Dodge Dart, Chrysler Q1 sales, FR-S and BRZ versus MX-5, 2013 Nissan Altima’s Hyundai Sonata influence
Episode #279 of the is here, and this week, Chris, Dan, and Zach chat about the Dodge Dart, Chrysler’s first-quarter 2012 sales, a Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ smackdown at Motegi with a Mazda MX-5, and the influence of the Hyundai Sonata on the 2013 Nissan Altima. 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 #280:
in Q1, especially in
In the Autoblog Garage
Hosts: , ,
Runtime: 01:41:32
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If you’ve gotten used to being centered around two model lines – and – based on the same platform, get ready to broaden your horizons as the Modenese automaker does the same. Maserati has a vast array of new products in the pipeline, including a pair of new sedans and a new SUV set to be built in Detroit, plus production of the 4C sportscar for sister-company Alfa Romeo. And now reports are emerging that its long-rumored plans to take on the with a new sportscar are coming to fruition.
According to the reports from Italy fueled by comments attributed to Maserati CEO Harald J. Wester, the model could revive the GranSport – a name last used on the ultimate iteration of the 4200 GT coupe that preceded the current GranTurismo. Only this time, it would be a mid-engined V8 supercar similar in approach to the .
If that sounds suspiciously close to the , the rumors suggest that it would undercut its big brother’s price at under $200k. After all, the sister brands didn’t seem to have any trouble bringing the Maserati GranCabrio and into the same arena, or to turning the Enzo into the MC12 – pictured above – the last mid-engined supercar the Trident marque produced. Which gives us hope that this particular product of the rumormill could amount to something. And when we’re talking about mid-engined supercars from Italy, that could be a very good thing indeed.
is trying to make a name for itself on the safety and technology front, recently and outfitting new models with a suite of safety equipment that arguably puts it among the leaders in the industry. We got a chance to sample some of this last month, but we were also allowed to “drive” a semi-autonomous test mule equipped with what Cadillac is calling “Super Cruise.”
Nominally an improvement on adaptive cruise control, Super Cruise is actually a more sophisticated system that uses a camera communicating with the car’s GPS to “see” the road ahead. It goes one step further than currently available systems, however, automatically centering the vehicle in the lane using its electric power steering system. Unlike other active lane-departure systems that use a car’s brakes to help prevent it from veering off the road, the system General Motors is developing allows for precisely setting the vehicle’s position within the lane. The test mule we sampled had steering-wheel-mounted buttons that would allow you to “nudge” the car from side to side by a foot at a time without upsetting its course. Super Cruise also communicates with the vehicle’s other active safety systems to help prevent and mitigate crashes.
Super Cruise is designed only for use on the highway, to “ease the driver’s workload.”
Super Cruise is designed only for use on the highway, to “ease the driver’s workload,” with drivers still required to steer in city traffic and for more complicated maneuvers like passing. GM officials acknowledged the difficulty in deploying a system like this, a technology that if used improperly may encourage inattentive driving. Supposedly the system will only be functional under the specific circumstances for which it is designed, much like today’s in-car entertainment systems will not play video on the front screen unless a vehicle is in Park. Currently the system is somewhat limited by external factors, like weather and the need for distinct lane markings. If visibility is low or the road doesn’t have at least one clear lane demarcation, Super Cruise won’t function. However, GM says it will improve the vision abilities of the system as it readies the technology for the marketplace.
GM says that Super Cruise could be introduced into production vehicles in just a few years, “by mid-decade.” While on the one hand, its ability to help improve the safety of our roads is laudable, we can’t help but express our frustration at the march of technology headed inevitably towards removing the physical act of driving from the motoring equation.
to watch some video of us aboard the Super Cruise-equipped test mule and read the full press release.
It takes a lot to stand apart at an exposition as jam-packed with glitzy treasure as the and impress the hordes of automotive journalists there assembled, but we were suitably impressed when we laid eyes upon the at the Messe this past September. The Croatian upstart put together a supercar of (figurative, if not literal) proportions, but instead of building it around a fossil-guzzling conventional powerplant, Rimac designed its hypercar with the equivalent of 1,088-horsepower worth of electric motors.
