Good to see the Abarth name in the headlines again, as it's been missing all too long.
Fiat will be showing the production Grand Punto Abarth at the Geneva Motor Show. It will have a 1.5L, 150 hp turbocharged engine, with an even hotter 180 hp version to come later. The 4WD S2000, aka the "Scorpion" and pictured above, is the rally-ready race version featuring a 270 hp 2.0L engine...
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Categories: All Auto Shows,Fiat,Geneva Motor Show,Motorsports
Good news for Subaru fans here, as Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI) will focus on U.S. market says FHI's Chief Executive Ikuo Mori. Mori, who hails from a marketing background, took over the reigns of FHI last June, has been busy crafting a new direction for FHI that's more consumer-oriented than its been in the past.
"There's been a major gap between what we produced and what the market wanted," Mori told a news conference to detail the much-awaited four-year plan...
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Categories: Auto Industry,Subaru
When you see a serious auto accident, and there are EMTs on hand, you automatically assume that the victims are getting the best care possible. Well, that may not be the case. A study done by Health and Safety Research, Inc., a Massachusetts non-profit showed that too many serious auto accident victims do not get helicopter transport to a specialized trauma center. As a result, survival can be reduced by 2-to-10 times...
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Categories: Trends
Drivers beware in the UK, as using a navigation unit could get you stuck—literally!
Anyone who's driven in England knows that here are some very narrow roads over there. I remember once driving a mid-sized Rover through Mousehole, a small village in Cornwall, in which pedestrians had to flatten themselves against the walls of buildings just in order to let me pass.
It turns out that navigation units are all the rage in the UK as they are here. Many a lorry driver has found himself stuck on roads that are too narrow for large vehicles to drive on...
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Categories: Trends
Perhaps more safety features will be required on future cars as The Cameron Gulbransen Kids and Cars Safety Act -- which U.S. Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and John Sununu, R-N.H., will introduce at a news conference today. This bill is named after a 2-year-old New York boy who was accidentally run over and killed in 2002 when his father backed his SUV out of his driveway...
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Categories: Auto Industry,Trends
As it is becoming more and more difficult to see out the back of many vehicles these days, we're seeing more and more rear view cameras in cars. Magna is the latest to jump on the bandwagon with its Total BlindZoneManagement (TBZM) suite of products, which were introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
As someone who occasionally hooks up a trailer, I can certainly see the advantage of the unit pictured above.
Full story here
...
Categories: All Auto Shows,Car Tech,Trends
Honda's F1 team is swapping the usual corporate sponsor logos that are plastered all over their new F1 racer for that of a great big green earth image. Honda says that they are trying to raise awareness of environmental issues, which is pretty much a first among the racing fraternity, or at least at this level.
While all this sounds good, I can't help but think that there's a certain amount of irony here in that we're talking about promoting environmentalism on a race car that probably gets well under 10 mpg under normal usage.
Full story here
...
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Categories: Green Tech,Honda,Motorsports
In surely what must be devastating news to an already beleaguered Ford, Navistar is stopping shipments of the all-new 6.4L PowerStroke diesel to Ford because of a contract dispute. This engine goes in the new '08 Super Duty pickups, which are just hitting dealers now.
Ford has in the past had problems with Navistar, in that the previous generation 6.0L PowerStroke was saddled with problems. In fact Ford sued Navistar in January over warranty costs and engine prices...
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Categories: Ford,Trucks
The
Cleveland Leader brings us a rumor
that BMW is working on integrating a dock for the Apple iPhone into their flagship 7-Series sedan. How sophisticated the integration will be is still unclear but thematically this sounds similar to BMW's
2004 move
to tightly integrate Apple iPods with BMW audio systems, enabling steering wheel control of the iPod while few cars at the time were even offering input jacks for external audio sources.Â
Unlike the iPod scenario where BMW was betting on a well established MP3 player, the iPhone has no track record. Scheduled for U.S. release in June, the iPhone will be Apple's first full foray into cellular phones. If this rumor proves true would it affect your decision to buy or not buy an iPhone (or for that matter, a 7-Series)?
(image courtesy of Apple)
Categories: Car Tech
Ikuo Mori, Fuji Heavy Industries new CEO, will outline a 'new course' for the Subaru brand on Wednesday Feb. 28.
Nothing is yet known what this entails, but it is suspected the company's focus on engineering over customer appeal may get axed. If that's true, it could be either a sad day for fans of Subaru, or a great day...
