Sebuah Toyota Innova mengalami kecelakaan di Tol Jagorawi arah Jakarta. Minibus tersebut menabrak sebuah truk yang melaju di depannya.
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New 2016 Lamborghini Aventador Concept
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Aston Martin DB10 - James Bond 007 -
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2016 Lotus Evora 400
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2016 Porsche Cayman GT4
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2016-Lexus-IS-250
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Rabu, 30 April 2014
2014 Ram 2500 HD 4×4 6.4-Liter Hemi Tested: Making the Case for Gas
For truck buyers whose paychecks are dependent on hauling capability, the longstanding school of thought is that diesel power is the only choice once you enter three-quarter-ton-and-up territory. After all, it’s hard to argue with the massive low-end grunt of an oil-burner when you’ve got a weighty job to do. But, as with politics, access to power takes money, and putting a Cummins diesel under the hood of the Ram 2500 will set you back an additional $7995 over the cost of the standard 5.7-liter gasoline V-8. READ MORE ››
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New vs. Old: Stingray vs. Testarossa, WRX vs. S4, Boxster vs. NSX, and More!
If “A Brand-New Car!” represents the modern-day American Dream, what then is a well-cared-for, pre-owned vehicle? If it’s something less than dreamy, certainly a used vehicle doesn’t present quite the new car’s depreciation nightmare. Which is what enabled us to put together this quintet of comparisons, new versus old vehicles similar in price and purpose, if not prestige. We sourced excellent examples of the old cars, market values aligned in price with the MSRPs of their new counterparts. We also collated info about warranties, repairs, and running expenses with help from Vincentric. What we found is simple: Driving anything costs money, but the former is always more important than the latter. READ MORE ››
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Toyota’s Texas Move Isn’t the Earthquake Californians Are Really Dreading
All the jerks with jerking knees were quick to pounce on Toyota’s announcement that it’s moving its U.S. headquarters to Plano, Texas, to join Frito-Lay, Ericsson, Capital One, JCPenney, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, and Yum! Brands on the city’s long roster of corporate HQs. The move is being held up as another indication of how liberal, pinko California drives off jobs with high taxes and burdensome regulation. Once again, it seems, freewheeling Texas bags another scalp with a business-friendly environment that lays out the red carpet for corporations and treats them not as tax spigots and immoral rapers of man’s labor and nature’s bounty, but as the ten-fingered King Midases of American prosperity.
“California’s hostile business environment and over-zealous (sic) wealth distribution policies come home to roost,” crowed somebody on my Facebook page yesterday, before any of the details were known. Clearly, this person has never been to Malibu or the Hollywood Hills or Palos Verdes or Santa Barbara or Laguna Beach or Mountain View, where a whole lot of highly concentrated wealth looks like its being redistributed rather badly.
Still, it does look grim; Texas once again grows mightier as California bleeds jobs. Well, let’s put aside for a moment the contribution to these sentiments made by the rampant schadenfreude for sunny, often-silly California that is a hobby in the rest of America (especially after this year’s particularly lousy winter).
We also won’t harp too much on Toyota’s betrayal of its workers. Having grown into the second largest car company in the world and one of the richest, with about $60 billion in cash reserves, much of it coming from the lucrative American market, Toyota, a bastion of management-labor cohesion that once produced unparalleled quality and lifetime employment, is tearing up lives and abandoning its community ostensibly to save a few bucks. Toyota wanted to become more Americanized, which generally means a greater focus on near-term costs and share price rather than long-term strategic goals. In the parlance of our times, mission accomplished, boys.
Although I am not privy to the company’s boardroom conversations, I’m taking for granted that reduced labor cost is a major reason Toyota plans to move shop (it’s stated reason, to find a “neutral location” to “build the company and the culture from the ground up,” is too ridiculous to give any credence). As ably reported by my former co-worker Mark Rechtin at Automotive News, the cost of living is 39 percent lower in Plano than the company’s current hometown of Torrance, while housing costs are 63 percent less. Texas has no state income tax while California takes up to 12.3 percent. In order to match the buying power of a $30,000 salary in Plano, you’d need to pay your Torrance employee $50,000. Combined with as-yet unspecified relocation help from the state of Texas, which is probably worth hundreds of millions of Texan taxpayer dollars, Toyota’s decision seems to have a lot of merit.
