Christian von Koenigsegg and his Agera R officially enter the Guinness World Records book as the fastest car to do zero – to 300km/h – to zero. The Swedish supercar does that in a mind-bending 21.19 seconds. The Agera uses every single one of its V8′s 1115 PS for this amazing performance. The car has also set five other world records, which you can find out about after the jump and after you watched a video of it doing the record run.
Please take note that the sound recorded is from the camera hard mounted straight over the engine under the rear glass area, therefore the engine sound appears a bit louder than it normally would be perceived inside the car.
0-300 km/h = 14.53 sec
0-200 mph = 17.68 sec
300-0 km/h = 6.66 sec
200-0 mph = 7.28 sec
0-300-0 km/h = 21.19 sec
0-200-0 mph = 24.96 sec
Meteorological data:
Wind was calm and came in straight from the side, not affecting the results. Weather was partially cloudy and fair. The test track is completely flat with no gradient.
Douglas Sonders and Nicholas Cambata borrowed a pair of Bugatti Veyrons, including the super rare Sang Bleu and personal favorite Sang Noir, and managed to not get arrested. The photos/videos are incredible and should be viewed at his site.
Because he’s awesome, Sonders not only created a wallpaper for us, he also shot a video for you, the loyal readers. When you’re done enjoying it try to emulate it by following his tutorials.
For the 1600-px version of the wallpaper click here.
General Motors is working on a plug-in hybrid version of the Chevrolet Cruze to complement its expanding range of compact cars.
Word comes by way of Australia’s GoAuto, which talked to GM’s Jim Federico at last week’s Los Angeles Auto Show. Federico said the Cruze would forego the traditional hybrid route for a plug-in model to be sold alongside the Chevrolet Volt.
The two cars, however, would differ in technology. The Volt is essentially an electric car that has a range-extending engine that refills the car’s batteries and rarely powers the wheels directly. The Cruze plug-in will function more like a traditional hybrid model, with the engine and electric motor both seeing duty putting power to the wheels.
With the exception of lithium-ion battery technology, the Cruze plug-in and more expensive Volt would share little drivetrain technology.
The plug-in Cruze would compete against the Toyota Prius Plug-in that was just introduced for the 2012 model year, as well as the Ford Focus Electric and other compact hybrid models. Additionally, earlier this year, Chevrolet began testing an all-electric version of the Cruze in Seoul, South Korea to help gauge market acceptance of an electric version. Chevrolet claims its all-electric prototype has a range of 100 miles, similar to those of potential competitors.
Chevrolet has already announced for 2013 that it will offer a diesel version of the Cruze, so plug-in and electric versions would only help cement the domestic offering as one of the most versatile greenie-mobiles. As it stands, the automaker sells the 42-mpg Chevrolet Cruze Eco, one of the most efficient vehicles in its class.
This is the production version of the Subaru BRZ STI Concept. And, well, we liked the concept better to be honest.
It has apparently lost some of the nice features of the concept car in the transition to a production model, and that makes it like a copy of its twin brother Toyota GT86. It’s not bad by any means, but it would be nice it they’d put in an effort and make it a bit different.
The BRZ is supposed to be the sportier of the two – which is why it gets its own front fascia – but when you look at them both, the Toyota looks more dramatic. The BRZ is powered by the same four-cylinder boxer engine as the Toyota, and while it’s a bit more powerful Subaru is not yet ready to reveal how much.
A six-speed manual or an automatic with paddle shifter, a very low center of gravity, sport suspension and 17-inch wheels are all evidences of a great handling car.
There is really no significant difference between the GT86 and the BRZ. The BRZ might be a bit faster, but that is yet to be proved.
Yesterday we told you that the highly anticipated Toyota FT-86 concept will be called the GT 86 when it debuts at the Tokyo Motor Show next week. Today we can tell you something else about the GT 86—it looks fantastic on the track.
Japanese car website www.lovecars.jp got their hands on the new GT 86 and took it out for some laps at the Fuji Speedway. We don’t like the techno and we aren’t sure what Manabu Kawaguchi’s thought of the car due to an obvious language barrier, but it’s great just getting a look at the GT 86 lapping the Speedway.
