Well, this certainly brings quite literal meaning to the word ‘minivan’. According to Auto Motor und Sport, sources within have reportedly confirmed that a new -branded panel van – possibly dubbed Mini Cargo – will debut at the in March.
Creating the Mini Cargo sounds like a simple enough process. Auto Motor und Sport reports that the work-ready hauler will be based on the , with the rear bench seat removed in favor of a long load floor. The rear side windows will be ditched for sheetmetal (like most panel vans), though it’s unclear whether or not the rear windows will be left intact.
We’re curious to see what other alterations will be made to the Clubman in its transition to a proper panel van. Will the passenger-side rear-hinged door be left alone, or will it be removed? Will the rear suspension be strengthened to accommodate for heavy hauling? Assuming that plans for a Mini Cargo are indeed underway, we’ll have to wait until March to find out.
We don’t know how the folks at got from naval undersea mine design to the Light Mine Pro, but we’re glad they did. The baseball sized, sci-fi-like accessory is comprised of two LED arrays – one white, one red – surrounded by 11 protrusions topped by neodymium magnets. Stick it to any metal surface on your car, and you’ve fire-and-forget illumination.
Running in three AAA batteries, the eight white LEDs can be used as low-power or high-power spotlights, the four red LEDs function as blinkers or for night vision. And those magnets should come in handy in other ways, such as retrieving dropped objects – assuming the object is at the end of a baseball-sized gap. The unusual multi-function light strikes us as a fair shake at around $20, but we’ll have to buy one to see the quality for ourselves.
The is a big deal for , so it makes sense that the majority of the company’s attention at the will be focused around the new C-segment sedan. But since the automaker doesn’t want to blow its whole show presence on just one vehicle, its Mopar tuning arm has stepped in to create two new vehicles for show-goers to ogle – the Chrysler 200 Super S and Dodge Charger Redline.
In its stock form, the certainly isn’t going to win any design awards, but we’ll admit it: Based on these pics, the Super S looks good, at least from the front. The Super S Stage One kit adds visual flare in the form of a front chin spoiler, satin chrome fog light trim, satin chrome grille surround and a new mesh grille design. What’s more, there are new side sills, black chrome badges and bespoke 18-inch “S” alloy wheels, a trunk lid spoiler, satin chrome rear light bar and a matte black lower diffuser with integrated exhaust openings.
Want some performance to back up that new look? There aren’t any real power upgrades for the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 engine, but the Stage Two kit adds a coil-over suspension, cold air intake and cat-back exhaust. Chrysler says Super S packages will be available on 200S models starting sometime later this year.
Moving on up, the Charger Redline shows off three different Mopar tuning kits that will also be available later in 2012. Stage One adds a full-width carbon fiber chin spoiler to the Charger’s aggressive front fascia, 20-inch Black Envy wheels, carbon fiber door scoops, a three-piece carbon fiber rear spoiler (pictured, right) and a roof graphic in matte black. We’ve had a chance to see the Charger Redline in person, and truth be told, we don’t find it terribly attractive – especially the tacked-on side vents and spoiler. Though it traces its look to the anything-goes 1970s Mopar models, we’d prefer to just leave the decidedly handsome alone, at least, aesthetically speaking.
The Stage Two and Stage Three performance upgrades, on the other hand, we’ll take. Stage Two incorporates a cat-back performance exhaust, a front-tower cross-brace and tower brace caps, along with high-performance Mopar brake linings. But what we really want is Stage Three, which includes a high-output version of the 426 Hemi V8 crate engine – designed for racing use only. In addition to delivering 590 horsepower – 220 more than the standard V8 Charger – the engine weighs 100 pounds less than the standard cast-iron crate version. Too bad this setup isn’t approved for use on public roads.
See both the 200 Super S and Charger Redline in our galleries below and for Chrysler’s official release.
