The Cadillac XTS Platinum Concept, which debuts today at the NAIAS, is a look at the new Cadillac flagship which goes into production in early 2012. The XTS’s brief is to replace the moribund DTS and STS sedans, a task that Cadillac desperately needs done properly if it wants to be taken seriously as a luxury competitor. So why is the XTS concept little more than a glorified Buick LaCrosse?
Despite his genial, affable manner, Alan Mulally is a businessman and, by all accounts, a businessman not to be crossed with. One story goes, when he first started with Ford, he let them know, in the clearest possible terms, “Everybody says you can’t make money off small cars,” he said. “Well, you’d better damn well figure out how to make money, because that’s where the world is going.” Long protected from the brutal rationalisation of the global market, Australia might be about to get a taste of the man’s darker side as he attempts to drag Ford’s Australian ops into the 21st Century.
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One might quite reasonably have expected a smaller, lighter two-passenger variant of the Insight to achieve higher EPA numbers than its bigger brother. Say, like it did in 1989, when the CRX HF pulled a 41/50, compared to the ’89 Civic sedan’s 27/33. But reasonable expectations have been dashed by Honda more often than not lately, as in the Insight’s various shortcomings. But a 31/37/33 mpg combined rating for the new 2011 CRX manual, when the Insight is rated at a 41 combined? Does Honda have a death wish? That highway mileage is the same as the Chevy Cobalt XF, which doesn’t need any stinking battery and seats four. And even the combined mileage is only three mpg better. What gives? Read More >
You might need to click through to the gallery to fully grasp the stunning blandness of its New Coupe Concept, which just debuted at the NAIAS. Volkswagen has said again and again that it plans to take over the American market by screwing its loyal followers and selling out for mainstream appeal. The NCC is the apathy-osis of this philosophy, showing an approach to the sports coupe genre that makes the business of car look like a less glamorous offshoot of the packing materials industry. It’s a hybrid. It’s a “poor man’s A5.” It’s a dust bunny to the Scirocco‘s sandstorm. Most of all though, it’s a sign of how misguided VW’s approach to the US market really is.
When the Ford Focus first went on sale in the US, it was a rare glimpse for the still-SUV-centric US market at how the rest of the world gets from the Blue Oval. Of course, as time went by, Ford eased away from the Euro-funk of the first generation, first blandifying the model with a mid-cycle “refresh,” before eventually replacing it with the current embarrassment to the nameplate. And it’s not just the current model’s Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers-meets-Pep Boys look that makes it unworthy of the Focus name: the whole idea behind the original Focus was the dream of a world car, that would be sold, largely unchanged, in markets around the world. With the 2012 model, now being previewed before the Detroit Auto Show [press release here], Ford has gone back to the model’s original vision.
Buick has announced that it’s bringing a high(er)-performance GS version of its Opel Insignia-based Buick Regal to the Detroit Auto Show, and later, to the US market. And for once we’re left wishing we were getting a rebadge. After all, for the first several years of US sales, Insignias will be imported from Germany, meaning GM could easily have brought the thoroughly mad Insignia VXR/OPC as a quick-and-dirty (if not cheap) rebadge. After all, the point of the Regal (and especially the GS) is that “we’re trying to rebuild the performance credentials that Buick once held,” as GM reps put it. The European OPC/VXR version gets a 325 HP version of the turbocharged V6 found in the SRX and Saab TurboX, while the GS gets only a 255 hp version of the 2.0 Turbo found in the Solstice GXP. That engine can reportedly be tuned to an easy 310 hp and 300 lb-ft of torque, making the “base” Regal CXL with the 220 hp 2.0T engine a much smarter buy. Unless the idea of tuning a Buick is simply more cognitive dissonance than you can handle. Otherwise, the only thing the GS really brings to the table is AWD and a bodykit with more front-end venting than the United States Senate. Still, if you’re young enough to not get a discount at Denny’s and you have to own a Buick, the Regal is the way to go… especially once an enterprising tuner starts offering Opel badging and grilles in the US market.
Business Week reports that Toyota are planning to capture 10% of the Indian market. “India will play a pivotal role in Toyota’s global expansion plans,” Vice Chairman Kazuo Okamoto said today at the Delhi Auto Show. “The time has come for us to strategically accelerate our growth here.” Toyota is using the Delhi Auto show to showcase the cars which will lead the assault for 10% of the Indian market, the most important of which is Toyota Etios (which will also be produced in Brazil). Autocar.co.uk reports that Etios is 90% production ready and that it will go on sale in India at the end of 2010 (with first-year sales projected at 70k units). Because of the price (around $10000) it’ll go head to head with the Maruti Swift, the very boys who hold a huge chunk of the Indian car market. To help combat Maruti, a larger and better quality interior is key to the Etios. Autocar also reports that in order to keep costs under control, Toyota went on a cost cutting exercise. Measures taken include, limited sound proofing, a hard, but durable, interior and one windscreen wiper. But before you cry “Toyota are turning into GM”, don’t be fooled. Toyota tried the same thing with the Aygo in Europe and the end result was a good car which sells very well.
