While the 2014 may have many charming qualities and boast a plethora of engine options, one feature it reportedly won’t be offering is all-wheel drive. According to GMInsideNews.com, reps have said all-wheel drive is not part of the short-term or long-term plan for the new large sedan.
While the Impala will share a platform with the Cadillac XTS and – both of which do offer AWD – apparently General Motors wants to keep the Impala front-drive-only to help differentiate it from the and . While it remains to be seen whether the lack of all-wheel drive will hurt the Impala’s chances of competing with the and , which both offer it, Chevy’s people have reportedly called all-wheel drive a “very slim piece of the full-size sedan market.”
Last week we brought you Inside Line’s list of the 10 cars most likely to be . The came out on top among the ladies. But what’s most likely to be owned by a guy? Minivans? Fuel-efficient hatchbacks? Hybrids?
No.
At the top of is the very masculine, testosterone-oozing . It should be no surprise that 95.3% of 458 owners are men. We sure would like to meet the other 4.7%.
Ahem. Anyway, in second place is the , then the , the and then, at No. 5, the . So far, we’ve pretty much recited every male motorhead’s ultimate wish list. Seriously, what self-respecting man doesn’t put himself to sleep every night running through the gears of any of those cars?
At No. 6, is the perennial , then the at No. 7 with 87.9% male ownership. No. 8 is the obligatory closely followed by the at No. 9. Rounding out the list at No. 10 is the consummate mid-life crisis with 86.9% male ownership.
So where does that leave the Ford F-650? Are there really that many women buying that monster?
After we saw of a long-wheelbase for China, we knew it one was coming. Now has confirmed that the car will indeed bow at Auto China 2012, otherwise known as the , which kicks off on April 23.
The LWB 3 Series has an 4.3-inch wheelbase stretch and will be offered with three powertrains. The smallest is the 184-horsepower, turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder that’s not available in North America. The 240-hp, 2.8-liter sold here in the 328i will also be available, as will the 300-hp, turbo 3.0-liter six-cylinder. The LWB 3 Series models will carry the “Li” suffix like we’ve seen on the , so the three models will be designated 320Li, 328Li and 335Li.
Click to see the press release, and be sure to check out our .
If you’ve attended major international auto show in the U.S. this season, you’ve likely seen this car: Edsel Ford’s 1934 Model 40 Special Speedster. We last August, then again in January at the . It is, frankly, a most beautiful specimen, and since we hadn’t yet taken the opportunity to capture it with our own lenses, New York seemed like the perfect place to hold an impromptu shoot.
The Speedster has a very long history going back to 1932 when Edsel Ford, then president of , returned from Europe and asked design director E.T. Gregorie to pen a sports car similar to the ones he saw running around Europe. It started out as a 1934 Ford, but was radically altered to make a low slung, two-seat sports car with technology that wouldn’t appear on production Fords for many years. It originally weighed 2,100 pounds and was powered by a 75-bhp Model 40 flathead V8 that was later replaced by a 100-bhp Mercury V8.
Edsel Ford enjoyed the car until his death in 1943, at which point the car began a journey of many ownerships, ultimately vanished and then resurfaced in 1999 when it was sold to a collector for $1.76 million. When the collector died, the Speedster was given to the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House who oversaw a complete restoration of the car. It now travels the auto show circuit, on display in a place of honor within the display.
has announced that in honor of the brand’s return to the Chinese market, it’s bringing two design concept to the later this month. The first is a sharp-looking with an all-black exterior, a set of very large wheels and a two-toned interior with light-colored leather seating surfaces. The seatbacks are embossed with some sort of symbol, what looks to be gusts of wind. Chrysler says this special 300C was “created specifically with Chinese elements in mind,” but we’ll have to wait a couple weeks to find out exactly what that means.
