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By most accounts, something went awry while Subaru was baking the last generation Impreza WRX STI. Maybe someone slipped in an extra cup of civility or forgot to add enough dashes of hardcore, but what was once little more than a thinly-disguised rally stage escapee had come out of the oven a little weaker than its predecessor. Subaru itself diplomatically admits that the priorities for the last generation STI were somewhat different from the 2011 model. The company stripped the line down to just the five-door hatchback in 2008, stressing functionality over style, and the whole recipe simply felt less focused than what we had come to expect from Japan’s all-wheel drive hero.

But that was then, and this is now. The company assures us that for 2011, we can expect a return to the fundamentals that helped establish the STI as a force to be reckoned with. Though the drivetrain remains unchanged, a slew of suspension adjustments and a lower stance have given the STI the ability to hoover up tarmac and gravel stages indiscriminately once again. It isn’t a completely new generation – more like a much needed do-over – but the changes are enough to make the 2011 model instantly recognizable from behind the wheel.

If that’s not enough to convince you, allow us to direct your attention to the rear of the resurrected four-door body style, dominated once again by the kind of spoiler that could double as a civil engineering exercise. Yeah, baby. The STI is back, and on more than just a wing and a prayer.

Photos by Zach Bowman / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading First Drive: 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI – Return of the wing

First Drive: 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI – Return of the wing

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that the 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid hails from a nation where Buddhism is one of the dominant religions. After all, this slippery sedan’s design is the gas-electric’s equivalent of The Middle Path – a road that the company hopes is truly the way to automotive enlightenment.

Say what?

In the still-young history of the modern hybrid automobile, there have been two prevailing schools of thought on design: As the less costly path, The Low Road to hybridization is already a crowded one – it’s a design route that basically calls for the electrification hardware to be buried beneath a familiar bodyshell that’s shared with a conventional internal combustion-only model (see: Lexus LS 600h, Ford Fusion Hybrid, Chevrolet Silverado, etc.). The driving philosophy here is to keep production costs in check while also appealing to audiences that might be otherwise reluctant to embrace “new” technology.

By contrast, The High Road calls for swoopier model-specific bodywork – if not an entire dedicated platform – enabling a “greener than thou” halo for its owners and parent company. Unfortunately, this high-visibility strategy also costs a boatload of cash, and the only such model that has managed to make a solid business case for itself is the Toyota Prius, a vehicle that’s become the de-facto postercar for the green movement.

But here’s the conundrum that Hyundai has keenly recognized: Despite being on the checklist of every politician, environmentalist and Hollywood glitterati, hybrids don’t sell in America – they account for less than two percent of new vehicles purchased in the U.S. every year, and their high technology bandwidth means that they require a disproportionate amount of money to develop. Basically, Hyundai knows that the Sonata Hybrid is a necessity for improving its technological capabilities, as well as for burnishing its industry-leading CAFE scores, but it also seems to understand that it is almost certain to lose money on each one it builds. Which is why they’ve taken The Middle Path.

In this case, the Sonata Hybrid tries to integrate the best of the other two hybrid strategies – create a distinctive new model with a unique look that says “I care more about the earth than you do” without incurring the cost of a whole new platform and all-new sheetmetal. Have they been successful? We flew all the way to South Korea to find out…

Continue reading First Drive: 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid looks to split the uprights

First Drive: 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid looks to split the uprights

Ford has got the gas mileage goods on its 2011 EcoBoost-powered Explorer, and it’s news you might like if you want one: you’ll get 30 percent better mileage with the inline-four than you could with the outgoing V6. Ford did, however, leave a key detail out of the press release touting this: it didn’t reveal the actual mileage number, “pending EPA certification.”

Nevertheless, with the 2010 Explorer’s 210-horsepower, 4.0-liter V6 EPA rated at 14 miles per gallon in the city and 20 out on the highway, you’re looking at a healthy increase all over with the four-pot turbo doing the work up front. Follow the jump for Ford’s press release that details all the reasons your wallet won’t be so sad if you end up buying a 2011 Explorer.

[Source: Ford]

Continue reading 2011 Ford Explorer with EcoBoost 2.0-liter delivers 30% better fuel economy than V6

2011 Ford Explorer with EcoBoost 2.0-liter delivers 30% better fuel economy than V6

General Motors and Chrysler terminated the contracts of thousands of dealers while the automakers were in bankruptcy proceedings; a move that was required by the Obama Administration’s auto task force as a condition of bankruptcy. The scheme was heralded as a way to save the struggling automakers millions or even billions of dollars, but special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) Neil Barofsky claims in an audit that the dealer closings weren’t “necessarily critical to the manufacturers’ viability.” Barofsky added in his TARP audit that the closing of dealerships would add thousands of workers to the unemployment lines “without sufficient consideration of the decisions’ broader economic impact.”