With a 92kW battery powering the electric motors at each wheel, the Rimac is said to be capable of rocketing to 62 from a standstill in just 2.8 seconds while traveling as far as 372 miles on a single charge. The team of former Pininfarina designers penned an attractive shape to go with it, the Bulgarian leathercrafters extraordinaires at Vilner were brought in to craft the interior, HRE developed a unique set of monoblock alloys and Vredestein debuted its new Ultrac Vorti tires designed by Giugiaro all for the Concept_One.
Impressive specs, all, but what’s most impressive is that the Concept_One is no mere concept – you can actually buy it, assuming you’ve got the scratch. Upon showcasing the electric supercar at Top Marques in Monaco, Rimac announced a limited run of 88 examples will be built, each fetching $980,000 – a price as princely as the regent who was on hand to check it out in Monte Carlo. Which only goes to prove that you can, indeed, have your cake and eat it too, but it’ll cost you dearly.
Take a closer look at the fresh crop of high-resolution images added to the gallery above and check out the bonus video of the car moving under its own power by .
You can’t buy publicity like this. USA Today reports a California man is suing both and motorcycle seat manufacturer Corbin after a four-hour motorcycle ride left him with a severe case of priapism. Henry Wolf claims he’s had an erection since stepping off his 1993 BMW after a ride in September 2010, or some 20 months ago, if we’re counting. According to the suit filed in California Superior Court, the seat’s “ridge-like” design caused the painful condition. Wolf’s lawyer says the man is unable to engage in sexual activity, and as a result, has endured “substantial emotional and mental anguish.”
Wolf is suing for compensation from both BMW and Corbin for lost wages, medical expenses, emotional distress and general damage. Neither company has commented on the case.
Niche automakers face a difficult decision: lay out the mountain of cash it takes to have their exotic rides certified for American roads, or save the money and miss out on one of the largest markets. McLaren Automotive had the new MP4-12C homologated for the United States, and now they’re thankful that they did.
, a whopping 40 percent of the 1000 orders for the MP4-12C that McLaren has taken so far have been placed by customers in the US, through its extensive dealer network here.
It was a surprise most of all for Antony Sheriff, the American who serves as McLaren Automotive’s managing director. From his experiences as a racing fan on this side of the Atlantic, he felt that McLaren lacked the brand recognition that names like and enjoy in a market that’s had an on-again, off-again relationship with Formula One.
With the MP4-12C already off to an auspicious start, the focus at McLaren’s high-tech facility in Woking, England, has turned to expanding the lineup. The successor to the legendary McLaren F1 is in the works, and the rumormill suggests that both a convertible version of the MP4-12C and a stripped-down, hardcore variant in the mold of the Ferrari 430 Scuderia and Porsche 911 GT3 RS are also being developed. As for those shooting-brake rumors, we haven’t been holding our breath, and wouldn’t suggest you do, either.
In the earlier part of the last decade, the king of the hill was a model called the Vanquish. More muscular than the DB7 it superseded, the Vanquish was offered first with a 450-horsepower V12, and then as the Vanquish S with 514 hp on tap. The flagship model from Newport Pagnell was replaced in 2007 by the , but before it went the way of the proverbial dodo, Aston offered a final run of 40 examples called the . And now that its successor is itself due for replacement, sources expect Aston to offer a DBS Ultimate Edition, as well.
What separated the Vanquish S Ultimate Edition from its penultimate basis were a special black paint job, an enhanced interior and – most significantly – a conventional manual gearbox to replace the maligned sequential transmission in the regular model. What the DBS Ultimate Edition might comprise remains to be seen, but sources don’t expect a manual gearbox to factor into the mix.
The Ultimate Edition, then, may boil down to something largely similar to the above-pictured that, like the Vanquish special, also featured a special black paint job and unique wheels, but little in the way of powertrain or suspension upgrades. Whatever the Ultimate Edition does encompass, though, is expected to cost nearly $300,000 and limited in production to just 100 units, of which only 30 are expected to make it to American dealerships.
is on a bit of a naming spree. Back in April, it was revealed that the Italian automaker (and hopeful SUV maker, too…) put its legal stamp on the names and , the first of which, as you’re likely aware by now, is the moniker adopted for the concept version of its future sport utility vehicle.
