In 2011, commenced its People’s Car Project in China to create crowdsourced concepts of the VW of the future. More than 33 million people visited the site, and three concepts were created from the inputs: the Music Car, the Hover Car and the Smart Key.
The Music Car is a wrapped in LEDs that change colors to match the driver’s choice of music. The Hover Car is a zero-emissions two-seater that, no surprise, hovers over electromagnetic road networks. The Smart Key is Big Brother for your car, in your pocket: the high-def touchscreen on the nine-millimeter key can track the status of your car and keep an eye on it via “satellite transmission.”
The project is continuing, so you can still post your thoughts to VW’s future. In the meantime there’s a video and a couple of press releases for more on the story.
’s People’s Car Project in China has produced three concepts [w/video]
We knew the three-door Volkswagen Up! was going to shape-shift into other variants, one of them being a that’s due later this year. According to word in German newspaper Handelsblatt, the well-received Cross-Up!, which provided clues to the styling of the five-door Up! could actually be the follow-up.
Crossovers remain popular and their sales are on the rise in Europe, so it’s no surprise that manufacturers are finding ways to create market-specific versions. According to the preliminary numbers, the The Cross Up! would slot in at $6,000 less than the larger . And like every other tiny Euro crossover – – we shouldn’t ever expect to see it here.
When announced the 2013 with , it didn’t mention fuel economy numbers but did tout the 333-horsepower engine’s “great efficiency.” According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the V6 efficiency exactly matches that of the more powerful 372-horsepower, 4.2-liter V8 – the 3.0T was rated the same 18 city, 28 highway as the naturally aspirated 4.2.
It’s figured that the stop/start system fitted to the V6 will provide a slight bump, which, since the EPA doesn’t factory such tech into its testing, doesn’t register in the official numbers. It’s difficult to make fuel economy comparisons with the same engines in other countries since they have different power ratings; in Germany, for instance, the V6 is rated at 286 hp, the 4.2 isn’t offered and the 4.0 TSFI V8 makes 414 hp – but in that case, the V6 does get better gas mileage, if you’re wondering.
Speaking of wondering, that’s what many including our own commenters are doing about the space between the 333-hp V6 and 520-hp V8 in the . The report in Car and Driver posits a detuned version of the S8’s motor. No matter what, the V6 A8 will be less expensive than all of them, which was the real point all along.
Episode #281 of the is here, and this week, Chris, Dan, and Zach chat about the fresh rumors of a new Toyota Supra, the Nissan Juke-R heading for (very) limited production, Cadillac ATS pricing, GM Europe headed for another restructuring, and sales of the Toyota Prius PHEV. Your questions and comments power the end of the ‘cast, and for those of you who hung with us live on our , thanks for taking the time. We’ve embedded our Q&A module for you to scroll through and follow along, too. Thanks for listening!
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Distracted driving has joined smoking, drinking, drug use, and unprotected sex on the list of behaviors that teens know are risky but engage in nonetheless.
According to a national survey by Consumer Reports, half of all teens surveyed had used a handheld phone while driving in the past 30 days, while 30 percent copped to texting. Eight percent said they operated a smart phone app and seven percent used email or social media while driving. But how many considered this behavior a bad idea? Fully 63 percent said talking on the phone could be considered “dangerous,” while almost all of them thought the others qualified, with about 80 percent agreeing to adding the word “very” to that description, according to CR.
We’ve already seen , and CR’s survey says the publicity is working. Over 60 percent of respondents said they were influenced to stop or reduce phone use while driving by reading or hearing about the problem, while only 40 percent responded to legal bans. And of course, family members laying down the law fared the worst, at only 30 percent saying that caused them to knock it off and put the phone down when behind the wheel.
Unsurprisingly, CR found that positive peer pressure could help curb the behavior, as almost 50 percent said they were less likely to talk on the a handheld cell phone or text if they had a buddy in the car. The magazine inferred that this could have to do with the half of respondents who said they had asked someone to stop using their phone while they were a passenger.