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Categories: Future Vehicles,Subaru
Tom Hanks, like a number of Hollywooders, is a big fan of alternate-powered vehicles—specifically electric-powered cars. Hanks, who also owns an electric-powered RAV4, just took delivery of an eBox, which is essentially an electric-powered Scion xB. The eBox is made by AC propulsion.
Said Hanks: "What AC Propulsion is doing is fantastic...
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Categories: Green Tech
A lot of car buyers shopping used vehicles rely on CarFax to allay any fears regarding a possible vehicle purchase. The assumption being that these CarFax reports have a complete history on the vehicle being considered. Not so according to Dr. Roxanne Jeffries who based her purchase of a used Jaguar on the CarFax report on said vehicle...
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Categories: Trends
I and others here on
Edmunds.com have complained too many times to count on the horrid outward rear visibility of the Toyota FJ Cruiser. It looks like
Winding Road has also jumped on the bandwagon, and has added a couple of other Toyotas to the list. As
WR noted, this is a styling trend that's leading to nowhere good.
Toyota is not the only carmaker that has been sucked in by this stupid styling movement of tiny and/or missing rear-quarter windows, all of which contribute to lousy rear visibility...
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Categories: Dodge,Honda,Jeep,Nissan,Subaru,Toyota,Trends
Chrysler is still a subsidiary of a famous German automaker and about the best thing that happened for Ford this week was announcement of a
Shelby GT edition of the famous Fender Stratocaster guitar. But there were all kinds of great things going elsewhere in the automotive world, so how about we crank it up and head out for this week's drive around the auto blog block.
You see the neatest stuff in
The View Through the Winshield where Joe Sherlock opines. Only Joe would think of explaining the back story behind Daimler's desire to be rid of Chrysler by proposing a timeshare investor approach. As Joe notes, just think of all the neat stuff that could be done, like building all-new 1953 Plymouth Cranbrooks.
Just one problem, Joe. What am I gonna do with all that rich Corinthian leather?
And speaking of novel views, here's one from Robert Farago at The Truth About Cars:
"Meanwhile, management should use the new media to supply relevant information about the company and its products to its owners. If a problem arises, it should be reported to the owners immediately, so that corrective action will follow." More
here from TTAC.
Lots of political correctness at the Oscars this year, as usual. Over at
The Driving Woman, Holly wonders if Penelope Cruz really will drive up to the red carpet in a Tesla roadster.
Not familiar with Tesla? Check it out
here. The performance is truly electrifying!
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Categories: Carnival of Cars
Is this wild, or what! Found this story over on
Winding Road, and it has to be one of the coolest bikes I've ever seen!
As
WR stated, there's virtually no info on anything about this bike, other than it appears to be from Europe (as per the
source link)—making it a true ghostmobile...
Okay OC Choppers—TOP THIS!
Full story and more pics here.
Categories: Trends
Here we go again folks... More Embargogate, if you will...
A slew of spy images of the upcoming Corvette SS showed up yesterday on the Net, including on
Straightline, and it's got the folks at GM all lathered up (
story here).
Autoblog, fearing that GM would come and spank them silly, decided to take down the images...
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Categories: Chevrolet,Sports Cars,Spy Photos
The 4-door Porsche Panamera was caught by
Wheels24
, an automotive site from South Africa. The vehicle is scheduled to make its official debut at the Geneva Motor Show in 2009. It will go head-to-head with the Aston Martin Rapide and Mercedes CLS 4-door coupes.
Full story here
( you may have to scroll down the page to find it)...
Categories: Porsche,Spy Photos
The Mercedes-Benz Unimog won the "2007 Cross-Country Vehicle of the Year" award from the German
Off Road magazine. I doubt that anyone familiar with the "Mog" would disagree with this. This is the third year (that's all?) the Unimog has won this award.
Full story here...
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Categories: Mercedes-Benz,Trucks
Shortly you will start seeing a new truck that looks rather familiar, yet somehow different...
Welcome to the new Sterling Bullet. Sterling Truck, a subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler, will be introducing a new Class 4-5 truck. It will be based upon the new 2008 4500 and 5500 Dodge Ram models...
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Categories: Dodge,Trucks
If you listen to pro-domestic car fans, the answer is a big fat
YES!In this time when the domestic auto industry is being battered like it's never been, should we, the automotive press cut GM, Ford and Chrysler some slack? Should the truth (as we see and report it) be suppressed for the betterment of our beleaguered comrades in the Midwest? For the "greater good," as it were? Are we part of the problem—as in being enablers, in that we have great abilities to mold public opinion pro or con by what we write?
An interesting topic for sure...
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Categories: Auto Industry