If the makes its official, cars are going to be more expensive, and that’s going to shut millions of buyers out, argues the . “If the price of a vehicle goes up by the government estimate of almost $3,000,” says David Wagner, an analyst for the NADA Used Car Guide, “millions of people will no longer be able to finance a new vehicle.” The proposed standard is aiming for an average of 54.5 mpg for both cars and trucks by 2025, and is predicted to add $2,000 to the cost of a vehicle. Add to that the $1,000 or so that’s going to be added to the price of vehicles as the phase-in between now and 2016, and the $30,000 average price of a new car rises to the point where lower income buyers may not be able to qualify for financing.
If that happens, the net effect would be a reduction in the buyer pool for the more fuel efficient, cleaner cars these fuel economy regulations are intended to create. While the increased fuel efficiency is estimated to save average owners of $8,000 over the life of the vehicle (offsetting the higher monthly payments), if people can’t afford the payments or secure lending, the total ownership cost will be a moot point. “Disregarding vehicle affordability will undermine the environmental and national security benefits the administration is seeking,” says Doug Greenhaus, chief regulatory counsel for environment, health, and safety for NADA.
The government’s 2017-2025 rules aren’t yet final, and Grenhaus and NADA suggest the Obama Administration and NHTSA study the impact the rules will have on buyers before moving forward.
General Motors has announced a recall of certain 2011 and , and models for wipers that may fail under heavy snow. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, snow or ice buildup may restrict the wiper movement, which may in turn lead to the wiper arm loosening from the vehicle. The ensuing reduced visibility could increase the risk of an accident. The recall only covers models currently registered in heavy snow states – about 50,000 units – including Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware and Idaho, among others. The full list may be found in the recall report .
GM is expected to begin notifying owners on Monday, April 16, and dealers will address the issue free of charge. In what sounds like one of the simpler and quicker recall fixes we can remember, dealer technicians will tighten the wiper arm nuts to prevent the wiper arms from becoming inoperable. Click for the full recall notice.
General Motors is pulling the plug on the . 2013 will mark the ugly duckling’s last year in production, though the model will go out with one last special edition. The 2013 Black Diamond Avalanche will arrive with body-color trim work, special badging, and most importantly, lower prices. LT trim now boasts a standard rear-view camera, while LS guise adds in rear park assist, power adjustable pedals, fog lights and remote start as standard gear. GM has cut the base vehicle’s MSRP by $2,500, which means buyers can take one home for $35,980, excluding the $995 destination fee.
GM says the lower price is a way of saying “thank you” to the truck’s fans, though we suspect it may have more to do with getting the awkward machine off dealer lots. Last month, GM moved just 2,083 Avalanche units, and while that’s nearly 26 percent more than March 2011, the number represents a fraction of the 36,491 models that rolled out the door. It’s also less than half the number of units sold. Even the wee drove away with more sales. Last year, GM sold a total of 20,088 Avalanche units, down 2.1 percent compared to 2010 despite an overall industry recovery.
Will anyone miss the Avalanche? There are those who still miss the diesel Chevette, so anything’s possible.
Production of the upcoming Maserati Kubang may be set for the Jefferson North plant where builds the on which the high-riding will be based, but that doesn’t mean that the Trident marque is giving up on production in its home country of Italy anytime soon.
According to statements made by union officials, Maserati is gearing up to produce a new four-door sedan at a facility on the outskirts of Turin – although whether that is the larger replacement for the or its upcoming baby brother remains unclear – but that’s not all. Maserati, according to reports, has also been tasked with building the 4C sportscar for sister-brand Alfa Romeo, much like it had with the higher-end 8C Competizione that came before.
Between the two new sedans, the SUV, the ongoing production of the line and the Alfa 4C, Maserati sure seems to have its hands full – with a little game of musical factories – for a brand currently represented by two model lines.
is getting religion when it comes to light-weighting its vehicles. The company has entered into a new partnership with to develop carbon fiber that can be manufactured at affordable prices for high-volume applications. That, of course, is the holy grail of weight reduction, which is why other manufacturers like General Motors are also to try and achieve the same ends.
