We take a look at the coolest, and nutties cars from the LA Auto Show and give you the long and short of that Toyota gas pedal issue. Also, Audi wants drivers to scribble on their dashboard. Have you seen the latest in high tech auto seats? We also go for a ride in the Lincoln MKT.
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EPISODE 147
SHOW NOTES• CNET's L.A. auto show coverage
• Audi intros in-dash handwriting recognition
• CNET's review of the 2010 Mazda6
Fancy yourself the next Lewis Hamilton? Yeah, us too--that's why our ears perked up like little meerkats when Nissan and Sony started a competition to let gamers become real racing drivers.
The international GT Academy competition--the second since 2008--is split into four main stages. Stage one requires competitors to record flying laps on a time-trial-based track in Gran Turismo 5 via the PS3's PlayStation Network. The 20 fastest entrants in each country will qualify for stage two--a national final. In stage three, the 20 fastest entrants from stage two will battle it out to reach the next round--a five-day boot camp in which they'll have the chance to drive real-life sports cars, including the latest Nissans, around Silverstone.
Read more of "GT Academy: Become a real-life racing driver with Nissan and Sony PlayStation" at Crave UK.
Utility company NRG wants to sell charging plans for the Nissan Leaf.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
The CEO of one of America's biggest electric utility companies is putting his shoulder behind Nissan North America Inc.'s campaign to sell electric vehicles.
Among his ideas: sending marketing materials for the upcoming electric Nissan Leaf with customers' monthly electric bills.
"I think we can play a role in what Nissan is doing," said David Crane, CEO of NRG Energy Inc. of Princeton, N.J., which provides electricity in cities around the country.
"We send monthly statements out to 1.5 million customers in the Houston area," he told Automotive News. "That's a lot of marketing potential."
Houston is one of Nissan's biggest markets. NRG owns the Houston power company, Reliant Energy.
This month Reliant signed on to join a growing list of third-party partners helping Nissan launch Leaf sales in selected markets late next year. Nissan has been recruiting utilities, state governments, municipalities and others to help install highway recharging stations and address residential zoning rules to make home recharging easier.
Crane envisions doing more than that. He proposes that Reliant act as a Nissan retail service supplier in Houston. When customers buy an electric vehicle, they could buy a Reliant charger installation package from the Nissan dealer. The package, financed along with the car, would deploy Reliant staffers to do the necessary work on the customer's home.
Crane also wants to market recharging plans through Nissan dealerships, similar to cell phone plans. "We could have different plans available, depending on the customer's needs," he said. "It might guarantee you so many recharges a month at public stations or give you so many charges a month on a rapid-charge system."
Electric-vehicle chargers come primarily as a traditional 220-volt plug-in that takes up to six hours to recharge a vehicle's battery completely. A more expensive high-voltage charging system that takes less than an hour also will be installed around cities.
(Source: Automotive News)
LOS ANGELES -- The launch advertising declared the Honda Insight "the hybrid for everyone."
"We don't want a car for a sliver of the market," Steve Center, Honda vice president of advertising and public relations, said at the launch in March.
And in a transparent dig at the Toyota Prius, he added, "This is going to be a populist's car, not an elitist's car."
But so far, the Insight's sales look like a sliver.
Honda's initial 90,000-unit U.S. sales goal was revised to 60,000 because of the weak economy. But sales of the Insight since its March launch total just 17,530, for an annual sales rate of about 25,000, according to the Automotive News Data Center.
The conclusion after eight months: The Insight badly trails the segment-leading Prius, although the Insight is selling better than other rival hybrids.
... Read moreMazda, EnerDel, Think Global, and others are partnering on a test project that will pair all-electric cars with stationary storage units as charging stations, EnerDel and Mazda announced this past week.
Mazda plans to convert some of its Mazda2 vehicles (known as the Mazda Demios in Japan) to all-electric cars running a Think drivetrain with EnerDel lithium ion batteries.
The Mazda2 (called the Demios in Japan) is expected to become available in the United States in 2010.
(Credit: Mazda)The cars will be offered to Japanese customers through a rental car program, called the Tsukuba Environmental Style Test Project, which should be up and running by March 2010 in Tsukuba City, Japan, near Tokyo, according to Mazda.
U.S. battery manufacturer EnerDel has described the test project as the Japanese equivalent to Zipcar in the States, a program in which customers join a car club that offers car rentals on an hourly or daily basis.
Instead of recharging stations tapping directly into a smart grid, those in the Tsukuba test project will use stationary grid storage units also developed by EnerDel. The stationary storage units will enable the rapid charging of the all-electric Mazda2 cars, while avoiding the possibility of having to tap into a smart grid during peak usage hours.
"The unique combination of on-site battery storage with rapid charging allows the use of direct current throughout the system, sharply reducing the amount of time needed to charge a vehicle," according to a statement from EnerDel.
