We’ve all heard the argument that cars can’t be art. As a commodity, vehicles are slaves to parameters of functionality, manufacturing and economics that simply have no bearing on traditional works, but Canadian sculptor Pierre Arpin believes that shouldn’t stop car parts from ascending beyond their usual lot in life. While waiting in a repair shop, Arpin spotted a trashed hood and asked to take it home. The shop obliged, starting the artist down a lengthy path of creation. While he typically favors hoods, doors and radiators have also received his unique touch.
Arpin uses heat to remove the orignial paint before taking a grinder to the metal to create his unique designs. Depending on the work, paint may be reapplied afterward. The artist calls the process a type of “alchemy,” and says that the technique gives the pieces a certain level of “immortality.” We don’t know about that, but as people with various car body parts strewn about our offices, we can see the appeal.
“So here’s the pitch. It’s a movie about a car. But it’s not really about a car. It’s about something else. What that is isn’t important. But it’s got a car in it. Not just one car, but lots of cars. Thousands of them actually. And they’re in almost every scene. But only in the background. And get this: They’re all… wait for it… yellow! And the best part is, we don’t have to pay anything for it, in fact, they’re going to pay us to put our cars in the movie. And it’s going to make our cars famous. But that’s not all. Imagine this: It’s not just one movie, but a hundred movies. And TV shows. Thousands and thousands of hours of entertainment, and our new is going to be the star! Okay, not the star, but an extra. A bright yellow extra. I’m telling you, this idea – it can’t fail!
At least that’s the thesis floated by Automotive News to help explain why is so stoked over with its compact van. Beginning in late 2013, the entire New York City taxi fleet will be converting to Nissan’s aesthetically challenged people mover, which will replace the ubiquitous Ford Crown Victoria.
Whether this leads to any burnishing of the Nissan brand remains to be seen, but regardless, AN says the contract is worth 40,000 units in New York alone over the next 10 years. We have to expect that at least some taxi companies outside of the Big Apple won’t be shy about ponying up the thirty-large Nissan is asking for its Mexican-made cab either, as the day when every last Ford Crown Victoria extant has joined the in cabbie Valhalla is certainly coming.
Remember the rumors of working just below the ? The evidence trail was so faint that we called it “the most speculative sort of specualtion” when we posted on it six months ago. The trail and the car just got a lot hotter now that the very three-door hatch in question, the M135i, has been spotted burning serious gas around the Nürburgring.
Juice will come from BMW’s N55 inline-six cylinder with somewhere around 320 horsepower, and we’re told there will in fact be an all-wheel-drive version to follow. This will put BMW at ground zero of the small luxury hot hatch battle alongside the 350-horsepower and 340-horsepower Audi RS3. That gives us one more thing to remember: even if the Benz comes in at 340 hp there’ll be 1,000 horsepower between just these three cars in a segment best known for frugal luxury, which means the good old days in this segment are still on the way.
If you’ve been waiting for someone to combine R/C cars and Ken Block’s brand of gymkhana, you’ll want to pay a visit to Hot Wheels. The toy maker has of Block’s rallying , and after you load the required eight AA batteries you’ll be drifting it around corners WRC-style in much less time than it took Block to learn his craft.
We won’t mention the center-mounted wheel under the car that makes it all a bit easier. Instead, you can to see a video of Ken Block writ small for yourself.
We can’t see any way for Mr. LaHood and his crusaders against distracted driving to win; consumers want access to their connected lives even while behind the wheel and they’re going to find a way to get it. Even if it means not being able to actually use a cellphone, manufacturers are right now working on ways to further integrate the app-sphere into their infotainment systems, and a Michigan company called Livio would like to help them.
Livio makes devices so you can get Internet radio in your car. It has begun working on a set of software tools that will provide a common language between automakers’ inftotainment systems and apps. Livio wants to develop the software with each interested maker to provide integration tailored to specific systems, and its role as translator would free automakers from software duties and give app makers an easier route to in-car adaptability.
