Tesla has made much of the fact that its next model, the Model S sports sedan, will be half the price of its $110k Roadster and be built in far greater volume… but it turns out that both of these goals are going to take just a little bit longer than Tesla thought. Though the Model S will be offered at a base price of $57,400 with a 160 mile range, that version won’t be built until after the firm produces its first 1,000 units. Those first thousand models of the 5,000 unit 2012 production run will be loaded “Signature Series” models that will cost at least $77,400 (the base price for all Model S versions with 300 miles of range). According to Tesla, versions with a 230 mile range will start at around $67,400.
And with 20k units of production planned for 2013, Tesla had better not run into any delays as it won’t build its firs “production intent” (known internally as “Beta”) models until late this year. That gives the firm only about 6 months to validate the production-intent version, tool up and build the thing for its mid-2012 launch. And with a first run of expensive, loaded models planned, customers will definitely expect the kinks to have been worked out. This is going to be interesting…
China’s FAW-Volkswagen joint venture is celebrating twenty years and two million units of the Volkswagen Jetta III, with a “2 million” special edition featuring “special paint and a more luxurious interior” according to thetycho.com. But will the Two Million Edition swath the aged Jetta with even more luxury than the Jetta Millionaire Edition?And when, if ever, will they stop making the old MkIII Jetta? Actually, considering that base versions of the brand new Jetta feature drum brakes, torsion bar rear suspension and ancient, underpowered engines, FAW-VW might just keep the original cranking out for a good while longer.
Two more California communities are questioning the wisdom of photo enforcement. As of today, red light cameras are no longer operational in Rocklin after the city council decided not to renew the contract with Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia. The council in Victorville felt the same way but found it much more difficult to pull the plug on automated ticketing machines.
Rocklin began using cameras at two intersections in 2006, but the program failed to generate the significant amount of revenue promised. The expiration of the five-year contract allowed the city to end the project painlessly, avoiding a number of upcoming legal and policy perils.
With a little more than a million cars sold in 2010, Audi booked a record profit of $3.65 billion. That’s $3,348 per car. Now you know why they are so expensive. GM made $4.7 billion last year on 8,389,769 cars. That’s $560 per car. Now you know why they are so cheap. You think that’s an unfair comparison? Not so: Audi’s secret to success is the same as GM’s: China. (Read More…)
Some overly excited blogs may report that Honda is exiting the growth market India. Careful. Indeed, Reuters reports that “Hero Investments has agreed to buy Honda Motors Ltd’s 26 percent stake in Hero Honda Motors for around $851 million in a deal that will see the Japanese automaker exit its joint venture in India after more than 26 years.” So are they outta there? (Read More…)
Toyota sold more than 3 million hybrids so far and thinks that they are slowly having an impact.
In August 1997, Toyota rolled out their “Coaster Hybrid EV” bus, followed by the Prius in December of the same year. 300 vehicles were sold in the first year. In 2010, Toyota sold 16 hybrid models in approximately 80 countries. Last year, Toyota moved 690,000 hybrids worldwide, 9 percent of Toyota’s worldwide output (ex Daihatsu and Hino). The 3 million mark was broken some time in February this year. (Read More…)
Niche vehicles are possibly the toughest task for automotive product planners, offering huge risks and often modest rewards. Many, like the Acura ZDX and Chevy SSR fall flat on their faces, often for very different reasons. A few, like the Lexus RX300 launch entire segments from which future niches will eventually grow. Others, like the Nissan Juke, simply sell in reasonable numbers to the people who like them while turning off most everyone else. But one thing is for certain: in an era when mass-market sedans and crossovers look increasingly alike, a good niche product is one of the few real brand differentiators, a rolling symbol of a brand’s identity and values. And with common platforms and components, certain kinds of niche vehicles are even becoming easier to build. But there’s one very small, very postmodern problem: it’s all been done. When you’ve tried convertible crossovers, four-door-coupe-crossovers, five-door-coupe-wagons, pickup roadsters and minivan coupes, where’s an industry to go next? Time to break out your thick-rimmed designer glasses and explain just what form of nonsense the industry should try now.
