Dieter: smart Decision in June
"We'll make a decision on the issue in June," said Dieter Zetsche on whether to launch the smart in the United States. Zetsche's word's echo Klaus Maier's, head of sales and marketing at the company's Mercedes Car Group, statement made several weeks prior. Do they really mean it this time? We’ve had so many false starts that I’ve lost count.
Zetsche was in Portland, Oregon to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the acquisition of Freightliner when he made the comment about smart. Dieter spent a lot of time at Freightliner helping to turn around the truck maker back in the early 90’s. It must be with some measure of self satisfaction that he now returns to Portland as the big cheese of the parent company. Well done, sir.
I found a rainy day photo to fit the Portland theme. Link to article here. Don't forget the latest fortwo spy shots here.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Win a Honda Aquatrax (8/31/2006)
You could be zooming around the lake in a new Honda Aquatrax if lady luck shines upon you. Click here to enter.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Modified smart (smartuki) Verses Ferrari
The smart wins! I'd forgotten about this car, but a recent message board post brought it up again, so I thought I'd share. The Diablo has a motor from a Suzuki GSX-R 1000 motorcycle. Click here to view the race. Want more Diablo action? Click here and here. You can read more about the car here.
Algae Could Help Fill Your Tank
With the energy supply on everyone's minds here's an article that has some interesting information. Using a power plant's exhaust stack as a source of CO2, algae feeds and cleanses the exhaust of 40% of its CO2. The algae is harvested daily and a combustible vegetable oil is squeezed out: biodiesel for automobiles. A 1,000 megawatt power plant using this system could produce more than 40 million gallons of biodiesel and 50 million gallons of ethanol a year. Whoa! Cleaning the air and making a profit? Now that is something that could work for everybody.
Click here to read the full article. Thanks to Joe for the tip.
Monday, May 29, 2006
Win a Honda Civic Hybrid (5/31/06)
Your chance to win a new hybrid. Click here to enter.
Ford Super Duty Espionage
There is quite the story behind this Super Duty photo shoot. A family takes a picture of a camouflaged truck, they decide to get another photo and a chase ensues. It seems that the Ford engineer gets a bit cranky.
I remember a story that Brenda Priddy told. Some engineers, she didn’t say which company, start throwing rocks at her son who is taking pictures of their cars. Brenda gets pissed off and calls around to get an official apology.
There are many other stories of people getting chased/accosted when photographing test vehicles. Most of the time there is no incident, but it takes just one angry encounter to ruin the fun. I would say that being discreet and not going back to insist on the ultimate shot are good things to keep in mind. The little chase that is described in the link below could have easily resulted in a car accident or worse someone getting hurt.
All the same, it makes for some entertaining reading. You can check out the full detail and view a couple of other photos by clicking here.
Pontiac To Be All RWD? Confirmed: VW Building Car for Dodge? Mitsubishi: We Get a Hit or We Leave?
Pontiac may move to an all car, all rwd model lineup in the future. No trucks or fwd cars to muddle the performance message. Wow, a highly focused product strategy: sounds hot!
Rumored for some time, but now Automotive News is quite confident that VW is indeed developing a small car for Dodge. The car would not only be sold in the USA but other markets as well, potentially even in Europe. Of course VW is already getting a minivan from Chrysler, so a continued partnership would make sense.
A product executive at Mitsubishi has told Automotive News that if a new generation of models does not sell, they may pull out of the USA market. Hard to tell if that is just "fire up the troops talk" or a real threat, but Mitsu does need a hit. If the next Evo looks like the Concept X, then I think at least one hit can be reasonably assured.
These are just some of the headlines headed your way this week in the latest issue of Automotive News. They’re all subscriber only right now, but most will trickle down to Autoweek over the next few days.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Chrysler Minivan Interior Shot
Edmunds has posted a photo of the 2008 Chrysler minivan's interior. The dash is in a pretty rough state, but you can make out the overall layout. Click here to see the full photo and blurb.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Maserati Helps You Turn $1,800 into $10,000
Register for the Master Maserati Driving School's June 1 or June 5 session and you will also receive a certificate to aid in the purchase of the Maserati GranSport--$10,000 to be exact. That would bring the Maser down to around $90,000. Anyhoo, back to the class. The single day session is $1,800 and the two day program will cost you $3,400. The course is held at Road Atlanta and your stay will be at resort and spa Chateau Elan. I took a two day driving course at Road Atlanta and came away with a positive impression. Chateau Elan is also quite nice. I didn't get to stay there, but I did have dinner at the resort. You can check it all out by clicking here. If you’re going to register, I’d do it over the phone to make sure you get the $10,000 (although I imagine they’ll be handing those certificates out to everybody at those two sessions—never hurts to make sure though).