Of course, this problem with talking and texting while driving isn’t restricted to teenagers. Just like kids growing up in the 1980s learned to do drugs by watching their parents, the youth of today are witnessing mom and dad engaging in distracted driving. CR says 48 percent of young drivers said they’d seen a parent talking on the phone while driving and 15 percent caught one texting.
This got us thinking: Maybe it’s time to reboot our favorite PSA of all time. to watch.
All the Justin Bieber in the world doesn’t seem like enough for to catch a break. First it was a 2012 spectacularly . Now a Texas fire investigator has said that a house fire originated with the plug-inhybrid, according to AutoWeek.
The fire consumed the car while doing “substantial damage” to the garage and spreading to the suburban Houston home, but nobody was injured in the blaze. According to the report, two other vehicles parked in the garage, an Acura NSX and SUV, were also damaged. Estimates of the extent of the destruction were said to be $100,000, not including the damage to the other cars – and we’re assuming not including the Karma either, given that the was a complete loss, according to the report.
The fire started within three minutes of the Karma being parked in the garage, after the owner said he smelled burning rubber. According to the report, the car had not yet been plugged in to charge. The Karma is said to be new enough that it was built after the , and the report indicates that the battery pack survived the fire intact.
Though the Fort Bend County chief fire investigator told AW that “the Karma was the origin of the fire,” and that it resembled a golf cart fire, something that happens roughly 50 times a year in the area, the incident is still being investigated.
When contacted for comment, Fisker’s response was to tell AutoWeek not to jump to any conclusions: “There are conflicting reports and uncertainty surrounding this particular incident. The cause of the fire is not yet known and is being investigated.”
The automaker then went on to speculate about “fraud or malicious intent,” stating that “fireworks were found in the garage” and that “an electrical panel located in the garage… is also being examined,” according to the report. Fisker also told AW that it believes the car’s battery pack “does not appear to have been a contributing factor in this incident.”
If you’re a blue-blooded American capitalist, there’s nothing better than leading your company to the top of the Fortune 500 – except for making billions of dollars in profits, that is. But thankfully those two objectives tend to go hand-in-hand, as proven by these two men.
Indeed, General Motors CEO Dan Akerson and CEO Alan Mulally have plenty to smile about when looking at the 2012 Fortune 500 list, as their respective companies are pegged at fifth and ninth. While Ford’s profit last year dwarfed GM’s, according to the Fortune list, GM’s revenue was greater than all but four other corporations: Exxon Mobil, Wal-Mart, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips.
The only other automotive firm to hit the top 100 was supplier Johnson Controls at 67, though plenty of other suppliers made the list, including Goodyear at 126 and Ford spin-off Visteon at 321.
We at Autoblog, por supuesto, love us some behind-the-scenes car development videos. We also dig smart humor, and we think the two are gloriously combined in this German take on almost every dramatic engineering/track/shakedown vid that has hit the YouTubes. Until it gets a tad too absurd, at least…
Put together by who earlier made an , this time they’ve worked up a car they call the Fahrradi Farfalla FXX which is loosely based on a whole lot of othercars. When they give it the shakedown in a German tunnel, well, you’ll just have to see for yourself what happens. to see what’s up.
BMW Takes On Mercedes And Audi In The Profit Margin Wars
As the years go by, it’s become the Germans who are most closely watching what each other are doing over the backyard fence. So much so, at times, that it can almost seem like they’re freely swapping all their trade secrets unapologetically in full view.
Take this nicely executed new luxo-niche player, the . It’s no scoop, of course, that it was created specifically to not miss out on what both and are discovering for themselves with the and . And yes, that “nicely executed” modifier just used to describe the Gran Coupe could indeed ring with more enthusiasm.
The 640i Gran Coupe we sailed around in all over Sicily under a crisp sun is a generally good-looking machine. designers have taken the existing Big Bimmer language and successfully created a new dialect for the company, if you will. But these “four-door coupe” creations are curiosities for which many develop a love (or, occasionally, a distaste) for over the long run. Only the first-generation CLS in 2003-04 absolutely socked it to us at first glance, and since then, everything else in the genre has felt derivative. Well, they essentially are blatant derivatives, right?
