We Finally Sample Scion’s Irresistible Lightweight At Home
, we flew nearly 11 hours to spend a fleeting afternoon with the highly anticipated at Japan’s Sodegaura Forest Raceway, a track located just outside of Tokyo. Last week, we were in the air for less than an hour en route to Las Vegas to spend a much longer day with the sports coupe on our own turf.
The FR-S impressed us during our first drive in Japan, but the weather turned lousy and we didn’t have a chance to drive it on public roads at legal speeds. This time, scheduled plenty of seat time on public roads and on a racing circuit, while Mother Nature provided us with excellent weather.
Driving the coupe again in proper U.S. spec on home roads (and under much more favorable conditions) gave us better insight into the naturally aspirated four-seater. Not only did we learn a lot more about the engine, chassis and its driving dynamics, but we were able to finally interact with the FR-S as a daily driver.
It was, in effect, an interesting and informative second date.
While we’re not ready to label this the return of the , count us eager to get behind the wheel of whatever a “2014 Chevrolet SS Performance” turns out to be. Hopefully the appearance of this reference on the OnStar website is more than just a digital placeholder.
Chevy SS rumors have been swirling lately, with General Motors earlier this month, just days after our spy shooters caught what looked like a . Then there’s the NASCAR situation: has said its new entry in the racing series will be both a . We’re guessing that car isn’t going to be the .
So this new OnStar “leak,” if it is such a thing, would point to the Chevy SS being a separate model (you can check it out on OnStar’s site ). If we are reading our tea leaves correctly, the model will be (the same Zeta architecture that underpins Chevrolet’s law-enforcement-only ), while the brand’s front-drive will get a new, sportier variant. We’d also assume that the long-wheelbase version of the Commodore used for the would donate its top-level powertrain, the 355-horsepower, 6.0-liter V8.
Maybe we should just press the OnStar button and ask?
Lamborghini Urus, Beijing Motor Show, Scion xB and xD dropped, diesel vehicle sales up
Episode #279 of the is here, and this week, Chris, Dan, and Chris Paukert are joined by the phenomenon that is Jim Hall of 2953 Analytics to chat about the Lamborghini Urus, the Beijing Motor Show, the end of the Scion xB and xD, and the uptick in diesel vehicle sales. 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!
Autoblog Podcast #279:
In the Autoblog Garage
Hosts: , ,
Runtime: 01:50:38
Get the podcast
[] Listen live on Mondays at 10PM Eastern at UStream
[] Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes
[] Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator
[] Download the MP3 directly
has been building the in Greensburg, Indiana, since 2008, but now the company’s newest American assembly plant has some variety on its lines. The joined its mass-market relative at the 2.1 million square-foot facility yesterday.
Honda is building both the standard ILX and the ILX Hybrid at Honda Manufacturing Indiana, which is the only plant slated for assembly of the new compact . Greensburg will continue to build Civic sedans, including the , both for domestic consumption and export. Since the ILX is based on the Civic, the two cars sharing an assembly line is a natural.
The ILX on May 22, at a starting price of $25,900 plus $895 for destination. to read the full press release.
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.
Following the debut of the SUV in this week, it’s only natural to ask: What happened to the ?
At the 2008 , unveiled the striking sedan concept as a way to preview a new model line for the brand, but since then, nothing has come to fruition. AutoWeek sat down with Lamborghini CEO Stefan Winkelmann, who shed some light on the decision to move forward with a sport-utility vehicle rather than a rakish sedan.
“It was placed on hold because of a number of reasons, including the lack of a suitable platform. We haven’t given up on the idea of a sedan entirely, but we see more potential in a sport-utility vehicle encapsulating typical Lamborghini attributes.”
Given the fact that the production Urus isn’t slated to hit the market until around 2015, that means a Lamborghini sedan will likely be even farther out. Nearly four years later, we’re still quite fond of the 2008 concept, but we aren’t sure if we can hold our breath for another five-ish years.
Go back just a few years ago, and you’d easily conclude that and hybrids would go together about as well as ice cream and pickles. But a lot’s changed since then, and Ferrari is making no secret of the fact that it’s developing hybrid powertrains of its own.
The first system it developed is the Kinetic Energy Recovery System, a type of regenerative braking device developed with its sister company, Magneti Marelli, for use in Formula One. That lead to a similar system installed in an experimental version of the called the displayed at the 2010 . More recently reports surfaced that Ferrari had patented a more conventional hybrid powertrain system, leading to speculation that the KERS type had been abandoned for road-car use – most poignantly in the upcoming successor to the Enzo. But while Ferrari apparently pursues development of that more conventional hybrid system, it appears that its next mid-engined V12 hypercar will adopt an evolution of the HY-KERS system displayed on that green 599 two years back.
