2010 Nissan Maxima SV Sport is a lot of car for a lot of coin
Front-wheel drive is a funny thing. When originally introduced during the Thirties in the Cord 810 (then later in the awesome supercharged 812) and the Citro?n Traction Avant, FWD was hailed as a major breakthrough, a wondrous technological innovation that allowed for lower ride height and greatly increased passenger space. Postwar consumers got a taste of the wonders of FWD with the iconic Citro?n DS. At the top of its game in the Sixties, General Motors reintroduced FWD to American consumers with two remarkable luxury coupes: the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado and the 1967 Cadillac Eldorado. Come the Seventies, Citro?n produced what is arguably the greatest GT coupe of that decade, the impeccable (and FWD) SM.
It’s not that RWD is always better than FWD. Only in this case, it is.
Roll the clock forward to the Eighties and suddenly everything was being tugged around by its front wheels. Honda, Toyota, Nissan, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler all jumped head first onto the FWD bandwagon and, for the most part, they haven’t looked back. Granted, Cadillac has rethought which wheels get driven, but with the exception of a dinosaur livery-mobile, there isn’t a single rear-wheel-drive Lincoln to be found. Even Volkswagen got in on the transversely-mounted engine madness. This left only the Germans – namely Mercedes-Benz and BMW – to seriously carry the rear-wheel drive passenger car torch for nearly a decade. Sure, Lexus and Infiniti brought out some heavy hitting RWD sedans along with a raft of FWD offerings (M30 I30, G20 anyone?), but Acura never bothered.
Categories: Auto Review, Car Review, Drive Experience, Nissan, Sedans/Saloons Tags:
Mercedes-Benz confirms next gen C-class to be built in USA and Germany
The diminishing value of the U.S. dollar, most notably against the Euro and Yen, is causing plenty of grief for foreign automakers. While the US market has been in the tank for the past two years, it still remains a major market for companies like Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. All three brands have been looking at ways to relieve some of the exchange rate pressure and Mercedes has decided that more “dollar zone” production will be part of the solution.
When the next generation C-Class rolls out in 2014, German production will be consolidated at Daimler’s Bremen factory while units for the North American market will be built in the U.S. There’s been no announcement about where production will take place, but an expansion of the SUV factory in Alabama is one possibility. On a related side note, part of the reason the Premium German brands have recently avoided selling four-cylinder versions of their entry-level models in the States has been the exchange rates and the associated lack of profitability. With new CAFE rules coming, it’s likely that we’ll be seeing more moves like this in the next several years.
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First Look: 2011 Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabriolet
Bet you didn’t know the origin of the word “cabriolet.” In the horse-and-buggy era, the word was applied to lightweight open carriages pulled by two horses and used primarily for pleasure rides in fair weather. The word was pinched from the French verb “cabrioler,” meaning “to cavort” — move about carelessly, playfully or boisterously — or “to cut a caper.” The next installment in Mercedes-Benz‘s long line of “cavorters” isn’t exactly lightweight, but it promises to extend pleasure driving well beyond the traditional fair-weather season, thanks to a new innovation dubbed Aircap.
Aircap is engineered to work with the headrest-mounted neck-warming Airscarf to make top-down driving comfortable in the chillier weather that prevails in the U.K., Germany, and other northern climes where convertible sales are strongest. The challenge presented to engineers was to provide a largely draft-free top-down driving experience for all four passengers, ruling out those mesh screen gizmos that render the rear seat unusable. They started work in the 1990s and developed several solutions that were functional but aesthetically unpalatable.
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LA Auto Show 2009: Audi R8 Spyder is shown again, this time in red
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the drop-top Audi R8 Spyder. Images were leaked in early September, and we were there in Frankfurt for its official debut. That said, its unveiling at the LA Auto Show was less than climactic… other than the fact the Spyder was sporting a flashy bright-red bodywork.
New hue aside, the new convertible variant is a looker from its carbon-fiber mirrors to polished aluminum wheels. The blades are gone and it has gained 476 pounds in the transformation, but the standard Lambo-derived 525-hp V10 will still rip it to 60 mph in about four seconds flat.
Categories: Audi, Convertibles, LA Auto Show, LA Motor Show, Los Angeles Auto Show, Los Angeles Motor Show Tags:
LA Auto Show 2009: Volkswagen shows off "Final Edition" New Beetle models
Signifying the end of what has been a long run, Volkswagen has introduced “Final Edition” models of the New Beetle coupe and convertible. Each will be limited to a run of just 1,500 units. Under the hood is VW’s familiar 2.5-liter inline-fine (rated at 150 horsepower) sending power to the front wheels through a six-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission – nothing new there. However, the German automaker has fitted a full sport suspension and unique 17-inch alloy wheels to each of the New Beetles to add a touch more driving excitement.
Cosmetically, the Final Edition models feature Aquarius Blue paint. The hardtop version breaks up the color with a black roof and integrated fog lights, while the convertible model has a two-tone Aquarius Blue/Campanella White paint scheme and a white top. Special badging is found on the front quarter panel and on the steering wheel. The hatchback version hits showrooms with a base MSRP of $20,240 and the convertible starts at $27,170.
