New Cars for the Week of April 23rd, 2018

It’s just been about four weeks since our last regular podcast episode, with only the New York and Beijing motor shows occurring in that time span, but holy hell have we seen a lot of new cars! So it’s not just one long new car regurgitation, I split this up a bit and focused on the cars from New York in brief this week, along with a few standouts announced separately. Here we go.

New York Auto Show

The new Honda Insight was officially unveiled in New York to very little fanfare or excitement. Remember this is basically the Civic Hybrid, re-branded with a new name or little ostensible reason. Rather than being the cheapest possible hybrid you can buy, the new Insight is going upmarket and Honda is slotting it in between the Civic and Accord’s prices. Based on the Accord’s current sales, or lack thereof, I think Honda might struggle a bit with this one.

Mercedes unwrapped the new AMG C63, which uses a twin turbo V8 to churn out a somewhat surprisingly  modest 470 horsepower. Not that that number is small, it’s more than a Camaro, but barely. For having twin turbos, you know this car is capable of more, and there will undoubtedly be some sort of AMG Black version eventually. I secretly love Mercedes AMG cars because they are just mental and not balanced and precise like BMW’s M cars, which adds a measure of excitement to the drive. But wait for the Black version.

As recently as last year, Volkswagen was under a lot of pressure for not having a large, three row SUV, so they came out with the Atlas. Now they’re doing what every great German car company does and making as many versions of each of their car as possible to fill niches that didn’t previously exist. As such, we’ve now got the VW Atlas Cross, which is a 5-seat version of the 7-seat SUV they came out with last year.  If you’re thinking “well, isn’t that just what the new Touareg is supposed to be?” Yes. Yes it is.

Toyota isn’t resting on its laurels with the RAV4, which, outside of pickups, is the best selling vehicle in America. In New York they unveiled the new model for 2019, which takes the old model, roots around on the dash for a while until it finds the butch knob and then cranks that shit up to 11. The new car looks significantly beefier and squared off than the sort of swoopy current model, and sits on Toyota’s new and excellent TNGA platform that underpins the Camry. The new RAV4 is wider, but shorter and lower, and is apparently better to drive because of the new dimensions and architecture. It’ll come with a four cylinder and hybrid powertrains, with the latter potentially capable of achieving 70 miles per gallon. Who needs the Prius!?

Nissan also unveiled a new bread-and-butter car, the 2019 Altima, which I might normally just skip over, but I drove an Altima 3.5 SR to Kansas and back recently and actually quite enjoyed it. Mostly because of the V6. Sadly that engine is gone, replaced with a less powerful turbo four, but it’s the neat variable compression engine that changes piston stroke to give either better fuel economy or more power, so that’s neat. Problem is, it’ll still be paired with the CVT, which, of course, stands for continuously variable tragedy.

We got a new Hyundai Tuscon, which I might also normally just skip over.

There was also the new Kia K900 for the drivers who want a luxury sedan but don’t care about the luxury brand. I’m just getting word from the newsroom that that there are in fact zero buyers. Not one.

Subaru unveiled a new Forester for next year, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that they hadn’t. Subaru pulled a neat trick here though. Whereas other car companies will refresh a car to disguise the fact that they haven’t made any substantial changes to it, Subaru has actually moved the forester to a completely new global platform chassis and managed to tweak the styling so subtly, that buyers might not be able to identify it as a new car. But to some extent, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it, right? And the Forester is selling, mostly despite its beigeness.

There was a new Audi RS5 sportback, which is basically just a faster version of the S5 sportback, which is basically just a faster version of the A5 sportback which is a four door version of the A5 coupe and I wish the Germans would knock it off with this Russian nesting doll system of car models.

The Maserati Levante Trofeo was unveiled, which uses a Ferrari-sourced 3.8 litre V8, spitting out what I’m sure is a delightful sounding 590 horsepower right up until the time the SUV catches itself on fire or kicks into limp-home mode because you decided to turn on the air conditioning or something. It’s honestly pretty good looking. Kind of like a Quattroporte and a Porsche Cayenne mated, in a consensual way.

We also got a couple of cool concepts in New York, which I think have been largely missing from Auto Shows recently. The first was the Volkswagen Atlas Tanoak, which is a pickup. From Volkswagen. A Volkswagen Pickup. The concept, which is fairly foreign to us here, isn’t all that weird though. Volkswagen makes the Amorak pickup and sells it in the rest of the world. The Atlas Tanoak had some really neat features and could further shake up the somewhat uncrowded pickup market in a similar way to the Honda Ridgeline, which has been selling really well. I’m hoping they pull the trigger on this guy.

A slightly less realistic concept was the Genesis Essentia concept, which was probably the best looking car at the show. It looked to me like what a futuristic Mazda RX-7 might be, with a domed glass greenhouse and smooth, sweeping lines. Hell, it even has a triangular grill one might think was referencing the rotary engine of the Mazdas. Genesis calls the design philosophy “elegant decluttering,” which is a phrase I am now going to use every day of my life when someone asks how I want something done. “Well, this sandwich is fine, but it could use some elegant decluttering.”

Jaguar’s Crossovers

If you like Jags, and who doesn’t, and you like crossovers, ugh, who doesn’t, there’s good news for you this week! Jag has sprinkled some special sauce on its F-Pace mid-sized crossover and out came the F-Pace SVR, which has a supercharged five litre V8 pumping out almost 550 horsepower to all four wheels. Jag’s going after the Macan Turbo, but bringing a knife to the gun fight since it boasts more than 100 more horsepower than its German rival. It’s not just all power either, they’ve addressed the suspension to firm it up and improve handling, which it needs because it’s a freaking top-heavy SUV with more power than a Ferrari F430 got less than ten years ago. Excessive? Yes. Do I want one? Also yes.

In other Jag news, the company has teamed up with Waymo, Google’s self-driving company, to build driverless I-Pace compact electric crossovers. Waymo is slated to buy 20,000 of them, which is a tremendous amount of cars, and will complement their existing fleet of Chrysler Pacificas. Waymo is planning to introduce the first all-self-driving ride sharing service this year, expanding to provide one million driverless journeys a day by 2020. Based on the current sentiment regarding autonomous vehicles...good luck!

Polestar 1

You’ve heard about the Polestar 1 on my show before, so you’ll remember Polestar. You know, the now-independent company that used to be Volvo’s own tuning arm that unfortunately has a name like a video sharing website for strippers? Anyway, we learned some new things about their first car, which is basically a carbon fibre coupe version of the Volvo S90 sedan. We learned it will have 600 horsepower and be able to go 93 miles on electric-only power before the gasoline motor kicks in. It will very strangely have a slightly rear-biased weight distribution despite being a front-engined car. And we learned it will cost $155,000, which is an incredibly high amount of money, putting it on par with the likes of the AMG GT, Mercedes S Class Coupe and Porsche 911 Turbo, despite being a kind of not-Volvo. It’s also going to be available via subscription if you like to not own things, but if the choice is subscribing or paying a ridiculous amount, I can see why folks might choose the former.