Now before you get too excited about the carbon-fiber in the photos, understand that it was just a limited-production car shown at in 2009, and it carried a price tag of $135,000. That’s the problem with carbon fiber parts – they are expensive because they are much more difficult to manufacture in volume than steel.
But if Ford and other carmakers are going to achieve the sorts of fuel economy improvements required by new regulations, they’re going to have to either scale carbon fiber or dramatically shrink the size of most vehicles. Ford says it’s targeting a 750-pound weight reduction per vehicle by the end of the decade.
If you’ve ever tried installing an infant car seat in say, a , you understand that just because a car has LATCH anchors doesn’t mean your car seat is going to fit. Those anchors are supposed to make child restraint installation a breeze, but according to a new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, many automakers aren’t following the spirit of the law requiring them.
The study looked at the 98 top-selling vehicles from 2010-2011 and found just 21 that met its criteria for having “easy-to-use” LATCH hardware. Making the list were the ; ; , , and ; ; , and ; and ; ; ; ; ; and ; and ; and .
The researchers used a test fixture that adhered to guidelines developed by the Society of Automotive Engineers to develop three criteria for evaluation. The first was having anchors that were easy to see and not buried beneath rear seat cushions. The second was having the LATCH attachment points unobstructed by seatbelts, foam or other parts of the seat. The third was that adults could correctly install the seats using less than 40 pounds of force.
While the study found that the majority of models didn’t nail all three criteria, the list of vehicles that didn’t meet any of them was much shorter: ; ; ; and ; ; and .
to see a video about LATCH and read the full release from IIHS.
Many countries have produced supercars with price tags that dip into the six figures, but that rare breed of exotic that fetches upwards of a quarter million is all but completely exclusive to Europe: , and Pagani out of Italy, from France, McLaren and higher-end models of Britain, top-of-the-line offerings from Germany, Koenigsegg of Sweden and so on. That’s what makes the so exceptional. It extends beyond the Acura NSX and the that previously defined the top end of Japanese supercars and joins its European rivals at the very top of the market. But that, we’re reading, is only the beginning.
According to a shadowy anonymous source cornered by AutoGuide, Toyota is already working on a successor to the LFA, and their mole says the car will be even more exotic, more powerful and more expensive. Just what that entails when the LFA is already limited to 500 examples, packs a 552-horsepower 4.8-liter V10 and costs $375,000 has us conjuring up images of an animé take on the . AG suggests the car could nudge the million-dollar mark with production limited to just 100 examples.
Could it be a ? It’s probably too early to tell. In fact, we’re going to go ahead and take this entire rumor with a few shakers-worth of salt and advise you to consider doing the same.
As an American living in Italy, there are often entire month-long stretches where I drive nothing but European cars that will sadly never come out to play on American soil. Such is the case for the abundantly adored Audi A6 Allroad Quattro seen here. I was initially of the assumption that since the had already been confirmed for the U.S. that the A6 Allroad would be coming as well, but I am dismayed to report otherwise.
Such a pity, too. The business case for giving North America the whole range of Audi models that Germany offers apparently just doesn’t pan out financially – and for some of us, it’s the old predictable story of unrequited love across the chilly Atlantic.
Team Ingolstadt brought me into their home in Neckarsulm just north of hilly Stuttgart for this drive through the area’s precisely cultivated fields of hops. The aroma of beer is everywhere here, which may go some way toward explaining just why the new A6 Allroad felt so good under and around me as we freight-trained along the Swabian two-lanes.
Episode #277 of the is here, and this week, Chris, Dan, and Executive Editor Chris Paukert are joined by to chat about the . 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 #276:
In the Autoblog Garage
Hosts: , ,
Runtime: 01:26:42
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There are lots of automotive videogames, from realistic racing games like Gran Turismo and Forza to fun driving games like Mario Kart to social games like Disc Drivin’ for iOS. But there is only one Grand Theft Auto.
