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UK Nissan GT-Rs specs unveiled
This isn’t official, but PistonHeads has revealed the GT-R specs for the British market.
The Nissan GT-R will be available with three trim levels: basic, premium and black edition. The entry level will start at £52,900 and will be available in five colours, Pikes Peak White, Vibrant Red, Titanium Grey, Gun metallic, Super Silver. The car will come with leather interior, the computer system, but no navigation system. For a £1,300 extra, the premium will add BOSE DAB 11 speaker sound system, rain sensing windscreen wipers, auto-dim rear view mirror and auto headlamps.
The black edition will be, of course, will feature a unique black colour, called kuro black. It will get smoke grey wheel finish and exclusive black and red leather interior leather trim. The topping version will cost £55,500.
March 28, 2008
BMW considers fewer cylinders for M models
BMW is seriously considering downsizing the M line to make it more environmentally friendly.
In an interview, BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer said that he would like to see fewer cylinders used in the German automaker’s M line. Indeed, from the first M3 E30 in the 80s, the number of cylinders has jumped form 4 to 8 for the latest M3 E92. The same story applies to the M5 whose number of cylinders progressed from 6 to 10.
Reithofer said that BMW will now “ be focusing on its six-cylinder engines as it attempts to improve its emissions and fuel consumption levels in light of stricter regulations set to roll in over the next decade.” in an interview, head of development, Thomas Weber, said that Mercedes “will strongly force the trend in downsizing” – for both diesel and petrol models. Weber claims that the recent trend of using larger engines to power vehicles would be “sharply reversed,” and its V8 units are also under investigation for downsizing.
March 28, 2008
Audi rolls off the 1,000,000th A3
Audi marked a new milestone by producing the millionth current generation Audi A3 model.
Audi announced that the 1,000,000th model rolled off the production line at its factory in Ingolstadt. The milestone car is a Brilliant Red, 138bhp 2.0-litre TDI Audi A3 Sportback intended for a customer in Franconia, Germany.
Since the launch of the first generation in 1996, more than 1.9 million units have been manufactured. Each day, more than 800 units of the Audi A3 roll off the production line in Ingolstadt. Among the 230,849 units produced last year, the Sportback accounted for 68.9 percent of the total.
March 28, 2008
Mercedes-Benz names Gorden Wagener as new head of design
Mercedes-Benz has named Gorden Wagener as its new head of design to replace Peter Pfeiffer who will retire in the middle of the year.
The young designer, 39, will lead the Mercedes design after being head of the Advanced Design department. If Wagener remains unknown he led the teams which designed the Mercedes models of the past years., from the GL Class to the F700 concept car.
He began his career as Exterior Designer in 1995, and joined Mercedes-Benz in Sindelfingen two years later. In 1999, he became head of the Exterior / Interior Styling department, designing the models of the GL-, M- and R-Class with his team. In 2002, Wagener was responsible for the design of the models making up the A-, B-, C-, E-, CLK- and CLS-Class.
March 28, 2008
BMW might build Alfa Romeos in the US
According to Fiat sources, BMW will start producing Alfa Romeo models in its American factory in 2011.
The news comes as a surprise. If Sergio Marchionne had revealed in an interview with Financial Times that the company was looking for a partner to come back to the US, the German carmaker was far from being the obvious choice. Teaming with one of the three American carmakers seemed to be a logical choice.
Alfa Romeo has plans to return to the US by 2009, first by selling its models through the Maserati dealerships. However the strong euro currency increase the prices of the company models on the American market. On its side, BMW is looking for partners to build future models in order to cut costs. Recently the car manufacturer has announced it will invest £375 million in its Spartanburg factory to increase production capacity.
However a partnership between both carmakers looks rather uncertain. First both brands, Alfa Romeo and BMW, will compete on the same market segments in the US, and secondly, BMW will boost its production capacity in the US to build its models there due to the weak dollar currency.
Source: FT and MF
March 28, 2008
Profits for Seat in 2007
Seat has recorded a profit after tax of £135 million/€170 million which marks the achievement of the planned financial turnaround one year ahead of schedule.
In 2007 the Spanish carmaker increased its deliveries to customers by 0.4 percent to 431,000. Best performing markets were the United Kingdom with +5.8% and France with +5.1% as well as the new markets of Central and Eastern Europe with a global +27.3%. Poland recorded an outstanding growth with a 70.6% increase. The most popular models were, of course, the Leon and the Ibiza.
The good news enables Seat to invest in the future. As Seat CEO, Erich Schmidt said, “Our strategy for the next ten years aims at selling more than 800,000 cars per year, gaining a return on investment of 15 percent, gaining leadership in design and quality in our model segments and becoming Spain’s most attractive employer.”
The company will unveil the next-generation Ibiza in May already seen as a concept car called Bocanegra in Geneva.