Lynk & Co 2

Speaking of not-Volvos, Lynk & Co, not to be confused but will totally be confused with Lincoln Cars, have introduced their second model, the Two! This comes after the Chinese company’s first model, and I’ll bet you can guess what that was called. Yes, the 1, which was based on Volvo’s diminutive XC40, has been squished down to even smaller proportions to form the 2, making it an even more compact compact crossover. We know next to nothing else about these cars, other than that they’ll be electrified in some way or another and only for sale via a subscription service, starting in China, then moving to Europe and the US. When? Who knows, but they’ll eventually be joined by a third model, and I’ll give you one guess as to its name.

Authored by

Devlin Riggs

New Cars for the Week of March 19th, 2018

Karlmann King

If you're shopping for a car right now, chances are you're looking at SUVs and crossovers, because that's pretty much the only kind of vehicle anyone wants anymore. If you happen to be filthy rich, not care about brand heritage, not care about performance and are shot at quite often, there's really good news! It's called the Karlmann King, and it's a Chinese-designed vehicle built in Europe, which flips the script on how most companies are making cars these days. It looks like an F-117 stealth fighter and is powered by a 6.8 litre V10 from the Ford F550. If you want the bulletproof model though, you're looking at a car weighing 13,227 pounds (for reference, cars generally weigh between 3 and 400 pounds), so obviously performance isn't great. How not great? Despite 400 horsepower, it'll only hit a top speed of 87 MPH. But since it's a car designed to be ridden in, not driven, because it has a coffee machine, flat screen TV, refrigerator, PlayStation 4 and various other pimp-my-ride-type accouterments, you probably won't care how slow you're going.

Mercedes-Maybach Pullman

If you're filthy rich, do care about brand heritage, don't like driving and don't get shot at very often, there's also good news this week because the new Mercedes-Maybach Pullman S650 has been announced. Basically, this is the $615,000 limousine edition of the Mercedes Maybach S650, which means it seats six and features a glass partition between you and the driver so he can't hear you make fun of the poors like him, which should help avoid the development of simple resentment into a seething hatred, reducing the likelihood that you will be killed in a fit of rage by someone you hired to drive you around.

Volkswagen Touareg

In less fancy news, but still pretty fancy, Volkswagen unveiled their new Touareg in China this week. The premium SUV is hugely popular there, in Russia and in Europe, but sales fell off a cliff here in the states after Dieselgate. When it was removed from the market, VW officially claimed that it didn't make much sense for them to sell such a premium SUV since their brand is more of the people's car, but here they are again with a clone of the Porsche Cayenne (with which it was co-developed) but slightly cheaper. In truth, most of Volkswagen's cars have a very premium feel to them despite their relative inexpensiveness, which is welcome, especially as luxury cars are selling way more these days. And VW is sticking to what it knows and to cost efficiencies in keeping the Touareg a higher class vehicle than the Tiguan or Atlas. That said, we don't know if we'll get it here in the States yet, but the way SUV sales are going, they might as well try, even if it lacks a third row or hybrid option.

Cadillac CT6 V-Sport

Back when we learned that Cadillac was trimming the CTS and ATS in favor of something in between called the CT6, I wasn't too surprised since sales of sedans are in the toilet, circling the drain. But I am a bit surprised to learn that Caddy isn't going to just phone it in on the new car, because they announced this week a V-Sport trim package that very much keeps alive the crazy fun factor of the ATS-V and CTS-V. Not only does the V-Sport have a 4.2 litre V8, it has two turbochargers, spooling up 550 horsepower and a tire-shredding 627 pound feet of torque. The turbos actually sit inside the crease of the 90-degree v-shape of the engine. For reference, most engines are 60-degree Vs, so it makes for a pretty compact package. No performance figures yet, but I'm willing to bet that, regardless of the 0-60 time, it'll be quick and loud enough to put a smile on your face.

Jeep Concepts Galore

If you've been listening to my show for a while, you probably know that I'm not really into the muddin' or off-road scene that much. Not because I'm not interested, but rather that I've never really gotten the opportunity. My neighbors do it and love it, and I am a fan of old Wranglers and 4Runners, so I think I'd probably really enjoy it too. You know who else enjoys it? Fiat Chrysler, because Jeep makes a killing off of that scene and they absolutely know how to get to their buyers. This week is the annual Easter meet in Moab, Utah, where all the hardcore off-road types go, and Jeep is bringing seven concepts of different vehicles to the event. While most are Wrangler-based, there is a really neat resto-mod vintage-sytle Wagoneer as well as a really not-so-neat Renegade concept that basically just lifts the suspension an inch and a half. The Wrangler models all have their own brand of unique flavoring and showcase what a blank canvas Jeep's most iconic model is, and just how flexible the new JL platform can be for owners. Fiat Chrysler doesn't do much right, but it's clear that they really "get" Jeep, which is probably why they don't want to sell it even though it's the single most valuable brand in their stable.

VW ID R Pike's Peak

Speaking of fun cars you can't buy, Volkswagen has one of those. It's the ID R Pike's Peak, which is an electric race car built specifically for, well, Pike's Peak. It'll compete in the hill climb on June 24th and is aiming to take Rhys Millen's record of 8 minutes 57 seconds and throw it out the window. We don't have any sort of performance figures or power specs, but it certainly looks like a super sleek race car, and if they're explicitly going after the electric vehicle record, you know it's going to be fast. And good for them ; the more interest they can build in electric vehicles, the more consumers will trust and consider the road-going models. Or at least that's the theory.

Toyota Corolla Hatchback

Gone is Scion and with it their upper case-lower case naming convention, so the Toyota iM, has been redesigned and relaunched as the Corolla Hatchback. The changes are apparently welcome because the iM was a real piece of shit according to the reviews I've read. I drove an old Toyota Matrix up in Canada and really enjoyed it more than I thought I would, but that was probably 13 years ago, and I guess the iM hadn't really come very far since then, so the new Corolla Hatch features many changes. The chassis is more rigid, it's longer, wider and lower and out is the ancient 1.8 litre four-banger and in is a new 2.0 litre model. The interior has also been completely redesigned to have supportive seats and functional armrests, which was apparently a problem with the iM as well. Not to mention it really looks quite good, especially in a sort of light blue color in which it's been shown. I don't think it'll kick my GTI out of my garage just yet but I'm sure it'll be quite a capable, reliable little car.

