The Great Story of 2011 looks hellbent on running straight on through the new year and well into the future, despite the fact that the automaker has and hasn’t produced a vehicle in what seems like ages.
Rumor has it that Saab administrators are receiving interest from some unknown entities from Turkey (with supposed backing from the Turkish government) as well as India’s in some sort of brand-revival strategy.
As you may recall, , ex-parent of the Swedish brand, with Saab’s various Chinese partners, fearing its hard-earned technology could fall into the wrong hands – which is to say, any hands other than SAIC’s, GM’s official Chinese partner. But that doesn’t necessarily preclude Turkish or Indian ownership.
That said, reports from Sweden seem to indicate that Hans Bergqvist and Anne-Marie Pouteaux, the two administrators in charge of Saab, have turned down a request to meet with Lars Carlstrom on behalf of Mahindra. The gist of the gossip grinder is that the administrators don’t want to have anything to do with Carlstrom due to his past association with Russian billionaire .
In any case, we’d wager that neither the Turkish concern nor Mahindra would make a full-out purchase of the brand. It seems more likely that Saab’s most desirable assets would be its manufacturing capabilities, tooling and in-house technology. Stay tuned for more as this story develops.
Figuring out post-doomsday scenarios can make for hours of fun, but short of a cinematic “Kill them all!” they’re rarely that accurate. That’s because we never know which entrance doomsday is going to use, and the big doomsday is often followed by little doomsdays (as this year’s Japanese earthquake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown should have taught us yet again). Still, that hasn’t stopped Automotive News from taking a look at what might happen to European carmakers in case Italy, Spain and Greece leave the euro zone.
One scenario sees the German automakers suffering but Italy’s Fiat faring slightly better. A strong euro, or if the zone completely implodes, an even stronger German Deutsche Mark would cripple the export earnings of , and by double digits. Conversely, a weak Italian lira that could be further devalued and printed at will might make Fiat more competitive against its northern rivals. Or maybe Fiat wouldn’t do so well, since consumers would be practically allergic to major purchases, and the already soft demand in Southern Europe might crater such that “There might not be an Italian-made Panda.”
In Europe, the prediction is that there would be no winners, not even Spain’s Seat, which, like Italy’s Fiat, might benefit from currency devaluation. The brands with a chance of reaping some benefit: , , and , whose industrial economies are safely distant from the economic fallout. From a purely industrial standpoint, that’s reasonable – but if Europeans are scared to buy Fiats and no one knows what currencies are really worth from week to week, we suspect there will be plenty of pain to go around for everyone.
Over the summer, we posted on by students at the Tennessee Technical Center-Nashville and Nashville State Community College: prepare a 400-horsepower, 5.6-liter V8 from an for seafaring duty in a 20-foot Chris-Craft.
The engine’s transformation is nearly complete, but it seems the boat needs a great deal more work. The pleasure craft, which dates from 1962, has already has three other marinized engines from car manufacturers, a and two Hemi powerplants. The gents at Freeport Boat Outlet in Freeport, Maine are overseeing the wooden hull restoration and have said that 85 percent of the mahogany will need replacing.
When it’s finally finished, the QX lump with water-cooled manifolds and a closed cooling system will be mated with a ZF/Hurth marine transmission and tested back at HQ. Assuming all goes well, the hull will get an SUV’s worth of Infiniti luxuries and be married to its engine. In the meantime, the name of the boat is being put to the public, so have a read of the press release for all the details. Then, come summer, keep an eye out for a very slick watercraft plying Tennessee’s lakes.
“Are you that drunk,” the officer asks, “that you did not realize that your car was on fire and you were sitting in a burning car?”
With smoke pouring from under the hood of the Bonneville, Officer Eric Hornbacher of the Grand Rapids, MI, police force had just helped the driver from his vehicle, incredulous that he was unaware of the potentially life-threatening situation.
According to Mlive.com, the police were summoned to the fiery sedan shortly after four in the morning, when neighbors raised the alarm about a vehicle that had been revving its engine for an hour. Apparently the driver, who was later arrested, had fallen asleep with his foot on the gas pedal, according to the report. The car was already on fire when the officer pulled him out, but it wasn’t a minute or two after he had removed the driver that the entire vehicle was engulfed in flames.
“It is a good feeling knowing that he’s okay,” Hornbacher told Mlive, “Granted he went to jail that night, but at least he went somewhere.”
Watch the crazy police dash-cam video and an interview with the officer .
Automakers are being pinched to increase safety and improve fuel efficiency, but those two goals often work against each other. That could change thanks to a material that is 99.99-percent air.
Ward’s Automotive reports that the California Institute of Technology, HRL Laboratories and the University of California-Irvine have combined to develop a micro-lattice material that is said to be 100 times lighter than Styrofoam and strong like steel. We’d call this material paper-thin, but the truth is even more impressive: the material is comprised of tiny woven tubes that are 1,000 times thinner than a human hair.