No other video game brings the dark humor inherent in mayhem like the GTA franchise, and it looks like a new installment will be here in a scant six months. According to a report on Joystiq, a Linked In resume for an animator and employee at game developer Rockstar was spotted listing Grand Theft Auto V with a shipping date of October 2012. Since then, the resume has been removed from the site and Rockstar is not commenting, according to the report.
Of course, the video game industry is as notorious for slipping shipping dates as it is for rumor mongering, so while you might want to place your preorder on Amazon, don’t be surprised if you’re still waiting come Christmas. Joystiq is skeptical about an October shipping date, pointing out that Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two Interactive, has already announced BioShock Infinite for an October launch, which would put the two titles in unnecessary competition.
Until then, we still have the , which you can see if you scroll down.
While we’ve already reported that BMW’s from is , this footage all but confirms it. Britain’s Car magazine has over a minute of video showing a rather sporting three-door testing at the Nürburgring.
Of course, this latest bit of news only for us North American lovers. We’ve yet to see a 1 Series hatchback of any sort for sale on our shores, and whether the new F20 hatch is headed our way is entirely up in the air. Outside of the bizarre , BMW has been reticent to sell a hatch here since the E36 318ti, which has been out of production for a solid decade now.
While we loved the , now that its one-and-done model year is over, it would be dandy if BMW would throw us a bone and ship the M135i here. With rumors of all-wheel-drive availability and 300-plus horsepower coming from BMW’s TwinTurbo, three-liter inline-six, it looks to be one heck of a car.
Former General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz went bicep-to-bicep with “America’s ballsiest pundit,” Stephen Colbert, last night – and came out ahead. Ostensibly, Lutz was on Colbert to talk about his new book, Car Guys Vs. Bean Counters, but as one might expect, the discussion veered into Mitt Romney vs. President Obama territory pretty quickly.
The actual car industry part of the discussion, though, revealed more potential good news for the , the car that Lutz is obviously trying to make his legacy and called “a huge success.” Sure, Colbert talked about , but Lutz responded by predicting that sales would be “about 3,000 a month from here on out.” This would not only set a new record (Volt sales for March 2012 , the highest so far) but would also put GM’s plug-in car into the 36,000-a-year range. That’s commendable, but still this year. Of course, Akerson’s 60,000 number could have included the Opel Ampera and its Vauxhall twin. In any case, things are looking up for the Volt, and that’s something Lutz is more than happy to tell Colbert or anyone else. Watch the video – including an impromptu push-up contest between the two – right now by .
So a new front-drive will now set you back $40,185, but that’s really not the most interesting pricing news from . That would be the RX 350 F Sport, which debuts for the 2013 model year in July, carrying a base sticker of $47,875.
While all versions of the RX get the new spindle grille, the F Sport packs Lexus’ eight-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters and a performance-tuned suspension that employs Lexus Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management, akin to what’s available on the line. Cosmetic enhancements include a mesh grille and F Sport badges, aluminum pedals and black leather seats with contrasting white stitching. A unique set of 19-inch wheels completes the package, which we look forward to getting our hands on.
Lexus has also announced the base price of its hybrid RX, which will start at $46,805, and the hybrid GS. When the goes on sale in May, it will be priced from $59,845. Additionally, the 2012 will see the price bumped $200 across the board. Scroll down to read the full press release.
You don’t build a chassis as superbly balanced and capable as that which underpins the , Toyota GT 86 and without taking it racing. Fortunately the Japanese auto marques involved have plenty of competition spirit coursing through their veins, and are already gearing up to take the nimble little sportscar racing at events around the world.
recently unveiled the which it will be fielding in Japan’s SuperGT series, and now is following suit with the announcement that it will be bringing not one, but two examples of its GT 86 to the Nürburgring to compete in the grueling 24-hour race there next month. The pair of cars – whose level of modification remains unclear – will be fielded by the company’s own Gazoo Racing team alongside one .
