Introduced back in 2008, the Q5 was about due for a mid-life refresh, which is exactly what the German automaker has given it. Not that you’d be easily able to tell from looking at it, though: the styling updates to the popular CUV are rather subtle, as are the enhancements to the interior, which center around the control surfaces. No, what’s really new about the 2013 version of the is what lurks in the engine bay.
As part of the update, Audi has installed a completely new range of engines across the board that increase both output and efficiency for a win-win combination. In different markets around the world, the Q5 will now be available with three diesels, two gasoline engines and – for the first time – a hybrid. The smaller of the TDIs displaces 2.0 liters and can be had in either 143- or 177-horsepower states of tune, while the larger 3.0-liter V6 oil-burner offers 245 hp and will likely be the only diesel offered in the United States.
The gasoline range starts at the 2.0-liter turbo four with 225 hp, while the 3.2-liter V6 is replaced by a new 3.0-liter supercharged V6 that delivers 272 hp and 295 pound-feet of torque. The big news, however, is the hybrid powertrain that pairs a 211-hp version of the 2.0-liter turbo four with a 54-hp electric motor, driving through an eight-speed automatic to all four wheels for a 7.1-second 0-62 time, a combined rating of 34 miles per gallon and an electric-only range of two miles at 37 mph.
Pricing for the new range in the United States has yet to be revealed. But for comparison’s sake, European MSRP has only gone up around €150 ($200 USD), so we wouldn’t expect the sticker to jump by much in American showrooms, either. Scope out the extensive high-res image gallery above and the videos and press release by for a closer look.
If you ask us, the whole “anything-ageddon” craze that has permeated the news networks is getting a bit old. Take last year’s “Carmageddon,” which turned a 10-mile Los Angeles freeway closure into a two month-long, End of Days-style scare-fest. By the time the dreaded weekend arrived, the entire ordeal turned out to be a .
But while traffic around the 405 wasn’t bad, it appears that couples might have been bumper-to-bumper back home. CBS This Morning reports that births appear to be up significantly the past couple weeks, which is noteworthy considering that Carmageddon happened a full nine months ago. We’re guessing you can do the math on that one.
Since the month isn’t even over yet, it’s difficult to get definitive proof of this phenomenon. But the CBS show managed to find a few parents who confessed to avoiding the traffic and staying home for a little private time that weekend. One couple was going to name their new baby Chevy, but when they found out it was a girl, the name idea turned to . What, Prius isn’t a manly name? to watch the CBS report.
No doubt has seen the light shining at the end of its turnaround plan for a while, but now The Blue Oval is getting so close to the daylight it might even be able to smell the fresh air. , Ford stock was rated so low by the three major ratings agencies that it was floating in the cistern below the basement of junk status. After Mulally came onboard, the company put up everything to get the money to work his plan, from the company logo to its real estate. In order to get it back, two of the three agencies need to rate Ford stock as investment grade, and one, Fitch, has just done so.
Fitch has certified Ford stock as BBB-, the first investment-grade level, and issued a stable outlook for the company and its finance arm. Ford remains just one step below investment worthy with both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s, but with “a solid Q1″ predicted by and (they expect earnings in spite of European and Asia-Pacific sales doldrums), the final turn might not be far away.
When it does, Ford will have achieved what it for 2012. As well as getting its assets out of hock, Dearborn will also greatly reduce its borrowing costs. Ford’s head of investor relations, Michael Seneski, vowed in December that Ford would return to investors’ good graces by showing “authoritative and highly credible insight into our automotive business and Ford Credit.” We’re of the opinion that an increasing flow of good products haven’t hurt, either.
The might be most appreciated for reintroducing the adjectives “small,” “light” and “fun” to those who prefer not to have a . Yet, as has been covered before, it’s a neat example of packaging, with engineers having put big ideas into the BRZ’s small spaces. The Japanese automaker has knocked together 22 minutes of behind-the-scenes chats with the engineers who made the BRZ to show you how they did it, and how they managed to pack all of the handling and safety bits around the fun bits.
This should come as no surprise, but the video is in Japanese with English subtitles, but it’s worth the extra effort. It’s in two parts and you’ll find both by .
spills all the beans on BRZ development with new documentary
We Finally Sample Scion’s Irresistible Lightweight At Home
, we flew nearly 11 hours to spend a fleeting afternoon with the highly anticipated at Japan’s Sodegaura Forest Raceway, a track located just outside of Tokyo. Last week, we were in the air for less than an hour en route to Las Vegas to spend a much longer day with the sports coupe on our own turf.
