Automotive News

Filed under: Motorsports, Hirings/Firings, Aston Martin

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Under its new ownership, Aston Martin continues to forge ahead into a brighter independent future. In addition to the production announcement of the Rapide and the rumors of an upcoming “DBX”, Aston is not missing a beat on its racing agenda, which should come as no surprise considering the background of its new chairman, David Richards.

To headline its Le Mans endurance racing program, Richards has brought in a big-name former F1 driver. Johnny Herbert, who in his eleven-year Formula One career drove for the likes of Benetton, Lotus, Sauber and Jaguar, will be driving the Aston Martin DBR9 for the Prodrive-run team at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Herbert is no stranger to endurance racing, having won the race for Mazda in 1991 and having driven the dominating MC12 for the Maserati factory team and Audis for customer teams, before briefly returning to the F1 paddock as Jordan/Midland’s sporting relations manager. Richards withdrew Aston from the American Le Mans Series for this season, so they’ll only be competing in the title race at Le Mans, leaving Herbert with enough time to consider other possibilities, including the Grand Prix Masters. (Aston also announced a new sponsorship deal with luxury hotel chain InterContinental.)

Recruiting Herbert, however, is about as close as Aston Martin will be getting to Formula One anytime soon. David Richards quelled any speculation that the Aston Martin name would be linked to his upcoming re-entry into F1 with Prodrive. Likely taking a page from former corporate cousin Jaguar’s unfortunate experience in F1, Richards has wisely decided to leave Aston out of his grand prix venture rather than risk dragging its valuable name through the mud.

[Source: Aston Martin]

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Filed under: Euro, Marketing/Advertising, Hatchbacks, Renault

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If you’d have told us that a carmaker was doing a special edition model named after a newspaper, we would have, without hesitation, asked you which Japanese manufacturer was behind the madness. After all, the Japanese are the kings of the odd special edition, so this would not seem the least bit outlandish. As it happens, we’d have been dead wrong.

It seems the French are just as capable of pulling a special edition out of left field (sports pun fully intended). This explains the Renault Megane L’Equipe, named for the eponymous sports daily. The cars receive edition-specific decals and upholstery, as well as the 16″ alloys shown, fog lamps, and creature comforts like an MP3-compatible CD player. Power comes from a choice of 1.4L (100 hp) or 1.6L (110 hp) gasoline engines, or a 1.5L diesel pumping out 85 or 105 horses. Why people (other than some fanatical readers) would choose this car kind of eludes us. I mean, we love the New York Daily News sports section, but don’t think we’d be signing up for something like a Mike Lupica Edition sedan from some automaker…

[Source: Renault]

 

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Filed under: Convertibles, SUVs, Maybach

By most accounts, Maybach managed to move less than 300 units in all of 2006. These are low numbers even for an ultra-exclusive personal limo manufacturer. We can personally attest to the Maybach sedan being a very fine road car that is sumptuous and coddling, while simultaneously being capable of amazing alacrity when given the spur. Sure, it couldn’t quite keep up with its corporate cousin CLK DTM, but it will more than hold its own against a Silver Spur or Phantom. But even a good car can get a bit stale, and although the line was expanded with the “S” models, the 57 and 62 won’t personally guarantee the marque’s future. As much as we’d love to see the Exelero reach production (so would The Governator), it’s far more likely we’ll be seeing a cabrio/landoulet version of the current sedan, and possibly an SUV, as well.

CAR Magazine, in fact, is reporting that the 57 and 62 sedans will go topless, with a power cloth top dropping to expose that huge passenger compartment. They also predict that a version of the corporate Mercedes-Benz GL will get a Maybachover to create the ultimate SUV. Picture a new nose and tail and those Concorde-like seats inside. They guess that these models could quintuple Maybach output by adding 25-50 ragtops and up to 1,500 Sport Utes. We see the cabrio as a must-have in light of the debut of the Rolls-Royce Drophead Coupe, even if Mercedes brings the Ocean Drive to fruition. The SUV seems like less of a necessity, but with a possible Bentley SUV in the future, this would make sense, too.

