You can’t buy publicity like this. USA Today reports a California man is suing both and motorcycle seat manufacturer Corbin after a four-hour motorcycle ride left him with a severe case of priapism. Henry Wolf claims he’s had an erection since stepping off his 1993 BMW after a ride in September 2010, or some 20 months ago, if we’re counting. According to the suit filed in California Superior Court, the seat’s “ridge-like” design caused the painful condition. Wolf’s lawyer says the man is unable to engage in sexual activity, and as a result, has endured “substantial emotional and mental anguish.”
Wolf is suing for compensation from both BMW and Corbin for lost wages, medical expenses, emotional distress and general damage. Neither company has commented on the case.
General Motors and Isuzu were partners for decades before parting ways in 2006. Even now, you can find the final hangover of an alliance that gave us vehicles like the and in the and smallish pickups.
The two companies may start negotiations soon for General Motors to once again take a stake in Isuzu Motors Ltd. with commercial vehicle sales in Asia and Central and South America as the goal, reports the Japanese Nikkei business daily.
GM would go in for ten percent of Isuzu, and this deal would likely spell the end for , as well as smother any capital partnership talks with . Isuzu developed the trucks, and if lashed-up with GM again, a team effort to develop, produce and distribute pickup trucks is being considered. At ten percent, General Motors would pass Mitsubishi Corporation’s 9.2-percent stake in Isuzu to become its largest single shareholder.
North American small pickup fans probably shouldn’t get excited about this, as it appears aimed mostly at markets more suited to smaller trucks. With GM’s new full-size pickups on the horizon, the General likely wants you to forget that there are any other choices for the time being.
If you want a top-of-the-line SUV with serious performance capabilities, look no further than the Group. Its unit has had tremendous success with the , a vehicle that has doubled its sales all on its own – and that’s not even accounting for the or that share some of its underpinnings. Keen to capitalize on that success, the German auto giant is overseeing the application of the same formula to two of its other divisions: , which just unveiled its new Urus concept, and , which is working on an SUV of its own.
The British marque has been showcasing the EXP 9 F concept to preview what it has in store. It only hinted at powertrain possibilities upon its unveiling at the , but at the , it got ever so slightly more specific. Like the range, the production version of the Bentley sport-ute would pack a 600-horsepower, 6.0-liter twin-turbo W12, but offer the (relatively) more sensible 500hp, 4.0L twin-turbo V8 as well. The bigger news, however, is the V6 plug-in hybrid option which Bentley is planning for its SUV, enabling it to travel up to 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) on electric-only mode, while rocketing to 100 km/h (62 mph) in less than five seconds.
Bentley projects the variety of powertrain options will help it sell 3,000 units of the vehicle once it enters production in 2015 – the same figures sister-company Lamborghini is projecting for the Urus. To put that into context, consider that Bentley sold just over 7,000 vehicles (from its current and lines) around the world last year. That’s still a far cry from the number of Cayennes that Porsche churns out – it delivered nearly 13,000 of them in the United States alone last year – but then the EXP 9 F is expected to carry a price tag north of $200,000 (double the price of even the most expensive Cayenne Turbo) while sharing common components to make its first entrance into SUV market a lucrative one for the Flying B brand.
Scope out the fresh high-resolution images we’ve added to the gallery above for another look at the EXP 9 F (which is still expected to look different by the time it comes to production), and for the press release containing powertrain information.
Why The World’s Top Automakers Are Flocking To Beijing
Beijing’s government has had to resort to a registration lottery to hold down its growth.
Skip a couple years in , as I had, and you’re not likely to recognize it when you return, especially the capital city of Beijing. Peering out from my hotel, through the ever-present smog, new high-rises have transformed the landscape and even on the Sunday afternoon I arrived I could see and hear the construction crews at work across the city.
My first trip to China came shortly after opened its first joint venture assembly plant a dozen years ago. Back then, Beijing was a city of countless hutongs, the narrow alleys and neighborhoods where most residents once lived. Today, most of those traditional communities are gone, the few remaining ones hidden behind modern skyscrapers.
