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Volkswagen

Volkswagen Jetta four-door sedan rendering

Volkswagen Jetta VI sedan rendering

US based site VWvortex brings us some great coverage of the New Compact Coupe, including this rendering of how they expect the next Jetta sedan will look. In fact, the report says the profile of the show car is pretty much exactly the same as the final shape for the production version of the four-door Jetta sedan, which is expected to go on sale in the US before October.

This is clearly Volkswagen’s best effort in recent years at making the Jetta a proper stand alone model, rather than simply “a Golf with a boot”. Moving away from platform sharing, to a degree, VW will rather employ component sharing across its model range. This Jetta, for example, has a wheelbase around 75mm longer than the Golf VI, but it will share components from the Polo, Passat and everything in between.

As you can see from the images of the New Compact Coupe, interior styling has also been given a hand to establish an identity of its own. Sure, it’s all Volkswagen design language, as you would expect. Now, though, the Golf and Jetta will appear as siblings, rather than identical twins in different outfits.

More on the New Compact Coupe from the Detroit show can be seen at the VWvortex gallery.

UPDATE 13 January: For more Jetta speculation head on over to The Motor Report.

[Source: VWvortex]

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Volkswagen

Night whiter

Volkswagen Eos Night White

Given yesterday’s news of the New Compact Coupe this special edition Eos model announced by Volkswagen Australia, called the White Night, looks like a bit of an afterthought.

Featuring a Candy White body with a Deep Black roof the convertible can be optioned with a 147kW TSI petrol engine ($55,990) or 103kW TDI diesel ($53,990).  Pricing for the White Night special edition is $3,500 more than the corresponding series model.

The White Night is only available with a 6-speed DSG transmission. There’s black leather with light contrast stitching, specially painted 18″ “Budapest” alloys, lowered sports suspension and an extra splash of black paint on the grille and wing mirrors.

Volkswagen call this a limited edition model, but at this stage are unable to put a number to the expected sales run. I dare say, if you want one, you’ll get one. So, you know the drill, head on down to your local dealer and ask a few questions.

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Motor Shows Volkswagen

Detroit: Volkswagen New Compact Coupe

Volkswagen New Compact Coupe

Today Volkswagen presents its stunning New Compact Coupe at the NAIAS in Detroit. There’s a nice and cuddly green side to this car, but for now, let’s just focus on the looks.

Said to offer a hint of what to expect from Volkswagen’s new four-door Jetta, which is due for release later this year, the New Compact Coupe takes some definite styling cues from the VAG stable. The high crease shoulder line and C-pillar is akin to the Audi A5, albeit somewhat straightened out. The rear tail lights, too, take inspiration from the current A4 sedan. There’s even a bit of 3 Series coupe Hofmeister kink in the rear fixed pane window.

Overall, though, well, what a beautiful design. Every detail is bang on, from the squared off headlights, to sharply styled wing mirrors. In silver, under controlled lighting the New Compact Coupe looks just about perfect.

Just don’t look too closely at the light gray interior! Aside from the colouring, the rest of the interior is smartly laid out with nice details throughout. Ford could definitely learn a thing or two from the Germans here.

Now, to the car’s green credentials. Volkswagen has made sure the NCC will attract attention with its looks, so this will only help the company push their Hybrid technology under the car’s skin. The headline figures are fuel consumption of 4.2l/100km with CO2 emissions of just 98g/km. That CO2 figure is quite good, but the fuel consumption isn’t setting any records, with a handful of production cars already bettering those numbers.

Forget that, as the New Compact Coupe can use its 110kW 1.4 litre TSI petrol and 20kW electric engines to propel itself to 100km/h in 8.6 seconds with a top speed of 227km/h. Kind of pointless when you’re promoting a Hybrid car, but it’s good to know anyway. And, in Volkswagen’s words they want this car to be “sporty and fun to drive”.

More detail on the NCC’s clever gadgets and engine spec is given in the second press release below. Fourteen more images are also available after the jump. As always, simply click on the pic you like to access it in a wallpaper-friendly 2000px super image.

