Ford Cancels 7-Seat C-Max, 2012 VW Beetle Pricing, Maybach’s Fate, Ford Ordered To Pay $2B To Dealers
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Episode #234 of the Autoblog Podcast was our second live go-round, and we hope it was as much fun for our listeners as it was for us. We’re working hard on refining the experience as we move forward, so please chime in with your feedback about how we could make it better! Chris, Dan, Zach and Chris Paukert cover the cancellation of the Ford C-Max seven seater, pricing information for the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle, what may become of Maybach and Ford’s imbroglio over commercial truck prices to dealers. We wrap up with a a full-on interactive podcast with listener feedback in real time.
Hear how it went down live, or catch it as it happens next week at our , as well as the traditional ways we’ve always offered. We’ve embedded our Q&A module for you to scroll through and follow along, too. Thanks for listening!
Autoblog Podcast #234:
In the Autoblog Garage
Hosts: , , , Runtime: 01:24:32
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Top Gear flips the Reliant Robin – Click above to watch the video
When we think Reliant Robin, we reminisce of Jeremy Clarkson dedicating an entire segment on to as many times as possible in under eight minutes. But while Clarkson made rolling the Robin look about as easy as drinking a glass of water, it turns out that actual owners of the three-wheeled Reliant are far less likely to wreck their rides.
The Mirror reports that only 11 out of 1,174 Reliant owners have submitted a claim to their insurance company. That’s just .9 percent of owners, which compares very favorably to the 7.3 percent average in the UK. Of course, this statistic doesn’t make the Robin the poster child for safe motoring. On the contrary, many Robin owners drive their motorized trikes with the utmost care because they can flip so readily. And many others treat their vehicle as a classic car, which is a good idea considering that there aren’t many left on the road. Similar findings were uncovered when the seven million insurance claims revealed that Italian exotics, and were also very short on claims.
Hit the jump to watch Clarkson roll the Robin one more time. We can never get enough of this bit.
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Episode #234 of the Autoblog Podcast will be streamed live via (audio only) for those of you with time at 10PM Eastern tonight. Our Q&A Module is below for you to submit questions and comments beforehand, and during the show, our UStream channel’s chat window is the place to be for interacting with the crew. We’ve picked some discussion topics, but tangents are probably where you’ll have us head. Use the forum below to drop us your own feedback and questions, or vote on your fellow readers’ submissions to help determine what else we discuss this evening. You can subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast .
Discussion Topics for Autoblog Podcast Episode #234
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2011 Maybach 62 – Click above for high-res image gallery
What will become of ? That question has been rattling around the halls of headquarters in Stuttgart for some time now. But all questions will be answered, and answered soon: according to reports, the German automaker is currently evaluating prototypes and propositions for its top-end marque, and will make its decision next month.
So, what are the options? On the one hand, Daimler could kill the Maybach brand altogether. It was a notion ill conceived and even more poorly executed, taking an old platform and building a new flagship atop it. In that way, it was sort of like the , only far more costly to both the buyer and manufacturer. On the other hand, Daimler could opt for the long-time-coming proposition of contracting the production (and possibly much of the development) of a new generation of Maybachs to .
The British automaker has been linked with a future Maybach tie-in for some time now. The idea would be to have Aston produce the hyper-luxury range for Daimler at its own facility in Gaydon, Warwickshire, England – the same location that was recently expanded to accommodate from its current assembly line at the Magna Steyr complex in Austria. In return, Aston could get the platforms and engines to underpin its next generation of vehicles, including the rebirth of the Lagonda badge.
One way or another, reports indicate the decision will be made on July 1st. As to when said decision might be announced, well… we’ll just have to sit tight and find out.
Aston Martin V12 Zagato at the Nürburgring – Click above for high-res image gallery
There are plenty of things to admire about a company like , and not the least of them is that it loves racing as much as it loves making sports cars.
Take its latest product, for example. After its at the Villa d’Este concours, Aston announced that it would take the V12 Zagato for a short race at the Nürburgring and then a full 24-hour assault later this month. The first one already , and the second one hasn’t rolled around yet, but Aston has already found time to fit in an extra race in between.