Toyota’s racing plans for the GT 86 extend beyond the ‘Ring, however, as it has revealed a program to support privateer teams fielding the car domestically in both the Super Taikyu Endurance Series and All-Japan Rally Championship. The latter announcement crucially comes at a time when rumors have resurfaced of Toyota preparing to re-enter the World Rally Championship – a series which the Japanese automaker dominated in the 1990s with four Drivers’ Championships and three Constructors’ Championships.
The company shut down its WRC operation to branch into Formula One, but now that its F1 program is long gone, could the time be right for Toyota’s return to the pinnacle of rallying? Only time will tell, but for now you can scope out the press release and video footage to see what Toyota has in store in the short run.
The Official Car Of Beverly Hills Gets A Dramatic Rework
Generally speaking, I’m a pretty measured sort of guy. But when it comes to convertibles, I’m a bit of a lunatic. I’ve been known to motor with the top down in all conditions – including light rain and snow – much to the bewilderment of other drivers (and quite often the chagrin of my passengers). For the most part, it doesn’t matter if I’m driving in a bare-bones roadster or a lux-lined GT. Thankfully for my hapless guests, however, advances in technology have done much to assuage discomfort in poor weather. These days, there are far fewer tradeoffs associated with top-down motoring: improved aerodynamics, wind blockers, enhanced ventilation, sun-reflecting leather and, of course, seat heating and cooling – all features that have done much to make me better company. What’s more, modern underlying structures are stiffer and there’s little in the way of the noise, vibration and harshness penalties that there used to be.
In terms of innovation, nobody has done more to advance the everyday livability of the convertible than . They kept the faith back in the early 80s when nearly everyone had gotten out of the convertible business. They brought back the folding hardtop. They came up with the pyrotechnic roll hoop to augment rollover safety. They created Airscarf. , too. Hell, with this , they’ve even invented a new windshield wiper fluid delivery system to prevent errant schvitzing when driving with the top down (more on that in a minute).
On its face, a typically sober German engineering approach would seem to be at odds with the very idea of a top-down bauble, but Mercedes has taken a very logical approach to building something so frivolous. Amazingly, this philosophy works in the SL’s favor… most of the time.
How much do hybrid drivers really, truly like their cars? According to R.L. Polk, not all that much – at least not in 2011.
Polk has released a new hybrid loyalty analysis that concludes that only 35 percent of people who bought a hybrid bought another one last year. The data comes from car purchases made in 2011, and Polk found that drivers are the most loyal, both to the gas-electric technology and to itself. Sixty percent of Toyota hybrid owners bought another vehicle from the automaker, even if it wasn’t a hybrid. A recent J.D. Power Customer Retention Study found that the was 49 percent, but that doesn’t take powertrains into account.
According to Polk, forty-one percent of Toyota hybrid drivers choose to buy another hybrid (from any brand). Interestingly, when Polk took out these Toyota buyers from their results, hybrid loyalty rates dropped to “under 25 percent. However, in our book that’s kind of skewing the numbers, since most hybrids sold in the U.S. are built by Toyota. When looking only at hybrid drivers, for example, 52 percent bought another Honda and “just under 20 percent” purchased another hybrid (from any brand). The in-brand loyalty, says Brad Smith, director of Polk’s Loyalty Management Practice, shows that hybrids “can certainly give a brand a competitive edge when it comes to attracting new customers.”
What’s perhaps most interesting is that changes in gas prices, “had little impact on hybrid segment loyalty,” according to Polk. In the company’s quarterly hybrid analysis from 2008 through 2011, loyalty rates ranged from 26.4 to 41.8 percent, but spent most of the time in the 30s. See more details of the study in the official Polk press release by .
