The good people at Cars.com have slogged their way through sales data from April and found something interesting. The managed to walk away as the third quickest-selling car in the U.S., spending just five days on dealer lots. That figure was good enough to land it behind the and , both of which take four days to find a new homes. The plug-inhybrid has only been on sale for two months, and took the honor of being the second-quickest selling vehicle in March, according to Cars.com.
The report also took the time to look at the slowest-selling models around. Surprisingly, the sits at the top of that list, taking a whopping 250 days to turn. The isn’t doing much better. The 650i Convertible took fourth place with an average of 128 days on the lot while the 640i Coupe rounds out the top 10 with 111 days. Perhaps even more shocking is the news that there are four vehicles selling slower than the at 120 days on dealer lots. Head over to Cars.com for the full report.
Until the Chinese began producing the rather attractive MG6, the initials “MG” had been ill omens for at least ten years to all who approached them. The era of the Phoenix Four – former MG execs John Towers, Nick Stephenson, Peter Beale and John Edwards, who bought the company from its previous owners, the badly burned and hastily retreating , for £10 – was just an especially nasty capstone. Their collective £10 investment turned into millions of pounds for each of them but nary a car made before they declared bankruptcy and closed up shop. According to that cost £16.3 million to produce, however, the Phoenix Four .
After all that, there’s one more unsavory epilogue. There were 6,500 workers at MG’s Longbridge factory who left with nothing when Phoenix went bust. After everyone else took their share of the heavy amounts of cash that passed between boardrooms, there is £22,000 ($35,523 U.S.) for final payouts for the workers. That means they’ll each get a check for £2.50 ($4.04 U.S.) – it would have been £3, but according to the report at AOL UK the cost of the stamp needed to send the check comes out of the check.
Before the politics begin, yes we know this is how business works; the Phoenix Four only did what the laws of the land allowed, and that’s as far as you need to look for ruthless reason and rationale. Or you could paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson and say that some get rich and fat, others, well, don’t. Regardless, the MG trustees are appealing to the four directors to personally contribute to the worker payouts, but the odds on that are quite long.
When put down several of its brands in recent years, it also let loose thousands of brand-loyal customers who will eventually need another car.
R.L. Polk Associates estimates there are more than 18 million cars from 16 discontinued makes on the road today. Those “ owners” have sales-hungry competitors seeing dollar signs. GM is offering owners $1,000 cash toward a , or a . is giving its lease customers a chance to get out of their contracts with no early-termination penalty and offering to waive six remaining payments if they drive off in a or .
Edmunds.com research shows the efforts are paying off somewhat for GM, with 39 percent of owners, 37 percent of owners and 31 percent of Saturn owners taking delivery of another GM-branded vehicle. But that leaves as much as 69 percent of owners going elsewhere. Ford, and seem to be attracting many former GM owners.
As points out, if you’re driving an orphaned nameplate, you just might be able to use that to your advantage when shopping for a new vehicle.
is recalling certain and models around the world due to a problem with the crankshaft. Roughly 13,000 examples of these cars are currently roaming the streets, and 206 are affected by this problem.
According to Autocar, the recall has been issued due to an incorrect finish on the vehicles’ crankshafts. The British magazine states that the problem “causes unwanted vibrations which can damage the engine if it is not changed.”
“We are writing to all clients affected now, asking them to return the car to a dealer for the work to be done,” a Ferrari spokesperson told Autocar.
In the United States, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has yet to issue a formal recall notice about the affected vehicles.
Michael Bay’s Transformers were true enough (for a Bay production, at least) to the original articles in their car and robot states, but their transforming sequences were epilepsy-inducing explosions of cranks and gears that made no sense at all. Admittedly, it didn’t stop us from enjoying the first movie.
But the work of a Japanese modeler is what we’ve been looking for: his Transformer takes us all the way back to the original eightes series when Bumblebee was a . This is version eight, fitted with 22 servo motors – it even throws punches and does a jig – and we’re told that version nine is on the way. We’d like to humbly request that all research on flying cars stops, and every resource be poured into a production version of this right now. to check out the video.
Hiring a lawyer is like hiring a hitman. Except it’s not against the law. A lawyer’s job is to exert your will on your legal opponent – and on the legal system itself. So it should come as no surprise to see this evolution of distracted driving case law: The victims of a traffic accident have filed a lawsuit against both the motorist and the woman he was texting with when he caused the crash, according to the Huffington Post.
