I am looking under every rock and asking the question: Is there anything wrong or unusual about our pedals? We are continuing to look to see if there is something that we could do differently.
Toyota’s Steve St. Angelo tells the WSJ [sub] that Toyota is reviewing its pedal designs in search of a cause for its recent Unintended Acceleration scandal. Thus far, Toyota’s UA issues have been traced only to sticky pedals and floormat interference. Attempts to trace UA to malfunctioning throttle units have thus far been abortive, with a government research panel finding that brake misapplication occurred in many of the Toyota UA incidents.
With the debut of Audi’s A7 Sportback, and a BMW four-door GranCoupe coming in 2012, it’s clear that the four-door coupe segment is here to stay. At least in Europe. This year Mercedes is coming back into the segment swinging, with an updated CLS shown here in the first leaked official images [via Autocar]. But will the four-door coupes ever make serious headway in the US market? In the last 12 months, the CLS has sold fewer than 2,000 examples in the US market. VW’s Passat CC on the other hand has sold 29,114 units in the last 12 months, more than double the volume of the regular Passat. What does this say about four-door coupes in the US market? Probably that their sales depend heavily on the appeal of their sedan versions: Mercedes sedans have become handsome enough to make the CLS look overstyled, while the CC offers much-needed visual flair to the otherwise-anodyne Passat. But will the segment grow as BMW and Audi wade in?
In the last installment of our New Or Used? series, Sajeev, Steve and our Best and Brightest teamed up to help a reader find the modern equivalent of a Volkswagen Microbus. Because answers were limited to US-market vehicles, this CrossTouran wouldn’t have made the cut, but in a perfect world, this might just have been the car our reader was looking for. But with a starting price of €27,700 ($35k) for a 105 HP version, it’s still missing the kind of US-market appeal that might tempt VW planners to send it stateside… especially with the more American-friendly Tiguan starting at $23k, and the more off-road-capable Touareg going for about $40k. But if a small, AWD van is what you’re looking for, there is an automaker willing to take a risk on your peculiar tastes: the next-gen Mazda5 may not be a looker, but it’s said to come with an AWD option when it debuts in the US early next year.
A Chevrolet Spark concept set to debut at the Paris Auto Show shows a typical US-market subcompact in its natural environment… as imagined by a couple of particularly unimaginative Daewoo product planners. Anybody miss the PT Cruiser yet? [via Jalopnik]
Just because I want to believe doesn’t mean I should. Or that I can. Even by the gonzo standards of 1970s Italy, the Stratos was always a wild one… precisely the kind of car that has no obvious place in the homogenized, safety-crazed world of 21st Century automobiles. Besides, Lancia and Chrysler are becoming two names for the same brand, and it’s tough to imagine a Chrysler Stratos ever coming stateside (if only to avoid the “Cloud Car” associations). Besides, if Fiat is keeping Alfa around as a sporty brand, why would it develop a Lancia sportscar? Other than Old GM-style branding confusion, of course. But the least believable part of these pictures, purportedly showing a Stratos prototype testing at a Fiat test track [via Italiaspeed] are the photos themselves… and the story going along with them.
What’s the difference between these two compact crossovers? American readers will recognize the vehicle on the left as the forthcoming facelift of the Nissan Rogue. The crossover on the right is a recently-released update to the European-market Nissan Qashqai. The Rogue is slightly larger in most dimensions than the Qashqai (not counting the extended-wheelbase Qashqai +2), and only offers a 2.5 liter engine while the Qash has a palette of four two-liter and smaller gas and diesel engines. But it’s not the Euro model’s cramped quarters or low-displacement engines that we find ourselves wishing could find their way to the American market… it’s the Qashqai’s updated styling that we want. Sure, these things are subjective, but the updated Rogue just doesn’t seem like much of an improvement on its predecessor’s looks. The Qashqai, meanwhile, has gone from filler to killer.
With Audi’s A7 four-door coupe making waves at its release yesterday, the segment-defining Mercedes CLS just had to remind the world that its successor is on the way. Accordingly, these photos of the 2012 CLS have hit Autoexpress, granting the internet its first look at the redesigned not-quite-coupe. And though there’s definitely some Audi-inspired headlight gizmology going on with the new CLS, the overall design doesn’t seem to pop quite as dramatically as the A7. Perhaps it’s because the E-Class is already a quite handsome sedan (especially by recent M-B standards), or maybe Mercedes is saving the visual drama for a planned five-door coupe-wagon version. Either way, it’s difficult to see the CLS dominating the segment it invented going forward.
