Baby Buick Makes Quiet Case As An Almost-Luxury Car
It’s no secret that is one of the most prominent automakers in , but the vehicle that’s leading the charge in the People’s Republic may come as a surprise. The top-selling car in the world’s largest auto market last year was the Buick Excelle, a C-segment sedan that just so happens also to be a version of the that’s now on sale here in the United States.
The Verano has only been on sale here for a few months, but as you might expect, U.S. buyers aren’t quite as excited about the latest Buick offering as our Chinese counterparts, at least not in the early going. March sales came in at a modest 2,497 units (the Excelle family scored 23,179 April sales in China), making the Verano the least-purchased Buick for that month, while April’s 2,989 units were just enough to beat the in Buick’s sales portfolio. Do Chinese buyers know something that we don’t, or does the littlest Buick just need time to win us over?
Turns out the federal government’s attempts to create enforceable oversight of cellphone use in vehicles has hit a Swiftian snag: it seems there isn’t a government agency specifically empowered with the authority to do so. The legislative boundaries of the Federal Communications Commission end at the phone itself, those of the end at the vehicle itself. Neither is equipped to address how people combine the two while driving.
So, according to a report in Automotive News, what NHTSA honcho David Strickland wants is to have Congress bestow the authority on some agency to make such laws. For now, the recommendations NHTSA drafts are only just that – recommendations. Automakers aren’t bound by them.
Not that it should or will stop Strickland’s minions, but 37 states and our nation’s capital already have laws – with teeth – addressing the use of phones while driving. If our time on the roads is any indication, those laws are almost universally ignored by police, and we can’t see how a federal fiat would change that, but such laws are on the books. Strickland has testified in front of Congress on the matter, however, no one expects movement on it anytime soon.
If you read the owner’s manual of your car you’d begin to realize how much of your own vehicle you didn’t know about. If it’s a car made within the past few years, then the owner’s manual covering the dirty bits will be joined by an even thicker manual that covers just the infotainment system. , however, has a better way for buyers to learn the CUE-powered mysteries of the $44,995 XTS: give owners an iPad with the car, loaded with tutorials on how to get the most out of the system.
Yes, when the was introduced it installed with a multimedia version of its owner’s manual. Based on Wired’s discussion with Cadillac, however, this is much wider implementation, with each Cadillac dealer required to have two “certified technology experts” on duty, plus a CUE call center for owners, an online media team looks for CUE questions to answer, and a mobile CUE specialist who makes house calls. The point seems to be that this isn’t about getting an iPad with your car, it’s about understanding ever tech thing your car can do. If you still don’t know how to access the full power of your XTS, it will only be because you don’t want to.
In 2011, commenced its People’s Car Project in China to create crowdsourced concepts of the VW of the future. More than 33 million people visited the site, and three concepts were created from the inputs: the Music Car, the Hover Car and the Smart Key.
The Music Car is a wrapped in LEDs that change colors to match the driver’s choice of music. The Hover Car is a zero-emissions two-seater that, no surprise, hovers over electromagnetic road networks. The Smart Key is Big Brother for your car, in your pocket: the high-def touchscreen on the nine-millimeter key can track the status of your car and keep an eye on it via “satellite transmission.”
The project is continuing, so you can still post your thoughts to VW’s future. In the meantime there’s a video and a couple of press releases for more on the story.
’s People’s Car Project in China has produced three concepts [w/video]
The crew at MotoMan has rolled out the second episode of its Targa Newfoundland coverage. This time around, Brandon Fitch and I spend plenty of time talking with the guys about the challenges of Day One, how the supercharged handles some of the more technical stages and joy of hauling ass through a subdivision. Meanwhile, team MotoMan gets a few valuable lessons on competition in targa from veterans of the race like Rob Pacione and learns a little about Newfoundland hospitality at the same time. As the week continues, competitors are forced to overcome a variety of challenges, from an entire engine swap in a Lotus to a water-logged 911.
Part Two gives us all a better idea of what it’s like to compete in Grand Touring, where the goal is to hit a specific time and speed, rather than simply beat a time like in Targa class. Both competitions are challenging in their own right, but we have to sympathize with MotoMan’s frustration at being forced to limp a along at 40 miles per hour with an open road ahead of you. to check it out for yourself.
Typically when an automaker releases a new car, we see it in a press release (whether embargoed for later release or not) before it pops up on their public-domain website. But not this time.
