One of the first rumors to come out of the Fiat/Chrysler tie-up was that Alfa-Romeo would replace its expired 166 flagship with a large, RWD sedan based on Chrysler’s updated LX platform. But with Lancia getting its own rebadge of the new Chrysler 300, and a possibly LX/LC-based entry-level Maserati in development, it seems that Alfa’s opportunity for a flagship rear-drive sedan has passed. Auto Motor und Sport reports that, rather than developing a large Alfa flagship, the brand will top out (in sedan terms) with its forthcoming, 159-replacing Giulia front-drive D-segment effort. That might not come as terribly shocking news to the brand faithful, as Alfa’s have been almost exclusively front-drivers for some time… but the fact that no fizzy, crackling Alfa-typical V6 is planned for the brand’s midsized flagship might come as a letdown (instead, look for turbocharged four-bangers making between 120 and 235 HP). All of which is very interesting in light of CEO Sergio Marchionne’s recent diagnosis of Alfa’s woes, in which he argued

I mean it’s got this incredible appeal which goes back, you know, to the time they used to be on the racetrack, and it’s the embodiment of a lot of things which are typically Italian; sportiness, lightweight, and everything else. And what happened is that when Fiat bought them back in the end of ’86 we Fiatized Alfa. Fiat was front-wheel drive; Alfa was rear wheel drive. So now all the Alfas are front-wheel drive. And we put Fiat engines inside the Alfas, and Alfa started losing more and more of its DNA as a car company.

Initial reports of a diesel version of the Chevy Cruze coming to the US market cited GM management sources who apparently told workers at the Cruze’s Lordstown, OH assembly plant they would begin building the diesel-powered Cruze for the 2013 model-year. But GM spokesfolks tell the Youngstown Vindicator.

GM has some of the most capable engineers in the world and very capable engineering in Europe. If and when the time comes, there is no doubt GM will be able to produce a diesel engine in America,

The implication being that a diesel Cruze is not imminent… but that doesn’t mean it will never happen. Local UAW boss Dave Green clarifies

I did see the report. I read where we may be getting some diesel-powered Cruzes, but we have not gotten word of that from our corporate offices

So… call the diesel Cruze a big maybe. At some point. Perhaps Chevy is waiting for the Cruze five-door to come online before making an all-out bid for America’s “Mr Euro” market with a diesel hatchback.

Nissan raised a tempest in a chatroom (or 20) when it claimed a 7:29:03 Nürburgring lap time for its GTR, and taunted Porsche that this time beat its 911 Turbo. Porsche took the bait, claiming that its drivers couldn’t replicate the GTR’s lap time and that Nissan must have used non-stock tires. Nissan fired back, and as the controversy became mired in he said-she-said nonsense, the fanboys gradually lost interest. And now, years later, Nissan is literally shoving the controversy into the faces of Porsche owners in hopes of getting even more mileage over one of the sillier controversies in the world of performance cars. But can you imagine this nearly three-year-old taunt actually stinging Porsche owners into considering a GTR?

Daihatsu has dusted off its most unfortunate nameplate for a rather unfortunate rebadge, as Autobild reports that the outgoing Toyota Yaris will be sold in Europe as the Daihatsu Charade starting this year. The 99 HP Charade will be sold for less than the European Yaris, which will be replaced shortly with the model that was recently launched in Japan. So, did Daihatsu’s engineers work out all the “Buru-buru” and “hyoko-hyoko” (“walk with a tremor” and “unsteady steps”)? Or is this just a cheap way to snag some of the low-cost sales that helped Hyundai pass Toyota as the best-selling Asian brand in Europe? Clearly the bosses at Toyota are still struggling with the dynamic that Paul Niedermeyer identified in his Curbside Classic on the Charade, when he wrote

Toyota took a minority ownership stake in Daihatsu in 1967, and upped that to 51% in 1999. Daihatsu was the source for kei-cars for Toyota, allowing it to not spread its resources into that narrow segment. But there has always been an overlap with Daihatsu’s larger cars, many of them having been Toyota rebadges. That’s not the case with the Charade, but Toyota’s Tercel was clearly stepping all over it, especially in the US. It begs the question as to whether Daihatsu has a real future as a word brand, or whether it will eventually be absorbed fully into the Toyota family.