After the solitary entry failed to finish the last round of the VLN series it contested at the ‘Ring, Aston will now field two entries at this weekend’s race. One team will be headed by the company’s CEO, Dr. Ulrich Bez, the other by Chris Porritt (the chief engineer on the One-77 project, along with Evo magazine’s Richard Meaden).
The race will take place over four hours from noon local time on Saturday, which you can follow on the company’s Twitter feed. But for a closer look right now, you can check out the gallery of images of the V12 Zagato from its previous encounter with the Green Hell, along with the press release .
may make more than sports cars these days, but sports cars are all that are built at its own facility. The Cygnet city car is built by (though trimmed out by Aston’s own) and the is built by Magna Steyr on a dedicated assembly line. But that last bit is about to change as the four-door coupe shifts its production to the company’s own assembly plant at Gaydon in Warwickshire, England.
The move will take effect in the second half of next year, and follows an expansion of the Gaydon facility, which itself followed the shift there from the historic compound at Newport Pagnell. Aston Martin went to lengths to stress that the shift comes about as a result of its own increasing capabilities, and not because of any failure on Steyr’s part. But whatever the reasoning, the news can’t be good for the Austrian supplier. Official announcement .
Flood-damaged cars sit in Singapore garage – Click above to view image gallery
The Orchard Road area of Singapore is filled with shopping, entertainment and high-end living. Unfortunately, it’s also filled with lots of water at the moment, and that water found its way into the parking garage of the local St. Regis Residences. Home to people with a healthy number of dollars in their bank accounts, the parking garage is, not surprisingly, filled with all sorts of exotic machines.
Those vehicles are now sitting in a rather deep puddle of water.
From the photographs in the gallery below, we spy a , Ferrari 458 Italia, , a handful of , an , a few , a and one very sad looking . The only owner who might be able to muster up a smile is the one with the keys to the .
Check out the sad car carnage in the included image gallery.
Contact during racing is typically accidental. Sometimes, however, you can’t call a crash an accident when one of the drivers involved clearly looks like he’s out to inflict a little pain. Just such a crackup occurred during a GT1 race at Silverstone this weekend when driver Stefan Mücke was a tad unhappy with driver Richard Westbrook.
About halfway through the race, Westbrook attempted to cut inside of Mücke’s Aston but the GT-R had no room, and instead went into the side of the British racecar, sending it spinning off track. Mücke regained control… but not his composure. He caught up with Westbrook and… well, to watch the clip.
There’s no question that needs to sell more cars if it is to survive in an industry rapidly centralizing into major groups. But when CEO Dany Bahar talks about looking for new buyers, he’s not talking about selling cars. He’s talking about selling the company itself.
Of course, Lotus is not Bahar’s to sell, strictly speaking. The company belongs to Proton. But the Malaysian state automaker may not have the necessary resources to provide Lotus with the synergies and shared development which Bahar identifies as crucial to Lotus’ future success.
A new report from Inside Line quotes Bahar as saying that Lotus may need to partner with a larger automaker in order to develop into a serious player in the sportscar business. All eyes are on , the Japanese automaker whose engines and other components Lotus currently uses.
The partnership could emerge as something akin to what is fostering with – that is to say, some sort of an alliance that does not involve selling the company – or could result in the brand being sold, lock stock and barrel, to the auto giant. One way or another, Lotus probably can’t go it alone.
It’s the oldest journalism adage in the book. Dog bites man, not news. Man bites dog, now that’s news. So what does this have to do with cars? We’ll tell you.
Whereas most sports racers are converted for the purpose from existing, commercially available road cars, once in a while we see a car going the opposite way. Take the , for example, which was first unveiled in concept form, then went racing at the Nürburgring, and only afterwards hit the market.
Now is following the same path with the V12 Zagato. The show car was first unveiled at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, and was fielded in the VLN race at the ‘Ring this weekend – while the and were under way elsewhere – before the final street version is released.
How the V12 Zagato actually performed hardly matters, as this initial outing was strictly for developmental purposes. But we’ll tell you anyway. It finished just five laps before it kicked the bucket. But that’s alright, because other works entries from Gaydon fared better (including a second-in-class finish for one of the factory’s V8 Vantages), and the Zagato racer will be back next month, in tandem, for a full-on assault. We’ll be watching.