One could ask why don’t automakers simply work together on a common standard. It’s possible that they are, but with carmakers having come so far with their own systems, with infotainment one of the hottest battlegrounds between brands, and with colossal variation in regulatory diktats, we can see why Livio is presenting the option. The firm hasn’t set up any deals yet, but automakers and electronics firms are paying attention.
Okay, so maybe this isn’t much in the way of confirmation, but M division president Friedrich Nitschke told Car and Driver that the company was “considering” building an M Performance version of the . While that’s not quite an M7, it’s close.
Remember, that BMW has created to offer a higher performance version of its vehicles to slot between the standard models and the full-blown M cars. M Performance will also allow BMW to create performance diesel and all-wheel-drive models without sullying the M badge.
Of course, enthusiasts looking for a full-size BMW performance sedan can already have an like the one pictured above, but there’s something alluring about a real M-badged 7-Series. Given that BMW has already , it only seems fair that the 7-Series gets some love too, even if it’s just in M Performance form.
Nitschke’s interview revealed a few more interesting details about BMW’s product plans, namely that turbocharged engines are here to stay. He said BMW has no plans to use superchargers for its M products, and it sounds like naturally aspirated M engines are a thing of the past as well. Manual transmissions will continue to be offered, as according to Nitschke, new models will be equipped with transmissions that use software and electronics to “protect” the tranny from mismatched shifts. We won’t be seeing a hatchback M135i here in the U.S., however, nor are any of the diesel M Performance models headed towards our shores.
“It’s time to say goodbye,” said spokesman Igor Burenkov to Russia’s RIA Novosti about the end of production, which happened this week. The Lada 2107, also called the Lada Riva, has been plying Russian roads since before . It’s one of the cars you’re most likely to see in grainy film and video clips from the days before .
As you might suspect, the Lada 2107 has origins that go back to the early 1970s. This old comrade has been wound down to make room for the cars Lada is calling “new” classics. Newer Lada models like the , Priora and Kalina are going to move into the Izhavto production facility that had been building the “Seven,” and Lada is expecting demand for the newer cars to continue rising as more features and body style variations continue to be rolled out. До свидания, друг.
Last year aimed cameras at the the 150 Camaros making the drive to Phoenix for Camaro5 Fest. The footage has been pieced together into a ten-minute documentary called Alter Ego, a celebration of owners in celebration of their cars.
It’s more than that, though, since it pauses to take a look at the model that made the name, and the annus horribilus of 2002 when Camaro production ceased.
There’s also lots of tire smoke. Naturally. to watch.
Forbes has measured the largest 100 companies in the world, and 10 automakers have made the list. This list is unique in that it measures the size of a company using a combination of sales, assets, profits and market value.
Volkswagen was rated as the top automaker in the top 100 (number 17 overall), with sales of $221 billion and $21.5 billion in profit. finished a close second, ranked number 25 overall with sales of $228.5 billion. finished at 37 due in part to $188.7 billion in assets and a $66.3 billion market cap. came in at 44 with a market value of $47.5 billion. , which also sells motorcycles and generators, among other things, rounds out the top five with $137.7 billion in assets.
Finishing outside of the top five were (61), (63), (85), (95) and (96). Mitsubishi made the top 100 in part because it sells hoards of electronics around the world.
No automakers were able to crack the top 10, even with massive sales volume and solid profits. The top 10 was, however, dominated by the oil companies that feed those cars and trucks. Exxon finished number one, with five other oil companies in the top 12.
and have had their fair share of issues over the last few years – from earthquakes, tsunamis and floods to not being all that well received – but that hasn’t stopped them from claiming top honors in Edmunds’ 2012 Best Retained Value Awards.
According to Edmunds, on average, Honda vehicles are expected to retain 47.9 percent of their value after five years; Acura is just behind with 44.6 percent, taking the win in the luxury segment. In the mainstream category, and each got honorable mentions while and to secondary honors in the luxury stakes.
Interestingly, despite not scoring the win in the mainstream class or even managing an honorable mention, had the most individual wins in Edmunds’ categories with five, beating Honda’s four class victories. The vehicle expected to retain the most value after five years out of all classes is the .
