Tag: car

Official: Renault promises new concept car and Dacia Duster in Frankfurt

Filed under: Frankfurt Motor Show, Renault

Dacia Duster front three-quarter

Renault and Dacia will be headed to the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show in a big way, with a new concept car from the French company and an all-new Duster from its Romanian budget brand. The new concept is particularly exciting, as Renault’s press release mentions a “new brand identity.” We can also count on this car being a bit higher on the luxury scale than Renault’s traditional offerings.

Dacia’s new Duster will have big shoes to fill when it hits the spotlights of Frankfurt. The current Duster (pictured), a small, handsomely rugged CUV, was introduced in 2010, and has been a critical hit in Great Britain, Russia, and India (where it’s called the Renault Duster). It’s also been a smash with customers, becoming Renault’s best-selling global model.

Both the new Duster and Renault’s latest concept will hit the stage in Frankfurt on September 10.

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Renault promises new concept car and Dacia Duster in Frankfurt originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 23 Jul 2013 18:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Official: Renault-Nissan zero-emissions car sales whir past 100,000 [w/video]

Filed under: Car Buying, Nissan, Renault, Electric

2013 Nissan Leaf - maroon - front three-quarter view

The electric vehicle has gone gold at Renault-Nissan, clocking 100,000 sales in a three-year period that began with the first Nissan Leaf being sold in Silicon Valley, California in 2010. Since then, the Leaf has become the EV champion of the world, selling more than 71,000 units so far, the majority of those in the US. The 100,000th EV sold by the Alliance was also a Leaf and also sold in the US, but on the other side of the country, in Georgia.

By comparison, Renault has sold 30,000 electric vehicles since late 2011, looking after other segments of the EV market with the Kangoo Z.E., Zoe, Twizy and Fluence Z.E. The alliance estimates that its efforts have been driven 5.2 million ion-powered miles and saved 14 million gallons of oil since they appeared. For a bit of sobering context, the US averaged 18.83 million barrels of oil per day in 2011, which is almost 791 million gallons. Per day.

So we’re getting there, albeit slowly. Quietly. There’s a press release and a video below with more details on the achievement.

Continue reading Renault-Nissan zero-emissions car sales whir past 100,000 [w/video]

Renault-Nissan zero-emissions car sales whir past 100,000 [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 23 Jul 2013 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Official: 2014 North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year long list released

Filed under: Etc.

North American Car of the Year crystal award

Is it that time of the year again already? The 2014 North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year award “long list” has just been revealed, with 29 nominees sliding into the car category and 19 up for consideration in the truck/utility space. As ever, both NACTOY lists serve to illustrate the ever-widening scope of product that our industry has to offer. Tiny electric vehicles like the Chevrolet Spark EV and luxury bruisers like the new Maserati Ghibli bookend the car list, and the truck/utility nominees continue to illustrate the growing popularity of crossovers.

Last year, the Cadillac ATS claimed the car award (the Ram 1500 took home the truck category), and this year, General Motors has a healthy crop of nominees, including two from Cadillac (CTS, ELR) and four from Chevrolet (Corvette, Impala, Spark EV, SS). On the other side of the fence, the Buick Encore and Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra twins are also vying for the coveted cut crystal. Kia and Mercedes-Benz also have a lot of vehicles up for consideration. The Korean brand is represented by the Cadenza, Forte, Soul, and Quoris on the car side, and the Sorento on the truck/utility front, while Daimler will see its B-Class, CLA-Class, E-Class and S-Class models in the mix.

As ever, the long list gets its name because it serves as broad brushstroke roundup of new or substantially updated vehicles released in time for consideration. Given the fluid nature of new vehicle releases, the long list shows which vehicles are eligible for consideration – some of them may not have been seen or driven by the NACTOY’s 50-strong juror pool yet. Select vehicles may thus fall off the list if they do not become available for judging in a timely fashion, while other vehicles not shown on the list may be still be added at this stage. Later this fall, after jurors have driven the vehicles, a first round of voting will be held, and the resulting “short list” of a dozen or so vehicles will trigger further assessment followed by another vote that will result in three finalists for each category. A final round of voting will commence, and the winners will be announced at January’s Detroit Auto Show.

Check out both lists of nominees by scrolling below, then have your say on who you think should win in Comments.

*Full Disclosure: Author is a NACTOY jury member.