Unfortunately Aston Martin has yet to release any high-res photos of the Zagato doing its thing, but we’ll keep an eye out and update you if and when it does. In the meantime you can for the official factory release and check out the existing images in the gallery below.
Hyundai isn’t letting anyone drive the Veloster yet, but like proud parents, they are more than willing to show us around the car, from top to bottom, and take us for an extensive drive around the block – as passengers.
You know what’s scary? Autonomous cars. What’s scarier? An autonomous car that can lap Laguna Seca at eight-tenths and post sub-two minute lap times all day long.
A faster, more powerful version of the Rapide? Count us in. Sources expect to find the 510-horsepower V12 from the DBS to find its way under the hood.
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Word on the street is that is developing a faster, more powerful version of its four-door, a rumor fueled by new spy shots snapped on Germany’s infamous Nürburgring. The camouflaged prototype pictured above appears to pack a revised front end and tail, with larger intakes up front and a lip spoiler and reshaped bumper around back.
Underneath the revised fascias, sources expect to find the 510-horsepower V12 from the to upgrade from the -spec 470-hp mill already in place in the “standard” Rapide. Couple this with carbon-ceramic brakes and revised suspension, and the Rapide S is starting to shape up as a real barnstormer.
In short, if the existing Rapide is a four-door DB9, expect the Rapide S to come in as a four-door DBS – suitable for carrying 007 and not just one, but three Bond girls to their next mission or exotic locale.
Having spent an afternoon whooping it up in the 500C through the winding lanes of upstate New York, wallet aside, when compared to the hardtop model, the 500C is all gain and just a pinprick of pain.
As one enterprising Leaf driver recently found out, towing the vehicle using a tow bar actually quickly charges the batteries thanks to the vehicle’s regenerative braking.
Achieving liftoff at the Nürburgring, caught in pics.
Aston Martin V12 Zagato – Click above for high-res image gallery
Some concepts debut at an auto show and are never heard from again. Some make the rounds of minor local car shows. A small number make it into production. But it’s full speed ahead for the .
The collaborative effort between and Zagato was unveiled at the prestigious Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the original DB4GT Zagato. A stunning creation, the show car handily won the award for concepts at the Italian lakeside concours. The next step? Racing.
Right from the start, Aston announced that the V12 Zagato would be hitting the race track in no less rigorous a test than Germany’s Nürburgring. And so it will, starting this weekend and returning in tandem next month for a second outing. But before it does, Aston’s released these images of the car.
The car that debuted in Villa d’Este ditched the diamond-finish wheels from the advance pictures for blacked-out ones, but it has kept the front splitter, full roll cage and sliding plastic driver’s-side window. The image above shows an even larger splitter, along with a giant rear wing. Otherwise, the racecar looks essentially the same as the coupe that won the Concorso D’Eleganza Design Award at Villa d’Este, but it’ll likely feature a full competition livery when it makes its race debut this weekend. Check out the updated image gallery and the award announcement after the jump.
1938 Talbot-Lago T150C-SS – Click above for high-res image gallery
This past weekend, the Concorso d’Eleganza returned to Villa d’Este, revealing such splendid one-offs as the , and . But at the same time RM Auctions was holding its first event at Cernobbio, selling a cadre of historically important automobiles we’ve been following for months, many of which went for multi-million-dollar figures.
Among the top sellers were the art-deco (pictured above) which sold for nearly $4.5 million, the rare four-cylinder (sold for just under $4 million), the (pictured at right) and the (each of which went for just under $3 million apiece). The top of the list also included a trio of classics from the 50s: a 1955 375 MM topped the list at $4.8M, a ‘59 250 California at $3.6M and a ‘53 250 MM at $3M.
Two of the that sold broke the million-dollar mark as well – the at $2.1 million and the at $1 million – while the sold for around $900k and $370k each. All told, some $32 million worth of classics exchanged hands at the event, the full breakdown of which you can find at along with more galleries .
HRH Aston Martin V12 – Click above for high-res image
Zagato, it turns out, isn’t the coachbuilder working on a supercar based on an : a Danish outfit called HBH is reportedly planning to build model based on the as well, but theirs will be a unique mid-engine design.