The recharging stations, which will draw from solar panels as well as grid power, will be located at Family Mart convenience stores in the Tsukuba City area.
Itochu, a Japanese conglomerate that has partnered with EnerDel on energy projects since 2003, owns the Family Mart chain. It was through a partnership with Itochu that EnerDel and Think Global converted and tested a fleet of trucks to all-electric vehicles for the Japanese Postal Service.
SAN DIEGO--Lexus has introduced its first sport package on the LS 460 to take aim at the Mercedes-Benz S class.
The flagship LS, redesigned for the 2007 model year, is getting long in the tooth. And Lexus wants younger BMW and Mercedes owners. The sport package, available only on the base rear-drive 2010 model, costs $71,755, including shipping, a $6,200 premium over the $65,555 base price.
The LS 460 will have paddle shifters, and other features include a heated leather steering wheel, 19-inch wheels and summer tires, front Brembo brakes, sport-tuned air suspension, a lower body kit with sport grille and sport seats.
The sport trim has the same 4.6-liter, 380-hp engine, but software on the eight-speed automatic has been tweaked to give it a throatier sound, like that of the IS-F sports sedan.
"We want to get some European conquests--particularly the S class," says Ben Mitchell, corporate product planning manager for Lexus.
He says the typical LS owner is near 60 years old. Lexus hopes the sport trim will attract those in the upper 40s to low 50s.
The Mercedes S550 has a 5.5-liter engine making 382 horsepower. It sells for $92,475, including shipping.
Through October, LS sales were down 53 percent to 8,192 units. S-class sales totaled 8,920, off 43 percent.
(Source: Automotive News)
Our chariot awaits...
(Credit: Antuan Goodwin/CNET)The time has come for the Car Tech crew to load up a car--this year, we're taking a loaded 2010 Lincoln MKS--and make the trek down to the City of Angels for the 2009 LA Auto Show. As any lover of cars can tell you, the journey is half of the fun and some of the best stories can come out of a good road trip.
With that in mind, we'll be tweeting our journey and sharing photos along the way. Keep in the loop by popping over to the CNET River and selecting Wayne Cunningham or Antuan Goodwin from the right column or follow us on Twitter. We're @waynec_sf and @antgoo, respectively.
The Kia Cadenza, Kia Motors replacement for its Amanti large sedan, could be the first car to get Kia's new direct-injection gasoline engine.
The Cadenza, which was unveiled last week in South Korea, goes on sale in North America in 2011.
Production of the Amanti ended this year. Once inventories run out, U.S. dealers will lack a large sedan until the Cadenza arrives, spokesman Michael Choo said. In the meantime, the midsize Optima will be Kia's biggest sedan, he said.
"The U.S. wants to grow into this model," Choo said. "The market isn't ready for it yet."
The four-door, five-seat Cadenza is shorter than the Amanti but has a longer wheelbase and more interior space, according to a Kia news release.
In Korea, the car has a 3.5-liter V-6 engine and a six-speed automatic transmission. Engine specifications of the North American version of the Cadenza still are being decided. But the car could get Kia's new direct-injection gasoline engine, Choo said.
The front-drive Cadenza is the first on the company's new Type N platform. A lighter, stronger body shell and new suspension help make the Cadenza 286 pounds lighter than the Amanti.
The Cadenza makes its global auto show debut Dec. 12 at the Riyadh Motor Show in Saudi Arabia, Kia said. The car will be built at Kia's Hwasung assembly plant in South Korea.
It goes on sale this year in South Korea. Exports to global markets other than the United States and Europe begin in January.
(Source: Automotive News)
The 2011 Mustang's new engine is designed to compete with the V-6 Camaro.
(Credit: Ford)Mustang fans have been nagging Ford Motors for a better V-6 engine in the base model of the long-running pony car--one with more horsepower and less hoarse power.
Next spring they'll get it when the old 4.0-liter V-6 is replaced by a 3.7-liter, 305 horsepower, 24-valve V- 6 with double overhead cams. It's the Mustang's first high-performance six-cylinder engine.
The old, rough, 210-hp V-6--which has been built in various displacements since the late 1960s--couldn't compete with the 3.6-liter V-6 in the new Chevrolet Camaro.
The base version of the 2011 Ford Mustang, due in the spring, noses ahead of the 2010 Camaro V-6--but not by much. The Mustang has one more horsepower and one more highway mile per gallon than the Camaro.
The 3.7-liter engine in the base 2011 Mustang is also being used in several front-wheel- and all-wheel-drive Lincolns. The Mustang is the first rear-wheel-drive application.
To boost horsepower, the intake areas of the engine's heads were ported and polished to increase the volume of the air-fuel mixture. The valve tappets were polished to reduce friction. A new intake manifold improves engine breathing. The changes helped raise horsepower from 273 in the Lincoln MKS to 305.