Honda's Diesel Emissions Treatment Patent
Honda has received a patent for a diesel emissions treatment that in theory could allow diesel engines to meet 50 state emissions requirements. In Honda's treatment system, exhaust flows through a plasma reactor, or gaseous layer of electrically charged atoms, according to a U.S. patent obtained by Bloomberg News. That separates out harmful nitrogen oxides and forms nitrogen dioxide that's then reduced or absorbed by alkali metals and silver.
Sounds impressive, no? Well, it's been on the table for some time. A quick Google search shows a lot of technical presentations of Plasma-Facilitated Catalysis (or Plasma-Assisted Catalytic Reduction) from companies like Delphi Corp., Ford Motor Co., Eaton Corp. and Caterpillar. What would be impressive about Honda's development is if they can get past several hurdles. You need electricity to get plasma and that means you're going to take a fuel economy hit to generate that power. Generating and maintaining plasma is going to present additional cost, weight and complexity. In order to have this plasma system work, Honda will have to achieve unprecedented levels of powertrain system coordination. Diesel engines already command a price premium and this treatment process would more than likely add a significant amount to that princely sum.
Of course, the EPA would absolutely adore this system. The government is very grumpy about urea injection systems that DaimlerChrysler and others are suggesting because once you're out of urea, you start polluting and how are you going to motivate drivers to add urea when it does nothing for the performance of their vehicle? Manufacturers are trying to placate the government by building in "motivators" to ensure that drivers keep their urea tanks from running on empty. Perhaps the car will go into "limp home" mode after a certain number of miles of running without urea or functions in the car could be disabled. Something like Honda's plasma solution is much better in the government's eyes because in theory it will keep on scrubbing without the driver having to do anything to keep it working.
It all looks very promising to me. Imagine your Odyssey getting over 30MPG and still having plenty of power! Honda pulled a rabbit out of its hat years ago with Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion, so it could do it again by producing a cutting edge clean diesel.
Want to know more about that pretty graph? It's not from Honda but rather my homies over at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Check out this article (you've got to scoot down to where it talks about cleaning up diesel emissions) for the 411.
From Bloomberg via Autoblog
Chrysler's Frontin
Check out these grillz! What we have here are the new front ends of the Sebring and restyled Pacifica. The Sebring is rumored to debut on June 22 at the DaimlerChrysler proving grounds. I have not heard about a timeline for the Dodge Avenger. Find out more about the Sebring/Avenger in this article and or take a glance at this Edmunds post.
Look for the restyled Pacifica to sport more power among other refinements. You can read more about the Pacifica, and see the full photo, by clicking here.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Sometimes Blogger Really Frustrates Me
Obviously the multiple Michelin posts are a mistake. Blogger just went crazy on me. Anyways, the problem is that I can't delete those posts right now--it just freezes up.
What a terrible post to have duplicated. My apologies.
[Update:] Okay, the duplicates are gone now. However, Blogger is still acting funny about publishing new posts. Oh well, it's Friday...Have a great weekend!
Blogger status page acknowledges problem, but never explains what went wrong. Blogger is free after all, but I get a bit impatient with it all the same. My number one complaint is the lack of categories, but Joe has found a new hack that shows some promise. I might give it a try sometime, but with the baby almost here I don't know how much time I'll have!
A Lot Was Riding on That Boat
A boating tragedy has claimed the life of Michelin's joint managing director, Edouard Michelin.
Michelin, who was in his early 40s, was killed near Sein island off western France's Atlantic coast, a company statement said. The circumstances of the shipwreck were still unexplained. 'Nobody saw anything, nobody heard anything. The sea was calm, but there was a thick fog that didn't lift until the middle of the day,' a spokesman for the Atlantic maritime prefecture said. Edouard Michelin's body was found in the water near the island of Sein, off the coast of Finisterre in northwest France. Michelin had lead the tire group since 1999.
