Europe’s Euro 5 emissions standard has already killed off Mazda’s RX-8; is it any wonder that the Impreza STI is running scared? Autocar reports that the next-gen STI, due sometime in 2012 will not offer another version of the 2.0 turbocharged gas engines that have powered the car since it got a reputation for bargain thrills. Instead, a two-liter turbodiesel is likely to be the main engine on offer, as Subaru strives to keep the STI grunty without blowing its emissions limits.
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Category: Europe
After on-again and off-again attempts at an Eurasian marriage (which I would unreservedly endorse,) Mitsubishi and PSA are doing the thing currently en vogue in Europe: Live happily in sin, and produce little ones. Very little ones. Read More >
If anybody would offer me Nick Reilly’s job, I would scream. I don’t have the nerves the assignment takes. Yesterday, Opel made headlines for losing 51.5 percent in May. In today’s mass publication BILD Zeitung, there is even worse news: Read More >
Ferdinand Piech is cultivating long standing traditions. He always liked to watch a good catfight between his people. In the olden days, he did let plants in Europe compete and bid for cars. Now for the battle royale: Who will develop the basics on which all future sports cars in the Volkswagen empire will be built? Porsche or Audi? The answer should be obvious: Read More >
Designing a product for local tastes is a tricky affair. Just getting the name right is a hassle. Everyone remember the Toyota MR2? Not the French. They remember the Toyota MR. Why? Because “MR2” in French would have sounded like “Em-Ar-Deux” (“Deux” being French for “two”). And “Em-Ar-Deux” sounded very close to “merde” which is French for…..let’s not go into that. So, if getting the name right is a chore, you must do your car research with care if you want to pander to local needs. I mean, get that wrong and you could end up in deep Em-Ar-Deux. But Volkswagen reckons they’ve found what the Russians want … Read More >
Facing declining sales in Europe [AN [sub] says Fiat’s Italian market share just fell below 30 percent for the first time since 2005], and a US-market turnaround of its Chrysler Group brands that has won over few believers, Fiat has laid out its strategy for ongoing viability: a move to modular platforms each of which will support an increasing number of models. In 2006, Fiat says it built 32 nameplates off of 19 architectures; by the end of this year it hopes to build 38 models on 11 platforms. By 2014, Fiat plans to have switched over to an all-new modular platform system which will allow the same 38 models to be built on five basic architectures. Volume per architecture is the name of the game in the modern global car business, and Fiat aims to keep up… if not quite to the extent of Volkswagen’s plan to base 60 models on a single modular architecture.
Technical experts analyzing GM’s request for $1.35b in Opel aid from the German government have reported back, and the signs aren’t looking good. According to the Financial Times, the experts advising a political committee that will rule on Opel aid next week returned a negative outlook on The General’s request. German officials tell the newspaper that
the technical experts’ stance was “formally not a complete No” but that it “meant No in practice”
GM is requesting €1.9b in loans for its €3.7b restructuring of Opel. Though it looks like the €1.2b ($1.35b) it is requesting from Germany will be turned down, some portion of that amount might still be awarded by local German state governments. If that scenario plays out though, more employment cuts could be in order for Opel’s German production staff.
A year ago I reported how Renault was using French Government money in exchange for keeping jobs in France. Then Renault landed themselves in trouble when Renault wanted to transfer production of the Clio to Turkey and the French Government made their feelings quite clear. Then they started slagging other low cost countries off. Now it appears Renault are at it again, only this time they may succeed. Read More >
Financial Times calls “Volkswagen a long-time skeptic about hybrid and electric cars.” As a long time observer of the Wolfsburg boys, I have to agree. Despite green initiatives for public and political consumption, their private position has been that the consumption and emissions of a hybrid could be achieved with their low displacement supercharged engines and some weight savings. Some electric initiatives notwithstanding, this position has not changed. Case in point: Their new Touran. Read More >
The PT Cruiser lit the world on fire … then it fizzled. The new Beetle put a bug under many people’s bonnet – now it’s marked for extinction. That doesn’t deter Saab’s new owner Victor Muller of Spyker to think about a re-make of the legendary teardrop-shaped Saab 92 that was in production from 1949 to 1956. Read More >
To be perfectly honest, we weren’t familiar with the work of Weinsberg, Germany-based Xenatec group before hearing that the custom bodywork shop would be building a Maybach Coupe. Thanks to a tip from Auto Motor und Sport, we headed over to Xenatec’s website, and found that the firm offers a wide variety of custom bodywork ranging from the absurd to the sublime. Some of Xenatec’s customs, like the stretched Audi R8 shown above, show just how pointlessly nuts things can get when money is not a factor. Others, like the four-door BMW 6-Series and the Mercedes CLS Wagon actually represent pre-emptive swipes at forthcoming niche models. A four-door Porsche 911 even gives sufficiently well-heeled buyers the option of buying a “real” Porsche four-door as an alternative to the front-engine Panamera. You know the industry is passing through strange days when OEMs and tuning houses start meeting in the middle…
Around the world, drunk driving is a deadly problem without an easy solution. After all, the link between driving under the influence and generally screwing up your life (and the lives of others) has been conclusively proven, and yet the problem continues. What to do? Volvo’s answer: buy a Volvo and spend €850 (plus up to €90 for installation) on “Alcoguard,” a dealer-installed optional breathalyzer ignition interlock. With this system in place, drivers must blow into an interlock, proving that they are beneath the legal blood-alcohol-content limit before the vehicle will start.
Having recently hooked up with firms like BYD and Suzuki, Volkswagen is continuing its rampage across the developing world’s markets, as Reuters reports that the VW’s leadership is in talks with the Malaysian state-owned (42 percent) automaker Proton. VW had previously sought an alliance with Proton, but talks broke off without an agreement in 2007. According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, VW is not likely to take a stake in Proton despite last year’s policy shift by the Malaysian government allowing foreign firms to own majority stakes in mainstream Malaysian automakers. Proton was founded as a joint venture between the Malaysian state-owned firm Khazanah Nasional Berhad, and Mitsubishi.
Read More >
Renault has made a big splash with their el-cheapo Dacia in the European market. In the first 4 months of this year, 17 percent of Renault’s sales came from Nicolae Ceausescu’s former auto works in Romania. France’s PSA doesn’t want to take it any longer, and now plans for their own low-cost line. Read More >
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