The is off to an impressive sales start in Japan. According to Subaru, the two-door is besting the automaker’s sales projections by wide margins. As of right now, has sold 3,551 of the coupes, which is around four times the company’s estimates. Fuji Heavy Industries put out a very conservative number of 450 units per month as a sales goal for the BRZ before the vehicle hit the market.
Perhaps more interesting is the fact that a whopping 60 percent of buyers are under 40 years old, and two-thirds of all BRZ owners are opting for the six-speed manual gearbox. Those numbers are particularly impressive given the reports indicating a declining interest in cars and driving in Japan’s youth. According to the company, over a quarter of buyers are under 30.
BRZ sales kick off in the U.S. on April 20, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see similar demand levels in our neck of the woods, at least initially. .
Not to be outdone today by Ford’s debut of a , has taken the wraps off its redesigned .
The big news is all up front, where the 2013 Traverse features what Chevy is calling the new face of its crossover utility vehicles. It includes a three-bar upper and two-bar lower grille design, as well as a “powerdome” hood, though no changes have been made to the direct-injected 3.6-liter V6 underneath. Though everything was redesigned ahead of the A-pillars, the rest of the body was left alone until you reach the D-pillars. Aft of those you’ll find a redesigned rear end with new taillights and liftgate and a relocated license plate pocket.
Chevy has tinkered with the interior too, but not much. The Traverse’s biggest selling point has always been its voluminous interior passenger and cargo space, and that hasn’t changed. The most noteworthy addition inside is that of MyLink, GM’s branded infotainment system that supports Bluetooth voice and audio, as well as apps like Pandora and Stitcher.
Minor suspension adjustments round out the rather short list of changes for this mid-cycle refresh. The segment’s current leader is the aforementioned , which sold around 135,000 units last year. The Traverse wasn’t too far behind with sales surpassing 107,000 units. Our guess is that these 2013 model year changes probably aren’t enough to unseat the Explorer, but should be enough to keep the Traverse selling well in this quickly growing segment.
It’s going to be a big year for , which will soon be reloading its model lineup with the new and XTS sedans. The compact slots in below the , while the larger 2013 XTS aims to take care of traditional Caddy buyers looking for immensity above all else. While at diametrical ends of the spectrum, the two new models will share a technology package that all revolves around a new seat.
General Motors is throwing around fifty-cent words like “haptic” and phrases like “directional tactile sensation” to describe its new Safety Alert Seat, which vibrates to warn the driver of potential dangers like wandering out of one’s lane. The seat employs two electric motors to create its directional feedback, and it’s at the center of both safety packages Cadillac will be introducing this year. The first is aimed at merely providing the driver with safety alerts, while a more comprehensive suite will also offer vehicle intervention. Cadillac is using six radar sensors, eight ultrasonic sensors and two vision cameras to drive the new safety systems.
The Driver Awareness Package will debut with the launch of the XTS in the spring and offers the seat, Forward Collision Alert, Lane Departure Warning, Side Blind Zone Alert and Rear Cross Traffic Alert. In the fall, Cadillac will begin offering the Driver Assist Package, which adds Adaptive Cruise Control, Front and Rear Automatic Braking, and Automatic Collision Preparation. Both packages will also be offered on the crossover, details of which we expect to hear about at the . Click to read more and to view two demonstration videos.
Being a bus driver in China must be awful. Lots of traffic, lots of people, no tipping. And the job has just gotten worse in Jinghua, where a bus company has instructed its drivers to please stop hitting expensive supercars.
To illustrate the point, with supercar logos to watch out for and how much the associated cars were worth. Hit a Lamborghini, you’ll be out 5 million yuan (almost $800,000 USD). And right there, the last vestige of fun was taken away from the under-appreciated Chinese bus driver.
The poster even includes the logo, which can’t possibly be all that common in China. Odder still is the omission of the insignia, which we take to mean it’s open season on Boxsters and Caymans.