The company said its other co-chief executive, Michel Rollier, will continue to ensure continuity in the group's management.
Ford Delays Launch of Super Duty Pickups
Initially Ford's new Super Duty pickups were scheduled to debut early in the fourth quarter as part of the auto maker's 2007 model-year lineup but now Ford has moved the launch to January. Why the rollback? According to some unnamed sources the reason for the delay is to fine tune the new Power Stroke engine from International/Navistar. Let's hop into the wayback machine and take a look at the disaster that Ford had back in 2002 when it launched a redesigned diesel. It's easy to understand why the company is anxious to get this launch right.
Next Generation Mini Cooper Spy Shots
There are a whole raft Mini Cooper photos at World Car Fans. BMW isn't straying too far from the formula and why should they? The Mini has been a phenomenal success. The cars are still commanding a premium in the Bay Area. I toyed around with the idea of buying one recently, but was put off by the "Buy our accessories/markup or take a walk" attitude. However, I'm happy to see the small, stylish car doing well, even if I won't be driving one anytime soon. Click here to check out the photos.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Citroen Picasso Spy Shot
Family members living in Manchester owned a Picasso until it was stolen from their driveway. I can't say that the current design really stirs my loins, but it has sold well. Citroen offers a lot of cash back deals and moves a lot of metal that way. From what I can make of this rendering, the new Picasso does look more appealing, but it still wouldn't be my MPV of choice. As a side note, Auto Express reported last year that the Picasso name might be changed. Apparently the family of the artist approved the use of the name Picasso as long as another name was attached. Officially the Picasso is known as the Xsara Picasso. However the Xsara is no more, so the next generation Picasso might be named something else (or they could call it C4 Picasso). I've posted a picture of the current Picasso for reference.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Honda CR-V, Fit, and Accord Renderings
Here are a few drawings to gander at. The CR-V picture looks to be quite plausible. I don’t know about the Fit or Accord drawings as I haven’t seen any spy shots to back them up. As an added bonus, I've thrown in a spy shot of the CR-V. It’s all in good fun . You can check out the TOV post by clicking here.
Land Rover Freelander / LR2
Here are a few shots of the latest Land Rover. More details to follow. Enjoy!
[Update:] Yoink! Land Rover has requested that all websites remove the brochure photographs. If you didn't get to see the photos, don't despair. We'll see the Freelander at the British International Motor Show in July.
General Motors Says "$1.99…Are You Out of Your Mind?"
Actually, maybe that phrase was from Denny's. Anyways, General Motors’ new promotion for select vehicles sold in California and Florida is a “price cap” of $1.99 for one year’s gasoline usage (no mileage limitation). GM will use gas costs based on AAA fuel-cost guidelines and refund the difference to the buyer for anything over $1.99.
Eligible vehicles in California include the 2006 and 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban (one-half ton models only), Impala and Monte Carlo; GMC Yukon and Yukon XL (one-half ton models only); HUMMER H2 and H3; Cadillac SRX; Pontiac Grand Prix; and Buick Lucerne. Eligible vehicles in Florida include the 2006 and 2007 Chevrolet Impala and Monte Carlo, Pontiac Grand Prix and Buick LaCrosse.
The offer requires that buyers sign up for OnStar’s vehicle diagnostics service to get the monthly rebate. Previously GM announced that over the next several years, OnStar Service will become a standard feature for one year for GM's retail customers in the United States and Canada, so the OnStar requirement won’t be an added expense. A California resident who purchases a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe and drives it 1,000 miles a month, would realize an estimated $103.75 monthly credit, based on the current average premium fuel price of $3.65/gallon.
Will this program work for GM? Well, this promotion has already generated news stories with the local press here in the Bay Area, so the PR value appears to be worth something. It’s also true that a promotion like this probably doesn’t devalue vehicle in the same way that a regular rebate would. Guaranteeing the price of gas will be $1.99 might set some buyer’s mind at ease and get them off the fence and into the dealership.