Authored by
Devlin Riggs

New Cars for the week of February 19th, 2018

Last week we saw several cars that are slated to “debut” in Geneva, ruining the surprise and sort of defeating the point of the motor show. Sure, outlets will still send their journalists to snap photos in person, but the press images distributed by the brands are already the best possible images you’re going to get of the new cars. What’s sort of ridiculous is that the show isn’t even this week but the week after! And most of these reveals aren’t coming from leaks, but rather seem to be planned PR measures by the brands. Maybe they figure they’ll be competing with other brands for the limelight at the actual show, so getting out there early is a good way to not get buried in a pile of more interesting cars? Maybe this is another sign that auto shows are waning in their popularity and influence and that future car launches will all happen in virtual reality. Who knows. In any case, here are your new cars.

SEAT’s Cupra Brand

It’s not often in this new car section that we get to talk about entirely new brands, but this week is special because of a design study leak and the following bean-spillage from Spain. SEAT, the company with the same name as something you sit on, but pronounced differently, has announced that they are spinning off Cupra, which was the name attached to the performance versions of their vehicles, into a completely stand-alone brand. Just like Mercedes has done with AMG and Volvo has done with Polestar, Cupra will now get their own models, as well as still creating performance versions of SEAT cars.

The announcement of the brand came with the new company’s first vehicle, the Cupra Ateca. Now, from a European performance brand, you’d expect their first vehicle to be a statement-maker – Something that says, “We’re here and we mean business, so watch out Honda Type R and Volkswagen GTI!” Instead, what we got was, “We’re here and we are heavily influenced by global market trends and intend to have solid sales instead of operating as a niche manufacturer catering to the desires of performance enthusiasts!” Needless to say, their first vehicle was a little underwhelming. As you might have guessed, it’s a compact crossover that looks aggressive, but isn’t really any faster than your neighbor's Toyota Highlander. It has 300 horsepower and all-wheel drive, which are cool and hits 60 in less than 5.5 seconds, which is quick, but not blistering. What’s more interesting is the design study of the Cupra Ibiza, a hot hatchback that SEAT has made for years and is apparently great to drive, though we don’t get it here in the States. So since we can’t get these and probably won’t see one unless we travel abroad, what’s the takeaway? Crossovers are ruining even the brands designed to be performance-oriented from the start.

Ferrari 488 Pista

Unlike Porsche, Ferrari doesn’t really do a whole lot of special editions of their vehicles, so when we get one, they tend to be pretty special. This was one of those special weeks because we were treated to details of the forthcoming 488 Pista, a track-focused version of the 488 GTB with 710 horsepower and 568 foot pounds of torque, delivering 62 miles per hour in just 2.85 seconds. This is also the first time I’ve seen a 0-60 time include hundredths of a second in its calculation, which is an illustration of just how ridiculous and excessive these cars are becoming. I don’t know about you, but if I drove one of those things, then sat in a McLaren 720S, which does the same run in 2.9 seconds, I would totally be like “oh yeah, you can definitely feel that the Pista is at least four hundredths of a second faster, but five?” The cars have virtually the same performance, so you can tell who Ferrari was benchmarking during testing, which should be pretty flattering for McLaren. Care to guess where this will debut? Yep, Geneva, where there will be no actual new cars.

Volvo V60

When I was test driving cars, the only vehicle to rival the GTI for my affection was the Volvo V60 T6 R-Design, which was attractive, fast, comfortable and handled well. It lost points for being expensive, heavy and having a dated interior, but it was a very strong contender. Now though, I’m really happy I didn’t buy it because there’s a new V60 coming soon and holy shit it is a beautiful, beautiful wagon. It cops the modern Volvo styling, complete with “Thor’s Hammer” headlights and sleek, sexy crisp curves and lines. The dated interior has been completely revised with a big central touchscreen and gigantic speakers you can see from the press photos and guy, we haven’t even gotten to the best part yet! The new V60 will be available with Volvo’s T8 powertrain, which pairs a twin turbo six cylinder engine with a plug-in hybrid system that develops 390 horsepower! Sure, this will be on some top of the line R-Design trim and will cost probably around $60k but not only does the wagon renaissance continue, the Hot Wagon market is heating up! While I’m in no hurry to replace the GTI, when the warranty runs out, there may be a few of these coming off lease and I might just be the first one in line.

Peugeot 508

Also revealed ahead of a formal unveiling in Geneva was the second generation Peugeot 508, which is the company’s flagship sedan. It’s super attractive, especially in the red color promoted in the photos distributed to media sources, and it’s been transitioned from a conventional sedan to a fastback, meaning the rear glass lifts with the trunk, which is a popular trend these days. The power trains aren’t likely to ignite any sort of passion for driving if you didn’t have it already, topping out at a 222 horsepower gasoline engine, but a plug-in hybrid version will be available after launch, which could tempt the more efficient-minded buyers. The interior is just as good looking as the exterior and it’s interesting to see the French company invest so much in the development of a really plush sedan, given the falling popularity of that vehicle style. The 508 isn’t slated to come to the US, but remember that all new Peugeots are designed to comply with American safety standards, so there’s a real possibility we could see it eventually.

Subaru Ascent

In significantly less exciting news, there’s a new big SUV from Subaru, who have been missing out on sales since the death of the Tribeca left them without a three-row crossover. Well that has been fixed with the new Ascent, which is a handsome-looking SUV that slots in above the Outback as Subaru’s largest and most expensive vehicle aside from the track-focused WRX STI Type RA, which is much more interesting. It’s about what you would expect from Subaru; all wheel drive is standard, as is their EyeSight safety package and it comes with Subaru’s turbocharged 2.4L boxer engine that puts out 260 horsepower through a super terrible CVT. I know this because I drove a Forester with that same combination and could not find an ounce of joy in that car. It’s also relatively under-powered compared to other vehicles in its class equipped with V6s, but at least it gets 27 miles per gallon, which is frugal. Subaru is aiming at the Toyota Highlander and Honda Pilot and hopes to even draw some customers away from the German brands, which I’m sure they can do if they find buyers who don’t care how their car looks or feels on the inside and place a greater emphasis on value for the money instead of driving experience. Honestly, I’m a Subaru fan, but they have done nothing to earn my affection recently.

Gold Cup S70

While China is on the cutting edge of electric vehicle technology, the country also has a reputation for appropriating the design of other vehicles. That rich tradition has continued this week with the Gold Cup S70, which is an odd bird. I say that because it has the beak that adorned most recent Acuras, but is a pickup truck that looks a lot like the current model Honda Ridgeline, so it wouldn’t be totally unreasonable to look at this and think, “Oh, Honda is making an Acura version of their pickup.” No, they’re not. But China is!