The U.S. Treasury, obviously, doesn’t agree with Barofsky’s assessment. The Detroit Free Press quotes an anonymous source who points out that it was well known in the auto industry that Detroit automakers have too many dealers. Toyota, for instance, has a much smaller dealer body than GM. And the dealers Toyota does have average much higher sales volumes than dealers of domestic products. That theoretically leads to dealers with more marketing muscle in their perspective markets. Not all automaker executives wanted to shrink their dealer networks, either. Some feared the loss of sales that would follow shutting down retail outlets, but the task force reportedly felt those lost sales would be recouped within a few years

But while arguments can be made for or against shrinking the pool of retail outlets around the country, one fact is hard to ignore. A reported 35,000 dealer employees lost their jobs in 2009 and 2010, or over three percent of all dealership employees around the country – roughly equal to the 32,000 jobs lost within the industry.

Barofsky also touched on the process which both Chrysler and GM used to determine which dealers should stay and which should go. The auditor claimed that Chrysler stuck to its plan throughout, which is evidenced by the fact that only 28 dealers won their arbitration cases out of 789 stores that were closed last year. Barofsky claims that GM wasn’t so strict in determining which dealers to cut, and there wasn’t much documentation to show how and why the General cut its dealers. GM has since restated 666 of the 1,454 dealers it cut, though the company gave dealers more than a year to wind down operations, while Team Pentastar cut off its under-performing dealerships almost immediately.

[Source: Detroit Free Press Image: AP/Jeff Roberson]

Report: TARP audit criticizes Obama task force for dealer closings

While overall auto sales have recovered somewhat from the depths of early 2009, things are still pretty slow compared to their peaks. General Motors has done a decent job of avoiding too many customer rebates since it emerged from bankruptcy a year ago by controlling inventories. However, that’s a lot harder to do with low volume cars like the Corvette and especially the ZR1. Balancing adequate dealer stock and too many cars is tough when the numbers are so modest to begin with.

With the 2010 model year winding down, GM reportedly still has about 500 ZR1s in stock and is now offering $3,000 cash back or zero percent financing on 2010 models. If you look hard, you may even find one of a dozen or so 2009 models left over which will get you $5,000 off the sticker price. Unfortunately the 2009s aren’t equipped the very effective and easy-to-use launch control system that became standard on the ’10s, but it’s still a deal if you can get one.

Photos by Sam Abuelsamid and Max Abuelsamid / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Report: Chevrolet slaps first incentives on ZR1 amidst swelling inventory

The IndyCar Series made a major announcement since the last race at Watkins Glen, deciding to stick with Dallara as its chassis supplier, but opening the game up a bit by allowing other manufacturers the option to supply aero packages and engines. Many think this will boil down to more of the same in IndyCar, but at least on paper, it has the potential to get more companies involved. Some of the bigger nuggets to drop from the official announcement were the new, lower prices of these 2012 IndyCar chassis and the fact that Dallara is building a plant right near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to generate a few more jobs for the state’s residents and to make it quicker and easier to make chassis changes during the season. But all of that is still a couple of years off and they still had a race to run this weekend.

The 2010 Honda Indy Toronto is the second race run on this particular 1.755-mile street circuit around the Canadian city of Toronto, although there has been a major open-wheel street race in Toronto since 1967, and CART/IRL races have been held there ever since 1986. Dario Franchitti won the race in 2009 and went on to win the championship last year as well. This year, Franchitti trails Team Penske’s Will Power for the points lead and after Saturday’s qualifying for Toronto, the Target Chip Ganassi driver found himself fifth on the grid behind Ryan Hunter-Reay (Team IZOD Andretti Autosport) in fourth, Helio Castroneves (Team Penske) in third, Power in second and polesitter Justin Wilson of Team Z-Line Designs/DRR Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, who has posted some impressive results this year and currently stands eighth in the championship standings. Could Wilson stay out front for his first win of the season? Could Franchitti repeat from last year and possibly take the points lead for 2010? Or would Will Power place high enough to retain his lead?

Follow the jump to see how the 2010 Honda Indy Toronto played out.