Nissan and Renault may be joined at the hip (well, at the CEO anyway), but they’re not going easy on each other as both charge ahead to bring down EV costs. Nissan’s Leaf is currently the cheapest major OEM-produced EV, but at around €30k, it’s still not all that cheap. Now, Renault is saying that its forthcoming Zoe EV will put the hurt on its cousin, the Leaf, with a starting price of “around” €21k. It’s not that much smaller than the Leaf and it’s got the same 100 mile projected range… so what’s Renault’s secret? Does it have some special pricing formula? The answer is yes… but it’s not so secret. You see, when you buy the Zoe (sometime in 2012), you won’t be buying a battery. Instead, you will lease the battery for around €70 per month. You see, unlike Nissan’s Leaf, the Renault Zoe will be able to use Project Better Place’s battery switch-station to swap batteries in just minutes. So, if you charge from home, the Zoe and the Leaf will be largely the same… but if you live near a PBP swap station, the Zoe’s range can be doubled in minutes. Plus, you don’t own the battery, so killer EV depreciation isn’t a worry. It’s like we’ve said: it’s not the cars that will break EVs into the mainstream, it’s the business model.

Although cars are becoming more and more safe with every new generation, auto safety nuts are forever finding new ways to make cars seem scary. In some cases, the rush to create new crash test standards can create as many problems as it solves (see roof-crush standards), but in others you wonder why certain standards aren’t tested on every vehicle. One case that falls into the latter category: rear-crash tests. No government requires rear-crash testing, but in the wake of several accidents, Germany’s AutoBild magazine decided to look into what exactly happens when a car is hit from behind at 64 km/h… and the results are not encouraging.

(Read More…)

The Barcelona Reporter, er, reports that a new law passed by Spain’s parliament

allows dealerships a full refund from manufacturers for unsold cars and, in some cases, to charge carmakers for sales teams’ labour and other related expenses… Car manufacturers will have to repay dealerships for any cars they fail to sell after three months, under the new law.

In the event carmakers’ contracts with distributors expire or are cancelled, they must also pay for layoffs at salesrooms and compensate them for lost custom.

Proponents argue that the law, which was bundled with a number of economic measures, would protect Spain’s 150k dealer jobs which, they argue, exist “at the whim” of manufacturers. Needless to say, the OEMs are not amused, and the association of foreign automakers who build cars in Spain (ANFAC) hints that investments by members like Ford, Nissan and Volkswagen will have to be reconsidered in light of these new rules. And even within Spain, the measure is drawing controversy. Industry minister Miguel Sebastian complains

How will a German, Japonese or French (car manufacturer) understand this law if I do not even understand it myself?

In other “Spain hates cars” news, Auto Motor und Sport reports that the country has also approved a new urban speed limit of 30 km/hour (about 18.6 MPH) in order to reduce pedestrian deaths.

In his review of the Ford Fiesta, Jack Baruth identified a personality type that anyone who spends time on car websites will recognize: “Mr Euro.”

Mr. Euro is the guy who, for some reason, wants the cars he cannot have in the United States. He’s the guy who says he would drive a 520i “in a heartbeat” given the chance, the dude who thinks we’re missing out because the Renault Twingo stays on the froggy side of the pond, the fellow who desperately wants a Vauxhall Zafira for child-lugging purposes.

Indeed, some of us might even recognize a little “Mr Euro” in ourselves. Especially when we consider the Hyundai i40, a Passat and Mondeo-benchmarked, Euro-only, wagon-first, expression of Hyundai’s “modern premium” aspirations. Hundai’s reps claim [via Autocar] the i40 will offer “all the credentials of an Audi but an affordable price,” and say that a four-door sedan version (coming in 2012) “would match the VW Passat CC for style.” Too bad America’s Mr Euros make up such a tiny segment (and spend all their money on used cars and maintenance) that Hyundai is likely to never bring it to the US.

…with Lancia badges! And yes, that is the Lancia Grand Voyager. Chrysler must have held on to the name after Plymouth kicked the bucket. Of course, few consumers in the European markets where Lancias are sold will get the reference to a defunct budget brand, but the decision does add to the surreal vibe that these Chrysler-cum-Lancias exude.

OK, OK, this is the Lancia-branded version of the Chrysler Ypsilon… and even when it gets a Chrysler badge, it won’t be coming to the United States (at least not in this iteration). Still, this is a huge moment for Chrysler: after all, the brand has not offered a legitimate subcompact car since the Omni/Horizon shuffled off the mortal coil some 21 years ago. And like the Simca-derived L-Platform subcompacts, the Ypsilon is thoroughly continental under its badging: the Fiat 500 platform underpins this hatch, though it has been stretched slightly to accommodate four doors. Performance will be modest as engine sizes range from 900cc to 1.3 liters, but with leather and Alcantara interior options, the first mini-Chrysler in over 20 years should offer a stately cabin for a subcompact. But will this be the Fiat-produced, B-Segment Chrysler that we’re expecting in 2013? And if so, will they change its name to Horizon?