The 300C, however, is a wallflower compared to this design concept that unabashedly wears its Chinese pride like a flag draped around its shoulders. Said to be inspired by the Year of the Dragon, the black Wrangler features dragon decals on its sheetmetal, some small and some very large, as well as a very ornate image of a dragon on the underside of the hood. The all-black exterior is set of with gold accents on the black wheels, as well as gold trim around the headlights and trademark seven-slat grille. Lastly, the lighting has been upgraded with a set of high-tech LEDs set within the Wrangler’s traditional round headlamps. It may be strange to see all that Chinese iconography on something so American as a Jeep Wrangler, but it’s no more stranger than an .
Despite having a media center that’s plagued with bad coffee and prone to , the is one of our favorite automotive expos. It’s not an all-out automotive blitzkrieg like , but the vast majority of New York debuts are actual, honest-to-goodness production cars rather than spiffy concepts that only show what could be possible. And if you’ve paid attention to , some mighty big nameplates had some show-stopping debuts here in the Big Apple. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
We’ve walked the show floor, sipped some free coffee, shook hands with plenty of executives, and after two days of New York madness, we’ve come up with our picks for the five best reveals here at the show. Which of the took top honors? You’ll have to to find out.
If there’s any place a SUV can feel at home, surely it’s Manhattan. Only fitting, then, that the updated has debuted at the .
The revised luxury crossover has been treated to a mild facelift, but as with so many things, it’s what’s inside that counts with the new . The cabin has been updated with a series of cosmetic and functional changes (new steering wheel, new shifter, etc.), but the bigger news is its fresh electronics. Cadillac has imbued the angular high-rider with its new CUE infotainment and connectivity system, complete with an eight-inch capacitive touchscreen. Other additions include the Safety Alert Seat system and active safety features like automatic front- and rear braking, adaptive cruise control, and so on.
In short, it looks to be a better SRX than the one it succeeds, and you can check it out in our gallery of live shots above and the stock shots from the manufacturer below.
The streets of Gotham are about to look a lot different. After being inundated with legions of bulky Ford Crown Victoria and the occasional or for years, New York City’s hack pool is slated to get a fresh crop of yellow ugly thanks to its “Taxi of Tomorrow” program.
Chief among those vehicles figures to be the , also unveiled at this week’s , but the Japanese automaker isn’t the sole manufacturer to be in the good graces of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission. The seen here has also gained approval, and its maker, the snappily named Vehicle Production Group, notes that this is the first purpose-built vehicle to gain the board’s approval since the Checker Cab.
And not only is the MV-1 purpose-built for taxi duty, it was designed with the Americans with Disabilities Act in mind – the square-rigged design is built around a 56-inch by 36-inch door for wheelchair access, and VPG will fit MV-1s with either manual or power ramps as requested. The American-made, body-on-frame MV-1 will also be available powered by Compressed Natural Gas.
It remains to be seen how many taxi companies are eager to buy vehicles from a startup automaker, but VPG says it has approval for up to 13,000 units. We imagine much of the MV-1’s success will come down to pricing and reliability, as well as acceptance of the vehicle’s unusual appearance. Of course, Nissan’s new NV doesn’t look like it will be contending for any design laurels, either…
The brand celebrates its 100th birthday this year, and the 1912 is where it all started. To commemorate the occasion, ‘ utility brand has created special Heritage Edition packages for both the Sierra pickup and Yukon sport-ute, and both make their public debut here at the 2012 New York expo.
An option group priced from $1,820 to $2,645, the Heritage Edition package adds cosmetic upgrades like new paint colors (including the Heritage Blue you see here), embroidered headrests and floor mats, large chrome wheels, chrome door handles, a power liftgate and an original GMC logo.
to read the full details in GM’s press blast and see the Heritage Edition package from all angles in our attached high-res image gallery. Oh, and happy hundredth, GMC!
Our sister site visits the University of Michigan in their latest episode to check out a bipedal robot named MABEL. While other similar robots like ASIMO (built by ), and the Partner Robots (from ) have wowed crowds with their ability to walk upright, MABEL advances the technology with a complex system of springs in its knees so that its gait more resembles actual human locomotion. This enables MABEL to actually run like a human, with both “feet” leaving the ground for part of each stride.
