In yet another case of a carmaker who probably (and certainly doesn’t need it), has offered to build a pickup for Peyton Manning. Or at least it has issued to that effect.
The hook here is that the Tennessee Titans NFL franchise is wooing the former Indianapolis Colts quarterback and likely future NFL Hall of Famer, with owner Bud Adams offering Manning a lifetime contract, according to ESPN. Nissan, of course, . Manning also has roots in the state, as he attended the University of Tennessee, where he was the Volunteers’ all-time leading passer.
We suspect Manning has better things to do right now than help Nissan stage a further publicity stunt, given that he’s spent the past week working out for two other NFL teams in addition to Tennessee. That’s not stopping the PR team at Nissan from suggesting that Peyton might want a Titan, the slowest-selling full-size pickup in America, because . That’s Canton, Mississippi, rather than Canton, Ohio, where the NFL Hall of Fame is located.
And lest anyone get all up-in-arms over Nissan’s homer-ism, the company has said it will give Manning the truck regardless of which team he signs with “as a gesture of gratitude recognizing your great accomplishments and philanthropic contributions to our national community.” Click to read the full press release.
*UPDATE: If a slew of reports are to be believed, it appears Mr. Manning is . As some readers have noted in Comments, we, too, hope that takes this opportunity to build Peyton – and the rest of us – a new Bronco.
In yet another case of a carmaker who probably (and certainly doesn’t need it), has offered to build a pickup for Peyton Manning. Or at least it has issued to that effect.
The hook here is that the Tennessee Titans NFL franchise is wooing the former Indianapolis Colts quarterback and likely future NFL Hall of Famer, with owner Bud Adams offering Manning a lifetime contract, according to ESPN. Nissan, of course, . Manning also has roots in the state, as he attended the University of Tennessee, where he was the Volunteers’ all-time leading passer.
We suspect Manning has better things to do right now than help Nissan stage a further publicity stunt, given that he’s spent the past week working out for two other NFL teams in addition to Tennessee. That’s not stopping the PR team at Nissan from suggesting that Peyton might want a Titan, the slowest-selling full-size pickup in America, because . That’s Canton, Mississippi, rather than Canton, Ohio, where the NFL Hall of Fame is located.
And lest anyone get all up-in-arms over Nissan’s homer-ism, the company has said it will give Manning the truck regardless of which team he signs with “as a gesture of gratitude recognizing your great accomplishments and philanthropic contributions to our national community.” Click to read the full press release.
Has the Angry Birds franchise jumped the shark and hit those dastardly pigs yet? The ornery feathered videogame stars have seen their mugs plastered across just about every retail good we can think of. We’ve seen everything from mundane merchandise like t-shirts, plush dolls and keychains to inflatable funhouse castles, streaming media players and gummy candies.
Thus, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that Rovio Entertainment’s birds have slingshotted into the world of Formula One sponsorship, slathered on the brain bucket of Caterham racer Heikki Kovalainen. The Finn says he’s a big fan of the game – and not just because Rovio is from Finland.
Word has it that Angry Birds will get a racing-themed update sometime this summer (as well as even more branded merchandise), so fans of the flying fowl should keep their eyes peeled.
Race #1 of the 2012 Formula 1 season is . Along with a talk of a more exciting season after inconclusive winter testing, everyone has had a few words about the way the new cars look, one of the most common being “ugly.”
The stepped noses used on most of the field are how every team, save for McLaren and Marussia, dealt with new regulations. In the video , Mercedes F1 driver Nico Rosberg explains the look of his car from front to back. With Michael Schumacher putting up a good time in mixed conditions during the first two Free Practice sessions, there just might be a swan in there somewhere.
Last time Roadkill took a trip it inolved a $1,500 budget, a 1972 Catalina and a . This time their adventures point northward to Alaska, and their chariot will be a clone of the 1968 Ranchero that Hot Rod used to take a class win in the first Baja 1000. It is, naturally, called “Viva Raunchero.”
Ice racing in America’s largest state is the goal. But the real action ends up taking place far away from Arctic latitudes as co-pilots David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan get to enjoy hours of freezing temps when the Ranchero throws repeated tantrums in Vail, Colorado and Utah. You’ll find another lesson in road tripping the Hot Rod way in the video .
If you live in a city where parking is scarce, you won’t like hearing this. MIT Professor Eran Ben-Joseph has written a book titled Rethinking a Lot: The Design and Culture of Parking, and the gist is that the U.S. has far too many parking spaces.
