is hard at work on a refresh for the , and thanks to our intrepid spy photographers, we’re now getting our first glimpses of the subcompact’s new schnoz. It appears as though the car’s somewhat cutesy face will now have a more aggressive shape, complete with smaller headlamps that integrate LED running lights – which appears to be right in line with the revised design language seen on the all-new .
It’s unclear exactly what other changes are in store for the next Fiesta, though reports have suggested that EcoBoost power may soon be found underhood. Ford has long stated that it plans to incorporate EcoBoost powertrains into the vast majority of its vehicles, and the Fiesta would be a seemingly perfect home for the recently launched 1.0-liter three-cylinder turbo. , this engine is available with either 99 or 118 horsepower and a respectable 125 pound-feet of torque. For comparison, the current Fiesta’s 1.6-liter inline-four pumps out 120 hp and 112 lb-ft.
Scroll through our attached high-res image gallery to see the facelifted Fiesta blasting through the snow undergoing winter testing and stay tuned for more details.
When it comes to handing out awards, nobody works harder than J.D. Power. With surveys concocted to measure , , , , and , we sometimes wonder whether the company’s plaudits aren’t becoming a little like “participant” medals awarded at the end of kids’ sports seasons.
This latest J.D. Power survey, the 2012 , measures service satisfaction at dealerships. The most interesting find is that overall satisfaction at dealers is nearly four percent greater than at independent repair facilities. Visits to dealers among owners of vehicles less than three years old are up as well.
Of course, the numbers that people will be most interested in relate to how each brand fared in the survey. J.D. Power ranks each marque on a 1,000-point scale, “based on dealer service performance during the first three years of new-vehicle ownership, which typically represents the majority of the vehicle warranty period. Five measures are examined to determine overall customer satisfaction with dealer service (listed in order of importance): service quality; service initiation; service advisor; service facility; and vehicle pick-up.”
The brands are broken into either luxury or mainstream categories, and the top performers in each list are clustered fairly close together. scored 861 points, followed by (852) and (849) on the luxury side. The mass market competitors finished even closer, with leading at 809 points, followed closely by three General Motors brands: (805), (803) and (801).
for the full press release.
, Mini take home dealer satisfaction laurels in latest J.D. Power survey
As a Formula One entity, Renault has gone from engine supplier to full manufacturer (having acquired the Benetton team back in 2000) and back to engine supplier (having all but completely divested the team now under the banner). The French automaker’s competition engine works also powers Caterham and Williams this season, but most importantly, the Red Bull Racing team that is returning once again as World Champions. So whereas previous Renaultsport special edition hot hatches celebrated the company’s own achievements, the latest celebrates Red Bull’s.
Named the Red Bull RB7 edition after last year’s car, the special Clio RS packs a 203-horsepower four mounted to the Cup chassis that would otherwise be an option. The body is painted matte black with yellow highlights, a tone-on-tone checkerboard roof, the requisite special badging and 18-inch wheels done up in a black finish and shod with the same Bridgestone rubber that kept the glued to the Nürburgring for its lap record.
Inside it’s got yellow Recaro buckets and the RS Monitor performance telematics system. The special edition will only be available, however, in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Spain. Details to be found in the press release after the jump with high-res images in the gallery above.
Imagine you just bought the fastest, most powerful road-legal ever. Your has 740 horses and does 0-62 mph in just over three seconds. You’re on top of the world!
Enjoy your seat at the pinnacle of Maranello motoring while you can, because you’ll soon be relegated to the slow lane. There’s a bigger, badder Ferrari in the works. And if you already own a Berlinetta, chances are good you’ll be invited sometime before the end of 2012 to a private showing of Ferrari’s replacement for the legendary Enzo.
Ferrari Chairman tells Automotive News Europe that their next supercar will not be called Enzo, but will be worthy successor that packs a carbon fiber body and a big ol’ V12.
“The F12 Berlinetta delivers 740 hp and today’s Formula One cars have between 740 hp and 750 hp,” Montezemolo said. “Thus we are offering F1 power in a road car.”
the neo-Enzo have as much as 920 horsepower. Not too many other details were revealed in the interview except for…
“We want to surprise people not just in terms of price but also with the car itself,” Montezemolo said. Which we take to mean the next ultimate Ferrari will be free. But probably not.
The general public will probably get its first glimpse of the Enzo replacement either at next January’s or the 2013 next March. Oh, the anticipation!
Send a $107,000 to the dealer – after – and get a new battery pack in return. That’s the lesson that Consumer Reports learned over the weekend and the repaired vehicle is now “operating fine at our test track” after 48 hours offline.
All that CR is saying about the problem is that the Fisker dealer said that a “fault was found in the battery and inverter cable. Both were replaced as a unit.” Also, while lots of dealers wash your car after you take it in for servicing, CR’s dealer also charged the brand-new pack. How kind. With everything back on track – for now – CR will get to what it intended to do days ago: put the Karma through its paces.