MABEL actually set a world record for fastest two-legged machine last summer, hitting a peak pace of 6.8 miles per hour. (By comparison, ASIMO tops out at 3.7 mph.) More importantly, MABEL is able to walk and run over more than just flat terrain, as it can dynamically balance similar to a human. University of Michigan researchers say this technology may be able to help the disabled regain the ability to walk some day, or be deployed for future vehicles that don’t use wheels.
You may not have ever heard of a car called the Daihatsu Copen, but it’s ending production and we’re sad to report it. The Copen is (or was) made by the budget brand and stands as the only convertible kei car – those being the whimsical little cars that zip around Japan – still on the market.
A tiny two-seat roadster with a 1.3-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine, the Copen was a favorite among customers for being just downright fun. But apparently after ten years of production, there just aren’t enough of those customers left to justify its continued production.
As a result, Daihatsu is reportedly discontinuing the line, with no to replace it. Before it does, however, a 10th anniversary edition is reportedly in the works, with production limited to just 500 units. But with only 2,000 Copens sold last year, that represents a full quarter of production.
J.D. Power has become a household name thanks to the organization’s yearly awards based on in-depth consumer surveys about all manner of goods and services. In the automotive industry, manufacturers constantly struggle to best each other for top honors, and that struggle has helped push the industry toward ever-better quality. But as Ward’s Auto points out, few people know the man behind the name.
James David Power III began licensing manufacturers to use his award in advertisements in 1986, two years after dropped the J.D. Power name in a Super Bowl ad.
In 2005, Power sold J.D. Power and Associates to publishing giant McGraw-Hill, but stayed on with the company until 2009. Even after his departure, Ward’s Auto says Power is proud of the empire he helped build. While outlets like Consumer Reports have gained a substantial following, the organization only polls its own subscribers, while J.D. Power takes its data from a larger cross section of consumers.
Using a separate operation to keep conflicts of interest at bay, companies must pay a fee to be able to use the J.D. Power name in their ads. Yet J.D. Power is not without controversy – auto companies pay substantial fees for access to its various quality metrics and counsel, leading critics to suggest there’s a conflict of interest in having a quality auditor paid by the very companies it monitors. In addition, critics note that the company’s much ballyhooed Initial Quality Study , but rather an arcane formula that mixes actual owner problems with design flaws (think: cupholders that can’t hold a Venti Frappucino from Starbucks). As most consumers are likely to equate the idea of quality with a product free of problems, the thought is that this is somewhat misleading methodology.
Either way, there’s no doubting J.D. Power’s impact on the auto biz – both the company and the man who bears its name. To learn more about him, check out the in-depth Ward’s Auto article at the link below.
The Juke-R needed a complete rework for just 480 horsepower. The needs only a few bolt-ons to more than double that number, apparently.
Despite having very little experience with imports, the guys over at put together a hilarious video showing exactly how to get a Nissan Cube to crank out 1,001 horsepower. After the base dyno test, the crew outfitted the Cube with some Type R badges, dragon vinyl, a GT-R inspired rear wing and some new wheel covers.
The end results were off the chart. if you have dreams of seeing what a 1,001-hp Nissan Cube looks like.
The has officially vomited on its shoes, stumbled out of the bar and taken a seat on the subway between a homeless person and RuPaul impersonator (actually, it might really be RuPaul). That’s right folks, the party’s over, and the Big Apple has told us that we don’t have to go home, but we can’t stay here.
Like a wasted hipster on his hands and knees scrounging loose change off the floor, we’ve gathered together all of the cars and concepts that debuted at this year’s show. Enjoy perusing our while we pop a Tums and concentrate on surviving the cab ride to LaGuardia.
The is new for the 2013 model year, so it makes sense that would jump start the vehicle’s launch with a new ad campaign. Honda’s luxury arm went with the “Gulliver’s Travels” theme, which of course demonstrates that the refreshed crossover is big and luxurious, yet not too big. Get it? Gulliver is a giant and yet the RDX is big enough for him… moving on.
to watch the pair of 30-second spots. In the first ad, the little people give Gulliver an RDX, and in the second spot they wash it. As you can imagine, it takes a lot of Lilliputians to wash a mid-size luxury CUV.