Ben-Joseph estimates that there are 800 million parking spots across the U.S., taking up enough space to cover Puerto Rico in asphalt. In fact, Ben-Joseph says that many large cities have up to one third of their overall space dedicated to parking.
So what’s wrong with a glut of parking lots? For starters, they’re made of asphalt, which absorbs energy from the sun, which warms the ambient temperature. The lots also lead to faster water runoff, which hurts the ability of plants to remove toxins from the air.
The book doesn’t paint parking lots in a positive light, but we’re guessing there isn’t much that will be done to change the issue, at least in the short term. We are, after all, a country of auto owners, and we need a place to park our four-wheeled friends. And it’s not like we’re going to replace open lots with a glut of parking structures, since those can cost four times as much money to build.
Samuel Hübinette, two-time Formula D champion, will not return for the 2012 Formula Drift pro championship season. “Two of our main sponsors changed their marketing direction, so we decided that the best thing to do with the SHR drift car is to focus on doing demos,” said Hübinette, driver and team owner of Team Samuel Hübinette Racing. But don’t think team SHR has lost its competitiveness. While drifting has been put on the back burner, Hübinette (the “Crazy Swede”) has refocused his team on rallycross and off-road truck competitions.
Born in Sweden, Hübinette earned an early reputation for pushing motorcycles, cars and snowmobiles to the limit. He worked for Volvo Cars as a test driver in product development and was on the company’s Touring Car racing team from 1997 through 2000. Since moving to the United States 2004, he has secured a bronze medal in the X Games, won two Formula Drift championships, and driven in the Baja 1000. He is also a working stunt driver in Hollywood productions.
Not only has Hübinette been one of the top names in drifting, but he maintains the record for most Formula D victories. “We will miss having a competitor like Samuel this season,” said Jim Liaw, president and co-founder of Formula Drift.
Since the ink on the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta press release has barely had time to dry yet, speculating on a convertible variant is entirely premature. But with 740 horsepower on tap, we can hardly fault artist E. Milano for doing so, even if he went over the top with the Tolkienesque backdrop.
The artist also appears to have beefed up the design a bit, topping it off with a deep red leather interior and roll hoops that we’d be inclined to specify on the options list ourselves if we had a small fortune to spend. Like the extant coupe version better? We’ve got you covered with a couple of fresh stock images in the gallery below and some new .
We all tend to get a bit overzealous at times – we’ll call it part of human nature – and as many times as not, our tendencies to show off manifest themselves most when we’re behind the wheel of a hot new sports car. Like, say the brand new , also known as the here in the States, or, in form, the .
Such is the case with the unlucky fellow you’ll see in the video embedded below. During what appears to be a drive event for Toyota’s new coupe, taking place on a wet track in what we believe is Japan, one driver exceeded his talent level in a bright red GT 86, sending it careening into a makeshift wall.
The good news is that it was a low-speed mishap, which means nobody was injured and the car will need little more than a decent buffing. Or maybe a new fascia… either way, no big deal. See the video clip .
We’ve been expecting for some time that would choose to grace its stand with a variant on its new A-Class family as part of a push to bring a new range of small cars to North America. However, it now seems more likely that Los Angeles audiences will get a vision of Mercedes’ entry-level future, not New York. That’s because Mercedes has officially confirmed that it will show something called the “Concept Style Coupe” at an art, music, film and food festival in LA curated by none other than Mike D of the Beastie Boys.
Transmission LA: AV Club, a “multi-disciplinary festival,” runs from April 20 to May 6, and sponsor Mercedes promises an “artistic staging” of the concept car (expected to be a sedan), the production version of which is rumored to be dubbed CLC. The 17-day festival will be held at the Geffen Contemporary at LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art.
All of which begs the question: With the New York Auto Show staged earlier (press days are April 4 and 5), what will Mercedes show in the Empire State? It’s too significant of a market to the Three-Pointed Star to let the show pass without debuting something significant. See the complete press release for more.
With every new set of spy shots, we become increasingly more excited for the launch of the (or is that ?). This tapered wagon version of the shapely is certainly a looker, even in pre-production, camo-clad protype form, and after giving its shockingly quick sedan counterpart high marks for its driving dynamics, we can only assume that the complete Shooting Brake package will be really, really sweet.
