Auburn Hills, Mich., Sep 14, 2007 - Summer is over and kids are back in school, which means many families are looking ahead to their next trip — most likely during the holiday season.
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Filed under: Government/Legal
You might recall about this time last year, California State Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed a lawsuit in Northern California’s U.S. District Court asserting that automakers selling vehicles in the Golden State were liable for the hundreds of millions of dollars of damages its products cause. That lawsuit, which named GM, Ford, Toyota, DaimlerChrysler, Honda and Nissan as the defendants, was thrown out today by a federal judge.
Martin Jenkins, the U.S. District Judge presiding on the case, said that it was impossible to assess how much responsibility automakers had in contributing to the damage caused by global warming in California. Furthermore, he went on to say that lawmakers - not judges - should be the ones responsible for determining if automakers should be held accountable.
[Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req.]
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Filed under: Economy, China, Hatchbacks, Toyota
You can’t have it all, and Toyota is learning this lesson first hand as it struggles to develop an inexpensive, safe and well built car to sell in markets like China, Russia and Brazil. Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe has already driven prototypes of the low-cost car, and told Automotive News Europe that he found the “level of the new car not bad.” Toyota doesn’t have a reputation for building cars that are “not bad”, and Watanabe thinks there’s a way to go in improving the car’s quality. Unfortunately, that means the low cost car, the design of which may be based on the iQ Concept shown this past week in Frankfurt, will not be as inexpensive as first thought. While admitting his company could sell the car for less than €5,000, Watanabe doesn’t think they’d be able to offer the safety and quality he says Toyota is known for at that price.
[Source: Automotive News Europe - sub. req’d]
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Filed under: Hatchbacks, Chevrolet
No, not Las Vegas. Vegas, as in more than one Chevy Vega. Three, to be exact, when a tornado took out a Michigan barn, totally destroying three of the infamous hatchbacks.
Normally, this would be cause for not much more than a little giggle for the removal of three more examples of a Chevy nightmare. Except for the fact that two of them were painted black, with gold pinstriping, a paint scheme chosen by GM Vice President John DeLorean for the company’s 1975 Cosworth Vegas to wear. The third car, also a Cosworth, was white, so probably a 1976 model and with only 18,000 miles on it. These were not merely pedestrian Vegas left in a barn to rust, but vey rare hatchbacks with Cosworth aluminum blocks under their hoods.
Despite having relatively poor performance, they cost $600 less than a Corvette in 1975 and 1976. The Cosworth Vegas’ high price and fragile engines made for sales in the 3,500 range, which makes it one of the rarer nameplates in GM history.
So let’s have a small moment of silence while you check out our gallery of pictures from the tragedy. Then, for a vastly larger (like 300 pictures!) gallery of the smashed Michigan Vegas, click here. For an interesting history of the Cosworth Vega (including how GM’s alleged cheating on an EPA emissions test cost them dearly), read this.
[Source: CosworthVega.com via Hemmings]
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Filed under: Etc., Tech, Chrysler
After a six month rebuild program the high-speed oval track at Chrysler’s Chelsea Michigan Proving Ground has re-opened. The first official test run on the new track was the 2007 Michigan State Police vehicle evaluation. The 4.71 mile oval was originally constructed in 1953 and had never been completely resurfaced until now. The increasingly bumpy surface has turns banked at an angle that allows for driving at 140 mph without steering input.
The old surface was made of concrete and repairs required significant amount of downtime for the track so that sections could be cut out, refilled and allowed to set. Rather than just resurface the facility, Chrysler completely ripped out all the concrete and rebuilt the base. The old concrete was ground up and used to build the base of the new track. Full drainage was provided around the underside of the entire surface of the track which allowed the ditches that used to line the inside of the road surface to be eliminated.
Continue reading about changes to the oval after the jump.
Continue reading Chrysler Proving Ground high-speed oval re-opens after rebuild
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Filed under: Etc.
The recently launched Caparo T1 may already have met its match, and it comes from an unlikely source. New Zealand based Hulme Supercars Ltd. is planning to build an extreme race-car-for-the-road called the Hulme. Powered by a 5.0L V8 engine sourced from BMW, the Hulme develops 550 HP, but weighs in around 1175 kg, which is quite a bit more than the Caparo. The company hopes to begin production next year and claims it can build 25 cars a year. List price is an eye-watering £310,000 (US$620K).
