On January 19th starting at precisely 10:30am, auctioneers at the mega-event in Scottsdale will begin bringing to the stage lots one through 151 as part of the auction house’s “The Scottsdale Sale”. The lots represent a wide range of significant and unique items from the estate of automotive journalism guru and personality David E. Davis, Jr, who suddenly and sadly on March 27th of last year following surgery.
The items are a vast array of Mr. Davis’ collection of rarities assembled during his nearly 60-year career history with automobiles, the people who designed and built them, and especially with those legends who risked their lives racing them. Lots range from lot number one through to lot 151, and these .
Among the array of a lifetime’s collectibles are included several pieces of desk art, original wall art, rare signed photographs of Dan Gurney, Juan Manuel Fangio, Carroll Shelby, and others, plus a great number of authoritative books, many now out of print. Not to mention a perfectly preserved crimson red 1951 Cadillac Series 62 Coupe – a favored Harley Earl design – with fewer than 9,000 original miles, listed as .
is about as small as automakers get here in the United States, even if its parent company does mad business in Japan and other parts of the world. So when the scrappy purveyor of the and says it will again be ponying up for Super Bowl ads featuring its mid-size sedan, it raises some eyebrows, including ours.
Super Bowl ads are notoriously expensive, and Suzuki sold just 26,619 vehicles in the U.S. in 2011. Based on last year’s $2.8-$3 million ad cost estimates, that would be over $100 per vehicle. But Suzuki’s 2011 ads only aired in 14 targeted markets, presumably bringing the cost down substantially. (Suzuki tells us it will be running its 2012 ad regionally as well.) We’ve seen some reports pegging its Super Bowl budget last year at $2 million, which still works out to $75 per Suzuki sold. For comparison, Chevrolet spent an estimated $15 million (five spots) on the 2011 Super Bowl, and sold 1,775,812 vehicles, which works out to about $8.45 per car.
Suzuki sent us the teaser image above, which looks like it will continue the snow theme of last year’s “Wicked Weather” ad, which featured evil snowmen chasing an all-wheel-drive Kizashi. If you missed it because you don’t live in the snow belt, we’ve got the long version embedded .
Automotive News reports may finally send the out to pasture. Reuters spoke with Reid Bigland, head of the brand, who said Chrysler would look to focus on a single mid-size car in the next three years or so, and that focus would likely alight on the recently refreshed . Both the Avenger and the 200 enjoyed a sales boom last year thanks to improved drivetrain options and new interiors, though the two still lag far behind their competition. Removing one of the twins from the picture would allow Chrysler to save money on both development and marketing while eliminating the issue of having competing models on the same dealer lot.
Reports have previously suggested Chrysler will work to slim duplicate models across its brands by eliminating the in favor of a Fiat-based crossover. The death of the Avenger is wise step in that direction. Last year, the vehicle sold 63,023 units, and while that figure marks a 26 percent improvement over the 2010 numbers, it’s a far cry from the 308,510 units sold last year.
CEO Sergio Marchionne has big plans for the . Inside Line spoke with Marchionne at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show, and the besweatered executive said there is a good chance the next-generation Dakota will likely ride on a unibody chassis. That would mark a serious departure from the vehicle’s past, as well as the rest of the models in the compact pickup segment (save the at-the-margins ), but ditching the frame could give the vehicle a fuel-efficiency edge. If that wasn’t a large enough bombshell for you, Marchionne also made mention of the kind of powertrain we can expect to see from the new Dakota.
According to the executive, it only makes sense for the next-generation Ram Dakota to come equipped with a diesel engine. With the set to receive an oil-burning powerplant of its own, spreading the cost of engine development across multiple models only makes sense. We like the sound of a small, lightweight, diesel-powered pickup.
Meanwhile, Ward’s Auto reports the may receive a diesel engine of its own. Marchionne reportedly stressed that knows diesel technology, and that since the Grand Cherokee is being engineered for a diesel engine in European markets, it wouldn’t seem to be that much of a stretch to translate the work into the Durango.
had plenty to announce at , including the debut of its new Audi Connect system and , modular entertainment platform, NVIDIA Tegra 3 chipset and its planned expansion of both infotainment and active safety systems.
On the safety front, Audi execs announced plans to introduce a new system dubbed Traffic Jam Assistant, which recognizes when a driver is stuck in start-and-stop traffic and can be switched into an autonomous mode that takes complete control of the steering, acceleration and brakes.