After what seems like an eternity of corporate press releases and glimpses at the car in disguise, seeing the car in an uncontrolled setting is amazing—even if that “uncontrolled setting” is a corporate press event. When the car finally makes it to US shores it will likely be a Scion powered by the same 2.0 liter boxer engine built by Subaru as the cars in this video.
Renault’s low cost vehicle division Dacia known for its affordable and reliable engineering is developing a mini car called “Citadine” according to AutoBild Germany. As the name suggests the car will be an urban A-B type. The Renault group is aiming at sales volume of the VW group’s Up! with this sub-Sandero product.
Dacia is known for sharing the same platform right from Sandero hatchback to Duster SUV. The “Citadine” is also expected to share the same platform (B-Platform) to make it a cost effective exercise. The report is not discussing powertrains but we’re guessing the Micra’s three-pot petrol engine can suit the Citadine.
Like Nissan, Renault is also said to be working out options to occupy the segments below the Pulse (Micra clone). We’ve heard that their small car division begins work on a ULC on January 1, 2012. This is most likely to take on cars like the Tata Nano, Maruti Alto and Hyundai Eon.
Citadine could be the Renault’s answer to the likes of the VW Up!, Maruti Wagon R & Hyundai i10. Can it be positioned above the ULC Renault starts work on early next year?
It is way too early to speculate on this car’s list of destinations or price positioning. IndianAutosBlog will keep an eye out for you on this toddler.
The all-new sixth-generation 2012 BMW 3 Series sedan gets a starting price of $34,900, excluding an $895 destination fee. The 2012 sedan goes on sale in February. The 2012 3 Series wagons, coupes and convertibles are currently on sale, but they are still the previous generation. New versions of those body styles have not been revealed yet.
The new sedan pricing represents a small $300 price increase over the existing model. The new model also features more room, efficient powertrains and more standard features.
The 328i sedan will come standard with a new 240-horsepower inline-four-cylinder engine with an auto start-stop system and regenerative braking and can come with either a six-speed manual transmission or a new eight-speed automatic transmission. The 328i actually comes standard with the automatic transmission. The model also comes with new features like a 6.5-inch free-standing display, iDrive, Bluetooth and iPod connectivity as standard equipment.
The 2012 335i comes equipped with a 300-hp, twin-turbocharged inline-six and starts at $42,400, which is $350 more than last year’s model.
A hybrid variant, called the ActiveHybrid 3, will go on sale next fall, but it hasn’t been priced yet.
The 2012 BMW 3 Series will make its official North American debut at the 2012 Detroit auto show. We’ll have more information then.
Editor’s Note: We listed the all-new BMW 3 Series sedan as a 2013 model year in our earlier posts, but we have since confirmed that it will be a 2012 model year vehicle.
A chopper that was using cables to help install a seven-story Christmas tree in central Auckland, New Zealand, crashed down to the ground on Wednesday morning.
Miraculously, the pilot, Greg Gribble, escaped virtually unharmed with only minor injuries, while no one else was hurt, despite the fact that workers were very close by under the helicopter when the incident occurred.
Television crews captured the dramatic footage showing the helicopter descending towards the waterfront when all of a sudden it started jolting like crazy before hitting the ground.
While the circumstances of the accident are not yet clear, it appears that the helicopter’s main rotor blades may have got caught in the cables.
The family company that owns the chopper, Heli-Sika Helicopters, posted a note on its official Facebook page that said: “Thanks everyone for their support and concerns, we are very lucky that Greg is all okay! Apart from being in Shock and having a very sore head!”
When you’re a 24 Hours of LeMons judge, it’s expected that you’ll roll up to the track in arighteous Judgemobile. Perhaps it’s a fenderless, three-wheeled Amazon, or maybe it’s awoodie Roadmaster… Sometimes, though, you need to call up a car manufacturer’s PR flack and get something new and shiny, then stand by helplessly as it gets T-boned by some LeMons racer’s runaway Winnebago see how the budget-challenged racer crowd responds to its presence. The ’11 Cadillac Escalade Platinum Hybrid Judgemobile was sort of terrible (though it did have great presence) so this time I decided I’d spend the race weekend with a manly, tire-smokin’ V8-powered vehicle that ought to make heartland American car freaks— for example, the sort we get at the Showroom-Schlock Shootout LeMons in Illinois— start chanting teary-eyed Pledges of Allegiance to a fiery sky full of imaginary F-111s. That would be the Challenger SRT8, of course, in Vanishing Point white.