Authored by
Devlin Riggs

New Cars for the week of February 12th, 2018

Geneva Cars Coming Early

Honestly, I’m not sure why we have car shows anymore. I’ve talked a little about their obsolescence before, but it seems like automakers are starting to embrace it. The Geneva Motor Show is coming up next week, but we’ve pretty much already seen all the actually new cars we think are going to be announced there. And it’s not like they’re being leaked, either. The automakers themselves are blowing the lids on their new cars, sending information to the press without making a big splash at a show like they used to. So what do we know about already?

There’s a new BMW X4, which is great for fans of jacked up sedan/SUV bastardizations that are worse at everything than either of the vehicles combined to create them. And if you think the X6 is useless because it’s not as spacious as an SUV and lacks cargo, but the stilted ride height makes the car stiffer and handle worse, first of all, you’re right, second of all, the X4 is even worse because it’s like an even smaller, more useless X6.

We also got a refreshed Mercedes C-Class, which gets a slightly revised exterior and is infused with some self-driving technology from the E-Class. Unlike the BMW, this is a totally useful vehicle and will be enough car for virtually everyone, but since it’s a sedan, people won’t want anything to do with it.

Mercedes also unveiled an updated version of their Maybach S Class, which essentially takes a $150,000 top of the range car with the latest in every conceivable technology and increases the “fancy”, charging more than twice as much for it because rich people are rich and can afford it.

There were several other sort of minor announcements, but we’ll keep an eye on the show next week, maybe it’ll surprise us. 

Chicago Auto Show

Speaking of surprises, the Chicago Auto Show was last week. And I don’t mean that in terms of like “there were a bunch of great surprising new cars unveiled in Chicago” but more as a “you probably didn’t hear about the Chicago Auto Show because nothing happened at it, so surprise to you that it has actually occurred.”

Really, we got some lifted Toyotas and Nissans, some faster versions of a Hyundai, a GMC and a Fiat, a Volkswagen we’ve already seen, a bunch of customized vehicles and a Nissan giveaway that looked like a breast implant. Swear to god. It’s apparently a hand warmer, but look at it. Tell me that’s not a boob.

Faraday Future Small SUV

Their FF91 still isn’t a real vehicle, but that doesn’t mean nothing’s going on at Faraday Future headquarters. They have actually been very busy, not on building a real car but in sketching another potentially real car. They released last week a sketch for a smaller SUV that could slot in below the FF91 which, of course, presumes the FF91 ever actually gets made. To me, Faraday Future is like when you see a dog using a pillow or sitting up in a chair and you’re like “aw, it thinks it’s people,” but in Faraday Future’s case it’s like “aw, it thinks it’s real.”

Toyota Supra

I normally try to steer clear of speculation, especially in the new car section because so much can change and so much rumor tends to be either wrong or underwhelming, but as a guy who grew up with a poster of a Toyota Supra on my wall, it’s hard for me to temper my own excitement about the forthcoming Supra. Toyota themselves released a teaser image of the rear end this week, which showed little except a big wing and a double bubble roof. Then that same day, scans of Japan’s Best Car magazine were posted on a forum which revealed some more details about the car set to debut in Geneva. The specs seem to indicate it’ll have 335 horsepower, be relatively lightweight and, somewhat incredibly, sprint to 60 miles per hour in less than 4 seconds. With just 335 horsepower!

I’ve seen the leaks posted on several sites and although the reaction has generally been split between domestic and foreign fanboys, there have been several comments I’ve seen bemoaning the fact that it doesn’t have more power and won’t challenge the Nissan GT-R for ultimate Japanese super car supremacy. And I think that’s actually part of the reason why I’m so excited about it! The original Supra cost about the equivalent of $45,000 in today’s money, which is less than half of what Nissan charges for the GT-R. With that amount of power and performance, I have to think Toyota is still aiming at the same sort of price range for the new Supra, which means, unlike the GT-R, it’s actually going to be a Japanese sports car people can sort of afford! The only things that really get me down on this car are the styling that we’ve seen so far and the engine. I don’t think it’s very attractive and the drive train is derived from BMW, which one might think is a good thing until you remember that German engineering is the greatest lie ever perpetuated in automotive history. BMWs are notoriously unreliable, especially the more modern ones, and reliability was part of what made the original Supra so great. You could drive it every day, experience the thrill of ownership and not have to worry about it breaking down. Unless Toyota has had a pretty thorough revision of BMW’s motor, I’m afraid we’re about to experience the most unreliable Toyota in history.

Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio

In other pre-production car news, Alfa Romeo stayed true to its Italian roots and left drivers of a nearly production-ready Stelvio Quadrifoglio stranded after the SUV broke down in the middle of Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Now, having lived in LA, I know that having a flashy car there is a high priority, and being able to park in high visibility areas to attract attention is usually pretty desirable, so I’m not completely ruling out the fact that this was an elaborate awareness building marketing campaign, but if it is, advertising the complete unreliability of your brand new cars seems like a really strange tactic. Then again, it could totally appeal to the vapid, flaky demographic of many Angelenos. There’s a reason I don’t live there anymore.

New Lancia Stratos

In case you weren’t alive in the 1970s, you may never have heard of the Lancia Stratos. Long story short, it’s an awesome little two door sports car with an engine in the middle that puts out a lot of power and was used extensively and successfully for rallying because of its short and wide wheelbase. Well, a small manufacturer is bringing the Stratos back with an updated look and updated technology. They’re only going to make 25 of them and they’ll cost $615,000 apiece. Oh, and you’ll need to provide a Ferrari F430 to the company because that’s the car on which they’ll base the new Stratos. So all in, you’re looking at close to $800,000 at a minimum for a 600 horsepower body-kitted Ferrari. Or you could spend half the amount on an original Lancia Stratos when they come on sale and get the real rally car. Or you could spend one tenth the cost and buy a new Supra and get to 60 in about 0.3 seconds slower. 

Authored by
Devlin Riggs

New Cars for the week of February 5th, 2018

McLaren MSO X

It seems like every month or so we’re getting a new vehicle from McLaren, which is definitely not a bad thing. They said that their Senna is able to beat the P1 around any track in the world, which makes sense, it should, it’s a faster and more expensive car. But this week they took the baby McLaren, the 570S and handed it over to McLaren Special Operations, the customization division for their road cars, who churned out the MSO X, which is essentially a road-going version of their 570S GT4 race car.

It has all the same aero, producing 220 pounds of down-force at speed and a fairly Spartan interior that has been rendered in bare carbon fiber and includes no cup holders, but there is a place behind your seat to stow your helmet, because you’ll feel the need to wear one even if you’re not on a track in this thing. They’re only making ten of them... and they’re gone. Totally sold out even before it was announced. And this is becoming a thing, which makes me think that these cars are only being announced so that, on the rare occasion one special edition is spotted in the wild, we know what it is and how rare it is so we can be even more jealous of the car’s owner than we would be if we just thought “hmm, that’s a racy-looking 570S."

