Archive for April 2007
Written By: Chris Paukert
April 30th, 2007 4:51 PM
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From the “Men of Few Words” Dept. comes a blurb from Automotive News detailing Toyota’s plan to unveil a city car concept at the Frankfurt International Auto Show this September.
Said to be around 118-inches long, the diminutive urban runabout will have a novel 3+1 seating arrangement, with room for three adults and one child sitting behind the driver. We assume that this means that the seating will be arrayed in a diamond pattern, with the driver sitting in front and the two full-size passengers staggered behind (not unlike the McLaren F1).
AN says that this concept will spawn a production model to begin selling next summer, with pricing and positioning that will see the microcar check in below the already frugal Aygo (shown above in four-door trim).
+ Automotive News: Toyota will reveal microcar at IAA (subscription may be required)
Written By: Chris Paukert
April 30th, 2007 4:25 PM
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Just where does a Bugatti owner stash the keys to his Veyron 16.4? Well, if you’ve got the financial wherewithal to purchase one of these small-volume supercars, you probably aren’t likely to hang the fob in the entryway by the umbrellas, right?
Enter the Stockinger “Safe Bugatti.” This built-to-order beauty combines the latest in anti-theft protection, including five button keypad, four-way ground anchor with break-off sensors, sonic and noise sensors in both the door and body, and even optional GPS.
The interior is no less impressive, drawing influence and materials from the Veyron itself. It features both jewelry and watch trays, as well as a drawer with a watchwinder for two timepieces, all rendered in Bugatti leather. The whole interior array is available in different shelving and drawer configurations, and it is lit via LED lighting.
Perhaps the neatest feature is that Stockinger’s specialists will be happy to custom craft your safe in colors and materials to match your Veyron.
Given that its asking price is a tidy $126,000, we might be asking Stockinger if they’ve got a bigger vault to keep the Safe Bugatti locked away in!
+ Stockinger
Written By: Chris Paukert
April 30th, 2007 1:00 PM
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Famed automotive Italian styling house Pininfarina has just thrown open the doors on San Diego’s Keating Hotel. The 117-year old, 35-room, four floor hotel is the recipient of a redesign crafted by none other than Paolo Pininfarina.
The Keating is the first hotel property entrusted to Pininfarina Extra, a division of the family business that designs everything from portable hard drives to lamp posts. Paolo Pininfarina has seemingly had his hands in everything, from the industrial, minimalist design aesthetic of the lobby and bar, to the range of furniture and accessories. Pininfarina designs mark out the rooms and hallways including four types of chairs, in-room coffee machines, Ferrari models in the hallways, and so on.
Located in the Gaslamp Quarter, the Keating can accommodate up to 72 people. We’re quite sure they’ll be happy to park your Pininfarina-penned Maserati Quattroporte or Ferrari Enzo out front, as well.
(Find out more about the hotel by clicking on the link below)
+ TheKeating.com
Written By: Chris Paukert
April 30th, 2007 11:50 AM
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Car and Driver readers continue to be incensed over the magazine’s controversial redesign, and after a curt response in March’s Backfires column to reader letters by Ed. (“We paid big bucks for this redesign, and we ain’t going back.”), the magazine may just be reconsidering their stance.
In a print-only, full-page article in the June issue’s Upfront (entitled “Redesign Hate Mail”); C&D informs us that they received even more hate mail, with the tally running “139 to 8 against the redesign and our attitude.” That means that their cumulative tally (by their count) was 303 to 21. Ouch.
The powers that be decided to parse and print a whole ream of missives, the overwhelming majority of which were vitriol-filled. A sample:
“…This thing is not a joy. It is something only a mother could love. Hey, you’ve merely destroyed a kid’s childhood. That’s okay, things change. You are the future. You can’t even get your Web site right. I couldn’t find the unsubscribe button.”
“…frankly, it’s like seeing your teenage daughter come home with a stud in her tongue. You still love her, but it’s painful to look at.”
“You have turned the magazine into BMW’s iDrive.”
The fact that they continue to print so much hate mail makes us wonder: Perhaps C&D’s editors didn’t jump out the redesign window—maybe they were pushed? It’s entirely possible (likely, even), that the questionable new look was foisted upon them by their publisher, Hachette Fillipacchi. After all, their editors needn’t have been so “full disclosure” about the ensuing mess, but they’ve chosen to be—perhaps because the only way they could take issue with their defenestration was not in the boardroom, but instead in the pages of their own magazine?
The article (page 48, for you fellow subscribers), finishes on a hopeful note—the editorial staff appears to have been genuinely caught off guard by their readership’s negative reaction, and they close with this:
“But keep your eyes on these pages. Maybe we have run over our own foot. A redesign always has elements of a work in progress, and we’ll likely be making tweaks in the months ahead. In the meantime, we’ve got Ed. Signed up for a Dale Carnegie course. [Won’t do a bit of good—Ed.]”
With many WINDING ROAD staffers and contributors having had their words published in C&D—not to mention many friends on its staff (and most of the rest of us having been faithful readers and subscribers for years), we can only say that we hope that our cross-town neighbors at Hogback Road can put things right, because we still enjoy the read.
Written By: Chris Paukert
April 30th, 2007 10:21 AM
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According to a blurb in the April 4 issue of Autocar, Skoda is hoping that consumers remember their Yeti concept, as they’ve green-lighted the chunkily attractive softroader. Set to reach dealers in 2009, the vehicle (which is set to ride on modified Fabia underpinnings) will retain the concept’s evocative name.
We hope that at least a handful of the Yeti concept’s features make it into production (we particularly liked the split tailgate with the built-in bicycle carrier and the removable satellite-navigation system that can be liberated for use as a portable GPS), but we’re less-than-optimistic about showcar features like the self-chilling water dispenser.
Either way, drifting through the white stuff in a four-wheeled Abominable Snowman sounds like good fun to us.
Written By: Nate Luzod
April 30th, 2007 9:09 AM
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This being our first go ’round at the Shanghai Auto Show, we couldn’t help but immolate our memory cards by sending our cameras snapping away at every little thing. We wish we could’ve taken our readership along on the journey, but as our American Express cards wouldn’t hear of it, we decided to do the next best thing: share some of our random images taken on the show floor.
Click on the gallery below, and enjoy.
Written By: Chris Paukert
April 29th, 2007 12:26 PM
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The spotlights have barely cooled on the GT500KR’s show stand in New York, and already Ford and Shelby are trumpeting new additions to the Mustang stable. Ford Racing has apparently conjured up some Super Snake “performance packs” for the already formidable Shelby GT500 which will see the ponycar generate up to 600 horsepower (warranted), or 725 hp sans warrantee for the Devil May Care crowd.
To be built at Shelby’s Las Vegas compound, the Super Snakes will be built in limited numbers and feature not only power upgrades, but an available “handling pack,” bigger brakes (six-piston Baers), and various other go-faster bits (carbon-fiber hood, 20-inch Alcoa wheels, etc.).
(Click through to the jump for Ford’s complete press release)
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Written By: Steven J. Ewing
April 27th, 2007 4:33 PM
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While this may just look like an ordinary tote to promote Ford’s 2008 Escape and Escape Hybrid, this special bag has a secret message. The fabric used to construct this fashionable useful carry-all was pulled directly from the fabric found in Ford’s new Escapes.
The city of San Francisco has put a ban on the use of plastic bags to help promote recycling. Supermarkets and drugstores will not be allowed to offer plastic bags made from petroleum products in an effort to save 450,000 gallons of oil each year and remove the need to send 1400 tons of waste to landfills. Evidently inspired by this development, FoMoCo is following suit by implementing 100 percent post-industrial material fabric in their Escape XLT and Hybrid models in an effort to conserve water, carbon dioxide, and the equivalent of millions of kilowatt hours.
Not only does this tote help promote recycling, it allows us to bring that new-car smell with us on the go. (Mmm, upholstery!)
+ WINDING ROAD: 2008 Ford Escape Road Test
Written By: Chris Paukert
April 27th, 2007 1:25 PM
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General Motors is euthanizing its slow-selling hybrid full-size pickups. The Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra gasoline-electric models were The General’s first crack at hybrids, but modest fuel economy increases (around 2 miles per gallon), increased cost (the system commanded a surcharge of around $3k), and what can only be described as a total lack of marketing led to their demise.
