The minivan segment has grown from fiercely competitive to downright cut-throat. With fairly new iterations of vehicles like the , , and , formerly acceptable entries like the have fallen straight off the map. This isn’t news to the Korean automaker, either. spokesman James Hope has confirmed there will be no 2013 Sedona.
But that doesn’t mean the company will stay away from the segment for too long. Hope made it clear Kia will be back with a new family hauler, though declined to share any details on the vehicle.
Odds are that means a new Sedona will come along in 2014 or so, though that’s just speculation on our part. While Kia refreshed the minivan in 2011, the changes didn’t cover much beyond a mildly reworked front fascia. The vehicle was still saddled with an embarrassing “Poor” rating in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety roof-crush test.
Announced , finally gave us some more details about the was the all-electric EV will be sold to the general public during the 26th Electric Vehicle Symposium in Los Angeles today. The important number? The MSRP for what Toyota calls a “fully equipped” RAV4 EV is $49,800 and will be available before the end of the year.
Toyota says the RAV4 EV’s range is 100 miles and that the car will charge from empty in approximately six hours on a 240V/40A charger. The new RAV4 EV has LED and halogen headlights and it has special “environmental blue” color emblems on the outside. The vehicle will be made at the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Inc., plant in Woodstock, Ontario. The first generation of the new RAV4 EV was . Our First Drive report is .
With a battery and powertrain designed by , the new RAV4 EV certainly appears to be one of the new breed of . We had heard that the RAV4 EV will be lease only, but the official press release says the car “will go on sale in late summer 2012 through select dealers, initially in four major California metropolitan markets.” Those markets are Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles/Orange County and San Diego and the news matches the rumor we heard last year, that sales about be In all, Toyota hopes to sell just 2,600 units in the next three years. , you’ve got nothing to worry about.
The folks at Motor Authority snagged some spy video of the new hitting the Nürburgring. Unfortunately, rain hit the ‘Ring first, so while there are still some potent exhaust noises emanating from the 662-horsepower ‘Stang, there isn’t a lot of tearing it up on the slick surface.
Let’s talk nemesis, namely the 580-horsepower Camaro ZL1. The battleground established, the folks turned their verbal turrets on the Shelby and fired high-impact rounds – see Exhibits and – on their way to setting an time and a “Holy smokes!” . Since there’s no reason to dawdle round the ‘Ring, we have to expect that Ford’s fly-by has some sort of recon purpose.
As many will bring up once the time is set, the Shelby has a mess of advantages on paper: more horsepower, more torque, less weight. No matter, for as Cormac McCarthy wrote, there will be blood. We still don’t know whose blood it will be, but oh yes, one of these cars is going to bleed. Embedding of this video has been disabled, so follow the link to watch the Shelby in action.
The estimates that 32,310 people died last year in traffic accidents, the lowest number since 1949.
NHTSA obtained that number though a statistical projection, which shows that traffic fatalities dropped 1.7 percent compared to 2010 numbers. The announcement, released today, also shows Americans collectively drove 1.2 percent less in 2011 – dropping 35.7 billion vehicle miles traveled. (NHTSA expects the fatality rate to drop in 2011 as well, predicting 1.09 American deaths for every 100 million miles driven.)
U.S. traffic fatalities have dropped seven years in a row, with the 43,510 people dying in traffic accidents in 2005. NHTSA attributes a number of factors to the continued decrease in fatalities including increased seat belt use and more safety devices inside vehicles.
By region, NHTSA noted that accidents in New England dropped the most, 7.2 percent, while accidents in California and Hawaii increased the most, 3.3 percent, compared to the year before.
April was a busy month for the , with over 2,500 miles added to the odometer and a heaping helping of people and things passing through its doors. When I picked up the Countryman, I was impressed by the fact that were neatly stowed behind the front seats. However, the biggest of models didn’t fare so well when the rear seats were occupied.
