Replica carmakers take notice: Daimler will not tolerate copies of its signature 300 SL. At all. And if you fail to heed this warning and build a full-size replica of a 300 SL gullwing, justice will come down like three tons of bricks upon your unlicensed creation.
German customs officials recently confiscated what looks to be a very faithful reproduction of a 300 SL from a German company, albeit rendered in fiberglass, and they apparently notified the folks at Daimler, who didn’t take too kindly to the unauthorized likeness of their icon.
In their press release (available after the jump), Daimler says the body of the 300 SL is a “work of applied art” that has been under copyright protection for decades. And to make clear their intent to protect that copyright they also remind us they have “long taken a tough approach to vehicle replicas.”
The recently seized copy found out just how tough when the Mercedes-Benz used parts centre (responsible for scrapping the company’s unwanted prototypes) put the replica SL in a 30-ton industrial press and transformed it from illegal to unrecognizable. It then received the official “confirmation of scrappage” designation.
In 2002, the first U.S. dealership opened in San Francisco. With only one model and a gallon of gas selling for an average of $1.25, there were plenty of critics who said the Mini brand didn’t stand a chance in the States.
“Mini launched in the U.S. during the time when gas was cheap and large trucks and SUVs ruled the road,” said Jim McDowell, Vice President of Mini USA in a statement. “Many thought the brand would be a one-hit wonder, and we are extremely proud that we were able to surprise some the toughest critics, and at times, even ourselves.”
Now, ten years later, Mini has six models, gas prices have more than tripled and “small car” doesn’t necessarily mean “cheap car.” It’s safe to say those naysayers in 2002 made a big mistake about the premium small car from .
So, happy birthday, Mini USA, and congrats on convincing an SUV-loving American public that bigger is not always better.
How well is doing with its new made-in-America ? What if we told you that sales in February were up 14,523.2 percent? Okay, perhaps that isn’t the best measure of performance, given that there wasn’t actually a 2011 model year Passat. But VW moved 8,189 of the midsize sedans last month after selling 6,318 in January.
While that’s but a fraction of the 34,543 February sales for the , it’s enough that VW is adding another 800 jobs at its Chattanooga, Tennessee plant that builds the car. That’s the second ramp-up this year – VW already announced last month.
“Quite plainly, we need more Passats to meet the market demand and I’m glad that we can respond so quickly by adding staff in Chattanooga,” said VW’s U.S. President and CEO, Jonathan Browning.
VW currently employs over 2,700 people at the plant, though 500 actually work for a “staffing partner.” VW says the new jobs will be filled both by those contract employees already working at the plant and by new hires. Positions include production, supervisors, quality engineers, and other professionals roles. Click to read the full press release.
hiring 800 workers in Chattanooga to meet Passat demand
Ah, donuts – one of the automotive world’s purest forms of hooliganism. We’ve all done ‘em, simply because every once in a while, it’s just plain fun to light up a car’s back end and fling it around in a circle.
Fun as they may be, donuts aren’t necessarily all that fun to watch. After all, one car spinning in circles certainly loses its charm after a while. But what about seventycars spinning in smoke-filled circles? Now that’s something.
Earlier this week, over 70 vehicles showed up at Infineon Raceway in order to break the Guinness World Record for the largest number of cars performing donuts successfully. Check out what ensued in the video , complete with epic battle background music.
In an effort to appeal to a much wider range of shoppers, has announced that its turbocharged models will now be available with a six-speed automatic transmission. Up until now, manual-averse customers were stuck with the 1.8-liter naturally aspirated inline-four – by our opinion, the worse of the two engines offered in the Sonic.
Under the hood of the Sonic, Chevrolet’s 1.4-liter turbo-four is good for 138 horsepower and 148 pound-feet of torque. That’s seriously good power for the 2,700-pound subcompact, especially when you consider that when paired with the manual ‘box, the Sonic carries EPA-estimated fuel economy ratings of 29/40 miles per gallon (city/highway). Of course, adding the automatic transmission reduces that economy, though the slushbox Sonic is still rated at a respectable 27/37 mpg.
The automatic Sonic Turbo is on sale now. LT models start at $16,835 for the sedan and $17,635 for the five-door, with the high-zoot LTZ trims commanding $18,625 and $19,325, respectively (not including $795 for destination). for the official press blast.
The all-electric hasn’t exactly set the sales charts ablaze since it hit the market, but it has succeeded in delivering a zero-emissions halo to the brand, and the model’s fortunes are poised to improve now that it’s a 50-state offering. What’s more, TheDetroitBureau.com reports that the electric love will soon migrate over to Nissan’s luxury marque, but with a lot of Leaf under some sexier sheetmetal.
