At its best, Top Gear represents nearly everything we’ve ever wanted in a show about cars. It’s well-written, funny, beautifully shot and simply enjoyable to watch, even if ultimately it’s more about entertainment than full-fledged reviews. The advertising types at have picked up on the cheeky part of Top Gear in an overseas commercial for the (Tuscon here in the States). The ads, which apparently air in South Africa, very overtly spoof the BBC program, but with three animals making up the “Top Deer” team. Clarkson, Hammond and May are replaced with a wildebeest, hamster and a turtle. The Stig is replaced with a deer called “The Stag.”
We usually loathe commercials that replace humans with adorable forest creatures, but this is a different animal altogether. The first spot features a one-on-one track battle between the ix35 and the Stag, and the second ad stars the Clarkson-esque wildebeest behind the wheel of the ix35. Very funny stuff. to view a couple of well-executed videos.
2010 Insurance Institute For Highway Safety rollover tests – click above for high-res images
Perish the thought, haters! The above is getting its roof caved in not on aesthetic grounds, but rather to test its ability to survive a rollover accident. If you haven’t guessed by now, the MKT did so well in the roof-crush test that the handed parent company a much coveted award. Actually, the IIHS handed FoMoCo a hefty total of five rollover-related Top Safety Pick awards. However we should note that one of the Ford products earning top marks is in fact the soon to be extinct , so really Ford only nabbed four – but who’s counting? Other good-to-rollover-in Ford products include the , and .
Speaking of thick-sculled corporate cousins, and were handed a couple of Top Safety Picks, too. The 2010 Audi and as well as the Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen all earned top marks from the IIHS. As far as the Jetta goes, that’s just one more reason to choose wagon over sedan. Finally, the new gets the coveted TSP, and having recently driven the overly-stiff compact CUV, we’re not at all surprised that its roof holds up to crushing. To get the dirt on the IIHS’s methodology/read the press release, .
Sarah Goodner was killed in Texas in 2007 when her 2005 Hyundai Tucson rolled over and she was thrown out the back window. The culprit for that odd circumstance – even though she had her seat belt fastened – was her seat, which was reclined so far back that she was able to slide out of it.
Stuart Goodner, Sarah’s father, sued Hyundai claiming that the Tucson was unsafe because the seat could be reclined too much. A jury agreed, kind of, awarding Goodner a $1.8 million judgment against Hyundai, but also deciding that Hyundai was only 45% responsible for Sarah’s death. Stuart said, “We want people to know how dangerous it is to drive with the seat reclined, [and] we’re calling the auto industry out to correct this design defect so that no other family has to bury one of their children.”
Forty-five degrees was determined to be the maximum amount of recline before driving became unsafe. And the issue isn’t new: The NTSB and NHTSA debated the issue in 1988 and couldn’t come to an agreement. Of course we can’t make light of this – a young woman has died. But we do wonder why it’s Hyundai’s responsibility to make sure you don’t drive your car in an unsafe manner. We suspect we haven’t heard the last of this…
Nissan Leaf EV – Click above for high-res image gallery
How many people plunked down $99 to register for a ? According to an email from , “As of this morning, 6,635 customers signed up to reserve a Nissan Leaf.” The reservation line has only been open about 70 hours (Nissan ), so that’s a pretty solid rate of ~100 an hour.
Katherine Zachary, who handles PR for Nissan North America, told Autoblog that during the first three hours, 2,700 people registered for the Leaf, and that it’s been a steady flow ever since. However, if you were one of the people with an itchy trigger finger Tuesday, don’t count on getting your Leaf first. Nissan is looking at where the most demand to help determine where to roll out the vehicles. So far, Zachary said, 75 percent of the people registering for a Leaf are from the areas – places like Tennessee, Oregon, San Diego, Seattle and the Phoenix/Tucson region in Arizona. “Through the work we have been going and what those markets have been doing, people are ready,” Zachary said. Most of the reservations are from California, but a “fair amount” are from Georgia, due in part to the extra state incentives for plug-in vehicles there.
So far, the upper SL trim is beating the SV base trim level three to one. This makes sense to us, since does get you quite a few nice features. As for there being any cancellations yet, Zachary said she hasn’t heard of any at this point. Someone will be the first, but apparently no one wants to do so quite yet. Nissan will continue to issue periodic statements on the number of reservations as time goes by. We’ll be ready.
Like it or not, the small crossover segment is booming. Not only are budget-minded automakers all putting forth their best efforts to create new-and-improved vehicles for the class, even higher-end manufacturers like , and are getting into the act hoping to win over customers looking for a more premium experience. Why? These vehicles offer an excellent coupling of both utility and economy – two of the most important must-haves for the vast majority of new car shoppers.
