Back in July, we brought you news of Honda's plans to build a new V8 engine for its passenger cars. Once again the rumor mills are milling away, with Edmunds' Inside Line reporting that Acura will be bringing a 400+ horsepower V8 luxury sedan to market, with a speculative price tag of $70k. Acura's image problems aren't just that they don't sell a car that's truly competitive with the E-Classes and 5-Series of the world. It's that they aren't viewed as a truly top-tier luxury brand. Just because they price a car in that category, it doesn't mean they'll become part of the German trifecta overnight (see: Cadillac). The near luxury gig works well for Acura, and I argue that there's no shame in topping-out your model line at $45k (other than a future NSX)– and making money while doing it. Rather than another BMW pretender, most enthusiasts would probably prefer the return of truly enjoyable, affordable, and maintainable cars like the Integra and Legend.
Posts By: Justin Berkowitz
Today's intentional leak is brought to you by: Nissan. The 2009 Maxima is shown in the full flesh after we saw teaser photos a few days ago, and it looks pretty good. I find the headlights weird, but apparently this is to be some kind of new Nissan family headlight cluster; it's headed for the next gen 370Z sports car as well. Otherwise, the new Maxima is a decent-looking sedan that visually distinguishes itself from the Altima. Whether there is enough market space for the Altima, Maxima, and Infiniti G35 remains to be seen. Some point to Toyota's Avalon and say it shows Nissan can also sell a Japanese Buick. I think Nissan's intended sporty image is tough to reconcile with building a luxo-barge. It will be very interesting to watch how Mr. Ghosn's boys market the Maxima.
Pictures of the new Maxima at Pixamo (with the teaser shots, too)
Another day, another leak. Pontiac's PR "accidentally" posted a preview of the NY Auto Show's debut on Pontiac's website, and it "accidentally" contains a picture of the Solstice coupe that's headed for production. The coupe will do away with the convertible's biggest flaw: being a convertible. Then again, it also means giving up the Solstice's biggest redeeming quality: when the top is down, it's a pleasant roadster. That said, it should be a hoot when set up with the 2.0-liter, 260-horse turbo. Camaro cannibalization? Of course not. We'll have pictures from the NY show in a few days. In the meantime, when are we going to stop these blatant attempts at media manipulation "leaks?"
Honda's stepping-up their investment in their smallest Japanese models. Although Kei cars are virtually unknown to Americans, they account for a huge segment of the Japanese car market. High gasoline costs, motoring taxes and strange parking permit requirements have lead to the creation a car category whose engine displacement is capped at 0.66 liters (just slightly more than a 20oz bottle of soda). Honda has announced that they're spending ¥50 billion ($500m) to streamline production of these little buggers (production will be "almost the same as the current capacity"). A few years ago, Honda acquired a company to build Kei cars for them. So this huge investment is aimed at integrating that company into Honda's structure. Efficiency is the way to go when you're talking about cars with 50 horsepower.
Today's "internet-broken embargo" brings you pictures of Hyundai's new Genesis coupe. Genesis is also the name of Hyundai's new big RWD luxury sedan. While the coupe shares its name, it shares none of the sedan's handsome sheetmetal. I think it's scary, early 1990s ugly. The coupe will get a turbocharged four-cylinder engine and a V6 (probably with ~300 horsepower); making it sound like it could be either a Mustang/Camaro competitor in the mid $20ks. Or it could attempt to do to the Infiniti G37 coupe what the Infiniti G37 coupe does to the BMW 335i. More for less. To make matters worse, the pictures come courtesy of forums at "New Tiburon," even though previous rumors were that the RWD Genesis coupe would be a separate model from an upcoming all-new FWD Tiburon. So, which is it? Affordable muscle car competing with the Mustang? Luxury sports coupe going head to head with BMW and Infiniti? A new Tiburon? And willthe coupe ever offer Hyundai's new 380 horsepower V8? Only time will tell. And by time, I mean four days, which is when this car is properly unveiled at the NY Auto Show.
