Acura made quite a little splash when they announced a diesel version of the TSX was America-bound at this year’s NAIAS. Now, with much less fanfare, Vtec.net reports that “the i-DTEC TSX has been delayed indefinitely (if not cancelled outright).” The unnamed source says that an automatic transmission version hasn’t been able to pass 50-state emissions tests, and that Honda won’t go to market with only a manual on offer. Not that the fact that diesel is almost a dollar more expensive per gallon than gas in most markets is helping either. Nor are the other indications that diesel is dying. To make up for dropping the diesel, Acura will fast-track a V6 version of the TSX. Because all Americans know is torque.
Interesting letter to the editor from a guy in Baytown, Texas in this week’s Automotive News. “Chevrolet should give an electric generator for home use to the purchaser of every new Volt,” Ralph Buerklin wrote. “Hurricanes, ice storms, tornados and thunderstorms wreak havoc with above-ground electric lines. That is an Achilles’ heel for electric vehicles.” Tell me about it. While the Volt has an on-board ICE to rely upon, a pure EV is a whole ‘nother story. We have a generator. We need it anywhere from two to five times a year here in semi-Upstate New York just to run the water pump, the furnace and the refrigerator—forget about lights, TV or computers. It typically happens when thunderstorms blow tree limbs across power lines, and if there are two things we have lots of, it’s thunderstorms and trees. Every 10 years or so, there’s a late-fall or early-spring ice storm that pulls down all the electric lines in entire counties. Last time it happened, some Hudson Valley homes were totally without power for two weeks and more. I can do without TV, but I’d hate to be stuck in a dark house with a dead electric car. Nor do I think those little portable job-site generators can do the job. Our 4,000-watt generator dies from too much current draw if the furnace and water pump come on simultaneously, which is why we’re upgrading to a 10,000-watt propane- powered unit. The new one will be the size of a St. Bernard’s doghouse, and installation is not a trivial matter. So add one of those to your Volt options list, since I doubt the guys who live in Grosse Pointe even know how to spell “emergency generator.”
We’ve long held that Cadillac is one of two “core brands” for GM that should be preserved (along with Chevy) at all costs. To compete with the big boys of luxury (Hyundai, anyone?) Caddy needs new product, and unlike Pontiac it’s going to get it. But will Cadillac’s product pipeline be filled with unique, desirable products or cannibalistic also-rans? I know, let’s ask that font of balanced coverage and journalistic integrity, Motor Trend! In fairness, MT admits that “It’s been four or five decades since Cadillac built a car that came close to being ‘The Standard of the World.'” “But” comes the now-customary about face that emerges any time a mainstream journo discusses the failure of an American automaker, “with the new CTS, and especially the world-beating CTS-v sport sedan, (Cadillac’s) rehabilitation is well underway.” Oh really? Let’s take a look.
CAR Magazine reports that Rolls-Royce CEO Tom Purves thinks an EV Phantom is worth looking into. “Many of our customers do small mileages exclusively in the city,” says Purves. “For these customers, an electric Rolls-Royce would be ideal.” Where did Purves come up with this wacky scheme? From Rolls-Royce’s corporate overlords at BMW, of course. Specifically, Purves recently drove the German concern’s MINI E EV and was “bowled over by it,” describing it as “superb: quiet, fast and fantastic fun.” And Purves for one thinks an EV Roller would fit in just fine with the firm’s history and branding. “We stand for unmatched refinement and you can’t get a quieter and less intrusive engine than a well engineered electric motor. Truly, the loudest noise you would hear would be the tick of the clock,” he says, referencing the time-honored Rolls marketing {gimmick} message. “We also stand for strong and instant torque – and an electric motor delivers maximum torque instantly. The ‘waftability’ would be fantastic.” Besides, emissions standards might leave Rolls with little choice but to offer a zero-emissions option. But don’t cry for future Phantom owners, as the V12 option will always be available. In fact, Purves reckons many Phantom customers would buy both – an electric Rolls for urban use and petrol Rolls for longer journeys. And why wouldn’t they?
Pistonheads reports that current and former world land speed record holders Andy Green and Richard Noble are teaming-up to drive a Bugatti Veyron 1000mph. Sorry. Did I say Veyron? I mean to say “a car powered by the engine from the latest Eurofighter Typhoon, topped off by a rocket that apparently uses an 800bhp MCT V12 racing engine as its fuel pump.” That’s a bit more rad than Green’s Thrust SSC, seen here during one of its high-speed passes in Black Rock Desert, Nevada. But don’t head for the Sagebrush State just yet; PH says Black Rock “may be ruled out [for this attempt] as the annual Burning Man festival has apparently damaged the surface too much.” The team’s christened the new vehicle Bloodhound, after project aerodynamicist Ron Ayers’ first surface-to-air missile project. Surface to air? Uh-oh.