Audi has just revealed its new A7 Sportback, a “four-door coupe” in the European fashion that slots between Audi’s A6 and A8 sedans. The A7 will debut in Europe this fall, starting around €50,000, and will likely launch in the US sometime next year with the S4’s 3.0 supercharged V6 making 300hp. Which makes the A7 something of a larger S4 (or smaller A8) for fashion victims, a general strategy Audi largely got right with its A5 Sportback. The big question going into today’s reveal: would Audi’s stylists be able to pen a distinctive enough vehicle to differentiate the A7 from its closely-packed siblings. Based on our first peek, we’d say they pretty much pulled it off, as the A7 looks sharp enough to hang with the Jaguars, Panameras and Quattroportes of the world. But just how many sales will be pulled into Audi by a cab-rearward take on the A8’s perhaps overly-bland looks still remains very much to be seen.
The walrus is famous for being immense, powerful, and oddly lugubrious, and for having a mouth that looks like Wilford Brimley after nine hours of cunnilingus. Ditto the Lincoln.
Vanity Fair’s Brett Berk channels his inner Robert Farago and comes up with one of the more memorable metaphors we’ve heard in some time. Word to Berk: PR folk don’t tend to celebrate the metaphorical marriage of the ridiculous and the sublime as much as… well, everyone else. As we’ve learned the hard way here at TTAC, sexually-tinged metaphors can get you cut off fromthe press car gravy train faster than you can say “flying vagina.” On the other hand, devastatingly accurate metaphors delivered with little regard for their consequences have a way of endearing you to a the best kinds of readers. And that, after all, is what this whole auto writing this about. Consider us inspired!
Via Twitter comes this, the first shot yet of the Dodge version of the new Jeep Grand Cherokee. Dodge won’t confirm whether the badly battered Durango name will grace its version of the JGC, but at least it’s clear that the brand is getting away from its truck-alike styling dependence. But with the new Grand Cherokee earning strong reviews, will Dodge’s (likely) decontented version be a letdown? It had better not be, because another big name from the SUV era is going to stake a claim in the mid-full CUV segment starting on Monday: Ford’s 2011 Explorer.
Our Korean contributor Walter Foreman hipped us to this, one of the first videos of the 2012 Hyundai Elantra taking to the streets [via DaumTV]. Of course, in Korean spec it’s called the Avante, but when it finally gets sold stateside, it’s sure to be known as the “baby Sonata.” Or perhaps “that car that makes the Cruze look so deathly boring by comparison.” Or possibly, “a precisely scaled execution of Hyundai’s fluidic sculpture design language.” Or, if Hyundai’s really successful over the next year or so, people will refer to it as “just the new Hyundai.” It’s amazing how much change people can become accustomed to.
Once upon a time, luxury cars were defined by giant drop-top land barges like Cadillac’s V-16 or the Bugatti Royale. Somewhere along the way, the luxury sedan-turned-convertible has fallen out of favor with the glaring exception of one of the world’s most expensive cars: the Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead. But now, having pioneered the four-door coupe and (coming soon) the five-door coupe, Mercedes-Benz’s endless search for “new” segments has it looking backwards to the good old days of massive top-down touring luxury.
Ever since the Subaru brand was introduced to the US market as the makers of “cheap and ugly” little cars, it’s suffered from a tortured relationship with styling. From the unapologetically utilitarian to the downright contrived (hello, flying vagina) and right back to the tragically anodyne, Subaru’s styling has been as consistent as an acid trip… and about as popular with middle America. But now that Subaru is making headway with the buying public, its new stylist, Osamu Namba, tells Automotive News [sub] that it’s time for a change.
We want to broaden the appeal to make it accessible to more than a small, loyal crowd. We need to add a more contemporary element. We have to show the function through design with simple, clean lines. I want a very simple design that exhibits strength. I don’t want it to be just something serious and boring. A lot of people don’t know that Subaru brand. If we can make styling more accessible, it will bring them in
That sounds well and good, but where does Subaru even start going about building a consistent, coherent design language? We hear that Subaru’s Hybrid Tourer Concept is the best hint yet at the shape of things to come…
Nissan has released more teasers for its forthcoming 2011 Quest, and we’re starting to get the feeling that it could just be the first mold-breaking minivan in some time. It’s not necessarily the most exciting looking thing, but under that blunt-nosed skin, this Quest likely boasts the RWD/AWD chassis of the newest Japanese Elgrand van and an optional 3.5 liter VQ V6. We’ll wait for official details before we start getting too crazy, but the possibility of a 300 hp, RWD minivan is a little to perversely thrilling to ignore. With all the talk of “Swagger Wagons” and “Man Vans” lately, Nissan may just have the most exciting minivan since the first-gen Mazda MPV (to date, the only minivan to be appear in a rap video) hiding up its sleeve…
With commentary on today’s Acura TL review struggling to move past the sedan’s jarring styling, this seems like a good time to discuss alternatives to the TL… or, at least the alternatives to that jangly beak. Remember, even if you like your TL enough to get past the “distinctive” looks, the rest of us still have to look at it. Here, for your consideration, are a number of ways to improve the looks of the TL, starting with Acura’s official cure, the “Full Nose Mask.” (Read More…)
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