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Ford Motor Shows

Detroit: 2011 Ford Focus

2011 Ford Focus

Ford has just released new images of their 2011 Focus at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Production will commence later this year, with European and North American sales to commence simultaneously in early 2011.

The new Focus has been developed by a worldwide team with major input from Germany, Britain and the United States. The Focus will initially be built in three plants— Saarlouis (Germany), Michigan (United States) and Chongqing (China). In a true global car program the Focus will share parts from a minimum of 80% in all markets.

“The new Ford Focus is a clear demonstration that our ONE Ford strategy is providing global consumers with great products that harness the best of Ford Motor Company,” said Alan Mulally, Ford’s president and CEO.

“The efficiencies generated by our new global C-car platform will enable us to provide Ford Focus customers with an affordable product offering quality, fuel efficiency, safety and technology beyond their expectations,” he added.

From the initial pics it looks as though Ford have thrown their current Focus RS model in the blender with the best of Chris Bangle’s flame surfacing from BMW, smoothed the edges out a bit and voila—a new Focus! Ford call it “kinetic design”.

Overall, though, its cuts a striking shape and definitely stands out among its mid class rivals. The interior, though, is a bit out of control. The main dash cluster and instruments are all screaming for the driver’s attention, you don’t really know where to look.

Since 1998 the Focus has been acknowledged as one of the class leaders when it comes to driving duties and overall handling. I guess we shall expect this new model to follow suit, as well.

More pics of the hatch and sedan models follow after the jump, along with an extensive press release from Ford UK. More to follow as it comes to hand.

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Audi Drive Thru Reviews

Drive Thru: Audi S4

Audi S4 - V6 Supercharged

While the ‘new’ Audi S4 has been on sale in Australia for almost one year now it does represent something of a new world order for Audi and manufacturers around the planet, who are now desperate to play the green card by lowering CO2 emissions and fuel consumption figures. On that basis, gone is Audi’s familiar and silky smooth 4.2 litre V8 and in comes a new 3.0 litre supercharged V6 unit.

Crucially, power has only dropped slightly, down 15kW to 245kW. The addition of the charger keeps torque the same at a very tidy 440Nm. Official figures say the new 3 litre lump sips fuel at the moderate rate of 9.4 litres per 100km, while the CO2 figure is 219g/km, which is only 10% more than the four cylinder turbocharged S3.

So the theory is the new engine gives the same kick, while dropping the share price of Messers BP and Shell. But does it really? Well, yes, it does.

At least, it certainly gives you a jolly good kick when you plant your right foot. Audi claim the S4 can reach 100km/h in just 5.3 seconds. My back of the envelope calculations while the car was seamlessly working through its 7-speed S tronic transmission found this claim to be pretty accurate. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the S4 saloon could better the official figure.

In a word the new engine is awesome. It really is deceptively and wickedly quick. Sure, you miss the lovely V8 burble AUSmotive brought you in our S5 review, but the S4 did feel quicker than the V8 coupe. Sure, this is not exactly comparing apples with apples here, but it is an observation worth noting.

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MINI Challenge

MINI CHALLENGE 2009 – Round 8 TV highlights

The 2009 MINI Challenge season wrapped up just before Christmas at the Sydney 400. This was a new street circuit for the series, held in Homebush at Sydney Olympic Park.Coming in to the round Paul Stokell held a reasonable safe series lead and just needed to collect a meagre 24 points from the three races to secure his first MINI Challenge title.

The first clip above features the action from the first two races, while the clip after the jump wraps up the season with highlights from the final race of the year. More action from Race 1 can be seen be seen on this earlier AUSmotive post.

Despite a wheel literally falling off in the first race Paul Stokell was able to secure the points he needed in Race 2 and in doing so collected the 2009 Championship for himself and DecoRug racing. Stokell finished the year on 966 points, 48 ahead of series debutant Chris Alajajian on 918. Rounding out the top three for the year was Scott Bargwanna on 873 points.