Continue reading 2014 North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year long list released

2014 North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year long list released originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 23 Jul 2013 15:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Euro car sales plummet to two-decade low

Filed under: Car Buying, Europe, UK

Volkswagen's car elevator and storage - overhead view

Just three months ago, as of April, the story was that the European car market registered its first gain in 19 months, consumer confidence was up “higher than average” and observers were hoping the month could be the first footstep in the trek to “legitimate recovery,” even though Europe’s four-month sales were down seven percent. The stats for June are a return to dark portents, with Bloomberg now reporting that sales for the month haven’t been this bad since 1993. As a result, investor confidence in Germany has taken a dive and Eurozone exports have fallen for a second straight month.

There were 1.18 million cars registered in June, which represents a 6.3-percent decline from a year before. The overall seven-percent decline in car sales remained on track, the half-year number of 6.44 million vehicles sold so far this year being a 6.7-percent drop from 2012 (that number also being the smallest number of cars sold since 1993). The UK market was the only bright spot, jumping by 13 percent but being more than offset by Germany’s 4.7-percent decline and France’s 8.4-percent drop.

No one expects it to get better, either, one analyst saying “I don’t think that it will get better in the very near future,” Renault, Peugeot and BMW saying they expect a five-percent decline year-on-year, and another analyst opining that perhaps the best that can be said is that perhaps things are bottoming out, but that’s “not the same thing as saying they have started to recover.”

Euro car sales plummet to two-decade low originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 17 Jul 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Perp steals cop car from back seat, makes dangerous getaway

Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Videos

In an episode that wouldn’t have been out of place on Reno 911!, a man that was on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs, alcohol or both, was picked up by police for stealing a pickup truck, and managed to wriggle out of his handcuffs and steal the police cruiser he was being held inside. The entire fiasco, which took place last month near Salt Lake City, can be seen on the cruiser’s in-car cameras.

The suspect, Gordon Graham, took advantage of the officers’ inattentiveness while they were searching his truck, contorting about so his hands were in front of him, and then wiggling out of the cuffs. He then dove head-first through a flap that was opened for him after complaining about the heat, got in the driver’s seat, and made a break for freedom.

After nearly hitting one of the deputies in his escape, Graham lead police on a high-speed chase across two Utah counties. He eventually abandoned the cruiser, leading cops on a two-hour manhunt.

Not surprisingly, police caught up with him. Graham was charged, plead guilty and was sentenced to prison for second-degree receiving stolen property, second-degree theft and two counts of shoplifting in the third degree.

Check out the two videos below for a rundown of the chase. The first is a newcast from KSL TV in Salt Lake, while the other is in-car video of Graham’s escape from the handcuffs.

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Perp steals cop car from back seat, makes dangerous getaway originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 12:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Behind the scenes of a car rollover stunt

Filed under: Videos, TV/Movies

With Transformers 4, Fast & Furious 7 and Need for Speed bringing hundreds of millions of dollars of carnage to the Summer of 2014 – and Getaway coming next month – we should probably start learning our car-stunt grammar. We can start with this behind-the-scenes video of a car rollover stunt that provides more that ten minutes of detailed info on each part of the process.

The star – after stunt driver Tom Harper and that Crown Vic – is the air ram that takes just 1.1 seconds to propel and retract a giant ‘foot’ onto the ground to get the car flipping. It is apparently Harper’s own design and supplants the cannon system that launches a projectile in order to launch the car. You can watch Harper and crew explain it all in the video below.

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Behind the scenes of a car rollover stunt originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 15 Jul 2013 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Study: Average new-car fuel economy figures continue record pace

Filed under: Budget, Hybrid, Honda, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Electric

Manufacturers are making more efficient cars and trucks; we’ve known that to be true for some time. Nearly every new car has some sort of trick to eke a few extra miles out of every gallon of fuel. Whether that be turbocharging, active aerodynamics or hybrid technology/electrified powertrains, the fact is that our vehicles are more efficient than ever before.

Thanks to a recent study by TrueCar, we’ve got fresh quantitative data to support the above statements. For the fourth month in a row, we’ve seen an improvement in national fleet fuel economy. We Americans are 0.7 miles per gallon more efficient than we were last month, and our cars are 1.6-mpg better than at this time last year. That said, we’re still down on 2013’s high, which was set back in January at 24.5 mpg.

Not only does this reflect the improved technologies in our vehicles, but it demonstrates a changing mindset among consumers, who are purchasing more efficient vehicles despite the relative stabilization of fuel prices. Every fuel-efficient model sold drives its manufacturers fleet average up.

The top three brands among mainstream manufacturers aren’t a huge surprise. Hyundai, which offers 10 models with four-cylinder engines (including the excellent Elantra range) took the top spot, while the diesel and turbocharged models from Volkswagen finished just 0.8 mpg behind Hyundai’s 27-mpg average. Honda is further back in third, thanks to its remarkably efficient four-cylinder engines. American makes didn’t fare as well, with Ford, General Motors and Chrysler all finishing below the 23.7-mpg industry average. This isn’t a huge surprise, though, as the Detroit Three are responsible for the vast majority of eight-cylinder pickups and muscle cars sold in the US.

