Buyers, though, are more likely to come out of cars such as the Toyota Avalon, said John Krafcik, Hyundai’s vice president of product development.
“They’re what we call confident nonconformists who want the very best but don’t want to pay extra for it,” Krafcik said, adding that those buyers become “evangelists for our brand.”
The rear-wheel-drive Genesis goes on sale in summer with a choice of two V-6s and a V-8 engine, and Krafcik expects the V-6s to be more popular.
Hyundai’s U.S. sales rose 21.5 percent last year to 467,000 vehicles, but Krafcik said revenue grew nearly 10 percent because of higher transaction prices (Hyundai doesn’t disclose the amount) from a richer mix of models.
Hyundai will introduce the 2009 Sonata at the Chicago Auto Show that Krafcik said will have substantially upgraded interior materials and new front and rear styling. In March, Hyundai will unwrap a Genesis coupe at the New York auto Show.
Do mobsters take cabs?
January 24, 2008
Chinese manufacturer Geely International Corp. showed a knockoff of the London Taxi it builds under license, and a brochure for the vehicle contained this eyebrow-raising nugget: “Omnidirectional visibility means that you can easily see the potential passengers or mobsters.”
Geely sought to position itself as a technology leader by announcing a safety system developed in-house that applies the brakes after a tire blowout to prevent accidents. Chairman Li Shufu cq said Geely showed the safety technology in Detroit because “most people don’t believe the Chinese are innovators.”
Ford: We can do sexy
January 24, 2008
Plug-ins and hybrids were the talk of the show, but Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said Ford expects to accomplish greater fuel savings and reductions in greenhouse gases sooner through lower-cost technologies, including its EcoBoost gasoline direct injection engine, and by reducing the size and weight of its fleet.
“We can do the sexy, small-volume things like everyone else, but if we really want to change things, we have to do them in high volume,” Ford said.
E85 in Hummer’s world
January 24, 2008
GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner sounded a similar theme in saying that automakers can build millions of vehicles now that burn ethanol, while it will take years for hybrids and other new technologies to be available in volume.
“The hard truth is it will be a decade or more before those technologies will have a measurable impact,” Wagoner said, adding that ethanol is “by far the best option we have to reduce the growth of oil consumption in the near- and midterm.”
In a sign of the times, GM unveiled the Hummer HX concept, a preview of the H4, which will be smaller than the H3. The HX has a V-6 (a first for Hummer) that burns E85, the blend of 80 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. All Hummers will be able to use E85 by 2010.
“You’ve come full circle when a Hummer is part of a press conference on E85. The world is truly changing,” said Mark LaNeve, GM’s sales and marketing chief. “It makes sense that the future of the Hummer brand will be smaller and more fuel efficient.”
Meet the Press
January 24, 2008
Chrysler under ownership of private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management is still sorting through its model lineup to eliminate duplication and give the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands different personalities.
President and Vice Chairman Jim Press hinted at what’s coming by using the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans as examples.
“They’re right on top of each other [in market position], when one could be sportier and [designed to be] more fun to drive,” Press said. “We could cover more waterfront that way without greatly increasing costs.”
Press jumped to Chrysler in September from Toyota, where he held the top job in North America and sat on Toyota Motor Corp.’s board, the first American to do so. At the time, some in the industry wondered whether Press was crazy to leave Toyota for a struggling U.S.-based automaker.
“I’d be crazy not to do this,” he answers. “I was at the sunset of my career there, and I don’t play golf. Work is my hobby, and my nature is that this is a challenge. And I always thought that someday I’d like to on the home team.”
Chinese ad goes far afield
January 24, 2008
Chinese manufacturer Geely Automobile Co. may change the U.S.
automotive landscape in ways other than selling low-cost cars.
Nevermind that it annouced plans Monday at the Detroit Auto Show to
build four plants outside of China, including one in Mexico.
Geely made a bigger splash with a marketing video of its FG sedan.
A hip-looking young man races around the countryside in the car, a
small statue of Elvis Presley on the dashboard and a guitar in the
back seat.
A short time later, the man is shown standing in a field, back to
the camera, where he appears to be urinating. So the question may
not be whether the U.S. is ready for Chinese cars, but rather
whether it’s ready for Chinese car commercials.
The V is for vroom
January 14, 2008
Cadillac unveiled the 2009 CTS-V sedan Monday at the Detroit Auto
Show.