And it cannot be denied that California is not an easy place to operate for Apple or Google or Oracle or Facebook or Amgen or Disney or American Honda Motor Corp. or Hyundai Motor America, or any of the other companies remaining behind in the economic ashes wrought by Sacramento’s Democratic monopoly. For one thing, California actually enforces its pollution laws with inspections and fines, such that dangerous fertilizer plants aren’t located next to schoolhouses, and cleaner air via more expensive renewable energy is a policy priority over burning cheaper fossil fuels, which have helped give Texas some of the filthiest air in the nation. California’s air is also dirty, but at least they’re working on it.
And California’s labor laws form a dense thicket of protections for employees against health hazards, employer predation, and racism, sexism, ageism, and other forms of workplace torment and unjustified termination. Its taxes are high because a vast and complicated infrastructure is required to support 38 million people mostly crammed into coastal cities with mountainous topography and the largest and potentially most dangerous geologic fault line in North America practically underfoot. California also has a severe water shortage that requires huge infrastructure investment and pits cities against powerful agricultural interests, driving up costs and aggravation for all.
While the largest state university system in the country is New York’s, at more than 400,000 undergraduates, California has three state college systems enrolling more than 2.5 million students. Texas’s largest public school district is Houston, with just over 200,000 students. The Los Angeles Unified School District alone has more than 650,000 students enrolled in more than 1000 facilities spread over 720 square miles.
California is expensive because it’s big, it’s complicated, it’s rather crowded in the coastal fault zone where everybody wants to live, and it’s loyal to its high ideals of remaining naturally beautiful and socially equitable despite global trends in the opposite direction.
And, speaking as a Torrance resident who lives barely a mile from Toyota’s current campus, California is just a nice place to live. Which is why housing is so expensive. Houses in Toyota’s zip code of 90501, which is about four miles from the beach, run $400–$600 a square foot. The market speaks with its feet, and lots of people want to live here. Barely a day goes by without the minions of some local real estate agent eager for listings rubber-banding a business card to my front door or leaving a flyer on the front step. Recently somebody left a handwritten note claiming to be from an agent representing a nice young couple, named in the letter, desperate to move into the neighborhood, and were we even remotely thinking of selling or know somebody who might have mentioned it over the garden fence?
Were you to place on one half of a scale all of California’s negatives, from earthquakes to taxes, from regulations to recent power outages, from drought to fire to sharks and the state’s near-insolvency, just one thing seems to tip it in California’s favor: a daytime temperature at the beach that rarely drops below 50 degrees or rises above 80.
Around 4000 jobs are expected to be affected by Toyota’s announcement. This cannot possibly be spun as good news for California, because many of those people will likely not go to Texas, but instead will remain in Southern California as unemployed job seekers. When Nissan left Los Angeles in 2006 for Nashville, the company lost around 75 percent of its veteran workforce, a vast exodus of talent and experience that chose to stay behind in the fetid, festering, liberal hell of the Golden State.
Those who do go to Texas will form part of the state’s most active import commodity: liberal-educated professionals drawn to Texas because of corporate relocations and unwilling to suffer bad air, underfunded schools, and lopsided state policy that heavily favors the welfare of corporations of that of individual citizens.
- Tested: 2014 Toyota Corolla S Automatic Is Basically What You Expect
- Less Plump, Still Rorty: 2014 Toyota Tundra 5.7L V-8 4×4 Tested
- Research: Toyota Prius Pricing, News, Reviews, and More
Back in California, the body count from Toyota’s flee will be a small number compared to the 130,000 aerospace jobs lost in Los Angeles County over the past two decades. That was a near collapse of an industry that the region has absorbed and bounced back from with rapidly increasing home prices, more traffic, and higher living costs. In other words, California will survive to continue both annoying the knee jerkers with its successes and delighting them with its problems.