[Source: CAR Magazine]

 

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Filed under: Etc., Volvo

map from last year’s treasure hunt

Just like it did last year, Volvo appears to be launching another treasure hunt wherein one lucky buccaneer will escape with the ultimate automotive treasure - a new car! The online clue board is located here, and with a new installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise set to debut May 25th, the Disney website is a part of the hunt, as well. At World’s End isn’t just the name of the new Pirates movie, it just might also be the location of this year’s dig as well.

This bit from the current contest entry leads us to wonder what will be at the end of your shovel when you finally strike gold: “The treasure this year will shock even the toughest swashbucklers out there.” Could it be one of the SEMA C30s? All of them? We can only hope and pray, though last year’s XC90 was hardly a bad prize in its own right. As we said in our post on last year’s contest (one of the most commented on Autoblog posts of all time with 1,271 comments), tying into a hit movie franchise, giving away a vehicle or two and doing it in such a fun and different way is a refreshing change for Volvo. Now, all for one and… that’s it, go get your car.

[Source: Volvo via GTChannel.com]

 

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Filed under: Car Buying

Although she might not be the spokewoman for Overstock.com any longer, Sabine Ehrenfeld is one minor celebrity we actively look for an excuse to mention. Second only to Nürburg-queen Sabine Schmitz, Overstock.com’s Sabine Ehrenfeld is that super sexy, multi-talented spokesperson that reintroduced us to the Big-O a Christmas or two ago.

Well, that was sort of car-related, but there really is another reason to bring her up. It seems the online clearinghouse for seemingly everything else is getting deeper into the automotive market. Overstock has reportedly signed an agreement with rental giant Enterprise to clear out last year’s inventory of fleet vehicles. With 15 million users a day, Overstock represents a huge built-in audience that Enterprise Rent-A-Car has apparently decided might be interested in their cars a,s well. As with other automotive offerings, Overstock will essentially act as a storefront rather than as an actual dealer. Maybe Schmitz will be interested in the spokesperson vacancy.

[Source: Winding Road]

 

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Filed under: SUVs, Etc., Government/Legal, Supercars, Lamborghini

American forces in Iraq have finally killed Saddam Hussein’s son’s…car. While his megalomaniacal father garnered the lion’s share of notoriety, Saddam’s cruel depravity was exceeded by his eldest son’s, the erstwhile heir apparent to the Iraqi presidency who was known for murdering people he didn’t like at parties and torturing Olympic athletes. It only makes sense that a monster of a person should have driven a monster of an automobile: the Lamborghini LM002.

For those unacquainted with the LM002, picture the offspring of a one-night-stand between an exotic Italian supercar and a tank, and you’ve got an approximate idea. The truck is known to guzzle gas like a fratboy funnels beer, but that posed little concern for a family with all the oil in the world but no one to sell it to.

According to reports, Uday’s “Rambo Lambo”, already on its last leg and limping to the grave, was recovered by American soldiers who, apparently failing to identify the significance of the vehicle, used it to test explosives. And so, like the fate of its owner, Uday’s Lamborghini was no more. The world may be a better place without the Husseins, but we’ll mourn the truck.

[Source: Lamborghini Registry via Jalopnik]

 

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Filed under: Trucks/Pickups, Safety, Toyota

Toyota is a little confused as to how its new full-size Tundra pickup only achieved a score of four stars in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s test for frontal crash performance. Mike Levine at Pickuptruck.com, who is fast becoming Autoblog’s unofficial expert on all things with a bed, spoke with Bill Kwong, a representative from Toyota, this morning. Kwong revealed that Toyota performed its own internal crash testing of the Tundra according to the NHTSA’s criteria and the truck repeatedly scored five stars. This no doubt gave Toyota the confidence to predict that the Tundra would receive five stars across the board from the NHTSA, a move that definitely has the Japanese juggernaut wiping a little egg off its face now. Kwong said it will take a few weeks to sort out what contributed to the truck’s four-star score, but that they’ll determine what it is and fix it as soon as possible.