It packs a supercharged
550-horsepower, 6.2-liter V-8 (borrowed from the Chevrolet Corvette
ZR-1) that can be teamed with a 6-speed transmission, manual or
automatic (the current model is manual only). Among standard
features are magnetic ride control that adjusts to road conditions
up to 1,000 times per second, Recaro-designed seats and LED lights
on the tachometer that flash when the engine approaches the
redline. CTS-V also has a different front fascia than the regular
CTS with brake cooling slots, side sills and a rear spoiler.
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General Manager Jim Taylor said the CTS-V puts Cadillac in the same
performance league as the BMW M3 and M5 and Mercedes-Benz AMG
models. Taylor expects the automatic transmission to be the choice
of about 80 percent of buyers and CTS-V sales to grow by 1,000
units per year to 4,000. The CTS-V buyer averages the late 40s to
early 50s, 10 years younger than buyers of the regular CTS.
Cadillac also rolled out a coupe concept of CTS that has been in
the works for a while. The automaker has no firm production plans
for the coupe, but asked when it could be built, GM CEO Rick
Wagoner said: “Based on the reaction, not soon enough.”
MKT next in Lincoln’s alphabet
January 14, 2008
Lincoln demonstrated at the Detroit Auto Show that it wants to be
as Flex-ible as Ford by unveiling the MKT concept, a luxury version
of the Ford Flex crossover due to go on sale in June.
Lincoln didn’t say the MKT would be built, but it appeared to be a
preview of a production model, including the name. Lincoln’s next
car, due this summer, is the MKS sedan, putting an MKT next in
line.
The MKT has four conventional doors, and Lincoln called it a
“premium utility vehicle,” though it resembles a sedan more than
the SUV-like Flex, plus it has bustle-back rear styling, a
traditional luxury car touch. The engine is a 3.5-liter V-6 with
Ford’s new EcoBoost system (direct injection and a turbocharger)
hitched to a 6-speed automatic transmission and
all-wheel-drive.
Malibu, CX-9 take media honors
January 13, 2008
The Chevrolet Malibu was named North American Car of the Year and
the Mazda CX-9 was chosen Truck of the Year Sunday by a panel of 45
journalists at the Detroit Auto Show.
Malibu, a midsize sedan that went on sale in November, gives
General Motors Corp. its second straight Car of the Year. The
Saturn Aura, a midsize sedan built on the same platform as the
Malibu, won last year. Other finalists this year were the Cadillac
CTS and Honda Accord.
The CX-9 is a seven-passenger crossove on sale since February. Ford
Motor Co. owns a controlling interest in Mazda, and the CX-9 shares
some suspension and structrural parts with the Ford Edge crossover,
but it is exclusive to Mazda. Other truck finalists were the
Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid and Buick Enclave.
Only new or redesigned models are eligible for the awards.
Ram turbodiesel cattle call
January 13, 2008
Dodge will offer a turbocharged diesel engine in its Ram 1500,
light-duty pickup and a hybrid powertrain in 2010, Chrysler LLC
President and Vice Chairman Jim Press said Sunday.
The diesel will be a V-8, made by Cummins Inc., which makes the
diesel engine Dodge uses in its heavy-duty pickups.
The hybrid will be the system Chrysler developed with GM and BMW.
Chrysler will offer it this year on the Dodge Durango and Chrysler
Aspen sport-utilities. Press said diesels and hybrids would enable
automakers to continue to offer large pickups and SUVs and meet a
federal requirement that all vehicles average 35 miles per gallon
by 2022.
“You can have more horsepower and better gas mileage,” Press said.
“You don’t have to give up on the deliverables of the vehicle. You
have to be smarter about how you deliver them.”
Chrysler stole the show Sunday by introducing the 2009 Ram 1500
with a stampede of Texas longhorn cattle through downtown
Detroit.
Wagoner says …
January 13, 2008
Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner says General Motors will
continue to work on electric vehicles, hybrids and fuel cells but
said those technologies won’t have a significant impact on oil
consumption for years.
Ethanol is “by far the best option we have to reduce the growth of
oil consumption and oil imports in the near and medium term,” he
said in announcing the automaker’s venture with biofuel start of
Coskata of Warrenville to produce ethanol from a variety of
sources, including trash.
More GM buyouts expected
January 13, 2008
General Motors expects to announce a new round of buyouts and
early-retirement incentives for union workers in a couple of weeks,
Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said Sunday at the Detroit Auto
Show.
Wagoner said details of the offers are still being negotiated with
the United Auto Workers, which agreed to a voluntary attrition
program as part of a four-year contract ratified in October.