March 28, 2008
Peugeot and Citroen SUVs to be built in europe from 2009
The Peugeot 4007 and Citroën C-Crosser will be manufactured in Europe from 2009
PSA Peugeot Citroën has announced the production of its SUVs will be transferred from Japan to Europe.
PSA agreed with its partner Mitsubishi to transfer the production of the Peugeot 4007 and Citroën C-Crosser to Europe. Currently assembled in the Japanese Mizushima factory, the SUVs will be manufactured in the Dutch "Ned Car" factory, which is also owned by Mitsubishi.
The relocation will enable the French group to respond to the European demand. The Peugeot 4007 and Citroën C-Crosser are based on the Mitsubishi Outlander.
March 28, 2008
Mercedes unveils the facelifted A-Class
Mercedes has unveiled the first pictures of the facelifted A-Class due to be launched at next week’s Leipzig motor show.
The facelift is very subtle. The A-Class features new front and rear bumpers, redesigned headlights, a new grille and new tail lamps. On the inside,there are a range of newupholstery fabrics and door trim. What’s interesting about the revamped A-Class is what you can’t see: environment and safety.
The German carmaker claims the revamped A-Class is more environmentally friendly thanks to a new start/stop function featured on a new BlueEfficiency package only available on the A 150, A170 and A 160 CDI. The system automatically switches the engine off when the driver shifts to neutral at low speed whilst depressing the brake pedal. A special display in the instrument cluster informs the driver if the conditions for switching off the engine are met The moment the clutch is pressed or the brake pedal released, the engine springs back to life almost noiselessly and in a fraction of a second.
Mercedes has also enhanced safety in the A-Class by featuring adaptive brake lights. During emergency braking when travelling at more than 50 km/h, the brake lights flash at high frequency to warn drivers behind who can consequently react faster and are in a better position to prevent an accident. The revamped A-Class also sets new standards in this market segment in the area of occupant protection with two-stage front airbags, belt tensioners for the front and outer rear seats, belt force limiters, active front head restraints and head/thorax sidebags. Mercedes has added a crash-responsive emergency lighting in the interior, which comes on automatically after an accident of a defined severity to provide occupants with better orientation and make the task of the emergency services easier.
The optional equipment becomes more luxurious with reverse parking detectors and new navigation systems offering Bluetooth, colour display and Europe-wide navigation.
The facelifted A-Class will go on sale in the UK from June.
March 28, 2008
Daihatsu Materia goes ‘groovy’
Daihatsu models are almost unknown in Europe and you probably didn’t that the Materia was sold in the UK. Aware of the problem, Nick Morgan had a psychedelic idea to promote the car.
Lynx Daihatsu of Yeovil Somerset organised a brainstorming among its staff to promote the Materia and aftersales manager Nick Morgan came up with the idea of a head-turning ‘groovy’ graphics with a ‘Flower Power’ flavour.
“We all sat down and brainstormed how to promote this quirky car and I came up with the idea of a psychedelic theme. The inspiration was a pop video on YouTube called ‘Groove Is In The Heart’ by Deee-Lite.”
So far the car has been displayed in various supermarkets and town centres in the area and Lynx Daihatsu has also produced special ‘Get In The Groove’ hand-out cards.
Dealer Principal, Derek Bunning, says it is difficult to quantify Materia sales as a result of the campaign but at least one Sirion was sold to someone who visited the showroom after seeing the funky Materia promotional car.
March 27, 2008
HPI survey reveals the Porsche 911 is the ultimate in 80s cars
The Porsche 911 has been elected the ultimate of the 80s in a survey conducted by HPI. The Audi Quattro ranked second.
With the hit BBC TV series, Ashes to Ashes drawing to a close this week, the Porsche 911 took almost a third of all votes 29%, just pipping the Audi Quattro with 28%, to be crowned the decades most desirable car. Both cars left their 80s rivals trailing in the dust, with only the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth and BMW M5 to make any impression in the survey with 15% and 12% respectively.
The survey also asked respondents about which iconic cars from that period they most fondly remembered, and it was another TV car that swept all before it. The Ford Capri SLE 71R, immortalised by Terry McCann in Minder, polled 30% of the votes, receiving more than twice as many votes as the Jaguar XJ6 driven by his TV boss Arthur Daly which polled 11%. Sonny Crockett’s Ferrari Testarossa also proved memorable with the Miami Vice car getting 26% of the votes. The DeLorean DMC12 from Back to the Future was next with 23% and the Ferrari 308, as driven by Magnum, scooped up 21% of the vote.
FInally it wasn’t all high performance vehicles that were fondly regarded, the Reliant Regal – the three-wheeler of choice of Del Trotter in Only Fools & Horses came fifth with 19%.
March 27, 2008