We’ve heard rumors of an Infiniti-branded EV concept for some time now, but details on the electric concept car have been scarce to this point. Now, the automaker tells TDB that it will feature G-Series-inspired styling with a sprinkling of inspiration from the concept (pictured above). Infiniti wants to frame the unnamed concept as a luxury car first and EV second, with more performance and a larger battery pack than the Leaf’s 24 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion setup.
The concept will reportedly also utilize a 6kWh charger that will charge a spent battery in about half the time needed for the Leaf. The beefier charger is likely to make it to production, since the Leaf will reportedly get the 6kWh unit by December.
Demand for the extended-range plug-in hybrid vehicle in the U.S. has been up and down over the car’s first 16-odd months, but executives at General Motors’ Opel division in Europe are saying that the , the Volt’s European twin, is getting some good attention.
The Ampera has received more than 7,000 orders, leading Opel executives to believe that the Ampera will hit its 2012 sales target of 10,000 units, website Plug In Cars is reporting, citing Enno Fuchs, Opel’s e-mobility launch director.
Opel started shipping Amperas to customers last month, saying that most of those owners previously owning high-end cars from automakers like and . General Motors is hoping the Ampera will be better received in Europe than the Volt has been here in the States, where it has become a political lightning rod. Earlier this month, GM said it would – starting this week – in order to thin-out dealer inventory of the car. And last year, GM missed its sales goal of 10,000 units, selling just 7,671 units. GM makes both the Volt and the Ampera at the same plant in Hamtramck, MI.
Still, the Volt showed signs of more life last month when the model moved 1,023 units, up from 603 vehicles in January. The Volt and Ampera were also recently . Last October, Opel to at least 10,000 from 8,000 after Opel had received more than 6,000 paid reservations.
Earlier today, we showed you a brace of images starring that will make its debut at the next month. But upon closer inspection, the folks at CarScoop found something very interesting hiding in the back of one of the GLK photos: the revised .
It’s unclear exactly which G-Class model this is, though our best guess is that it’s the standard G550. (Those wheels look much too tame for an AMG model.) The G-Wagen’s overall design hasn’t changed (that’s fine, we like it just the way it is), but updates for the 2013 model year include LED running lamps under the headlights and redesigned mirrors.
Word on the street is that the G-Class will feature a reworked interior for 2013, including a new instrument panel, steering wheel and consoles. The big news, however, is that the G55 AMG found in the other AMG models, though it’s unclear if its nomenclature will be altered. You know, because G63 AMG absolutely makes sense.
Mum’s the word on when the official G-Class details will be released, but since the car appears to be finished and already posing for photos, we don’t expect Mercedes-Benz to hold off for too much longer.
The newest trim line of the family will also be its most expensive. The will have a starting price of $45,700 for a , officials tell Autoblog. That’s well over double the $21,820 asking price of a no-frills 1500.
Of course, spending that kind of money, you’d expect the interior trim to come with some fancy name like “black burled walnut,” an overpowering smell of leather every time you open the door and more shiny chrome exterior accents than 1934 Airflow. The Laramie Limited, introduced at the in February, does that and more, playing its role as the ultimate Ram when it arrives at dealerships in the coming months in the full-size and heavy duty offerings. The starting price for a Ram Laramie Limited 2500 HD SWB 4×2 is $47,780 (prices do not include $995 in destination charges).
In recent years, Detroit’s pickup builders have continued to create more high-end pickups along with their work versions. Hey, how’s a One Percenter supposed to tow his yacht? Just a few weeks ago, of its , which will push the price of an F-450 Platinum . There appears to be a growing market for these vehicles as well, as the J.D. Power Information Network notes that nearly 30 percent of heavy duty truck buyers spend more than $50,000 for their vehicles. All of that money is not simply going for the diesel powertrain upgrade. No, these trucks are loaded up with all of the amenities of a luxury sedan. After all, affluent buyers want to flaunt their success a little, but it’s not like you can carry a load of lumber in the trunk of a .
Infiniti’s rival to the is known by just one letter – that letter, of course, being G – but the range is expanding beyond the solitary G35 that had been the mainstay of the line for years. The G35 was succeeded by the (pictured above) and recently supplemented by the smaller-displacement G25, but emerging reports indicate that has a whole raft of new versions on their way.