A revised HY-KERS system has just been announced by Ferrari at the , where the Prancing Horse also marked the Asian debut of its new F12 Berlinetta. Ferrari says the new system – installed on a V12 engine mounted amidship – is more effective than the one that preceded it, bringing emissions down to 40 percent of what a conventional engine with the same output would produce (compared to a 30 percent reduction from the previous incarnation), all while bringing engineers closer to their target of producing one kilowatt of energy for every kilogram of weight the system adds.
As for the F12, Ferrari has revealed that its latest supercar set a lap time at Fiorano of one minute, 23 seconds, making it the company’s quickest road car yet: a full second quicker than the 599 GTO it replaces, and about two seconds quicker than the Enzo, the and the 430 Scuderia. With that kind of progress, we can count on the new hybrid V12 hypercar to set an even quicker time still. for the press release and video clip.
has a long and storied history of being an innovator since its creation in 1986. As the first luxury brand from Japan, the marque brought with it the first variable valve timing technology, the first drive-by-wire electronic throttle, the first in-dash navigation system and the first instance of torque-vectoring all-wheel drive.
Laudable accomplishments, all of them, and Acura reaped rewards for the technological advancements it brought to the automotive realm. Venerable nameplates like and launched Acura into first place in the premium luxury car segment in 1987, the brand’s first full year of sales.
And then things started to go downhill. The Legend was replaced by the poorly received and the discontinuation of the Integra in 2001 and the a few years later in 2006 left Acura without a proper entry-level model. Acura sales peaked in 2005 and have floundered ever since.
Is Acura’s new ILX the machine it needs to inject some much-needed life into its lineup?
Starting with the , Nissan will be launching in the United States over the next 15 months. And while the sedan you see here is initially heading to China as the Nissan Sylphy, it’ll be heading to our shores as the later this year, albeit with a few market-specific tweaks.
For now, Nissan has released a short video teaser of the North American-spec 2013 Sentra, which you can view . The video shows the new compact sedan in its SR trim, which Autoblog has learned is only a North American-specific trim package. The rest of the Sylphy’s styling appears to carry over largely unchanged, with new details like LED running lamps and taillamps rounding out a design that’s essentially a downsized version of what we see on the new Altima.
In China, the Sylphy will be launched with a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine mated to Nissan’s next-generation Xtronic continuously variable transmission. It might not be an all-new powertrain, but remember, this is the same strategy that Nissan is using with the new Altima – one that has paid big dividends in fuel economy. The engines themselves haven’t changed, but with an improved CVT, we should see gains in not only performance but fuel economy, as well.
We’ll see the North American-spec 2013 Sentra this summer with the car officially going on sale this fall. to watch a teaser video of the Sentra SR, and to read the full press materials about the Chinese-market Sylphy.
Everything You Want To Know About Lambo’s Super SUV
The promise is to make it the most powerful series production SUV on the market, but also the least polluting.
has told us repeatedly that it wasn’t planning on doing such a thing anytime soon. We expected most likely the front-engine four-door super sedan – playing off the and 1968-’78 Espada – to become the raging bull’s third model line.
Feast your eyes on the Lamborghini Urus, or “LB736.” First off, yes, it is part of an upcoming (i.e. sometime in 2015) Group premium SUV onslaught. In the company of Lamborghini design director Filippo Perini and research and development guru Maurizio Reggiani, we were able to pry into all of the details back in mid-March during a special preview at company headquarters. We’ve had to hold off scribbling until today because the official debut for the edgy 4×4 happens right about now at the . is foreseen as a good market for the supersonic SUV, but the United States remains Job One.
In comparison to the clumsy seen at the recent , the Urus hits us almost gleefully by comparison; it’s right on the money with Lambo’s current design language. Lamborghini’s Perini understands that this is a polarizing proposition: “When Lamborghini creates a whole new model line, it’s automatically risky since it doesn’t happen so often.”
And we were nervous about it, too, imagining a four-seater setup that would need to ride way too high, sort of like the first generation or that Bentley. But when the veil came off and the hard lights hit it, we were pleased.
In the wake of earlier this week, rolled out its Concept Style Coupe at the at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), yesterday. The “CSC” is expected to officially make its world debut at the next week, but the sneak preview gave us an early look at the four-door in the flesh.
Expected to ride atop Mercedes’ new MFA platform, the CSC is a close-to-production glimpse at the automaker’s long-awaited compact sedan ( when it arrives). Styled like a smaller version of the Mercedes-Benz , the CSC features sleek and aggressive bodywork over 20-inch turbine-style wheels. The roof features a large panoramic glass panel allowing plenty of light to spill into the four-place cabin. Under the hood of the concept is a turbocharged four-cylinder, rated at 211 horsepower, sending its power to the automaker’s 4Matic all-wheel drive system.