Well, at least until the Big One. Oh, how they will rejoice back home.
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Toyota to Move U.S. Sales and Marketing Operations to Plano, Texas
It seems there’s no part of American heartland Toyota can’t win over. After entering NASCAR in 2004 as the sport’s first-ever factory-backed effort from an import brand—and establishing itself in the South and Midwest with six assembly plants starting in 1983—the Japanese stalwart is now moving its U.S. corporate headquarters to Texas. (Does this explain the recent rumors of a Lexus TX crossover?)
By early 2017, about 4000 employees will relocate to Plano, less than 20 miles north of Dallas, to a brand-new facility that will consolidate Toyota’s three separate operations under one roof. The move will close Toyota’s manufacturing HQ in Erlanger, Kentucky; its sales HQ in Torrance, California; and a corporate office in New York City. Toyota’s San Antonio plant, which opened in 2006 to build the Tundra and Tacoma pickups, lies about 300 miles to the south and employs 2900 people.
A few employees will move this year into a temporary facility before ground is broken on the new building in the fall. Toyota’s regional offices for PR, finance, and Lexus are not moving. Its California design studio, Michigan technical center, and Toyota Racing Development office are staying put, too. Most employees will be offered a relocation incentive, but as with any major corporate move, not all will choose to make the journey.
- Instrumented Test: 2014 Toyota Corolla LE Eco
- 2014 Toyota Highlander Driven: The Minivan Surrogate Is Now More Stylish
- Research Toyota Camry: Pricing, Specs, News, Reviews, and More
Texas, which doesn’t have corporate or individual income taxes, has been aggressive in courting outside businesses under Governor Rick Perry. Toyota received a $40 million grant from the state and is expected to spend at least $300 million on the new headquarters, while the automaker will no doubt save some serious cash over the long haul (which means cheaper Camrys for everyone, right?). Tesla is also eying the Lone Star state as a site for its upcoming $4 billion battery plant.
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Better Late Than Never: Aston Martin Engineering New Platform for Next-Gen Models
After a decade of building the essentially the same, admittedly gorgeous, car in various iterations, Aston Martin has confirmed that it is developing an all-new platform for the next generation of its slinky sports cars.
Aston’s current VH platform underpins everything the company currently sells, from the two-seat V8 Vantage to the stretched, V-12–powered Rapide, but despite their timeless beauty and scintillating performance, they’re all graying at the temples. According to a report via Top Gear , the company announced that it is engineering “a completely new architecture and technologies to ensure our next generation of sports cars is at the forefront of design, performance, and technology,” according to Aston Martin’s CFO, Hanno Kirner.
Few details were provided, but the new platform would complement new AMG-developed V-8 powertrains, as well as state-of-the-art technology and electronics coming from the recently inked partnership with new BFF Daimler. Amid a competitive landscape that’s never been stronger, Aston’s new products can’t come a minute too soon, but that doesn’t mean they’re imminent. The soonest any of them could feasibly arrive is 2017 or 2018.
- Instrumented Test: 2014 Aston Martin Rapide S
- Instrumented Test: 2014 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante
- High-Octane Pairing: Aston Martin and Mercedes-Benz To Share Platforms
Provided that Aston’s stylists don’t make a mess of the successors to the DB9, V8 Vantage, Rapide and more, it seems the brand’s cars may finally have the modern underpinnings that the sexy sheetmetal deserves.
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Denza EV Photos and Info: Daimler and BYD’s Electric Love Child
It may have been unloved, but the first-generation Mercedes-Benz B-class nevertheless lives on via two vehicles in China. Daimler’s Chinese partner BAIC used it as the stylistic inspiration for its E-series, which amounts to little more than an unfortunate attempt to cash in on the reputation of Mercedes-Benz. The other project is far more impressive: This Denza EV, which was co-developed by Daimler and BYD and which will be offered on the Chinese market starting in September. READ MORE ››
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The Continental: Audi’s van Meel Off to BMW, VW’s Golf R Wagon, and a Fiat Exec Dishes on Electrics
Each week, our German correspondent slices and dices the latest rumblings, news, and quick-hit driving impressions from the other side of the pond. His byline may say Jens Meiners, but we simply call him . . . the Continental.