The Dallas News reports that the Live Large, Think Big city is dealing with another consequences of red light cameras: they work. "We did not anticipate having such success so early with the number of people not running red lights," said Zaida Basora, Dallas' assistant director of public works and transportation. "If you have success in safety, you don't have a lot of success in revenue. The other side is the people will go back to what they were doing before without the cameras." Since installing the cameras, Dallas estimates gross revenue from red light cameras dropped from $14m to $4m. The kicker? Dallas signed a contract guaranteeing the system's operators $3800 per camera per month. Dallas is now planning on scaling back to just 100 cameras (that's $380k per month to the sys admin). Last month, Dallas faced accusations of race-biased camera placement. So is the shut down a financial issue or just an out for last month's problems? One wonders which cameras were switched off.. but it's probably both.
That's right, Nissan is "heavily" refreshing the Maxima that's been in service since 2004. And what are they doing with car made obsolete by the V6 Altima and Infiniti G35? Your guess is as good as mine. Torque steer is already an issue on the Maxima, so more power may not be welcome. At least now there are 4DSC stickers on the side windows. But is that any different than VW trying to channel the spirit of the original, lovable Rabbit into the new one with a chrome rabbit logo on the trunk? The only thing we know is that we'll know on Wednesday the 19th. Autoblog claims it's "completely redesigned" but if you look at the teaser pics, there seems to still be funk in the trunk (lid) like the current car. So will it be what we all want, a light fun car in keeping with the original 4DSC? I'm guessing no, it'll be fat and sorta fun and not have much space in the market, like the current Maxima.
I've made no secret of my enthusiasm for the imminent arrival of the Aussie-sourced, rear wheel-drive Pontiac G8. Today, GM announced that they're importing the donor Holden's Ute variant as a Pontiac. Just like European Alfisti voting to christen what's now called the MI.To, you can help choose the new ute's new name (let's hope Pontiac doesn't follow Alfa's lead and ignore the result). Our spies tell us "Chevy El Camino" is not an option. And then there's the G8 GXP. To inject a little excitement into what was once called GM's excitement division, Pontiac is car is shoving the 6.2-liter V8 out of the Corvette under the G8's hood. Unfortunately, the boffins detuned the mill to 402 horsepower (from 430). Fortunately, they provided power-crazed pistonheads with a third pedal. Although prices haven't been announced, the 362-horse G8 tops out at $32,000. The GXP version can't be over 40 large. We'll have real photos of both cars from the NY Auto Show this coming week.
[Click here for Pontiac G8 Sport Truck Pixamo gallery. Click here for G8 GXP]
There's a passel of Passat pictures and videos from VW out today, and a Scirocco shot or six. So we've bundled them together for convenience sake. First up: two videos of the new Passat CC sedan (you remember, the Passat-based Mercedes CLS lookalike) which include a fair number of interior shots. On the go, it looks pretty good. If VW doesn't muff the pricing, the CC should prove chi-chi. Secondly, Volkswagen has a bunch of "feel the heritage" pictures of the new Scirocco with a first generation 1970s Scirocco. I still think Vw blew it with the Scirocco (so to speak). It should have been a fun, light $18k car with VW's 1.4 liter TSI engine (turbo'd and supercharged); a competitor to the Scion tC. At least the Portuguese VeeDub does look better in these images than in the original media set. Why do the rear seats completely destroy rearward visibility though? Looking at all these pictures and videos gives a good perspective on where VW is right now: lost. They're doing a GM-grade job of selling extremely similar products next to one another. Why not just take the better looking of the two and sell ONLY that one?