 Rezvani Beast Alpha X Blackbird

Apparently coach-built versions of existing cars are a thing this week because we also have the ridiculously named Rezvani Beast Alpha X Blackbird. The last time we heard of Rezvani was when they took a Jeep Wrangler and made it into a tank-inspired off-roader and tacked a shit ton of zeroes onto the end of its price. Well, this time they’ve done essentially the same thing to a Lotus Elise, but used the Lockheed Martin SR-71 Blackbird as their inspiration. They didn’t just leave the changes aesthetic though. This thing pumps out 700 horsepower and will hit 60 in 2.9 seconds while maintaining the agile nature of the Elise and the fun wind-in-your-expensive-hairpiece feeling of a Targa top. What’s most ridiculous about this car isn’t the $225,000 base price, it’s the fact that Rezvani managed to squeeze 700 horsepower from a 2.5 liter four cylinder. I wouldn’t want to be the head gaskets on one of these things. But I dig it. Way better than their Jeep thing. I’d take one in a heartbeat.

Fisker Latigo

On the other end of the spectrum is the BMW M6-based Fisker Latigo, which is, to be blunt, just very, very ugly. Good thing there’s only one of them. Fisker really knows how to design a shit looking car with a nasty mustache-looking grille. 

 

Mercedes Sprinter

Like coach-built versions of other cars, it was also a really great week for new cars if you like vans. Mercedes unveiled their all-new third generation Sprinter, which you are free to mock right up to the point where you ride in one and think, “Wow, I’ve never been in an airport shuttle this nice.” Apparently the new Sprinters can do way more than ferry people around to Missouri wineries. The new version is more adaptable than ever and can be had in 1,700 different variants for different purposes or needs. These things are way more common to see in Europe, but Mercedes, and me, are hoping these catch on stateside. It’s a pretty excellent van for pretty much every need, plus it’s plush and comfy.

Ford Transit Connect

Also this week we got a new version of the Ford Transit Connect, which is sort of like a smaller, slightly less capable, less plush and comfy but still decently plush and comfy Mercedes Sprinter. Outside it’s been styled to look like a Ford Escape. Inside it’s been styled to look like a cargo van with seats, but those seats apparently now have more cushioning. This may not be the most exciting new vehicle segment ever and honestly, we could cover the performance specs but they don’t really matter. Just know there’s a new option you can rent instead of a minivan that will do the job just as well.

Nuro

A couple of former engineers from Google’s self-driving company Waymo got together and formed a new company called Nuro, which has developed an innovative new delivery vehicle. It is completely driverless and passengerless and instead of space for people, the vehicle features compartments that can be customized to hold any number of kinds of items, from parcel lockers to shopping bags to warming ovens or dry cleaning clothing racks. These compartments sit above the batteries and drivetrain of the vehicles, but we don’t have any details on performance or range. These are apparently designed for either fully-autonomous operation or remote operation in case it runs into trouble and needs human help. The company has approval from California to test on public roads and it hopes to have a limited number of prototypes in service by the end of the year, but this looks like it could be a great option for companies looking to replace delivery drivers. 

Nissan 370Zki

You guys remember 2009? The financial markets were melting down and jobs were scarce. Pay sucked (and it still does) but Obama was just beginning his first term as president and the country was filled with hope for change, and Nissan was there with the change where we needed it most; sports cars. In 2009, they introduced the 370Z to replace the 7 year-old 350Z. Now, almost ten years later, here we are with the same 370Z and no replacement on the horizon. According to Nissan’s chief planning officer Phillippe Klein, they are working on it but don’t know what direction to take it. The market for small, inexpensive sports cars is apparently down and Nissan is facing stiff competition from the best Mustang and Camaro ever made. With SUVs and crossovers all the rage currently, do they pull a Mitsubishi, spit in the eyes of their enthusiasts and make the Z a crossover like the Eclipse has become? Or do they try to weave in a bit of future proofing and make it a hybrid or electric vehicle?

While we wait on a more permanent answer to the Z’s future, Nissan has decided what the Z’s present needs is more snowmobile. So they took a convertible Nissan 370Z, lopped off all four wheels, fitted some skis up front and put modified tank treads in the back, to make the 370Zki. The rest of the car is virtually unchanged, but if you think a rear-wheel drive car can’t handle well in the snow, Nissan says, "Are you guys silly? I’m still gonna send it."

Authored by
Devlin Riggs

Headlines & New Cars for the week of January 22nd, 2018

Arbeit Macht Schwer

In case you thought the US was the only country with labor relations issue, here comes Germany to reassure us that we're not so different. Factory workers at Audi and Porsche plants have gone on strike to support demands of a six percent raise and the right to ask for a reduction in hours from 35 to just 28 so they can do things like care for children or the elderly for a couple of years, then return to work full time. In response to the union’s demands, employers have apparently offered a two percent raise, a one-time only “bonus” of two hundred Euro, and flat out refused to consider the reduced hours point. As they say, misery loves company, so I’m happy to see the rich American tradition of overwork and underpay is starting to catch on across the world. It makes me feel slightly less guilty for not working in France or Norway.

Geld Macht Spaß

Last year we covered the launch of the Porsche Passport Pilot Program, or as nobody calls it, Quadruple P. Well, they have some early numbers to report based on the program in Atlanta and signs are good for the brand, with 78% of participants having never owned a Porsche before. The company envisions this as just one way buyers can experience Porsche ownership, and they anticipate about 30% of buyers will purchase vehicles online in the next couple of years. Mercedes-Benz is thinking similarly, estimating that 25% of their new and used sales will come from the internet by 2025. But back to Porsche Passport - they also say it’s reaching a younger demographic, though they don’t specify how young. Given the fact that most of the participants are opting for the higher-cost, $3,000 per month service, I can’t believe these people are that young. To be able to basically have $36,000 to spend on a car every single year in addition to housing costs, food and other things, it seems like you’d have to be doing pretty damn well for yourself, which generally takes a few years. Or, in some of our cases, not at all. 

We Really Did Forget Dieselgate

After a disastrous 2015 and '16 where they were found to be using defeat devices to circumvent global emissions laws in their diesel cars, Volkswagen spent most of 2017 trying their absolute hardest to help buyers forget about dieselgate. A lot of this included generous discounts, goodwill campaigns and reinvestment in popular vehicles, not to mention the rebirth of the Microbus as the I.D. Buzz. Turns out, all that work paid off and buyers around the world pretty much did forget and stepped right back in line to snatch up new Volkswagens. What makes it more incredible is that, while the industry as a whole was down last year from 2016, Volkswagen recorded record sales, increasing 4.2% verses the year prior. And while the rest of the industry braces for more stagnating sales, VW sales chief Juergen Stackmann is optimistic, expecting sales to continue to rise in 2018. Based on the popularity of the gigantic Atlas, the compact Tiguan twins and the attractive Arteon, as well as the deal I was able to strike on a leftover 2017, it looks like their aggressive measures may be pretty effective!

