Three screen tests for the have been completed, and we think it’s gonna be a star. As with the G55, we expect the vehicle’s reputation to far outshine its sales, but with an exponentially improved interior, 544 horsepower, 560 pound-feet and better gas mileage than its less powerful predecessor, we’re talking about a whole lot of shining regardless.
With a base price well into six figures, the videos are the probably the only time you will ever see a G63 anywhere near dirt or kicking up flinty black rocks. If you start saving right now, you might be able to afford to buy one of its wheels when it arrives on our shores in August, or you can check it out for free in the videos .
Considering how short some product lifecycles have become, it boggles the mind to think that has had the Phantom on the market for nearly ten years now. And with the next-generation model not expected to arrive for another few years, the model that relaunched the brand under ownership stands to reach its Bar Mitzvah before it’s replaced. But in the meantime, Goodwood is keeping the Phantom fresh with the Series II update.
The revisions include a refreshed front end with new bumpers and adaptable LED headlamps, the latest in infotainment systems and a new eight-speed automatic transmission to help the 6.75-liter V12 marginally improve its emissions and fuel consumption figures.
New versions of the , and convertible are already finding their way to eagerly awaiting (and obscenely wealthy) customers around the world, but Rolls opted to wait until the to unveil the new Extended Wheelbase model. Particularly popular in the Chinese market where extra rear-seat legroom is deemed the pinnacle of luxury, the Phantom Series II Extended Wheelbase model measure a whopping 20 feet long.
That’s more than a foot longer than the now-departed Ford Excursion, and you can check it out in the gallery of high-resolution images above.
You know those “spot the difference” side-by-side photos that are commonly reserved for Highlightsmagazines in a dentist’s waiting room? “Can you find seven differences between these two pictures?” Park a next to its gasoline-powered kin and you’ll essentially be playing a three-dimensional version.
But that’s exactly why we like this zero-emission, battery-powered compact. It doesn’t have a funky name, it isn’t all bubbly shaped, and it’s still as functional as any new we’ve sampled to date.
So, does this whole package of anonymous electrification work? It looks like a Focus, but does it drive like one and offer the same refinement, too? We headed to the southern California coast to find out.
In keeping with the CUV-crazy theme of this year’s , has introduced this Urban Crossover Concept penned by the French lion’s design studios in Paris, Shanghai and São Paulo. Eight inches shorter and three inches narrower than a hatchback, the concept is meant to be the ultimate expression of the company’s decades of popular small cars, crossovers and design.
It is also said to show off Pug’s new design cues, but we aren’t told exactly which cues those are. At the moment, Peugeot isn’t talking about what (if anything) powers its UCC, but perhaps we’ll learn more as the vehicle continues to make the rounds of the auto show circuit. In the meantime, check out the press release by and admire its angles in the high-res gallery.
has long been labeled as a “youth brand,” so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised to read word of parent turning over the marque’s aging nameplates so quickly. According to Ward’s Auto,Scion is set to kill off its and models – the first a onetime icon for the brand, the latter an econobox that never truly caught on with buyers (not unlike it’s predecessor, the xA).
A model like the xB was always going to be a love-hate proposition, and indeed, the subcompact sharply divided opinion because of its its t-square styling and funky stance back when it was introduced in 2004. But enough buyers fell enough with its good qualities – remarkable space efficiency, solid fuel economy, ease-of-driving and low pricing that the xB sold surprisingly well, in the process becoming something of a totem for the brand. The second-generation model, which bowed for 2007, seemed to alter all the things that made the original so endearing: the xB grew substantially, had the uniquely sharp corners of its design chamfered off, and it gained more power without adding much in the way of performance because the vehicle had been so radically upsized. Fuel economy dipped, too, as did the xB’s popularity with shoppers. Last year, Scion only moved about 17,000 examples – in its heyday, the xB sold over 60,000 units.
A couple of years ago, Jim Farley, Ford’s vice president of global marketing, told Autoblog that Scion’s intent wasn’t to be a youth brand at all – it was to be an experimental division, an incubator for product and marketing techniques. Farley, as you may recall, was one of the driving forces behind Scion, ascending to the role of its vice president before being reassigned to . By Farley’s yardstick, perhaps Scion had pushed the xB and xD as far as they could go, and now it’s simply time to test new vehicular hypotheses. Indeed, more recent models like the tiny and coupe show the brand experimenting in bold new directions… exactly the sort of innovation we can get behind.
has unveiled the production version of its EcoSport crossover at the 2012 Beijing Motor Show. The small five-door utility should offer buyers plenty of functionality in a compact and efficient package thanks to a range of drivetrain configurations including a 1.0-liter, three-cylinder Ecoboost engine. The small-displacement engine is good for 118 horsepower and 125 pound-feet of torque, which should be more than enough to move the little machine around. All told, Ford says the EcoSport will see duty in over 100 world markets, though the CUV isn’t expected to show up in our neck of the woods.
The EcoSport Titanium is currently on display in Beijing, complete with 16-inch wheels and a massive chrome grille. All models featureFord Sync with voice control, while smart keyless entry and remote start are also available. As expected, the crossover also comes laden with safety tech, including dual front and side-curtain airbags.