On a shopping day with the kids, a relatively small amount of goods proved to be far too much for the Countryman’s diminutive trunk. As a result, I had no choice but to disperse boxes at the feet of my wife and kids, which was a decidedly unpopular move (don’t let the smiles fool you). The kids didn’t love the lack of roominess, but I can assure you that my 2,500 miles were mostly enjoyable.
I got a huge kick out of the Countryman’s spirited handling, even though I didn’t find our long-termer to have the same go-kart-like demeanor of its smaller siblings. The good news, however, was that I was able to average 26 miles per gallon during my month with the Mini, with a high of 30 mpg and a very entertaining low of just over 20 mpg. But don’t blame the Countryman for that 20 mpg number – that tank of gas was all about exploring the performance limits of our smallest long-term loaner. And even so, my own average fuel economy is higher than the dismal numbers that Editor Ewing brought up in .
One thing I didn’t like about the Countryman was a sometimes jarring ride, which we’ve attributed, in part, to the dreaded run-flat tires. The throttle was also a bit odd, as the first few degrees of pedal travel felt a bit dead. It took a few days to get used to it, and it helps to always drive in Sport mode.
The Countryman did require a non-scheduled trip to the dealership during its month in my hands. After just a few days with the car, I noticed that the fan kicked on at full blast every time I turned on the car. I didn’t think much of it at first, until I came back outside one day and discovered that the fan was still on after about 10 minutes of the vehicle being turned off. The ‘check engine’ light illuminated the very next day, so off to Motor City Mini we went. As it turned out, the engine’s thermometer was on the fritz, and the dealer replaced the part under warranty. That one issue aside, we’ve enjoyed nearly 15,000 miles of carefree Mini motoring.
Our Mini will spend the month of May shuffling between a number of staffers, with a few road trips planned as warmer weather starts to grace southeast Michigan. Stay tuned to see how the Countryman fares.
Keep your eyes locked on the official for the majority of our updates, as well as the official Autoblog Twitter account (, look for the hashtag).
wants to take another look at over 24,000 vehicles it’s sold in the United States. No, this isn’t just to check out how they’re holding up in the real world, it’s to make sure the smoke coming out of the tailpipe is clean enough.
BMW is recalling a total of 24,340 vehicles from the 2009-2011 model years – roughly 2,740 2011 or 2012 xDrive50i and xDrive50i vehicles as well as 21,600 models – because some parts of the emissions system (the DEF mixer, EGR valve and SCR catalyst) can incorrectly calculate the vehicle mileage. This can cause too many emissions to come out of the tailpipe, according to the California emission control rules. The recall will start May 9. Drivers should be on the lookout for letters after that date, a spokesman told Automotive News.
Just two months ago, BMW 1.3 million and vehicles from the 2003 to 2010 model years, 368,000 of them in the U.S.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued a recall concerning 2011-2012 and models. A fuse controlling the power distribution unit for the ABS and ESC system can overheat, causing both features to fail.
Charger Pursuit vehicles were recalled a couple of months ago over the same issue and it was thought that severe usage was the culprit. However, a number of civilian reports convinced to recall all of the vehicles in question.
Chrysler will begin notifying the 119,072 owners this month. Affected vehicles can be taken to the dealer to have the fuse in question relocated, free of charge. for the official NHTSA bulletin.
BMW, , and are among the eight U.S. and German automakers that will demonstrate a single-port fast-charging system for electric vehicles at the Electric Vehicle Symposium 26 (EV26) in Los Angeles starting next week.
, , parent and will also show off the so-called DC-fast system, which will be able to recharge most battery-electric vehicles in as little as 15 minutes.
With a combination AC and DC charging capabilities, the DC-fast system is supposed to start sales by the end of the year and will enable U.S. and German plug-ins to be able to be recharged at most public charging stations while also accommodating high-powered fast-charging stations. The International Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has officially tapped the system as the standard for fast-charging.