Categories: Convertibles, Hatchbacks, LA Auto Show, LA Motor Show, Los Angeles Auto Show, Los Angeles Motor Show, Volkswagen Tags:
LA Auto Show 2009: Audi A3 TDI named 2010 Green Car of the Year in diesel repeat
At the LA Auto Show this morning, the Audi A3 TDI was crowned the 2010 Green Car of the Year, wresting the title away from last year’s winner, the Volkswagen Jetta TDI. Even though three hybrids made this year’s list of finalists, the A3′s win marks the second year in a row that a TDI diesel car took top honors in the Green Car Journal competition.
The other contenders were the Honda Insight, the Mercury Milan Hybrid (we still don’t get why this car beat out the better-selling and nearly identical Ford Fusion Hybrid) and the Toyota Prius.
Each year, Green Car Journal picks the five finalists and then hands over selection duties to celebrity jurors (Jay Leno, Carroll Shelby, and the Sierra Club’s Carl Pope, to name a few). During the award ceremony, Green Car Journal editor Ron Cogan said that the five finalists are notable because they are all mainstream vehicles that are available today. They exist because that’s what the market is asking for. Whaddya think? Is the A3 TDI this year’s rightful Green Car of the Year?
Categories: Audi, Hatchbacks, LA Auto Show, LA Motor Show, Los Angeles Auto Show, Los Angeles Motor Show Tags:
2009 BMW Z4 sDrive30i is an easy lover
BMW‘s storied history of building roadsters dates back to the original 328 of the 1930s. However, there have been gaps in the brand’s open-top lineage, including one extended stretch through the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. After a dalliance with the bizarre European market Z1, BMW finally got serious about roadsters again in the ’90s with the introduction of the Z3.
Earlier this year, the Munich brand introduced what’s essentially the third generation of its modern mainline roadster (discounting the aforementioned low-volume Z1 and the Z8) in the shape of its all-new BMW Z4. Upon its introduction, the esteemed Mr. Harley took our first crack at the new “E89″ at its Southern California launch last spring and came away with mixed feelings.
Categories: Auto Review, BMW, Car Review, Convertibles Tags:
Heart of Darkness: Aston Martin introduces limited-edition Carbon Black DBS and Vantage
Aston Martin will begin delivery in March of two new special edition models. The Aston Martin DBS Carbon Black and the Aston Martin V12 Vantage Carbon Black will come with special coloring, lighter weight, and more.
Each vehicle will be hand painted in Carbon Black metallic, with Obsidian Black leather and silver stitching used on the interior. Carbon fiber and Kevlar seats shave 17 kilograms off the overall weight. Piano black trim is also featured on each car.
V12 Vantage purchasers will also get a carbon fiber side strake, black mesh, and 10-spoke alloys in gloss black. They also get a 700-watt audio system, which they can test out during the Performance Driving Course track day.
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Ferrari P540 Superfast Aperta one-off Revealed
Ferrari has unveiled the one-off P540 Superfast Aperta.
Created by the company’s Special Projects division, for American Edward Walson (the son of the man who invented cable television), the Aperta was inspired by the Carrozzeria Fantuzzi-designed Ferrari which appeared in the movie Toby Dammit.
According to Ferrari, “The car was designed by Pininfarina and built in Maranello, and the client was directly involved in each stage of its development. As the 599 GTB Fiorano donor car is a coupé, considerable effort went into strengthening the chassis by using finite element analysis in development and the increase in weight was kept down to just 20 kg (44 lbs) by employing carbon-fiber extensively. From the initial sketches to the final, road-legal car took just 14 months.”
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First Drive: 2011 Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL
Southern California fuel-cell devotees rejoice! You are about to get a second chance at blazing the trail toward long-range, quick-recharge, electric motoring that leaves nothing but pristine steam in your wake. So stop coveting thy neighbor’s Honda FCX Clarity and commence groveling to your Mercedes-Benz dealer in hopes of getting a crack at leasing one of 60 B-Class F-CELLs that will become available in SoCal late in the spring of 2010.
The B-Class, for those who don’t follow the tri-star’s home-market offerings, is a larger, roomier riff on the A-Class compact, both of which were developed with a sandwich floor construction designed to accommodate fuel tanks, exhaust systems, and even some of the combustion drivetrain beneath a slightly elevated floor. The design works well enough for the mass-market combustion vehicles, but it seems optimized for fuel-cell duty. The entire 80-kilowatt fuel cell, 1.4-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack, and three 10,500 psi hydrogen tanks fit completely out of sight without impinging on the passenger or cargo space of the petro-powered variant. Those tanks refill in three minutes and hold 3.7 kg (8.2 pounds) of hydrogen, good for a claimed 285 miles of driving on the U.S. EPA combined cycle. Mercedes claims that makes this the longest-range electric-powered production vehicle. That equates, engineers claim, to 85 miles per diesel fuel gallon equivalent on the EPA cycle. Impressive, given that the fuel-cell hardware adds 550 pounds to a B200 turbo with equal performance (9.6 seconds, 0-62 mph).
Categories: Auto Review, Car Review, Mercedes-Benz Tags:
