Engine: 2 liters, 4 cylinders, 138 hp,132 torques. Transmission: 4-speed auto. Weight: 4,950 lbs GVW, 3,000 kerb weight (est). Payload: 1,605 lbs, 4+ feet by 6+ feet cargo area. Mileage: 19 city, 24 highway. Body styles: 2, Van (no second row, side and rear glass optional) or Wagon (second row, side and rear glass standard). MSRP remains the independent variable.
Autoexpress has been saying for some time that Jaguar’s rumored new sportscar will be more XJ220 than F-Type concept. Now, they say they are “lifting the lid” on an Audi R8-fighting sportscar that Jag still refuses to aknowledge. The highlights? A 500+ hp supercharged V8, Ian Callum styling (hinted at here in a rendering by beyond-form), light weight construction on an all-new aluminium platform, and a concept debut pegged at about 18 months from now. Bloody good, but does it mean they can’t build the F-Type too?
Mercedes recently unveiled its new E-Class, much to the displeasure of eyes around the world. Still, the midrange Benz is all but guaranteed relative success in markets like the U.S. and Germany, thanks to high-powered lawyers and taxi drivers, respectively. The German-market car shown here is an E350 CGI, which refers to the direct injection that gives the car 292 hp. I believe that’s coming to the U.S. when the car debuts in place of the existing 268 hp V6.
Remember when Farago asked what wasn’t wrong with this picture of the Chevy Spark? It turns out that despite 74 comments, nobody correctly identified the Spark’s major flaw: it’s a hunk of foam. The Spark was first teased on the Today show, where GM Design guru Ed Welburn first showed off the city car’s Pokemonesque snout. At the time, we (and everyone else in the autoblogosphere) concluded it was a Beat Concept, ignoring Welburn’s promise that it was a “new” city car concept set to debut on Sunday at the Detroit Auto Show. When Sunday came, GM only rolled a Beat into COBO Hall but posted a picture of the Spark on its corporate webpage promising a production model by 2011. Confused, the guys at Kickingtires contacted GM and learned that the Spark wasn’t rolled out because they don’t even have a rolling prototype of it, just the foam model that was trotted out for Today. The “real” Spark prototype will be revealed at the Geneva Auto Show later this year, but for the record, GM’s Beat/Spark policy seems to currently stand as follows. Beat was shown a year ago, 2.5m webizens voted for it over its Trax and Groove concept-mates, and it was then ruled out for an American launch. Now there’s not even a prototype Spark, but we’re told it will definitely come to the US. Confused? You probably should be.
GoAuto hears from GM Car Czar Maximum Bob Lutz himself that the Camaro and G8 will be the last US market GM products based on Holden’s RWD Zeta platform. “The strategy we had a few years ago of basically deriving a whole sweeping global portfolio off the Australian Zeta architecture … frankly, we have had to abandon that dream,” said Lutz. “This is because, whether you are in the United States or in China, fuel economy mandates are getting more and more severe, and we just could not base our strategy on doing relatively large and relatively heavy rear-wheel-drive cars. I suspect the same thing is going to start to bite the traditional rear-wheel drive producers.” Not that they’re ditching the platform entirely. “It is our intent to continue the Australian rear-wheel-drive cars; we will continue building them and doing a next generation and so forth and so on,” says Mr Maximum. “And, to be honest, they continue to be my favourite cars. I think they are absolutely wonderful – but the regulatory environment is such that it would be imprudent to base a whole global platform strategy on them … much to my personal chagrin, by the way.” And what of the rumored Alpha compact RWD platform?