[Images: Robert Laberge, Streeter Lecka/Getty Images, Frank Gunn, Adrien Veczan/AP]

Continue reading IndyCar: 2010 Honda Indy Toronto [SPOILERS]

IndyCar: 2010 Honda Indy Toronto [SPOILERS]

The real revolutionaries in the Fiesta Movement – the cars themselves, not the agents – have more work to do even though they’re kind of on sale now and the revolution is over. Ford is giving 43 of the 100 Fiestas from the movement to the Team O’Neil Reilly Rally School in New Hampshire, where the hatchbacks will be refitted for student racing duty.

They’ll form the core of the Ford Racing Fiesta Rally Experience, the only manufacturer-backed rally school on the continent. One- and two-day courses start at $495, and your gravel guide will be a man who’s coached Travis Pastrana and Ford’s WRC driver, Ken Block. Maybe while you’re there you’ll find out what made Reilly quip, “Driving the Fiesta is like driving an expensive German car.” All the info you need on how to get there you can find in the press release after the jump.

[Source: Ford]

Continue reading Ex-Fiesta Movement cars will live on at Team O’Neil Fiesta Rally Experience

Ex-Fiesta Movement cars will live on at Team O’Neil Fiesta Rally Experience

My, how the 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX has grown. The plucky little sedan has gone off to summer camp and returned as a full-figured looker. Now donning its bigger sister’s widebody dress and uprated wheels at all four corners, there are few tells this thing isn’t fully capable of stopping at a moment’s notice. And all we can say is: It’s about time.

Even though the WRX has always had plenty of pep and other worldly grip, its outer shell never quite managed to hint at the go-fast fun lurking underneath its sizable hood scoop. No more.

Photos by Zach Bowman / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading First Drive: 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX fills out with big bro’s wide body

First Drive: 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX fills out with big bro’s wide body

Contract negotiations in Formula One always come down to a wild card or two. And though we’re barely halfway through the current championship, for the coming season, that wild card appears to belong to Kimi Raikkonen.

The 2007 F1 champ defected to the World Rally Championship when he didn’t like his options at the end of last season, and since then rumormill has run rampant with speculation of his return to single-seaters. Various reports placed him at Red Bull Racing, Renault or Mercedes GP for 2011, but the latest paddock scuttlebutt suggests he’ll stay on the rally stage for at least another year.

Kimi’s long-term future remains to be determined, though his partnership with Red Bull (which sponsors his Citroën rally car) ostensibly opens the door for a return with the energy drink’s premier F1 team. But based on how things look at the moment, that won’t come until 2012 at the earliest, so the rest of the Formula One grid can breathe a little easier for another season.

[Source: Autosport.com Image: Red Bull WRC]

Report: Kimi Raikkonen to stay in WRC for another season

At some point in the not too distant future, General Motors will return to being a publicly traded company, with the timing likely to be based in part on both business and politics. In May, the automaker began soliciting investment banks to handle the sale of its stock. With what will likely be one of the largest public stock offerings of all time, the banks are undoubtedly salivating at the potential fees they will collect in the process.

With the GM sale being potentially huge and IPOs still relatively scarce during the economic downturn, the automaker feels it has some leverage with the banks. As a result, it’s asking the money-changers to be creative about how they’ll market the sale and be compensated. One potential option is for banks to use some of the fees to purchase GM vehicles or subsidize purchases by employees. This will both lower the cost to GM and the U.S. Treasury, while improving GM’s revenues. One particular benefit would be getting wealthy bankers to take a serious look at GM vehicles, possibly helping the automaker get a better demographic. Or something…

[Source: Bloomberg Businessweek]

General Motors asks IPO banks to take cars instead of fees

	Tesla and Toyota to develop RAV4 EV, hope to launch in 2012 Well, this is interesting.		AVL introduces its own Wankel rotary EV range-extender Will Wankels finally find a home in electric cars.
	DDWFTTW = a wind car that can go faster than the wind (also = internet fights) It’s not perpetual motion, so don’t say it is.	Other news: How electric vehicle chargers will be like fire hydrants President Obama checks out Volt and Focus Electric at LG Chem plant site Stop-start technology to reach 10M vehicles by 2015

AutoblogGreen for 07.19.10

An impact with an automobile will crack a human’s bones like lobster claws at a clambake; an outcome Volvo aims to fight with technology. Pedestrian Detection with Full Auto Brake, a system that uses radar and cameras to stop the car and avert mauling pedestrians, makes its debut on the 2011 Volvo S60. While a visit to the recent Wellesley, Massachusetts stop of the Naughty Volvo Tour at Lee Imported Cars didn’t net us any wheel time, we got our first chance to get hands-on with the new S60 outside of a convention hall.