In January, the head of Audi’s quattro GmbH performance division, Franciscus van Meel, was relieved from his duties and replaced by longtime R&D executive Heinz Hollerweger. Back then, it was said that van Meel, once considered a shooting star in Ingolstadt, would take up a senior position with Audi in China. But that’s not happening. Instead, van Meel will be joining BMW; rumor has it he could be working at the M GmbH performance division. Regarding the move, both Audi and BMW declined to comment.
A beastly high-performance compact wagon? To be clichéd, um, yes please.
In other German automaker news, Volkswagen will execute significant changes to its U.S. lineup. Following the launch of the new European-market Passat this fall, its U.S.-market sister model will receive an extensive overhaul, which will consist of a new front end. But, critically, the sedan won’t move to VW’s new MQB platform.
To increase its market share, VW is betting large on the upcoming MQB-based crossover. But the smaller Tiguan will play a more significant role in the U.S., as well. The next-generation model will come in two wheelbases; only the long-wheelbase version will be offered in the states. It won’t get three-row seating, but it will get a bigger trunk than the current model, addressing complaints about its “cramped” interior.
By the way, the rumors about a 300-horsepower Golf R SportWagen prototype driving around in Wolfsburg are true. VW is evaluating the market viability of such a car, but don’t count on it for the U.S. market. Wagon + high performance = American head-scratching.
Check the Facts
At this year’s New York auto show, Fiat’s R&D chief Harald Wester crushed hopes that the earth would be saved by electric cars. “We should be aware of the fact that they are not a sustainable solution for our environmental problems,” he ventured. He goes on to explain that with the power infrastructure in Europe, China, and North America, “at the end of the day, there is either no benefit in CO2 or even more emissions.” Moreover, “there is a very huge amount of energy needed and emissions just to produce the batteries.
For the amount of energy needed to make a 20-kWh lithium-ion battery, you can run a regular Fiat 500 for approximately 15,000 kilometers (9375 miles). Wester is realistic about the unrealistic) assumptions of politicians and customers: “It’s a tricky issue. I understand what is going on with the market, but it will not save the planet.” Progress—or what passes for it today—will be slow: “As long as selling these cars is not a really good business, we will somewhat limit the number of applications. But we will speak to the regulations.” Wester opined: “There are interesting alternatives. Compressed natural gas and diesels have the biggest impact.”
The Italdesign Giugiaro Hyundai Pony Coupe concept.
Korea’s Design Heritage
Korean cars aren’t considered to have much heritage, but, in fact, the 40th anniversary of Hyundai’s automotive division is rapidly approaching. This is the perfect time, then, to reflect on the Koreans’ interesting design history. The first-generation Hyundai Pony, launched in Turin in the fall of 1974, was styled by Italdesign Giugiaro, and the design house built a Pony Coupe prototype, as well. That angular two-door with a horizontally split rear window later served as inspiration for the DeLorean DMC-12, says Giugiaro. See the resemblance?
The Hyundai Stellar.
Another Giugiaro design, the Hyundai Stellar, was less of a landmark: In Britain, it was explicitly marketed to Ford Cortina customers who couldn’t get used to the new-age aero shape of the Ford Sierra (Merkur XR4ti). Nevertheless, many Hyundai and Kia designs were daring and different, if not exactly beautiful; take the 1996 Hyundai Tiburon with its spectacular lines and volumes.
Korea went wild with the first-gen Tiburon.
Hyundai and Kia chief designer Peter Schreyer, a talented pen formerly of Audi fame, tells me he wants to highlight the heritage of his brands: “It is important to me, and I wish to show more of it.”
- 2014 BMW M5 / M6 Gran Coupe With Competition Package Driven!
- BMW M6 Research: Full Pricing, Specs, Photos, Reviews, and More
- 2015 Volkswagen SportWagen / Golf Variant Driven: We Want
Japanese favorites—just be sure they offer both left- and right-hand drive.