The is obviously interested in this material for top-secret projects like next-generation aircraft, but the micro-lattice is also of great interest to the auto industry. The material could greatly reduce weight and drag, which would in turn significantly increase efficiency. At the same time, the material can reportedly almost completely recover after stress of up to 50 percent and has impressive energy absorbing characteristics. That means the material could also be a safety asset, which is good news for automakers and consumers.
Cal Tech Professor Julia Greer adds that the material could ultimately replace any non heavy-steel component that isn’t already light in weight. A material with less air would reportedly be the next step in the evolution of lightweight metals, and the scientists are working on a nano-lattice that can do just that.
We don’t know much about these micro and nano materials, but we’re guessing it will be a while before the materials are inexpensive enough for automotive applications. But if the U.S. government and airplane manufactures can jump aboard and bring down the manufacturing costs, we could see this type of material helping automakers achieve those 50+ mile per gallon fuel economy standards. For more information and a demonstration of the micro-lattice’s properties, check out the videos after the jump.
Pretty much every timeTop Gear host Jeremy Clarkson opens his mouth these days, someone takes offense, which does make it hard to tell whether Clarkson is actually offensive.
The latest complaints have come after the , in which Clarkson and his posse go to India on a “trade mission.” According to The Telegraph, the BBC has received 23 complaints about the show, in which Clarkson is charged with making insensitive remarks about Indian clothing, trains, food and history.
Clarkson’s “funny” bits on the show included dropping his pants in front of Indian dignitaries and outfitting a XJS with a toilet seat and then driving around Indian slums, according to the report. Clarkson reportedly described the Jag as “perfect for India because everyone who comes here gets the trots.”
While we haven’t seen the episode, we do know that the XJS has a reputation for crapping out with some frequency. Before you fire up the torrents, check out the episode trailer .
As much as I detest the winter months here in Detroit, the truth is, I’m kind of bummed that we’ve only seen about a half-inch of snow so far this season. In fact, I was happy that our most recent snowfall actually started to stick to the parking lot across the street from my loft, simply so I could capture this photo of our with some powder on the ground. Two hours after I took this picture, it had all melted. Sigh.
So why, if I hate winter so much, do I wish there was snow outside my door? I’m extremely eager to see how our – now riding on winter tires – will fare in the slushy, wintry sludge. A proper set of snow shoes, relatively short wheelbase, decent ground clearance and all-wheel drive are a perfect combination for winter prowess, and darnit, I want to go play.
Still, in the three weeks that the Countryman has been under my watch here in Detroit, I’ve learned a lot about the big since way back in August 2010.
If Fido can distinguish people and other pooches by their backsides, why not a seat? When students at the Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology in Tokyo, Japan asked that question, they came up with a car seat fitted with 360 sensors that makes a map of the pressure applied by your posterior. Among the six rumps tested, the seat was 98 percent accurate at sorting one from another.
The ultimate aim is to work with automakers to develop an anti-theft solution that would be available in the next few years. With such a small testing pool, it’s too early to start asking the difficult questions about real-world viability (especially when you start to factor in things like different articles of clothing, , and so on), but we have a feeling this kind of technology will find an application somewhere.
Federal judge Lawrence J. O’Neill of the U.S. District Court in Fresno has stopped implementation of a California law that favors fuel producers with lower greenhouse gas emissions as part of the production process. reports the judge has ruled that the regulation is an over-reach on California’s part, one that attempts to regulate what goes on outside the borders of the state (it “unconstitutionally discriminates against out-of-state producers”).
The intention of the law was to crank down greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the start of the next decade. The laudability of the goal isn’t in question, but the ruling holds that it’s unconstitutional for California to discriminate, and the state cannot dictate farming methods for biofuel raw materials or the source of electrical energy for refineries. Ethanol, trucking, and farming interests all opposed the law in the first place, as well.
in a effectively sealed his place in the hallowed halls of stunt driver lore. As it turns out, actually pulling off a 360-degree barrel roll in a vehicle is one of the most challenging stunts one can perform. Driving on two wheels? Cakewalk. Knocking down a series of ? As easy as sucking pea soup through a crazy straw. The barrel roll requires stacks of mathematical calculations to account for everything from the vehicle’s weight to its speed and the exact rotation angle of each ramp.
But Dyrdek wasn’t the first guy to successfully execute such a bit of insanity. He’s one of a select few stunt drivers to do the deed, and Popular Mechanics has taken a look at those who have tackled the automotive barrel roll in the past. Dyrdek’s stunt was actually an almost exact replica of the Astro Spiral Jump as performed in 1972 at the Houston Astrodome. That exercise used a significantly classier AMC Javelin, however. Head over to to check out the video series and click for a clip on the Astro Spiral Jump.