So, I called up the Chrysler flack: “Hey, Giuseppe,” I didn’t say, “Remember all the nice stuff I wrote about your cutesy little Euro-eco-socialist commuter car? You owe me, paisan’! Now gimme something worthy of a real American, and make sure there’s a goddamn Hemi under the hood. Capisce?”
So, next thing I know there’s a couple of heavies with wafer-thin watches and suspicious suit bulges handing over this baby at Midway Airport. Of course, the whole Italian schtick fell apart for me the moment it occurred to me that the Challenger’s chassis ancestry goes all the way back to the Renault 25 (via an illustrious Eagle Premier/LH platform/LX platform lineage), with a bunch of Mercedes-Benz W210 and W220 suspension bits thrown into the mix. Chrysler, AMC, Renault, Mercedes-Benz, Fiat, maybe even a bit of hidden Mitsubishi genetic material here and there— I’m liking the Challenger already!
It’s a good-looking machine, though I could rant for endless paragraphs about the psychological-voodoo/no-doubt-focus-grouped-to-death reasoning behind the choice of the E-Body Challenger as the inspiration for this car’s appearance.
Chrysler never really had a true head-to-head competitor with the original Mustang and Camaro, great as the original A-body-based Barracuda was. It doesn’t matter, because Plymouth’s demise meant the Barracuda nameplate was off the table, so the current Mustang/Camaro rival would have to grab its retro-ized look from the fatter, sales-failure E-body. The ace in the hole was the hagiographic Vanishing Point, which managed to cast the Challenger in a role symbolizing the individual’s victory over The Man’s oppression, breaking the downward-spiral sense of Vietnam-War-fueled American diminished expectations that led to the Malaise Era… or something like that. Freedom.
Personally, I think Vanishing Point‘s brush strokes are far too broad to really capture that early-70s proto-Malaise sense (though the chase scenes are pretty damn cool); Two-Lane Blacktop, also released in 1971, does a much better job. OK, meandering historio-cinematic digression over— let’s talk about now.
I suppose I’m a member of the target demographic for this thing; I got my first driver’s license in 1982, which was the Golden Age for cheap Detroit muscle in California, and the car stuff from Dazed and Confused might as well have been a documentary about the street-race-obsessed car culture at my high school. Battered-but-fast 10-to-15-year-old big-block Chevelles and Satellites and Fairlanes could be had for not much more than a grand. Back then, I tried to imagine what it would have been like to buy a new Cutlass 442 or Super Bee… and now Detroit can sell me the much faster, much better-built 21st-century version.
Right. So, what does this car do best? Burnouts! In all of my many years blowing the treads off junkyard bias-plies and rental-car rubber, I never experienced any vehicle that makes perfect, totally controlled burnouts anywhere near as easy as this car does. I’m willing to bet cash money that Chrysler’s engineers made this feature a design priority, and they deserve a healthy bonus for succeeding so admirably. This car had the automatic transmission, which made burnouts easier, but I have a feeling that the manual-trans car has no problem in that department. I also tried some hard drag-style launches and the car hooked up quite well; it wouldn’t be much of a trick to knock out some good dragstrip passes in this machine.
Seriously, you can create elaborate burnout novels with the Challenger SRT8… character development, climax, resolution, the works. The folks at Autobahn Country Club were kind enough to let me use their skidpad for a tire-smokin’ photograph session, and the clouds of tire smoke completely obscured the entire paddock, a quarter-mile downwind. I heard later that the smogged-out LeMons racers were cheering the car’s amazing burnout performance, and several were heard to state that they’d be visiting their nearest Dodge dealership and shopping for Challengers as soon as the race was over.