Infiniti’s Shocking Moves

Meanwhile in Japan, Infiniti also had a great year, increasing sales eleven percent over 2016, but they’re still very much playing catch up to the German, English and Swedish luxury brands. Their plans to overtake their competition hinges primarily on electrification, as Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa explained this week. All new Infinitis launched after 2021 will be all-electric or will be range-extended hybrids, but not in the conventional sense. The company’s technology called ePower uses a gasoline motor to recharge the battery in its range extended hybrids, but that gas motor doesn’t drive the wheels at all. And there’s no plug-in feature. So the propulsion is entirely electric and the power generation entirely gas. It’s a weird setup, and especially considering Infiniti’s recently-announced variable compression engine, a strange change of approach to try to lure buyers. Then again, it could be a great solution for buyers without a garage or access to plug-in locations. 

Acura Wants to be Exciting Again

In addition to announcing the new 2019 RDX, Acura dropped a bombshell on the Detroit Auto Show, announcing the return of Type-S and A-Spec brands. For the uninitiated, Type-S is a high trim level applied to Acura models that are especially fast and good handling, and it was last used ten years ago on the TL sedan, but was famously applied to the RSX and Integra coupes, which were a ton of fun to drive. A-Spec is another trim level more focused on comfort, style and refinement than outright speed, so it’s somewhat less exciting, but no less important to buyers. The bombshell, however, was kind of a dud because they didn’t announce which models would get which trim levels or if they’d be bringing back an actually affordable fun car. It’s like Honda has this caged lunatic who wants fun cars and they let it out just a little bit at a time because if they let it off the leash completely, we’d end up with cars enthusiasts like and that’s just too much for them.

France Wants to be Less Exciting

People keep dying on French roads, with increases over the past three years after steady decreases going back as far as 1972. In response, France is lowering the speed limit on most of their highways by ten kilometers per hour, so the fastest you will be able to legally drive in France is just 56 miles per hour, rendering the fairly standard 0-60 calculations pretty useless. To their credit, the French don’t attribute all the deaths just to speed alone and have tightened regulations on cell phone use and drunk driving. This comes as road deaths are up also in Britain and the United States, illustrating a disturbing trend that I think must be attributed to cell phone usage. When I was hit a couple of weeks ago, I was lucky to come away uninjured and the other driver offered no excuse for why he ran a red light that had been red for at least seven seconds. Based on the Uber and Lyft stickers in his window though, I guessed that he was trying to find a fare. I wouldn’t go so far as to say those ride sharing companies are complicit in the wreck that has cost me days worth of time fighting with insurance companies and trying to find a new car, but the sooner we can integrate smart features into a car so drivers need look at their phones less, the better. 

BMW to Charge for Not Their Service

BMW, though, has a different idea of how to integrate phones into cars and that involves squeezing its drivers for every penny they can get, like little Bavarian weasels, hiding away all their nuts. But the truth is, the nuts aren’t even theirs! Or maybe the tree isn’t. This is a bad metaphor. BMW wants to charge a subscription fee for Apple’s CarPlay software, which they currently have as a $300 option when you buy a new car. By charging $80 per year after the first year, which is free, they argue that you pay less if you only keep the car a few years, which I guess most BMW owners do because they want to be seen driving a new BMW. The issue here is that more than 400 models of car come with Android Auto and almost as many come with Apple’s CarPlay, but it’s included in the price and not an option you have to add in later. Hell, you can buy a Toyota Corolla or VW Jetta and get these features for free, but you don’t with BMW. It’s like how fancy hotels make you pay for WiFi when you get it for free at Best Western. Why? Because the fancy hotels know you have the money to pay for it. Okay, that was a better metaphor.

Taking Crashes to New Heights

In Santa Ana, California this week, a driver managed to launch his Nissan Altima into the second story of a dental office, using a raised center media as a sweet ramp for the epic Dukes of Hazzard-style flying act. The driver, who was apparently high as a kite, was able to exit the car and hang by the door until police came and literally caught him. He and his two passengers were injured and taken to the hospital where they had some serious coming down to do. 

Photo by Southern Counties News

Tackling Terrible Truckers

From bad drivers to bad truckers, we’re headed back to England, where the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, or DVSA, announced the findings of a 4,000 vehicle roadside test. They found that one in 13 trucks on British roads were fitted with an emissions cheat device that give false emissions readings, allowing the truck better performance while drastically increasing pollution. If this sounds familiar, it should because it seems like there’s this type of story every week, it just usually involves auto manufacturers getting caught doing it, not truck drivers who are looking to skirt the law. A representative of the DVSA, Gareth Llewellyn said, “we’re committed to taking dangerous lorries off Britain’s roads. We won’t hesitate to take action against these drivers, operators and vehicles.” Unfortunately for Gareth, when trucks were found with defeat devices, drivers were given ten days to fix the problem or pay a £300 fine, which sounds an awful lot like they’re hesitating to take action to me.

Have a Seat

Back here in America, our love for three row SUVs has apparently created quite a criminal enterprise, because there have been a rash of robberies - of just the third row seats from SUVs. Apparently, on most General Motors SUVs, like the Chevy Suburban, Tahoe and GMC and Cadillac Siblings, if you’re able to pop open the rear glass on the lift gate, the alarm on the car doesn’t go off. Once inside, the third row can simply be unhooked and then passed out the open hatch. And who is buying all these third rows to make stealing them such a popular endeavor? If you guessed “people who have had their third rows stolen,” you’d be right. It’s tempting to victim blame here and say “just park in a garage or back in so the back glass isn’t so accessible,” but what’s the point of a car alarm if it’s not going to alarm you when someone is stealing something from it? Come on, GM, this is on you.

AI Coming Along Swimmingly

While Google and Amazon work to integrate their digital assistants into more and more new cars, Nissan is going a sort of different direction with their own artificial intelligence. Instead of a female voice, Nissan’s Xmotion Concept features a koi fish as a virtual assistant that swims across the myriad interior screens to provide drivers assistance with, well, driving, as well as entertainment and navigation. It’ll also connect with the driver’s smartphone to share information between it and the car. And in case you’re thinking this is some sort of anthropomorphized Admiral Ackbar-looking fish, no, it’s just a normal koi fish, and I think it’s neat and more companies should think outside the pond when coming up with virtual assistants.

