Here are two videos of the new Renault Koleos. The Koleos can be considered as the first vehicle being designed and built by the Renault-Nissan cooperation. It has been designed by Renault’s teams, but engineered by Nissan and will be buiilt by Samsung Motors owned by Renault in South Korea.
Four months after its launch, Renault has decided to decrease the saloon’s production as it doesn’t meet a huge demand.
Even if the company’s executives try to convince us the success is measured all along its lifecycle, this is not perceived as a good sign to slow down the production of the Laguna. Indeed, the French saloon has been labelled as Ghosn’s car.
The poor sales are the result of the poor sales recored by the M2 segment on which the Laguna competes. But the tame design might also explain the poor success met by the Laguna. The situation won’t get better as Citroen C5’s sales start soon and Honda has unveiled the new Accord model.
Ford has unveiled the new Fiesta and it is certain that the new small Ford will send the outgoing model to the forgotten pages in the automotive history books.
As expected, the new Fiesta’s exterior design is taking its styling dues from the Verve Concept unveiled last year at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The new Fiesta features the trapezoidal grille, angular headlights, raked windshield and fastback profile.
The Fiesta will be available in three and five-foor forms in Western Europe and as a saloon in China. With the new Fiesta, Ford will go global as the car is intended to be sold in Europe first at the next autumn and across the rest of the world by 2010.
The Fiesta shares its inner structure, platform and powertrains, with the Mazda 2, so it means that the new car will be lighter than the outgoing model. The Fiesta will offer a wide range of petrol and diesel engines. There will be a 60bhp 1.4-litre petrol unit for the entry level, followed by a 91bhp 1.4-litre engine. Teh topping engine will be a 115bhp 1.6-litre unit.. Along the petrol engines, there will also be diesel units both with a displacement of 1.25-litre with either 60bhp or 80bhp. Engines will be hooked up to a five-speed manual gearbox or a the four-speed automatic Durashift.
Ford never had plan to build a right-hand drive version of the GT supercar as conversion costs wouldn’t have been covered by the final price tag. But thanks to two Australian companies, Crossover Car Conversions and Mustang Motorsport, Australian GT owners will be able to drive RHD GTs.
Both companies have converted their first Ford GT and are currently applying to the Australian Design Rules so they can be registered and driven in all states. “Handing this car over is going to be a proud moment, both in terms of the quality of our work and also just for the fact that the Ford GT is such a phenomenal car,” Mustang Motorsport’s Craig Dean said recently.
Crossover Car Conversions has already begun work on the next GT’s to be converted. Another six cars are already in line. If you want to buy a RHD Ford GT from Mustang Motorsport, it will cost you over $500,000AUD/£231,000.
Hummer has announced it will launch two special editions of its current models: the H2 Silver Ice Limited Edition and the H3 Championship Edition.
Like the Victory Red Edition sold last year, the new H2 limited edition is only available with a silver paint scheme. The limited also includes chrome package, which can be seen on the wheels and other exterior trim pieces. The wheels grow in size to 20” while the equipment features a rear vision camera, rear DVD entertainment system and a high-end audio system with Bose 5.1 surround sound. Only 750 units will be built whose 500 of them to be reserved for the American market.
The H3 Championship Edition is a tribute to the H3 Alpha that won the Baja 1000 race last year. This limited edition is powered by the Alpha’s V8 and adds to the normal version 33” tyres, a grille guard and fender extensions. The H3 gets a silver painting while its shocks and brake calipers are painted in red.
The H2 is sold at $65,230/£33,200 and the H3 costs $39,206/£20,000. Both SUVs hit the showrooms in April.
The troubled Italian coachbuilder hasn’t confirmed wether he would attend the Geneva Motor Show or not. However if it does come, it will bring a concept car rumoured to be called BAT 11.
This concept car would be the fourth BAT concept car after the company unveiled the BAT 5 in 1953, the BAT 7 in 1954 and the BAT 9 in 1955. Initially, Bertone’s intention was to design a car with the lowest Cx possible. Indeed, BAT means Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica. The BAT 7 had an astonishing 0.19 figure.
The first sketch of the concept car shows a car with flat curves close the BAT 5’s. One crosses ones fingers.
In an interview with Emirates Business 24/7, Bugatti spokesman Julius Kruta had confirmed Bugatti will build another car, more expensive and better than the supercar Veyron. Since then, the company might have changed its mind.
According to Motor Trend, the company has cancelled the project as it would have been redundant with the current Veyron. Dubbed Lydia, the project was rumoured to be another supercar powered by a 1175bhp engine costing £1.9 million and built at 70 units.
However, the plan to expand the lineup hasn’t been ruled out as the company is seriously considering building a super saloon which would be powered by the Veyron’s engine. It is rumoured that the price would top the £3 million mark and the future saloon would be a full bespoke model.
A study conducted by Edmunds shows that demand for V8 engines has fallen in almost every segment. Only the pickup segment escaped the trend.
Overall demand for V8s has dropped from 19 percent in 2006 to just 15 percent this year. SUVs recorded, of course, the biggest decline. Two years ago, 24% of buyers opted for a V8, but at the end of 2007, that number fell to just 18%. In the meantime, the V8 saloon market has also seen a shift in demand, with V8 take rates dropping from 36% to 29%.
Even iconic engines are not immune. The Chrysler’s Hemi V8 was chosen by 60 percent of Charger’s buyers two years ago while only 38 percent of them chose the V8 option today.
On the other hand, V8 demand grew in the pickup segment. Indeed, high gas prices have discouraged casual owners but not the core users who still need a powerful pickup for work.
Porsche has been elected in a survey conducted with 2,500 owners of small businesses as the brand with the best brand image in Germany. BMW ranked second and Audi arrived at the third rank.
The survey asked the 2,500 polled businessmen to rate each company on five topics: ethics, innovation, customer service, product quality and products. Porsche took the first rank for the eighth consecutive year.
Porsche totalized 893 points while BMW was ahead of Audi by only three points with 853 points for the former versus 850 points for the latter. Unexpectedly, Volkswagen jumped forward from the 76th rank to 26th rank.
The British marque has unveiled the Exige Sport Cup 260, a new ultimate Lotus to drive for the future lucky owner.
The 260 refers to the PS power figure (257bhp) which is 5 more bhp than the last year’s car. The engine is the Toyota 1,8-litre unit on which Lotus added a Roots-type Eaton M62 supercharger. On top of that, Lotus has featured special aerodynamic upgrades, variable traction and launch control, a special instrument pack and a number of performance upgrades. Hauling it all in is a braking system that comes with four-piston AP Racing calipers up front clamping 282 mm cross-drilled rotors. The car sits on a set of Yokohama A048R tires.
This Exige gets FIA-compliant six-point roll cage and FIA-approved Recaro seats. Like any Lotus model, the Exige only weighs 2046 lb which produces a power-to weight ratio of 271bhp per tonne.The Exige Sport Cup 260 will shuttle from 0 to 62mph in just 4.1 seconds and Lotus quotes a top speed of 147mph.
The price of the Exige Sport Cup 260 is set at £56,034 and it’s available now in Europe.