The Mustang also gets these upgrades:
- Two new six-speed transmissions, automatic and manual
- Stronger brakes and firmer suspension from the GT model
- A slightly revised interior with a new roof-storage system.
The updated engine includes such fuel-saving technology as variable valve timing and an advanced fuel injection system that cuts off the fuel supply when the car is decelerating.
The old engine was built in Cologne, Germany, and shipped to Flat Rock, Mich., where it was installed in the Mustang. The new engine is built in Ford's Cleveland, Ohio, plant.
Camaro sales have exceeded the Mustang's for six straight months. General Motors thinks the Camaro will outsell the Mustang for the entire year, although through October the Mustang still led, 56,469 to 47,233. The Camaro went on sale in April.
Ford plans to show the 2011 Mustang V-6 this week at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Upgrades are also in store for the Mustang GT that, according to Ford, it plans to introduce in January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit
(Source: Automotive News)
Sergio Marchionne's ambitious plan to revive Chrysler with a wave of new products divides the world into halves--one set of vehicles engineered by Chrysler for itself and Fiat and another set engineered by Fiat for itself and Chrysler.
The alliance starts to bear fruit in 2012 and gathers momentum with a spate of launches in 2013.
Marchionne said this month that the two automakers were now "inextricably intertwined."
The greatest cross-pollination of Chrysler and Fiat expertise will take place in the middle of the market. Chrysler engineers are taking a European Fiat platform called the C-Evo and re-engineering and widening it into a new platform called C/D that will spawn a fleet of vehicles.
If all goes according to plan, seven or eight new Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles will come off that C/D platform aimed squarely at the middle of the domestic market. There will be two compact sedans in 2012 to replace the Dodge Caliber and Chrysler PT Cruiser.
And in 2013 there will be a wave of vehicles, including a compact crossover to replace the Jeep Patriot; a midsized SUV to replace the Jeep Liberty; midsized sedans to replace the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger; a midsized crossover for Chrysler; and possibly a midsized crossover to replace the Dodge Nitro.
More than any other factor, it was the failure to field strong competitors to vehicles such as the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Ford Escape, and Toyota RAV4 that led to Chrysler's sales collapse and eventual trip into bankruptcy last spring.
Cross-fertilization
The two partners will lean heavily on each other to engineer and manufacture products.
"From an architectural standpoint, we're going to end up with the world [divided] into two parts," said Marchionne at the Nov. 4 unveiling of Chrysler's five-year business plan. "A part will be handled by Fiat for itself and on behalf of Chrysler, and another one will be handled by Chrysler for itself and for Fiat."
All vehicles below the compact sedan segment for Fiat Auto and Chrysler Group brands will be engineered in Italy and built there or in Fiat factories elsewhere. All larger vehicles--starting with the replacements for the Caliber and PT Cruiser and including minivans, large SUVs, and pickups--will be engineered by the Chrysler team in Auburn Hills, and most will be made in North American factories.
That means, for example, that Fiat will drop out of its minivan alliance with PSA/Peugeot-Citroen. Future Fiat and Lancia minivans will be engineered in Auburn Hills and made in North American factories for export.
On the flip side, starting in 2013, Lancia could export to North America a subcompact five-door hatchback that would become the entry model for the Chrysler brand. Dodge also will get a subcompact engineered by Fiat and imported to the United States.
But it's in the midsized segment that Chrysler benefits--starting in 2013.
In July, Fiat handed over to Chrysler the C-Evo platform with European specifications to serve as the underpinnings of a new group of vehicles.
For the United States, Chrysler is widening the platform by 1.6 inches. By redoing the platform, Chrysler could avoid the mistakes made by other automakers. In the 1990s, Ford brought its European mainstream Mondeo sedan to North America and rebadged it as the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique. But U.S. customers found the sedans too cramped.
Philippe Houchois, analyst for UBS in London, estimated that Chrysler and Fiat could produce a combined 750,000 units annually off the C/D platform.
A better fit than Daimler?
Dave Cole, head of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., said the Fiat-Chrysler alliance balances the needs of two carmakers in a way that Chrysler's merger with Daimler never did.
Such synergies weren't possible between Daimler and Chrysler because "what they were essentially doing is taking two companies with little product overlap and somehow sticking them together. It was just not in the cards that they would be able to pull that off."
Marchionne and his team face some big obstacles as he aims for U.S. market share in the 13-14 percent range. Chrysler is now hovering around 9 percent.
Houchois said, "Marchionne's plan is probably too ambitious on market share and extremely cautious on market assumptions."
If Chrysler can't hit Marchionne's market share target, he said, it could still achieve sustainable volume if the market itself grows.
John Wolkonowicz, analyst for IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Mass., said the plan sounds good, but Chrysler has to sell some vehicles between now and when the new products start arriving to pay for the planned new product assault.
"If they actually get to the new products," he said, "they have a fighting chance."
(Source: Automotive News)