China’s official news agency Xinhua reports that General Motors has kicked-off their “2009 promotional tour” of China for their Chevrolet Equinox hydrogen fuel cell car. Starting in China’s capital Beijing, GM will send the Equinox across the world’s fourth largest country to drum-up interest for the mid-size crossover SUV that uses the same alt propl as the elusive Chevrolet Sequel. China is no stranger to the technology. Researchers at the Anting Automotive College of Shanghai’s Tongji University developed China’s first working fuel cell car– based on a venerable Santana 2000– in 2003. GM claims that they will introduce several Chevrolet Equinox hydrogen-fuel cell cars to China in the next two years. (NB: that’s “cars” not “models.”) Nobody knows what this alleged car or cars will cost, or where GM may place the necessary hydrogen refuelling stations within the vast reaches of the middle kingdom. (No small point that; the Chevy Equinox needs a fill-up every 200 miles. Or less.) For the foreseeable future, in China at least, GM’s zero emission car of the future will continue to be what comes out of its exhaust pipe: vapor.
The New York Times reports that a casualty of lower oil and gas prices: interest in funding renewable energy projects. Among the Times’ laundry list of programs hurting for money: Tesla (duh), corn ethanol (hooray), other biofuels, and wind and solar power. The financial troubles are the consequence of a pretty simple financial concept – that there’s only so much money to go around. And we hear there’s a credit crunch in progress. So with gas and oil coming down in price, renewable energy isn’t where opportunistic investors want to be risking their somewhat-limited resources. The depressing part of the story is this all-too-obvious observation from Times writer Clifford Kraus:
From the moment it announced it gray-matter-celebrating name, it was pretty obvious that Toyota was developing its iQ city with one eye fixed firmly on the Smart playbook. So it comes as no surprise to hear that ToMoCo will leverage its “small-but-premium” city car platform with a small roadster version, set to debut at the next Tokyo auto show. Auto Motor und Sport hired veteran Swiss illustrator Mark Stehrenberger to speculate on the iQ Spider’s styling, coming up with a design they say follows in the footsteps of the Suzuki Cappucino and Daihatsu {Cuore} Copen. With only 1.0 and 1.3 liter gas and diesel engines on offer, don’t expect the iQ Spider to offer much more performance than the Smart Roadster or the previously-mentioned Kei-class ragtops. The standard iQ’s generous safety equipment should be found in the Spider as well, which will boast ESP, ABS and more airbags than a Senate quorum. There’s no saying when the Spider should arrive on the market (likely sold as a Scion), but it will be interesting to see if this fares better than the ill-fated Smart Roadster.
As many of you know I manage Autofiends.com . Our unofficial motto (can’t get the tech guys to change the site…) is “No Boring Cars.” Which means as the news of the day rolls in (grist to the mill) I need to parse it to determine what is and what isn’t “boring.” For instance there’s those pics of the new Prius that Jalopnik has whipped itself into its daily frenzy over (PRIUSGASM!!!!). And through the magic of search engine optimization Autofiends could probably get some decent traffic out of the post. More traffic makes the boss happy and (maybe) gets me more money! Only problem: the Prius is dull. Like, rock in sand dull. And not fancy Japanese rocks in Zen sand, but regular Texas Hill Country rocks in Great Plains dust. There’s a lady I know and I think she’s massively boring. She falls asleep at parties, says perhaps one sentence over the course of a night out and at restaurants has the tastes of a six-year-old. I mean really, what adult says, “I hate tomatoes?” To further solidify my view I saw her driving away in a white 1998 Toyota Camry. Which makes perfect sense, as I can’t think of a more boring car. Before you accuse me of Toyota bashing, let me state up front that I think the AE86 Corolla is one the most exciting cars ever built. Especially certain nitrous powered Formula D AE86s that pull away from Vipers on the track. Some of them 1,000 hp Supras are pretty damn thrilling, too. So I ask you: what makes boring?
Despite our several posts on the subject, the only thing resembling real news to come out of the Audi High Mileage Marathon is that a TDI version of the A3 will be coming to America. Or, as The German Car Blog reports using our trademark phrase, not. Winding Road say it’s officially on for next year. But Autoblog Green say nein, it’s still under consideration. Anyway, while the Audiphiles duke it out over that little controversy, the real news comes to us via the Chattanooga Times Free Press, who report that VW will sell diesel versions of the Civic-fighter it will be building at the new Tennessee plant. Unfortunately, the story is too full of “green jobs” pablum from local pols to tell us if the engines will be built stateside or shipped in from parts globalized. Either way, VW seems to be continuing its diesel approach in the states, despite our high prices for the oily stuff. With VW’s hybrid development lagging behind the industry leaders, diesel makes sense for them in the short-run (if only for the universally gushing reviews). Still, the new America-only mid-sized car to be built in Chattanooga is supposed to be a big volume booster for VW. One has to wonder how much a diesel version will help that effort, barring some kind of (unexpected) increase in diesel refining capacity.