Electric-vehicle proponents consider the establishment of a fast-charging standard to be an important key to plug-in vehicle adoption because the availability of publicly accessible fast chargers that can recharge a vehicle in minutes instead of hours makes range anxiety a moot point. Pike Research said last year that annual revenue generated by makers of electric-vehicle charging equipment will increase more than tenfold between 2011 and 2017 to about $4.3 billion.
Still, the fast-charging issue is far from settled because a separate fast-charging standard – – has been proposed by the Japanese automotive industry. , , and parent Fuji Heavy Industries are all partners in the CHAdeMO Association.
Automobile’s Georg Kacher goes deep into the product plan, looking at the 32 models that the group’s ten brands will roll out over the next five years. These vehicles are expected to drive VW to the top of the mountain in 2018, where the flag for World’s Largest Automaker awaits.
The armada is based on three platforms: MQB for transverse FWD/AWD cars like the VW Golf, MLB for the longitudinal FWD/AWD cars in Audi’s stable, and MSB for AWD/RWD front-, rear- and mid-engined cars like the 960.
Said to be due in 2015, the discussed last year as a bridge model between the and 918, but Kacher has it listed with the MSB-M platform cars like the Porsche / and , not the front-engined MSB-F or rear-engined MSB-H cars. Yet the 960 is said to be a -fighting “four-door coupe” powered by a twin-turbo flat-six. We’ll wait for clarification on the number of doors, since in September of last year, posited the 960 as a mid-engined coupe priced “on the creepy side of €200,000.”
Other intriguing notes from the plan: for VW, a coupe is planned for 2016, the might get a coupe variant, the second-generation Scirocco “has the potential” for U.S. sales and the will be replaced; is desgining an even edgier third-generation , the will experiment with e-quattro, and the next-generation will break the same-sausage, different-lengths design mold.
What has six legs, gas, weighs more than a ton and can walk over cars? , that’s what. Stompy is a project envisioned by the Robotics Intensive class at in Boston, and with your help, it could become a reality.
Stompy’s six hydraulic legs are powered by a 135-hp, propane-fueled forklift engine and can carry two passengers high above the terrain.
What are the chances of this thing coming to life? Pretty good, actually. The president of Artisan’s Asylum and leader of this project is Gui Cavalcanti, who has workd with DARPA on a to help soldiers with heavy loads.
Also on the team are Adam Bercu, two-time collegiate Battle Bots champ, robotic engineers Dan Cody and James Whong, and several others with backgrounds in open-source software and robotics.
The biggest obstacle looks to be funding, of course. After the team works up a list of stuff it will need to build Stompy, they plan to launch a Kickstarter campaign sometime around August.
It’s hard to believe that the has been on the market since 2003. That’s 10 model years ago, predating our own existence as a website. Even the XC90 mid-cycle refresh that happened in 2007 seems like an eternity ago. So it stands to reason that for 2013 would introduce… yet another year of the same old thing.
Well, not exactly. The 2013 XC90 has been “delightfully refreshed,” though we’re pretty sure that the color-coordinated exterior and LED daytime running lights were actually . But hey, don’t fix it if it ain’t broke.
Volvo has also rejiggered the trim packages on the XC90, which now starts at $39,500 plus $895 delivery. And that Yamaha-built V8 that disappeared this year? Still gone.
While you wait with us for the , go ahead and to read the full press release and check out the images in our . Then do it again. And again…
We just attended a thorough workshop covering the tech inside the next , the new compact from Ingolstadt that the U.S. gets in October 2013 as a five-door Sportback model, as well as a new four-door small sedan. A was shown at the last year, while deliveries of this European hatchback start this July.
Our first drive of the three-door premium hatchback model that will be available at launch happens later this month, though it’s sort of a shame we won’t be getting this three-door here in the States. The five-door Sportback model that will be sold in the U.S. will be shown this October at the and will be available in Western European in January of next year. The premium hatch segment is fillling up fast now with this Audi, then the Volvo V40, to be followed then by the all-new Mercedes-Benz A-Class.