The company takes its name from its founders: Jesper Hermann, Christian Brandt and Torben Hartvig. Between them, they’ve worked on such small-run supercar projects as the , Zenvo ST1 and the .
Drawing inspiration from the and from and the in-house that followed, HBH is reportedly working Aston’s 6.0-liter V12 into a bespoke chassis.
So far HRH has only released the teaser image above, which we’ve lightened for a better view. The project is slated to be built as a solitary example for a single customer, who will retain the rights to the design as well as any prospect of its future production. In other words, if they find the right customer, they’ll build him one, but a further production run could be in the cards as well.
2011 Chevrolet Camaro SS Convertible Indianapolis 500 Pace Car – Click above for high-res image gallery
Americans began racing cars just as soon as they started to appear on our streets, as evidenced by the fact that the Indianapolis 500 has been going strong for 100 years. The U.S. Senate wanted to tip its collective hat to commemorate that momentous occasion, so our senators decided to pass a resolution officially recognizing the race for its longevity. And since it doesn’t cost anything to recognize a date, the resolution was passed unanimously.
In other interesting Indianapolis 500 news, the event’s 100-year history also coincides with the 100-year anniversary of . The company and the race are so intertwined that Arthur Chevrolet, who’s brother Louis founded the Bowtie Brand, ran the very first Indianapolis 500. Louis actually ran the race himself in 1915 and 1919, while another brother Gaston took first place in 1920. The will fittingly serve as the pace car for this year’s event.
Aston Martin shotgun by Browning – Click above for image gallery
In most situations, we’d rather be driving than riding shotgun. All the more so when there’s an in the picture. But for this particular handcrafted creation, we just might make an exception.
The shotgun you’re looking at was commissioned by British Aston enthusiast Ron Collier from Browning, the Belgian gunsmith workshop founded by a Mormon from Utah. The B25 12-gauge shotgun took a year to make, and depicts Collier’s two 80s-era V8 Vantage Volantes, along with the winged Aston Martin logo.
Since Collier has since parted with the pair of Astons, he’s selling the mint-condition firearm as well. will put it under the gavel on June 23, where it is estimated to fetch in the neighborhood of $30,000. Which may seem like a lot for a gun to an outsider, but it strikes us as a good value for a one-of-a-kind Aston Martin (of sorts).
Times change and so do trends. These days, everyone’s clamoring for more environmentally-friendly and fuel-efficient cars that even is tinkering with electric propulsion. The program is being carried out on the electric prototype. But go back nearly a century and speed was the cause célèbre du jour. And then just as now, Rolls-Royce was keen to prove its mettle. This was the car with which it did so.
As Rolls-Royce presented the first-generation Phantom to the world, it was eager to show what it could do, so the company’s managing director Claude Johnson had the crew at Crewe put this prototype together. Named in his honor, the “CJ Sports Car” featured a more aerodynamic “torpedo” coachwork by Barker. Although many experimental Phantoms followed (straight through to the aforementioned 102EX), this was the only one that the company held on to after it was done testing, and was even rumored to have been loaned out to Laurence of Arabia at one time.
10EX is expected to fetch around £400,000-£800,000 ($650k-$1.3m) when it goes up for auction on June 23 at RM’s inaugural Salon Privé auction at West London’s picturesque Syon Park estate. Joining it on the docket will be numerous other Rolls-Royce, , , classics (among others) representing the finest of historic British motoring. for the full press release.
Here’s a bit of news that’s sure to acquaint faces with their respective palms all across the motoring world: word on the web is that Aston Martin is planning to produce an all-electric version of the company’s new compact, the Cygnet. This, friends, is why people drink in the morning. The vehicle is all but guaranteed to be a reworked version of the Toyota iQ EV, as you probably figured out all on your own.
Why would Aston Martin, a company that’s built its legacy on the aching chords sung by mighty V8 and V12 engines possibly forsake the altar of internal combustion for a battery pack? The same reason every other manufacturer on the planet is dabbling in electrons – to reduce its corporate average fuel economy and slim down emissions at the same time. Does this mean we can expect some other electrified coupes from Aston Martin wearing more appropriately British bodywork? Don’t hold your breath.
We can’t wait to see what has to say about this one.
