Nissan has revealed a bit more information about its next concept car due to be unveiled in a few weeks at Detroit. The Forum will offer a unique seating configuration called ‘Turntable Seating’.
Featuring three seat rows, the Forum concept car enables the second’s to be rotated by 90 degrees to either side or 180 degrees to face the three-passenger 3rd row seat. It will also include the latest entertainment gadgets and an unexpected console-mounted microwave oven.
A previous post reported an interview given by PSA CEO Christian Streiff about the revised Fukang model and here are the latest specs. The Fukang is a compendium of ’90s technologies and design with a Gallic taste.
On the outside, the car still looks the same as it did in 1991, when it was first released in Europe, but it adopts a new paint scheme likely to be trendy in the US. On the inside, nothing has changed, even the antediluvian stereo system has joined the party, but the seats and plastics trimmings adopt like the exterior a colour that would fit in an American car.
The biggest changes concern the engines which are now compliant with the Euro 5 regulation. The Fukang is available with a choice of two petrol engines, a 1.4-litre and a 1.6-litre.
We can, of course, laugh at the idea of a 2008 Citroen ZX entirely similar to the original model launched in 1991, but for the Chinese customer, it means that Citroen had more than fifteen years to make the car reliable and unbreakable. At a time when Chinese car makers compete on prices to sell their models, reliability is not their priority. But, the threat might not come from the Chinese manufacturers but from other big players like Toyota which put two cars in the top ten for November.
In an interview with Reuters, Iran_Khodro’s CEO Manouchehr Manteghi said that the car will be finance by Muslim countries and built in three countries, Iran of course, but also Malaysia and Turkey, the only two other Muslim markets to have decent automotive industries.
Proton CEO Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir had said in an interview in November that the future car would feature specific Islamic equipments but Iran_Khodro CEO said such features were not planned as the car is expected to be sold worldwide. However he added that each country will be able to add its own equipment.
At this stage, details remain scarce but the car will sold at a price tag between £4,300 and £5,700. and will target markets in Africa, the Middle East and southeast Asia.
The original idea might sound a bit ridiculous and too much political but with a market of 1.1-1.8 billion Muslims, the effort mustn’t be ignored and the case followed with interest.
Nine months after hitting the showrooms, the Qashqai has already been sold at 100,000 units in Europe. United Kingdom, Russia and Italy are the largest markets with sales at the end of November of 17,554, 15,376 and 10,746 units respectively since launch.
Qashqai has exceeded all sales forecasts since its launch in March. To meet demand for the car in Europe, production was increased by 20% in June at the factory in Sunderland, England, where it is manufactured. And starting this month, the manufacture of the Japanese version of Qashqai will be transferred from Sunderland to Nissan’s factory in Kyushu, Japan, freeing up extra production capacity for Europe. Sales of Dualis in Japan, as it is badged in that market, have also exceeded expectation, with total sales of over 18,000 sales since its introduction in May.
Qashqai buyers come from varied backgrounds: they can be former owners of compact cars such as the Renault Megane or the Vauxhall Astra, upper saloons like the Toyota Avensis or the Renault Laguna and small SUV such as the Kia Sportage or previous-generation Hyundai Santa Fe. Bold design is cited as one of the main asset of the crossover.
The Nissan Almera definitely became a forgotten page in the automotive books.
Mazda might become ambitious as it will unveil a supercar at the next Detroit Motor Show in January. The Furai for ‘Sound of the wind’ will apply the Mazda’s unique design language called Nagare on an American Le Mans Series (ALMS) racing car.
Information remains scarce but Mazda says the engine will be a 450bhp three-rotor rotary engine using ethanol (E100) produced by British Petroleum (BP). Franz von Holzhausen, Mazda’s North American director of design, says “Furai purposely blurs boundaries that have traditionally distinguished street cars from track cars. Historically, there has been a gap between single-purpose racecars and street-legal models — commonly called supercars — that emulate the real racers on the road. Furai bridges that gap like no car has ever done before.” We’re excited to see the concept car in a few weeks
Mazda will also surprise visitors and journalists with a face-lifted RX-8 model whose nobody has ever heard before. However a development mule based on the current RX-8 has been recently shot. Would it be the revised coupé and no the next-generation as originally thought?