Oh yeah, there’s an AMG version, too.
Seen here for the first time, the CLS63 AMG Shooting Brake takes the same sleek long-roof shape of the CLS550 Shooting Brake prototypes we’ve seen, but adds all of the bulgy bits fitting of any high-performance Merc. All we can say is, it looks absolutely stunning, and we can’t wait to see the finished product.
Power is expected to come from the same twin-turbocharged 5.5-liter V8 found in the sedan, sending 518 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels via Mercedes’ seven-cog Speedshift transmission. Like the sedan, we expect that will offer an AMG Performance Pack, which boosts power to 550 hp and 590 lb-ft in the sedan. Holy moly.
Wipe the drool from your keyboards and click through our attached high-res image gallery to see the CLS63 Shooting Brake prototype for yourself.
Finally. It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for ever since and jointly announced their compact rear-wheel-drive sports car: production is now underway.
With an official ceremony at Subaru’s Gunma Main Plant, attended by Toyota president Akio Toyoda, Subaru pushed the Big Red Button (quite literally, in case you were wondering) that sent and Toyota GT 86 coupes down the assembly line. And the event was captured in both still images and video for our viewing pleasure.
Check out our high-res image gallery above, and for the video and official press release. Oh, and if you’re one of the lucky ones with a deposit down for either the Subaru or the Toyota’s twin (America won’t get one with an interlocking rings badge), it’s officially time to consider making room in your garage.
There was a point in time where if we read one more lede that started with “ sure is on a roll these days,” we would have clawed our eyes out. Fact of the matter, though, is that those words were absolutely true. Hyundai has really come a long way here in the United States, especially in the past couple of years. And the only reason people have stopped writing about Hyundai’s forward momentum is because, frankly, we expect nothing less now. Every new product blows the doors off of the one that came before it, and brand-new ventures like the line or funky-fresh are nothing short of impressive.
But every family has its black sheep, and unfortunately for Hyundai, that might be the largest one in its herd. You see, while Hyundai has worked hard to create a unique brand identity here in the United States by offering cars that are designed specifically with our market in mind, the was simply a vehicle hauled over from Korea with a few minor Americanized tweaks. Don’t get us wrong, the Equus is a plenty good car, and through its faults, we praised it in both our and as being a tremendous value that’s pretty darn up to snuff with its competitive set. But over time, can something that’s simply a good value work in the highly competitive full-size luxury set?
That in mind, we ordered a White Satin Pearl for our in order to see if after one year of day-to-day use, the big flagship would be able to stand tall with the rest of its Modern Hyundai kin, or simply be another budget-minded also-ran from the days of Old Hyundai. 52 weeks and 22,638 miles later, all we can say is, man, what a difference a year makes.
As we said when we first drove the Blue-e-motion, is . Given the tremendous ups and downs that electric vehicles and EV start-up companies are going through, maybe making sure you have a car where everything is working smoothly – to say nothing about - isn’t such a bad idea. And it now seems like VW is confident enough in its Golf EV, which is , to push up its estimated release date from 2014 to late 2013.
Sure, technically, that could be a difference of just one day, but we don’t think that’s what VW of America president Jonathan Browning meant when he confirmed next year’s U.S. release date with Automotive News. Late 2013 is also when the car will go on sale in Europe. A .
Even though VW is getting ready to move into electric vehicle territory, it is well behind other automakers. Perhaps that’s why it is also a bit less optimistic about the potential success of plug-ins. The automaker expects just three percent of its new vehicles to be EVs or hybrids by 2018. You can .
If you’ve got that compact crossover itch that only something as sporting as the can scratch, you’re in luck. The smallest crossover is on sale now, and its online configurator tool is live.
Starting price is $20,695 plus a $795 destination charge, for a total of $21,490. That kind of cash will get you a front-drive CX-5 Sport with a six-speed manual. Opting for all-wheel-drive will force you to also take the six-speed automatic and bump the price to $24,140. (The manual transmission is not available with any of the higher trim levels, either.) Like most Mazda models, the Touring model is the next rung up the ladder, with prices starting at $24,690 for FWD and $25,940 for AWD. Grand Touring models are the most loaded CX-5 models, at $27,840 and $29,090, respectively.
We liked the CX-5 quite a bit when and look forward to getting some quality time behind the wheel of the actual production model soon. Click for the full pricing press release, then bounce on over to the configurator.