Deimos, on the other hand, has yet to grace any bullish Italian supercars, at least none shown to the public, so we’re curious to see where that ends up. Muddying waters even further is a report from Car and Driver that Lamborghini has also recently trademarked the name Huracán.
Huracán, in case you hadn’t made the connection yourselves, is the Spanish word for hurricane, but it’s also the name of a Mayan god of fire, wind and storms, according to C&D. That dovetails nicely with Deimos, which was the name of a terrifying mythological Greek god.
What either of these as-yet unused names has to do with Spanish bulls or matadors (if anything), we have no idea. We also can’t say with any certainty what future Lambos, concept or production, will be graced by these names. But we certainly look forward to finding out.
It’s almost DLC time again at – Tuesday, May 1 will bring with it the Top Gear pack, a true goulash of automobilia. At one end you have the 2012 Hennessey Venom GT, a car that automotive historians will look back on and say “Wow.” At the other end you have the 1977 AMC Pacer X, a car that we look back on and say “Wow.” In ‘between’ are the: 2011 SuperSportVan, 1965 Austin-Healey 3000 MkIII, , 1966 Lotus Cortina, 1992 Galant VR-4, , 1990 RS and .
The bad news is that the TG pack won’t be part of the Season Pass, so you’ll need 560 MS points, or $7, to make it yours. But if you throw down the fresh amounts you’ll be able to enter the new Community Rivals Mode with the Hennessey Venom GT. Set a leaderboard time with it and you could win one of the 100 unicorn cars Forza will be handing out every week.
to check out the video and have a look at the wares in the gallery of high-res screenshots.
Looks like is finally getting a handle on this YouTube phenomenon. The French supercar firm has uploaded a trio of videos showing off its current and future cars; namely, the coupe and the 16C Galibier.
What Bugatti has clearly not figured out, on the other hand, is the definition of a teaser. While the slowly drawn out shots showing the upcoming super sedan from just about every angle are pretty impressive, aren’t teasers just supposed to whet the appetite? And if we’re honest, the narrative that goes with it is a bit… disarming. Finally, while most teaser videos are done and over with in a minute or less, this one is more than four times that length.
Oh well… nobody ever accused Bugatti of being subtle.
You can see the new Galibier teaser video by below, and if that’s not enough, we’ve also included two new videos showcasing the Bugatti Veyron and its most impressive bits and pieces.
It was only a matter of time, folks. As soon as finalized its of the brand, we knew to expect a slew of comparison tests pitting the German automaker’s finest wares against the two-wheeled exotica rolling out of Italy’s .
The scribes from Germany’s Auto Bild have indeed taken up the challenge. But what machinery to choose? Naturally, the mind first turns to the supercar and its -derived V10 engine, but, in reality, Audi officials have conceded to us that its 360-horsepower is actually quicker around most race tracks. So, the all-wheel-drive it is.
Holding the mantle for Ducati is none other than the 1199 Panigale – an easy choice, as this is the marque’s premier superbike for 2012. Sure, there was a replica MotoGP machine a few years back called the Desmosedici RR, but that bike is sold out and the Panigale is likely faster in the hands of all but the most talented riders anyway.
So, who wins? You’ll have to and watch the video to find out, but suffice it to say that it wasn’t even close.
We’ve had the chance to sample Mercedes-Benz’s so-called technology in both the and roadsters, and it’s a pretty clever party trick. The technology can turn the overhead roof panel in either of the two-seaters from transparent to opaque by energizing the light-blocking crystals sandwiched in the glass. By electrifying the crystals, they reorder themselves, varying the amount of light that’s let through the glass roof panel.