When it comes to German luxury vehicles, it’s always the same old story: and duking it out for first place, with gaining ground while locking down third. So why should it be any different when it comes to naming conventions? BMW has clearly taken the lead for which car brand can have the most confusing and illogical alphanumeric badging, and thus, Mercedes is readying a new naming regimen of its own.
According to a report in Automobile, Benz will be completely overhauling the familiar “-Class” designations to make them more logical. To Germans. Who are engineers. How will this shake out? We’ve read the article three times and can’t make much sense of it, but Automobile indicates that we should expect SUV’s and crossovers to continue using the G prefix, while coupes and convertibles will use the C prefix, and the prefix will be reserved for sports cars. After that, well, we give up.
Supposedly a third letter of the name will designate the model range, meaning that the front-drive, four-door coupe based on the A- and B-Class architecture won’t be called CLC, but . And the forthcoming will be unveiled as the GLA. The GLK will probably get renamed GLC, according to the magazine, and now we’ve entered the rabbit hole, because as Automobile writes:
But what of the rumored A-Class based coupe and cabriolet models? CLA comes to mind, but this name is already spoken for. Would it make more sense if the CLC-turned-CLA is renamed once again to become the CLB, since its MFA platform is also shared with the B-Class? If so, Benz has to move quickly, as at the .
Then there’s the problem with the . It won’t be receiving a new name, according to the report, which means the forthcoming two-door version of the can’t be called CLS. And the won’t get any of the extra letters, retaining its single-letter name.
So there you have it. If Automobile is correct, Mercedes’ new naming scheme will take something that was confusing and illogical and make sure it’s still confusing and illogical, but unfamiliar as well.
Can’t say we didn’t see this one coming. Hot on the heels of Audi’s official announcement that it had from Investindustrial Group, , the in-house performance arm of German automaker , has ended its “marketing cooperation” with the storied Italian motorcycle brand.
Naturally, Mercedes-Benz doesn’t want to sponsor Ducati now that it’s been taken over by, in its own words, “a rival car manufacturer.” While there had been some speculation that Mercedes or its AMG division might make a bid for Ducati, the automaker claims that was :
“Our focus lies clearly in developing and producing premium performance cars and we will be concentrating all our energy on this.”
Seems pretty cut and dry to us, but if you want to read more, feel free to for the brief announcement. We have to wonder, though, what will be come of the ?
Along with Renault- CEO Carlos Ghosn, CEO Alan Mulally is confident in the growth of the electric car segment. It’s a long-term play, though, so Mulally isn’t committing the electric Ford Focus EV to making a strong sales statement. For now, Ford’s chief says he’d be fine moving fewer than 5,000 Focus EVs in the model’s first full year. And even that would mean a steep rise in uptake based on in December and January.
TheWall Street Journal reports that Mulally has also let slip the cost for the battery pack in the all-electric Focus: “around $12,000 to $15,000,” which makes a bit more understandable. Given that price range and the EV’s 23-kWh battery, that means Ford’s cost is between $522 and $650 per kWh, which is lower than the so far this year.
Reportage on the current sales of EVs is a bit schizophrenic – for example, , , but the commentators and the numbers seem to support Mulally’s confidence. If the Focus EV did manage 5,000 sales this year, that would be a little more than half of the 2011 tally for the , yet according to Bloomberg, EV market share grew more quickly than any other segment in Q1: Nissan is still working through its Leaf pre-order list, sales to 2,129 units vs. March 2011, the Opel Ampera has exceeded sales expectations, and other electric vehicles and their marketing pushes will come online later this year. Oh, and gas prices are still climbing.
There were no Focus EVs sold in February or March, but the retail push is gearing up now for the Spring season.
The 1961 Impala SS inaugurated the SS trim line to the brand, and its SS cars have found more than a million homes since – examples helping the way. Turns out, though, that just got around to patenting the designator SS on April 13, 2012. Since the SS descriptor has historically indicated a model variant or trim level, distinctions that apparently don’t normally warrant trademark protection, the questions are why now and what for?