Make the jump for the full story.

Photos by Dan Roth / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading 2011 Volvo S60 hands-on demonstration w/video

2011 Volvo S60 hands-on demonstration w/video

As anyone with a passing interest in automotive history can tell you, the car world is rife with the kind of drama that could keep TMZ humming for weeks. While most of those tales live in the dark annals of Wikipedia, a few of them manage to work their way into the public consciousness. Such is the case with the dark and seedy story of the Bricklin SV-1.

A playhouse in the gullwinged sports car’s hometown of Fredericton, New Brunswick has decided to not only bring the story to life on stage, but to do so through song. That’s right, kids: this sucker is a musical. According to The New York Times, “The Bricklin” goes for a cabaret/show car/disco vibe.

If you’re wincing already, you’re not alone. The principal characters include Malcolm Bricklin, of course, as well as Richard Hatfield, the gent who managed to secure most of the money for the SV-1 venture. There’s also a love story involving a couple that goes to find work in Bricklin’s New Brunswick production facility. Perhaps the biggest star of the show, however, is the orange SV-1 that also finds its way onstage.

“The Bricklin: An Automotive Fantasy” runs from July 27 to August 15 at The Playhouse in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

[Source: The New York Times]

Bricklin: The Musical

The next Hyundai Elantra was revealed a few months ago at South Korea’s Busan Motor Show. It’s been revealed again, this time outdoors, in a parking lot where it appears to be practicing parallel parking maneuvers. Hyundai’s small four-door has grown in size, which helps it wear those stretched ‘fluidic’ design cues rather nicely. Once a portrait of anonymity, the Elantra’s now as good-looking as its big brother, the Sonata.

When the restyled Hyundai Elantra arrives next year, we expect it to be motivated by a 1.6-liter gasoline direct-injection engine with 138 horsepower. And we have a feeling those new looks are going to make people take a good, long look at the Elantra in liew of say, a Civic or Corolla.

As for parking jobs like this? We have a feeling they’ll be a lot easier than these drivers are making it look. If they had to find street parking in, say, New York, they’d run out of gas before they successfully stashed the car. Follow the jump to see the video, which does nothing to make parking seem any less mundane than it is. Hat tip to Avery

[Source: YouTube]

Continue reading Video: Next generation Hyundai Elantra caught practicing its parking?

Video: Next generation Hyundai Elantra caught practicing its parking?

The refreshed 2011 Mercedes-Benz CL-Class coupe is a prime example of how engineers are starting to take some of the disparate hardware technology that has been introduced over the last decade and integrate it to provide new functionality. The CL employs the various optical camera and radar sensors used for features like adaptive cruise control to help prevent accidents by first warning the driver and then intervening if the driver doesn’t respond.

We’ve had various lane departure and blind spot warning systems for several years now and like those, the Mercedes system starts by alerting the driver. At first, the blind spot system illuminates a yellow lamp in the relevant mirror, which changes to red and adds an audible warning if the driver doesn’t react. If the driver keeps moving into the path of another vehicle, a motor sends a rumble through the steering wheel and the brakes on the car’s opposite side are applied to pull it back in line.

Inifiniti has had similar lane-keep functionality for several years, but the CL is first car we’re aware of that integrates it with a blind-spot warning system.

[Source: Mercedes-Benz]

Continue reading 2011 Mercedes-Benz CL-Class tries to overcome inattentive drivers

2011 Mercedes-Benz CL-Class tries to overcome inattentive drivers

It’s no secret that Chrysler’s future plans are in a constant state of flux right now. After all, the automaker just went through a ridiculously fast bankruptcy where bits and pieces were shed before stewardship was handed over to Italy’s Fiat. It’s only natural that Chrysler’s new management would need some time to get itself organized.

According to The Toledo Blade, Chrysler decisionmakers are still up in the air as to how the Toledo North Assembly Plant figures into the company’s future roadmap. Previously, Chrysler said the Ohio facility would build three new SUVs based on Fiat’s C-Evo platform to replace the Jeep Liberty and Dodge Nitro.

Apparently, however, Chrysler has three plants that could build the new ‘utes – Toledo, Belvedere, Illinois and Sterling Heights, Michigan. The reality is that the Pentastar really only needs two of them to handle the project. Alternately, all three could build the vehicles using fewer shifts. At this point, it’s anyone’s guess which, if any, of these facilities will be left out in the cold, and what the resulting employee impact will be.