Those old streets never could have handled today’s traffic. Not that the grand new boulevards and highways are coping much better. You can still find the odd rickshaw in tourist neighborhoods. And motorcycles and electric scooters are everywhere. But today, the automobile is king, and traffic is so thick the local government has had to resort to a registration lottery to hold down its growth.
Paul A. Eisenstein is Publisher of and a 30-year veteran of the automotive beat. His editorials bring his unique perspective and deep understanding of the auto world to Autoblog readers on a regular basis.
It’s not the most pronounceable model name, but that’s not our problem, is it?
debuted its sharply styled Yundong Shuangqing hybridconcept at the today, announcing that a production version will be sold in China at some point in the future. The Yundong Shuangqing was joined on stage by the Dear Qin compact and the GT 86 rear-wheel-drive sports car.
Toyota developed the Yundong Shuangqing’s hybrid powertrain mainly at the automaker’s research and development plant in Changshu, China. “We would like to put smiles on the faces of our Chinese customers with hybrid technology,” Toyota President Akio Toyoda said in prepared remarks at the show. “I want the people of China to be able to experience the beauty of hybrid technology through a hybrid car born in China.”
In 2005, China became the first place outside of Japan where the hybrid was built when Sichuan FAW Toyota Motor Co. Ltd. started making the third-generation model. And two years ago, GAC Toyota Motor Co., which is in China’s Guangdong Province, started making the Hybrid.
Earlier this month, Honda specifically for the Chinese market under either its moniker or the brand in order to capitalize on what’s likely to be surging car sales in that country. Honda will introduce the , and Hybrids in China later this year, and will likely sell its promised hybrid-powered Acura NSX sports car in China as well.
It’s not every day that a country celebrates the diamond jubilee of its reigning monarch. In fact, this is only the second time they’re doing so in Great Britain, making the sixtieth anniversary of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II a cause for, well… jubilation. And to help with the festivities, has launched an exclusive special edition. But rather than make it another , this time it went with the top-of-the-line .
Limited to just 60 examples, the Bentley Mulsanne Diamond Jubilee Edition was unveiled not in the UK itself, but in Beijing – the capital of the country that is now Bentley’s largest market, where the automaker has just opened one of its largest showrooms, and where the is now getting under way.
For the special edition, Bentley’s own in-house coachbuilder Mulliner (which also built the unique State Limousine that carries Her Majesty about) gave the Mulsanne such special touches as gold-embroidered headrests, veneered fold-down tables in the back and leather cushions, all with the gold motif of a classic royal carriage.
The jubilant Mulsanne can be ordered in a variety of muted combinations of the colors of the Union Jack, but one would simply not discuss the matter of the bill in polite company. You are, however, invited to peruse the press release , as well as the high-resolution images in the gallery above.
Former Chairman and current investor Ray Lane is blaming Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for the delays in procuring federal loans that have been earmarked for the maker of the extended-range plug-in and the upcoming Atlantic, according to Delaware Online.
In an e-mail, Lane said Romney is mistakenly grouping the Fisker loan from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) with money given to failed companies like solar-panel producer Solyndra. Lane, managing director at venture-capital company Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, said in the alleged e-mail that he’s planning to contact Romney, whose father George Romney was once president of American Motors Corp.
The Fisker issue is particularly acute in Delaware, where the automaker had planned to expand employment and build a production version of the (a.k.a. Project Nina) shown above at a former General Motors factory. Those plans have been as Fisker sorts out its financial situation. Delaware Online reported late last week that Fisker had at the factory, which was characterized as “absolutely empty.”
The company was set to receive $529 million in federal loans but has only received a fraction of that and hasn’t received funding since last year.
When a major automaker shuts down its racing program like Peugeot did at Le Mans, it leaves a big gaping hole for everyone involved. The French automaker’s departure from endurance racing left the series organizers scrambling for another team to take its place just as it was preparing to inaugurate the new FIA World Endurance Championship. It left – the Diane Sawyer of Le Mans racing, to borrow an analogy from Talladega Nights – without its Katie Couric. And arguably most of all, it left Peugeot’s roster of highly skilled drivers without a ride.
