I got an email from Oscar Koveleski the other day. Actually, I get a lot of emails from Oscar, but this one was special. Oscar, for those of you too young or too old to remember, was an amateur sports car racer from Scranton, Pennsylvania who took on the likes of Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme and Jackie Stewart in the original Can Am series. He never won a ran in the series, but he and teammate Tony Adamowicz, running year-old McLarens were frequently the highest-placed independents, which was quite an accomplishment. Oscar won an SCCA National Championship in 1970 behind the wheel of the same 1969 McLaren M8B that he raced in the Can Am series that year. Oscar’s 1971 racer was Bruce McLaren’s 1970 Championship car. (more…)
Yesterday in WheelsTV I gave you a rundown (Actually it was a walkdown.) on some of Continental’s innovative technologies. But I saved one for special mention today: Continental’s Accelerator Force Feedback Pedal (AFFP). It’s one of Conti’s Human-Machine Interface (HMI) technologies, and I was able to evaluate it on a BMW 3 Series. Instead of having the driver watch an upshift light on the dash or listen for a tone, the AFFP vibrates or adds a counterforce as feedback to the driver to educate his right foot in driving more efficiently to save fuel and reduce emissions. Pedal vibration and/or counterforce are fully tunable. This technology can also be integrated into several other Conti safety technologies, as for example, providing feedback to the driver of his current distance to other vehicles. (more…)
A few years ago, if you asked a car guy to respond with the first word that came to mind when I mentioned Continental, the answer would have been tires. And the next five words would have been either Conti Contac performance summer tires or Conti Blizzak performance winter tires.
But no longer is the Germany-based Continental synonymous just with tires. Slowly, and somewhat under the radar screen, Continental has been reinventing itself, not a bad thing in a fast changing automotive environment. Today Continental is still renowned for its tires, but for those automotive folks who are hardwired into the “parts” sides of the business, Continental has emerged as the world’s third largest automotive supplier company behind Bosch and Magna. In some segments of the fast food business parts is parts, but not in the automotive business. Suppliers are the lifeblood of the industry. Today, every automotive manufacturer—Ford, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, you name it—is highly dependent upon suppliers for much of the hard and software in every one of its vehicles. Literally hundreds of suppliers, some with well known names such as Lear, Johnson Controls, Bosch and Delphi, and unknowns (except for auto industry insiders making their living designing, engineering, costing and manufacturing vehicles) such as NTN (axle bearings), Brose (electric seat adjustment), and Rehau (rear spoiler) work closely with their auto company partners, helping them create many of the literally hundreds of primary and subsystems required in every vehicle: airbags, brakes, gauge clusters, tires, seats, shock absorbers, steering wheels, transmissions, ECMS . . . the list is endless. No auto company possesses all of the internal capabilities to design, engineer develop, test and manufacture an automobile today. Thus the need for specialists such as Continental. (more…)
The fact that Suzuki is hugely successful in every market around the world—except for this one—says much about the fickle nature of the American market and the need for mega dollars to cut through the advertising clutter but nothing about how good Suzuki’s current offerings, the SX4 Crossover/SportBack and the midsize Kizashi 4-door sedan, are at providing fun, functional and affordable motoring.
I won’t spend words on the Kizashi here. If you’ve followed my missives on WheelsTV.tv you know how much I like this new sporty Suzuki sedan.
The SX4, on the other hand, has been around longer—since 2007—and might be considered the Rodney Dangerfield of small cars. Raise your hand if you’ve seen one in the past month. Drop me a note if you’ve actually driven one. It’s almost as if Suzuki has gone into stealth mode in the US, not intentionally, but the result is that when you take the temperature of the typical car shopper, Suzuki typically falls close to absolute zero on the consideration list. (more…)
Bob Lutz showed up in LA recently for an impromptu breakfast with the Motor Press Guild, aka MPG. Bob is always good for a few juicy quotes so I hustled up the 405 in typical OC-LA rush day traffic to grab an earful.
Bob didn’t disappoint. He started with a comment about GM needing to make headway in the Smile States and then proceeded to elaborate on some recent successes in California:
GM’s retail share of market in California for Q4 2009 was 9.3%, up 0.8 percentage points (PP) from Q4 ’08.
Compact Crossover and large car sales were up 4.7 PP and 2.8 PP, respectively for the same period.
In a recent design clinic of an upcoming new Cadillac versus its European and Asian competition, the clinic attendees liked the Cadillac more after they found out it was a Cadillac than when they didn’t know it was a Cadillac. Lutz says this is the first time this has happened. (more…)
Hyundai has been selling cars in the US since 1986. And after a bit of a sputtering start, the last decade has seen years of steady growth for Hyundai in this market. Starting at a mere 0.6 percent market share in 1998, Hyundai reached 3.0 percent penetration in 2008 and in 2009, a year in which world-wide recession and plummeting auto sales affected virtually every auto maker in this market, Hyundai sales rocketed to a 4.2 percent share of market.