The car in question is the DBS Ultimate, a vehicle whose arrival we were . Like the Ultimate edition of the Vanquish that came before it, the Ultimate is a harbinger of the vehicle’s departure from the catalog. A new model is expected to arrive in celebration of the company’s centenary next year, but before it does, the last few customers will have the privilege of owning one of the few Ultimate editions of the DBS that will ever be produced.
We’ve yet to receive word on just how many those will be, or what they will cost, but we can tell you that each car will be individually numbered. They will also feature special badging, a painted rear deck-lid spoiler, carbon-fiber wing mirror caps, a darkened grille, smoked tail-lamps, Zircotec-coated tail pipes and a choice of yellow, black or red brake calipers.
The interior is decked out in diamond-quilted stitching on the leather seats and Alcantara headliner in either red or silver thread. Buyers will also be able to choose between three exterior paint finishes – Carbon Black II, Quantum Silver or Silver Fox – and order theirs in either coupe or Volante convertible body-styles and with either a manual or automatic transmission.
We’ll have to wait for that press release to come out to bring you more information – particularly on pricing and availability – by which time they’ll all likely to have been spoken for. But you can check it out now on the company’s or in the screen caps we’ve assembled for you in the gallery above.
Toyota Supra successor, Nissan Juke-R, Cadillac ATS pricing, GM Europe restructuring, Prius PHEV sales
Episode #281 of the is here, and this week, Chris, Dan, and Zach chat about the fresh rumors of a new Toyota Supra, the Nissan Juke-R heading for (very) limited production, Cadillac ATS pricing, GM Europe headed for another restructuring, and sales of the Toyota Prius PHEV. Your questions and comments power the end of the ‘cast, and for those of you who hung with us live on our , thanks for taking the time. We’ve embedded our Q&A module for you to scroll through and follow along, too. Thanks for listening!
Autoblog Podcast #281:
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Runtime: 01:19:48
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Distracted driving has joined smoking, drinking, drug use, and unprotected sex on the list of behaviors that teens know are risky but engage in nonetheless.
According to a national survey by Consumer Reports, half of all teens surveyed had used a handheld phone while driving in the past 30 days, while 30 percent copped to texting. Eight percent said they operated a smart phone app and seven percent used email or social media while driving. But how many considered this behavior a bad idea? Fully 63 percent said talking on the phone could be considered “dangerous,” while almost all of them thought the others qualified, with about 80 percent agreeing to adding the word “very” to that description, according to CR.
We’ve already seen , and CR’s survey says the publicity is working. Over 60 percent of respondents said they were influenced to stop or reduce phone use while driving by reading or hearing about the problem, while only 40 percent responded to legal bans. And of course, family members laying down the law fared the worst, at only 30 percent saying that caused them to knock it off and put the phone down when behind the wheel.
Unsurprisingly, CR found that positive peer pressure could help curb the behavior, as almost 50 percent said they were less likely to talk on the a handheld cell phone or text if they had a buddy in the car. The magazine inferred that this could have to do with the half of respondents who said they had asked someone to stop using their phone while they were a passenger.
Of course, this problem with talking and texting while driving isn’t restricted to teenagers. Just like kids growing up in the 1980s learned to do drugs by watching their parents, the youth of today are witnessing mom and dad engaging in distracted driving. CR says 48 percent of young drivers said they’d seen a parent talking on the phone while driving and 15 percent caught one texting.
This got us thinking: Maybe it’s time to reboot our favorite PSA of all time. to watch.
All the Justin Bieber in the world doesn’t seem like enough for to catch a break. First it was a 2012 spectacularly . Now a Texas fire investigator has said that a house fire originated with the plug-inhybrid, according to AutoWeek.
The fire consumed the car while doing “substantial damage” to the garage and spreading to the suburban Houston home, but nobody was injured in the blaze. According to the report, two other vehicles parked in the garage, an Acura NSX and SUV, were also damaged. Estimates of the extent of the destruction were said to be $100,000, not including the damage to the other cars – and we’re assuming not including the Karma either, given that the was a complete loss, according to the report.
The fire started within three minutes of the Karma being parked in the garage, after the owner said he smelled burning rubber. According to the report, the car had not yet been plugged in to charge. The Karma is said to be new enough that it was built after the , and the report indicates that the battery pack survived the fire intact.
Though the Fort Bend County chief fire investigator told AW that “the Karma was the origin of the fire,” and that it resembled a golf cart fire, something that happens roughly 50 times a year in the area, the incident is still being investigated.
When contacted for comment, Fisker’s response was to tell AutoWeek not to jump to any conclusions: “There are conflicting reports and uncertainty surrounding this particular incident. The cause of the fire is not yet known and is being investigated.”