Abiding by traffic signals is perhaps the simplest rule of the road. Any preschooler can tell you what red light means, but that doesn’t stop a staggering number of drivers from ignoring the lights altogether. ATS, a company responsible for manufacturing red light cameras, wants us to think a little harder about coming to a complete stop the next time we lose the right of way. The company says that more than 100,000 people are injured in collisions involving a driver who ignored a red light.
The video after the jump compiles a number of incidents in New Jersey involving inattentive or downright stupid drivers. Some of the clips feature near misses, while others involve scary collisions. to see for yourself, and remember to heed the traffic signal the next time you’re behind the wheel.
The Zastava Yugo 45 was intended to be a serious car. Instead, it became a punchline. Milos Paripovic’s Zugo concept, on the other hand, is a bit of a joke that instead was taken seriously enough to win fifth place in a European design competition. After updating the lines of the Yugo for the Zugo, Paripovic endowed it with features that probably would have been useful on the original.
The electric concept has a heated rear hatch so your relatives, when pushing it, have a warm place to put their hands. But the hatch also contains a pressure sensor so you can tell if any of those relatives aren’t pulling pushing their weight.
Paripovic said such features, and others, “are put in contrast to everyday reality of Yugo owner.” That’s why the Zugo is open source and provides diagrams of all of its parts so owners can fabricate their own. It’s also why the safest recommended place for the Zugo is “in the garage.” Check it out in the attached image gallery. It might be the finest offspring of a Yugo 45, ever.
As the Poison frontman is wont to sing, every rose has its thorn. Indeed, if the 1969 Bret Michaels sold at the 2011 Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction was that flower, his latest consignments are as painful as pricked fingers.
Michaels will be offering three vehicles at the sale, to be held January 15-22, 2012. The first (and the only marginally interesting one) is a 2004 . The other two are Blue Oval SUVs that might more appropriately be found on a used car lot: A 2004 and a 2011 .
Clearly, it was nothin’ but a good time for Michaels at last year’s Barrett-Jackson, where his non-original Camaro fetched a remarkable $200,000. That’s about five times what it might have sold for without playing the celebrity card. But hey, at least it was a ‘69 Camaro and Bret even threw in an autographed guitar.
This year, however, Michaels’ consignments look like what the cat dragged in. While Barrett-Jackson is known for its unabashed embrace of , these offerings just hit a wrong note.
Proving that he is nothing if not predictable, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich blamed the United Auto Workers for the loss of American manufacturing jobs at a recent campaign appearance. Automotive News reports that Gingrich lauded the factory in Spartanburg, SC, for being “vibrant” and mentioned , and in a positive light, while blaming the UAW for impeding continuous improvement at domestic automakers. The UAW did not respond to a request for comment, according to the report.
While we wouldn’t expect Gingrich to behave any differently towards his political enemies in the union, we will say that the loss of manufacturing jobs is a far more complicated subject than this or any other soundbite can explain. And for all the attention that the auto industry continues to receive from politicians hoping to score points with voters, we remain appalled at how little those on both sides of the aisle actually know about the business.
We are nearly at the end of 2011, and that means another 365 days of driving the latest cars and attending automotive events around the world. Of course, we constantly have our cameras at our sides so we can share everything with you, and we take a lot of pride in bringing you beautiful, high-res images of all the cars we come across, whether it’s one that just debuted at an auto show or one that just spent a week in our garage.
As has become tradition here at Autoblog, we’ve spent the last few weeks going through our archive of images to select the very best photos that we captured with our own cameras from the last year. We’ve carefully chosen our favorite 100, which you can see in the gallery above. We’ve also included links to the article in which the image originally appeared, in case you want to see more photos of the car or event.
We hope you enjoy viewing the images as much as we did taking them and putting them together. If you want to see our favorite images from previous years, you can view our galleries from , and . Enjoy!
We’ve been doing Autoblog for a while now and still don’t know exactly why some posts become popular and others completely miss boarding the crazy train to Viralville. Maybe we were the first to post about a hot topic. Videos are almost always poised for success, and of course any post that includes a first look or specs of a highly anticipated vehicle can be a hit waiting to happen. But every time we hit the publish button it’s like throwing a dart in the dark.