The report from Car and Driver is bolstered by tell-tale trademarkapplications for the nameplates G35h, G30t and G22d. The numbers tell us something, but it’s the lower-case letters that follow which really indicate what to expect. The G35h, then, could seemingly adapt the hybrid powertrain currently found in the , coupling a 3.5-liter V6 with electric assist. The G30t suggests a turbocharged engine is in the pipeline, though it’s too early to tell if the spool would be fitted to a four- or six-cylinder engine. Finally, a G22d could join the range of diesel models which Infiniti currently offers in Europe.
We’ll have to wait and see if and when the Nissan premium marque rolls out these model variants on its mainstay line of sedans, coupes and convertibles, but the trademark filings at least give some guidelines to our anticipation.
It’s funny how a couple of letters can change the meaning of a word entirely. Take “racy” and “racing,” for example. One implies a certain charge of sexuality, while the other refers to the competition of getting from Point A to Point B the quickest. Pamela Anderson, for example, would be one we’d categorize under the former, but now the Canadian model/actress/bombshell is breaking into the latter by launching her own racing team.
Downforce1 by Pamela Anderson is the name of the new team that will be fielding an in both the (European) Le Mans Series and the International GT Open, wearing white and blue livery with the glamour model’s signature and bearing the logos of PETA (the animal rights group for which Anderson is a spokesperson) and ICM (the talent agency that manages her career). The team is apparently being managed by a Swiss outfit with ten years of experience in GT racing.
This is not the first time we’ve seen a model lending her image to a racing team: Paris Hilton was to a MotoGP squad a couple of years back, and now Pam appears to be following in her high-heeled footsteps. And apparently she’s not stopping at GT racing, either, as the effort could spawn a NASCAR team as well. In the meantime, Anderson hopes to be present at as many of the races as her schedule will allow. Which ought to be plenty distracting for the racers.
So what is it about models like Pam headlining racing teams? Beyond – the airbags have, after all, been removed – maybe the former Baywatch starlet herself put it best in a with British tabloid The Sun: “Fast cars and fast women go together.” Who are we to argue?
The slow drip of official information for Nissan’s continues to spread across the internet. Today, the Japanese automaker has unveiled a (very) short video clip and a shady single image that hints at the expressive profile sheetmetal on its new family sedan. The video is very brief, but together with the other images we’ve seen depicting the new boomerang-shaped taillamps, headlamps and overhead view, we’re starting to mentally stitch together a composite view of the new car.
We couldn’t resist helping Nissan accelerate its reveal process by tinkering with Photoshop’s brightness and contrast controls a bit. You can which reveals a nicely rounded three-window greenhouse and a set of split five-spoke alloys. In addition, check out the short video while you’re waiting for live shots and impressions to drop from New York.
has announced it will debut the at next month’s New York Auto Show. While based on the company’s platform, engineers worked in several tweaks to the body and chassis to imbue it with a bit more crossover utility. Additional ride height delivers 8.7 inches of ground clearance and a smattering of black plastic cladding helps the vehicle further stand out from its donor platform.
A 148-horsepower, 2.0-liter boxer four-cylinder engine provides power and should deliver up to 33 miles per gallon on the highway. That’s not a stellar number for a vehicle this size, but as Subaru points out, it’s good enough to help the XV Crosstrek nab the honor of being the most fuel-efficient all-wheel drive crossover on the market. Buyers may bolt the engine to either a five-speed manual transmission or CVT.
Inside, the rear seats can be folded completely flat for around 52.4 cubic feet of cargo area. With the seats up, rear passengers can look forward to around 35.4 inches of leg room. Look for the XV Crosstrek to hit dealers this fall. In the meantime, to check out the full press release and keep an eye out for our New York Auto Show coverage starting April 4.
If there’s one thing nerds love more than obscure factoids, it’s the thrill of a good argument. MSN has set out to settle one of comic bookdom’s quintessential questions by attempting to discern whether the 1989 Batmobile is quicker than its 1966 predecessor. While we’d love nothing better to see the atomic-powered sire do battle with its jet-powered offspring, we’ll just have to make due with a couple of replicas. In this case, the ‘89 gets its power from a carbureted small block with an aluminum intake manifold and not much else.
Meanwhile, the 1966 uses a for its underpinnings, complete with a fuel-injected small block of its own. The ‘66 boasts an estimated 300-325 horsepower while the ‘89 serves up a more modest 285 ponies. Bets are made, flags are dropped an one vehicle stands above the other. We won’t spoil it for you.
We will say there seems to be some on-screen trickery afoot, however. Watch closely, and it’s clear the ‘89 holds onto left lane at the beginning of the race, only to swap places in the slow-motion replay. Something tells us this game was rigged from the start. to see the full episode for yourself, but be warned. Fair warning: the finale sequence may be Not Safe For Work for some of you. Maybe there’s something else nerds love more than arguing and flexing their trivia muscle.