SUV Free and Happy to Be

While Ferrari and Lamborghini rush to catch up with Bentley and Porsche on the super-expensive SUV craze, McLaren is pretty content just where they are, thank you very much. The company’s chief designer, Dan Parry-WIlliams, told Top Gear magazine this week that “I’m not the first person to point out that an SUV is neither particularly sporty or utilitarian. It’s not ‘everything for a reason’ unless the reason is to clutter up the streets.” He’s referring there to McLaren’s design motto, “everything for a reason,” and it’s refreshing to see a company stick to its credo. Meanwhile, at fellow British sports car company Lotus, whose mantra, handed down from founder Colin Chapman was “Simplify and add lightness,” they’ll soon be launching their own SUV that will neither be simple nor light, though that may be said of their buyers. 

The (Frozen) Vaporware Car

Photo by Simon Laprise

In Montreal this week, someone had a good time at the expense of some local police, who attempted to ticket a snow-covered vintage Toyota Celica Supra that was parked in a snow removal lane, blocking in other parked cars. Upon lifting the very real windshield wiper to place the ticket, the police officer discovered that the wiper arm wasn’t attached to anything because the entire car was simply a pile of snow molded into the shape of a Supra. The whole thing was the brainchild of a French Canadian artist named Simon Laprise, who found the windshield wiper on the street and placed it on the car for maximum confusion. As for the ticket issued? The citation read “You made our night, hahahahaha” or whatever the French word for laughter is.

New Cars

Jeep Grand Commander

Detroit might make a great place to launch a new Jeep, but that’s just what Jeep hasn't done this week, when images of a new three-row SUV leaked to the media. It seems every company is scrambling to get an SUV with three rows out there for all the families who insist that contorting yourself to wedge in between a door sill and the second row only to sit cross-legged on a tiny, barely-padded foldable bench seat is more dignified than just swallowing your pride and buying the mini-van you should be getting. And with regards to Jeep, they don’t currently have a third-row-capable SUV in their stable and haven’t since the mercy killing of the Commander in 2010. If you forgot the Jeep Commander existed, you’re not alone and you’re totally forgiven because it was horrible and ugly. But now we have had a look at the new Grand Commander, a seven seat SUV that is apparently a China-only vehicle. At least according to what we know about it right now. The new model borrows heavily from Jeep’s other products for styling, which is now a good thing and it looks pretty decent, so it’d be hard to believe Fiat Chrysler wouldn’t wise up and bring it over stateside at some point. Plus, starting at around $38,000, it’d fit right in with most of its contemporary competitors. Until we know if it’s coming here or not, I guess you’ll just have to buy the Honda Odyssey you should be getting anyway.

GM’s Autonomous Bolt

One of the biggest stories to come out of Detroit this week was General Motors’ launch of the all-autonomous Chevy Bolt. This is a big deal because GM is calling it the first pre-production car to be shown without a steering wheel or pedals, which I guess is accurate since we’ve definitely seen concepts without them before. While it’s ostensibly a major step forward in terms of the future of autonomous vehicles, indicating GM’s confidence that they have a car ready to go completely without human controls, it really doesn’t feel all that special. Just looking at the photos of the interior, which doesn’t have to cater to a driver anymore, it really just looks like they took the passenger’s side, went into Photoshop, copied, pasted and flipped it so the former driver’s side looks the same. That’s it. I mean, in a fully driverless car, you don’t even need a dashboard. Your displays can be anywhere, or everywhere! The seats could swivel or not even face forward, and yet here we are, with a Chevy Bolt where they just Control X’d the steering column and pedals. Congratulations GM on making the future of motoring so unappealing.
 
But thank god, Chevy wasn’t the only company exhibiting at this year’s North American International Auto Show. In fact, there were a ton of new vehicles. If you want to learn more, check out to my Auto Show Rap-Up from last week's podcast. 

Authored by
Devlin Riggs

Headlines & New Cars for the Week of January 15th, 2018

BMW’s Double Drift of Daring

This week, BMW reclaimed their Guinness World record for longest vehicle drift, which was taken from them by a Toyota GT86 almost four years ago. To do so, BMW set their new M5 out on a skidpad and let it rip. For eight. Straight. Hours. They covered a truly ridiculous 232.5 miles in that time period and required refueling, but did they stop to gas up? Hell no! BMW saddled up a second M5 with a custom fuel tank and some tech borrowed from fighter jets and performed a mid-drift refuelling, where the second M5 drifted alongside the first one while a technician hung out the window, gassing up the record car. They blew away their old record of 51.3 miles and more than doubled Toyota’s 89.6 miles and kept the rubber tires intact by continuously wetting the skidpad. Undoubtedly, this will drive hundreds of millionaires into BMW dealerships to purchase M5s so they can try to recreate it in their lavish circular private driveways.

World Rally Championship Will Do It Live

Racing has been kind of on a bummer streak lately. Formula 1 had the fewest passes ever this past season, the World Endurance Championship keeps losing teams due to high costs, Forumla E is still kind of a joke and IMSA, which is looking really good, is hard to find. Well good news, sports fans, because the World Rally Championship has launched a WRC All Live package on their WRC+ service that will stream every single rally stage as it happens, along with the ceremonies, interviews and press conferences, among other things. In total, it’ll be more than 25 hours of live video coverage of every rally. It’s not free, unfortunately, and at $10.83 per month or about $110 per year, it’s not cheap, especially considering many of these live stages happen in the middle of the night for us here in North America. But pound-for-pound, rallying is some of the most exciting, entertaining racing you can watch. The only danger is that you’re going to get hooked and start treating any gravel or dirt road as your own private stage when in fact it’s someone’s driveway and they’d like very much if you’d get your stupid Subaru out of their bushes so they can go to work, thank you. 

Diners, Drive-Ins and Distractions

Just when we thought it was over. Just when we thought Elon Musk and Tesla could cool the hype machine and have a real conversation about the bottlenecks in production and challenges of building a car company from the ground up. Just when a very real satellite malfunction may have cost the US Government billions of dollars aboard a SpaceX rocket. Just when shit was getting a little too real, Elon Musk resorted to what he knows best - the rabbit in a hat trick. He tweeted this week that he’s “gonna put an old school drive-in, roller skates and rock restaurant" at one of the new Tesla Supercharger locations in LA. And you know who will care? The same number of people showing up to Rams games in LA. AND THAT’S NOBODY. That being said, there was a super cool video this week of a Tesla Model X towing a Volvo semi truck up a snowy hill, which is crazy to think it’s capable of doing that, given its max tow rating of just 5,000 pounds. I also saw my first Model 3 on the highway yesterday morning and it looks like a cross between the egg-shaped Model X and the svelte Model S, which is to say I didn’t like it very much.