What’s more curious about this whole situation is that the NHTSA reported frontal crash test scores for both the Tundra regular cab and the Double Cab, or what the NHTSA calls the Extended Cab in its results. Toyota claims, however, that the NHTSA hasn’t tested the Double Cab yet and therefore its four-star result should be immediately removed from the organization’s results website, safecar.gov. While we can’t verify if Toyota’s claim is true, both the pictures and video released by the NHTSA of the crash tests only show the regular cab model. Based on that, it does appear that the Double Cab, as well as the four-door Crew Max, have yet to be tested. Still, the four-star score for the Double Cab model remains on safecar.gov.

Check out the video of the Tundra regular cab being crash tested after the jump.

[Source: Pickuptruck.com]

Continue reading Toyota curious about Tundra’s four-star showing in crash test

 

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Filed under: Government/Legal, BMW, Infiniti

Today’s tale of litigation between automakers is brought to you by the letter M, which both BMW and Infiniti are claiming rights to use in a Canadian court. Unfortunately for Infiniti, BMW has been using the letter M to designate its many performance variants since 1978 in Germany and 1987 in Canada. Infiniti, however, only registered the names M45 in 2004 and M35 in 2005. As such, Infiniti has lost the battle over M, at least in Canada.

The silly thing is that Infiniti could have avoided being sued by BMW if it had steered clear of using the letter M alone in advertisements. It also produced a model of the G35 coupe it called the M6, which obviously steps on the toes of BMW’s own high-end M6 coupe. Had Infiniti gone on just using the M45 and M35 monikers alone, it would likely not be liable for damages in a Canadian court right now. The amount of damages that Infiniti must pay BMW has yet to be determined, but in the meantime it has to “deliver to the plaintiffs [BMW] or to destroy under oath, all literature, invoices, packaging, signs, advertisements, promotional or marketing material, printed or otherwise recorded, in the possession, custody or control of the defendant.”

Thanks for the tip, Tom!

[Source: CBC.ca]

 

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Filed under: Sports/GTs, Hatchbacks, Volkswagen

What’s an RS? Well, appearances would possibly indicate that it’s going to be the production version of the Thunder Bunny Concept (right) from last year’s SEMA show. The nameplate mounted to the front bumper identifies the hatch as the Golf RS, or possibly RSi — the photo resolution’s too low to tell.

A quick look at the attached Thunder Bunny gallery shows that the bodywork is one and the same, and the RS/RSi car looks prepped for business with its lowered suspension, racing-style seats (which are far more purposeful than the Thunder Bunny’s), and 10-spoke Passat R36 wheels shod in meaty rubber. If the gear underhood displaces 3.6 liters, we could be looking at a Golf R36. Any way you cut it, the car’s pretty boss, and our interest is piqued.

[Source: UK-MkIVs.net via the WCF Blog]

 

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Filed under: Convertibles, Mercedes Benz

Click above to jump to the Ocean Drive image gallery

When Mercedes-Benz showed us the Ocean Drive concept in Detroit, it was very clear that the enormous four-door convertible show car fell squarely into the “design study” category and not into “production preview”. At the same time, like so many other show cars, DCX was carefully watching how the public received the idea. The feedback they apparently observed was so positive they’ve decided to build it. Sort of.

In a recent interview in Auto Motor und Sport, a senior DaimlerChrysler exec hinted that the company was carefully considering adding a convertible version of the CL luxury coupe, itself a two-door model based on the S-Class luxury sedan. The Ocean Drive concept was more closely based on the S-Class directly, uniquely retaining its four-door setup but chopping the roof. The production version, if built, will have a more conventional two-door setup instead of four, and is expected to be called the CLC, a name which, as we reported back in December, was registered for use by Mercedes.

Although others (including their own Chrysler Sebring) have pulled off proper four-seat hard-top convertibles, the sheer size of the CLC will likely dictate that it will, like the Ocean Drive, have a fabric roof. That should sit fine with customers, as the CLC’s most direct competition will come from the Bentley Continental GTC, whose roof is also canvas. Engines, meanwhile, are expected to carry over from the CL-Class coupe in V8, V12 and torqualicious AMG versions, and reports suggest the possible addition of a diesel model and possibly even 4Matic all-wheel-drive. Bentley has been officially put on notice.

[Source: Motor Authority]

 

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