The evidence would seem to lead to this being a model designator, not just a trim, and there have been of the will hit the market and simply be called SS. But if that’s the case, what would the we’ve seen in spy shots be named, and what – if anything – would happen to the SS trim available on other Chevy models?
Click the image below for a look at the patent application, and we’ll be looking forward to finding out what is going to go where.
Anything can do, McLaren can do better. At least that’s what the boys in Woking seem to believe. After all, McLaren has trounced Ferrari around the Formula One circuit for the past several years now. But while the British team has followed its Italian rival from grand prix racing into building supercars with the McLaren F1, and (most recently) the MP4-12C, one thing Ferrari does that McLaren doesn’t is grand tourers. And with the advent of the , shooting brakes.
That could all change, however, if the latest rumors are to be believed. (Which is something which, in this case, we wouldn’t take for granted.) According to the rumormongers over at Auto Express, McLaren is preparing a shooting brake based of the MP4-12C (pictured above, flashing its air brake). Now given that the 12C is a mid-engined supercar and not a front-engined GT like the Ferrari Four, we’d say that makes about as much sense as Renault reaching back into its showcar history to build the .
The rumors further state that the McLaren shooting brake (fancy-talk for a two-door wagon) would go downmarket to rival the – which is something we’ve been expecting McLaren to pursue sometime after the MP4 roadster and the upmarket successor to the original F1 supercar. But something’s a little amiss here, so for the time being, we’ll take this particular report with a grain of salt that would dwarf Lot’s wife. Then again, we did run into McLaren design director Frank Stephenson checking out the in Paris last year…
Some automakers roll out a new model and that’s pretty much it, while for others, a new model’s introduction is just the starting point. most definitely falls in the latter category. When a new rolls out, for example, you can bet there will be a dozen or more versions to follow. A new ? Slap a roof on it and in another year or so you’ve got a new . So it only stands to reason that the German automaker would do the same with its more family-oriented offerings, the and .
Automobile magazine’s European bureau reports that, when Porsche rolls out a restyled Panamera next year, the four-door model will yield the variants that the current model does not. That will likely include a long-wheelbase model for the Chinese market, as well as a potential shooting brake and a possible four-seat cabriolet.
A slant-back version of the Cayenne is also said to be in the works to take on the , with a new Cayman to put a roof over the new Boxster’s head later this year and a generous array of 911 variants to come out year after year. Couple all those spin-offs with the new crossover, the Pajun (baby Panamera) and a pair of new supercars (918 and 960) to slot in above the 911 range and they’re suddenly looking very busy at Zuffenhausen over the next few years.
It may come as a shock, but diesel cars are doing well outside of their traditional European home. The just-released shows that , but the real story is that we might be seeing the start of a golden era for diesel-powered cars in the U.S. In fact, clean diesel sales were up 35 percent in the first quarter of 2012 over Q1 2011, a trend – and it is a trend, since diesel sales were up 27 percent in 2011 – that the Diesel Technology Forum (DTF) says is due to higher fuel prices pushing people into the efficient oil-burners.
Allen Schaeffer, DTF’s executive director, said in a statement that, “I expect clean diesel auto sales to increase further as several new diesel cars are introduced in the U.S. market in the next year.”
Right now, it’s pretty much all Jetta TDI, all the time.
Once those other vehicles arrive, we’ll see how the market shakes out. Right now, it’s pretty much all , all the time. A while back, we spoke with Lars Ullrich, the director of marketing and business excellence, diesel systems North America, for Robert Bosch LLC. He told us that diesel Jettas made up 44 percent of all diesels sold in the U.S. last year, which makes the Jetta sort of the Prius of diesels in America. Last year, had 58 percent of all diesel sales in the U.S.
Does this mean the Jetta TDI is “the” diesel in the U.S.? Ullrich said it depends on how you look at the numbers. About 60 percent of all s sold in the U.S. in 2011, for example, were diesel, but the A3 sells in smaller numbers overall than the Jetta. When you have diesels available in high-volume models, he said, you end up selling a lot of diesels.