Toyota & Mazda to Colonize the Deep South

Toyota and Mazda pulled their own little LeBron James stunt this week except Alabama is in almost no way similar to South Beach Miami, which is probably a good thing, considering the companies plan on building Corollas and crossovers there and not...sand castles? What do they build in South Beach? Failed baseball franchises? In any case, the new $1.6 billion plant will open in Huntsville, which is a charming little town that’s about to get a lot of new manufacturing jobs to complement all the high tech industry that’s there already. Other than crossovers and compact vehicles, we don’t have much information on what Toyota and Mazda will collaborate on there, but I look forward to the chance to interview some Japanese businessmen who have developed southern accents.

Dieselgate, Down on the Farm

A class action lawsuit was filed this week against Ford and Bosch, alleging that emissions defeat devices were installed in diesel F250 and F350 trucks, causing them to produce 50 times more nitrogen oxide than legally permitted. Sound familiar? Well, Bosch was allegedly the company behind Volkswagen’s diesel cheating as well and we saw how that turned out for them. Unfortunately for Ford, half a million of these trucks have been sold from 2011 to 2017 and could be subject to this lawsuit and to recall. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege that the Ford Super Duty pickups would have been better off called Super Dirty, thereby proving that lawyers are not completely devoid of humor, just devoid of good humor. We’ll see how this plays out for Ford and if they’ll be on the hook for billions like VW was when they got caught.

Takata Recalls Expand, Again. Again.

In other stories that just won’t die, Takata announced this week an expansion of their airbag inflater recalls, adding 3.3 million cars to the list, just in America, making it the largest of its kind. The cars range from Audis, BMWs, Jaguars, Land Rovers and Mercedes Benzes all the way to Fords, Subarus, Mitsubishis, Hondas, Mazdas and Fiat Chrysler cars. So everyone, please get these replaced if you receive a notice, because they do kill people. I’m less worried about the Fiat Chyrsler owners though, because a car has to be running to hit something and have the airbag go off and “running” isn’t really one of their strong suits.

A New Dealership Experience

A Rolls-Royce showroom in London will be the first location to feature the new Elysium-R. The $51,500 masterpiece features near-black pure aniline leather, an almond gold frame and will be limited to only 18 production units. It’s also a not a car, but actually just a chair. But it’s a really fancy chair that neutralizes gravity, implementing flotation theory, whatever that means. Also its gel-filled armrests are supposedly meant to mimic the quality of human skin, because everyone knows that rich people love nothing more than to rest their arms on the skin of the under-folk. This is apparently the product of years of research into human kinetics, which sounds an awful lot like some rich kid spent a few years sitting around and his rich dad told him to get off his ass and do something, so he made a chair.

Bad News for Turkwomen

Do you like driving? Are you from Turkmenistan? Are you a woman? Well shit news, you can’t drive anymore, honey. That’s according to their certifiably insane president Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, who last week banned all black cars because he thought they were unlucky. What’s his reasoning for banning women? Just some good, old-fashioned misogyny! Naturally he thinks pretty much all of the car crashes in the country are caused by or because of women, so banning them from the roads entirely, in his words, “rectifies the situation.” The ban was actually announced in December but has started getting implemented this week, with women drivers being stopped and having their licenses and cars seized by the government. Look, I’m sure Turkmenistan isn’t a shithole, but they sure do have a shithead for a president. You know you’re backwards when Saudi Arabia looks more progressive than you do.

Beetles Belong in Junkyards, not Trees

Photo by Scott Sommerdorf of The Salt Lake Tribune

In other bad news for ladies, a woman in Clearfield City, Utah is going to be charged with a misdemeanor if she doesn’t remove her nuisance vehicle. The problem is, that vehicle is a 1973 Volkswagen Beetle that doesn’t run. Oh, and it’s also in a tree. Since it didn’t run, the owner, Janis Zettel, decided the right thing to do wasn’t to send it to the junkyard, but rather to paint it like a ladybug and have it chained up in a great big old tree as a fun little whimsical effort to put smiles on the faces of children. You hear that, Clearfield City? Think of the children! She even had an arborist check it out to make sure it was safe and that the car wouldn’t bring down the tree and harm anyone. I’m sure her neighbors love it, but hey, there are probably other houses in Clearfield City they can move to, the damn grinches.

 

New Cars

Ginetta G650-LT-P1

British company Ginetta unveiled this week their G650-LT-P1, or G60 for short, and it’s a non-hybrid race car that they intend to race in the LeMans Prototype 1 category, which finally gives Toyota’s unreliable hybrid racer at least one competitor for the upcoming season! Or, well, at least part of it because Ginetta is only fielding two or maybe three cars if they can find the money, and they’re only committing to a “super series” of eight races beginning in May. And by only eight races, I mean holy shit, this is a small British manufacturer who has somehow scrounged up the pounds to compete with the world’s largest auto manufacturer at arguably the highest level of motor racing. Good for Ginetta and good for us because this’ll be interesting to watch!

Ford Edge ST

In less than 24 hours, Ford teased, and then released all the details of the forthcoming Edge ST, which will now not debut at the Detroit Auto Show, but instead on your computer monitors or, more likely, your iPhone screen. Clearly their marketing department doesn’t really understand the concept of building “hype,” because they kind of did the same thing with the new Ford GT, which was arguably a much bigger deal. They could, for once, take a lesson from Elon Musk. 

In any case, Ford’s prior ST cars include the Focus and Fiesta, which were fast, nimble little hatchbacks that were available only in manual transmission form for real driving purists, and they were apparently really good fun! Well, Ford has decided that crossover enthusiasts who never learned how to drive a stick deserve to have fun too, because they’ve basically taken the Ford Edge Sport and given it more sport, pumping its 2.7 litre EcoBoost four cylinder up to 335 horsepower and 350 foot pounds of torque routed through all four wheels. It looks and will probably drive a lot like a lifted WRX wagon, which is not a bad thing, so I’m actually on board with this idea. Yes, I generally oppose the concept of crossovers, but they don’t have to be boring and bad and kudos to Ford for trying to raise the bar that Infiniti set with their FX.

Authored by
Devlin Riggs

These headlines originally aired in the AllWaysDrive Podcast. Subscribe now and hear all the latest news and reviews!

The Bugatti New Years Message is Pure Craziness

"Breaking New Dimensions" is apparently Bugatti's theme this year as it approaches the launch year (2017) for its Veyron successor, the Chiron. The company treated its YouTube subscribers to an ultra-high-production-value block of insanity to build interest in the car...but without showing the car. Curiously missing was also a low-flying pelican. I'm amped right now, but I'm just not sure for what.

In any case, we're pretty excited to see the final car. Enjoy the madness.