Let’s just state for the record that we have no horse in this race, which is not unlike any other personal injury suit in which the plaintiff’s attorney rounds up anyone and everyone that might be named as a defendant. The difference here, however, is that this is the first time we’re aware of someone being accused of being an accomplice to the breaking of distracted driving laws and causing a crash without even being in the car.
The driver, Kyle Best, a 19-year-old at the time of the accident, has already pled guilty to three violations of New Jersey law, including using a mobile phone while driving, careless driving, and leaving his lane, according to the report. Best hit a couple on a motorcycle with his pickup truck, resulting in both the man and woman losing their left legs. At the time, Best was exchanging text messages with Shannon Colonna, according to phone records.
The couple’s lawyer is arguing that Colonna knew she was texting Best while he was driving, and that her behavior is no different than if she had been having a conversation with him in the car, according to the report. Her attorney, however, maintains that she can’t be liable for the driver’s decision to read the text when it was not safe to do so and that she . The judge in the case is expected to decide whether Colonna can be included in the suit on May 25, according to the report.
Certainly this case is a complicated one, and could have broad ramifications on distracted driving lawsuits as well as . If the plaintiffs’ attorney is successful in bringing the texting woman into the suit, we can certainly expect that lawyers in other states which have texting bans will follow their lead.
Nevada has officially granted a license to test autonomous vehicles on public streets. The tech giant underwent demonstrations in both Las Vegas and Carson City to prove its vehicles are as safe or safer than those piloted by mere humans. The state requires two people to be in the test vehicles at all times, including at one occupant in the driver’s seat and another monitoring the vehicle via an onboard computer. If anything goes wrong, the human “driver” can take over by simply applying the brakes or taking hold of the steering wheel.
As of right now, Google has only applied to license three vehicles. Each one will carry a red license plate with an infinity symbol. According to Bruce Breslow, Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles director, vehicles with autonomous capability could be on the road within three to five years. When that happens, the machines will wear green plates.
The next-generation Subaru and are still shrouded in a cloak of secrecy. Or is it ? Either way, Car and Driver is reporting that when eventually pulls the wraps off whatever is going to wear the WRX badge, there’s going to be a turbocharged version of the 2.0-liter FA-series engine underhood, a derivative of the naturally aspirated engine that’s found in the .
How does the venerable buff book know this? Because the turbo’ed flat-four has already appeared in the Japanese domestic market , making 296 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque, mated to a continuously variable transmission. C/D says that engine differs from the one in the BRZ in that it uses Subaru’s own direct injection system rather than one coming from .
In the standard WRX, horsepower numbers are expected to be a bit lower than in the JDM Legacy, though the STI version will probably see power boosted. C/D says the new 2.0-liter engine is supplanting the 2.5-liter Subaru has been using due to fuel economy considerations, though there’s also something to the notion of consolidating powertrains to reap greater efficiencies in manufacturing.
is not an outfit that would miss out on the enormous opportunity presented by the Chinese market. Having won the grand prix there three times out of the first four it was held, the Prancing Horse marque launched a there in 2009, followed by an even more exclusive .
For 2012, Ferrari a special-edition to mark the year of the dragon, and to launch it, the local dealership in Nanjing rented out a section of the Great Wall. It’s what they did with it, however, that has local authorities seeing red in more ways than one.
Apparently at some point during or after the demonstration, an employee of the dealership got behind the wheel of the limited-edition V8 supercar and pulled some smokey donuts. The problem is that the stunt left tire marks burnt into the ancient surface, leaving authorities understandably upset. What repercussions will ensue remains to be seen, but we certainly wouldn’t want to be ticking off China’s notoriously strict government.
Autoblog reader Ed sent us from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, showing that has apparently trademarked the name for use on automobiles. It’s no secret that the Riviera name resonates well with anyone familiar with Buick’s history, and since the production coupe’s death in 1999, the name Riviera has only been resurrected once for the 2007 concept car you see here.
So, why is GM registering the Riviera name again? Your guess is as good as ours. As , it could be nothing – automakers will, from time to time, trademark a host of words or alphanumeric sequences (, for example, has trademarked everything from MKA to MKZ for potential use). But then again, this isn’t the (or , or ) time that we’ve heard rumors about potentially adding a coupe to its lineup, and the Riviera name would certainly be appropriate.
has already sold over 84,000 minivans this year, but an unfortunate few were built with defective liftgate sensors. The 471 vehicles with the bad parts include both and models, all of them 2012s built in March, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recall report.