Automotive News reports may use the company’s new to put some distance between itself and parent company . Buyers have snapped up a total of 4,900 GS models in just two months, breezing by year-long sales estimates in the process. The company attributes much of that success to non-traditional advertising efforts, including the Tori 500 iPhone and iPad app, and says that it could use similar tactics in the future to lure buyers in based on traits like “character and handling.” Traditionally, consumers have turned toward Lexus because of Toyota’s reputation for efficient and reliable machinery.
The GS, with its hour-glass grille and aggressive front fascia, is a first-step in giving the luxury automaker a more distinct brand image. In the past, Lexus has had trouble keeping buyers coming back, and the company believes that’s partly due to the fact that luxury consumers are more interested in owning a brand than a particular vehicle. As such, we can expect to see more corporate design cues across the company’s portfolio in the near future. The move may help set Lexus apart as something other than a slightly nicer Toyota in consumers eyes.
Most General Motors dealers make their living off selling pickup trucks. (That’s why when it came time to trim the brands and reorganize under bankruptcy, survived and didn’t – because dealers needed to have a truck to sell, not a .) That makes this year a tricky one for dealers, according to Automotive News, as they need to have enough or models in stock to get them to the 2013 model year.
What makes this quandary different from most years is that GM is readying all-new pickups, meaning that it will be . The full-size and GMC trucks date to 2006, making them the oldest in the industry that don’t wear a badge on their tailgate. Dealers, of course, don’t want to be caught with many 2012 trucks – vehicles that are already difficult enough to sell – but they don’t want inventories to run completely dry and risk turning away customers.
With a combined 29 weeks of downtime scheduled for three truck plans, according to the report, some dealers are stockpiling pickups to avoid running out if the truck production pipeline dries up before the 2013s start shipping. Other dealers are taking the opposite strategy, turning down 2012s and waiting for next year’s models.
Given all that has happened to GM in recent years, we imagine that most dealers know altogether too well that you’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
We’re almost ready to record Episode #281 of the Autoblog Podcast, and you can check out the topics below, add your own to the and join us live via , as well, and we’ve embedded our UStream player Thanks for listening!
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We’ve been guilty of putting a vehicle or three on two wheels occasionally, but never on purpose. James “Ski” Smith, on the other hand, has made a habit of standing a car on edge for extended periods of time. That’s impressive enough by our standards, but Smith recently attempted to take his skills to the next level by piloting a fox body all the way around Laguna Seca. Why an old Mustang? Probably because no one would shed a tear if the car wound up on its roof.
Unfortunately, Smith ran into another piece of trouble before he could tackle the track’s more daring corners. The extreme angle caused oiling issues with the V8 engine, flooding one bank with oil while depriving the other. As a result, Smith came to a stop just past Turn Six. Still, he hopes to try again soon. May we suggest he take something a little better suited to the task? A , mayhaps? to check out the clip for yourself.
We record Episode #281 of the Autoblog Podcast tonight, meaning you can drop us your questions via our Q&A module below and chime in to direct our conversation. Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast if you haven’t already done so, and if you want to take it all in live, tune in to our (audio only) channel at 10:00 PM Eastern tonight.
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Even though Toyota’s unintended acceleration debacle is as ancient as Jurassic fleas for most of us, the California Distric Court of Judge James Selna is still chainsawing through a massive docket of claims. Judge Selna had been considering whether plaintiffs in California, New York and Florida could sue for economic loss related to the claims of unintended accleraton – the plaintiffs wanted Toyota to reimburse them for the alleged decline in value of their cars.
According to a report in Bloomberg, Selna issued a final ruling that the New York and Florida plaintiffs can’t sue for economic loss if they didn’t experience unintended acceleration, or if they didn’t experience “a measurable loss” when selling their cars. California plaintiffs, on the other hand, can sue even if there was no unintended acceleration event or perceived depreciation.
The ruling could remove millions of owners from of plaintiffs and make an economic-loss class action lawsuit more difficult, but plaintiffs attorneys have said they’ll try to get the cases tried in New York and Florida courts. However, the ruling doesn’t affect other plaintiffs suing over the same issue in other states. This doesn’t affect the unintended accleration cases, though; three litmus-test trials are scheduled for next year.
wants to take another look at over 24,000 vehicles it’s sold in the United States. No, this isn’t just to check out how they’re holding up in the real world, it’s to make sure the smoke coming out of the tailpipe is clean enough.