While some analysts (who might be sitting on large quantities of GM and Ford stock) already dream of a sales rate between 15 and 16 million cars by year’s end in the U.S., CEOs of European carmakers are less gung ho. (Read More…)

Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicles (FCVs) are enjoying something of a comeback lately, as everyone from Hyundai and Honda to GM and Daimler are talking about forthcoming production versions of test-fleet FCVs. And with EVs poised to both dominate the short-term green-car game and inevitably disappoint consumers, it’s no surprise that the perennial “fuel of the future” is enjoying a fresh look from automakers. But if high cost and range anxiety are the flies in the EV ointment, the FCV-boosters are finding their hydrogen cars tend to suffer from the same problems. Daimler says

By 2015, we think a fuel cell car will not cost more than a four-cylinder diesel hybrid that meets the Euro 6 emissions standard.

but that by no means guarantees its Mercedes FCV will be truly “affordable” by any reasonable standard, as diesel-electrics are considered one of the most expensive applications of internal combustion power. And then there’s the whole range issue. Yes, FCVs refuel faster than EVs, but even the most ambitious of Hydrogen-boosters, Daimler, are only pushing vehicles with a 250-mile range. Which is why we puzzled a bit over The Globe And Mail‘s assesment that

Three Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL models will make [a 125-day] global trek, which will seek to highlight the real-world benefits of fuel cells versus EVs – mainly their much further range

Flipping over to AutoMotorundSport, we find that the irony which completely escaped the G&M is threatening to overwhelm Daimler’s entire demonstration. And, as is only natural when things like this occur, there’s a bizarre TTAC connection…

(Read More…)

With a new entry-level Maserati prancing about, presumably based on the Dodge Challenger’s shortened version of the LX platform, news of a new Alfa-Romeo sports coupe initially had us thinking that we were about to see more fruits of the Fiat-Chrysler Alliance. But not so, as Automotive News [sub] reports that the forthcoming 4C GTA will be a lightweight sports coupe developed on a platform from a little closer to Turin. Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM provides the basis for the 4C GTA in the form of its X-Bow trackday special, which was designed by Italy’s Dallara racing team, the firm that is also developing the 4C for Alfa. AN [sub] reports

Dallara developed a carbon fiber cockpit for the 4C GTA, which features front and rear aluminum sub-frames to house the engine, as well as carry the pushrod suspensions and to absorb deformation in crash tests….

Thanks to an innovative construction method, which combines carbon fiber and aluminum, the 4C GTA will be very lightweight. Alfa is targeting an 850kg (1,784 lbs) curb weight for the car.

The 4C GTA would have an impressive power-to-weight ratio below 3.5kg/hp despite being powered by the 1.8-liter, four-cylinder gasoline direct-injection engine offered in the Giulietta with the horsepower boosted to more than 250 hp from 235 hp.

That would give the €40k 4C GTA, due out in late 2012, a power-to-weight ratio greater than the Porsche Cayman S. Alfa envisions 20k-25k units of production for the in-house-styled 4C GTA, but for now

A Fiat spokesman confirmed that Alfa is working on a concept car, but said its unveiling at the Geneva show is still uncertain because of “delays in the concept model construction.”

Needless to say, this is exactly the kind of car that would have us abandon our concerns and welcome Alfa to the US with open arms. We will be watching this car closely.

More little steps on the hydrogen fuel cell front, part of the walk-up to the big 2015 launch: Hyundai signed a memorandum of understanding with Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland to supply hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles to public organizations in a pilot program, The Nikkei [sub] reports. (Read More…)

With the UAW entering contract negotiations this year, all eyes are on Volkswagen’s discussion with its largest union IG Metall… and the signs coming from those European labor talks aren’t looking promising. Automotive News [sub] reports that VW has offered IG-represented workers a 2.9 percent pay raise over the next two years and a €300 one-time payment by June, but with VW raking in billions in profits this year, the workers aren’t biting. IG Metall chief negotiator Hartmut Meine tells Automotive News [sub]

The difference between demand and offer is much too big. The length of the deal has to be shorter and the proposed pay hike higher, before we can talk about a compromise

“The wage gap east of our domestic borders and new competitors from the Far East force us to be measured in all permanent increases in costs,” Schumm said, adding that VW already pays its workers 10 percent of the brand’s operating profits as a performance bonus.