URUMQI (Xinhua) — Shanghai Volkswagen, German carmaker Volkswagen AG’s joint venture in China, plans to set up an assembly plant in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region this year to explore the markets of northwest China and Central Asia, local commerce officials said Thursday.
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Wolfsburg, Germany (dpa) – The Volkswagen Passat Alltrack, a crossover between a passenger car and Sports Utility Vehicle, is now available at European dealers featuring an off-road programme previously only available in the Tiguan and Touareg, the carmaker said.
The Alltrack sets itself apart from the standard model with 17-inch alloy wheels, matte chrome window surrounds, door mirror housings and radiator grille, silver roof rails, underbody protection, fog lights and the ‘Alltrack’ signatures at the front and rear.
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New York (dpa) – Volkswagen is planning to woo buyers in the United States with station wagon cars in a country where buyers wanting a bigger car have traditionally chosen either a van or a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV).
”The market is changing, simply because of rising fuel prices,” according to the VW CEO responsible for North America, Jonathan Browning. ”In the past Americans have viewed station wagons rather as cargo transporters.”
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Los Angeles (dpa) – Celebrating its debut at the Los Angeles Motor Show this month is an updated version of the Volkswagen CC with an extended range of features including bi-xenon headlights, static cornering lights and a new LED taillight design.
Standard features are fatigue detection, stainless steel door sill plates and safety head restraints with additional longitudinal front seat adjustments. New assistance systems include optional technologies such as Side Assist Plus with integrated Lane Assist and a camera-based traffic sign detection system. Read more…
HERNDON, Va., /PRNewswire/ –
BERLIN (Xinhua) — Europe’s leading carmaker Volkswagen (VW) was crowned Tuesday as “the best performer for 2010″ in automobile industry for the first time, according to a German auto institute study.
Germany’s Center of Automotive Management (CAM) said the Volkswagen Group is labeled as the world’s most automotive manufacturers as its comprehensive assessments, including sales growth, financial status and innovation ability, have gained advantages over other opponents.
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After a couple of best cars awards list, I think it would be fair to look at the other extreme: the worst ones. Although it may not seem nice at first, it’s a way for the auto industry to look back and learn for their past mistakes to ensure that they don’t name a particular vehicle the wrong way. A good way to start would be Cars.com’s Worst Named Cars of All Time List.
After 30 years of looking back at the automobile industry, Cars.com presents the Worst Car Names of All Time!
10. The Entire Lincoln Lineup
Lincoln is a brand with a considerable history, and we know they know how to give cars strong iconic names such as Continental or Navigator. Somewhere around 2007, many of those easy-to-remember names went out the window, leaving consumers with a hodgepodge of names starting with “MK.” That’s a shame because Lincoln has a strong lineup right now. What’s the difference between the MKZ, MKX and MKS? Gimme a second to look it up because I honestly can’t remember which is which.
9. Hyundai Equus
The inclusion of the Equus might be premature considering it’s not even on sale yet, but this could be the push Hyundai needs to give the car a proper name before it’s released. Companies occasionally give Latin names to products to make them sound sophisticated or fancy, but Equus just makes us think of the Broadway play of the same name — most recently starring Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame — where a young man loves horses a little too much.
8. Toyota Yaris
There was a girl in my dorm freshman year who organized her shoes alphabetically by mood. She majored in dead languages and responded to every single question with “no worries.” She once set the dorm microwave on fire by overcooking a ham-and-cheese Hot Pocket. Yes, that story is ridiculous and nonsensical … sort of like naming a car Yaris.
7. Kia Forte Koup
As writers, we’re particularly offended when companies take liberties with the English language in an effort to be cutesy — and this is no exception. We actually like this car! But Kia is asking us to overlook years of schooling and experience to accept their quirky spelling of coupe. It might require a few sessions with a therapist before we can get to that happy place.
6. Subaru B9 Tribeca
Here we’ve got a family crossover named after a fashionable neighborhood in lower Manhattan and … a World War II bomber? Consumers didn’t understand the B9 moniker either; that part of the name got the ax when Subaru redesigned the SUV for the 2008 model year.
5. Volkswagen Touareg
A few Volkswagens could’ve made this list, but the Touareg was easily the name that tripped up our American mouths the most. Early Touareg commercials in the U.S. even depicted people struggling to say the name. When an automaker has to spend precious time and ad dollars helping consumers learn to pronounce the car’s name — something is wrong.
4. Ford Probe
There are many borderline inappropriate jokes you could make about a 1990s sport compact named Probe, but we’re far too classy for that. Even if you don’t take into account the tasteless jokes, this is just a bad car name. There is nothing cool about a probe (the word, not the car). What thesaurus was Ford using where probe was synonymous with sleek and sporty?