Automotive News [sub] reports that the Tokyo Auto Show could be canceled this year. Debate is raging within the Japan Automobile Manufacturing Association (JAMA) which hosts the show, as foreign automakers stay away and even domestics brands call for a cancelation. But JAMA won’t reveal the confirmed no-shows, and insists that the things must go on in the business of show. “A couple companies are not in favor of organizing the show under these conditions, but that is not JAMA’s opinion,” says Toshihiro Iwatake, JAMA’s executive director and secretary general. “We think the motor show is a symbol of industrial prosperity,” he said. “We have to show that our industry is healthy.” And though Japan’s automakers are as healthy as can be expected, Japan’s cratering domestic market (set to fall under 5m units in 2009) makes America’s down year look like China’s down year. If the Tokyo show is canceled, it won’t be back until 2011. By which time, Japan could be well on its way to becoming a “kuruma banare,” or demotorized society.
Of course, that’s a bit blunt for corporate types. Ford design chief J Mays gives us the Ford-approved terminology for the automaker’s decision to forgo rear wheel-drive (RWD) for its passenger vehicles: “It’s out of the cycle plan,” J tells Automotive News [AN, sub]. “We’ve got other priorities at the moment. We’re going down a path right now that is all about fuel efficiency, and we’ve got a lot to do about that. So we’re not talking about rear-wheel drive.” AN provides the potted history of the layout’s extinction. “A year ago, Ford CEO Alan Mulally and product chief Derrick Kuzak confirmed that the new Ford and Lincoln rwd sedans would be coming. By midyear, Kuzak said Ford was rethinking the program but hadn’t discontinued it. Analysts had expected U.S. sales of the rwd cars to begin with the 2013 model year. The platform was to be shared with a large car developed for Australia.” And now, nothing. TTAC’s Best and Brightest will debate the wisdom of abandoning RWD. Suffice it to say, Lincoln. Oh, and the Hyundai Genesis.
I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist. But c’mon; who came up with the idea of naming the “100 lucky people get to drive the Mexican-built U.S. market Fiesta before regular folks just like the MINI EV except perhaps not quite as exciting for the press or anyone else for that matter” website fiestamovement.com? Did one of the other Farley brothers take over for Jim down at The Blue Oval? Apparently not: “Getting serious about the small-car business is a big change for Ford,” Jimbo told Automotive News [sub.] Anyway, do YOU have what it takes to drive a stylish econobox free for six months? In other words, can you make a two to five-minute video that Ford can use for its nationwide campaign, saving themselves a million in advertising agency fees? [come on after the jump] Here’s something odd: Jim Farley says annual American sales for the Fiesta– on sale next year— could range from 30k to 70k units, depending on gas prices. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s nowhere near enough throughput to get Ford out of trouble.
Sure, Autocar. Jaguar’s gonna finally build an F-type roadster. And just in time for a “end-of-recession” 2011 launch too. Look, I’m just not ready for more pain. Weren’t you there? Didn’t you drool over the XK180 concept as far back as 1997? Didn’t an F-Type concept make you weak in the knees in 2000? And weren’t we told it would hit production? Remember that? That was nine years and five days ago. Ratan Tata thinks he can just pry that wound open, does he? “Putting exciting projects on the back burner is the thing we should not do,” eh? Ratan? Fine. Just do it already, then. And make it look like this one.
I think it’s great to get excited about new cars, announcements from manufacturers, spec sheets, press kit photos, and concept cars. I’m a jerk, but I’m not a jerk made of stone. With my mea-culpa qualification out of the way though, I do find it frustrating to see what I think of as undue enthusiasm. If you jump, you can see my five TTAC-spirited assessments of the product announcements of the week.
