Scion, Toyota’s “youth” brand, released the above teaser image Tuesday morning along with a brief press release stating their third all-new vehicle will be displayed at the Los Angeles Auto Show this November.
Is this the Toyota CH-R in Scion drag? It very much looks to be.
The head of Jaguar Land Rover’s operations in the U.S. said the automaker will stick with its plans to rollout diesel engines for its cars, including the Jaguar F-Pace next year.
Automotive News reported that CEO Joe Eberhardt said at a Detroit luncheon the automaker was “very confident” in the technology for its diesel cars.
“We are convinced of the benefits of diesels from a fuel economy and from an all-wheel drivability perspective, and that hasn’t changed,” Eberhardt said, according to Automotive News. Read More >
The average transaction price for a new car edged up slightly August to September from $33,563 to $33,730, researchers at Kelley Blue Book said Thursday.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles posted the largest gain over the same month last year, as the automaker increased its average transaction price 4.1 percent to $34,809. Unsurprisingly, Volkswagen was the only major automaker to post a loss in the report, losing 1.6 percent from August to September this year, and 0.1 percent from September 2014.
Ford, General Motors and Kia/Hyundai all posted gains over 3 percent, year-over-year. Overall, the industry average for new car transaction prices rose 2 percent from September 2014 to September 2015. Toyota was the other automaker to fall below the industry average for gains. Its average transaction price increased by only 0.6 percent.
French automaker PSA may be preparing to bring its luxury arm Citroen DS, to the United States within the next few years, Car and Driver reported.
Citing a source within the company, a U.S. market launch would be “necessary” for the brand’s viability and a decision on whether to bring the French luxury cars would be coming within the next few years.
Any return for the French automaker would be fraught with difficulty: no dealer network, no service and their cars are decidedly less-than-American sized. The automaker currently offers a DS3 premium minicar, a DS4 premium subcompact and a DS5 family wagon. Read More >
Mitsubishi is planning to end operations at its Normal, Illinois plant and notify workers at the end of September of their plans to close the facility after failing to find a buyer for the plant, Reuters (via Automotive News) reported.
It’s unclear what may happen to the 900 hourly workers who make Mitsubishi Outlanders if a buyer for the plant isn’t found by November. According to the report, last year the plant churned out nearly 70,000 crossovers.
Mitsubishi and the United Auto Workers union this month were negotiating a contract for the workers that would extend to the original closing date for the plant, which was slated for next spring.
Daimler announced Friday that it would spend $1.3 billion in its Tuscaloosa, Alabama factory to upgrade its equipment and technology, and to also add a 1.3 million square-foot body shop.
The investment will also add 300 jobs to the plant, which produces the C-Class and GL-class — and perhaps GLT? — and work is reportedly already underway. The plant has been open since 1997 and has predominantly produced SUVs, although its future products are less clear.
Mercedes is reportedly preparing to make a truck, based on the Nissan Navara, to release in global markets. In Frankfurt, the updated Nissan Navara and related Renault Alaskan made their debuts, although only the Navara will have a life in the U.S. — probably as the next Frontier. Mercedes would need to produce its pickups in the NAFTA zone to avoid a Chicken Tax if they were to sell one here. (Sprinter doesn’t care.)
This one we should have seen in the cards already: Last month, Volvo announced that it purchased Volvo tuner Polestar to bring in-house and churning out more models for eager hands.
Last year, Volvo announced it had developed a triple-turbo, 2-liter four that could produce 450 horsepower.
It’s entirely likely, TTAC has learned, that the two will meet in a Polestar-branded XC90.
Details about the car were few and far between, but the engine combination and newly branded vehicle would up the ante on what Volvo powertrain chief told Auto Express earlier this year.
Instead of slotting between the 316-horsepower XC90 T6 and the 400-horsepower hybrid T8, the Polestar version would offer the 450-horsepower variant, with a 48-volt supercharger boosting twin turbochargers on the craziest family crossover.
Mini unveiled its newest Clubman this week and the car, which is one foot longer and nearly 5 inches wider than the outgoing model, is now longer than a Jeep Wrangler.
The 14-foot-long four door will be four-inches shorter than a Mazda CX-3 and will sport the Hardtop’s duo of engines for Clubman and Clubman S models. The turbocharged I-3 will produce 134 horsepower in the Clubman, while the turbo four will bump up to 189 horsepower for the Clubman S. According to Mini, the Clubman S will sprint up to 60 mph in 7 seconds.
The Clubman is 10.9 inches longer than the 5-door Hardtop, with a 4-inch longer wheelbase and is nearly 3 inches wider. Rear passengers in the Clubman will get 2 more inches of legroom over the five-door Mini (34.3 vs. 32.3).