The Detroit Free Press reports that the United States Treasury has exercised its power to put a cap on executive compensation at General Motors by freezing CEO Dan Akerson’s pay at last year’s levels. Akerson brought home a total of $9 million last year including salary, stock and restricted stock.
The executive’s $1.7 million salary will remain unchanged this year, with the rest of his earnings coming via performance-based stock salary. Meanwhile, some 25 of the company’s most highly compensated executives will also see their compensation limited for 2012. All told, the Treasury says executive pay dropped by around 12 percent from 2011 to 2012.
GM has warned meddling with executive pay could result in a talent exodus from the company, but so far, The Detroit Free Press reports only two leaders have walked away from the automaker. GM says the cuts may also make it difficult to hire new talent moving forward.
GM currently owes the U.S. Treasury around $25 billion.
How does Akerson’s pay line up with other auto executives? CEO Sergio Marchionne takes home a combined $22.2 million for his efforts both at the American automaker and while CEO Alan Mulally earned an impressive $29.5 million in 2011.
Tesla Motors is close to rolling out the first electric five-doors from the company’s Fremont, California plant, and customers who reserved the Model S Signature Series are already sending in their specification requests, indicating that the company will likely hit its July deadline for first deliveries.
Tesla has also added three colors – Piano Black, Lacewood and Banana Leaf – to its interior options and Internet connectivity will be an option on all cars, the company said in a letter to prospective customers that was posted on its blog last week. Tesla also said it would personally deliver the cars to the location of the customer’s choice.
The Model S, the second model from Tesla after the , will be priced starting at $57,400 for a version with a 160-mile single-charge range before the $7,500 tax credit goes into effect. A 300-mile-range version goes for about $77,000. Read for Autoblog’s “First Ride” impressions.
Earlier this year, Tesla said of $204.2 million and forecast Model S sales at 5,000 units for this year. That’s more than double the 2,100 of the $109,000 Roadsters that Tesla sold over the past four years.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Association announced on its website that is recalling 140,000 models built between August 1, 2010 and October 18, 2011. The defect in question is a seal in the wiring harness connector to the passenger side wiper motor that may be missing.
If the seal is AWOL, water could build up in the connector, which could over time render the passenger-side wiper useless. And if that happens, visibility could of course be altered, resulting in a higher probability of a crash.
To fix the issue, affected Focus owners need to take their vehicles to a Ford dealer for a free inspection of the wiper connector. A technician will clean and seal any connector that needs it, and any wiper motor that no longer works will be replaced free of charge. Hit the jump to read over the NHTSA press release.
We have to admit to being fairly smitten with the promise of the low-slung Acura NSX concept that debuted at the back in January. But for this moment – and for the next several moments – “promise” is all it is, because Acura says we shouldn’t expect an NSX in showrooms until sometime around 2015. (Back in January, Acura advised that the production car is “expected to debut in the next three years.”) Until then, Honda’s premium outpost is going to do whatever it can to stoke the fires to keep interest high, including and this – a drophead spinoff that will be Tony Stark’s ride in this summer’s The Avengers blockbuster from Marvel.
We first saw this car thanks to some intrepid movie set shots by would-be paparazzi , but this is the first official acknowledgement and image of the car that we’ve seen. Early in March, we told you of an NSX convertible that was very similar to the Detroit showcar, which some interpreted as Acura planning both a fixed-head coupe and a roadster for production. However, those drawings look an awful lot like the car shown here with the exception of small details like a unique wheel pattern and differing seatbacks, so while it’s possible that Acura is pondering a topless NSX, the renderings could have simply been to protect design rights to the movie car, especially considering that neither Stark’s ride nor the patent drawings appear to have headlamps.
We’ll have to wait and see what Acura decides regarding its all-wheel-drive hybrid supercar, but we suspect that even if it does greenlight a convertible version, we probably won’t see it until 2016. Which is… a really long time to keep believing in a promise.