Easily among the most talented of these drivers is Marc Gené, the driver who helped Peugeot clinch the checkered flag at La Sarthe in 2009. A longtime factory test driver for (and one time grand prix driver for Minardi and Willaims), Gené has a wealth of experience that couldn’t very well be left untapped. So it should come as little surprise that Audi has scooped him up.
Although the German automaker already has a full roster of pilots – proven race winners, no less – at its disposal, it has found room for Gené as a reserve driver. In this capacity Gené will be filling in for an uninjured Timo Bernhard to drive the #3 Audi R18 Ultra together with French drivers Romain Dumas and Loïc Duval at Spa-Francorchamps in just a couple of weeks, and will undoubtedly be on hand to jump into the cockpit at Le Mans in June should duty call.
Several years ago, we were surprised to discover that the Yugo was still being made. Sometimes dubbed the worst car in history, Serbian automaker Zastava continued producing the Yugo through 2008 when rolled off the assembly line in Kragujevac after a twenty-year production run. That was only months after inked a to buy the company and its assets, including the factory.
Now almost four years later, Fiat has finished upgrading the Cold War-era assembly plant into what it now calls its most advanced factory yet. Inaugurated just the other day by Chrysler/Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne and Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic, the former Zastava plant has undergone a billion-euro renovation, including new production shops, machinery, infrastructure, landscaping and roof over a 1.4 million square meter site.
By the end of the year, the plant will employ a workforce of some 2,400. Their first task will be production of the new 500L mini-minivan (pictured above), which is scheduled to begin delivery (at a rate of as many as 200,000 units each year) from the former Yugoslavian country to markets across Europe and around the world later this year.
At present, has the capacity, through its joint venture Changan FordAutomobile, to build about 600,000 vehicles per year in . That’s not enough to sustain the brand’s , so it makes sense that the automaker has officially announced plans to build a new facility in Hangzhou.
This $760 million expansion will bring Ford’s total investment in China to $4.9 billion, and it will double the automaker’s production capacity in that country by 2015. Ford calls this its most rapid expansion in 50 years – not surprising, given that the Chinese automobile market is expected to crest 30 million vehicles by 2020 – and it will make this region in China its largest manufacturing base outside its traditional playground in Southeast Michigan.
Ford isn’t saying what vehicle(s) it plans to build at this new Chinese plant, but it is suggesting that it will increase its available models from five to 15, along with 20 new powertrain options, by 2015. Feel free to read Ford’s official press release by .
That’s the crux of the changes in store for the extended-range plug-in electric vehicle. Changes for the 2013 model year will include a driving mode that lets drivers force the car into gas-powered, extended-range mode in situations where it’s most advantageous to switch out of EV-only mode, GM Inside News reports.
Drivers can choose the Volt’s “EV Hold Mode” in certain cases, such as when the route consists of a bunch of highway driving prior to city driving, according to the publication. Switching over to extended-range mode, in which the gas-powered on-board generator is used, would be better in that situation because high speeds drain a plug-in’s battery charge a lot more rapidly than city driving. “EV Hold Mode” is , the . The closest that U.S. drivers can do with today’s Volt is .”
Additionally, the Volt will eschew its black roof and trunk backing and will go to body colors for those parts of the car for 2013. Other improvements include a lane-departure warning system that’s becoming commonplace on many U.S. vehicles.
GM released details of the 2013 Volt following the model’s since its late-2010 debut. The automaker sold 2,289 Volts in March, a monthly record that is more than three times higher than figures from a year earlier. The Volt missed the 10,000-unit target set by GM for 2011, moving just 7,671 units last year.
is hot in China right now, and the four-ringed automaker will show its appreciation by unveiling this hot-to-trot RS Q3 concept at the later this month. Any RS vehicle worthy of the label begins with an outstanding powertrain. In this case, the RS Q3 features the same 2.5-liter TFSI turbocharged five-cylinder that is available in the , with 360 horsepower and a zero to 62 time pegged at just 5.2 seconds. The powertrain also features a seven-speed S tronic dual-clutch transmission and full-time Quattro all-wheel-drive.
