OK, so steel-wheeled, camo-clad test mules are never easy to identify. Especially when they are actually an all-new vehicle positioned at a segment that their brand isn’t exactly well-known for competing in. Here’s a hint: this vehicle illustrates exactly why entry-luxury brands like Buick are in so much trouble. We’re looking at a vehicle that will be sold in the US in a few years, sporting a well-known luxury badge. Can you guess the make and model? [Answer: It’s the next-generation Mercedes-Benz B-Class… and once again, there’s no fooling you guys!]
Strangely, this disclaimer isn’t even the funniest thing about the fresh-to-Youtube E-Class Cabriolet ad [available after the jump]. That prize goes to the way the otherwise undeniably handsome E-Cab looks with its “Aircap” system deployed. No wonder this previous ad stuck to long shots, and made light of the option’s contradictory and dispensable nature. Sure, folks in cold climates deserve convertibles too, but this Aircap thing just reminds me of cafe seating on Sunset Boulevard with heat lamps blaring on a 65-degree day. Silly wealthy folk… buy the coupe if you don’t like drafts. Read More >
Bloomberg is reporting that anonymous sources tell them
[Ford’s] top executives are preparing a proposal to kill Mercury to be presented to directors in July
The rumor has yet to be confirmed, but the decision is clearly a sound one. We’ve written at length about Ford’s premium-brandproblems, and Mercury is easily one of the weakest brands on the market. With Lincoln said to be going global, it makes plenty of sense to kill off Mercury. In fact, axing the purposeless entry-luxe brand might just be one of the single smartest moves Ford could make right now.
UPDATE via Twitter’s @davidshephardson(also of the Detroit News): “Mulally says he didn’t read Bloomberg report on Mercury. Says Ford has ‘nothing new to announce.'”
Automotive News [sub] dug through Infiniti’s patent filings, and came up with an unexpected find: a filing that reserves the terms “Infiniti Performance Line” and “IPL” to market
the brand’s use of “high-performance motor vehicle parts,” including turbochargers and superchargers for engines, cat-back exhaust and muffler systems, shifter knobs, suspension parts, brakes, sports seats and off-road headlights.
Having already informed the motor press that its Maybach brand will be making a long-overdue exit from the retail market, Daimler is getting all Weekend At Bernies about the failed super-premium marque. Instead of selling the Maybach name to an upstart Chinese firm, or developing an all-new model, Daimler has decided to keep the brand on life support in a more cynical fashion than even we could have anticipated: hiring an outside firm to develop a two-door version of its 57S sedan.
What is it about former (or ostensible) communist leaders and retro limousines? China’s Hu Jintao got a tip of the hat from us last October for stepping out in style at the country’s National Day celebrations in a retro-fabulous Hongqi HQE. Now, The Guardian reports that
President Dmitry Medvedev has decided to trade in his Mercedes and bring back the ZiL, in what appears to be the latest attempt by Russia’s nostalgic leadership to turn the country into a Soviet theme park. Medvedev has asked aides to examine whether the austere and enduringly sinister limousine can be brought back into production.
And why not? After all, what’s more authentically Russian than being ferried through Red Square in an “enduringly sinister” vehicle made by a company that was at one time known as “Stalin’s Factory”? Is it too soon to ask about American-market availability?
Bloomberg reports that Ferrari workers walked off the job for four hours yesterday, in protest of planned job cuts and production idling. Ferrari has announced that it plans to eliminate 120 office jobs and 150 production jobs, or nearly ten percent of its workforce. The Italian sportscar firm has also said it will put 600 workers on a week-long furlough next week, as it idles production of engines for its sister brand Maserati at a Maranello plant. Last year, Ferrari built about 4,500 engines for Maserati, about half of the 2008 number, as sales of the brand fell.