The EcoSport will be a cornerstone of Ford’s aggressive expansion into China that will see it roll out some 15 new models by 2015. In the CUV segment, Ford of China presently only sells the , but it will add the EcoSport, Kuga (read: ) and to its showrooms as part of this initiative. for the full press release.
Ford is looking to put a new twist on the term “old money.” The automaker may add old, shredded, out-of-circulation U.S paper currency to its list of recyclable materials that may be used for cushions, insulation and other components.
With about 10,000 pounds of paper money being shredded per day, Ford is exploring adding it to a list of recyclable or reclaimed materials that includes soybeans, denim and plastic bottles.
Ford has cut its petroleum use by about 5 million pounds a year by using soy-based material for foam that is installed in seat cushions and head restraints. And each is built with the denim-equivalent of about two pairs of blue jeans that’s used for sound-dampening purposes.
Ford started looking into using recycled materials about ten years ago as a way to cut use of petroleum in components that usually require plastic. At that time, oil cost about one-seventh of what it costs now.
In January, the company said it would use from the in Detroit and the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to create part of the polyester fiber used in the ’s seats.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. That age-old adage is once again proven by the video you’ll see . In a classic battle of versus , the 1981 Blazer SUV is pitted against the Ford Bronco in a dealer training video designed to give sales staff all the information they needed to sway customers toward the Bowtie and away from the Blue Oval.
The checklist sounds familiar. Horsepower and torque, fuel economy, standard features versus optional equipment, payload and cargo space – each of these categories are compared. Seems the issues that matter most to car-buying consumers haven’t changed much in 30 years. and watch the video to take a stroll down memory lane.
training video extols the virtues of the 1981 Blazer
“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.
Got 13 minutes to spare? Of course you do – it’s a Friday. Then we’ve got just the way to burn them.
has posted three new SRT videos, the first being a nice seven-minute documentary about Viper history, from its origins to the present.
We’re happy to see the automaker make no attempts to distort the truth here, wisely including period footage of both Carroll Shelby and Bob Lutz, despite the fact that those two automotive legends currently work for its most bitter rivals, and General Motors, respectively. The inclusion of a clip from the Viper TV series, however, was perhaps a less inspired choice. We’d have left that on the cutting room floor in favor of more racing footage, like maybe something from Le Mans.
The second video is three minutes of Ralph Gilles, President and CEO of SRT Brand and Motorsports at Chrysler. Gilles walks us around a static Viper, explaining some of the details in the design that might escape a casual observer – and help the new Viper hit 206 miles per hour.
The final video goes inside Conner Avenue Assembly in Detroit where Chrysler builds the Viper. So maybe Chrysler employees like Shelly Brown Alore, the operations manager at the plant, aren’t quite the celebrity that Gilles is, but then again, we’re exactly the type of car nerds that actually find this stuff interesting.
The has been a bit polarizing since it went on sale last year. And the debate could get more animated if the Korean company does what we think it’s thinking about doing.
At a recent gathering of reporters and executives in Ann Arbor, MI, where the annual takes place every summer, we asked Hyundai Motors America chief John Krafcik what he planned to bring this year (the college town is also home to Hyundai America Technical Center). Last year, they showed off the new Veloster.
Redone ? New ? Neither seems appropriate for the tone of the event. So, we threw this out: “How about chopping the top off the Veloster and see the reaction?”
Krafcik and PR man Jim Trainor started trying to make poker faces, indicating to us that we may well have stumbled on to a future project, Rolling Sculpture or no. But we aren’t sure.
Some thought the Veloster was an answer to a question that nobody had been asking, but the unique coupe is proving to be a great sales and image success for Hyundai. Krafcik has shown a great instinct for design and engineering the Hyundai lineup to successful heights: redesigns of the , , and now Santa Fe. He also had a lot to do with the cleanup of the Azera, and, of course, the and . A former product development executive at , it’s hard to think he would not be the current product development chief in Dearborn had he stayed, and not been scooped up by Hyundai a decade ago.
Hyundai’s sales have been supply constrained on many of its models, including the Veloster. Given a finite supply of Veloster models that it can source from Korea, Krafcik plans to emphasize production of the . That strikes us as a smart move.
We’re excited about the turbo, but we couldn’t resist asking a rendering artist to imagine the Veloster sans roof. What do you think? Is topless a good thing in this case?
We’ve got to hand it to of Europe – this is one of the most brilliant marketing stunts we’ve ever seen. Blending the correct amounts of populist outrage, mockery of the common man, hidden cameras, big budget technology, and gritty urban realism into one literal over-the-top promotion that – get this – is actually relevant to the vehicle it is designed to promote? Well, we’re impressed, to say the least.
We won’t spoil the punchline to the video, created by ad agency Ogilvy of Paris (according to Co.Create), but for anyone who’s ever had to suffer through living in a big city and parking on the street, you’ll be pleased.
And for those of you who might occasionally do a little park-by-touch yourself? Ford’s new with Active Park Assist is just the vehicle for you.
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.