BMW is recalling a total of 24,340 vehicles from the 2009-2011 model years – roughly 2,740 2011 or 2012 xDrive50i and xDrive50i vehicles as well as 21,600 models – because some parts of the emissions system (the DEF mixer, EGR valve and SCR catalyst) can incorrectly calculate the vehicle mileage. This can cause too many emissions to come out of the tailpipe, according to the California emission control rules. The recall will start May 9. Drivers should be on the lookout for letters after that date, a spokesman told Automotive News.
Just two months ago, BMW 1.3 million and vehicles from the 2003 to 2010 model years, 368,000 of them in the U.S.
Ah yes, the Nürburgring. Where else would you expect to find the forthcoming Gran Coupe? Well, other than on the stand the in September or .
While of the big 560-plus-horsepower sedan, 6post.com has snagged footage of the M6 Gran Coupe squealing tires and clipping apexes with some of its siblings on everyone’s favorite German road.
Mazda sales are up 22 percent this year, but the company’s American operation is enduring acute pain. It is in the midst of a complete, five-month reorganization while and . In March, Mazda announced its intention to offer voluntary buyouts to its U.S. employees, after which it would assess the plan and then lay off other workers if needed. Of the firm’s 701 local workers, 107 have accepted the voluntary buyout.
Having seen its North American year-over-year operating loss swell by more than 25 percent to $505 million from $397 million, every aspect of the company has come under review. Mazda has said it doesn’t know if involuntary layoffs will be necessary yet, but CEO Takashi Yamanouchi does know this: “It’s a must-win situation.”
The United States tax code will never be accused of being simple or easy to comprehend. With a tangle of exceptions and loopholes, individuals and corporations can work their way around paying their full income tax rate with ease.
According to The Detroit News, General Motors continues to avoid paying its federal income taxes since the company exited bankruptcy. In 2008, the Treasury Department ruled that the automaker could use $18 billion in losses from “old” GM to offset any profits. That means from a tax perspective, GM still hasn’t earned enough money to overcome its losses. The automaker has raked in more than $13 billion since 2009.
Of course, GM isn’t the only company dodging the federal income tax. , for example, payed $268 million in worldwide income taxes last year, despite claiming an income of $7.8 billion. Likewise, since Chrysler Group, LLC. is a limited-liability partnership, it isn’t required to pay federal income taxes. According to The Detroit News, very few companies pay the full 35 percent federal corporate income tax rate.
But that doesn’t mean GM or other companies get off entirely. GM says it pays considerable state taxes, and the company reports that its global tax rate for 2012 may jump to 12 or 13 percent, up from an earlier estimate of 10 percent.
Automobile’s Georg Kacher goes deep into the product plan, looking at the 32 models that the group’s ten brands will roll out over the next five years. These vehicles are expected to drive VW to the top of the mountain in 2018, where the flag for World’s Largest Automaker awaits.
The armada is based on three platforms: MQB for transverse FWD/AWD cars like the VW Golf, MLB for the longitudinal FWD/AWD cars in Audi’s stable, and MSB for AWD/RWD front-, rear- and mid-engined cars like the 960.
Said to be due in 2015, the discussed last year as a bridge model between the and 918, but Kacher has it listed with the MSB-M platform cars like the Porsche / and , not the front-engined MSB-F or rear-engined MSB-H cars. Yet the 960 is said to be a -fighting “four-door coupe” powered by a twin-turbo flat-six. We’ll wait for clarification on the number of doors, since in September of last year, posited the 960 as a mid-engined coupe priced “on the creepy side of €200,000.”
Other intriguing notes from the plan: for VW, a coupe is planned for 2016, the might get a coupe variant, the second-generation Scirocco “has the potential” for U.S. sales and the will be replaced; is desgining an even edgier third-generation , the will experiment with e-quattro, and the next-generation will break the same-sausage, different-lengths design mold.