The power liftgates are supposed to stop during automatic closing if they detect resistance, but NHTSA says the recalled vehicles could malfunction, and “may close on an appendage.” Owners should keep their arms and legs safely inside the vehicle and look for notification from Chrysler this month. Dealers will be fixing affected vehicles free of charge.
Last time we saw the non-AMG skin of the it was bathed in red paint and caked in Arctic snow and grime. Warmer times have brought new shots of a black car – which we’ll christen The Scarab – on standard wheels wearing nothing but a shine and a wisp of camo. Its shape has found a way to divide opinion, as the CLS-Class has always done, and we’ll admit that yes, perchance there’s something faintly Romulan about it, but we’re totally sold on the looks.
Right now, there’s nothing left to the imagination but the aft-most sliver of window – that final angle of chrome is an application. We expect all blanks to be filled in come the Paris Motor Show in September, which should see the reveal of the CLS550 and versions of the sleekest wagon this side of Rigel 5. The high-res gallery is above, and you should check it out.
Jeremy Clarkson did an 11-minute interview with a South African radio station that has a name to match its geographic location. Clarkson discussed what it took to make the Top Gear segment that had them circuit on a race weekend, the coming Ron Howard movie Rush about the 1976 F1 battle between Niki Lauda and James Hunt and Top Gear Festival 2012 “with an array of cars that has never been seen anywhere.”
But what has caught everyone’s attention – everyone except for the radio interviewer, that is – was Clarkson saying that the festival would be “about the only time” he, Hammond and May would work together in 2012 because “there’s no Top Gear this year.” There’s below, the bombshell at about 8:10. Since it’s all a bit confusing, Mr. Clarkson himself has set the record straight via , confirming that Top Gear will return in January of 2013, though there will be a Christmas special some time before that.
The reason petrolheads will be missing out on their BBC fix? Simon Cowell, apparently. “Sunday nights will be full of fat people singing,” said Clarkson. “Top Gear is a medium size van. Cowell is a juggernaut. When he has finished his singing competition, our new series will start.”
Baby Buick Makes Quiet Case As An Almost-Luxury Car
It’s no secret that is one of the most prominent automakers in , but the vehicle that’s leading the charge in the People’s Republic may come as a surprise. The top-selling car in the world’s largest auto market last year was the Buick Excelle, a C-segment sedan that just so happens also to be a version of the that’s now on sale here in the United States.
The Verano has only been on sale here for a few months, but as you might expect, U.S. buyers aren’t quite as excited about the latest Buick offering as our Chinese counterparts, at least not in the early going. March sales came in at a modest 2,497 units (the Excelle family scored 23,179 April sales in China), making the Verano the least-purchased Buick for that month, while April’s 2,989 units were just enough to beat the in Buick’s sales portfolio. Do Chinese buyers know something that we don’t, or does the littlest Buick just need time to win us over?
Our spy photographers have given us our first clear glimpse at the upcoming . While the test machine we see here wears some camouflage, there’s little hiding the small CUV’s roof line.
Based on the , the Macan will boast plenty of suspension tweaks by the minds at Porsche to put the crossover more in line with the sports car maker’s stable. Likewise, while the Macan will borrow a host of gasoline and diesel powerplants from the parts bin, each one will be tuned for more horsepower than we’ve seen so far.
There’s also some indication that Porsche may lift the hybrid system from the Q5 into the Macan’s bones, as well. That means buyers would see a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder coupled to a 44-horsepower electric motor.
Porsche may also look to offer a more athletic three-door version of the Macan later down the line to more effectively compete with the likes of the .
If you put us in charge of development, we’d have demanded more power, less weight and improved fuel efficiency. We now know that the new 265-horsepower, 2.7-liter boxer six is capable of producing 10 more ponies than the outgoing model, and overall tonnage was slashed by 55 pounds, so the base model is already two-thirds of the way toward our vision.