It may be difficult to know in advance what you all will click on the most, but after the fact, simple math tells us everything we need to know. We’ve assembled the 10 Most Popular Posts of 2011 according to clicks, and the results are available .
The Great Story of 2011 looks hellbent on running straight on through the new year and well into the future, despite the fact that the automaker has and hasn’t produced a vehicle in what seems like ages.
Rumor has it that Saab administrators are receiving interest from some unknown entities from Turkey (with supposed backing from the Turkish government) as well as India’s in some sort of brand-revival strategy.
As you may recall, , ex-parent of the Swedish brand, with Saab’s various Chinese partners, fearing its hard-earned technology could fall into the wrong hands – which is to say, any hands other than SAIC’s, GM’s official Chinese partner. But that doesn’t necessarily preclude Turkish or Indian ownership.
That said, reports from Sweden seem to indicate that Hans Bergqvist and Anne-Marie Pouteaux, the two administrators in charge of Saab, have turned down a request to meet with Lars Carlstrom on behalf of Mahindra. The gist of the gossip grinder is that the administrators don’t want to have anything to do with Carlstrom due to his past association with Russian billionaire .
In any case, we’d wager that neither the Turkish concern nor Mahindra would make a full-out purchase of the brand. It seems more likely that Saab’s most desirable assets would be its manufacturing capabilities, tooling and in-house technology. Stay tuned for more as this story develops.
Over the summer, we posted on by students at the Tennessee Technical Center-Nashville and Nashville State Community College: prepare a 400-horsepower, 5.6-liter V8 from an for seafaring duty in a 20-foot Chris-Craft.
The engine’s transformation is nearly complete, but it seems the boat needs a great deal more work. The pleasure craft, which dates from 1962, has already has three other marinized engines from car manufacturers, a and two Hemi powerplants. The gents at Freeport Boat Outlet in Freeport, Maine are overseeing the wooden hull restoration and have said that 85 percent of the mahogany will need replacing.
When it’s finally finished, the QX lump with water-cooled manifolds and a closed cooling system will be mated with a ZF/Hurth marine transmission and tested back at HQ. Assuming all goes well, the hull will get an SUV’s worth of Infiniti luxuries and be married to its engine. In the meantime, the name of the boat is being put to the public, so have a read of the press release for all the details. Then, come summer, keep an eye out for a very slick watercraft plying Tennessee’s lakes.
Automakers are being pinched to increase safety and improve fuel efficiency, but those two goals often work against each other. That could change thanks to a material that is 99.99-percent air.
Ward’s Automotive reports that the California Institute of Technology, HRL Laboratories and the University of California-Irvine have combined to develop a micro-lattice material that is said to be 100 times lighter than Styrofoam and strong like steel. We’d call this material paper-thin, but the truth is even more impressive: the material is comprised of tiny woven tubes that are 1,000 times thinner than a human hair.
The is obviously interested in this material for top-secret projects like next-generation aircraft, but the micro-lattice is also of great interest to the auto industry. The material could greatly reduce weight and drag, which would in turn significantly increase efficiency. At the same time, the material can reportedly almost completely recover after stress of up to 50 percent and has impressive energy absorbing characteristics. That means the material could also be a safety asset, which is good news for automakers and consumers.
Cal Tech Professor Julia Greer adds that the material could ultimately replace any non heavy-steel component that isn’t already light in weight. A material with less air would reportedly be the next step in the evolution of lightweight metals, and the scientists are working on a nano-lattice that can do just that.
We don’t know much about these micro and nano materials, but we’re guessing it will be a while before the materials are inexpensive enough for automotive applications. But if the U.S. government and airplane manufactures can jump aboard and bring down the manufacturing costs, we could see this type of material helping automakers achieve those 50+ mile per gallon fuel economy standards. For more information and a demonstration of the micro-lattice’s properties, check out the videos after the jump.
