Kabar tidak sedap datang dari produsen otomotif terbesar di dunia, Toyota. Toyota Motor Corp telah menunda dimulainya produksi untuk generasi keempat Toyota Prius dari musim semi berikutnya hingga Desember 2015 mendatang.
If there is a Mini that would benefit from a torquey, fuel-sipping diesel, it is the biggish and relatively heavy Countryman crossover. Luckily, that is exactly what Mini seems to be thinking, as well, because it is designing the next-generation U.S.-spec Countryman to at least be capable of offering an oil-burner.
The current Countryman can be ordered with a diesel in other markets, naturally, but its platform isn’t designed to hold the urea tank and SCR filter required to meet U.S.-market emissions standards. That hurdle will be cleared with the next-gen model, we recently learned from a Mini executive.
Of course, Mini hasn’t confirmed a diesel Countryman for our market, only that it will be possible to sell one here when the next-gen model arrives in 2017. The next Countryman will be built atop BMW’s new front-wheel-drive platform, which is shared with the 2014 Mini Hardtop and the upcoming BMW 2-series Active Tourer.
Last year, Kia chief designer Peter Schreyer was given a pretty big new responsibility: Oversight of parent company Hyundai’s design strategy, in addition to his role at Kia. He recently told us that he wants to create a signature “Hyundai face” in order to even better emphasize the different characteristics of the two Korean brands.
As Schreyer told us, “It is very important to keep the brands distinct. We need to be recognized as two brands.” He added that “Kia is architectonical, very straight, while Hyundai is curvaceous, sometimes quite spectacular. They have done good work.”
Moving forward, he aims to help Hyundai develop its own styling language, while avoiding extreme, non-functional shapes. It isn’t presently clear whether Schreyer plans to scrap Hyundai’s Fluidic Sculpture design language or merely hone it, but it seems like he’s leaning toward the former. As proof, we offer into evidence Schreyer himself saying that the Intrado concept car, shown at the Geneva auto show this past March, is a good indication of where the brand could go and what its front graphic signature could look like. Aside from a few 2015 Genesis styling cues, the Intrado doesn’t look like any current Hyundai product.
Speaking of future models, Schreyer emphasized the importance of the B-size (subcompact) SUV segment, especially in places like China and South America. Any potential Hyundai entry—previewed by the aforementioned Intrado—in this arena would take on the likes of Ford’s EcoSport abroad, while if it were to come Stateside, it would battle Jeep’s new Renegade and Chevrolet’s Trax.
Schreyer also said that an upmarket and sporty rear-wheel-drive Kia, inspired by the 2011 GT concept, is all but green-lighted. “Interest was great,” he remarked. We certainly agree—the concept was awesome, and hopefully it’s sportier in execution than the luxo-barge K900.
While it’s good to see two closely linked brands try to further set apart their wares, the recent focus on design at Hyundai and Kia has produced some handsome rides that, if we’re honest, are already fairly well-differentiated from one another. The exciting part will be seeing what direction Schreyer ultimately takes Hyundai—and whether or not the GT concept gets off the ground.
We’ve known a diesel-powered Focus was a sure thing for months, and when the 2015 Ford Focus ST debuted at Goodwood yesterday, it slipped its compression-ignition doppelganger into the mix. We—and several sharp-eyed Backfires members—immediately noticed that the tachometer in some of the images of the ST’s dash had a rather diesel-like redline of around 5200 rpm. Although the maker still hasn’t announced if the oil-burning hot hatch will make the trip stateside, we figured sharing its vital stats is the least we can do.
Producing 182 horsepower and a whopping 295 lb-ft of twist from a supercharged 2.0-liter four, the diesel gives up 70 horses to its 2.0-liter gasoline EcoBoost counterpart, but betters it in the torque department by a sound 25 lb-ft. All 295 lb-ft are present and accounted for at a subterranean-like 2000 rpm, and stick around in full force until 2750. Like the gasoline Focus ST, the torque-meister diesel comes paired with a six-speed manual transmission, although the gear ratios have been shuffled to maximize the oil-burner’s unique power curve. The ST version is tuned for a 23 percent boost over the base Focus 2.0-liter diesel, the power coming by way of electronic calibration, a revised air intake system, and a new sports-tuned exhaust. Ford is claiming a top speed of 135 mph.