So what has Hyundai been doing right? Seems like just about everything: Quality products competitively priced. J.D. Power quality and North American Car of the Year Awards. Attention grabbing warranty programs. A job-loss vehicle return program. Depreciation lower than Toyota and Ford. High-tech powertrains. Industry-leading fuel economy. More standard features than the competition. Leadership in active and passive safety technologies. Oh, and did I mention styling? Say hello to the eye-stopping 2011 Hyundai Sonata.
Hard to believe but Ford’s midsize competitor to the likes of the Camry, Accord, Malibu, Altima and Sonata has been around since the 2006 model year. It first appeared in these pages in 2007, November 27th to be precise, in the guise of two 2008 SE models, one with a 4-cylinder and the other with a V6.
Spool ahead to 2010 and we’re got a substantially updated Fusion, one with revised front and rear styling, an even nicer interior and new powertrain offerings including the hybrid model reviewed here.
Ford’s continued evolution of its hybrid technology results in a hybrid system that transitions between gasoline and electric power and back more efficiently and seamlessly. The overall system upgrade allows the Ford Fusion and its Mercury Milan counterpart to operate longer at higher speeds in electric mode. The hybrid vehicles can operate up to 47 mph (I saw 43 mph) in pure electric mode, approximately twice as fast as some competitors. Plus, the city driving range on a single tank of gas is expected to be more than 700 miles. EPA ratings for the Ford Fusion Hybrid are 41-mpg city and 36-mpg highway, better than its Camry, Altima and Malibu hybrid counterparts. (more…)
More exciting auto news on the good, the bad and the ugly that showed up at Detroit. Images once again from Fotog Joe Tori who takes no credit for the “uglies.” All he does is shoot ‘em as they come. And make them picture perfect.
A clean sweep for Ford in the North American Car and Truck of the year awards with the Ford Fusion Hybrid and Transit Connect taking top honors. Both are green versions of conventional internal combustion models. The city-size Transit van will be offered in two full electric ranges (Sorry, no gas stoves offered.) sometime during the second half of 2010. The entry-level model will have 60-mile range on its lithium ion batteries and an optional 100-miler will also be available.
A MAXI MINI? What else would you call the Beachcomber concept with 4-doors, 4-seats and 4-wheel drive shown at Detroit? Unless, of course, you called it a Countryman crossover, a production model which goes on sale in the US in 2011.
So is the GMC Granite concept concrete evidence that GM is going after Scion buyers? The diminutive Granite is low, wide and aggressive. But it features impressive utility in the configuration of doors and seats. It’s powered by a 1.4-liter 4-cylinder mit turbo and teamed to a 6-speed auto trans. Will it make it to production? “No comment” from the General. Yes, says the Carmudgeon. And who you gonna believe?????????
Who can you trust if you can’t trust GM’s Vice Chairman Bob Lutz? Lutz calls the Aveo RS concept a “car guy’s Chevy.” The five-door hatchback is longer and wider and has more space than the current Aveo. It also has 19-inch wheels designed to appeal to car guys and gals. At the Detroit show the RS had a 138-bhp, turbo, 1.4-liter, 4-banger under the hood, same engine that will be offered in the 2011 Chevy Cruze small car. But Lutz says he’s looking for a bit more juice. We’d second that motion if he hopes for emotion.
Will the IQ score highly with young buyers or will they say Scionara, baby. That’s the $64,000 question waiting to be answered as Toyota prepares to beef up the Scion lineup in the coming months. The Scion IC is tiny, barely 10 feet long and seats three. But look for all the iPod, MP3, etc., ect., connectivity that is “gotta have” for youthful drivers these days.
Hocus Focus. Finally, Americans will get a version of the Euro Focus. The current car is on an older platform not shared with the Mazda3 and Volvo S40 and V50 models as it is everywhere else on this planet. But . . . this new and much improved Focus is a 2012 model that won’t go on sale until early 2011. Quality, fuel economy and other improvements will move this new model up the value and price scale resulting in improved revenue according to Ford. And for Ford’s bean counters, that’s something that should not be discounted.
Cobo Hall in Deeetroit is “the happening” this week with the auto show and tell. Here are some good ones . . . with photos from Joe “the pro” Tori who has been wigging around the halls for the past two days.
The luscious Caddy CTS-V Coupe. Unmistakably a Cadillac and one with more than a styling edge. Does 556 supercharged horses from a 6.2-liter V8 sharpen all your corners?
Fiat 500: The quintessential cinquecento. This classy and sassy retro is half the size of the Caddy next door. But it's great fun to drive and who could ask for more?
Ford Fiesta. This one is cause for celebration. A "big" car relative to the Fiat 500 but it's smaller than the Ford Focus, making it a subcompact. The styling is huggable and Ford's viral You-and-Me Tube Secret Agent pre-intro marketing campaign has created lots of buzz and awareness.
Mazda 2 is one number less than 3. The Mazda 3 is a compact. This one is the smaller subcompact sibling. It's next to the Fiesta because they share a platform. Can't decide which to buy? Try 'em both..
Nobody asked me but . . .