We’ve seen similar electrochromic glass technology before in the 575 Superamerica, but that appears to have been a one-and-done effort in Maranello, whereas is reportedly keen to spread the technology around to more of its lineup. And not only are Benz engineers looking at more models, they’re apparently shifting their focus to side glass – in particular, rear side glass. In fact, Benz’s concept van debuted with the technology at this week’s . We can see Hollywood lining up already – this technology has real merit for keeping the paparazzi at bay.
But blocking out TMZ’s long-lenses isn’t the only issue – there’s not-inconsiderable concern of law enforcement. Window tinting standards vary wildly from state to state here in the U.S., as well as country to country globally, something that could prove to be a major hurdle for the German automaker’s legal team.
So, we think the crew at our sister site have lost their minds. Either that or they’re trying to steal our jobs.
While nominally a show and blog about mobility, most weeks Translogic is discovering all manner of geeky automotive technology, while driving alternative-fuel vehicles powered by , , , or they can find. This week, however, for the 100th show, they straight-up went to the track to drive supercars. At Disney World. Speedway.
Take that, greenies and transportation wonks. Everyone loves to flog roadgoing sex from and , even – make that especially – Translogic host Bradley Hasemeyer.
Clearly, we weren’t the only ones who spent the better part of their childhoods building all manner of strange and wonderful Lego vehicles. We’re pretty sure we had this design knocked out back in the early 80s, but as far as we know, exactly no one has figured out how to fit easily removable tracks to a conventional vehicle in real life. We’ve , mind you, but they’ve always required a fair bit of work and the removal of a vehicle’s wheels. But not the Track N Go.
This creative solution for foul-weather-mastery comes from AD Boivin, a company better known for marketing products for powersports vehicles like motocross bikes and snowmobiles. The company says that this is the world’s first wheel-driven track system, and judging by the video available , it appears quite capable when fitted to what looks like stock and 4×4 pickups blasting through the snow.
The video indicates that the system is a prototype, and it doesn’t show how easily the tracks can be secured to the vehicle’s wheels (though it does briefly show that you drive onto the tracks before locking them in place – no jacking required). AD Boivin doesn’t say if and when the Track N Go will actually come to market, let alone what sort of fitments will be available and how much the system will cost. While we’re waiting, we’ll just one more time…
It’s been almost a fortnight, which just might be a record, since we last visited . Next up to keep the high-po exotic ball in play is Tushek Supercars, hailing from Slovenia (that’s ), with its quaintly archaically named Forego T700. The company just made an appearance at the Top Marques Monaco with its first car, the 444-horsepower Renovatio T500 (pictured in our gallery below) with a modular hardtop, but the T700 will push things much further.
Founder Aljosa Tushek told Autocar the T700’s targets: less than 2,200 pounds, more than 700 horsepower, up to 3.3gs for cornering. That latter number sounds like a math error would not only double the Renovatio’s number, it would triple the cornering force sustained by the around the Nardo test track.
The limited-to-30-units Renovatio is priced at £245,000 ($394,934 U.S.) with deliveries promised later this year. Due in 2013, you can expect the T700 to outdo the T500’s price by at least double as well, and you can expect both of them to never be sold in the U.S.
and Pure Detroit have agreed to a settlement in the legal wrangling over Chrysler’s “Imported from Detroit” tagline. According to The Detroit News, the automaker and T-shirt purveyor have asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuits against one another. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Chrysler had sued the entrepreneurial company in March 2011, after Pure Detroit sought to cash in on the popularity of the phrase following last year’s . Chrysler has its own line of “Imported” merchandise, which it has used to . Pure Detroit counter-sued and went on selling its wares after a judge against the smaller company in June 2011, according to the report. Pure Detroit maintained that Chrysler’s campaign “amounts to false advertising,” said the News, because none of the vehicles (the , and ) shown in the ads are built within Detroit proper.
The pair of legal combatants had in March. Their resultant deal should preempt a trial that would have taken place in August.
Introduced back in 2008, the Q5 was about due for a mid-life refresh, which is exactly what the German automaker has given it. Not that you’d be easily able to tell from looking at it, though: the styling updates to the popular CUV are rather subtle, as are the enhancements to the interior, which center around the control surfaces. No, what’s really new about the 2013 version of the is what lurks in the engine bay.