(And the five-door Hardtop exists, why?)
Toyota’s compact crossover C-HR will be making another auto show appearance before its production version is unveiled next year at the Geneva Auto Show, and its quite possible that the model could make or break Scion’s future in the U.S.
Toyota hasn’t released many details about the C-HR, other than to say that it’ll be built on the same, global TGNA structure that the next-generation Prius is built on and would have a similar hybrid powertrain.
The small crossover would fit entirely within Scion’s wheelhouse of younger buyers who apparently can’t get enough of crossovers, and would help make relevant a brand that is, um, struggling with sales. Read More >
Mazda is on fire with its designs as of late, and the newest entry to their concept stable is this — the Koeru — and it’s likely not the next CX-5 or CX-9.
Welcome back, CX-7.
The Ford Edge and Nissan Murano have proven once again that third-row seating isn’t needed in order to sell a midsize SUV, but you better have the style and substance to make up the deficit. The Koeru, for all intents and purposes, looks like it will do just that.
And while I am not sure what Koeru means exactly, I’m guessing it definitely doesn’t mean “killing off our sports car so we can build a crossover” in Japanese.
Jaguar showed us Tuesday what we’ve seen mostly already — the 2017 Jaguar F-Pace fully undressed — and clued us into all the juicy details.
The company’s mid-sized crossover will start from $40,990 plus $995 destination, at some point, but will go on sale next year with a duo of potent V-6 engines in the U.S. that will likely start closer to $45,000 at launch. When the car goes on sale in Spring 2016, a 340-horsepower supercharged V-6 and a 380-horsepower supercharged V-6 will be our only options stateside. Both mills will be mated to all-wheel drive and a ZF 8-speed automatic transmission. A 2-liter, I-4 diesel that produces 180 horsepower will arrive in the States later in 2016.
And then Jaguar took the car on a giant-sized Hot Wheels track. Well played.
The Nissan Gripz Concept is what we all feared. The pseudo two-door vehicle, which takes inspiration from a bicycle, is the result of Nissan’s designers wanting to create “something free of conventional standards” — which is a crossover, apparently.
Executive Design Director, Mamoru Aoki, says Nissan has “a history of pioneering new crossovers.” Nissan also has a history of creating sports cars. This is where the two might, quite unfortunately for us, collide.
“The traditional two-seater sports car is evolving and this is our interpretation of its future,” said Senior Creative Design Manager Giovanny Arroba in the video showing the Gripz attacking a city in ruins.
Bowing at the 2015 Frankfurt Auto Show, the 2016 Infiniti Q30 “active compact” aims to attract a new generation of buyers now flocking to GLAs and XT5s.
The first vehicle to leave Infiniti’s newly upgraded facility in Sunderland, United Kingdom, the Q30 also marks the first time the premium brand is playing in the compact crossover space. The main goal behind the Q30 is to attract Gen X and Millennial buyers who believe a car “is an expression of ‘self’ rather than ‘status,'” desire vehicles which defy traditional categorization, and offer a “made-for-me” approach to luxury.
Nissan released Friday a video and a name to accompany the teaser image we were given last week and brace yourselves, it has the letter “z” in it.
The Nissan Gripz Concept will be shown in Frankfurt first this year. According to Nissan, the crossover “concept” follows desert racers such as the 240Z and road-racing bicycles, apparently.
Nissan cleverly slipped in a “z” in the name, perhaps as a smokescreen that the Gripz could be the next-generation Juke (which is due in 2017), or perhaps as a signal that nothing in this world is sacred anymore. Earlier this year, Nissan design chief Shiro Nakamura said that the next-generation Z car could be something that appealed to different, younger buyers aka a crossover. Read More >
If you looked into the Manhattan skyline last night, you may have caught a glimpse of Cadillac’s newest crossover flying through the air like a Swiss cow airlifted out of the Alps.
That was for fashion writers to see the car’s style (and aerodynamic properties?) and to announce Cadillac’s new partnership with design firm Public School, an Austin, Texas-based studio that’s probably hopelessly cool.
The car didn’t touch the ground, no one drove it, its powertrain is still somewhat of a mystery, and here’s why (via AdAge):
Chief Marketing Officer Uwe Ellinghaus said the goal is to gain the attention of fashionistas, rather than cater to car buffs, auto journalists and other petrolheads. Because in his view, younger customers are less interested in the technical details of cars, and don’t read car magazines as often as they used to. But “they are very interested in fashion. They are very interested in design,” he said.
Recent Comments