In December GM offered incentives to workers in its service and
parts operations and in three “jobs banks,” where laid off workers
continue to collect base wages and benefits. The next round will be
extended to all or most of GM’s 73,000 UAW workers, whose base wage
is $28 an hour or more.
The new contract with the UAW allows GM to hire workers for
non-production jobs at around $14 an hour.
Wagoner said GM will see some cost benefit from the contract in
2008 but added: “We won’t see significant impact until 2010,” when
GM will transfer its $50 billion retiree health care liability to a
union-run trust fund.
When asked whether GM can be profitable in North America under such
conditions, Wagoner said he wouldn’t comment until GM reports
fourth-quarter results in a few weeks. Results are due Jan. 23.
In an interview at the show, Wagoner said GM expects 2008 U.S.
vehicle sales to be “reasonably close” to last year, when the
industry sold 16.15 million vehicles, but he cautioned that
conditions could worsen if there is greater turmoil in the housing
and credit markets.
BMW X6 a
crossover with a coupe’s soul
January
11, 2008
BMW is rolling out the sleek
X6, a 1-Series convertible and two new diesel models at the Detroit
Auto Show Jan. 13. The 2009 X6, a four-door crossover with racy,
coupe-like styling (BMW calls it a “sports activity coupe”) that
goes on sale in April, will come as the xDrive 35i with a
300-horsepower, turbocharged 6-cylinder and the xDrive 50i with a
4.4-liter, 450-h.p., twin-turbo V-8. Both will have standard
all-wheel-drive.
The 128i convertible, which has a power soft top, will arrive in
May after the 1-Series coupe.
The diesel models, which BMW says will be available in all states
starting in fall, are the 335d sedan and X5 xDrive35d SUV, both
with a 3-liter twin-turbo 6-cylinder that produces 265 h.p. BMW
estimates the 335d’s EPA ratings will be 23 m.p.g. city and 33
highway and the xDrive35 will get 19/25.
Mercedes in SUV rumble
January 11, 2008
Mercedes-Benz will go head-to-head against the BMW X3 with the GLK,
a compact crossover due early in 2009. Mercedes unveils a concept
of it, the Vision GLK, Sunday Jan. 13 at the Detroit Auto Show with
styling like that of the larger Mercedes GL SUV.
The GLK is based on the platform for the C-Class, offered as a
sedan in the U.S. Mercedes plans gas and diesel versions in the
U.S.
Impala’s badge of honor
January 11, 2008
Chevrolet will mark the 50th anniversary of the Impala in the
spring with a commemorative edition that will include anniversary
badges, two-tone leather seats with logos embroidered on the
headrests, ebony carpeting and floor mats, a rear spoiler and
18-inch alloy wheels.
The anniversary model will be based on the Impala LT, and come in
black or red. The price will be announced in the spring.
Impala debuted in 1958 as a premium package for the Bel Air and
became a stand-alone model the following year.
Thought-provoking Caddy
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January 11, 2008
General Motors’ latest fuel-cell concept is the Cadillac Provoq, a
crossover unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las
Vegas.
Provoq takes major design cues from the CTS sedan but packs a
hydrogen-powered fuel cell and GM’s E-flex technology, which
recharges batteries by plugging into a standard electrical outlet.
It can travel 20 miles on battery power and another 280 on
hydrogen.
Cadillac hasn’t said where it might fit in the lineup, but Provoq
could be a preview of a replacement for the SRX.
The concept has GM’s fifth-generation fuel-cell technology
(one-third smaller than the fuel cell in current Chevrolet Equinox
demonstration vehicles). Batteries mount longitudinally in the
center of the vehicle and power an electric motor for the front
wheels and small ones integrated into the rear wheels, giving it
four-wheel drive.
Fuel cells don’t need as much air for cooling as
internal-combustion engines, so Cadillac is testing an “active
grille” with slats that open only when needed. When closed, the
car’s aerodynamics are improved. The concept also has flush door
handles and a full-length belly pan to reduce drag. Solar roof
panels provide power to ventilate the interior in hot weather.
Mercedes in SUV rumble
January 11, 2008
Porsche AG will produce a gas/electric Cayenne sport-utility
vehicle by 2010 and a hybrid Panamera sedan after that.
Panamera, Porsche’s first four-door, is due in 2009 with a gas
engine, but Porsche did not specify when the hybrid would
arrive.
Cayenne and Panamera will use the same system, which Porsche says
will reduce fuel consumption 30 percent. Depending on driving
conditions, it will operate in an electric mode, gas or a
combination of the two.