We recently invited the latest small CUV offering from , the , into the Autoblog Garage for a week, and found it to be a stylish, useful workhorse for everyday tasks that doesn’t sacrifice too much in the way of driving enjoyment. What’s more, with a sticker starting at $19,995, it’s quite a bargain. But just because the Tucson carries a wallet-friendly price doesn’t mean it lacks refinement or quality. Hit the jump to find out why.
Gallery:
Photos by Steven J. Ewing / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.
: 2010 Hyundai Tucson GLS is a stylish all-rounder without sacrifice
2011 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport – Click above for high-res image gallery
Let’s just go on ahead and make that much needed volume leader. The great economic collapse of 2009 smashed in the teeth with a much larger brick than most other manufacturers. Thinks have slightly improved, but their , and from an already frighteningly low level. Obviously, something must be done.
Meet the , or as they’re calling it in alphanumeric-loving Europe, the . We’ve covered this particular small crossover pretty extensively already, so here’s the U.S. spec deal. It’s 15 inches shorter than the Outlander GT. Like its big brother, it gets magnesium paddle shifters. However, they are connected to a CVT instead of Mitsu’s sweet dual-clutch gearbox. Now, no one has driven the Outlander Sport yet, and CVTs have gotten massively better in the last few years, so don’t bunch your panties up quite yet.
The real upshot of that CVT is the Outlander Sport’s 31 mpg highway figure, a right respectable number for a small crossover. In fact, that means the Outlander Sport is competitive with a small CUV we like a whole bunch, the . Besides the CVT, Mitsu has installed weight-saving plastic front fenders, electric power steering and has sculpted the Outlander Sport down to a admirably slippery 0.33 Cd. The Outlander Sport can also be shifted from front-wheel drive to all-wheel drive and yes, you will be able to order yours in this particularly vibrant shade of show car blue.
It wasn’t that many years ago that no one really took the engineering capabilities of Hyundai all that seriously. Thanks to recent introductions like the Genesis coupe and sedan, the Tucson and the Sonata, the Korean automaker is rapidly gaining respect.
Ever since Hyundai announced at the Los Angeles Auto Show that it would add a turbocharged variant to its all-four-cylinder lineup in the new Sonata, there has been considerable speculation about how much power the engine would produce.
If there’s one thing we’re clamoring for here in the U.S., it’s more diesel engines in passenger cars. Mazda will soon be answering our cries, as it plans to launch its all-new SKY-D powertrain in its “next-generation mid-sized car” (read: Mazda6) sometime in 2012.
Mercedes-Benz announced pricing today for its all-new, homegrown gullwing. We don’t have an official MSRP breakdown yet, but our man on the NY Auto Show floor tells us that the 2011 SLS AMG will start at $183,000 in the U.S. when it begins to go on sale this summer.
“You’ll turn blue in the face if you’re holding your breath waiting for a V6 Kizashi.” That was the word from a Suzuki spokesman at last night’s insider preview of the 2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport. Don’t count on the hybrid anytime soon, either.
At this year’s New York Auto Show, Ford announced an extension of its partnership with Microsoft (see also: Sync) into the electric vehicle (EV) recharging realm: The free Hohm energy management application.
2011 Kia Sportage – Click above for high-res image gallery
The original Sportage was one of the vehicles that led the Korean automaker’s initial charge into the American market. Those early SUVs (they were body-on-frame back then) were inexpensive and honest, but that’s about the best thing you could say about them. After a near brush with extinction, Kia is a very different kind of automaker today. Like the rest of the company’s recent introductions, the Sportage features crisp, aggressive styling that won’t leave you embarrassed to be seen in one.
The new Sportage actually had its at the Geneva Motor Show early this month, but the New York Auto Show is considered the crossover’s U.S. coming out party, even though it actually showed up at the Atlanta show just recently. Like sister brand new Tucson, the American-spec model gets a new 176 horsepower variable valve timing 2.4-liter inline-four that beats the power and efficiency of the old 2.7-liter V6 with the buyer’s choice of manual or automatic six-speed transmissions.
Later in the 2011 model year, the Sportage will finally get some real sport when it gets the new 2.0-liter turbocharged and direct injected inline four that’s going into the Optima and Hyundai Sonata. A snazzy looking, 274 hp Sportage? What is this world coming to?
It wasn’t that many years ago that no one really took the engineering capabilities of all that seriously. Thanks to recent introductions like the and , the and the , as well as consistently improving quality, the Korean automaker is rapidly gaining respect. Today at the 2010 New York Auto Show, Hyundai debuted its first production hybrid model for the U.S. market based on the recently launched 2011 Sonata.
As we saw in the teaser photo released last Friday, Hyundai has set its hybrid apart from conventional models with an all-new front fascia. However, the changes go well beyond the new grille and headlights. The new wheels combine with extended rocker panels to improve airflow across the flanks. At the back end, the bumper cover has been reshaped with sharp creases at the corners to control the air coming off and minimize drag, and there are set of really interesting taillamps with a sort of neutron molecule-like quality to them. The body alterations drops the hybrid’s projected drag coefficient from the standard Sonata’s already slippery 0.28 to just 0.25. As you might suspect, the really important stuff, however, is under the skin.
2011 Nissan Juke – Click above for high-res image gallery
’s new-for-2011 Juke is set to make its North American debut at tomorrow’s New York Auto Show, and the small crossover’s polarizing moon-buggy styling is sure to set tongues wagging, just as it did during its global premiere at the . Having seen this vehicle in person already, we can tell you that its “Baby Predator” front end takes some getting used to, but it all comes together better than expected, and the interior seems surprisingly roomy and well-resolved.
Much smaller in person than one might think, the curvy ute is significantly shorter than vehicles like the and – it’s even shorter than the new and Nissan’s own Rogue, not to mention the likes of (itself another NY debut). The closest competitor we can think of is crossover, which is, believe it or not, actually longer than the Juke. In the end, we fully expect it to be cross-shopped with more conventional hatchbacks (), as well as ‘box cars’ like the .
Featuring the first application of Nissan’s 1.6-liter direct injected four-cylinder turbo in North America, it will be available with torque vectoring all-wheel drive, so it might just be the driver’s car of the bunch, too. Featuring “180+ horsepower and 170+ lb-ft of torque,” it will be available in both six-speed manual form and CVT with a sport setting. Unfortunately, the three-pedal setup will only be available in front-drive SV and SL trim, however. That torque-vectoring system? It defaults to a 50:50 front-to-rear split, but it can push power from side-to-side along the rear axle when situations warrant.
No official pricing has been revealed yet, but Nissan promises that the Juke will start at “just under $20,000.” Want to learn more? Check out our high-res gallery below and the official press releases and spec sheet after the jump.
Update:Three videos of the Juke, its torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive system and Nissan’s new direct-injected 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine (definitely the one to watch) have been added after the jump.
The is more stylish, more spacious, and flat out better than its predecessor. This seems to be the M.O. for Hyundai nowadays, as it rolls out a continual stream of new and/or revised vehicles that leave any old brand preconceptions in the dust. Vehicles like the new Sonata, Tucson, and the Genesis models are casting Hyundai in a totally different, much more positive light than ever before. It won’t end there, either. For instance, the 2011 Hyundai Equus will slot above the Genesis sedan and target bigger, pricier game.
But what about the folks with tighter budgets, shopping at an entry price point well below the Sonata? Well, as you see above, it looks like they won’t need to sacrifice style for value much longer. This photo, , apparently reveals the next-generation Hyundai Accent, caught buck naked in its homeland. ( call this same car the Accent, and the forum where this shot came from is calling it the Verna – the Accent’s name in Korea.) At the same time, it appears to be nearly identical to , caught by spies in January and presumed to be the Elantra.
As you can plainly see, the new car, whether it be the Elantra or the Accent, shares the Sonata’s “fluidic sculpture” design language – no bad thing. In fact, it’s a reallygood thing, seeing as how the current Accent is about as generic-looking as cars get, and the current Elantra doesn’t exactly set hearts racing either. Hyundai doesn’t do generic anymore, and that now seems to apply to the lower-grade models, too. This looks quite promising, and we’re keen to see more. Thanks to Foo for the tip! UPDATE: As it happens, there’s to suggest this could instead perhaps be the next Elantra. The original post text has now been modified to reflect this possibility.
The is more stylish, more spacious, and flat out better than its predecessor. This seems to be the M.O. for Hyundai nowadays, as it rolls out a continual stream of new and/or revised vehicles that leave any old brand preconceptions in the dust. Vehicles like the new Sonata, Tucson, and the Genesis models are casting Hyundai in a totally different, much more positive light than ever before. It won’t end there, either. For instance, the 2011 Hyundai Equus will slot above the Genesis sedan and target bigger, pricier game.
But what about the folks with tighter budgets, shopping at an entry price point well below the Sonata? Well, as you see above, it looks like they won’t need to sacrifice style for value much longer. This is apparently the next-generation Hyundai Accent (a.k.a. Hyundai Verna in South Korea and a few other markets), caught buck nekkid in its homeland. ( support this notion, as previously-spotted camouflaged Accent/Verna prototypes wear the .)