The automaker then went on to speculate about “fraud or malicious intent,” stating that “fireworks were found in the garage” and that “an electrical panel located in the garage… is also being examined,” according to the report. Fisker also told AW that it believes the car’s battery pack “does not appear to have been a contributing factor in this incident.”
With an epic chassis and the lowest center of gravity in the business, there’s plenty for enthusiast to love about the . Except, that is, for those who prefer to take their nimble, affordable sports cars with the roof down. Their choices are rather limited in this price category to the and , but if the latest reports prove accurate, the FR-S – which is, of course, virtually identical to the and sold overseas as the GT 86 – is preparing to throw its hat in the ring, as well.
Long rumored, a convertible version of the jointly-developed “Toyobaru” coupe could stand to boost sales figures and help the bean-counters justify the expenditure on the new platform. However while the recently showcased at Long Beach lost its rear seats (along with most of its windshield), Car and Driver predicts that the FR-S convertible will keep the auxiliary pair in the back – though the addition of a folding roof mechanism would likely mean that would come at the expense of most of the trunk room.
We’re told to expect the FR-S convertible to arrive sometime late in 2013 or early in 2014, with a price tag that would tack a few grand onto the coupe’s $25,000 MSRP. Look for the same 2.0-liter, 200-horsepower boxer four to carry over with a choice of six-speed transmissions in either manual or automatic configurations. Beyond that, Toyota may be considering basing a larger four-door sedan and coupe off the new platform, which could stand to make the money men back at headquarters – to say nothing of the enthusiasts – even more happy.
Josh Wainwright became a living testimony for the value helmets during the British Superstock 600 recently. The rider put his bike down on the 11th lap just ahead of Johnny Bradshaw. With nowhere to go and no time to get there, Bradshaw literally drove over Wainwright’s head with his motorcycle, catapulting both riders down the track.
Miraculously, Wainwright escaped the off with nothing more than a cracked rib and a broken collarbone. Bradshaw walked away without serious injury as well.
Any impact to the head involving that kind of velocity typically brings about neck injury concerns, but Wainwright seems to have avoided that peril. You can check out the video for yourself to see just how close both Wainwright and Bradshaw came to having significantly worse days.
The next-generation BMW Z4 roadster is slated to arrive in 2015, and according to new reports, it’s going to be a more dynamic machine. Well, slightly more dynamic, since the Z4 will still need to squeeze into the triangulated space between better driving chops and not looking too different than the current car. Buyers may want a better driver’s car, but they also want a timeless design that will still look good in 15 years.
Inside Line reports that the next Z4 will have a shortened hood and the lighter, N20 four-cylinder engine – as is found in the – which will mean better weight distribution. But with BMW aiming to ensure its cars maintain their image for 15 years, we look forward to seeing how engineers and designers collaborate on a harder car that won’t be, in any way, too hard.
Today announced that a will pace this year’s Indianapolis 500, marking the 23rd time that a Chevy has paced the race and the 11th time the has performed the duty. With 638 horsepower from its supercharged 6.2-liter V8, the Corvette ZR1 will be the most powerful production machine to serve as the race’s pace car.
Helping to celebrate six decades of production, the 2013 Corvette ZR1 pace car mimics the design cues of the that debuted earlier this year with Arctic White exterior paint and a full-length racing stripe in Pearl Silver Blue. Inside is a Blue Diamond leather-wrapped interior with suede accents.
Look for the 2013 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 during the 96th running of the Indianapolis 500, scheduled to start at 12:00 pm ET on Sunday, May 27th.
We at Autoblog, por supuesto, love us some behind-the-scenes car development videos. We also dig smart humor, and we think the two are gloriously combined in this German take on almost every dramatic engineering/track/shakedown vid that has hit the YouTubes. Until it gets a tad too absurd, at least…
Put together by who earlier made an , this time they’ve worked up a car they call the Fahrradi Farfalla FXX which is loosely based on a whole lot of othercars. When they give it the shakedown in a German tunnel, well, you’ll just have to see for yourself what happens. to see what’s up.
BMW Takes On Mercedes And Audi In The Profit Margin Wars
As the years go by, it’s become the Germans who are most closely watching what each other are doing over the backyard fence. So much so, at times, that it can almost seem like they’re freely swapping all their trade secrets unapologetically in full view.
Take this nicely executed new luxo-niche player, the . It’s no scoop, of course, that it was created specifically to not miss out on what both and are discovering for themselves with the and . And yes, that “nicely executed” modifier just used to describe the Gran Coupe could indeed ring with more enthusiasm.