As a rule, Hurst used to be a company that was more than happy to partner with just about any automaker that walked through the door. While we’re plenty familiar with vehicles like the Hurst Oldsmobile 442, more obscure relics like the 1980 Hurst Shawnee International Harvester Scout and this Jeep Jeepster Commando also populate the pages of the company’s history books. Details like one very patriotic stripe package, a hood scoop and a hood-mounted tachometer all help set this Jeepster apart from its kin. Of course, a Hurst gated automatic shifter and appropriate badges are also part of the package.
This particular example is up for bid with only a few hours left on the auction. The price has inched up to $7,500 with the reserve still not met. With a shave over 73,000 miles on the odometer and one of the cleanest Jeepster bodies we’ve ever seen, this particular Commando is a little bit of work away from being a unique museum piece. Head over to for a closer look.
has big plans for the New York Auto Show next week, notably with the reveal of the replacement for the aging . The new vehicle, which will likely be called the RLX, will still make use of a V6, all-wheel drive powertrain, but will rely on electric motors to spin the rear wheels.
Car and Driver reports the system will actually be lighter than the components found on the current RL while still offering torque-vectoring capability. Acura has already gone through the pains of registering the RLX name with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, and the move seems to be part of a larger effort to expunge two-letter names from the company’s stable.
With the RL on the way out the door, the is the last of the old guard still hanging around, and word has it that model may be on the short list for execution as well. As Car and Driver points out, Acura is also in the process of registering the TLX name.
We have to wonder if the name swapping will do the company any good. From our vantage, it seems like Acura is simply swapping one meaningless moniker for another. Expect to see more details emerge as we get closer to the 2012 New York Auto Show next week, but in the meantime, feel free to peruse the brief press release .
made all kinds of news during its recall woes, with one headline item being the it paid to the . The charge was levied by NHTSA because it considered Toyota tardy in announcing its recalls, and was almost twice the additionally record-setting $16.4 million fine that Toyota paid to address the recall itself. According to a report in Reuters, though, NHTSA Administrator David Strickland believes that such fines aren’t strong enough deterrents for automakers.
Currently the maximum fine the NHTSA can levy per infraction is $17 million. Due to last year’s climate catastrophes, Toyota’s profit for its 2011-2012 fiscal year is expected to drop 42 percent from the year before, but this month the company ($2.5 billion U.S.) for operating profit. Having to pay government fines is never ideal, but Toyota’s total fine of $48.4 million, when compared to $2.5 billion, probably made the public stoning far more painful than writing that check.
Carmakers are said to be doing more, and doing it more quickly, when it comes to investigating and announcing recalls. Still, Strickland wants the maximum civil penalty raised by almost a factor of 15, to $250 million per infraction. The language to do so has been included in a transportation bill approved by the Senate, but a House version omits that provision. Republicans – and automakers – have no interest in seeing it added, but unless he’s just rattling the cage to keep the heat up, this probably won’t be Strickland’s last effort to get a bigger bat.
If you think the is the champ at incremental revisions through successive generations, then you should have a look at the Geländewagen, whose features change on a scale of geologic, not automotive time. We’ve the 2013 and its new LEDs and mirrors, and at a on test. That AMG, however, will be getting more than new trimmings when it arrives later this year: the twin turbo, 6.0-liter V12 from the SL65 AMG will be tucked under its bonnet. It’s the first time the G-Class has gone with a dozen cylinders.
Since the G55 never got the 6.2-liter naturally-aspirated AMG engine, and so never switched to the G63 name, this could mean that it will stick with the same model name now that it’s getting the twin turbo, 5.5-liter V8 with 536 horsepower. However, Autocar indicates the name will be changed to G63.
That would leave a little less branding daylight between it and the G65, but the power should convince: the bigger boy will have 621 horsepower and 737 pound-feet to work with, mojo enough to move it as fast a from a stoplight to 60 mph. Both it and the G55 will also get the 7G-Tronic transmission, while the G63 will add stop/start and brake energy recapture.