As part of the update, Audi has installed a completely new range of engines across the board that increase both output and efficiency for a win-win combination. In different markets around the world, the Q5 will now be available with three diesels, two gasoline engines and – for the first time – a hybrid. The smaller of the TDIs displaces 2.0 liters and can be had in either 143- or 177-horsepower states of tune, while the larger 3.0-liter V6 oil-burner offers 245 hp and will likely be the only diesel offered in the United States.
The gasoline range starts at the 2.0-liter turbo four with 225 hp, while the 3.2-liter V6 is replaced by a new 3.0-liter supercharged V6 that delivers 272 hp and 295 pound-feet of torque. The big news, however, is the hybrid powertrain that pairs a 211-hp version of the 2.0-liter turbo four with a 54-hp electric motor, driving through an eight-speed automatic to all four wheels for a 7.1-second 0-62 time, a combined rating of 34 miles per gallon and an electric-only range of two miles at 37 mph.
Pricing for the new range in the United States has yet to be revealed. But for comparison’s sake, European MSRP has only gone up around €150 ($200 USD), so we wouldn’t expect the sticker to jump by much in American showrooms, either. Scope out the extensive high-res image gallery above and the videos and press release by for a closer look.
If you were waiting for those savings bonds to mature so you could get your hands on an Aston Martin One-77, we’re afraid we have some unfortunate news for you: they’re all gone.
According to the reports circulating the interwebs, all 77 examples of the range-topping, seven-figure supercar – complete with its specially-built 7.3-liter, 750-horsepower V12 engine – have been spoken for. That’s after the last example was apparently sold since reports surfaced in February indicating there was still one left.
Don’t worry too much, though, as Aston should still have a few examples of its new top-of-the-line model up for grabs. Production of the V12 Zagato is pegged at 150 units – barely more than twice that of the One-77 – with a sticker price of £330,000 – roughly half a million dollars, or a quarter the price of the One-77. Of course if you’re hell-bent on spending over a million on a new supercar, there are some gentlemen in Modena and who’d be glad to help you out.
China’s middle class is predicted to mint up to 500 million new bourgeois comrades in the next 15 years, and not only will that mean new car owners, but more of those owners will be women. Along with rising incomes, that has put The Middle Kingdom into an SUV-buying boom driven by “tiger moms,” similar to the splurge that happened here in the 1990s but with big, striped cats replacing black-spotted white balls.
The trend has enough force already that SUV sales are expected to make up for other slumping segments, which is just about all of them. In addition to mothers wanting an SUV to haul their lone kid around there are other cultural factors at play, one being the fact that car ownership has only recently become a practical aspiration and having an SUV is a way to make a big splash in the new pool.
Carmakers obviously have no intention of denying the Chinese their desires, with Daimler declaring this “the year of the SUV.” It’s probably no coincidence that showed off its Jota in and its in , nor that every other automaker showed up to the Beijing Motor Show with plenty of high-riding hardware (see above). It probably is a coincidence that carmakers dreamed of selling squillions of SUVs just as Earth Day ended.
Pushrods and overhead valves or dual overhead cams; naturally aspirated, turbocharged or supercharged; it simply doesn’t matter – there’s nothing quite like the sound of a powerful V8 engine. Or is there?
The engineers from have been known to make some beautifully melodic powerplants over the years, but the Bavarian automaker has more recently taken a decidedly different approach to tingling the eardrums of Ultimate Driving Enthusiasts: pumping engine sounds through the internal stereo system of its latest sedan.
This technique, not surprisingly, has proven controversial. We can’t grant you the opportunity to drive one yourself so that you can hear it with your own ears, but, thanks to the boys and girls from Bimmerpost, we can offer the next best thing. Listen to one member’s 2012 M5 with BMW’s Active Sound system turned on, followed by a run of the same car with the system disabled via a pulled fuse in the video .
Spot the difference? Let us know what you think about BMW’s artificial engine notes in the Comments, but not before taking part in our completely unscientific poll below.