The art exhibit, open free of charge through May 6, is an interesting audio visual experience curated by Mike D of the Beastie Boys. The Mercedes-Benz CSC is shown in a dark room under banks of halogen lights that are choreographed to illuminate to the music (only audible by wearing headsets hung from the rafters). It was nearly impossible to take pictures, but we have updated our gallery with some supplied photography. Don’t forget to check out the press release below.
. A small claims court in California awarded Ms. Peters $9,867 because it agreed that her Honda Civic Hybrid failed to deliver the 50 mpg EPA rating claimed it would. According to The Detroit News, Honda is appealing the decision, especially after the success of Peters’s suit inspired 1,700 others to opt out of a 2003-2009 model year class action settlement, possibly portending a wave of one-shot litigation that the company would have to defend itself against.
Honda didn’t seem to take Heather Peters very seriously until it lost, but it now seems that the company is intent on not blowing its last chance to have the case reviewed. Peters will be presenting new evidence and both sides will get to argue their side of the issue to a judge, basically re-trying the initial case.
In the market for an entry-level sedan from a premium automaker? Your choices are few and far between, it seems. There’s the and , but those are both hatchbacks. That leaves the , which, by all accounts, is a credible entry into the segment. If that’s not quite your style, hopes to tempt you with its new 2013 , and it has announced that the base model will start at $25,900 (*plus $895 destination fee for all models).
For that starting price, buyers will get standard features like Bluetooth connectivity, keyless access with push-button start, Pandora internet radio interface and a moonroof. If you want a leather interior, 17-inch alloy wheels, upgraded audio and Acura’s excellent multi-view backup camera system, your ILX will start at $29,200 with the base 150-horsepower 2.0-liter engine and five-speed automatic transmission.
Acura has two more engine offerings for the ILX, including a 1.5-liter hybrid model that achieves estimated fuel economy ratings of 39 city and 38 highway for $28,900. On the other end of the spectrum is a 2.4-liter model, which pumps out 201 horsepower and is available only with a six-speed manual gearbox. A fully loaded ILX with the Technology package, which includes navigation and an internal hard drive for music storage, will cost $31,400 with the 2.0 or $34,400 with the hybrid drivetrain. Sadly, it’s not possible to order the 2.4-liter engine with the top-level Technology kit.
See the complete pricing breakdown in Acura’s official press release by , and stay tuned for our complete first drive review of the ILX early next week.
We last saw the on the floor at the in March. It was hardly an opportune moment to relish the automaker’s stunning new two-seater, however, as we were forced to dodge the crowds while shooting images for our . Wanting to get a closer second look at the exceedingly rare exotic and shoot a more detailed photo montage, we visited Galpin Aston Martin in Southern California for a private viewing (astute readers may recall that several years ago we ).
Beneath this example’s glossy Diavolo Red paint, mounted within the all-alloy aluminum monocoque platform, is the powerful running gear of a (a car we called “an intoxicating machine masterfully engineered to gratify every emotion in a car enthusiast’s soul” in our ). In a nutshell, the rear-wheel drive V12 Zagato features a naturally-aspirated 6.0-liter V12 (rated at 510 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque), a rear mid-mounted transaxle and a traditional six-speed manual gearbox. Ever so slightly lighter than the V12 Vantage, the V12 Zagato will crack the 60 mph benchmark in about four seconds and not run out of steam until about 190 mph. to continue reading.
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.
We can now add a rendering and a litte more gossip to and its recent designation. GM has used the SS designator for more than 50 years but only got around to trademarking it five years ago, and persistent rumors have suggested that a civilian version of the will simply be called the SS.
previously confirmed that its next NASCAR entry will be , which suggests that the and are disqualified. But a new car called the SS would fit, and the rumormill suggests it will be a derivative of the Zeta-platform Holden Commodore. The folks at Chris Doane Automotive have opened the rendering account and taken this rather conservative stab at what a reboot of a U.S. Commodore might look like.
Yes, we’ve been here before, and in fact, we’re still here. The now extinct but universally lauded was itself a Americanized Holden Commodore, and the current Caprice law enforcement vehicle is a long-wheelbase version of that Holden that packs either a 3.6-liter, 301-horsepower V6 or a 6.0-liter, 355-hp V8. Resurrecting the G8 would return a vehicle that many loved but was handicapped by Pontiac’s zombie status, improve Holden’s fortunes and give Chevy a proper rear-wheel drive sedan with teeth. To all of that, we say Yes, Yes and… Yes.
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.
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.
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.