Diesel-powered passenger cars and medium-duty pick-ups had around three percent market share in the U.S. in 2011.
What does the big picture look like? Overall, diesel-powered passenger cars and medium-duty pick-ups had around three percent market share in the U.S. in 2011. That may not sound like a lot, but compare it to the hybrid market share, which has gone from 2.7 to 2.4 to 2.1 percent over the last three years, Ullrich said. Today, there are 25 clean diesel models available in the U.S. By 2014, that number will double, he said, which gives us an indication of where the market is moving. Echoing Schaeffer, Bosch’s prediction is that the U.S. will see diesels grab 10 percent of the market by 2015.
While increasingly popular, diesels are not perfect. There are issues like the , for example, and a fossil fuel is a fossil fuel. But it’s clear that Americans are considering diesel more than they used to. The question is what happens when the and arrive? Or more of ’s -D models? And, further down the line, when we see more merging of electric and diesel powertrains, where the diesel – perhaps – is burned in an efficient generator to generate electricity. That’s when things get even more exciting.
High gas prices are helping and do quite well in the U.S., too. The Diesel Technology Forum says hybrid sales increased 37.2 percent while plug-in electrics jumped 323 percent. Overall, vehicle sales were up 13.4 percent. For more number-crunching details, see our monthly green car sales charts for , and of 2012. The DTF has compiled a list of all the diesel-powered vehicles available in the U.S. .
Want a hot little hatchback? You could do a lot worse than a . But as with many cars, your budget will determine how much speed you get: Cooper, Cooper S, JCW or – with the first-gen model, anyway – the top-of-the-line John Cooper Works GP.
Introduced just before Mini launched the second-generation model line, the GP edition packed more power, less weight and a sportier suspension. After receiving a few months ago that Mini was planning a similar version of the current model, we brought you a few weeks ago of a prototype hatchback wearing some tell-tale signs of GP-ification. But what is this? A GP coupe?
That’s what it would seem, with the less versatile and more backwards-hat-wearing Mini Coupe wearing a minimally camouflaged lower fascias front and rear, plus four-spoke wheels like the first GP edition.
The question is whether Mini is planning GP versions of both the hatchback and coupe, or if one of these prototypes is merely a diversion of some sort. We’ll have to wait to find out, but you can take a closer look at the spy shots and start to wonder as well.
Many privileges come with the title of CEO at one of the world’s top automakers. As top man at and Renault, certainly has his share of perks. Take for instance unfettered access to Nissan’s heritage warehouse in Zama, Japan where 400 Nissan and Datsun vehicles are stored.
Ghosn was given the special CEO tour of the place recently and met some of the engineers who worked on cars such as the 1000 Sports Deluxe. During the visit, Ghosn was treated to a driving tour of the massive warehouse in the 75-year-old Datsun 17 Phaeton seen above.
The impressive collection also includes the once owned by Ghosn himself, several rally cars and, as the narrator says, “a collection of classic Zeds.” Nissan staff and volunteers keep at least 70 percent of the treasures fully drivable.
The warehouse is closed to the public, but there are hints in the video that Nissan could be planning a museum to house the collection. Check out the video by .
. On a day in which has dominated the news – by and for the auto show – it completes the hat trick by announcing that its new factory will be built in Mexico. Production is slated to begin in 2016, but Audi only announced that the plant would be building “an SUV model.” Speculating on which that might be, we imagine it would make sense for one of the brand’s high-volume nameplates to be built here in North America, which would point to the .
Audi parent already operates facilities in the Mexican cities of Puebla and Silao, so the company is intimately familiar with the nuances of building cars in the country. That should help in getting the facility up to speed quickly, although Audi board members emphasized finding the right location in Mexico in their statement announcing the decision.
Audi also said it could supply vehicles from Mexico worldwide, and reiterated its goal of selling two million vehicles each year by 2020. That, of course, is part of Volkswagen’s stated intent of .