The 640i Gran Coupe we sailed around in all over Sicily under a crisp sun is a generally good-looking machine. designers have taken the existing Big Bimmer language and successfully created a new dialect for the company, if you will. But these “four-door coupe” creations are curiosities for which many develop a love (or, occasionally, a distaste) for over the long run. Only the first-generation CLS in 2003-04 absolutely socked it to us at first glance, and since then, everything else in the genre has felt derivative. Well, they essentially are blatant derivatives, right?
The Detroit News reports presidential hopeful Mitt Romney believes he deserves credit for the auto industry’s recovery, despite the fact that he adamantly opposes the bailout. While speaking with a Cleveland, Ohio television station, Romney said he deserves “a lot of credit” because he supported the idea of managed bankruptcy. But both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama believed General Motors and couldn’t survive the process without backing from the United States Treasury.
Meanwhile, in a 2008 opinion article for The New York Times, Romney warned the bailout would mean the end of the American automotive industry, saying “It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.”
Through the lens of hindsight, we know that statement was a bit exaggerated. Both Chrysler and GM are on the right path, with the companies posting profits in North America. The Detroit News reports the auto bailout is an important topic in two crucial swing states: Ohio and Michigan.
Most General Motors dealers make their living off selling pickup trucks. (That’s why when it came time to trim the brands and reorganize under bankruptcy, survived and didn’t – because dealers needed to have a truck to sell, not a .) That makes this year a tricky one for dealers, according to Automotive News, as they need to have enough or models in stock to get them to the 2013 model year.
What makes this quandary different from most years is that GM is readying all-new pickups, meaning that it will be . The full-size and GMC trucks date to 2006, making them the oldest in the industry that don’t wear a badge on their tailgate. Dealers, of course, don’t want to be caught with many 2012 trucks – vehicles that are already difficult enough to sell – but they don’t want inventories to run completely dry and risk turning away customers.
With a combined 29 weeks of downtime scheduled for three truck plans, according to the report, some dealers are stockpiling pickups to avoid running out if the truck production pipeline dries up before the 2013s start shipping. Other dealers are taking the opposite strategy, turning down 2012s and waiting for next year’s models.
Given all that has happened to GM in recent years, we imagine that most dealers know altogether too well that you’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
If you’ve been sniffing around the PlayStation Vita debating whether to pull the trigger, has an offer for you: buy an and you’ll get the Vita free. This isn’t the first tie-up with the little car and the little console: the iQ was one of the available vehicles in the MotorStorm RC game.
The offer is good only until June 31, 2012, so you’ve got some time to think about it. Sure, this will add (just) $15,700 to the price of your portable gaming station… but at least you’ll have some way to carry it. And when you’re finished making that deal, can we interest you in a for the ? But first, for a read of the Scion press release with details.
We’ve been guilty of putting a vehicle or three on two wheels occasionally, but never on purpose. James “Ski” Smith, on the other hand, has made a habit of standing a car on edge for extended periods of time. That’s impressive enough by our standards, but Smith recently attempted to take his skills to the next level by piloting a fox body all the way around Laguna Seca. Why an old Mustang? Probably because no one would shed a tear if the car wound up on its roof.
Unfortunately, Smith ran into another piece of trouble before he could tackle the track’s more daring corners. The extreme angle caused oiling issues with the V8 engine, flooding one bank with oil while depriving the other. As a result, Smith came to a stop just past Turn Six. Still, he hopes to try again soon. May we suggest he take something a little better suited to the task? A , mayhaps? to check out the clip for yourself.
Russell Sutton is a man after our own heart. The craftsman has spent the building a nine-cylinder radial engine using a smattering of XR600 singles for his airboat. After a little trial and error, Sutton discovered his creation is happier running off of liquid propane gas instead of gasoline. Years of hard work finally paid off when he recently started his monster creation for the first time. The elegant radial fires with a puff of smoke before before settling into a perfect hum. Unfortunately, the success is quickly marred by the sound of mechanical failure.
As it turns out, the cast piston sleeves Sutton used in his creation can’t withstand the abuse of the radial. In addition, some of the pistons required shaving in order to work with the different stroke. Unfortunately, the shaving caused the pistons to delaminate their crown, causing further trouble. Despite the issues, Sutton seems to take the failure in stride and plans to correct the issues before firing up the engine one more time. We could all learn a thing or two from his resilience. to check out a few videos of the engine. If you want to skip ahead, check out the second video around the 2:30 mark.