We’ve taken the bone-stock down the quarter-mile drag strip at Bondurant in Arizona . The very first pass we made netted us a time slip in the mid-12-second range. That’s an impressive performance for a car wearing road-legal radial tires with zero preparation and a driver familiarizing himself with the car.
We instantly knew this car was capable of more, and wondered how long it would take before we saw our first elapsed time in the 11s. Turns out the wait is over.
itself is the perpetrator of the blazing-fast quarter mile. engineers took two completely stock ZL1 coupes to Milan Dragway in Michigan – one automatic and one manual – and recorded a best pass of 11.93 seconds at 116 miles per hour. That was with the automatic; the row-your-own model managed 11.96 at 117 mph.
Those looking to drag their new Camaro ZL1 ought to be pleased with this news. But even if your race track aspirations lean more toward a curvy strip of asphalt, the baddest production ever made has you covered. Consider its as proof of its prowess.
Likely sensing that there would be plenty of Ford fans skeptics demanding proof of its quarter mile performance, Chevrolet has released a video showing off its drag strip exploits at Milan. for the video, along with the related press release… and join us in waiting for a from .
*UPDATE: We’ve placed a call to Chevrolet inquiring whether these times were recorded on stock tires, as the press release indicates, or on drag radials. We’ll add another update as soon as we hear back.
We’ve taken the bone-stock down the quarter-mile drag strip at Bondurant in Arizona . The very first pass we made netted us a time slip in the mid-12-second range. That’s an impressive performance for a car wearing road-legal radial tires with zero preparation and a driver familiarizing himself with the car.
We instantly knew this car was capable of more, and wondered how long it would take before we saw our first elapsed time in the 11s. Turns out the wait is over.
itself is the perpetrator of the blazing-fast quarter mile. engineers took two completely stock ZL1 coupes to Milan Dragway in Michigan – one automatic and one manual – and recorded a best pass of 11.93 seconds at 116 miles per hour. That was with the automatic; the row-your-own model managed 11.96 at 117 mph.
Those looking to drag their new Camaro ZL1 ought to be pleased with this news. But even if your race track aspirations lean more toward a curvy strip of asphalt, the baddest production ever made has you covered. Consider its as proof of its prowess.
Likely sensing that there would be plenty of Ford fans skeptics demanding proof of its quarter mile performance, Chevrolet has released a video showing off its drag strip exploits at Milan. for the video, along with the related press release… and join us in waiting for a from .
With readying a this fall, is looking to play Burger King to the Bavarian automaker’s McDonald’s, launching its own kiddie-sized crossover next year. According to Car, the new model, formerly known as , is now called GLA, thanks to the marque’s .
The GLA will share a platform with the new A-Class and B-Class, riding on what Mercedes refers to as its MFA architecture. Car says the GLA will be about the same size as the , at 174.8 inches long, 70.9 inches wide, and 59 inches tall, with a 106.2-inch wheelbase – just slightly smaller than the X1. The magazine doesn’t have any specific information about what might be powering the new crossover, but says it will share powertrains with its platform-mates. This means we can probably expect the turbocharged, 208-horsepwoer, 2.0-liter four-cylinder with direct injection that we saw in the at to be fitted underhood once the GLA arrives Stateside.
General Motors is having a hard time nailing down its European operations. The automaker reported its first-quarter earnings slid by $1 billion, down from $3.2 billion in the first quarter of last year. The drop was partially attributable to a one-time loss that included changes in accounting for the automaker’s European pensions.
While GM earned $1.69 billion in North American before taxes, Opel lost $246 million in the first quarter. Surprisingly, that marks the second best quarter for the automaker in a year. Even so, GM CEO Dan Akerson said that the manufacturer’s European operations are headed for substantial revision.
Akerson said the situation is a “four-alarm fire” while speaking during a public radio interview. The executive declined to elaborate on any plans to help stem Opel’s losses beyond saying “We’re going to have to restructure again.”