Unfortunately, the Challenger-as-Judgemobile got upstaged by a far superior Showroom-Schlock Shootout Judgemobile. Let’s face it: when a LeMons judge gets the choice between a 2012 Challenger SRT8 and a Reliant Super Robin for leading the penalty parade, there is no choice but to take the Reliant.
We did put both of them on the track as co-pace cars, which I feel certain is the first time a Robin and a Challenger have served together in that role.
Judge Sam agreed with me that the Challenger SRT8 was far nicer for real-world driving duties (i.e., driving between the hotel and the race track) than the Escalade Platinum had been. So, burnouts aside, how is it to drive?
The front seats are very comfortable and the quality of materials in the interior is quantum leaps ahead of the “unfit for human consumption” interiors that so horrified Sergio Marchionne. The suspension did a fine, Renault/Mercedes-Benz-style job of smoothing out the Stalingradian pothole-O-rama road surfaces in Chicago and Joliet. I’m sure I could take one of these things on an exurban-edge-city commute for hours every day and feel pretty good about the ride and comfort.
Granted, it’s something of an ergonomic disaster. You can’t see diddly-squat behind you, with the vast C pillars creating maddeningly huge blind spots. Your hands obscure the turn-signal indicators when they’re on the steering wheel. The back seat is all but useless; maybe it could hold a couple of small adults, but you won’t be able to get them into the seats in the first place (I gave up even on putting my LeMons Supreme Court bribe booze in the back seat, opting instead for the trunk). The lid for the center-console storage compartment can’t be operated by human hands.
The controls for the navigation/audio features are frustratingly unintuitive, with the lengthy response time for input that seems to be the norm for automotive computer interfaces. Why a $90 cellphone made by Malaysian sweatshop inmates can produce instant results from four memory-hog applications simultaneously while a simple choice of song title brings a $48,000 car’s computer to its knees is beyond me.
But who gives a shit about nickel/dime irritants like that? Not me! More burnouts!
In fact, I should be reviewing this automobile for the pages of Gnarly Burnout Magazine. Wooooooooooo!
Detroit has really lost its way in some areas over the last few decades, but not when it comes to V8 engines. GM and Chrysler are making some miraculously good pushrod V8s these days, and this 392-cubic-inch/470-horsepower powerplant isn’t even a member of the same species as the rough-idling, non-cold-starting, clattery, single-digit-MPG relics of the so-called Muscle Car Golden Age. This engine starts up instantly, idles in most civilized fashion, manages highway fuel mileage well into the 20s… and manages to drag a two-ton-plus car down the quarter-mile in under 13 seconds.
Speaking of tons, the big-block ’70 Challenger scaled in at nearly 3,800 pounds, so we can’t be too hard on the ’12 SRT8 version for weighing more than 4,200 pounds. Still, I can’t help but think of the two ways in which Chrysler might have built The Greatest Mopar Of All Freakin’ Time instead of a flawed-but-lovable burnout-king commuter car. The first way would have been to put this engine in a car weighing 2,900 pounds. We can all think of a dozen reasons why this could never happen, but just imagine it.
The other way would have been to use the 1971 Plymouth Satellite instead of the ’70 Challenger as retro-inspiration, bringing the Plymouth marque out of retirement if necessary. I’d buy one right now.
As for handling and brakes and all that stuff them decadent Yurpeans seem to care about so much, I didn’t get a chance to take the Challenger out on the Autobahn CC road course, nor did I pound it at 11/10ths on the mean streets of Joliet. It seemed perfectly competent at my usual 3/10ths pace. Anyway, you don’t buy this car for going around corners, commie (though Baruth managed to do pretty well with the ’11 at Infineon).
Yep.
The LeMons Supreme Court decided that there was one way in which the Challenger made a superior Judgemobile: as the centerpiece of the Hair Of The Dog Air Guitar Penalty. Miscreant drivers were required to air-guitar their way through the entirety of Nazarath’s Challenger-centric Hair of the Dog, while waving a large American flag.
Look upon our works, wannabe superpowers, and despair.
Nazareth, a Hemi, and “AMERICAN MADE” tattooed on your back. Chrysler should hire this guy as their spokesman.