Or not, we might add. As usual, the latest chapter in the Volt saga is both convoluted and taxpayer-funded. Automotive News [sub] reports that “A123Systems, the battery supplier for the upcoming Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid vehicle, will make lithium ion batteries for automotive use at a Michigan plant if it receives federal (136) loans, the supplier said today.” The plant would employ up to 14k, and supply batteries for 19 contracts including the Volt, Chrysler’s ENVI and Project Better Place. But this information is based on A123’s filings. There’s still no official confirmation from GM on the Volt contract, although Business Wire does quote GM’s Bob Lutz as saying “A123’s proposal to manufacture advanced battery cells and packs right here in the United States is a positive development for our industry and the nation.” The strangest part of the story is that the GM-Volt.com cheerleaders, usually privy to info straight from GM, were previously convinced that LG Chem/Compact Power had beat A123 to the contract. Back in October, GM-Volt’s Lyle Dennis seemed to confirm a Reuters report that LG/Compact had won. “As we have heard before in a subtle way from GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz,” wrote Dennis, “GM was only using one supplier’s packs in the mules. Concurrently, we had heard from Compact Power’s CEO that his batteries were being used in the mules. Sources have now confirmed this is the case and that the mules packs are performing flawlessly.” So really, who knows. GM may well be saving the announcement for the forthcoming Detroit Auto Show.
Autocar is so certain that Audi will whip up an “S”-badged version of its forthcoming A1 city car, they’re touting specs and renderings of a car that will make hot hatch lovers weak in the knees. The S1 will compete with such miniscule forces of nature as the JCW Mini and Alfa MiTo by offering 200hp, 300nm and AWD. In a package that makes the GTI look like a lumbering beast. A tuned version of the turbo- and super-charged 1.4 TFSI engine that is drawing rave reviews from European buff-books will hook up to a seven speed dual-clutch box, sending 60 percent of the power to the rear wheels. Zero to 60 should come in six seconds, reckons Autocar, while the top speed will be limited at 155 mph. And fuel consumption should stay around the 30 mpg (US) range. Throw in lowered and magnetically-damped suspension, 19 inch wheels, S-line visual cues and a possible cell phone integration option (ala KEI), and Autocar’s verdict that the S1 will be a “technological tour de force” is hard to argue with. Of course this means the price of admission is steep. $36k (25k Pounds Sterling) is a brutal entry point for a hot hatch, even if it packs more technology than an F-16. And then there’s the question of whether it will be sold in the US. Or at all, given the state of the economy. On paper though, the S1 is a near apotheosis of the hot-hatch form. I’ll take two.
Pickuptrucks.com has learned that the Pontiac G8 ST has been canceled. Incidentally, Automobile Magazine is reporting that the Suzuki Kizashi has not been canceled, but will debut in production form at this year’s New York Auto Show.
As Martin Schwoerer has pointed out, Honda is in the midst of a green-oriented rebranding. Formula One efforts and the NSX “replacement” have already been canceled, as we’ce reported. According to Autocar, more enthusiast-oriented programs are being slashed as weak markets meet green branding initiative. Planned rear-drive Acura models, including development of a V8 engine are off the table due to poor demand for luxury models. These models were planned to compete with BMW’s 3,5 and 7 series. Honda has also canned plans for a S2000 replacement, leaving it without any kind of sports car in its portfolio. Though the eagerly-anticipated CR-Z coupe is still a go, a convertible roadster version will not be pursued. This isn’t great news for enthusiasts, who have long seen Honda as the most sporting of the Japanese big three. In reality, Honda has been steadily moving away from its enthusiast roots for years now.
You might have noticed a somewhat depressing tone in car news lately. Keith Crain has, and by the tone of his latest column at Automotive News [sub], it sounds like he’s ready for a refill of his favorite SSRI. But while Crain’s beloved Detroit firms may have a monopoly on federal bailout money, they certainly aren’t the only ones suffering. In addition to shelving overseas factory plans, Suzuki has announced that their entry into the “large car” market is now on hold according to Automotive News Europe [sub]. That means the sedan based on the Kizashi 3 Concept pictured above (spy shots here) won’t be hitting markets in 2010. For what it’s worth, the concept had a 300 hp 3.6 liter V6 mated to an AWD drivetrain. If the SX-4 strategy is anything to go on, the production model could have offered a decent entry-level AWD sports sedan at a truly competitive price point. But could Suzuki really do to the A4 what Hyundai is trying to do to the Lexus LS? I suppose we’ll never know now. And even amidst all the big bad news right now, I think that’s just a bit depressing.
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