CR’s Karma is not the only one with issues. All Karmas were affected by two recalls (due to a and then ) and, as we discovered last week, owners are over on FiskerBuzz.
We can appreciate a good track car as much as the next enthusiast, but we’re beginning to bemoan their creation as a way out for automakers to charge wealthy customers obscene amounts of money for cars they’re not even legally allowed to drive on the road. (As least, not in countries were homologation can’t be circumvented with a sufficient bribe to the right bureaucrat. Which we’re not entirely sure includes these United States.)
It’s the road that is expected to take with the “production” version of the Sesto Elemento concept, and it appears to be the way plans to bring its C-X75 concept to production. At least, the jet-powered one, anyway.
The C-X75, as you may recall, bowed at the with an awesomely innovative powertrain: two micro-turbines acting as range-extenders to electric motors. Reports then began to surface that Jaguar intended to build the supercar, only that the commercially available version would pack a 1.6-liter turbo four being developed with the Williams Formula One team and packing about 500 horsepower instead of the turbine setup. (Not too shabby, but still no turbine.)
Then parent company Tata invested in a turbine outfit called Bladon Jets near Jaguar’s headquarters in Coventry, leading to the that a limited quantity would be offered with turbine power like the concept’s. The latest reports, however, indicate that even those would be confined strictly to the track.
Now don’t get us wrong, we applaud Jaguar and Tata pursuing the technology of getting this experimental powertrain into a “marketable” car, however much it may cost. We’re just not sure that keeping it confined to the race track, given the prices they’ll be bound to charge, is the right way to go about it. Agree or disagree? Cast your vote in the poll below.
Now that UK is finished with the for the Nissan Juke-R, it’s free to do what we’ve all been waiting for: hand it over to The Fourth Estate for proper testing. AutoExpress was the first in line, and they didn’t waste the chance, pitting Faust’s CUV against the car that made it possible, the , around the circuit.
We could tell you more, but this isn’t the time for words – the long-awaited action is in the video . Still want more? There’s an article to go with it over on AutoExpress.
Although may not be racing all that much these days, motorsport competition was an integral part to forming its identity decades ago. And it’s that legacy that Jaguar aims to tap into with its latest development.
The British auto marque has of late been participating in numerous classic racing events, but is now intensifying and organizing its efforts under the Jaguar Heritage Racing banner. Managed for the factory by specialist firm JD Classics of Essex, the program will see the C-Type and D-Type (click on the image above to enlarge the two classic cats) challenging revival events at venues as varied as , the and the , where the initiative will make its first appearance this May.
Although limited in scope to classic racing events, the renewed effort will see the factory getting back onto the track in an arguably more substantial way than it has with the Jaguar RSR XKR GT2, retapping the racing spirit not seen in Coventry since winning Le Mans with the XJR-12 in 1990 and selling its F1 team in 2004 – but which could, if come to fruition, resurface again with a new LMP1 in the near future. In the meantime you can read more about the Jaguar Heritage Racing program in the press release .
A brand like is as much about image as it is about the vehicles it produces. Hence a seemingly endless array of branded merchandise, joined by this latest collection made in collaboration with Carmina Campus.
The fashion brand directed by Ilaria Venturini Fendi – youngest daughter of the famed fashion-design family – is distinguished by its use of recycled materials, and in the case of the Mini collection, uses all manner of discarded components from the Mini product line. Everything from seatbelts and convertible-roof canvas to scraps of metal bodywork and leather upholstery have been repurposed into a range of travel and city bags for both men and woman.
The collection includes everything from briefcases and laptop bags to purses and suitcases. Only fifty individually-numbered pieces will be made, with prices ranging from 350 to 700 euros (~$450-900) available in store and online. Details in the press release and the extensive high-res image gallery above.
According to , the 2013 Sprint Cup Series will kick off without an on the starting grid. That’s news itself, considering how intertwined the Impala is with Chevy’s NASCAR presence, earning 70 wins since 2007.
Even more intriguing, though, is that Chevy says it “will be racing a vehicle based on a new nameplate to the brand’s lineup.” That means the 2013 racer won’t be a or . Whatever it may be, Chevrolet says that both the race version and the production version will be debuted “in the coming year.”
As far as speculation goes, it’s hard not to point a finger in the direction of the , which is currently available in the United States for duty only. Will everyday consumers finally get another crack at a high-performance rear-wheel-drive Chevy sports sedan? If so, what will it be called, and will it wear the coveted SS nomenclature?
We have no idea. What we do know, however, is that Jim Campbell, vice president of Chevrolet Performance Vehicles and Motorsports, says the automaker is testing camouflaged vehicles and that the production version will be “just like” the race car. We’ll just have to wait and see about that… In the meantime, see the complete press release .