Possibly in hopes of reminding the assembled writers that the Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet is not the future of the brand’s design, part of the CC launch was spent at Nissan Design North America where we were shown a clay model representing some of the design cues that could appear on future Nissan sedans. The designer we spoke to was careful to point out that this is neither an official concept nor “the next Altima,” but rather an exploration of the evolving Nissan design language. For example, the Z-car’s “boomerang” taillights, which have spread to vehicles like the Maxima, Juke and Murano CC are now found in the headlights of this unfinished clay model. The “J-line” kick-up where the beltline meets the C-pillar is also on display. Otherwise, there are also some unusually organic, flowing forms that have yet to debut on a production Nissan. I’m not sure this next-generation design answers all the questions floating around about the Nissan brand, but it’s an interesting look at the direction Nissan design is headed.
What if Gawker redesigned their sites and people stopped coming? It’s a question being asked with more and more seriousness as the nice people at Sitemeter continue to display some genuinely terrifying statistics regarding pageviews for Jalopnik, io9, and the rest of the cutesy-name sites in the Denton Media Mafia, er, Family, er, Domestic Partnership. One recent chart suggests that Jalopnik readership has dropped by a staggering seventy-five percent since what’s been called “the worst site changes in human history, I mean, this makes that one crazy bridge somewhere that, like, wiggled and broke look like the Pyramid of Khufu, solidity-wise, kinda, uh, is my latte ready yet?”
Read on for the big picture and an alternative explanation for the crazy stats… (Read More…)
Given TTAC’s reputation for lack of restraint when it comes to criticism, I was more than a little surprised to see an invite to the Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet launch in San Diego, California. Especially considering that our initial reaction to images of the world’s first soft-top CUV was If you’ve ever been to a topless […]
The agonizing downward spiral of civilization continues; you saw a Mercedes-Benz W126 coupe sacrificed to China’s hunger for scrap steel, and now there’s this even cooler Benz coupe counting the minutes until it, too, gets crushed. At least some of this car’s parts will live on. (Read More…)
The Spanish government’s crusade against cars continues this week as the national speed limit has been cut from 120 km/h (about 75MPH) to 110 km/h (about 68 MPH). The Spanish government claims the move is temporary (they say it will last until “at least” June), and that it will save some 15% on the country’s fuel bills. The opposition reckons the number is closer to five percent, asking Autocar the rhetorical question
What next? Will the government make people go to sleep earlier to reduce their consumption of light?
Spain’s many high-quality roads and relatively low traffic have made it something of a motoring destination for Northern Europeans (especially the British), but since most European nations allow speeds of up to 130 km/h on their freeways, some of that cachet could well be lost. The opposition reckons the government reduced Spain’s speed limit as much to raise revenue as save fuel. Could losses in the tourism sector cancel any revenue benefits?
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood may not be able to bring the automakers on board his anti-distracted driving campaign, but it has managed to get Consumer Reports onto the bandwagon as the campaign nibbles around the edges of the real problem. The partnership has produced a brochure on the dangers of cell phone use in cars [PDF here] which encourages schools and parents to discuss the issue of distracted driving, but comes up short of establishing a firm line between acceptable and unacceptable distractions. Though panelists at the joint DOT-Consumer Reports press conference point out that hands-free cell phone systems are no more safe than using a hand-held cell phone, the PDF makes no such distinction. And though a police officer on the panel notes that police need to lead by example, no initiative reflecting this fact seems to have emerged from this latest battle against Distracted Driving.
In other words, LaHood’s latest effort is focused entirely on the old chestnut of “raising awareness” while continuing to avoid making the tough policy choices that would seem likely to follow the tough “epidemic” rhetoric that continues to come out of DOT. Sooner or later, raising awareness won’t be enough, and real lines will have to be drawn between safe and unsafe distractions. Unfortunately, today is not that day. The half-hearted “war” on distraction continues apace…
While searching Internet I saw your replies on Toyota Corolla. I too have few problems with Toyota Corolla 2007 model purchased in India, it has 37,000 Km on the odometer. The vehicle is serviced regularly every 10,000 km. The problems are:
1. Engine growling noise steadily increases with the RPM beyond 3,000 and this happens on all gears. What could be the reason?
2. One of the rear shock absorber was leaking and the dealer replaced just the faulty one (under warranty, car had done 27,000 km) and after that I feel the ride quality is poor. Do you think changing only one shock can cause this?
I have taken it to the dealer but their response is vague like (a) sound insulation from engine area must have become weak (b) change tires because side walls have a crack.
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