[Source: The Toledo Blade]

Report: Chrysler delays planned expansion of Toledo plant

We’d already heard that we wouldn’t be getting the conventionally-powered version of Volkswagen’s city car, the Up! Now we hear, per Autocar, that it won’t be called the Up!, it will be called Lupo. The Lupo, a nameplate known throughout Europe until it ceased production in 2005, was VW’s small, sub-Polo offering. In its new incarnation, the Lupo will replace the Fox, currently the smallest VW sold.

The conventional power of the Up!/Lupo will also come with a more conventional powertrain layout. The rear underfloor-mounted engine was innovative yet ultimately too complex for production. The Lupo that goes on sale next summer is expected to be offered with the choice of either a 1.0-liter three-cylinder gas engine putting out 75 horsepower or a 1.2-liter Bluemotion-branded diesel.

The E-Up that will supposedly hit our shores in 2013 might be coming as an Audi only. The VW Group plans to spread the Up!/Lupo gospel throughout its companies, but the electrified version is being worked on “in partnership with” Audi. Since Audi’s already getting all kinds of electric ink in the U.S. thanks to its sexy e-tron concepts, and with the price premium electric cars command, we wouldn’t be surprised if the electric Lupo initially comes to the U.S. wearing interlocking nose rings.

[Source: Autocar]

Report: VW resurrects Lupo nameplate for the Up! city car

Just like Toyota Australia does things differently than “our” Toyota, Chevrolet Europe does things that make us go, “That’s not the Chevy we know…” The latest example is a handshake study, headed by a professor of psychological sciences at the University of Manchester, that seeks the formula for the perfect handshake. And what is the driving force behind such obscure academia? Creation of a “handshake training guide for [Chevy] staff to prepare them ahead of the launch of the new 5 Year Promise offer, which aims to offer peace of mind and reassurance to its customers.”

Alrighty then. This is the formula:

PH = (e² + ve²)(d²) + (cg + dr)² + π{(4<s>2)(4<p>2)}² + (vi + t + te)² + {(4<c>2 )(4<du>2)}²

If you need more help figuring out how to apply it – hint: pay close attention to the ‘dr’ part – follow the jump for the press release, which explains the formula’s gobbledygook in detail, lists useless related facts like the Top 10 Handshake Turn-Offs, and somehow manages to work in a Frankie Valli reference.

Note that the Top 10 Handshake Turn-Offs rundown doesn’t include, “Absurd and contrived scientific formulas on how to correctly shake hands.” Maybe it ought to be a Top 11.

[Source: Chevrolet UK]

Continue reading Get A Grip: Chevy UK sponsors research to find perfect handshake

Get A Grip: Chevy UK sponsors research to find perfect handshake

Transformers 3 is filming in Chicago right now, luring all camera-toting film buffs to the Windy City’s streets like moths to a bug zapper. In addition to snagging the three NASCAR Transformers and Optimus Prime’s trailer, there’s the matter of a 1972 Datsun 510 painted much like Bumblebee and dangling a “BEE-OTCH” air freshener from its rear view mirror.

We have no idea what that’s about, but as long as it doesn’t involve Wheelie or Skids we should be all right with it. Well, maybe not – this looks like it’s shaping up to be as big a mess as Revenge of the Fallen. Maybe he’ll at least take the form of a Nissan GT-R later, as with his Chevrolet Camaro ‘upgrade’ in the first movie. Click the links below to check out the rest of the shots.

[Sources: Ain't It Cool, TFW2005]

NASCAR robots, Datsun Bumblebee spied during filming of Transformers 3

Bidding is over and this gem is gone, but it’s a worthy look at history nonetheless. Czech company Avia, now a truck builder known as Ashok Leyland, built two-stroke, two-cylinder cars in the fifties that were converted to racers. Czech driver Miroslav Jurca got hold of one in 1956 and turned it into this: the 750 Mk III. The aluminum and magnesium alloy skin sits over a steel tube chassis, within which lurks a 750cc, four-stroke BMW engine.

A surprising amount of tech also lives under that revised bodywork, including a fully-independent front suspension with unequal-length A-arms, coil springs, telescopic hydraulic shocks and torsion bars; an independent rear suspension with coil springs and hydraulic-telescopic shocks; a transaxle gearbox and lightweight alloy-magnesium rack and pinion steering. You can have a detailed look at this interesting car it in the photo gallery below.

[Source: eBay Motors]

eBay Find of the Day: Czech out the 1956 Avia 750 MKIII streamliner