Robots have been a part of every automaker’s manufacturing arsenal for three decades now, but that doesn’t make this latest effort at improving plant automation any less cool. While most factory robots are neither humanoid nor particularly interesting, the only thing more exciting than this pseudo-cyborg hand for rivetheads is ordering up the entire run of The Six Million Dollar Man from Netflix.
While General Motors clearly doesn’t have the cash or inclination to turn each of its roughly 50,000 United Auto Workers employees into Colonel Steve Austin, the new Robo-Glove would allow its wearer to have super hand strength. GM says the force required to grasp tools could be reduced by a third to a half for those wearing the special gloves, which are operated by a standard lithium-ion battery like the ones used to power cordless hand tools. The gloves would allow workers to hold their tools comfortably for longer periods of time and possibly reduce the risk of repetitive stress injury.
The gloves were an outgrowth of GM’s partnership with NASA in developing the Robonaut 2, the first humanoid robot to be launched into space when . GM developed the first prototype gloves in March 2011, while the second generation was completed three months later. They weigh about a pound each and contain all the electronics, actuators and a small display.
Click to read the full press release, plus watch a video demonstration.
Fastest roadster ever. That’s one heck of a claim, but if anyone can assert it, it’s . And the Alsatian automaker has brought 1,200 horsepower to back it up.
What we’re talking about, of course, is the Vitesse – the “best of both worlds” version of the famed Veyron. First announced in February and officially unveiled at the last week, the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse (as it’s known in full) has just had its full details released along with a fresh batch of rather fetching high-resolution images, which we’ve included in our gallery for your viewing pleasure.
So what are we looking at here, exactly? In short, a Grand Sport (that’s the targa-topped model) with the engine from the Super Sport (the record-holding top-speed model). That means a quad-turbo W-16 engine with 1,200 horsepower, good for a 255 mph top speed with the wind in your hair.
That, for comparison’s sake, is incrementally faster than the 253 mph top end of the “base” Veyron, yet slower than the 267 mph of the Super Sport with the same engine and a fixed roof. Crucially, however, it’s faster than the 229 mph top end of the 1,001hp Veyron Grand Sport roadster. Want to know more? There’s plenty to digest in the full press release and spec sheet .
You may never have heard of the French carmaker . After starting out as a coachbuilder for companies like Delahaye and , Facel moved on to crafting entire cars. From 1954 to 1962, the company produced the Hemi-powered Vega. Facel closed its doors in 1964, but some intriguing sketches and renderings have stirred up a lot of chatter on the Internet of a possible revival of the brand.
Details are scarce and almost impossible to verify, but if Google’s translation of French websites are believable, the image above is a rendering of what the resurrected Facel could show off at this September’s and we might even see a production version in 2014. But rumors written in French translated by Google are not exactly credible. The images all appear to come from a constantly updated Facebook page called “.”
Swoopy fenders, and a slick greenhouse wrap the four-seater concept in a sports car disguise. The interior sketches show minimal seating that seem more suited to racing than relaxing.
Speaking of performance, there’s no mention of what would power such a car, but it sure is fun imagining that car barking with the power of . Sinister sexiness.
Anyone recently shopping for a four-cylinder or has probably discovered they’re not easy to come across. Automotive News reports that General Motors has a shortage of the 2.4-liter powerplants and the company can’t say when that might improve.
Still want an Equinox or Terrain? If you’re willing to give up a few miles per gallon, Chevrolet dealers are offering $1,000 off V6 models to get them out the door. On the Equinox LT, the V6 is a $1,500 option. Not a bad discount if you were already shopping for one of the more powerful CUVs.
Just keep in mind that the that four-cylinder models get 22 miles per gallon city and 32 mpg highway while the six-cylinder musters just 17/24. The EPA further notes that translates into about a $600 increase in your estimated yearly fuel bill. And in terms of performance, in our testing, the four-cylinder over the V6.
If you have your heart set on a four-cylinder Equinox or Terrain, a GM spokesperson says the automaker is working with suppliers to increase production of the smaller engine and they hope to meet demand soon.
You’ve seen plenty of that take place on public roads or dedicated race tracks. But you’ve probably never seen one where the two machines are wearing Blizzaks… or even studded tires.
French motorcycle publication Moto Journal has decided to turn the two-wheeled contingent on its head by moving the battleground to the frozen stretches of Lapland on a replica race track of Le Castellet, also known as Circuit Paul Ricard, cut through the snow and ice. In the first round, a goes up against a 1,000cc . Up next is a against a Yamaha WR450F. Yes, this is going to be good.