Chinese market continue growing at a high pace and in November total sales reached an impressive 583,200 vehicles, a 17% increase over the previous month. The closest segments to ours are the saloon and hatchback markets. The Santana 3000 topped the chart with 19,300 vehicles being sold while Toyota performed rather well with two cars in the top ten, the Corolla and the Camry. GM proves it can be competitive with 18,500 sold Buick Excelle which is the Chinese version of the Chevrolet Lacetti
Top ten in the hatchback and saloon segments:
1. Santana 3000: 19,300
2. Buick Excelle: 18,500
3. VW Jetta: 17,300
4. Corolla: 16,500
5. Camry: 16,400
6. Xia Li: 13,700
7. Chery QQ: 11,800
8. Hyundai Elantra: 11,500
9. Haimai Familai: 10,900
10. Honda Accord: 10,900
Have you ever heard of the SsangYong Chairman? It is a luxury Korean car based on an outdated Mercedes platform with an outdated six cylinder petrol engine and I saw the car once in my life in Sapporo, Japan. The situation might change with the next-generation as the Korean car maker has released the first teaser.
This time, the new Chairman is Ssangyong’s serious attempt to take on established rivals such as the S-Class or the 7-Series. The car will be based on a unique platform and will feature a 5.0-litre V8 petrol engine hooked up to a seven-speed automatic gearbox. Oddly from the pictures, the engine looks like it comes from Stuttgart. The luxury saloon will grow in size and promises a roomier interior. The exterior styling will be derived from the WZ concept car unveiled at this year’s Seoul Motor Show.
Initially only sold in South Korea next year, the Chairman will go worldwide around 2010. The saloon is part of an ambitious plan which will see the launch of 30 new models until 2011 with the help of the parent company SAIC.
Troubled luxury car maker Spyker has announced that it had entered in exclusive talks with the Lithuanian bank, Snoras Group, on refinancing the company. The Dutch company expects to reach a deal within ten days and has suspended talks with other potential investors including the Lichtenstein-based firm ACI.
Secrecy surrounds, of course, the talks although it is believed that the Lithuanian bank won’t get a stake inferior to 30% as interim CEO Hans Hugenholtz told in an interview last week that “Spyker needs funding to develop new cars” and “a stake in the company could be part of the refinance plans” but the “stake won’t exceed 30 percent.”
According to the newspaper De Telegraaf, Spyker planned to get will get €48 million / £35 million from ACI in exchange of a 26 percent stake.
The Japanese auction company aucnet.jp reserved to professionals has revealed that ¥10 million milestone despite an official price of ¥8,340,000/£36,430. The Premium edition with a white paint reached ¥10,400,000/£45,430,. In other words, someone was ready to pay more than 20% over the official price to get a GT-R!
In the past, Nissan had announced he would fight GT-R speculation but its efforts don’t really convince and the Japanese brand is rather happy by such frenzy. The GT-R becomes the third in Aucnet history to generate such a buzz after the 1987 Nissan Be-1, a small car, and the 1990 Honda NSX.
The 308 RC-Z concept car has been given the green light and should hit the showrooms sometime in 2009.
Company sources reveal that the future coupé will be built by Magna in Austria and will be based on the PF2 platform used by the 308 and the C4. Secrecy surrounds the future car and one doesn’t know whether the car will get specific chassis tuning. The concept car was powered by a 175bhp 1.6-litre petrol engine taken from the 207 RC. This petrol unit might be a bit too weak so, Peugeot will likely feature a bigger engine under the hood.
This is very good news for Peugeot as recent PSA CEO Christian Streiff statements remain unclear. If by “reliability, trust and elegance”, he meant 308 RCZ, we are eagerly waiting the future company’s lineup.
Source: Motorlegend