The new Ford Transit cargo van promises improved fuel economy compared to the outgoing , in part because it will be powered by the . But that’s not the only mill that will be powering the Transit. Ford announced that the fresh take on cargo vans will also boast a diesel powerplant option when it makes it to production in 2013.
hasn’t yet delved into any specifics about the diesel powerplant, but The Blue Oval is confident that buyers will experience some serious fuel savings. The automaker says the choice of a turbo-six or an oil burner plus over 300 pounds in weight savings versus the Econoline should combine for 25 percent better fuel economy. That could lead to serious savings at the pump for the independent contractor and large fleets should save some major cash as well.
In fact, Ford is so confident that the new Kansas City-built Transit and its other products will deliver big fuel economy benefits that it’s developed a tool to show fleets just how much fuel and CO2 can be saved. The Vehicle Emissions and Fuel Cost Calculator utilizes a wide range of data like vehicle type and traffic conditions to evaluate overall fuel costs and carbon emissions. to read over the Ford press release.
Like , is keen to welcome visitors at its headquarters in Munich, and you don’t even have to buy a car to see it.
The Bavarian automaker’s principal visitors center is BMW Welt, a dynamic attraction that has welcomed some two million visitors every year since opening in 2007. BMW Welt (from the German for “world”) includes a delivery center where as many as 100 new customers pick up their new cars every day, as well as interactive exhibits showcasing the company’s operations in R&D, design and production, as well as concert venues and conference rooms and even a Junior Campus for younger guests.
Visitors to BMW Welt can also stop by the neighboring BMW Museum to check out the 120 original exhibits covering 90 years of BMW history laid out on a virtual roadway across 25 exhibition areas that some 400,000 visitors see each year. Finally, visitors can also tour the company’s main plant in Munich where BMW produces the sedan and wagon as well as the bulk of its engines.
Planning a trip to Germany sometime soon? to read more in the full press release and scope out the enormous gallery of high-res images for an idea of what to expect.
The ink is only just dry on the between General Motors and PSA Peugeot Citroën, and already there is talk of going further. GM purchased a seven-percent stake in PSA to form an alliance that would work together on platforms, small and midsize cars, and MPVs and crossovers, the aim being to strengthen the positions of PSA and Opel. Plans include moving the to a Peugeot platform, while the Citroën C5 and Peugeot 508 move to GM platform technology.
Peugeot had announced the €220-million development of a dual-clutch transmission that was to be built at its Valenciennes, France factory but just shuttered the project saying it might get them from GM instead. The company also spoke of developing a new small car with GM for the Latin American market.
Another development has been the rearrangement of factory closures. When the deal was announced analysts said that the real issue for Opel and PSA was surplus plant capacity, but one report in Reuters said that plant closures wouldn’t be affected by the tie-up. Apparently that’s not the case, with an unnamed source telling Reuters in a second story that plant closures were a piece of the deal from the beginning. Peugeot has announced that it wouldn’t produce a new small car at its plant in Madrid, Spain, but it won’t detail its plant closures until after the French presidential election later this year.
Having trouble keeping track of which watchmaker is producing timepieces for these days? It can get a little confusing. Girard-Perregaux held the license for many years, after which a lackluster partnership was formed with . Then was contracted to make one very fancy-looking watch for the Prancing Horse marque, before got the nod. And that’s not including the more affordable watches marketed less to Ferrari owners than to the Scuderia’s tifosi. Now, Maranello has formed another partnership with a different watchmaker.
That watchmaker is Movado, the Swiss firm best know for creating elegant and simply styled timepieces that look just as much at home in a museum showcase as they do on a wearer’s wrist. Movado also makes watches under the Ebel, Concord, ESQ, Coach, Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss, Juicy Couture and Lacoste labels, and will now be adding Ferrari to its roster of brands.
The collection is set to draw its inspiration from Ferrari’s road and racing cars, and is set to be launched next year at the Watch & Jewelry Fair in Basel, Switzerland, after which they will go on sale at Ferrari stores around the world and online with prices peaking at 1,500 euros (around $2,000). for the official announcement.