Car and Driver reports that the most affordable has completed the wish-list trifecta, announcing a significant fuel economy bump. The base 2013 Boxster will boast an EPA-estimated 22 miles per gallon in the city (up two mpg) and 32 mpg on the highway (up three mpg), but only when equipped with the PDK transmission. The manual-equipped Boxster will achieve still-impressive 20/30 numbers, up one mpg and three mpg, respectively.
Noticeably absent is any mention of Boxster S fuel economy. We’re suspecting the 315-horsepower, 3.4-liter flat-six will also deliver significant fuel economy improvements, but perhaps a number shy of the 30-mpg mark.
If you read the owner’s manual of your car you’d begin to realize how much of your own vehicle you didn’t know about. If it’s a car made within the past few years, then the owner’s manual covering the dirty bits will be joined by an even thicker manual that covers just the infotainment system. , however, has a better way for buyers to learn the CUE-powered mysteries of the $44,995 XTS: give owners an iPad with the car, loaded with tutorials on how to get the most out of the system.
Yes, when the was introduced it installed with a multimedia version of its owner’s manual. Based on Wired’s discussion with Cadillac, however, this is much wider implementation, with each Cadillac dealer required to have two “certified technology experts” on duty, plus a CUE call center for owners, an online media team looks for CUE questions to answer, and a mobile CUE specialist who makes house calls. The point seems to be that this isn’t about getting an iPad with your car, it’s about understanding ever tech thing your car can do. If you still don’t know how to access the full power of your XTS, it will only be because you don’t want to.
In 2011, commenced its People’s Car Project in China to create crowdsourced concepts of the VW of the future. More than 33 million people visited the site, and three concepts were created from the inputs: the Music Car, the Hover Car and the Smart Key.
The Music Car is a wrapped in LEDs that change colors to match the driver’s choice of music. The Hover Car is a zero-emissions two-seater that, no surprise, hovers over electromagnetic road networks. The Smart Key is Big Brother for your car, in your pocket: the high-def touchscreen on the nine-millimeter key can track the status of your car and keep an eye on it via “satellite transmission.”
The project is continuing, so you can still post your thoughts to VW’s future. In the meantime there’s a video and a couple of press releases for more on the story.
’s People’s Car Project in China has produced three concepts [w/video]
If you’ve never laid eyes on a Vespa ACMA, allow us to introduce you. Manufactured for use in World War II, the scooter came equipped with a small cannon designed to launch rocket-propelled grenades.
Soldiers found an advantageous firing position, deployed stabilizers, plucked a grenade from a stylish wicker basket and fired upon the enemy, which, we should point out, was probably rolling happily along in a tank. Vespa ACMA, thy name is David. For obvious reasons, ACMA examples are plenty scarce. You can still find them, though, and if you want one to call your very own, we have good news for you.
The ACMA-obsessed crew over at Hemmings found an original example stored at a Messina military camp for the past 30 years. While the cannon has been deactivated, the rest of the Acma is in original and complete condition right down to the khaki green paint. If you like what you see, you’d better get your check book ready. This particular version is up for auction with an estimated final bid of $16,000 to $20,000. Head over to the for more information.
Typically when an automaker releases a new car, we see it in a press release (whether embargoed for later release or not) before it pops up on their public-domain website. But not this time.
The car in question is the DBS Ultimate, a vehicle whose arrival we were . Like the Ultimate edition of the Vanquish that came before it, the Ultimate is a harbinger of the vehicle’s departure from the catalog. A new model is expected to arrive in celebration of the company’s centenary next year, but before it does, the last few customers will have the privilege of owning one of the few Ultimate editions of the DBS that will ever be produced.
We’ve yet to receive word on just how many those will be, or what they will cost, but we can tell you that each car will be individually numbered. They will also feature special badging, a painted rear deck-lid spoiler, carbon-fiber wing mirror caps, a darkened grille, smoked tail-lamps, Zircotec-coated tail pipes and a choice of yellow, black or red brake calipers.
The interior is decked out in diamond-quilted stitching on the leather seats and Alcantara headliner in either red or silver thread. Buyers will also be able to choose between three exterior paint finishes – Carbon Black II, Quantum Silver or Silver Fox – and order theirs in either coupe or Volante convertible body-styles and with either a manual or automatic transmission.
We’ll have to wait for that press release to come out to bring you more information – particularly on pricing and availability – by which time they’ll all likely to have been spoken for. But you can check it out now on the company’s or in the screen caps we’ve assembled for you in the gallery above.