The FR-S impressed us during our first drive in Japan, but the weather turned lousy and we didn’t have a chance to drive it on public roads at legal speeds. This time, scheduled plenty of seat time on public roads and on a racing circuit, while Mother Nature provided us with excellent weather.
Driving the coupe again in proper U.S. spec on home roads (and under much more favorable conditions) gave us better insight into the naturally aspirated four-seater. Not only did we learn a lot more about the engine, chassis and its driving dynamics, but we were able to finally interact with the FR-S as a daily driver.
It was, in effect, an interesting and informative second date.
While we’re not ready to label this the return of the , count us eager to get behind the wheel of whatever a “2014 Chevrolet SS Performance” turns out to be. Hopefully the appearance of this reference on the OnStar website is more than just a digital placeholder.
Chevy SS rumors have been swirling lately, with General Motors earlier this month, just days after our spy shooters caught what looked like a . Then there’s the NASCAR situation: has said its new entry in the racing series will be both a . We’re guessing that car isn’t going to be the .
So this new OnStar “leak,” if it is such a thing, would point to the Chevy SS being a separate model (you can check it out on OnStar’s site ). If we are reading our tea leaves correctly, the model will be (the same Zeta architecture that underpins Chevrolet’s law-enforcement-only ), while the brand’s front-drive will get a new, sportier variant. We’d also assume that the long-wheelbase version of the Commodore used for the would donate its top-level powertrain, the 355-horsepower, 6.0-liter V8.
Maybe we should just press the OnStar button and ask?
A Carnegie Mellon paper gauges that it to read all of the privacy policies for the companies you deal with, and that’s before you get to the terms and conditions and other small prints. Judging how quickly states are adding new laws to their driving codes and swapping punishments, staying informed might also require a semester of reading pretty soon.
In honor of a woman who was paralyzed from the waist down as a teenager because of a road rage incident, New Jersey has just made Jessica Rogers’ Law official. Rogers was a passenger when the driver of the car she was a passenger in went after another car that cut him off. Rogers’ driver subsequently lost control and crashed.
The law upgrades the degree of a vehicular incident – from Disorderly Persons to fourth degree or fourth to third degree – if road rage is established as a factor. How will road rage be established? That will be up to officers and juries to decide. But short of obvious rage-worthy cases like who pulled a gun after being honked at or who fatally stabbed another, we see a lot of legal wrangling and plea deals plus big fines to go down to aggressive driving.
According to several sites of , Disorderly Persons charges come with a maximum of six months in county. Fourth degree ups that to 18 months max, but things get serious at third degree with three to five years in the hoosegow and . Get ready for enforcement gymnastics, though, for as the wise defendant once said, “It ain’t what you know, it’s what you can prove.”
If you were waiting for those savings bonds to mature so you could get your hands on an Aston Martin One-77, we’re afraid we have some unfortunate news for you: they’re all gone.
According to the reports circulating the interwebs, all 77 examples of the range-topping, seven-figure supercar – complete with its specially-built 7.3-liter, 750-horsepower V12 engine – have been spoken for. That’s after the last example was apparently sold since reports surfaced in February indicating there was still one left.
Don’t worry too much, though, as Aston should still have a few examples of its new top-of-the-line model up for grabs. Production of the V12 Zagato is pegged at 150 units – barely more than twice that of the One-77 – with a sticker price of £330,000 – roughly half a million dollars, or a quarter the price of the One-77. Of course if you’re hell-bent on spending over a million on a new supercar, there are some gentlemen in Modena and who’d be glad to help you out.
announced earlier in the month that in the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, piloting a 2012 . The car is reportedly a , a race-ready derivative sold in Japan, and our spy shooters have spotted it out in the wild.
The car is only lightly camouflaged, with coverings over parts of the the front fascia, hood, and rear windows. We will admit that your guess is as good as our as to what might lie beneath the wrapping, but given that Nissan has said the only changes from production car to race car are some added downforce in the front and a new rear wing, we’ll just go with “nothing” as our answer.
Toyota’s may be getting a bit long in the tooth, but it’s received a mild refresh for 2012, and a new “limited edition” package courtesy of in-house tuning arm, Toyota Racing Development. showed a preproduction TRD T/X Baja at last fall’s and at , with the real deal now poised to go on sale in May.