We’ve already laid into Saab’s new 9-5 for launching with with only the 300hp, AWD “Aero” trim level, for which the former GM division wants a base price of about $50k. That asking price just became a little more ridiculous as Volvo has announced base pricing for its new S60 sedan at $37,700. And guess what? That’s for the 300 hp, AWD “T6” version as well, which is also the only trim level available at launch. Volvo 1, Saab 0.UPDATE: OK, OK, we admit that Volvo’s “win” here is minimal. A lower base price does potentially bring in more buyers, but on an apples-to-apples basis, the two Swedes are pretty much a wash, price-wise. Which still leaves plenty of room for debate… and inevitable references in each others reviews. Besides, both models will offer cheaper versions over time. Does this make us think Saab’s $50k fan tax is any less ridiculous? Not a bit. But then, only time and test drives will truly tell if Saab’s gamble has paid off.
Long-wheelbase Benzes have a long and proud history, having been owned by such icons of cool as John Lennon and Hugh Hefner, as well as infamous villains like Pol Pot, “Baby Doc” Duvalier and Jeremy Clarkson. And, as Auto Motor und Sport informs us, the decline of other glandular vehicles like the Suburban has not prevented a new round of six-door Benz models. In fact, something about this picture indicates that vehicular size inflation is not completely a thing of the past… can you spot it?
Despite breaking new ground in the field of brand leverage with its Ferrari World Abu Dhabi theme park, Ferrari does seem to have lost the plot a bit in relation to its “other” business building expensive sportscars. Ferrari’s abandonment of the manual transmission might be justified by faster lap times at Fiorano, and the lightning-fast, dual-wet-clutch transmissions that replace them certainly seem to help keep the Scuderia at the bleeding edge of technology (even if they’re designed and built by Getrag). But underlying the faster times, higher speeds and “digital supercar” honorifics from the motoring press, there’s a sense that Ferrari’s progress must accommodate an ever-more ambitious business plan as much as design the world’s most capable and emotive sportscars. And it’s starting to bear some troubling fruit. Read More >
Buick has confirmed long-standing rumors that it will offer a compact (Delta II) sedan (likely a rebadge of the Opel Astra) and a subcompact (Gamma II) MPV “in the near future,” reports the Detroit News.With the Regal launching this year, these two vehicles will create a Buick lineup with twice the options of its current three-car lineup. That current lineup competes in only two vehicle segments, whereas by 2013, Buick expects to compete in 47 percent of market segments with a lineup of vehicles that will all be newer than the Regal. In other words, if you think Buick’s problem is product, GM agrees with you… and it’s revamping the brand’s entire lineup over the next three years.
Worried that a ride-over-handling-oriented California, the end of manual transmissions and flirtations with hybrid power have left Ferrari without any kind of brand focus? Don’t be, Maranello spokesfolks tell Autocar. There is at least one line that Ferrari will never cross: building a four-door to compete with Aston-Martin’s Rapide, Porsche’s Panamera or Audi’s A7.
As Enzo [Ferrari, company founder] would say, we will never do four doors. And we will keep this tradition. Frankly speaking no-one is asking for a four-door Ferrari. If you want a four door Ferrari we have a Maserati. We stand 60 years and we never needed four doors. What never means, I don’t know, but one of the strong points of Ferrari is to keep the product in the right way. I’m not saying four doors is not right for the image, but it’s not part of our heritage.
As the Beijing motor show draws to an end on Monday, the cars on display will be rolled on car carriers and shipped back home. All except for 40 luxury cars with a combined value of $22m. They have been snapped-up at the show, they will remain in China, and their makers can save the money for the long trip home. Read More >
You can already buy a BMW 3-Series in sedan, coupe, station wagon and X3 “cute-ute” bodystyles, and for some automakers that might be enough. For niche-crazed BMW though, it’s just the beginning. A 3-Series GT is planned in the mold of the 5-Series GT, as a midway-point between the coupe, sedan and station wagon versions. You know, in case you can’t decide which you want. “This has never existed!” screamed Autobild… back in 2008. Of course, now it does exist in the form of the 5-series GT, which could actually end up replacing the 5-series wagon in the US market. And as the march of the niche vehicles rolls onward, there’s one more segment that the 3-series architecture still hasn’t capitalized on: the jacked-up midway point between coupe and SUV. That’s right babies, the X4.
Who built this luxury-car concept, shown at the Beijing the Auto Show? It’s not a brand that is well-known in America, but that’s not the only reason you might be left guessing…
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