As for the quality of the little bits and pieces in out-of-the-way places, all the connectors and fasteners that I could find looked to be several notches above the quality of the parts I’ve seen in Chrysler products of a few years back. It appears that the days of the sub-low-bidder vendors may be over.
There were a few mildly flaky touches, such as this Neon-style weatherstrip seam, but nothing that felt like it was about to snap off in one’s hand.
The verdict: On the one-dimensional side, well-built, engine absolutely top notch. Would make a good real-world daily driver. King of the Smoky Burnouts.
Competes with: Chevrolet Corvette, Maserati GranCabrio, Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster Looks like: More 911 iterations are ready for primetime Drivetrain: 350-hp, 3.4-liter flat-six engine or 400-hp, 3.8-liter flat-six; seven-speed manual transmission or seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission Hits dealerships: Spring 2012
Like most German makes, Porsche is known for having just a few models that come in what seems like a limitless number of models and trim levels.
The options are beginning to grow rapidly for the all-new seventh generation 2012 Porsche 911. The model was first shown this summer in base Carrera and Carrera S trims. While there wasn’t much doubt, we now know there will be convertible options for each – known as the Carrera Cabriolet and Carrera S Cabriolet. The convertibles will arrive at dealerships just a few short months after the coupe variants go on sale in February.
Besides the addition of the power droptop, most of the features are the same as the coupe.
Chassis refinements include a big increase in the 911’s wheelbase, which is 3.9 inches longer, and the overall height is lower. The model is now composed entirely of a lightweight aluminum-steel composite. Powering this more lightweight 911 is a pair of new horizontally opposed flat-six-cylinder engines. The base Carrera Cabriolet gets a 350-horsepower, 3.4-liter boxer engine mated to a first-of-its-kind seven-speed manual transmission. There’s also an optional seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission that was available on the 2011 model. The Carrera S Cabriolet gets a 400-hp, 3.8-liter boxer engine with the same transmission options. The Carrera Cabriolet can accelerate from zero to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds, while the 3.8-liter Carrera S can do it in 4.1 seconds.
The 2012 911 Carrera Cabriolet will go on sale this spring for a starting price of $93,700, while the 911 Carrera S Cabriolet begins at $108,000. That’s a sustainable $11,600 price increase compared with the base Carrera coupe and Carrera S coupe.
Porsche does not change the model year when a new design goes on sale. Buyers should be aware when shopping for a new 2012 911 coupe or convertible that there will be previous-generation cars on the lot with 2012 on the sticker. We don’t suspect many knowledgeable Porsche buyers will be confused, but when searching or calling about a new 911 make sure you confirm that you’re talking about a seventh generation or “991″ not a sixth generation or “997.”
A group of high school students and their volunteer mentors are building a lightweight electric car out of an old, wrecked 1999 Reynard Champ Car. Then, they’re driving it across the country, stopping to charge every hundred miles. On this project, though, the car itself isn’t what’s most important.
The car is the creation of Minddrive, an after school program in Kansas City, MO that mentors students who are performing below their grade levels in traditional school environments. Students meet every other Wednesday and on Saturday mornings and learn about either automotive design or contemporary communications with mentors who work in their field of study. The auto design students learn computer-aided design, welding, and electrical engineering, while the communications students learn to promote the car as if the design studio was a client.
So far, the students and their mentors are on track to have a street-legal car that can drive the 2400 miles from Jacksonville, FL to San Diego, CA by their March spring break.
“We have installed our own brakes, because they’re much lighter than the ones that would’ve been on the Champ Car,” said program director Steve Rees. “The kids have constructed the wire frame that supports the skin, and they have done the wiring and the driveline.”
That driveline is a single-chain drive connected to an electric motor, powered by lithium-ion batteries that put out 96 volts. In order to make it across the country while drawing attention to the lack of a national charging infrastructure, a generator truck will follow the team providing rapid 40-minute dump charges every hundred or so miles. Rees acknowledges it’s not the next Nissan Leaf, but how technically advanced the car can be isn’t the point.
“We’re trying to educate kids. We’re not doing anything extraordinarily out of the box,” he said.