In the music industry, a band’s third album is typically make-or-break. You start with the debut album, introducing the general public to the band’s polished works, then comes the sophomore record, which proves whether or not the band can keep its fan base happy and gain more traction in the music scene. But the third album must show if that band’s sound and style has a good enough mix of individual flare and mainstream appeal to keep them successful in the long-run.
If you think about it, the same can be said about the automotive landscape, and for the purpose of this review, the . The first-generation Escape, launched in 2000 as a 2001 model, entered during a time when small SUVs and “cute-utes” were booming. The redesigned 2008 Escape built upon the first model’s success, and now, as the curtain is about to close on that ruggedly handsome, boxy Escape, this new third-generation model has some mighty big shoes to fill.
Over the past year, the Escape has been an absolute sales superstar. In 2011, moved over 254,000 of the compact crossovers – a 33-percent gain over 2010’s numbers. To get an idea of just how impressive that is, know that in the same timeframe, moved just over 218,000 , while sold 137,000 and hustled around 193,000 models. Building upon that success, Ford announced that with 60,000 units sold in the first quarter of 2012, the Escape posted its best Q1 numbers in its 11-year history. Talk about going out with a bang.
But rather than sticking to the original formula of a small, trucky crossover, Ford has completely redesigned the Escape for 2013. Perhaps the biggest point of contention surrounding the new model is its styling – the two-box, upright design has been ditched in favor of the automaker’s Kinetic language, employing a more, shall we say, Focused appearance.
So here it is, the ever-important third album. Does Ford’s all-new Escape have enough mainstream appeal to take on the best and brightest of the CUV set while still being able to appeal to loyalists? We headed to the roads around San Francisco to find out.
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 .
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 challenge of small, efficient and clever hatchbacks catching on with the American masses is a long story that shows infrequent signs of becoming less challenging. The bottom line is that most U.S. consumers feel such vehicles are simply too small for our wide-open-spaces sensibilities. This smallness is only enhanced when one looks around while stopped at American intersections, only to see big and tall sheetmetal in all directions. There are admittedly serious strides being made in this segment in various U.S. markets, usually of the urban variety and on the coasts, but it will always be a struggle.
The last time Peugeot tried directly communicating in American English with imported product was back in 1991 with its 505 and 405 ranges that unceremoniously flopped. There was ongoing talk at that time of bringing over the 205 hatchback to try and improve things, but we missed out and Peugeot was gone. Perhaps the seven percent of PSA Peugeot-Citroën now owned by General Motors will someday result in the importing of the solid hatchback tested here, but I won’t hold my breath.
Recently, the new Peugeot 208 was all over the French giant’s show stand at the , together with its legendary GTi trim and new XY upmarket trim. Back in 1984, it was the 105-horsepower 205 GTi that established the legend of the French hot hatch. While the 206 was then a smash hit with buyers between 1998 and 2006, the subsequently larger 207 has been far less popular in the face of much improved competitors – a group that blossomed from just 16 different models on the European market in 1998 to now 27 separate hatches today. In its prime, the 206 outsold even the mighty Volkswagen Golf and stayed at the top of Europe’s sales charts for a time. The outgoing 207, however, has routinely lingered behind the and Polo, Renault Clio, Opel Astra and Corsa, not to mention the and .
When sold and to Tata Motors for $2.5 billion, the auto industry was in rough shape. And it didn’t help that the luxury combo pack didn’t exactly have a lineup full of fresh rides.
Only four years have past since that historic sale, but the industry is in much better shape and new vehicles like the and have seemingly done wonders for the luxury brands. In fact, Tata’s investment may be in much better shape than most anyone would have thought. According to Bloomberg, analysts predict that an Initial Public Offering could show that the brands are worth a combined $14 billion.
That’s a monumental return on investment, and there are plenty of reasons for the lofty estimate. Tata reportedly earned $2 billion off JLR in 2011, and sales are at all-time highs. The brands are also expecting major growth in China and Russia, and Tata has promised to double its investment in new products. Tata has also pledged 40 new or refreshed models in the next five years, which is likely more new metal than some full-line manufacturers would be willing to promise.
But while JLR is apparently worth an estimated $14 billion, it appears that Tata isn’t quite ready to issue an IPO. Company spokesman Debasis Ray told Bloomberg in an email that Tata is planning to fund the brands through internal cash accruals.
At present, has the capacity, through its joint venture Changan Ford Automobile, to build about 600,000 vehicles per year in . That’s not enough to sustain the brand’s , so it makes sense that the automaker has officially announced plans to build a new facility in Hangzhou.
This $760 million expansion will bring Ford’s total investment in China to $4.9 billion, and it will double the automaker’s production capacity in that country by 2015. Ford calls this its most rapid expansion in 50 years – not surprising, given that the Chinese automobile market is expected to crest 30 million vehicles by 2020 – and it will make this region in China its largest manufacturing base outside its traditional playground in Southeast Michigan.
Ford isn’t saying what vehicle(s) it plans to build at this new Chinese plant, but it is suggesting that it will increase its available models from five to 15, along with 20 new powertrain options, by 2015. Feel free to read Ford’s official press release by .