Enthusiasts Are Tough to Please—Who Knew?
BMW’s U.S. chief Ludwig Willisch has at least some ammo for journalists’ questions about the future of the manual transmission with the brand. In BMW’s lineup, row-your-own ‘boxes were yanked from the 550i and 650i for the 2014 model year, but are still available in the M5 and M6. In fact, the U.S. is the only country where these ultra-powerful models can be specified with a stick. The manual transmission take rate in M cars is significant—around 40 percent in the E92 M3—but for the non-M range, however, it is negligible, “in the low one-digit range,” says Willisch.
Nevertheless, enthusiasts are hard to please, Willisch has learned, but research can help. He tells me about an incident from his time in Japan: “In 2001, I arrived and BMW offered the M3 both with left-hand drive and right-hand drive. I was about to say: “do away with it [the left-hand-drive model] tomorrow.” But then I reluctantly looked into market research and found that more than half of the customers that bought an M3 with left-hand drive would not have switched to an M3 with right-hand drive.” Back then, BMW sold 6000 to 7000 M3s per year in Japan. Willisch kept the left-hand drive model.
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Trick, Baby: 2015 Canyon/Colorado Jump Seats Transform for Proper Child-Seat Fitment
Mid-size pickups are wonderful things, offering genuine utility in a wieldy package. But as family vehicles, they often come up short. And even if you have an extended cab with rear jump seats, the proper fitment of a child safety seat is generally next to impossible. To address the situation, GM is fitting the extended-cab versions of its 2015 GMC Canyon and Chevy Colorado trucks with a configurable rear seat designed to permit the correct fitment of a child safety seat.
Although space is notoriously tight behind the front seats, it’s ultimately the bottom cushion length that’s the determining factor in whether a child seat can be mounted correctly. Many safety-restraint manufacturers recommend that at least 80 percent of the child seat’s base sit securely on the cushion, and as anyone who’s done even short-term time in the jump seats can tell you, the cushions are woefully short.
GM’s solution: Remove the passenger side headrest and remount it horizontally into the front of the seat base. The additional length provides additional support for the child restraint, reducing the risk of injury in a crash. GM didn’t divulge any private or public test results, but did say that a patent for the system is pending. (Earlier this month, Volvo revealed a prototype inflatable child safety seat aimed at easing the hassle of carrying and storing child restraints.)
- Research Chevrolet Colorado: News, Photos, Info, and More
- 2015 GMC Canyon Photos and Info: Like a Sierra on a Diet
- Tested: 2014 Chevrolet Silverado V-6
It’s an elegantly simple solution to a common problem, and will increase the versatility quotient of GM’s mid-size trucks. Now if GM could devise a system to retrieve dropped binkies and magically eradicate body fluids, it would really be on to something.
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Volvo starts self-driving car test in Sweden
A fleet of up to 100 self-driving Volvo S60 and V60 models today will start long-term testing in Sweden. The test, which will last two years and is taking place in the firm's home town of Gothenburg, aims to perfect autonomous technology for inclusion in Volvo's road cars by 2017.
The autonomous cars will navigate a road network of some 32 miles, taking in typical commuter routes and challenging the cars on aspects including lane discipline, selecting appropriate speeds and merging into traffic. A joint project between Volvo and the Swedish transport authorities, the cars all feature self-contained autonomous systems including lane-keeping sensors and radar to scan the road ahead.
The project, dubbed Drive Me, was announced late last year, when Volvo's technical specialist Erik Coelingh announced the scheme's aim was to make cars "able to handle all possible traffic scenarios by itself, including leaving the traffic flow and finding a safe ‘harbour’ if the driver, for any reason, is unable to regain control".
However, Volvo is not the only company moving forwards with autonomous car technology. Internet giant Google has set a target of 2018 for launching its own self-driving car, with prototype models having been testing in the US since 2011. A fleet of around 10 cars have previously been testing on freeways and less-built up areas in the US.