According to Rees, the goal of Minddrive is to get students interested in learning through hands-on projects. “We’re trying to take kids who haven’t been engaged in school and hook them to an expanded vision of what their future might be,” he said. When they return to their own schools, the hope is that they’ll be more interested in history, math and English — and have a sense of environmental stewardship as well.
It seems to be working. Last year, students worked on a wrecked Lola Champ Car, even testing it out at Bridgestone’s Texas proving grounds. Those students are now learning advanced 3D modeling and Solidworks, while a new crop of kids — equal numbers of boys and girls — are working on the Reynard. So far, four kids have graduated from the program and each one is employed or in school.
The communications aspect of the program is also helpful in teaching students to express themselves. In their cross-country trip, the team will stop every hundred miles to charge their car and meet with students from other schools, explaining how they designed the vehicle. In preparation, the kids have practiced presenting their work and answering questions about it.
“It works really well because the contemporary communications class can end up mentoring the students,” said Linda Buchner, who directs the communications program.
For the students, the process of building a car has taught them to set and meet goals, and their volunteer adult mentors have acted as valuable role models.
“The most important thing really is teaching kids through hands on, experiential learning,” said Rees. “Our kids do this because they’re inspired to be there every week, to work with adults and do hands on things.”
The results are in for Euro NCAP’s fifth and last launch of 2011. A total of 14 cars were tested including two Chinese newcomers, the MG6 and the Geely Emgrand EC7, both of which achieved a four star rating, proving that at least some Chinese brands are starting to take safety seriously.
Michiel van Ratingen, Euro NCAP Secretary General commented: “These results mark a milestone for the Chinese automotive industry. It is a clear sign that Chinese car makers are building on recent experiences and rapidly investing in better vehicle safety. Even with the upcoming increased demands, five stars are expected to be within reach soon.”
Four more vehicles that are new were given a four-star rating, including the Fiat Panda, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jaguar XF and the EV Renault Fluence ZE.
According to Euro NCAP, the pure-electric Renault Fluence ZE underperformed on pedestrian protection, driver and passenger protection offered, while the Fiat Panda lost a star because it is not equipped with an Electronic stability control (ESC) as standard, in spite of the technology becoming obligatory in Europe in 2012.
The safety organization pointed out that the new Jeep Grand Cherokee “showed disappointing results in child occupant protection”, while in the frontal impact, the seat rail holding the seat belt anchorage came close to breaking in half, resulting in contact, through the fabric of the airbag, of the driver’s head with the steering wheel rim.
“Euro NCAP urges Jeep to complete its investigation into the cause and implement an improved seat rail design in future production cars soon,” the organization said in a statement.
Eight new models including the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu, Kia Rio, Mercedes-Benz B-Class and C-Class Coupe, the Ranger Rover Evoque, Subaru XV, VW Beetle and up! were all awarded with Euro NCAP’s top safety rating of five stars. Being that the Seat Mii and the Skoda Citigo are re-badged versions of the VW up!, both cars receive a five-star rating.
Euro NCAP noted that the new Volkswagen Beetle and Subaru XV excelled in child occupant protection as both models reached 90%, which is the highest score Euro NCAP has yet given for this assessment to date.
Detlev Hager was in Alabama on business from Germany to Mercedes-Benz’s U.S. satellite where it manufactures the M-Class sport utility and some C-Class models. When he took out his rental car on an errand, he was stopped for not having current tags on the vehicle. That wouldn’t be such a big deal if he had kept his passport on him when he was pulled over. But, like most people who travel overseas, he left it in his hotel room.
Due to the statutes that have made their way through Alabama in an effort to crack down on illegal immigration, the 46-year-old executive was detained by Tuscaloosa‘s police department until a colleague could get him his passport and visa. Alabama Homeland Security director Spencer Collier said of the incident ”It sounds like the officer followed the statute correctly,” according to an interview with the Associated Press.