If Fido can distinguish people and other pooches by their backsides, why not a seat? When students at the Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology in Tokyo, Japan asked that question, they came up with a car seat fitted with 360 sensors that makes a map of the pressure applied by your posterior. Among the six rumps tested, the seat was 98 percent accurate at sorting one from another.
The ultimate aim is to work with automakers to develop an anti-theft solution that would be available in the next few years. With such a small testing pool, it’s too early to start asking the difficult questions about real-world viability (especially when you start to factor in things like different articles of clothing, , and so on), but we have a feeling this kind of technology will find an application somewhere.
We report on a lot of recalls, and most are seemingly innocuous defects that require the solar system to perfectly align before anything catastrophic could happen. Then there are recalls like this one for the that appear to be much more dangerous than they probably are.
It turns out that let a few Sonics built between June 2 and November 21 leave its factory in Orion Township, Michigan minus a brake pad. General Motors claims that of the 4,873 Sonics built during that time, some 20 to 30 may be missing either an inner or outer front brake pad. The company says 4,296 of the potentially shoe-less Sonics were sent to the U.S., while 577 migrated north to Canadian customers.
A car minus just one inner or outer brake pad doesn’t lose its ability to stop, but its braking performance will suffer and there is the possibility that other elements of the braking system, like the caliper or rotor, could be damaged as a result of their omission.
GM vows to notify all potentially affected Sonic owners and install any missing pads and, if necessary, replace any calipers or rotors free of charge.
puts out APB on missing Sonic brake pads, issues recall
Ever since the unexpectedly became the Xerox of hybrids and a greenie icon, has been trying to figure out how to apply the technology to its other models. Its results have been decidedly mixed, nowhere more so than with its luxury lineup. But with the 450h, Toyota thinks it has finally figured out what a hybrid luxury car should be.
From a sales perspective, the first-generation GS 450h was a disappointment. While a couple years ago, Lexus just hasn’t been able to move the metal. Introduced to much fanfare in 2006 as a 2007 model, the GS was Lexus’ second hybrid and the first rear-wheel-drive hybrid on the market. Lexus touted it as a performance sedan, even as Toyota was heavily marketing its hybrids as fuel sippers. Whether or not, they never took to the hybrid GS. Sales peaked at just below 1,800 in that first year and have gone down in each successive year. In 2010, Lexus sold barely 300 GS hybrids, roughly four percent of total GS sales, which were about 7,000.
The cognitive dissonance presented by Lexus hybrids has been an issue since the brand launched its first, the 2006 SUV. Only marginally more powerful than the standard RX, its improvement in fuel economy was similarly slight at launch. The – the brand’s halo car before the sports car came along – is a six-figure, 20-mile-per-gallon hybrid marketed as having V12 performance with V8 fuel economy, the rough equivalent of ordering a Diet Coke with your Super Size Big Mac Extra Value Meal. The “Lexus Prius” , with neither particularly good fuel economy (35 mpg combined) nor any sporting aspirations, has been a critical and sales disaster and is . While Toyota’s simple, “better mileage” definition of its hybrids is clear, Lexus has combined green machine and muscle car in varying doses, such that you never quite know what you’ll be getting with a gas-electric Lexus.
We all got a little excited when news emerged that De Tomaso was being reborn. After all, what could it hurt to have another storied Italian exotic automaker in the world, right? But then came the Deauville.
Though the Pininfarina-penned shape wasn’t exactly hate-worthy, the emergence of a crossover to revive the De Tomaso marque was rather disappointing. The architect of the company’s revival, veteran auto exec Gian Mario Rossignolo, promised more exciting products to come, but nearly a year later we’ve yet to see anything more.
This latest development could come as good news, then, even if it seems bad at first. Rossignolo has reportedly sold the rights to the Deauville’s production to a Chinese company. Considering that it has, for the time being, been the only product De Tomaso has shown, that would seem to mean the entire house of cards has come crashing down. But, looking at it another way, Rossignolo and company have just managed to raise some 12 million euros (over $15 million) to (hopefully) finance the production of the Pantera, all the while offloading the burden of the lackluster Deauville at the same time.