We report on a lot of recalls, and most are seemingly innocuous defects that require the solar system to perfectly align before anything catastrophic could happen. Then there are recalls like this one for the that appear to be much more dangerous than they probably are.
It turns out that let a few Sonics built between June 2 and November 21 leave its factory in Orion Township, Michigan minus a brake pad. General Motors claims that of the 4,873 Sonics built during that time, some 20 to 30 may be missing either an inner or outer front brake pad. The company says 4,296 of the potentially shoe-less Sonics were sent to the U.S., while 577 migrated north to Canadian customers.
A car minus just one inner or outer brake pad doesn’t lose its ability to stop, but its braking performance will suffer and there is the possibility that other elements of the braking system, like the caliper or rotor, could be damaged as a result of their omission.
GM vows to notify all potentially affected Sonic owners and install any missing pads and, if necessary, replace any calipers or rotors free of charge.
puts out APB on missing Sonic brake pads, issues recall
Ever since the unexpectedly became the Xerox of hybrids and a greenie icon, has been trying to figure out how to apply the technology to its other models. Its results have been decidedly mixed, nowhere more so than with its luxury lineup. But with the 450h, Toyota thinks it has finally figured out what a hybrid luxury car should be.
From a sales perspective, the first-generation GS 450h was a disappointment. While a couple years ago, Lexus just hasn’t been able to move the metal. Introduced to much fanfare in 2006 as a 2007 model, the GS was Lexus’ second hybrid and the first rear-wheel-drive hybrid on the market. Lexus touted it as a performance sedan, even as Toyota was heavily marketing its hybrids as fuel sippers. Whether or not, they never took to the hybrid GS. Sales peaked at just below 1,800 in that first year and have gone down in each successive year. In 2010, Lexus sold barely 300 GS hybrids, roughly four percent of total GS sales, which were about 7,000.
The cognitive dissonance presented by Lexus hybrids has been an issue since the brand launched its first, the 2006 SUV. Only marginally more powerful than the standard RX, its improvement in fuel economy was similarly slight at launch. The – the brand’s halo car before the sports car came along – is a six-figure, 20-mile-per-gallon hybrid marketed as having V12 performance with V8 fuel economy, the rough equivalent of ordering a Diet Coke with your Super Size Big Mac Extra Value Meal. The “Lexus Prius” , with neither particularly good fuel economy (35 mpg combined) nor any sporting aspirations, has been a critical and sales disaster and is . While Toyota’s simple, “better mileage” definition of its hybrids is clear, Lexus has combined green machine and muscle car in varying doses, such that you never quite know what you’ll be getting with a gas-electric Lexus.
The made for a big story internationally, but in true Autoblog fashion, we were just as interested in the that figured prominently in the procession. Of particular interest was a 1970s limousine that carried the deceased leader’s casket – but not because it was some sort of rare classic that would fetch millions at .
Instead, many wondered how the North Koreans managed to obtain the vehicle in the first place. After all, the U.S. and North Korea aren’t exactly cozy, as evidenced by the 58-year old armistice that is still in effect. Was it a Russian ride that was converted to look like a Lincoln? Was it a genuine Lincoln smuggled into the country?
The good folks at TheDetroitBureau.com did some digging, and they think they’ve found the answer. TDB contacted the former head of Ford of Japan to ask how the vehicle could have ended up in North Korean possession, and the answer could stem from a rogue dealer from Japan. Their source claims that one or more Japanese Ford dealers was rumored to be shipping vehicles to North Korea, in spite of Japanese laws that forbid exports to the communist country.
There is no way of knowing if this educated guess is the definitive explanation of how Kim Jong-il’s Lincoln ended up in North Korea, but it’s certainly as as good as any we have heard.
The world would be a much happier place with a little more De Tomaso Mangusta. The Pantera predecessor featuredsexy Italian styling, V8 power and properly scary handling. Only 401 units were built between 1967 and 1971, making the gull-wing machine a proper unicorn for any collector of Italian absurdities.
One designer and illustrator has taken it upon himself to envision what a modern interpretation of the Mangusta might look like. The result is the Mangusta Legacy. Maxime de Keiser wanted to preserve the vehicle’s low-slung, wide stance and give the Legacy an “impression of wild ferocity.”
We like the sound of that.
The illustrator’s design sketches and renderings look top notch. With its aggressive side air inlets, fiercely-raked windshield and pop-up rear wing, the machine looks like it could roll off of a production line any second. We dig it. Head over to for a closer look.
was once the unquestioned lead sled dog when it comes to the Consumer Reports “Recommended” list, but the automaker and the consumer advocacy group have had a bit of a falling out over the past couple years. In 2010, the publication as a result of Toyota’s unintended acceleration controversy. In January nearly in overall Recommended ratings.