Now the project has shifted to urban environments, with the cars learning to tackle city streets. “A mile of city driving is much more complex than a mile of freeway driving, with hundreds of different objects moving according to different rules of the road in a small area... a self-driving vehicle can pay attention to all of these things in a way that a human physically can’t - and it never gets tired or distracted,” said project director Chris Urmson.
Developments to the Google car's software mean the model can now detect hundreds of individual objects such as cyclists, pedestrians and other vehicles. Updates also enable the car to predict likely and unlikely scenarios, such as whether another car will drive through or stop for a red light.
Elsewhere, Mercedes-Benz recently recreated a 60-mile journey taken by founder Carl Benz's wife Bertha in 1888 using the Benz Patent Motor Car. The re-enactment was done by an autonomous S-class featuring production-based radar and detection systems. Mercedes' autonomous systems are, according to a spokesman, “very close to production”, and it's simply a case of refining the technology for road use and making it available for the right price.
Audi is also working on autonomous technology and demonstrated its latest developments at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year. The firm's prototype is fitted with a system that enables it to find its own parking space via a smartphone app, and a program that allows the car to pilot itself through traffic using the built-in cameras and lane departure sensors.
Earlier this year, BMW released video footage of an M235i capable of drifting itself. Using advanced GPS, the car could operate the steering, accelerator and brakes and complete drifts without any help from the driver. Elsewhere, Nissan boss Andy Palmer said he wants a “production ready” self-driving Nissan prepared for production by 2020, although in certain circumstances, such as congested cities, it would still require driver input.
While there are still at least three years to wait before the first autonomous cars are production-ready, Google believes the technology is crucial to managing congested roads in the future. Urmson believes that "we all dream of a world in which city centres are freed of congestion from cars circling for parking and have fewer intersections made dangerous by distracted drivers... thousands of situations on city streets that would have stumped us two years ago can now be navigated autonomously".
Mike Vousden
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Selasa, 29 April 2014
Electric Killer B: Prices for the Mercedes-Benz B-class Electric Drive Start at $42,375
Mercedes-Benz joins the electric-car fray with today’s announcement of its B-class Electric Drive, priced from $42,375. Buyers also may be eligible for a federal tax credit of $7500, bringing the price down to $34,875, while other states may offer additional credits for buying an EV.
The B-class Electric Drive (is that “BED” for an acronym?) is a handsome five-door compact crossover, and the electric version will be the only model sold in the States. Make that select states: Initially, the car will roll out only to dealers in California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Mercedes is expected to address availability in the remaining states in 2015.
Power is supplied by a 177-hp electric motor (developed by Tesla Motors) that produces 251 lb-ft of torque. According to Mercedes, that’s enough to propel the B-class to 60 mph in 7.9 seconds. The B-class ED features front-wheel drive and a 28-kWh lithium-ion battery good for an 85-mile range according to the EPA. Mercedes claims the battery can be recharged to a 60-mile range in approximately two hours on a 240-volt charger. MPGe figures are pending.
On the features front, the car includes nav, collision-prevention assist with adaptive brake assist, attention assist for distracted drivers, and three years worth of mbrace2, Mercedes’ telematics system. Options (for which no pricing was available) include blind-spot assist, lane-keep assist, parking assist, and Mercedes’ multimedia system, COMAND, with a seven-inch display.
- Photos and Info: 2014 Mercedes-Benz B-class Electric Drive
- Comparison Test: 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV vs. Fiat 500E, and Four Others
- First Drive: 2012 Mercedes-Benz B-class
To provide owners with a worry-free experience, the B-class ED is covered by Battery Coverage Plus, which consists of an 8-year/100,000-mile battery warranty that covers defects as well as coverage for diminished battery capacity. In addition, the B-class offers no-cost annual maintenance and roadside assistance.
That’s the pricing part of the equation. In the second part of this story, we’ll take a closer look at this growing segment of electrics and investigate how the new B-class compares with the competition.
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Ferrari’s Hot LaFerrari Hypercar Struts Its Stuff in Slow-Mo: WARNING, May Induce Sweating [Video]
A new Italian stallion drifting in slow motion with incredible exhaust notes? Yeah, you love it. Watch the video here.
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