Archive | January, 2009

2009 Volkswagen Touareg R50 Quick Review

By on January 16, 2009 in Reviews

By James Wong

01.16.2009 

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of deliberation, Singapore has finally lowered the tax on diesels. It’s now financially more sensible to own a diesel car than ever before, but even so it attracts a tax that is 2.25 times that of petrol equivalent models. But, with its high torque as well as better consumption figures, it’s something that might be worth paying for.

Of course, for the latter, you may have to excuse the new Touareg R50.

It’s an extreme, V10 turbodiesel which does the century run (0-62 mph) in 6.7 seconds and has enough power to pull a 747 (no kidding). Its consumption is an average of 16.7L/100km (about 14 mpg US), not too bad for the power, but the car’s weight does mar some of that performance. More on that later. Continue Reading →

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Road Manners

By on January 16, 2009 in Editorials

By James Wong

01.16.2009

Recently, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) of Singapore has decided to introduce a pilot scheme of mandatory giving way to buses exiting bus bays.

The news release included a statistic which stated that of the total journey time of buses on our roads, 10% of the time is taken just waiting to exit the bus bays. It may sound absurd, but courtesy schemes were even put forth by the government and bus operators to give way to buses. Such schemes attempted to appeal to people to use their social graces to give way to buses. However, the outcome of those schemes was less than satisfactory. Given this, another solution was needed.

Given the increasing demand for limited road space, the need for a mandatory give-way scheme was inevitable – or so they say. What this means now is that it would be a traffic offence not to give way to a bus exiting from a bus bay if there are road signs indicating so. It’s a bit like giving way to pedestrians crossing the zebra crossing. Thankfully, it’s only going to be on trial for a few key bus stops for now. But if all goes well, this might well be implemented at many more bus stops. Continue Reading →

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Interview: Buick Uses Younger Designers to Create Less-Geriatric Products

By on January 15, 2009 in Features

By Chris Haak

01.15.2009

Of all the cars that I saw in Detroit this past week, the one that struck me as most impressive from a production car, practicality, and value standpoint was probably the 2010 Buick LaCrosse.  I’d been hearing rumors for more than a year about how great the all-new LaCrosse would be, and how its interior quality and design would rival Cadillac’s own well-regarded CTS.  Upon seeing the press photos of the final production car, I was very impressed.  Similar to the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu, GM succeeded in bestowing the 2010 LaCrosse with the appearance of a car that looks to be thousands of dollars more expensive than it really is.  Unlike the current LaCrosse, built on GM’s ancient W-body platform, the 2010 model has modern proportions, a modern shape, and most of the premium features that competitors at its price point have – and in some cases, features the competitors don’t have.

As I was wandering through the GM display area on Monday, a PR person from GM asked me if I’d have any interest in interviewing “one of the young designers who worked on the LaCrosse.”  I happily accepted the invitation, and was introduced to Justin Thompson, a 33 year old native of Australia who has been with GM since 1999 and has worked in Australia for GM’s Holden subsidiary, in Shanghai for GM Asia-Pacific, and now in Michigan on the LaCrosse.  In the photo above, Justin is on the right, I am on the left, and the LaCrosse’s design manager is facing away from the camera. Continue Reading →

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2010 Prius vs. 2010 Insight Cage Match

By on January 15, 2009 in Features, News

By Chris Haak

01.15.2009

In a situation that is ironically similar to what occurred at last year’s Detroit Auto Show when both Ford and Dodge unveiled all-new full-size pickups, yet with a completely different product this time, the two dedicated hybrid names probably most recognizable to consumers over the past decade – the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight – were both officially revealed at the same auto show, only a day apart from one another.

The Honda Insight in its first generation was Honda’s first foray into the hybrid market, and was the mileage champion for a number of years.  However, the car’s anemic three-cylinder engine and two-door, two-seat layout consigned it to the dustbin of history.

Meanwhile, its arch-rival Toyota Prius also had a dorky looking (almost like a restyled Echo) silhouette in its first generation, was underpowered and not particularly popular.  Instead of abandoning the franchise the way Honda did (at least for a few years), Toyota elected to roll out a much improved, larger, more efficient, and more powerful Prius for the 2004 model year.  The Prius became the default answer to the question, “which hybrid should I buy?” or “what’s the most fuel efficient car I could buy?” and it became the standard-bearer for the green car movement. Continue Reading →

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Mad Makeover Boosts Interest in Alfa Romeo’s Smallest Car

By on January 15, 2009 in Features

By Andy Bannister

01.15.2009

The jury is still currently out on the success or otherwise of Alfa Romeo’s smallest model for many years – the Mini Cooper-rivalling MiTo (its slightly annoying name is a contrived reference to the Italian car making cities of Milano and Torino).

Sales of the three-door MiTo are only just getting cranked up, and the hottest version so far is the 1.4-litre T-Jet, which delivers a respectable enough 155hp. It is comprehensively blown into the weeds, however by a remarkably eye-catching special being touted around Europe at the moment.

Known as the Marangoni M430, it boasts a new turbo, injectors and stainless steel exhaust and develops 233hp. The little car can reportedly do 0-62mph in 6.6 seconds and can achieve a top speed of 158mph – not bad for 1400cc. Continue Reading →

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Reminder of the Human Cost of Detroit’s Demise

By on January 13, 2009 in Editorials

By Brendan Moore

01.13.2009

While working during press days at the Detroit Auto Show this past weekend, I got into a conversation with one of the many young women hired to pitch the various cars during the public attendance days of the show. She was on a break, I was sitting in the same area going over my notes from some previous interviews, and a conversation happened.