In 2011, GM lost $747 million on its European operations, and with the looming debt crisis continuing to undermine consumer confidence in the EU, the company is desperate to ward off a repeat performance. Analysts believe that yet another restructuring will be a lengthy, drawn-out process, but likely won’t result in any actual plant closings.
Oh, the gas tax, always a contentious issue. We’ve covered it but now the Congressional Budget Office is reminding us that the time has come to move well beyond simple discussion and politics: the Highway Trust Fund is not getting enough money to pay for the transportation infrastructure that America needs.
As you can see in the chart above, the Fund has not taken in more money than it spent since 2001, except for one time in 2006. In 2008, 2009 and 2010, the Highway Fund got money from the General Fund to pay for things like highway repairs and various mass transit programs.
Since the Highway Trust Fund is mostly paid for by the gas tax, that number plays a big roll in how much money America has to build bridges. Before we move on, though, it’s time for a question: What was the last year the U.S. gas tax was raised? The answer and more can be .
will launch its seventh model – a two-door version of the crossover – at the later this year, and our trusty spy photographers recently spotted this prototype out testing. Many sources have stated that the car will be dubbed Countryman Coupe when it hits the market, but we’ve also heard rumors that the vehicle will wear the name that was given to the original concept that debuted at the .
Whatever it ends up being called, the two-door Countryman formula is pretty simple. The rear doors have been removed, allowing for a more swept-back roofline that integrates into an updated rear fascia. The rear end design – as previewed in these spy shots, anyway – is immediately reminiscent of the , the Countryman’s main competitor.
Mum’s the word on powertrain choices, though we’d expect the four-door Countryman’s range of naturally aspirated and turbocharged engines to carry over largely unchanged, mated to both front- and all-wheel drive. Stay tuned for the car’s official unveiling in Paris later this year.
has been , as the and its and variants have grown increasingly at odds over the past two generations. Now this gets thrown into the mix: When the new WRX gets released in late 2013, it may ditch the traditional exhaust-gas powered turbocharger for a new, electric design.
That’s right, according to The Sydney Morning Herald, Subaru is working on an electric turbo, shades of those computer-fan-sourced “power adders” you used to see advertised in the back pages of Sport Compact Car a decade ago. Except we would assume Subie-parent Fuji Heavy Industries is developing a design that actually works. According to the report, heat from the exhaust would be captured, but instead of using the exhaust pressure to turn the turbocharger’s turbine, the heat energy would be converted to electricity, which would then spin the impellers. This could be more efficient, as well as eliminating the piping and turbo lag.
While that sounds neat and all, we’re not so sure we want to see an unproven technology like this applied to one of our favorite affordable performance cars. Unless, of course, it allows for -like performance in a $30,000 car.
A Small-Scripted S Delivers Power, Performance And Pomposity
offers its to North American buyers in no fewer than eight models with six different engine choices, including a hybrid. There’s even an oil-burning available across the Pond. At one end of the spectrum is the with a very capable 300-horsepower V6. At the other end, and at the top of the pecking order, is the , boasting a 550-horsepower twin-turbocharged V8. Not only is it the most powerful street-legal Porsche on offer, but it is the world’s quickest four-door sedan. Err… hatchback.
So others are aware of the Panamera’s potential, Porsche reserves its coveted ‘Turbo’ script only for its most capable vehicles. It is indeed a badge of honor. However, the ante is upped even further when a small scripted ‘S’ is adhered as a suffix. Its addition indicates to all others that the overall performance has been boosted to flagship levels – it is a tiny yet bold badge of bravado.
To help us solve the riddle of whether or not the Panamera Turbo S is more than just an exercise in demonstrating masculine superiority within ones social circle, Porsche deposited a stunning Aqua Blue Metallic example in our driveway for a week. It was our job to put the $195,000, four-passenger neck-snapper to the test and somehow avoid filling its glovebox with citations in the process.