You’d expect someone with a nickname like “hotshoe” or “leadfoot” to be behind the wheel of a . “Slowhand” less so, but that’s the nickname of one Eric Clapton, who in addition to being one of the most highly acclaimed rock and blues guitarists of all time also happens to be a huge nut for the Prancing Horse marque. In fact, Clapton is understood to have a couple of years back, where he presumably got the reddest of red carpet treatments while placing an order for a custom Ferrari.
That unique one-off, called the SP12 EPC has been dropping on and off of our radar, with some a couple of weeks ago and some hasty of the custom creation leaving a dealership in the UK a few days thereafter. But if those didn’t provide clear enough a picture for you, a batch of alleged patent renderings have now surfaced showing every line of the car’s bespoke shape. Check it out in the gallery for a closer look.
We know what you’re thinking: You’d love to buy a new , but only if it were more… black. Fortunately, dear friend, the division has answered your prayers with a raft of special editions called Altitude.
The name was selected by online poll, and the vehicles were previewed by a series of “production-intent” concepts at successive auto shows. Now approved for production, includes a , a and a , all distinguished by their blacked-out trim inside, out and upside down.
Check ‘em out in the trio of galleries with the high-res shots we snapped for your viewing pleasure here on the show floor in .
climbs to higher Altitude with murdered-out specials
has treated its high-performance to a refresh for the 2013 model year, rolling the controversial bad boy out during the for its first official appearance. Unfortunately, the changes are so subtle that we required an official BMW tour guide to point them out. In lieu of such a service for each of our readers, the next paragraph will have to suffice.
Most obvious is the new ‘power bulge’ hood, borrowed from the . Less visible are the cosmetic changes to the BMW-signature kidney grill and the new optional LED headlights (active HID bulbs remain standard). Peer inside the 20-inch wheels to spot the painted calipers, now in a distinguished “M” blue (vehicles with optional carbon/ceramic brakes have gold calipers). Lastly, inside the cabin, BMW’s active sport seats are now standard.
Unchanged – and rightly so – is the gobsmacking twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 boasting 555 hp and 501 pound-feet of torque. Mated to a six-speed paddleshift automatic and permanent all-wheel drive, the hunchbacked hero will easily crack 60 mph in under than five seconds. By the way, you’ll have to make your own arrangements to get the gaudy Olympic sponsorship graphics seen on the vehicle above.
Move over, Batmobile, and make room in the geekosphere for the latest comic book superhero ride.
, as you may be aware, signed a multi-picture deal with Marvel to have its carsfeatured in a raft of superhero movies. The Japanese luxury brand’s cars were there at the end of Captain America, they were there in Thor, and they’ll be there in full force in the highly anticipated upcoming superhero spectacular, The Avengers.
Most prominent of these will be the NSX-like roadster Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has been on set, but that won’t be the extent of it for the Honda brand. Feast your eyes on the MDX which Acura has prepared for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division – the fictitious government agency that brings the gang together.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. with the Sentinel Package is, according to its , packs the same Palladium-powered titanium engine, nine-speed transmission and diamond quartz brakes as the Stark roadster, albeit packed into a more capacious form. It’s got an aerial drone stored in a briefcase in the back, a cloaking device, bulletproof body, repulsor cannon and advanced targeting system.
So what would a fictitious vehicle like this set you back? MSRP (with destination and Sentinel package) is pegged at a nearly $6 million. Suck on that, .
Not every reveal at the was as exciting as the . As evidence, we present the 2013 . The compact crossover joins the and in the “subtle change, seemingly just for change’s sake” category at the show.
has endowed its bestseller with a modestly revised front fascia, while giving it a new rear bumper, black side sills and standard 18-inch wheels. Inside, some new fabrics and chrome are on display. More importantly, the 2013 Outlander Sport does boast some mechanical changes in the form of revised rear suspension tuning and a recalibrated CVT. Some new exterior colors round out the package.
The biggest news regarding the Outlander Sport, however, is that production will be shifted to the U.S. in July, but .
Be sure to check out our of high-res images of the refresh, and skip to read the full press release.