But hang on, dear friends, GM is already hard at work on a much improved set of hybrid trucks, this one based on the company’s newer (and far superior) GMT900 platform. A new two-mode hybrid system that GM has been designing with BMW and DaimlerChrysler should bring with it comparatively huge fuel economy dividends—somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-percent.
The next-generation hybrids are scheduled to hit dealer lots in about 18 months.
+ AutoWeek: Hybrids On Hold
Written By: Chris Paukert
April 27th, 2007 12:40 PM
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The battle for small car supremacy heats up by the day here in the U.S., and Motor Trend is reporting that America will get the next-generation Ford Fiesta, likely in late 2009.
Based on the new Mazda2’s underpinnings, the subcompact will be styled in the mold of Ford of Europe’s “Kinetic” design brief (as opposed to the “Red, White, and Bold” language employed in the States). Under an initiative to reduce costs and increase global commonality, having two design tacks was proving problematic, and CEO Alan Mulally appears keen on increasing various “world car” initiatives.
Being based in Michigan, we’ve actually spotted a growing number of current-generation Fiestas rolling about with manufacturer’s tags, and we’ve been wondering how long it would take for Dearborn to go on-the-record about a U.S.-market car.
The real question on our minds is… will we get a Fiesta ST variant?
(Click on the link below for more details)
+ Motor Trend: Next-gen Ford Fiesta subcompact set for U.S. in 2009; vehicle to mirror European model
Written By: Nate Luzod
April 27th, 2007 12:04 PM
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Mercedes-Benz SLK 350
Price as tested: $58,245
Miles Driven: 150
The first thing you’ll note on approaching the SLK 350 Roadster is how utterly small it appears to be. Perhaps it’s a study in proportions and ratios: though it’s less than one inch shorter than BMW’s Z4 (160.7 inches vs. 161.1 inches) and actually slightly wider (70.4 inches vs. 70.1 inches), it appears substantially smaller to the eye. Its lines make it seem less aggressive, and more refined– more Jude Law, less Bruce Willis. Our Online Editor, Chris Paukert, noted that this car’s previous incarnations were bought mostly by women, and it would seem that this is no accident, even though the current model has a markedly more pronounced Formula One-inspired nose.
That said, the softness stops there. Behind the wheel, the car is solid. Turn the chunky key fob in the ignition, and the 268-horsepower V-6 lets out a throaty (enough) growl that’s pleasing to the ears, but not so obnoxious that it’ll turn heads. Throw the gearshift (which our Editor swears must’ve been sourced from BMW, so smooth is its action) into first, and you’re off. By the time you reach sixth gear, your initial impressions should be a fading speck in the rear-view. The car’s 258 pound-feet of torque slingshots you in and out of traffic with agility, and the fact that almost none of the vehicle is located behind the driver’s seat makes it almost too easy to needle your way through aggravating clusters of slow-moving vehicles. Responsive steering, easy shifting and so much power packed into such a tiny package fills you with a confidence you shouldn’t have when driving a car that’s not actually yours. But driving it is, plain and simple, great fun.
(Click through to the jump for the rest of the review)
continued →
Written By: Chris Paukert
April 27th, 2007 11:58 AM
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Is BMW still planning on a small off-road vehicle based on their 1-series? We haven’t heard much about it in the past year or so, but Autocar believes that the vehicle is very much on the table. In a small print-only article from the April 4 issue, the rumormongers at the UK publication say that the crossover is likely to also form the basis for a mooted-branded MINI SUV.
Autocar points to a BMW employee at the company’s Munich R&D center that was spotted driving a Honda Element as proof that that the company is still up to something. This might not be all that significant of an observation, until one realizes that Honda doesn’t sell that particular model in Germany (or any surrounding countries that we can think of). Of course, the company’s engineers could be benchmarking any of a million different things, from suspension settings to the damping action of a pop-out cupholder. But we digress.
Earlier rumor mill reports peg the vehicle as offering…
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Next >
Nissan Confirms Upcoming G37 Convertible, 'Mini SUV' 
Ford Readies 2009 Focus Coupe for American Idol Reveal
Ford Planning to Revive F-100?
Ferrari California Revealed!
Lamborghini Picks L.A. for U.S. Headquarters