There’s nothing quite like witnessing an automotive race in person. The sights, sounds, smells – it’s a magical experience for anyone with petrol flowing freely through their veins. But it’s just not possible to personally attend every race on the planet, and sometimes, television coverage leaves much to be desired.
Enter , maker of those little clear-plastic-housed cameras you see all over the place. The crew attached its cams all over a couple of cars driven by Gunnar Jeannette and Ken Dobson as they battled the field at .
There are helmet-cams, shots up high and down low, from the front and toward the rear, all catching fender-to-fender racing at its finest. There’s even some views showing what life is like for a mechanic in the pits. See for yourself in the video . As an added bonus, you can also watch raw footage of each driver’s laps in separate videos.
Are you the parent of a teenager who hasn’t found enough reason to hate your ever-loving guts? Well then OnStar has a new product for you. Dubbed Family Link, the new service will tell you exactly where your OnStar-equipped vehicle is at any time. It will even send you emails or text messages at particular times of day with a location update. It’s OnStar’s first separately priced feature from its main suite of services, and at $3.99/month is an inexpensive way to invade the privacy of your loved ones while they’re driving the car you pay for.
At least, that’s how we imagine 16-year-old Tiffany will feel when she finds out her dad is paying the Eye of Sauron to keep its gaze fixed on her little .
OnStar, of course, paints a much more flattering picture of the service’s purpose. In their own words, it allows “subscribers to stay connected to their loved ones when driving an OnStar-equipped vehicle.” In fact, 4,500 subscribers have already tested the service in a pilot program ahead of its limited roll out next month. Family Link will be available to all OnStar subscribers in the U.S. by the end of the year.
Truth be told, we’re old enough now to look past Family Link’s inherent issues with privacy and see its value as a peace-of-mind bringer to parents and spouses alike. Knowing a loved one arrived safely or is where they’re supposed to be is worth having Tiffany hate your guts a little extra. She’ll understand one day, and until then: my house, my car, my rules. See the video and the press release .
We couldn’t fault you if it came as no great surprise that was the main automotive sponsor of this summer’s Olympic games in London. The Bavarian automaker has, after all, done its homework to promote the partnership, launching , a pair of , a , and a profiling specific athletes, all to highlight the point. But the biggest way BMW will be participating in the event is with the massive fleet of vehicles it is providing to the organizers.
All in all, BMW will be furnishing the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralymic Games (LOCOG) with . The fleet is made up of diesel, hybrid and electric cars, plus motorcycles and bicycles. And because LOCOG has set a low CO2 target for the big event, each vehicle averages less than 120g of CO2 per kilometer.
The first 40 specially liveried vehicles, BMW announced, have now been delivered, including examples of the 520d and 320d. All the German automaker has left is multiply those a hundredfold and it’ll be ready for the big games.
New Technology Aims To Take Your Hands Off The Steering Wheel
The biggest hurdles to autonomous cars will be legal, not technical.
Most car enthusiasts hate the idea of cars that can drive themselves. But autonomous cars will get here faster than most people realize. Slowly but surely, automobiles are doing more of our driving for us. It’s only a matter of time before they take over completely.
Just look at how much control we’ve already ceded to the computers under the hood. Anti-lock brakes, which are consistently better at threshold braking than mere mortals, are pretty much standard equipment. So are traction control and stability control. We now have blind spot detection, lane departure warning, active lane control, and even self-parking.
Now comes the next step. and recently demonstrated Traffic Jam Assist, which uses adaptive cruise control and automatic steering to completely take control of a car up to 60 kilometers an hour (about 37 mph). has racked up tens of thousands of miles on its fleet of fully autonomous hybrids on California roads. The technology will be showroom ready before the end of the decade.
The biggest hurdles will be legal, not technical. For example, who’s at fault when one of these cars gets in an accident? And how will the police pull over an autonomous car if they need to? But we’ll resolve those issues, and when we do, autonomous cars will have a bigger impact on society than when the first horseless carriages appeared over a century ago.
