Cherokee and the . Sales of the model are up seven percent this year.
Few automakers do camper vans quite so well as . From factory additions to aftermarket conversions, models like the Transporter seem perfect for on-the-go living. Now a company in the UK has taken the camper conversion one step further with the Doubleback. In addition to a large pop-up roof tent, the creation boasts an expandable aft section than can increase the vehicle’s length by an additional 6.5 feet. The conversion is said to add just 286 pounds to the Transporter, and the mechanism expands in under 45 seconds to nearly double living space. Unfortunately, you’ll be splitting all that extra room between you and only one other friend. The swap nixes all but the front two seats.
If this all sounds familiar, it certainly should. We of the Doubleback a month ago, but the company has released a few videos showing exactly how the conversion works here in the real world. With a load rating of 1,323 pounds with the legs extended, the structure is engineered to sleep even the biggest boned campers out there. Unfortunately, snagging one will cost you. Look to spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $87,975 for the Doubleback if you like what you see. to check out the videos for yourself.
The rich have all the fun, don’t they? With your bank account, you get, what, free checks? Overdraft protection? A toaster maybe?
If you had a cool million sitting around, just taking up space, you could get yourself a free . Not just a base either.
Open a five-year CD of at least $1 million at (formerly Community Bank) and you’ll have your choice of a 2012 , , or an . And, as a further bonus, your new car will come with tags, title, license and taxes all paid.
Small print? Oh, you betcha. First, you’re limited to two vehicles per household. Second, unlike most CDs, at the end of its five-year life, you will cash out for exactly what you put in. Basically, you’re letting the bank hang on to your $1 million for five years in return for that $60k-ish Mercedes you’re driving. Instead of 1.2-percent APR you would normally collect at the end of the CD’s life, you’re getting a car up front.
Pull your money out early, and you’ll get back what you put in, minus the cost of the car and a $3,000 early withdrawal fee.
Still, if you can spare a million for five years, and were about to buy a Mercedes anyway, it could be a good deal.
For details (and more small print) check out the press release by .
Lists. Readers love ‘em, so everyone’s got one. (Heck, our show is even called .) And this is the Playboy list, packed with two-seat sports cars, muscle cars, obvious choices and even the original Beetle.
Before we get to the full 25, however, hear out our view. While you can always register your personal displeasure when, say, the MG TC (#14) or (#19) gets included, but not a single Alfa Romeo or classic Mopar muscle machine makes the cut, you should judge a list such as this based more on how it reflects the personality of the publication. Which is why “25 Greatest Rides” feels so, well, generic.
While we’re not suggesting that every one of the Playboy cars should be sporting Dagmars or have fully reclining seats like Nash models of the early ’50s, this list just seems a little light on the sex. Not that the GTO (#1) and E-Type (#4) aren’t voluptuous enough to act as stand-ins for the Playmate of the Month, but cars like the 2002 (#24) and GTO (#20), though legitimate performance cars, aren’t likely to inspire any backseat antics anytime soon.
Scroll down to read the full press release and then tell us in the comments which cars you think should get excised from the list, and what you’d replace them with.
General Motors CEO Dan Akerson has been quoted as saying Mary Barra is on the list of his potential successors. Akerson has been adamant about the fact that the next head honcho for General Motors should come from . Reuters reports the executive believes it is crucial for GM to increase the number of female top executives in the company, and he believes that women handle change better than men.
Barra, 50, currently serves as GM’s global product development chief, commanding a $15 billion operation. She first joined GM in 1980 and has served in a variety of capacities since then, including vice president in charge of global human resources. Even with his comments on Barra, Akerson stressed that at the end of the day, it’s the GM board’s job to pick his successor.
And what of the U.S. Treasury? Technically, the government owns a little more than a quarter of GM stock, but Akerson said the decision remains entirely in the hands of the company’s decision makers. Other candidates for the position are said to include Mark Reuss, GM’s North American operations boss and Steve Girsky, vice chairman.
From the headlines-we-never-expected-to-see file: “Stick shifts popular again…” Yes, we thought , what with every carmaker bemoaning low take rates and reports that has decided to in both its sports car and throughout the range of models. But lo and behold, it seems that manuals accounted for 6.5 percent of new vehicle sales during the first quarter this year, the highest take rate since 2006, according to Edmunds.com numbers cited by USA Today.
This surge in popularity comes despite a 10-percent drop in the percentage of new models offering stick shifts in the past five years, according to the report. The change in consumer behavior has surprised some automakers, including , who told the newspaper that demand for a manual in the is nearly 10 percent, more than double the automaker’s original forecast.
Of course before we get too excited – or give credit to the Car and Driver – let’s keep in mind that a decade ago, when we first started to hear the groundswell against the manual from automakers, the take rate for manuals was still running above 8 percent. And we’re still faced with an inevitable demographic shift as Millennials, born after automatic transmissions became dominant, grow up. The best we can hope for is to teach those willing to learn and hope to keep the manual tranny around as long as possible.
is looking toward the future. A new Japanese ad for the company has made its way to YouTube featuring some of the most important models in the automaker’s past. From lowly bicycles and small-displacement motorcycles to the ever-sexy 1965 RA272 F1 car and perfectly proportioned S800, the ghosts of yesterday are all lined up behind the new Acura NSX Concept. The spot spends plenty of time talking about the power of dreams and determination before finally ending on the rally cry of “Let’s surpass yesterday’s Honda!” The simple spot is titled “We won’t be beaten.”
At least that’s according to the subtitles. The announcer could be reading us his grocery list for all we know. If the translation is accurate, though, it sounds like Honda is tacitly acknowledging that it needs to pull itself up by its bootstraps and get back into fighting shape. Let’s hope they figure it out. to watch the video for yourself.
We keep track of every idea that for . Of the hundreds we get after each episode airs, one is without question at the top of everyone’s list: drive 200 miles per hour.
Despite the first production car eclipsing 200 mph back in the mid-’80s, we thankfully aren’t yet jaded by the feat. Unlike back then, however, more than a handful of today’s cars can beat two bills if given enough runway.
That’s exactly where Jessi and Patrick found themselves on the day we asked them to do the deed: the runways of the near Mojave, CA. Eagle-eyed Autoblog readers will remember that this is one of the locations used by to conduct their . We should know; we’ve gone after the elusive two hundred twice now, but at this very location (check out the gallery from that experience below).
We enrolled Jessi and Patrick for a day’s worth of double-hundy attempts in vehicles like the and new . Each took their own shot at 200-mph glory, and one even discovered that reaching 200 mph is the easy part.
The sales figures you see below aren’t quite what they seem. If you look at just the left column where the battle between 