In 2010 it looks like we might be seeing more of former touring car ace Glenn Seton, who took out the round win here at Homebush. He will make a great addition to the field and add some further depth to the series.

You can check a preliminary calendar for the 2010 season at the MINI Challenge website. For now, though, we’re set for Round 1 of the new season to take place at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, 11-14 March.

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Formula 1

US F1 – On the nose

US F1 nose crash test

US F1 brings us this crash test of their nose cone. As they say, two days to build and two milliseconds to destroy. While the car is being designed and constructed in good ol’ boy country—Charlotte, North Carolina—this crash test took place in England.

I know its early days for US F1 yet, but there’s something unique and charming about seeing their staff standing around wearing regular clothes, rather than being decked out in full team attire.

Check the clip after the jump.

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Mercedes-Benz

Tunnel vision

Yeah, sure it’s most likely a fake, but this ad/viral/promo clip for the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG ‘Gullwing’ is worth a gander all the same. In case you’re wondering, the text at the end of the clip reads: “Cockpit, engine, wings. Is it still a car?”

It’s all a bit reminiscent of Jeremy’s Twingo review from Season 14 of Top Gear. Just so you can compare the two clips, you can see an upside down Clarkson after the jump.

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GM Saab

Are you winding me up?

Saab

GM have given notice that the wind down process of Saab, first announced late last year, has commenced. Consulting firm AlixPartners have been chosen by GM to act as wind down supervisors.

A statement released by GM reads, “The wind down process is expected to take several months, and will ensure that employees, dealers and suppliers are adequately protected. As stated previously, Saab customers can be assured that warranties will continue to be honored and that service and spare parts will continue to be available.”

However, Spyker still holds out some home that they can save Saab from extinction. Victor Muller, CEO of Spyker Cars said yesterday, “We have continued a constructive dialogue with GM over the acquisition of Saab. We believe the Saab brand has lots of potential and would be keen to close a deal as quickly as possible.”

As expected GM received a number of offers for Saab by their 7 January deadline. GM’s statement says these will be considered independently of the wind down process, “GM also confirmed that it has received several proposals for Saab and is continuing to evaluate these proposals. This evaluation is not affected by the appointment of AlixPartners.”

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Peugeot

Peugeot SR1 Concept

Peugeot SR1 Concept

Peugeot say they are embarking on a new design direction. To make the world sit up and take notice they have released these images of their SR1 Concept. The concept car will make its debut at the Geneva Motor Show this March. Further pushing Peugeot’s future direction, the SR1 is powered by hybrid technology producing a total of 313bhp.

The first engine is a 1.6 litre THP petrol engine providing the bulk of the power with 218bhp on tap, while an electric motor provides the remaining 95bhp. The SR1 also features all-wheel drive. Such HYbrid4 technology will first been seen in the Peugeot range in the 3008 model due in 2011.

In full electric mode the SR1 produces no emissions, overall the CO2 emissions are rated at 119g/km and average fuel consumption is 4.9l/100km (57.7mpg).

Also announced with the SR1 Concept, and to celebrate the company’s 200th anniversary, is a new logo for the French brand (see separate article).

A total of 24 images can be accessed in wallpaper-friendly 2000px sizing by clicking on each pic. Peugeot’s full press release also follows after the jump.

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Ferrari News

Swiss motorist cops AU$316,000 speeding fine

Ferrari Testarossa

Swiss authorities are known for their intolerance of rule breaking, and so this has been proved with reports of a motorist being fined 299,000 Swiss francs (AU$316,000) for driving through the village of St Gallen at 100km/h. Wowsers, that’s a lot of moolah!

Behind the wheel of his Ferrari Testarossa at the time the driver has a vast fortune, estimated to be AU$24 million, as such the court ordered a fine commensurate with his wealth.

“The accused ignored elementary traffic rules with a powerful vehicle out of a pure desire for speed,” the court said in its judgment of the driver.

The previous record fine in Switzerland was a comparatively feeble AU$117,000 charged in 2008 to a Porsche driver in Zurich.

[Source: Reuters]