The Baja Series will start at $32,990, plus a delivery fee of $810. That’s for a Tacoma Access Cab model with a manual transmission – the price scales up for automatic-equipped trucks and Double Cab models. The Baja Series package carries an MSRP of $5,015, but you get to subtract $650 in a “factory credit” if you order it, since the Baja’s Off-Road Package is cheaper than the standard Tacoma Off-Road Package. Or to make things simpler, figure the Baja Series Tacoma is going to cost you $4,365 more than the same truck without it.
Besides the kit already included in the TRD Off-Road Package, which is required to get the Baja Series upgrades, the special Tacomas will feature BF Goodrich T/A KO tires (LT265/70R16) with bead-locking wheels, Bilstein shocks (front and rear), a TRD exhaust system, a two-inch front lift, and those snazzy Baja Series graphics.
Toyota has all the details in it’s press release, which you can see if you .
China’s middle class is predicted to mint up to 500 million new bourgeois comrades in the next 15 years, and not only will that mean new car owners, but more of those owners will be women. Along with rising incomes, that has put The Middle Kingdom into an SUV-buying boom driven by “tiger moms,” similar to the splurge that happened here in the 1990s but with big, striped cats replacing black-spotted white balls.
The trend has enough force already that SUV sales are expected to make up for other slumping segments, which is just about all of them. In addition to mothers wanting an SUV to haul their lone kid around there are other cultural factors at play, one being the fact that car ownership has only recently become a practical aspiration and having an SUV is a way to make a big splash in the new pool.
Carmakers obviously have no intention of denying the Chinese their desires, with Daimler declaring this “the year of the SUV.” It’s probably no coincidence that showed off its Jota in and its in , nor that every other automaker showed up to the Beijing Motor Show with plenty of high-riding hardware (see above). It probably is a coincidence that carmakers dreamed of selling squillions of SUVs just as Earth Day ended.
The venerable was tiny, cheap and nimble transportation in post-World-War-II Europe. In this day of $4-a-gallon gas, could a similar car be an attractive alternative? That’s the question University of Applied Arts graduate asked as he endeavored to imagine a modern Isetta.
Tony calls his interpretation the eSetta, with the “e” indicating an electric motor in place of the original Isetta’s gasoline-powered motorcycle engine. Such a small package couldn’t hold much of a battery pack, but it doesn’t need to in Tony’s plan. The eSetta would be part of a car sharing system where the little cars would be charged via induction stations where the eSetta could be borrowed and returned.
For now, the eSetta is only a concept, but its familiar retro look and frugal philosophy could do well for short trips in a compact urban center.
Do you spend a lot of time pinning your favorite things on ? may be looking to hand you $500 as part of the company’s first campaign on the social outlet. Honda is singling out active Pinterest users and handing some of them $500 to indulge in a “Pintermission” to make a visit to the places they’ve been pinning or pick up some of the retail items they’ve highlighted.
Honda is making its the focus of its first foray into Pinterest because it’s a vehicle with a lot of appeal to women, much like Pinterest itself. So far, two of the women that have been handed a big, shiny check by Honda are putting the funds toward travel. One’s going to London, the other is headed to Hawaii, according to Lauren Ebner, American Honda Motor Company’s assistant manager of social media. We’re watching waiting to see what kind of artisanal luxury goods the CR-V inspires.
There are literally thousands of videos on YouTube highlighting riders performing all manners of mind-bending stunts on motorcycles. Most of them merit a passing glance and little more. The video you’ll see after the break, featuring French trials rider Julien Dupont, is an exception. You really should watch this video from start to finish.
Brought to us by the energetic group from , Dupont’s antics through city streets and their many obstacles – stairs, poles, walls and cars – are impressive. Coupled with incredible views of Rio de Janeiro and the awestruck looks on the faces of local residents is icing on the proverbial cake. See for yourself by watching the video that we’ve pasted .
Pushrods and overhead valves or dual overhead cams; naturally aspirated, turbocharged or supercharged; it simply doesn’t matter – there’s nothing quite like the sound of a powerful V8 engine. Or is there?
The engineers from have been known to make some beautifully melodic powerplants over the years, but the Bavarian automaker has more recently taken a decidedly different approach to tingling the eardrums of Ultimate Driving Enthusiasts: pumping engine sounds through the internal stereo system of its latest sedan.
This technique, not surprisingly, has proven controversial. We can’t grant you the opportunity to drive one yourself so that you can hear it with your own ears, but, thanks to the boys and girls from Bimmerpost, we can offer the next best thing. Listen to one member’s 2012 M5 with BMW’s Active Sound system turned on, followed by a run of the same car with the system disabled via a pulled fuse in the video .
Spot the difference? Let us know what you think about BMW’s artificial engine notes in the Comments, but not before taking part in our completely unscientific poll below.