The credits are good until December 31, 2007 and may be used for any type of purchase at any location that accepts MasterCard. California and Florida buyers must purchase or lease and take delivery of an eligible vehicle between May 25 – July 5, 2006. Other states may get the promotion if it proves to be successful.
GM's press release can be found here. Beginning on May 25, consumers will be able to go to a special web site to calculate their potential savings based on their vehicle selection. It's interesting to note that GM's press release states that the special website is fuelprotection.com but the hyperlink goes to 199fuelprice.com. Neither of those sites currently works.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
DC to Make Decision on smart For USA Market in June
Here we go again! It seems that DC will never manage to make up its mind regarding smart in the USA. I predicted April, then sources said May and now AFX News is reporting that DaimlerChrysler expects to decide next month whether it will launch smart in the US.
"I expect that we will make a final decision in June," said Klaus Maier head of sales and marketing at the company's Mercedes Car Group in an interview with German daily Handelsblatt. The environment is ripe for an announcement. Firstly, there is product awareness: the fortwo has been featured in two movies this year (Pink Panther and Da Vinci) and Zap has started to get a few smarts on the road. Secondly, gas prices have drawn attention to smaller cars.
Mitsubishi Pajero / Montero
World Car Fans has a whole series of photos of a Mitsubishi Pajero undergoing testing near Nürburgring test track in Germany. The article makes it seem as if the Montero will once again return to our shores, but I have to think that it’s highly doubtful. Sales of large SUVs are on the wane and the Montero never did rack up that much in volume while it was here anyway. I recall seeing $8,000 or $10,000 off MSRP on these trucks all the time in the paper.
Well, whether we get the Montero again or no there’s a whole bunch of photos for you to rifle over by clicking here. I’ve thrown in a picture of the current model for comparison’s sake because you're going to have to play "Where's Waldo?" to find differences between the two. You can visit the Pajero website here.
Automotive Interior Awards: Who Will Win?
Ward’s is hosting its annual Auto Interiors Show between June 7-8 in Detroit. Take a look at all these categories and semi-finalists by clicking here. A total of seven “best interior” categories plus best instrument cluster, navigation, sound system, seat system, interior innovation and the most important category of them all….BEST CUP HOLDER. For best interior, some of the semi-finalists (in various categories) are the A3, Lucerne, HHR, CX-7, Tahoe, S-Class, R-Class, Q7, FJ Cruiser, Range Rover Sport, and 3-Series. For the interior innovation category I’d say that either Stow N’ Go or the Ridgeline’s trunk in a pickup bed should win. Other nominees in that category include the Caliber’s MusicGate, ChillZone and built-in flashlight, Xterra’s integrated cargo area, BMW’s heads up display and S40’s slim center stack.
Nominees were selected by the editors of WARD'S AutoWorld magazine, the site WardsAuto.com and other Ward's properties. To be eligible, a vehicle had to be new or redesigned for the 2006 model year car (or a 2007 model available for sale in calendar year 2006). Their selection is based on overall styling, functionality, quality, fit and finish, convenience, and special features. The nominees then form a slate of entries that were voted on between March and April by automotive journalists and industry at-large voters.
You can view the conference program guide here. I wouldn’t mind attending this conference.
Microspheres to be a Vessel for Hydrogen?
Could tiny glass microspheres that contain small amounts of palladium be the “killer app” that allows cars to be fueled by hydrogen? Palladium has the ability to absorb up to 900 times its own volume of hydrogen at room temperatures. The glass spheres would be placed in a tank and hydrogen would be forced into the spheres under pressure. Heat or a vacuum would then be used to extract the hydrogen back out again. The hydrogen would theoretically be so tightly encapsulated inside the spheres that there would be little chance of an explosion. The small spheres could be pumped like liquid. Of course, this doesn’t answer the question of how hydrogen would be produced.
Science can become quite dizzying, no? Certainly it’s great to see new technologies like this being pursued, but I think that internal combustion engines still have a lot of promise left. Tricks such as the recapture of waste heat back into energy and improved battery technology are on the table (among many other developments).