Hulme Supercars states that the idea behind this car is to make it as close to a Formula 1 experience as possible, so the car comes with a mid-mounted engine and full carbon fiber construction. The engine is mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox and the car is RWD only with a LSD.
The company and car are named after Danny Hulme, who won the Can-Am championship almost 40 years ago. There are even plans to commemorate this with a Can-Am convertible version, as well as an engine designed more for American tastes. We’re not sure what they’re talking about, as big V8s from BMW are universally appealing.
[Source: EVO]
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Filed under: Spy Photos, Wagons/Estates, Crossovers/CUVs, Subaru
What you see here is not a Legacy Outback mule, but rather a heavily disguised Subaru Forester mule that reveals some interesting tidbits about the next generation of Subaru’s boxy wagon. Brenda Priddy’s super sleuthing spies have seen this development mule out and about for a while, but only recently realized that it was indeed the next gen Forester. The reason is that the car’s dimensions aren’t close to those of the current Forester. In fact, this car’s 99.4-inch estimated wheelbase is within a half-inch of the much larger Tribeca’s, and its 108.5-inch length is over three inches longer than the Legacy Outback. Priddy’s inside contacts, however, confirm that despite the size discrepancy, this is indeed the next Forester. In addition to being longer, it’s also estimated the next Forester will be two inches wider than the current Outback, which itself is already wider than the current Forester. What does this mean for the Forester? Without seeing the design, it’s hard to speculate, but the growth in all areas of size implies that the Forester may be able to seat seven, becoming a somewhat larger CUV-type vehicle than the current model.
[Source: Winding Road]
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Filed under: Car Buying, Garage, Convertibles, Coupes, Volkswagen, Driving
Even though Volkswagen has one of the fullest lineups in its history of selling cars in the U.S., these aren’t the best of times in North America for the German automaker. Since 2005, VW has lost somewhere around $2 billion in the U.S. and the company has decided to lay off 30% of its workforce by moving its U.S. headquarters from Detroit to Virginia. Horrendous Euro to Dollar exchange rates are certainly part of the problem, but VW is having much more trouble offering Americans vehicles that fit our tastes.
The Volkswagen EOS hit the scene with surprisingly little fanfare, even though it combines the sporty 2.0T engine and athletic driving dynamics of a Rabbit with a killer hard-top convertible. The EOS appears to have everything it takes to be a summer classic, a claim we put to the test by inviting the car into our Autoblog Garage for a week.
Continue reading In the Autoblog Garage: 2007 Volkswagen EOS
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Chinese carmaker Shanghai Maple, isn’t the first car company to try marketing directly to women, but it claims to be the first in China with its Maple F50.
From Maple’s website, the F50 is “designed in a refining and humanization style,” and “possesses the flamboyant and shining shape with soften cuneiform front.” Sounds, uh, lovely. But then, the Autoblog team is all guys at the moment, so maybe a car that promises “a delicate life with high quality and happiness” wasn’t meant to appeal to us.
Other than a “mellow great griller with the glittering and translucent headlamps,” the female-specific options aren’t too dissimilar from what most cars here in the States already have. There is a coin box, sun visor mirrors, and an optional built-in child seat. However, the Maple can be equipped with a shoebox, clothes rack and, and a tissue box in the glovebox, which we actually think is pretty cool. One F50 extra you won’t find optional on a U.S. car is the driver’s airbag.
Colors available are Tiramisu Yellow, Jade White, Liquid-gold Green, African-mum Yellow and Ice-mountain Blue.
And while there is no way this F50 could ever be confused with the one from Italy, just what is Shanghai Maple trying to imply with that Ferrari hat in the F50’s trunk?
Enjoy a gallery of photos of the Shanghai Maple F50 here.
[Source: Shanghai Maple via China Car Time]
Continue reading Chinese carmaker dedicates its F50 to the ladies
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Filed under: Motorsports, Coupes, Sports/GTs, Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford, Toyota
Many lament the days when stock cars were actually based on production cars, rather than the new NASCAR Nextel Cup Car of Tomorrow vehicles that merely wear stickers bearing the headlights and grille of their production counterparts. While production-based stock cars will likely never happen again, word is that the NASCAR Busch Series will switch to cars based on the Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro, Dodge Challenger and yet-to-be-determined model from Toyota as soon as the 2009 season.
Thanks for the tip, John R.
[Source: SpeedTV]
Continue reading NASCAR Busch Series may switch to muscle cars
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