The system uses the front-mounted adaptive cruise control sensors combined with wide-angle video cameras to detect lane markings, other vehicles, barriers and pedestrians, and can control the vehicle without any driver intervention up to 37 mph. Eight ultrasonic sensors also keep tabs on what’s in front of and at the sides of the vehicle, with the front sensors not only tracking the vehicle ahead, but – like – several vehicles ahead.
If this all sounds familiar, it should. And so should the name. has been working on a similar system called , which we sampled in an last year.
Like Mercedes’ system, Audi’s implementation should make it to market sometime next year, likely in its refreshed range-topping .
tried building cars in the U.S. once before, and it didn’t end well for the Rabbits assembled in Westmoreland, PA. “In Vietnam, ‘Westmoreland’ was a synonym for boundless optimisim in the face of raw facts. The same principle applies here,” said my friend Mike, explaining why his Rabbits at the time were imported from Das Vaterland. The real problem with American-made VWs wasn’t Pennsylvania or a self-deluding General, Mike continued, but “mushbucket suspensions, chintzy build quality, frou-frou styling compromises,” all resulting in a sub-par experience that’s got Volks-folks with long memories wondering if we’re doomed to repeat the past.
Volkswagen wants its new to disprove that trope about repeating history, and the Passat has racked up awards like the and was a , lending credence to VW’s efforts. We contemplated if the United States earning its own version of the Passat makes us elite or uncultured swine in the wake of our , and so we signed out a Passat SEL with a 2.5-liter five-cylinder engine to see what the Mainstream American Sedan Songbook sounds like when delivered with a German lilt.
We just wrapped up the , but has already moved on to Geneva. The German automaker announced today that it’s going to be showing a new line of what it’s calling “M Performance Automobiles” at the in March.
These vehicles will sit between standard Bimmers and M vehicles in the lineup, and apparently offer more than just cosmetics. While BMW has offered M Sport appearance packages over the past two decades, today’s announcement specifically mentions “exclusive engine variants” and suspension tweaks among the upgrades M Performance models would offer. Given the mention of both all-wheel drive and diesel models in the announcement, it seems like the new line is specifically geared towards both of those features that BMW likely believes would tarnish or just wouldn’t be appropriate for an or .
We’re awaiting a reply from BMW on what this announcement means for the U.S. market, but we imagine the M Performance cars sold here might resemble something like the 2003-2006 ZHP performance package sold on the E46 . These cars carried M badging, a unique interior, sport fascias, upgraded wheels and tires, a six-speed manual, 10 extra horses, a higher redline, revised gearing, and a stiffer suspension. There’s also the possibility that the first recipient of the new designation could be the that’s already been teased by the Bavarian automaker.
No matter what you think about the brand or its vehicles, you’ve got to admit that it’s got the greatest slogan of any car company, ever. “The Ultimate Driving Machine” is one of those timeless phrases that ad execs dream about and companies pay millions to come up with.
According to The New York Times, will again be embracing the phrase, formerly just its tagline, but now BMW’s slogan. (What’s the difference? We’ll have to ask Don Draper and get back to you.) More importantly, the German automaker has ditched its “Joy” campaign, in favor of lots of smiling, happy people. According to the report, BMW will be introducing 14 models in 2012, its biggest-ever product rollout, hence the need to launch a new series of ads with an overarching theme. Not that “Joy” didn’t work, but we’re much happier seeing BMW’s sliding sideways on a track than .
The first ad, from , Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners, debuted during the NFL playoffs this past weekend, and featured a rather clever voiceover saying, “We don’t make sports cars. We don’t make SUV’s. We don’t make hybrids, and we don’t make luxury sedans,” then paying it off with, “We only make one thing: The ultimate driving machine.”
Some things are at the fringe because they belong there. The tastes are too peculiar, the style too strange for the masses. But once in a while something emerges from the fringe into the mainstream because it deserves to be, because people learn to like it. Like matte paint finishes.
Long the purview of aftermarket tuners rejecting the glitz of the gloss, matte finishes are slowly finding their way onto automakers’ show stands and into dealership showrooms. broke new ground at the this week in announcing the availability of the new in flat grey, but the Korean automaker isn’t the only one offering the anti-shine treatment direct from the factory and displaying it on the floor of Cobo Hall.