John McElroy is host of the TV program and daily web video . Every month he brings his unique insights as a Detroit insider to Autoblog readers.
If you hear the pejorative “chick car,” what comes to mind? ? ? Would you believe neither made Inside Line’s list of 2011 models with the highest percentage of female ownership? No. 1, with 57.9-percent female ownership was the . Considering the female dollar is sought-after, it’s probably too bad that Volvo decided to for 2012.
That means No. 2, the with 56.9 percent, could take the top spot for 2012. Or maybe the at No. 3 with 56.4 percent. We’re also kind of wondering how the new will fare this year.
No. 4 is another VW that shouldn’t surprise. The cute has been a perennial favorite among the ladies. It was No. 1 , but as we know, the newer, more aggressively styled Beetle is enjoying among the guys. No. 5? The , of all things.
Here’s how the rest shake out according to Inside Line:
Top ten 2011 models with the highest proportion of female buyers
One of the inevitable pleasures of owning a vehicle like the or Toyota GT 86 (better known as the on this side of the globe), is the level of go-faster, look-faster and sound-faster parts served up by any number of willing companies. Whether its from a factory-backed performance group or another reputable company, bolting on a slew of goodies is one of the easiest ways to personalize your ride. Toyota Racing Development has evidently wasted no time in coming up with a few special components for the GT 86, including a free-flowing exhaust, fully adjustable suspension and a monoblock caliper kit. TRD recently slathered those parts onto a GT 86 in Japan and let a few lucky souls behind the wheel.
Fortunately for us, Carnifty was on hand with a camera to capture the vehicle in action. While the shaky-hand cam business indoors does little to convey how the coupe handles, the video does give us a good idea of what the 2.0-liter four-cylinder will sound like with an easy-breathing exhaust. to watch the video for yourself.
If you were watching the Malaysian Grand Prix early Sunday morning, you may have picked up on something that seemed a little fishy. Sergio Perez, who’s only in his second year on the Formula One grid having debuted with Sauber just last season, was way up in second place, ahead of proven race winners and World Champions. That was surprising enough, but what raised some eyebrows is what happened when he closed the gap in front of him to Fernando Alonso, who was leading the race in the F2012.
According to Autosport, after impressively whittling down the gap Alonso had opened up behind him, Perez (pictured above in the parc ferme with Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali) received a radio message from Sauber strategists advising him to be careful. Shortly thereafter, Perez went wide off the track and lost Alonso. The young Mexican pilot still finished second – an unprecedentedly strong finish for Sauber – but many wondered if the message wasn’t a code passed on from Ferrari, which supplies Sauber’s engines.
Of course, Sauber, for its part, is denying the rumors, but it wouldn’t be the first time in F1 that a leading team had told a midfield or back-marker team to which it supplied engines to reel in one of its drivers in the interest of preserving the front-runner’s position. We’ll probably never know the truth, but one thing’s for sure: Perez is a rising talent in Formula One, and Alonso had better get used to watching out for him.
It’s been six months since extensive flooding put a strangle hold on manufacturing in Thailand. Now, Reuters reports that has finally resumed production at its Ayutthaya plant. All told, the disaster is said to have cost the company the production of around 260,000 vehicles worldwide for the fiscal year that ended last month.
While a rash of parts suppliers and other manufacturers were forced to shut down during the flooding, Honda was arguably hit the worst. According to Reuters, and were able to adjust production to include suppliers from other countries, but Honda was stuck with a fully flooded facility.
The Ayutthaya plant builds the for the Asian and Australian markets. After the flood waters receded in October, Honda vowed not to use any parts or sell any vehicles damaged by the disaster. As a result, hundreds of otherwise new vehicles were sent to scrap. to see video of the cars awaiting their destruction.
John McElroy is host of the TV program and daily web video . Every month he brings his unique insights as a Detroit insider to Autoblog readers.