As you can plainly see, the new Accent shares the Sonata’s “fluidic sculpture” design language – no bad thing. In fact, it’s a reallygood thing, seeing as how the current Accent is about as generic-looking as cars get. Hyundai doesn’t do generic anymore, and that now seems to apply to the entry-level model, too. This looks quite promising, and we’re keen to see more. Thanks to Foo for the tip!
2011Hyundai Sonata – Click above for high-res image gallery
It’s no secret that has been enjoying a healthy dose of praise lately, especially with fresh new products like the , and garnering a lot of media attention. But it isn’t just the press that thinks Hyundai is on a roll – Kelley Blue Book now reports that the automaker now holds the Number One spot in brand loyalty, with 56.3 percent of Hyundai owners looking within the brand for new car purchases. continues to hold the second place rank at 55.8 percent, and Toyota, in light of its recent recall woes, is down 4.4 percentage points to 53.3 percent, putting it in the third place spot.
Furthermore, the Sonata is now KBB’s fifth most-researched new vehicle, mostly due to the hype surrounding the stylish new 2011 model. The only vehicles ahead of it on the list are perennial mainstays, such as the Honda Civic, Accord, and .
KBB market analysts believe that Hyundai should continue to promote its attractive new products, competitive price points and great warranty program in order to keep the momentum going (duh). These analysts also suggest that domestic automakers ( and , specifically) will prove to be Hyundai’s biggest competition in the near future, as these brands are set to roll out a host of new products to win over consumers. Follow the jump to read the full details in KBB’s press release.
home office in Korea has dropped the first frontal image of a new concept that will be shown next week at the Geneva Motor Show along with some technical details. The is a D-segment sedan meant to go up against cars like the Ford Mondeo in Europe. Under the hood, the i-Flow has Hyundai’s first diesel hybrid powertrain including a new 1.7-liter inline-four. The diesel has dual stage turbocharging and is paired up with Hyundai’s Blue-drive system using a new six-speed dual clutch gearbox. Like the upcoming hybrid, the i-Flow uses a lithium polymer battery pack. With its drag coefficient of 0.25, the i-Flow is claimed to achieve 78.4 miles per gallon (U.S.) and CO2 emissions of just 85 grams/kilometer.
Joining the i-Flow onstage will be a refreshed version of the i30 (badged as the in North America) and low emissions “blue” versions of the i10, i20, i30 and ix35 (). These models receive automatic start-stop, low rolling resistance tires and aero tweaks. The four cars all achieve CO2 ratings under 100 g/km while the crossover ix35 gets 135 g/km. Finally, Hyundai will also show a fuel cell version of the new ix35/ for the first time. Hyundai still plans to produce fuel cell vehicles in the thousands annually by 2012.
While we have known for some time that Mitsubishi will introduce a new compact crossover dubbed RVR in Japan and ASX in Europe, what we didn’t know was what designation the car would carry when it hit North American showrooms. We do now. A source at Mitsubishi tells Autoblog that the inexpensive four-cylinder crossover will be called Outlander Sport, a nod to Mitsu’s larger and more-established three-row Outlander CUV.
Astute carspotters will note that this isn’t the first time that the Japanese automaker has used the ‘Sport’ moniker in this capacity, attached to the name of another more expensive and well-known model in its lineup. Back at the beginning of this decade, Mitsu marketed its Montero Sport (a vehicle that was eventually supplanted by the slow-selling Endeavor), a body-on-frame SUV that rode the coattails of the more established and luxurious Montero.
When the five-passenger Outlander Sport arrives in North America this fall, it will carry a Lancer-derived 2.0-liter gasoline four-cylinder backed by a CVT gearbox, and it will arrive with electronically controlled all-wheel drive. Other drivetrains remain a possibility, but the focus of the 2.0-liter setup will be fuel economy, with Mitsu engineers targeting a highway figure of 30 miles-per-gallon or better (the larger Outlander achieves a maximum of 25 mpg). A front-drive, six-speed manual model will be available in other markets, but its fate remains undecided for North America.
Pricing will be announced closer to launch, but we expect it to undercut the front-drive Outlander’s MSRP of $21,605 (including destination) as it takes on vehicles like Nissan’s Rogue and . The new model at next week’s Geneva Motor Show.
![5bb19 2011hyundaisonatahybrid 02opt New York 2010: Hyundai Sonata Hybrid gets unique look and 37/39 MPG rating [w/video] [UPDATE]](http://theautoblog.ru/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/5bb19_2011hyundaisonatahybrid---02opt.jpg "New York 2010: Hyundai Sonata Hybrid gets unique look and 37/39 MPG rating [w/video] [UPDATE]")