The woman, Candice Ross-Upshaw, told me that she had worked on the production line at Chrysler previously, which I found interesting in two ways, since she was now working as a model, and, at the GM stand to boot. Her mother and father are retired line workers from Ford, her brother is a current line worker at Chrysler, her husband works at Chrysler, all her uncles work or had worked at Chrysler or Ford, along with most of her cousins, etc.

Wow, I thought, that is one big extended family that really depends on the auto industry for their comfortable (note: but hardly lavish) economic livelihoods, whether the source is from a paycheck or a pension or healthcare.

It’s not as if I was unaware before this moment that the auto industry is important to Detroit; it is simply a matter of reading numbers and thinking about it in relatively abstract terms as opposed to talking to one of the people that depends on the industry for the well-being of almost everyone they know or are related to.

If the Detroit 3 go down, and stop paying their employees, and default on their pension and healthcare obligations to their retired employees, this woman’s family, and thousands of other families will be plunged into a financial abyss.

There will be plenty of really bad magic happening in the various communities where those families live as the ripple effects of much less money being spent fan out across other businesses.

Of course, it doesn’t end there – suppliers, vendors, service companies, etc that do something for these auto companies will all feel various levels of pain.

Continue Reading →

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2009 Detroit Auto Show: China’s BYD Auto Shows Dual Mode Hybrid and Electric Vehicles

By on January 13, 2009 in News

By Kevin Miller

01.13.2009

Chinese automaker BYD Auto lucked out when Nissan and their Infiniti division chose not to come to Detroit this year. It scored them a place on the show floor on the main level of Cobo Hall, to display their unlikely hybrid and electric vehicles. The letters BYD evidently stand for “Build Your Dreams”, and while none of their cars are ones I’ll be dreaming of, the company is dreaming big with most of the vehicles it brought to Detroit.

Quite unlike American automakers with a century of manufacturing heritage, BYD was founded in 1995 in Hong Kong, as a manufacturer of rechargeable batteries, mainly for use in IT equipment. In 2003, BYD became the world’s second-largest manufacturer of such batteries.

BYD Auto manufactured their first car in just 2003, and in late 2008 they launched their first hybrid cars, the F3 DM and the F6 DM. In this case the letters DM stands for Dual Mode. With their sibling, the fully-electric e6 due later this year, BYD Auto is ambitiously embarking on hybrid and electric vehicle manufacture in China. Continue Reading →

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2009 Detroit Auto Show: Future Volvo Products

By on January 12, 2009 in News

By Kevin Miller

01.12.2009

While Volvo’s big focus in Detroit was on the S60 Concept, there is a bit more to report from the Volvo stand. Before Sunday evening’s reveal of the S60 Concept, Volvo’s stage had only two vehicles on it: a pair of XC60 crossovers. There was also a “closet” with cutouts the shape of pants, painted in each of the exterior colors available on the XC60, and actual shirts sewn with color combinations of leather to illustrate the possible colors in the forthcoming crossover.

Use of the word “forthcoming” implies that the XC60 will actually be for sale here some day. While it seems like the XC60 has been forthcoming for at least a year, the wait is nearly over, as the crossover will be at dealerships in March. Volvo’s representative was quick to point out that pre-orders are being accepted right now.

The day following the S60 Concept’s reveal, Volvo’s stand received an influx of current models, though the outgoing S60 was not included. As the new S60 is already slated for introduction in 2010 in a body very similar to the concept car, Volvo mustn’t have felt the need to dress up the old car for one last auto show, the way dealers are having to dress the old car up to get it out of the showroom. Continue Reading →

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2009 Detroit Auto Show: Minimal Details About Saab’s Future

By on January 12, 2009 in News

By Kevin Miller

01.12.2009

Late last week, we reported that a GM/Saab press conference was expected in Detroit with representatives of the Swedish government. The presumption was that the press conference would include announcement of an arrangement that would result in Saab receiving some amount of the Swedes’ promised 25 billion Kronor earmarked as loans to their .

When no such press conference materialized, I was eager for more information. Fortunately, I was able to chat with Saab’s Jan-Willem Vester at the show, and while I didn’t end up with any specific information about Saab’s financial future I came away with a good feeling that Saab will be receiving some assistance from the Swedish government, just as other nations’ automakers have received assistance from their governments.

As Saab has a strong identity globally as a Swedish product, Sweden is keen to keep the automaker in business, in Sweden. While building Saab-branded crossover vehicles in North America doesn’t do much for the business in Sweden, the manufacture of vehicles in Trollhattan obviously keeps Swedish people and their economy working. Details of any financial assistance agreement between Saab/GM and the Swedish government would surely include a guarantee of production numbers or models in Trollhattan , but so far there isn’t any such information available. Continue Reading →

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2009 Detroit Auto Show: Volvo S60 Concept

By on January 12, 2009 in News

Check out our large Volvo S60 Concept photo gallery after the jump.

By Kevin Miller

01.12.2009

Volvo unveiled its S60 concept yesterday evening in Detroit, at the last press conference of the day at the auto show. Painted in an appealing Warm Liquid Copper color, the new S60 concept is visually longer and lower than the current S60. Viewed from the side, the concept car’s slim coupe roofline and window graphics are accompanied by an entirely new lateral shoulder line, forming a gentle double wave. Stretching from the headlamps all the way to the tail, it adds emotional excitement and plays with the surface and its highlights. Both the shoulder line and the tail lamp shape are said to be new Volvo design cues, meaning that we will see those shapes on the production S60 as well as future Volvo products.

“The concept car’s exterior gives a clear indication of what customers can expect of the all-new S60.,” says Volvo Cars Design Director Steve Mattin. Continue Reading →

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