Jay Leno had a very special guest stop by his garage recently. Peter Mullin and his Pebble Beach-winning took the time to visit the comedian and car enthusiast for a brief spell. It’s no secret Leno is a fan of ’30s French vehicles, and the Aerodyne holds a special place in his heart. The vehicle was a marvel of innovation when it debuted, featuring a 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder sleeve-valve engine, a mechanized retractable hardtop sun roof and an interior that could have only been designed by a Frenchman.
Leno and Mullin spend plenty of time discussing the vehicle’s origin as well as Voisin’s colorful past. The engineer began his career designing aircraft, and claimed he was the first person in history to successfully engage in powered flight. He took off, flew and carefully landed his plane 18 months after the Wright brothers sailed along in Kitty Hawk, but received no recognition for his accomplishments. Interested in more? to check out the video.
A police officer and several restaurant goers were lucky to escape injury Christmas Eve. According to news reports, Taos County, New Mexico Sheriff’s Deputy Nicholas Lamendola was responding to a call on the evening of December 24 with his lights and sirens blaring when a vehicle pulled in front of his police vehicle. Lamendola was traveling at a high rate of speed when he struck the vehicle, bounced over a snow bank, spun through a parking lot and rolled onto the patio of the El Prado restaurant. Moments earlier, patrons were waiting for a table on that very patio.
The deputy’s vehicle was leaking fuel, and bystanders were quick to pull an open fire pit from the scene before removing the officer from the overturned Tahoe. Beer cans were found in the vehicle, but local police insist Lamendola wasn’t drinking. The deputy is said to have borrowed the SUV from another officer who had just responded to an open container call. Lamendola wasn’t submitted to a blood test. for a news report on the crash.
There’s a lot of smoke going on over at , but we still have a while to wait before we get the first evidence of fire: the new Lotus Espirit and it’s won’t be here until 2013. On the other side of the world, there’s a fair bit of smoke and fire happening at Malaysian automaker Proton, which owns Lotus.
The Malaysian government controls Proton and has been investigating a partnership for or sale of the company for a couple of years, but despite its efforts, it hasn’t made any deals. The 28-year-old automaker has been losing large chunks of market share, and the government feels that sale to a well-funded global player would be the best solution to insure Proton’s long-term future. Although it has named its chosen candidate for a purchase, it isn’t clear if anyone has made any serious overtures to that end.
Outside observers believe the first thing Proton should do is get rid of Lotus. The mass-market Malaysian carmaker has almost nothing in common with the tiny, English niche sports car producer, and has done nothing but throw money at Lotus’ carmaking arm since 1996 (Lotus Engineering, the technology consultancy, is profitable).
Proton has said it has no intention of selling Lotus. However, if Proton is sold then the new owners could reverse that stance. And if Lotus were unloaded, that puts everything CEO Dany Bahar has planned in serious doubt.
At the , officially put all other muscle cars – and even some supercars – on notice. The made its public debut, and while it doesn’t look much different than the models that came before it, the huge change for 2013 lies under the hood: an all-new 5.8-liter supercharged V8 capable of sending 650 horsepower to the coupe’s rear wheels.
Since the modern GT500’s debut in 2007, Ford has always offered a convertible variant, and that isn’t expected to change with this new 2013 model, especially since the rival will be offered in both hardtop and droptop forms. According to , the GT500 Convertible will debut at the in just a few weeks, packing the same 650-hp powertrain and – at least, we hope – some added chassis tweaks for structural rigidity. We can’t even imagine trying to handle 650 supercharged horses through a willy-nilly rear end.
The only thing that isn’t expected to carry over from the coupe is the GT500’s 200-plus-mile-per-hour top speed. It may be possible to achieve this with the soft top in place, but we think the 200 Club will exclusively be reserved for the coupe and its sleeker shape.
Assuming the GT500 Convertible shows its face in Detroit, we’ll have the full details in just two weeks.
