With the Ford Focus ST due for a mid-cycle refresh in Europe, Ford apparently announced a diesel version of their hot hatch at a dinner after Day 1 of the Geneva Auto Show.
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How about a Volkswagen Golf that emits less CO2 than a Toyota Prius and makes as much power as a GTI?
Back in September, I wrote a piece lamenting the death of Honda’s high-perofrmance hallmark, the twin-cam VTEC 4-cylinder engine. It was just the sort of article many of you are fed up with: a lengthy piece filled with flowery prose and Honda fanboy-ism sprinkled with a condescending explanation of the auto industry’s inner workings. Miraculously, it was fairly well-received. But I’ve had a change of heart.
The Maserati Alfieri will preview the next-generation sports car from FCA’s sort-of-exotic premium brand. Most surprising is the fact that Maserati eschewed the trend of turbocharged motors for the familiar 4.7-liter V8 engine with 460 hp and 384 lb-ft of torque. Given the emissions and fuel consumption requirements that exist today, things could change.
Long rumored to wear the Alfa Romeo badge, the next-generation Mazda MX-5 may instead don a Fiat or Abarth necklace in 2015 if Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne has the last word.
UPDATE: Mere minutes after our prior editorial was published Chrysler announced that they will be withdrawing their request for funding from the Canadian government, and
“…confirmed its intention to begin to allocate to our Windsor, Ontario plant the development and industrialization of the next “people carrier” architecture (the so-called next minivan and derivatives)”
We are awaiting a call from Chrysler to discuss the matter. In the mean time, you can read the official announcement here.
The biggest news for North America’s auto industry was announced at Geneva, and it wasn’t a new product debut. According to Automotive News, FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne has decided on a location for the next assembly plant, and things aren’t looking great for the current plant in Windsor, Ontario.
Just as the B&B suspected, the Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge is indeed powered by a twin-turbo V6, and it comes from the Nissan GT-R. With all-wheel drive and a 7-speed gearbox (of an unspecified nature), the Eau Rouge should blast to 60 mph in under 4 seconds. Can’t outshine its big brother, can it?
A sharp-eyed TTAC reader based in Korea has sent us some spy shots of the 2015 Hyundai Sonata. The shots purport to show the car’s front end, interior and a snap of a Korean car magazine claiming AWD and a 6-speed DCT for the KDM model. Authentic? Who knows.
Why do we continue to lust after the Volkswagen Scirocco when the Audi TT exists? They’re similar cars, with a similar shape and if the two were to be sold in North America, their pricepoints wouldn’t be terrible far off one another. The answer is simple – because we must fetishize every vehicle that doesn’t make it to our shores are a priori superior to whatever dull crap is being gobbled up by Americans. Except that the TT has just leapfrogged the Scirocco, and it will be coming to North America.
Our photographers bring you live shots of the Jeep Renegade on the floor at Geneva. They even took snapshots of a Diesel Trailhawk, the best combination that we won’t get in North America. Gallery after the jump.
You’re looking at the next Toyota Yaris. Seriously. Under the terms of a deal struck with Toyota, Mazda’s all-new Mexican assembly plant will build the next Mazda2 and the Toyota Yaris on a single, Mazda-derived platform.
Jaguar released this teaser of their new 3-Series competitor, the XE. All we know is that it has an all-new 2.0L 4-cylinder with a turbocharger and is based on an scalable aluminum architecture. Expect a full debut at September’s Paris Auto Show.
What you’re looking at is a four-wheeled ATM for Fiat Chrysler. The Jeep Renegade is a unibody crossover based on a Fiat car platform. To satisfy the Jeep faithful, it has an available all-wheel drive system with a 20:1 crawl ratio, 8.7 inches of ground clearance and a rock crawling mode as well as a 2,000 lb towing capability with the 2.4L 4-cylinder (Euro-spec diesels get as much as 3,300 lbs). None of that matters as much as the fact that it’s an entrant for Jeep in one of the automotive world’s fastest growing segments.
Subaru, Nissan and Chrysler were the big winners this month, with GM, Ford, Toyota, Honda and Hyundai-Kia blaming poor weather for their decline in sales for February. Subaru, up 24 percent, seemed unfazed by the cold snap.
N.B: You can now access the full table at Automotive News. Tim Cain will continue with his full segment of sales segment analysis pieces.
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