Having a hard time understanding the stream of inexplicable niche products coming out of the German automakers recently? Mercedes isn’t about to make things any easier. According to the latest print edition of Auto Motor und Sport, Mercedes has fallen so far down the segment-busting rabbit hole, it’s planning a “Shooting Brake” wagon version of its already-confusing four-door coupe, the CLS. Intended, of course, to compete with the BMW 5GT and Audi A7. Look for a concept inspired by this 2008 ConceptFascination study to debut at this fall’s Paris Auto Show. Then expect Audi and BMW’s designers to drop even more acid and talk their bosses into producing a landaulet-roofed, seven-door, MPV-coupe. You know, just to see if Mercedes makes one too.
The Defense Advanced Research Project Administration is apparently savvy to the fact that mainstream car bloggers regularly Google search the term “Transformers,” in search of vaguely car-related (or, in some cases, not) filler. DARPA’s masterstroke? Using the one-time traffic boost title for a project:
to demonstrate a 1 to 4 person transportation vehicle that can drive and fly, thus enabling the warfighter to avoid water, difficult terrain, and road obstructions as well as IED and ambush threats.
Flying cars, and an opportunity for Transformers references? Who can resist?
Mazda have been working on the RX-8’s successor for sometime, and naturally most thought that it would be called the RX-9. As in one step up from the RX-8. Apparently, that’s not the case. Nitrobahn.com reports that RX-7 name is to be resurrected. Nitrobahn hypothesised that the reason for this is to “evoke memories of the rear-wheel drive Mazda produced in between 1978 & 2002”. The new RX-7 will be a 2 seater and due in 2011. Like the current RX-8, the RX-7 will be a rotary engine, which means it can be adapted to run on Hydrogen in the future. InsideLine report that the new engine will be 1.6 litres in a 2 x 880cc configuration. The extra displacement means that the engine should be capable of up to 350 BHP. However, sources close to Mazda say they are adopting a simpler approach to the engineering of the car, by keeping the power of the engine between 200 to 250 BHP to try and keep the price below $25K. With the RWD Toyobaru, Hyundai Genesis Coupe, Kia “Kee,” and Nissan “Silvia” on the horizon, the future market for sporty coupes just keeps getting more and more interesting.
Cadillac is showing off this teaser of its XTS concept, previewing the look of its forthcoming “flagship.” It’s edgy, it’s wedgy… too bad it’s almost certainly another Epsi-II variant in a GM lineup that hardly needs another. And while Cadillac keeps GM’s perpetual tease going, it’s come to our attention that the brand has become the carrier of a now-expired GM legacy, visible after the jump.
The AFP reports that Chrysler is “currently reconsidering how it uses major auto shows for revealing new vehicles and concepts,” by way of explaining why Chrysler has “nothing new” for the Detroit Auto Show. Spokesman Rick Denau explains “we’d like to do things closer to the on-sale date of the vehicles and most of our new stuff isn’t coming until the second half of the year.” In reality, Chrysler is pushing the limits of the possible with its attempt to re-work the Chrysler and Dodge lineups in record time. Except for the new 300 and Grand Cherokee which made ill-fated debuts in Chrysler’s “viability plan” Chrysler’s refreshed products won’t be ready for public consumption until shortly before they go on sale, and it’s still likely that some of those release dates could be pushed back. In the meantime, Fiat will rebadge a Lancia as a Chrysler for the Detroit show. Because that’s almost as good as showing a new model, and it’s certainly as good as it gets for Chrysler right now.
The Argentinian-produced Volkswagen Amarok pickup might be coming to the US if VW thinks it can sell enough of them. VW of America’s Stephan Jacoby tells pickuptrucks.com “we’d have to sell at least 100,000 Amarok pickups to make it feasible.” But don’t get too excited: the only compact pickup to sell in those numbers is the Toyota Tacoma, which sold 102,327 units year-to-date.
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Autocar is reporting that Kia has its ever-eager eyes on the affordable RWD sporty coupe market. It’s 2008 Kee coupe concept could borrow the Genesis coupe’s RWD platform when it eventually makes its appearance.
In an exclusive interview Kia design director Peter Schreyer told Autocar that the Kee wasn’t in the European product plan for the next two years, but also confirmed that he is very keen to bring added strength and desirability to the Kia brand with such a car.
Sounds keen. Details follow: Read More >
Thought, you’d seen the last of Renault in North America? Well, think again and this time, they’re bringing their big guns! The Wall Street Journal [sub] reports that Gerard Detourbet, head of Renault’s entry level division is contemplating selling their low cost cars in South East Asia and North America. “We’re looking at Southeast Asia closely,” he said “We ended up not going there for a variety of reasons. But the idea is that we won’t remain absent from that territory.”
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