We’re pretty sure Hager’s arrest wasn’t in his itinerary for the week, and we’re interested in seeing how Alabama plans to deal with the law after this “embarrassment,” as other foreign automakers like Hyundai, Honda, and Toyota have operations in Alabama. One thing is certain: Alabama governor Robert Bentley, a supporter of the bill, has said that unintended consequences like this have to be evaluated. If major companies find Alabama’s practices to be too unfriendly, it could spur an exodus of business, leaving the state’s future in peril.
Legislators probably aren’t too keen on that happening, so it’s best they sort out the details of the illegal immigration problem before they go gung-ho to arrest anyone with a pulse. We simply find snicker-worthy because it had to take an international executive getting arrested in the deep south before anyone seriously paid attention to such an inane set of overbearing legislation.
We’re pretty fond of the 2012 Volkswagen Passat, and we aren’t alone. But for all of the vehicle’s merits, there are a few of our favorite options missing from the American order sheet. For starters, buyers in the land of the free can’t bring home a long-roof version of the mid-sizer, and all-wheel drive is nowhere to found either. These absences are made all the more painful by the fact that European buyers can snag this, the new 2012 Passat Alltrack. The vehicle is set to debut at this year’s Tokyo Motor Show and boasts the Volkswagen 4Motion all-wheel drive system as well as a taller ride height for overcoming rough terrain and deep snow.
That smell? It’s just the noxious fumes of envy wafting through the internet.
Volkswagen has thrown in a set of flared fender arches as well as revised front and rear bumpers. Under normal operation, the Passat Alltrack kicks 90 percent of the engine’s power to the front axles, though 100 percent of the grunt can be shifted to the rear tires if need be. In the UK, buyers may chose between two variants of the German automaker’s 2.0-liter TDI four-cylinder engine. Hit the jump for the full press release.
When the redesigned 2013 Chevy Malibu goes on sale early next year, it will only be available as a high-efficiency trim called the Malibu Eco. Today, Chevy announced that trim level will start at $25,235, excluding a $760 destination fee. The Malibu Eco is estimated to get 26/38 mpg city/highway.
The Malibu Eco is about as expensive, but less fuel efficient, compared with the 2012 Toyota Camry Hybrid ($25,900 and 43/39 mpg) and the 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid ($25,795 and 35/40 mpg). It is more affordable than the 2012 Ford Fusion Hybrid but still not as fuel efficient ($28,700 and 41/36 mpg). The 2010 Chevy Malibu Hybrid cost $25,925 when it was on sale, but it only achieved 26/34 mpg.
What gives?
Chevrolet banished the “hybrid” descriptor from its mild-hybrid systems after poor consumer reception. Despite the rebranding, the Malibu Eco packs an upgraded version of the system found on the 2010 Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid. It now has more power and better fuel efficiency; the Buick LaCrosse and Buick Regal also have trims using this second-gen system, which GM now calls “eAssist.”
Unlike the Camry Hybrid or Fusion Hybrid, which can move on battery power alone, the capability of the eAssist technology in the Malibu Eco is more limited. It can capture kinetic energy when braking, and the gas engine shuts off automatically when the car comes to a stop and starts again immediately when the brake pedal is released.
We were impressed by how confidently and smoothly the 2012 Buick LaCrosse with eAssist accelerated and braked in initial testing.
Standard exterior features on the Malibu Eco include heated power mirrors, automatic headlights and 17-inch alloy wheels. Electric louvers (which close off the lower grille when conditions are right to manage airflow better), underbody covers and added use of lightweight aluminum also separate the Malibu Eco from the regular 2013 Malibu. The power pack for the hybrid system is installed behind the backseat, and it reduces trunk space from 16.3 cubic feet to 14.3 compared with the regular Malibu.
The Malibu Eco will be the first Chevy to get the carmaker’s MyLink multimedia system as standard equipment. MyLink is controlled with a 7-inch screen that can move up to reveal a hidden 6-inch-deep cubbyhole.
Other standard interior features include dual-zone automatic climate control, a USB port, Bluetooth connectivity, steering-wheel-mounted audio controls and cruise control, and blue ambient lighting.
The Malibu Eco will go on sale in the first three months of 2012. A base four-cylinder Malibu will follow in summer 2012 along with the familiar LS, LT and LTZ trim levels, which don’t yet have fuel economy estimates or pricing.