Newscientist.com (via Slashdot) article here.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Opel Sub-Antara SUV
Recently it has been mentioned that Opel may have a small SUV in the planning/design stages. Auto Motor und Sport has a couple sketches portraying what that small SUV might look like. These sketches are more than likely nothing but idle speculation, but hey everybody likes to look at pictures! You can read a little more about the four new Opel plan in the article here. You can view the original AMS article here.
Win a 2007 Pontiac Solstice (6/30/06)
Maxim is hooking up with Pontiac for this sweeps. Click here to enter.
Fit Features Five Stars
The NHTSA results are in and the Fit has returned five star results for the frontal crash test. This is only one piece of the puzzle, however. NHTSA has yet to release results on the side impact crash and then there's the IIHS' offset front, side and rear impact results to consider. You can view the test results by clicking here.
As time has and technology have marched on it's become a lot easier for manufacturers to ace the government's tests and some folks think that the testing methods should be updated. I put more faith in the IIHS test results, but no matter it is obvious that Honda has taken safety to be a touchstone issue. Now how about getting those head restraints in the Odyssey up to snuff?
Automotive News is reporting that April saw "A startling move toward four-cylinder vehicles and away from V-8s." That news seems to bear itself out as the Fit seems to be doing quite well for itself. Accroding to the Power Information network, Fits only last on dealership lots for an average of seven days. I headed down to the local Honda dealer to take a look at the Fit, but they didn't even have a demo model left in stock! A quick check of discussion groups seems to imply that folks are doing well to pay MSRP on the Fit and most are having to buy overpriced floor mats and the like. I would imagine that once the Fit cools, there still won't be that much play on the pricing--maybe a few hundred dollars--as the margin on the car isn't that large.
200+ MPG in Less Than 15 Minutes?
A company called RevoPower is marketing a power assist for bicycles that is a uniquely packaged 25cc, 2-stroke engine. Gas is stored in a "water bottle" tank and the engine itself is contained inside the front wheel. The company claims that almost any adult bike can be retrofitted with wheel in approximately 15 minutes. In order to start the motor you've got to use some "Flinstone power," but after the engine is running you let your muscles take a break. RevoPower says that it's new invention should hit the streets in early 2007 for a cost of $400. Currently RevoPower is taking $50 deposits on the wheel. Most power assist devices that I've seen have been pretty lame, but this new in wheel power unit could be a game changer. I don't know how many takers they'll have, but it's something to keep an eye one. You can visit the spiffy RevoPower website by clicking here.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Win a John Deere! (6/1/2006)
Here's a sweeps from the folks at Lowe's. I haven't mowed the lawn in so long, it looks like I'm growing wheat in my front yard! Click here to enter.
New Chrysler RER Corporate Radio
Some nice features on this radio including a 20GB hard disk (some of that is used by the navigation system), Bluetooth, ability to watch a DVD while in "park", and supposedly the ability to record to disk from various sources. I'll wait to hear the official announcement on what sources can be recorded. You can check out this page for more information on the unit. It will be offered in the 2007 models such as the Wrangler, Sebring and Nitro.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
We're Not in Kansas Anymore, Toto!
Oh, wait, actually I guess this is Kansas City. I didn't recognize it for a minute. The new Saturn Aura is being produced at GM's Fairfax plant in Kansas City and Fairfax's plant manager expects to "Build and sell a zillion of them." Saturn hopes to have the cars on sales lots by July 24 . You can take a look at the order guide by clicking here. Click on "print book" to look at the order guide.
The Aura and Sky are the start of something big for Saturn. With the Outlook, Astra and next generation Vue coming the division will have a new and very appealing look that is bound to attract shoppers. I, for one, am happy to see the change in Saturn's fortunes. However, will the increase in Saturn's popularity change it's dealerships satisfaction scores? Saturn started out with a no haggle price strategy that devolved into "please, just buy one of our cars" desperation. With the Sky in short supply, dealers have been demanding a premium. Something almost unheard of to loyal Saturn customers. It would seem to me that dealer's would be best served by a "no gouging" policy that welcomes all customers and doesn't turn off potential converts.
Win a Ford F-150 or a Ford Fusion (11/5/06)
Ford ties in with Funk Master Flex to offer these two grand prizes. Think what you will about the whole pimped craze, they are still nice prizes. I could use a win right now with the baby on the way and termites apparently living in the walls of the house. Click here to enter.