Google’s new infotainment system will debut on several 2015 models later this year as Silicon Valley battles to own your car’s touch-screen display.
Six months after announcing plans to counter Apple CarPlay with its Open Automotive Alliance, Google is releasing Android Auto with its next software update that lets Android devices override the car’s infotainment system with Google’s own interface and voice controls. Like CarPlay and Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Phone system, Android Auto mirrors Google-specific navigation, music, text messaging, voice commands, and certain smartphone apps (chosen by the manufacturer) directly on the touch screen.
If you’ve worked an Android smartphone, the interface—including alerts, reminders, and other bits found on the home screen—is nearly identical. Because the software lives entirely on the phone, Android Auto works only when the device is both plugged into a USB port and paired via Bluetooth. And inasmuch as this is Google, Android Auto will track your driving habits and offer route suggestions for your commute before you even set out. Likely, that’s not the last of its many tricks.
While Google counts 28 car brands pledging to embrace Android Auto, just three have made concrete plans. Hyundai will offer Android Auto on several 2015 models (likely the Sonata, which carries Hyundai’s latest infotainment system) and Volvo is bringing it for the portrait-oriented display in the new XC90. Audi won’t carry Android until 2015. Many of the automakers have also committed to Apple CarPlay, but some big players are missing. Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari—among the first to green light CarPlay—aren’t standing with Google, and neither is BMW, which was one of the first automakers to integrate iPods. Tesla (which runs Google Maps on its own proprietary software) and Cadillac (which really wants CUE to take off) haven’t signed up with either tech giant.
The Alfa Romeo 4C sports car is just now arriving on our shores, yet parent-company Fiat’s R&D chief Harald Wester is already thinking about higher-powered derivatives. He recently told us that the 4C’s off-the-shelf 237-hp, turbocharged 1.75-liter four-cylinder engine has more potential: “We are only at 136 horsepower per liter, so there is space.”
We’d never argue against more power, especially when it’s added to a sweet-driving ride like the 4C. Reassuringly, Wester also confirmed that the car’s structure could handle more power: “The stiffness is very high. The first adjustment would be the brakes.”
Sadly, neither Europeans nor Americans will be able to get a manual transmission: “It messes up the entire architecture, and it would ruin the monocoque.” Wester also said that the decision to go for the dual-clutch automatic was triggered both by packaging and strategic considerations.
The R&D chief also elaborated on the 4C’s required preparations for U.S. sales, a process that apparently required significant adjustments. As Wester puts it, “the monocoque and the front and rear frames are different, the suspension has been reinforced, and suspension tuning has been changed.”
Some changes were marketing related: “The base car in the U.S. has richer equipment” because Americans like their comfort, and “Europeans are more willing to have a naked driving machine.” Clothed or otherwise, we’re just glad the Alfa 4C is coming here at all—and we’ll be awaiting the higher-output version with rich anticipation.
Subaru’s Australian pitchman, Paul Hogan, is long gone, but the Outback he once peddled is humming along quite well without him. And considering you haven’t thought about Mick “Crocodile” Dundee in years, you’ve probably been doing just fine without him, too. READ MORE ››
A source close to Toyota has told Automotive News the next-gen Prius' production launch has been pushed back by until December 2015.
Setelah heboh beberapa tahun lalu, kasus 'percepatan yang tidak diinginkan' kini hadir kembali. Namun, bukan di mobil Toyota, tapi di mobil Nissan.
As a memorial to the homies it lost, the National Corvette Museum will leave part of the giant sinkhole that swallowed eight rare Corvettes as a permanent exhibit.