We’re on the verge of a new year, and it appears that the Toyota is getting back on CR’s good side. Bloomberg reports that the February issue of CR reveals that the has scored the coveted tag. The non-profit lauded the Camry for its improved interior and fuel economy, along with an upgraded ride. The four-cylinder Camry averaged 27 miles per gallon during CR testing, tying the for most efficient in the mid-size segment.
We’re quite certain that the 2012 Camry would have sold like gangbusters whether or not it was Recommended by Consumer Reports. But at the same time, CR subscribers seem to really like their Toyota models, so it certainly helps to have a thumbs-up from the powerful publication.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so is rolling some new anti-theft technology into it’s flagship . While the ‘Sclade is pretty long-in-the-tooth these days, it’s still .
The new securityfeatures include a new encryption system for the key, key cylinder and ignition system, a beefier steering column lock, an inclination sensor to sound an alarm when the vehicle gets towed, a shock sensor, and a new wheel lock system. And of course, Escalades already come with OnStar, which is capable of remotely locking the ignition and tracking the vehicle if it does go missing.
The United Autoworkers Union is struggling – and it is the first to admit it. With its membership dwindling after three decades of workforce cuts by , and General Motors, the union has pinned its future on organizing one of the transplants. Efforts to convince workers at Japanese-owned plants, like the factory in Smyrna, Tennessee, have fallen on deaf ears in the past, but there’s now hope that the UAW might succeed at one of the newer German-owned plants.
According to Reuters, the union is targeting the plant in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, and the plant in Chattanooga. The UAW’s strategy reportedly involves seeking assistance from IG Metall, the powerful German labor union that helped the UAW organize a VW plant in Pennsylvania in the 1970s. Reuters says the German union has a vested interest in helping the UAW, in that it does not want non-unionized workers at the German-owned plants in the United States to be able to undercut it on labor costs. If IG Metall can pressure the German carmakers not to oppose the UAW, the American union would have an easier time getting workers to vote for it, or at least that’s the thinking.
Yet even with IG Metall’s help, the UAW faces a historic challenge in organizing in the South, where the word “union” is regarded about the same as it was during the Civil War. And time is running out, according to the report, which says the UAW has been dipping into its strike fund since 2006.
We all got a little excited when news emerged that De Tomaso was being reborn. After all, what could it hurt to have another storied Italian exotic automaker in the world, right? But then came the Deauville.
Though the Pininfarina-penned shape wasn’t exactly hate-worthy, the emergence of a crossover to revive the De Tomaso marque was rather disappointing. The architect of the company’s revival, veteran auto exec Gian Mario Rossignolo, promised more exciting products to come, but nearly a year later we’ve yet to see anything more.
This latest development could come as good news, then, even if it seems bad at first. Rossignolo has reportedly sold the rights to the Deauville’s production to a Chinese company. Considering that it has, for the time being, been the only product De Tomaso has shown, that would seem to mean the entire house of cards has come crashing down. But, looking at it another way, Rossignolo and company have just managed to raise some 12 million euros (over $15 million) to (hopefully) finance the production of the Pantera, all the while offloading the burden of the lackluster Deauville at the same time.
Jay Leno had a very special guest stop by his garage recently. Peter Mullin and his Pebble Beach-winning took the time to visit the comedian and car enthusiast for a brief spell. It’s no secret Leno is a fan of ’30s French vehicles, and the Aerodyne holds a special place in his heart. The vehicle was a marvel of innovation when it debuted, featuring a 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder sleeve-valve engine, a mechanized retractable hardtop sun roof and an interior that could have only been designed by a Frenchman.
Leno and Mullin spend plenty of time discussing the vehicle’s origin as well as Voisin’s colorful past. The engineer began his career designing aircraft, and claimed he was the first person in history to successfully engage in powered flight. He took off, flew and carefully landed his plane 18 months after the Wright brothers sailed along in Kitty Hawk, but received no recognition for his accomplishments. Interested in more? to check out the video.
A police officer and several restaurant goers were lucky to escape injury Christmas Eve. According to news reports, Taos County, New Mexico Sheriff’s Deputy Nicholas Lamendola was responding to a call on the evening of December 24 with his lights and sirens blaring when a vehicle pulled in front of his police vehicle. Lamendola was traveling at a high rate of speed when he struck the vehicle, bounced over a snow bank, spun through a parking lot and rolled onto the patio of the El Prado restaurant. Moments earlier, patrons were waiting for a table on that very patio.
The deputy’s vehicle was leaking fuel, and bystanders were quick to pull an open fire pit from the scene before removing the officer from the overturned Tahoe. Beer cans were found in the vehicle, but local police insist Lamendola wasn’t drinking. The deputy is said to have borrowed the SUV from another officer who had just responded to an open container call. Lamendola wasn’t submitted to a blood test. for a news report on the crash.