If the idea of watching an R1 hit 160 miles per hour on the ice isn’t enough to make you watch, perhaps we should mention that its rider is donning an Evel-Knievel-style cape, and that this appears to be just a teaser of a longer video or possibly even a series. Enough talking already. Check out the video in its entirety .
If you appreciate cost-no-object supercars – or cost-no-object anything, for that matter – then you’ll want to dig into the video after the jump. Pagani put together a 14-minute mini-documentary that reveals the finer details of its latest work, the Huayra.
The Huayra is more than just a sexy carbon and titanium body. The film visits the companies that help make Pagani’s coupe a 230-mile-per-hour rocket, like ASPA in Italy that spends an entire day milling just the logo, Formula One supplier MHG that makes the titanium exhaust, and the AMG engine-making facility where the Huayra’s turbocharged, 6.0-liter V12 is built by hand.
If nothing else, after watching the doc you’ll finally know how to pronounce the name of the car. to see the show.
There isn’t a whole lot to get excited about in the world of near-luxury, full-size, front-wheel-drive sedans. Stalwarts like the and continue to make their way into the driveways of gray-haired shoppers, and new entries like the redesigned are attempting to add a little bit of spice to an otherwise bland segment. In recent years, the has nearly fallen off the map in this class simply because it hasn’t been seriously updated since its launch in 2005 as a 2006 model. (The big four-door did get a , finally.) But that’s all about to change.
The 2014 Impala will be based on the same front-wheel-drive Epsilon-II architecture that underpins the and . But instead of sharing many of its components with the ‘Bu, reports indicate that the Impala will use a lot of the features of the XTS in an effort to give it a much more premium feel than the current model. And while the majority of the new car’s styling details are still covered up by the heavy camouflage, we can see premium features like large alloy wheels and what appear to be LED running lights up front. We just hope hasn’t just taken the easy way out and created a Malibu on steroids.
Mum’s the word on powertrain offerings, but have suggested that GM’s direct-injected 3.6-liter V6 will be on board, as well as the new 2.0-liter turbo four that’s slated for use in the . An eAssist version is also rumored to be in the cards.
Look for the 2014 Impala to launch sometime during the 2013 calendar year. Production is slated to be split between GM’s Oshawa, Ontario plant, as well as the Detroit-Hamtramck facility where the Malibu and are built.
Motorsports is expensive in any form, although there are ways to do it without completely breaking the bank. One of those ways is the relatively new featuring the compact offerings of , , , , and more that allows racers to compete in SCCA and Grand-Am racing on a relatively level and inexpensive playing field.
Ford is the latest to enter the B-Spec foray with an upgrade kit for the current 2011-2012 Fiesta. The package includes everything from a tow hook ($59.00) to a coilover suspension kit ($1,486.00) to make the Fiesta meet the B-Spec eligibility requirements. Racers will also need to add a variety of safety equipment like a roll cage, racing seats and so on. Ford says that it will cost just $25,000 to build a complete Fiesta B-Spec racer, including the cost of the donor car.
The first SCCA B-Spec race is scheduled for Miller Motorsports Park in Utah late next month while the inaugural Grand-Am B-Spec event is slated for Homestead Speedway in Miami the same weekend.
for more details about the Ford Fiesta B-Spec upgrade kit and a complete list of parts included in the package.
The , the project of a series of university students in Delft, Holland, is so gloriously absurd it’s surreal. It’s a 49-foot-long public bus that’s 5.6 feet high, runs on electricity, seats 23 passengers in individual captain’s chairs, has 16 gullwing doors, is intended to go 155 miles per hour and, while it doesn’t follow routes, will receive smartphone texts and pick you up at your location.
Most important: it’s been in development for five years and, yes, it’s real. The student engineers took it out after a snowfall in the Netherlands for some ABS testing and not only did they get it up to a claimed 85 kilometers per hour (about 53 mph), it looks pretty composed. to watch how it handles emergency maneuvers.
Burton Smith, CEO of Speedway Motorsports, may have his eye on an ambitious new project. According to reports swirling around the web, Smith (whose company owns and operates tracks like Infineon Raceway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway, among others) aims to create an accurate reproduction of the famous Nürburgring just outside of Las Vegas. While speaking during an interview on Sirius XM Sports, the executive mentioned he had already been in talks with the Governor of Nevada, the Nevada Bureau of Land Management and “some Germans” about the project. It’s estimated Smith will require some 8,000 acres to bring the track to reality. It’s a good thing Las Vegas is surrounded by an expanse of largely vacant desert.
The rumored plans call for the track to be constructed around 10 miles from the strip. Unfortunately, the facility probably wouldn’t play host to sanctioned races like the real McCoy. Instead, the reproduction would simply be for private individuals to have some fun and manufacturers to test their wares. Throwing an element of brutal desert heat onto an already challenging road course could certainly make for a useful development tool. Keep your ears pinned for more information.