Through its Designo program – a range of over-and-above options provided by AMG – offers a selection of matte finishes for some of its higher-end (though not necessarily AMG-tuned) models. The palette currently includes white (like the in the gallery below), flat silver (like the pictured above), dark grey and black, but is being expanded to include additional colors (and wider availability), starting with brown and hopefully extending to some of the shades and its sister brands have been .
The results may not be to everyone’s liking – and may not be well suited to every car – so don’t expect them to replace the go-to metallic paintjobs typically selected for such vehicles, but we’re glad to see this particular trend coming in out of the cold and into the showroom.
The North American International Auto Show episode
Episode #264 of the is here with Chris, Dan, Chris Paukert, and the prodigal Alex Nunez. The Detroit Auto Show just wrapped up, and we saw plenty there to fill up a podcast talking about. 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 #264:
In the Autoblog Garage
Hosts: , , ,
Runtime: 01:27:28
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The Nissan Juke R is a gaggle of impressive numbers: 1,540 hours and 22 weeks of development time, 11 videos of its development, , 480 -derived horsepower and 428 pound-feet – and to that group we can add a 3.7-second 0-to-60 time and a top speed of 160 miles per hour. Yes, 3.7 seconds may be a second slower than the GT-R, but it’s only two-tenths of a second slower than the .
Speaking of the videos, the eleventh and last in the series has been released and it’s the final teaser before the real thing explodes . You’ll find it , and when you’re finished with that you can . We’ve included the after the jump as well, because who isn’t interested in a track shakedown of the crossover Beelzebub uses to take his little ‘bubs to soccer practice?
It might have been a worthy successor to the – a stylish, youth-marketed crossover – but alas, the GMC Granite may never come to be. Jim Federico, GM’s small car exec, told Automotive News that the Granite concept from the 2010 isn’t headed into production.
Granite was , and would have been based on the platform, to compete with vehicles like the and . We liked the concept , but felt that the Granite was perhaps a bad match for , given its small size.
While AN says Federico offered no further details, we imagine GM figures the forthcoming crossover probably doesn’t need the competition in /GMC showrooms.
The has , and apparently wants to seize the opportunity to make its the the standout in what remains of the compact pickup truck segment. Though the sun has been setting on the Ranger for some time, it’s still outselling the Frontier – even after Nissan kicked up its marketing efforts as a way to grab the real estate is cedeing by creating the first advertising campaign for the Frontier in four years.
That’s not to say the Frontier is doing poorly; Nissan moved more than 50,000 out the door in 2011. That’s 20,000 fewer than the Ranger’s 70,000 unit performance, and well behind the 500,000-plus F-Series pickup models Ford shifts, but the aging Frontier is the popular sister in the Nissan truck family. Just 22,000 full-size pickups found a home last year, though the latter is another product that’s been languishing on the market with little marketing effort behind it. The Frontier might do better without the Ranger around regardless, but a commercial about a snowboarding truck couldn’t hurt. Check it out .
is making a big splash at this year, finally bringing a booth to the party and trotting out Daimler head Dr. Dieter Zetsche to keynote Tuesday morning’s festivities.
The big news is the introduction of mBrace2, Mercedes’ new cloud-based entertainment and information delivery system that debuts on the and proliferating through the Benz lineup in 2013.
We just wrapped up a hands-on with the prototype system (coming soon), but if you’re looking for a thoroughly updated COMAND interface, you’re in for disappointment.
The same beige and black user interface carries over with mBrace2, but there’s attractive news on the horizon. Mercedes tells us that an all-new and completely redesigned interface is due to debut on the 2014 , which will drop the 90s-era graphics for a more modern, intuitive design. And if it’s anything like the system Mercedes showed off with the , things are finally looking up for Benz infotainment.
A plethora of new diesel offerings is driving sales, according to a new report from the Diesel Technology Forum. Sales of diesels rose 27.4 percent in 2011, according to numbers from HybridCars.com and market researchers Baum and Associates.
The Diesel Technology Forum pegs the overall market growth in 2011 at 10.2 percent, putting diesels’ increase considerably ahead of the curve. Interestingly enough, the group says hybrid sales were down 2.2 percent. The non-profit coalition of diesel engine and technology companies includes such auto industry heavyweights as , Daimler, , General Motors, and .