Kia isn't wasn't planning on revealing its new Soul compact hatch until September at the Paris Auto Show. But alas, production pictures have mysteriously popped-up on the internet. Kia showed several embarrassingly named "tuned" versions of the car at the Geneva Auto Show, such as "Soul Burner" and "Soul Diva" and "Soul Searcher." The regular Soul looks more than a little bit like the unholy fruit of a union between a Scion xB and the Saab 9-X BioHybrid. Still, it's nice to see Kia try to inject some style into their cars, even if the business plan for Kia more realistically is "follow" instead of "lead." But why follow Scion into a land of not-so-hot sales? Whether or not this car is even destined for America is still an open question, apparently. But you can bet your milk money that Kia wants a piece of the new small car market with something more interesting than the Rio5.
Kia's Optima sedan is the half- forgotten sibling of Hyundai's far more popular Sonata. In fact, in February Kia only moved 2800 Optimas. But let's not be double negative. Just because consumers don't keep the Optima in mind doesn't mean the folks at corporate have forgotten about it, too. Just as we told you the Sonata was getting a refresh with upgraded engines and a nicer interior, the Optima is on deck for its own revisions. Navigation will become an option, for the first time in a U.S. Kia product. The corporate mothership tends to play it safe, so you can expect the same engine upgrades to 175 and 249hp for the four and six-cylinder models, plus upgraded transmissions. Otherwise, details are sparse and pictures are sparser (and tiny). We'll get more of both as we get closer to the Seoul auto show in April.
Alfa's new compact car– the MI.To– is the real deal. After months of spy pictures, an ill-fated naming contest (in which Alfa rejected the name "Furiosa" chosen by voting fans) and copious amounts of internet speculation, we've finally got official shots of the new car that's being hyped as the first credible MINI fighter (other than the FIAT 500, selling in a class below the MINI). The stunning small car will holster engines drawn from the usual Alfa-Fiat family range, from 90 to 155 horsepower gas and diesel variants. Rumor says the MI.To is based– at least somewhat– on the Fiat Grande Punto, with major league revisions to the suspension, NVH, sheetmetal, and interior. Alfa puts the car on sale in July to celebrate Chevy Volt prototype testing. Just kidding. Obviously.
In recent years, Jeep, Mercedes and Volkswagen have all offered U.S. customers diesel-powered products. However, they have not done so in California or any of the other 15 states that have adopted The Golden State's air pollution regs (Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington). Today, Mercedes has announced that they'll equip the ML, R, and GL-Series with a 50-state-compliant Bluetec V6 diesel engine. (The oil-burning E-Class awaits the '09 model year model changeover). The 3.0-liter V6 diesel uses urea injection to eliminate NOx emissions and particulate filters to "almost eliminate" soot. The powerplant makes 210 horses and a whopping 398 lb ft of torque. In the ML and R, it should deliver 18 mpg city and 24 highway (an improvement of 3 city/4 highway over the V6 ML350) In the plenty porky GL, expect about 17/23 mpg. Now, finally, we'll get to see if there's a market for "clean diesels" in the U.S.– at the top end of the market.
Mercedes has facelifted its ML SUV. And it's time to sue the surgeon for gross negligence and malpractice. Somehow, Mercedes has made the ML even more busy, even more confusing. What ever happened to the paradigm of "Keep It Simple, Stupid?" Under the hood of the ML63 AMG model, the dishonest jerks actually installed a 6.2-liter engine now making 510 horsepower and 465 lb ft of torque. They've also redone the interior a bit, and I'm ashamed to say it looks pretty good. What is so impressive about Mercedes is that they can make a car this overdone, this gaudy and tacky, and people will still buy it as though it was filled with passengers from Eliot Spitzer's black book.
Thanks to slightly rising sales in the U.S. (3.8 percent in 2007), a big gain in China (24.8 percent) and ongoing European success, the boys from Ingolstadt are rolling in the dough. Lamborghini– which the Volkswagen Group counts as an Audi brand (worryingly enough)– enjoyed a 15 percent rise in sales of hugely expensive sports cars. The bottom line: Audi banked a whopping $2.6b in profit in '07. That's a 26 percent jump over 2006. Audi is shooting for over a million car sales worldwide in 2008. Considering the fact that Audi sold about 954k units in 2007, it's doable. In fact, just think where they'd be if they built reliable products…
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