There’s not a whole lot to say about the Nina teaser image that the company just dropped into our inboxes, it’s largely just a way to say the real thing will be unveiled at the in a few short weeks. In the thick, stylized lines offered here, we see hints of the and not a whole lot more.
So we went looking in the archives. We’ve heard the Nina plug-inhybrid will be and be . We’ve also heard and that three variants will be available by the end of 2014. Those are reports from the past and we know how things change in the green car world. We’ll have to see what Fisker tells us in New York when it offers up “a business update and a glimpse of our future” to know for sure. What are your thoughts?
According to reports citing Japan’s Nikkei daily, will be cranking up production at its Normal, Illinois plant, but not because the company expects a 100-percent increase in demand here to match the 70,000 units the plant will soon be cranking out. Instead, the plant will be making models intended for export from the U.S. to markets like Russia and Latin America. To make way for the increased Outlander Sport output, the slow-moving family sedan will leave the building. No replacement has been announced.
Mitsubishi has plants worldwide, but those in closest proximity to strengthening markets are reportedly running at full tilt, so the move makes use of plants in markets where demand is slack. Mitsubishi has seen its fortunes in the U.S. atrophy, and even though sales improved somewhat last year, this production shift shows that turnabout is fair play, with the offshore parent using its American assets to make cars for markets that would typically be producing the goods, not consuming them.
has let it slip that the company may be working on a new crossover, and Autocar has gone through the trouble of rendering the machine. According to the report, the company is under pressure to expand into niches traditionally outside of its scope, much as sister company has done with the . That may translate into a new high-riding hatchback based off of an upcoming compact sedan. That’s right. Autocar claims Jaguar is out to launch six other “significant” new products over the next two years, and that’s excluding the “radical crossover” seen here.
Needless to say, the project hasn’t gotten the go-ahead from corporate just yet, but if it does, expect to see it built on the company’s new modular aluminum “Premium Lightweight Architecture” originally penned for its large vehicles. Jaguar could also borrow the bones of the previously mentioned Evoque for this little science experiment. Those two options present a disparate view of the would-be utility Jaguar. Of course, the model is a very, very long way from becoming reality. Head over to to see the full rendering.
The highly anticipated – the sister car of the and – goes on sale this spring, and the automaker’s website now shows that the cost of entry will be $24,930 including destination. That base price gets you an FR-S equipped with a six-speed manual transmission, though Scion’s site doesn’t yet say what the cost will be for cars equipped with the six-speed automatic.
As we already know, the FR-S is equipped with a 2.0-liter boxer four that sends 200 horsepower and 151 pound-feet of torque exclusively to the rear wheels. And just yesterday, we learned that the (city/highway) with the manual transmission, or 25/34 mpg with the automatic ‘box. We’ve already Scion’s new sport coupe, and while it’s certainly not the most powerful vehicle in the class, we found it to have excellent balance and declared it a more engaging steer than vehicles like the and .
Station wagons, as pointed out by ex-Autoblogger Jonny Lieberman, are boring. “It’s the penalty you pay for falling in love and having children,” he says.
Sure, just so long as your children like to go fast, at least when the chosen conveyance to move those booster seats from Point A to Point B is either the wagon version of the or , as tested by Motor Trend in the video you’ll see after the break.
Without spoiling any of the salient details, we’ll say that one car was a wee bit quicker, crossing the finish line a scant 79 feet ahead of its rival after a half-mile of acceleration to speeds surpassing 150 miles per hour, while the other was deemed the overall better car for enthusiast drivers.
Which was which? See the video for all the answers you crave, along with some brilliant exhaust notes from these two rare wagon-shaped beasts.
Ferrari has been known to produce one-off vehicles for customers, most notably the F430-based created for a wealthy Japanese collector in 2008 as well as the created on the 599 FTB Fiorano platform in 2009.
Now, if the Ferrari afficianados over on are correct, Ferrari Special Projects program has built a third vehicle, this time for musician Eric Clapton, who is known to be a .
The car looks to be based on the 458 Italia and has distinct styling references to the 12-cylinder Ferrari 512 BB built in the late 1970s and early 1980s with a large lower grille, hood slats and flying buttresses at the rear. Judging from the photos, the interior appears to be relatively unchanged from the 458 Italia, and the mid-mounted 4.5-liter V8 is likely still in place as well.
We will try and find out more details about this special Ferrari, but until then, check out the photos of the car in the gallery above.