Diesel sales are expected to grow to over six percent of the U.S. market by 2015, according to the report, and could reach as high as 7.4 percent by 2017, as more diesel models hit the market. Diesel-powered versions of the , , , and are slated for near-term U.S. release, according to the group.
has announced that the will be priced from $22,000, *not including destination charges. That’s a healthy jump from the tiny Italian’s $15,500 base MSRP and higher still than the open-air that starts at $19,500. For all that extra lira, buyers get Fiat’s turbocharged 1.4-liter MultiAir engine producing 160 horsepower and 170 pound-feet of torque. Power is routed through a five-speed manual transmission and the super Cinquecento also receives an upgraded suspension and brakes, 16-inch wheels and dual exhaust system. The cost of admission also includes free tuition to the Abarth Driving Experience hosted by The Richard Petty Driving Experience.
The Fiat 500 Abarth can be difficult to place among its class competitors because it’s the smallest kid on the block, but we’ve constructed a handy-dandy table to compare pricing, power and weight-to-power ratios for some likely adversaries. Despite being the smallest in size, the Abarth 500 actually ends up with the highest weight-to-power ratio. The upcoming stands out as having the least amount for each horse to lug around, though without pricing information, the Abarth 500 presently stands as the least expensive in-road to the kingdom of hot hatches.
The is only a few months from hitting dealer floors, which makes this as good a time as any to release pricing. The ActiveHybrid 5 will start at $61,845, *including a $895 destination and handling charge.
That’s about $8,000 more than the 535i, but the extra coin will go towards a 3.0-liter TwinPower Turbo inline six-cylinder engine that packs 335 horsepower when combined with a 55-horsepower electric motor. That’s enough power to launch the ActiveHybrid 5 from zero to 60 in a scant 5.7 seconds and the lithium-ion battery pack carries sufficient juice for the ActiveHybrid 5 to travel 2.5 miles on electricity alone.
The ActiveHybrid 5 arrives in dealerships this spring. Hit the jump to read BMW’s uncharacteristically brief press release.
Some would say that 2011 wasn’t exactly a banner year, but the good chaps at would likely respond with a definitive “Poppycock!” That’s because the 107-year-old brand experienced its best-ever sales totals in 2011, with 3,538 very expensive autos sold around the globe. That’s a 31 percent increase over the 2,711 models sold in 2010, thanks mostly to brisk sales of the and models.
With sales up 31 percent, it’s clear that the storied automaker was on fire the world over, but certain markets really catapulted the marque. In fact, sales in Asia were up 47 percent, and the U.S. saw 17 percent growth. Austerity measures in England didn’t stop the craze for new Rolls-Royce models, either, with sales up 30 percent.
It may not be all that exciting to see that the rich can afford more Rolls Royce models, but we’re guessing the 1,000 employees working in Goodwood are probably tickled at the brand’s rising popularity. to read over the official Rolls-Royce press release.
We’re almost ready to record Episode #264 of the Autoblog Podcast. Check out the topics below and you can join us live via , as well, and we’ve embedded our UStream player Thanks for listening!
Discussion Topics for Autoblog Podcast Episode #264
has tripled the size of its booth here at , and contained within is a mockup of the next A3’s interior. Well, half of it. But the functional display was designed to showcase the latest generation of Audi Connect, the automaker’s reworked infotainment system that’s set to debut on the .
As we , Audi is incorporating its touchpad technology (originally fitted to the and ) directly into its Multi Media Interface (MMI) control knob, negating the need to move one’s hand to write individual letters for navigation, point-of-interest and web searches. As expected, the knob has grown in size, but the additional girth isn’t a bad thing. Audi has also nixed the traditional buttons flanking the knob and instead replaced them with toggle switches to swap between navigation, telephone, radio and media. From a muscle-memory point-of-view, this should be a good thing.
The other major upgrade is under the dash, with the installation of Audi’s first Multi-Media Extension (MMX) board. This new an NVIDIA Tegra graphics processor that not only displays fantastic images and 3D animations on the ultra-thin seven-inch display, it can be swapped out as chipset technology evolves. Audi has also expanded its Google Earth integration to include Google Street View and a new iPhone cradle in the armrest boosts the phone’s signal to keep the data flowing. We were also told that inductive charging could be included in the cradle, but that might be one system that’s left on the cutting room floor. Get a sample of it all in our hands-on video .
We just wrapped up a hands-on with the prototype system (coming soon), but if you’re looking for a thoroughly updated COMAND interface, you’re in for disappointment.