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Average new-car fuel economy figures continue record pace originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 13 Jul 2013 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Official: Fangio F1 car sells for record $29M at Goodwood auction

Filed under: Motorsports, Auctions, Mercedes-Benz, UK, Racing

Rare gems of automotive history are always popping up at the Bonhams auction at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, but the racecar you see above just made a little more history. This Mercedes W196R was driven by Juan Manuel Fangio to wins in the 1954 German and Swiss Grand Prix races, and when the hammer fell at auction yesterday, the $29.65 million price it fetched made it the most expensive car ever sold at auction. It’s also earned the honor of being the most expensive F1 car ever sold and the most valuable Mercedes-Benz in the world.

Still battered by racing and time, this car in an important piece of history to both Formula One and Mercedes-Benz alike. According to Bonhams, Fangio’s wins gave Mercedes its first back-to-back post-war Grand Prix victories, and it introduced F1 cars to fuel-injection, tubular spaceframe chassis and inline eight-cylinder engines. Robert Brooks, Bonhams Chairman, called this car the “most important historic Grand Prix racing car ever offered for sale.”

Based on our own records, the Mercedes W196R came close to almost doubling the prior record holder for the most expensive car sold at auction, a 1957 Ferrari 250 TR Prototype that sold for $16.39 million at Gooding & Company’s Pebble Beach auction in 2011. The Mercedes even came kinda-sorta close to the record price for a car sold privately, the current big seller being a 1962 Ferraro GTO built for Sterling Moss that went for a reported $35 million in a private sale last year.

Scroll down for more information about the Mercedes W196R F1 car, and be sure to check out the trio of images (including one of the car in action).

Continue reading Fangio F1 car sells for record $29M at Goodwood auction

Fangio F1 car sells for record $29M at Goodwood auction originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 13 Jul 2013 08:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Razor Crazy Cart may be the coolest kid-size drift car money can buy

Filed under: Videos, Toys/Games, Humor

It might as well be a fact that if you want to get ahead in the world of motorsports, you need to start young. And since most toddlers can’t see over the wheel or reach the pedals in an actual car, karts are the most logical option. Unfortunately, big league karts are not cheap.

Enter the Crazy Cart, from Razor. Somehow, we doubt there’s ever been a better way of teaching a small child about car control. With four corner-mounted castors and a single electrically powered wheel below the steering column, the Crazy Cart can make any pre-schooler a drifting master. That central wheel can turn 360 degrees, which blesses the Crazy Cart with sublime agility and ease of control. A tiny handbrake is also available, for even more lurid sliding.

Of course, there are concerns. One Autoblog staffer called it “a pediatrician’s nightmare,” and while it does look stable, we’d be inclined to agree. And then there’s the $400 asking price. While it’s expensive, it’s probably a lot cheaper than dropping money on a kart, only to find out that your kid isn’t all that into it. And besides, as the video shows, it can handle an adult.

In that case, we’ll take seven. Check out the video below for the full rundown of the Crazy Cart’s abilities.

Continue reading Razor Crazy Cart may be the coolest kid-size drift car money can buy

Razor Crazy Cart may be the coolest kid-size drift car money can buy originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 12 Jul 2013 12:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Have you noticed that more tv shows seem like car ads? [w/video]

Filed under: Marketing/Advertising, Videos, TV/Movies

With the advent of the DVR and streaming videos, companies are no longer able to rely on commercials to get their products in front of television viewers. Many companies, including automakers, have found an easy way to get around this by using product integrations. While product placement can be as subtle as a car used in a scene or in the backdrop of the show, product integration is essentially a mini commercial built into show’s script.

According to a new report by Automotive News, these integrations can command millions of dollars for the right television show or movie, and while these practices can be very hush-hush with few details ever being announced, the trend is definitely growing. Take the USA Network show Burn Notice, for example. The video posted below shows a Hyundai Genesis Coupe having some of its highlights broken down during a scene of the show. Many other popular shows use such ad strategies including Modern Family with Toyota and Glee with Chevrolet (the latter of which spawned a Super Bowl commercial), to say nothing of more overt sponsorship arrangements like American Idol and its long-running deal with Ford. Scroll below for a couple examples of these product integration deals.

Continue reading Have you noticed that more tv shows seem like car ads? [w/video]

Have you noticed that more tv shows seem like car ads? [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 26 Jun 2013 16:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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