The museum, which has enjoyed a 59-percent spike in visitor volume since it put the “Great 8” wreckage on display, said it decided against filling the abyss to retain “this new part of history.” Retained will be a hole that’s 30-feet deep, 25-feet long and 45-feet wide—a mere fraction of the original opening—with a “dirt embankment” in the cave below where one or two cars can be displayed. Later, if the museum grows tired of the sinkhole saga, the square void can be covered.
“We have to look at creative ways to generate interest in the museum,” executive director Wendell Strode said on the museum’s blog. “It would be so much easier to just be a regular automotive museum with our Corvettes on display, but we have to think outside the box.”
Construction begins in September, at which time the Bowling Green, Kentucky, museum will have celebrated its 20th anniversary and the Great 8 will take a deserved break. While we laud the museum’s publicity efforts and its newfound fascination with speleology, had the sinkhole emerged during business hours and taken people down with it, we’d be writing a very different story.
Hatta tiba di lokasi debat pada pukul 19.45 WIB, Minggu (29/6/2014) dengan menumpang mobil Toyota Lexus berwarna putih. Sang istri, Okke Rajasa dan anaknya, Rasyid Rajasa tampak mendampingi Hatta.
Dalam segmen small sedan, pabrikan mobil Toyota memiliki Vios. Ternyata, setelah diproduksi lokal di Indonesia, Toyota mengaku jualan Vios tetap bagus dan tidak kalah dengan pesaingnya di segmen yang sama.
Nissan has strong links with the computer gaming world, and even company chief Andy Palmer is getting in on the actI’m not a fervent computer gamer, but I appreciate the increasingly blurred line between virtual reality and proper, flesh-and-metal reality.
That doesn’t prevent a tiny tremor of concern passing through me when Andy Palmer, Nissan’s chief planning officer, tells me that his only previous experience of the Goodwood hill has been via the (admittedly very accurate) rendering of the route that exists on Gran Turismo 6.
This worries me because I am sitting in the passenger seat of a definitely real and extremely rare Nissan GT-R, which Palmer is about to drive up the course at high speed. What’s more, those tree trunks off the start line and those straw bales at Molecomb and that flint wall further up are definitely, emphatically not made of computer pixels…
My nerves subside as we patiently wait our turn. As befits a man who personally signs-off all of Nissan’s new road car models, Palmer is a safe and experienced pair of hands.
On our run up the hill he’s measured and precise, noting that the first right-hander is often slippery under the trees and remembering that Molecomb corner needs the utmost respect (something that fellow Nissan GT-R driver Sir Chris Hoy finds out the hard way later in the day).
But he’s by no means hanging about; I can tell by the pace that the flint wall zooms towards us. The GT-R is scenery-blurring quick, and I love the visceral bark it produces during acceleration and gearshifts.
We both stay in the car, belted and helmeted, when we reach the holding area at the top of the too-short run. We realise – too late – that we should have hopped out and rubbed shoulders with the great and the good, who have clambered out of their cars.
Hoy bobs his head into the door to say hello to Palmer. Jenson Button idly leans against our GT-R’s rear wing as he chats. Jay Kay hops out of his LaFerrari as fans clamour for photos and autographs.
Mind you, I’m happy to sit here and scrutinise the Nissan. This isn’t just any GT-R; this ‘Time Attack’ car was used to set the ‘volume’ production car lap record around the Nürburgring Nordschleife last year.
Although the car is a production model, it does have the ambience of a car honed for raw pace and is augmented with ‘track options’ – parts that any keen owner could buy and fit.
The aerodynamics have been tweaked, weight has been cut and the suspension has been tuned, although the engineers actually softened it off to deal with the harsh bumps of the Nordschleife.
The bonnet of the car has been signed by all the engineers and drivers who worked together to make Nissan’s 7min 08.679sec lap of the Nürburgring happen. Wonder if those drivers learned their lines on the PlayStation 3? Nissan has shown it can work...
The Toyota GT 86 prototype fitted with lightweight parts has been spied once again testing on the Nurburgring. 