Motor Trend (MT) has it on the downlow that Cadillac is considering a Duramax diesel-powered version of the CTS. The 4.5-liter, 520 lb-ft turbodiesel fits just fine in the CTS engine bay, say GM sources, as long as the design-ruining raised CTS-V hood is used. The idea behind the oil-burning option: bridge the considerable performance gap between the 3.6-liter V6 base model and the bat-shit insane supercharged CTS-V. Oh yeah, and Cadillac’s Northstar replacement project has been canned, meaning the Duramax is all they have for the job. MT aknowledges that “a diesel CTS for the U.S. would be a risk,” but goes on to argue that there’s little downside to the project since the engine and transmission have already been developed. But as numerous half-baked GM products prove, just because you’re leveraging existing components doesn’t mean anyone will buy them. Especially if they require expensive fuel. In fact…
These guys can’t win from losing. I mean, first GM seeks to evade responsibility for its cratered bsuiness by claiming that “no one” could have forseen the sudden spike in gas prices (or, God forbid, planned for that contingency after, what, two previous oil price shocks). And now GM Car Czar “Maximum Bob” Lutz is telling the LA Times that low gas prices threaten its plug-in electric – gas hybrid Volt-shaped Hail Mary. “We may hate high fuel prices, but they’ve been driving us in the right direction when it comes to fuel economy,” General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz told the Times. “The company’s leading cheerleader for its $500-million program to develop an electric car” said “If we suddenly went to $1 or $1.50 a gallon, that would be really bad.” Don’t get me wrong. Lutz is right. As he was when he called federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards a “crock of shit.” No wait; that was global warming. Anyway, the thing of it is, stop bitching Bob. As someone who’s followed Lutz’s career at GM– listening to every excuse for his employer’s dismal performance short of “the sun was in my eyes”– I would like to officially go on record saying that GM needs to builds vehicles, not sound bites. That is all.
Just as Costco and WalMart are doing relatively well in difficult times, the Wall Street Journal reports that while Hyundai USA’s sales are down, their market share is increasing. Industry wide sales in September were reportedly down 27% while Hyundai was “only” down 25%. Technically that does add up to a miniscule market share increase, but hardly anything to write home about. Hyundai has also just released the Genesis Coupe in Korea, taking aim at the likes of the Infiniti G37. Considering how much Sajeev liked the sedan, we are looking forward to the March 2009 US availability of the coupe. (Though Berkowitz not nearly as much). In their heydey the Thunderbird, Toronado, Eldorado and Mark VII were cars everyone aspired to; lately, not so much. But, with everything old suddenly new again perhaps there will be a revival of the luxurious coupe. With a starting price under $25,000 the Genesis Coupe might just be onto something. Or not.
I dig it. I reckon some folks won’t like the Civic-style dual cowl, but I appreciate the return of driver-oriented dashboards.
Picture is courtesy Speigel.de.
Motor Trend has a hot hand right now with the investigative journalism. After stunning the world by announcing that the new Corvette wouldn’t be mid-engined (gasp!) the MT boyz have more hot, fresh news to blow your mind. Specifically, that they hear rumors that the Toyota iQ could be sold stateside as a Scion. What, you mean the iQ city car won’t be sold next to the cheaper, larger, faster Yaris on Toyota’s showroom floor? We’re shocked, shocked we say. The US iQ will be revealed at the LA Auto Show in November, at which point we will know if it’s to be a Scion or a ‘yota. Not that there’s half as much drama as MT lets on. In addition to the difficulties in positioning the iQ vis-a-vis the Yaris, there’s also the concern that it could steal some thunder from the new Prius, set to be unveiled early next year in Detroit. Yes, it would be priced similarly to the xD, but the size an door-count differences make cannibalism less of an issue than if the iQ were branded as a Toyota. Besides, Scion desperately needs a sales boost right about now. Then again, the iQ could also fit well with a rumored dedicated Prius brand… except that it will be expensive and efficient enough without a hybrid powertrain. And so Toyota begins to reap the bitter harvest of multiple brands, an early symptom of what ToMoCo Prez Watanabe calls “Big Company Syndrome.”
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