Why Automakers Are Increasingly Entering Alliances
It’s only a question of as Mazda’s desperate cost-cutting measures take aim at its U.S. workforce this week.
The maker has signaled it will post a $1.2 billion loss when the Japanese fiscal year wraps up on March 31, its worst performance in 11 years, and only by offering more than a billion dollars in new stock is it likely to head off a more serious crisis. For now, anyway.
With long-time partner Motor Company slashing its stake in its Japanese affiliate from 33 to just four percent since Alan Mulally was named CEO, even Mazda’s top executive Takashi Yamanouchi admits it will be , Yamanouchi recently acknowledging his company is “actively” looking for new alliance partners.
Of course, is not alone. confirmed this month that it would enter into a far-reaching partnership with Paris-based PSA . And Germany’s AG has repeatedly expanded the coalition it formed two years ago with the - Alliance.
Paul A. Eisenstein is Publisher of and a 30-year veteran of the automotive beat. His editorials bring his unique perspective and deep understanding of the auto world to Autoblog readers on a regular basis.
The replacement for the aging is expected to debut at next January’s , and when it does, a brand-new Pentastar powertrain will reportedly be spinning underhood. According to Automotive News, will offer a downsized 3.2-liter V6 in the Liberty mated to a nine-speed automatic transmission sourced from ZF. The current Pentastar V6 displaces 3.6 liters and has been well-received by both critics and buyers in everything from the refreshed to new .
Chrysler Group CEO Sergio Marchionne reiterated to AN that efficient transmissions play a huge role in the development of engines. “If we had known the eight-speed was coming, we could have made the [3.6-liter] Pentastar a 3.2-liter,” he said.
Currently, the Liberty is available with a 3.7-liter SOHC V6 that produces 210 horsepower and 235 pound-feet of torque backed by a four-speed automatic transmission. This new 3.2-liter/nine-speed combo will surely improve performance, not to mention overall efficiency, though specific power and fuel economy details are still up in the air at this time.
While the ink has barely dried on our , the automaker has reportedly just divulged the roadster’s official lap time around the famed Nürburgring circuit in Germany – the grueling racetrack that serves as a benchmark test for today’s sports cars. According to , its new two-seat convertible crossed the start/finish line after delivering a 7:58 lap.
That time may seem a bit off the pace when compared to heavy-hitters like the 911 GT2 RS (7:18), (7:19) and (7:24), but it is plenty quick among its peers in the same horsepower range (the ‘13 Boxster features a 3.4-liter flat-six rated at 315 horsepower) and strong enough to take the checkered flag away from the and . Much of the credit goes to Porsche’s commitment to keeping weight off the roadster (its curb weight is just 2,910 pounds), widening its track and fitting the redesigned vehicle with its capable torque-vectoring system.
is recalling 275,000 crossovers over potentially faulty rear seatbelts that may not properly allow for the secure attachment of a child restraint. The affected models are from the 2009 to 2012 model years, built between November 26, 2007 and March 13, 2012.
According to the recall summary from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the automatic locking retractor in the seatbelt assemblies of the rear center seat are at fault here. Obviously, if a child restraint is not properly secured to the seatbelt anchor, this can increase the risk of injury in a crash.
The recall is expected to kick off in early April, and Subaru dealers will replace the rear center seatbelt assembly free of charge. In the meantime, owners can contact Subaru directly at 1-800-782-2783, and the full summary of the recall can be read in NHTSA’s report .
Automakers are always attempting to show how popular their new vehicle is, but there are only two ways to truly prove a smashing hit. One is to deliver outstanding sales numbers, and the other is to experience demand so strong that new employees must be hired to help assemble them.
Land Rover is experiencing just such a success with its sexy new line, as evidenced by its latest press release. The Tata Motors owned luxury marque announced that it is hiring an additional 1,000 workers at its Halewood plant to bolster production. The facility, which currently builds the Evoque and the Freelander 2 (a.k.a. ), will now employ 4,500 workers, or three times the number it did in 2009.
With those new hires, the Halewood plant will now be running at or near full capacity, with three full eight-hour shifts. Hit the jump to read over the Land Rover press release which includes details of some of the positions needed at the plant.
Paul A. Eisenstein is Publisher of and a 30-year veteran of the automotive beat. His editorials bring his unique perspective and deep understanding of the auto world to Autoblog readers on a regular basis.