The pumped-up softroader also features several RS-themed styling cues, including a black honeycomb grille that Audi says has a particularly three-dimensional appearance. The concept also features brushed and polished aluminum trim around said grille, tinted headlights and an updated bumper with graping air intakes. The little Q3 also features massive 20-inch aluminum wheels coupled with a ride height that has been dropped by a full inch.
On the inside, the RS Q3 concept displays a blacked-out theme throughout, save for one high-class exception: The seat inserts feature dark blue Alcantara inserts surrounded by Nappa leather. The same dark blue re-appears in the form of door inserts that integrate blue luminescent glass fibers.
to read over the Audi press release and feel free to click on the image above for a of the Audi RS Q3 concept.
When you think of major car auctions, you probably think of Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale. That’s the one that came to mind for us, which is why we sent Jessi and Patrick to experience its sights and sounds this past January.
Not only did they come away with what it’s like to be inside the big tents of Barrett-Jackson on the company’s biggest day of the year, they also followed the experiences of several sellers, all of whom were counting on six- and seven-figure prices for their precious pieces of metal. Did they leave the Grand Canyon State with smiles on their faces? Scroll down and watch the latest episode of The List to find out.
to watch The List #0041: Attend A Major Car Auction.
Have an RSS feed? to add The List.
Have an idea for The List? to tell us what would be on yours.
The just made its debut at the , and stuck there on its vaguely-Hofmeister-esque C-Pillar is a new version of the classic Impala mascot. The gracefully leaping African antelope is a little smoother and more rounded, but still the well-established icon it’s been since its 1958 introduction. It may seem a small detail, but changing a long-established bit of iconography is tricky. Designers must carefully balance any tweaking against recognizeability and consumer goodwill.
“We kept the stylized interpretation of the animal, and made the impala more muscular. We also added defined edges, to give the impala a sleek form and make it look like it was running fast” says Joan Kallio, lead creative designer for Chevrolet global badging, and the latest version of this chrome animal glyph is surely smoothed and stylized compared to the squiggly 1958 original. If the car is as successfully refined as its logo, the new Impala will do fine. Check out the press release after the jump.
Remember ? Back in the pre-bankruptcy days of late 2008, when the Big Three CEO’s were traveling to Washington to plead their case for funds, Ford’s Alan Mulally, General Motors’ then-CEO Rick Wagoner, and Chrysler’s former chief Bob Nardelli were publicly chastised for flying in corporate jets to the tune of $20,000 per round trip.
Two years earlier, president Mark Fields became a target of outrage when a Detroit-area TV station discovered that to ship Fields between Dearborn and his home in Florida.
Now this: The New York Times is reporting that Ford spent spent $178,571 on personal air travel for Mulally last year. While Ford no longer has a fleet of corporate jets, according to the report, it pays a charter service to transport Mulally and his kin. And that’s not all. Since this benefit is classified as “security measures,” Mulally gets off the hook for paying taxes on it, as he doesn’t have to report the benefit as income, according to the Times. , according to other reports.
While Ford refused comment, the article calls out the company for using this “common corporate tax trick” that it says robs the federal government of tax revenue from CEO’s like Mulally, meaning that taxpayers are essentially subsidizing his perks.
While the report concerns various corporate executives, it singles out Mulally, suggesting that any potential danger to Ford’s CEO has to be less than that posed to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who flies commercial airlines. The Times also says that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs “received no security services from Apple last year before he died.”
Rally driving is so reliably mesmerizing that we never lack for viewers when we post rallying footage, especially when raw engine noises accompany the raw talent. Yet we rarely come across videos that take a deeper look at who races, the private lives of privateers and the urge to ‘run what you brung’ through quiet forests with few spectators and less money. Motorsports filmmaker wants to change that.
Johnston has started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for Easier Said than Done, a full-length feature on what might be the dirtiest side of rallying – finding the money and staying in the game. He isn’t trying to fund the whole project itself, he says it’s going to happen anyway. What he wants is more capital to hire equipment and crew.
for the trailer and check out for a breakdown of the project.
Back in 2010, the small Dutch producer of exotic GTs bought an ailing from and proceeded to focus all its energies on keeping it afloat. And as if to reflect that shift in focus, changed its name to Swedish Automobile NV – or SWAN for short.