In March, Jeep showed off its blacked-out , and . Now it’s Wrangler’s turn get the monochromatic package.
The Unlimited Altitude package includes everything the traditional Unlimited Sahara gets, including a body color hardtop and various interior gadgetry. But the Altitude exterior gets either all-black paint or all-black trim on Deep Cherry Red, Black, Bright White or Bright Silver Metallic paint. Unique 18-inch wheels with painted black spokes round out the exterior highlights.
Inside, the seats get black leather with contrasting red stitching as well as black trim on the dashboard and black berber floor mats.
Only 4,500 Wrangler Unlimited Altitude editions will be sold (which doesn’t seem that unlimited to us) beginning in May with an MSRP of $33,740. That’s more than the Patriot and Compass Altitudes and just shy of the $35,595 price tag on the Grand Cherokee Altitude.
Check out the official press release for more details.
What you see above is a video of a Santa Fe man who’s had it up to here and is not going to take it anymore. The New Mexico city has a deal with Redflex to operate unmanned speed enforcement vehicles which are parked along the road to photograph breakneck miscreants.
On the morning of April 11 at 1:20 a.m., a man dressed like Mr. Magoo pulled up to one of those vehicles, got out, stepped up to the mark and shot it five times. No one was hurt, not even the camera. As you might expect, police are trying to find the mystery nightgown.
Details on the pair of Dear Qin concepts that unveiled at the this week are sparse, but they do hint at something interesting coming to every market where the Japanese automaker sells cars.
Calling them “global-strategic concepts,” Toyota says the sedan and hatchback versions of the Dear Qin models have “a design aiming to attract more people to the user base.” With that curious statement in mind, the first promotional video for the Dear Qin models (which you can watch by ) is both language- and information-free, emphasizing the design of the cars for a global audience. With explosions and lightning, of course.
Reports have said that Toyota is working on a new global, front-wheel drive model that is supposed to be launched in 2013. We can imagine these concepts foreshadowing those cars, and hope we get a pair of highly efficient compacts out of the design process. We’ll skip the explosions and lightning, though.
Limousines? That’s so last millennium. These days the pampered and rich in the know get chauffeured around in the back of pimped-out vans. Sure, they may look utilitarian on the outside, but inside, they’re as luxe as a private jet. has been at the forefront of the scene with its much-modified Sprinter vans, but that’s not the only big box in its portfolio. And to drive that point home, the German automaker has just rolled in to with this tricked-out Viano.
Called the Viano Vision Diamond, the custom Benz wagon has a two-tone paint job that only hints at the -grade cabin that awaits inside. The windows (including the partition inside) have the same Magic Sky Control tinting technology as the roof on the new , the cabin is done up in Nappa leather (black for the chauffeur, white for the passengers), and the rear features reclining, temperature-controlled massage chairs, a champagne cooler with flutes, lighting, 40-inch flat screen and Bang & Olufsen sound system (all controlled by a specially-designed iOS app), wireless internet and diamond trim.
Drive us to the airport in one of these and we’d be inclined to just stay in the back, lapping up the luxury of it all. Instead, we’ll just admire from afar in the high-res image gallery and press release .
Why The World’s Top Automakers Are Flocking To Beijing
Beijing’s government has had to resort to a registration lottery to hold down its growth.
Skip a couple years in , as I had, and you’re not likely to recognize it when you return, especially the capital city of Beijing. Peering out from my hotel, through the ever-present smog, new high-rises have transformed the landscape and even on the Sunday afternoon I arrived I could see and hear the construction crews at work across the city.
My first trip to China came shortly after opened its first joint venture assembly plant a dozen years ago. Back then, Beijing was a city of countless hutongs, the narrow alleys and neighborhoods where most residents once lived. Today, most of those traditional communities are gone, the few remaining ones hidden behind modern skyscrapers.
Those old streets never could have handled today’s traffic. Not that the grand new boulevards and highways are coping much better. You can still find the odd rickshaw in tourist neighborhoods. And motorcycles and electric scooters are everywhere. But today, the automobile is king, and traffic is so thick the local government has had to resort to a registration lottery to hold down its growth.
Paul A. Eisenstein is Publisher of and a 30-year veteran of the automotive beat. His editorials bring his unique perspective and deep understanding of the auto world to Autoblog readers on a regular basis.
Paul A. Eisenstein is Publisher of and a 30-year veteran of the automotive beat. His editorials bring his unique perspective and deep understanding of the auto world to Autoblog readers on a regular basis.