Now that Saab has gone bankrupt, however, the Dutch holding company has officially changed its name back to Spyker. Just what that means, however, when the cars are built in the UK by CPP and the sportscar business was sold last year to North Street Capital, remains to be seen.
There have been plenty of rumors surrounding the fate of and its relationship with its longtime parent company, Proton. Some are saying that Dany Bahar has been axed as CEO, that the company is undergoing bankruptcy protection, and that its involvement in Formula One has drawn to a close. Lotus itself is hard at work quashing those rumors – attributing most to the people at Caterham – but among them we have some juicy tidbits of information regarding its arrangement with the Formula One team formerly known as Renault.
Having sold most of its stake in its team to Genii Capital, Renault reverted to an engine supplier role the year before last, and Group Lotus stepped in as title sponsor, which is an interesting relationship for an automaker to have with an F1 team that it does not own or run itself – and not dissimilar to the sponsorship arrangement has with Red Bull Racing. The deal has Lotus holding branding rights, merchandising license and title sponsorship with the team.
As part of the arrangement, however, Proton granted Genii a £30 million ($48 million) loan against which Genii leveraged the team’s entire assets. So in addition to the 10 percent of the team which Proton has the right to buy at any time, it could take another 10 percent if Genii defaults on the repayment of its loan. But if Genii proves incapable of paying back Proton altogether, the Malaysian automaker could find itself in entire possession of a leading F1 team. Just what they’d do with it if it no longer owned Group Lotus, however, would remain to be seen. for the full statement.
Formula One has many homes: the Formula One Management company that controls its commercial aspects is based in London, the FIA that governs its sporting aspects is based in Paris, and you’d certainly have a point to make if you asserted its spiritual home was in Monaco. But none of these places are where its stakeholders are looking to float its Initial Public Offering. No, that place is Singapore.
CVC Capital Partners – the investment group that owns the majority of Formula One – has been toying with floating an IPO on the Singapore Stock Exchange for several weeks now, and according to reports is gearing up for the move. Both Bloomberg and Reuters are expecting that the stock issue would constitute about 20% of the business, likely to come mostly out of CVC’s end which amounts to 63.4 percent, and not that of its manager Bernie Ecclestone whose stake comes to 5.3%. (Lehman Brothers holds another 15.3%, Ecclestone’s ex-wife Slavica owns 8.5%, with the remaining 7.5% divided up between various minority investors.)
With the overall value of the business estimated at $10 billion, the 20% tipped to be offered on the open market is expected to bring in $2 billion in capital for its sellers, however CVC could opt for the minimum 15% to raise $15 billion. So… why Singapore? The vital Asian business capital has apparently been chosen to help F1 drum up support in the Far East, a region where grands prix are held in Malaysia, China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore itself.
is poised to rapidly inflate its presence in China, and it believes the way forward is through an $11 billion spending plan. “We want to revive Volvo and give the brand its strength back,” says , Chairman of Geely Automobile Holdings. Speaking with German magazine , Shufu disclosed that Geely will put up $11 billion for a new engine factory, increased research and development and technology upgrades. However, Volvo’s Per-Ake Froberg tells that Volvo itself will be providing the funds through borrowing and other means.
No matter where the funding comes from, the investment is meant to aggressively drive the Volvo brand in the Chinese market, where the Swedish brand sold about 50,000 cars last year. Geely wants Volvo to account for 20 percent of the premium car market in just three years(!) with a target of 200,000 vehicles for 2014. It’s all part of an ambitious plan to double Volvo sales over the next ten years, and for its stewardship, Geely will get a new premium brand for China that uses Volvo tech and engineering. In addition, the two brands will be combining their purchasing power to get better deals from suppliers and small engine and electric vehicle development will also be shared between Volvo and Geely.
As the last Swedish brand standing, it’s heartening to see that Geely has designs on increasing Volvo’s sales. Here’s hoping the recently voracious appetite for cars in the Chinese market doesn’t shortchange American buyers looking for Nordic iron.
Paul A. Eisenstein is Publisher of and a 30-year veteran of the automotive beat. His editorials bring his unique perspective and deep understanding of the auto world to Autoblog readers on a regular basis.