3. Subaru Brat
Although Brat is technically an acronym — it stands for Bi-drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter — it’s a particularly unfortunate one. “Brat” is almost never used to describe something positively. A brat is not a calm, confident driver who knows what he wants and how to get it. A brat is busy throwing a hissy fit in the corner because his mom won’t let him borrow the car to go buy the new Styx album.
2. Isuzu VehiCROSS
Isuzu deserves a little credit for creating an attention-grabbing crossover before it was even a recognized vehicle segment, but the name practically beats consumers over the head with the idea (think SUV plus a cross-training sneaker). Add to that the unnecessary capitalization and the fact that VehiCROSS is a mouthful, and you have one bad name.
1. Ford Aspire
It’s pretty safe to say that many drivers’ dream cars fall under the category of sports car or luxury auto; few children hope to one day spend their commuting hours behind the wheel of a 63-horsepower subcompact hatchback. When Ford slapped the Aspire name on the back of this car, they were basically saying: “Yeah, even our car knows you wish you were driving something cooler.”
Well, there they are, hopefully this list won’t grow longer…
Enough with the car awards of the year, it’s time to look under the hood and check out which engines made it as the 10 Best for 2010. According to Ward’s 10 Best Engines, the winners are as follows:
This year’s winners and the applications tested:
2.0L TFSI Turbocharged DOHC I-4 (Audi A4)
3.0L TFSI Supercharged DOHC V-6 (Audi S4)
3.0L DOHC I-6 Turbodiesel (BMW 335d)
2.5L DOHC I-4 Hybrid (Ford Fusion Hybrid)
3.5L EcoBoost Turbocharged DOHC V-6 (Ford Taurus SHO)
2.4L Ecotec DOHC I-4 (Chevrolet Equinox)
4.6L Tau DOHC V-8 (Hyundai Genesis)
2.5L Turbocharged DOHC H-4 (Subaru Legacy 2.5GT)
1.8L DOHC I-4 Hybrid (Toyota Prius)
2.0L SOHC I-4 Turbodiesel (Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen TDI)
“This year’s list embodies how the industry is responding to demands for higher fuel economy and lower emissions without shortchanging performance,” Ward’s AutoWorld Editor-in-Chief Drew Winter said. “Auto makers are using innovative designs and advanced technology to boost horsepower and torque while downsizing engines and increasing efficiency.”
It’s a good thing that one of the criterias involved was the lower gas emissions. It just shows that engine makers do care about saving the environment. Now if they can only make engines this good that runs on ethanol. In the meantime, since the US economy’s going down the slippery slope, it’s great that they’ve also included the criteria regarding fuel economy. The last thing we need are engines that guzzle gas like there’s no tomorrow.
Here’s to hoping that next year’s best engine’s list will have engines that help save more on gas and produce lower (or better no) carbon emissions.
Where have all the quality and safety in American cars gone to? It seems that overseas manufactured cars and automotive vehicles seems to be the one that’s taking a look at quality and safety more than it is over here. No wonder our automotive industry is down in the gutters. This is further proven after Car and Driver Magazine just listed down the 10 best cars of 2010: and it’s no surprise that only two of the top ten belong to American car manufacturers.
Following are the 2010 Car and Driver 10Best winners (in alphabetical order), followed by the number of times each model has made the list:
The list is not in a ranked order. A panel of 18 Car and Driver editors determined the winners by rating them on a scale of 1-100 with a focus on functional performance, driving satisfaction and value. Vehicles considered for the award must be available in the United States by January 2009 and priced below the cap of $80,000, or 2.5 times the average transaction price as of summer 2009. Winners from the previous year are re-nominated if they are still available under the price cap.
Hopefully this is a wake up call to American car manufacturers to do their best to produce quality cars that will attract not only local buyers but foreign ones as well.
What if you could look into the future–let’s say 2030? What type of cars will we be driving? Will it be a flying car or still a land based vehicle? This is what the Southern California Automotive Design Studios thought when they created a contest.
“Automotive designers have always been fascinated with the next generation of drivers and this year’s Design Challenge has provided them with the opportunity to use their creative talents to revisit the concept of ‘the car’ with new eyes, using the hottest technologies to both explore and fulfill the needs of young people,” said Chuck Pelly, director of Design Los Angeles and partner in The Design Academy, Inc.
The following have submitted their entries:
Volkswagen/Audi of America Design Center California: Audi eOra and eSpira
General Motors Advanced Design: Car Hero
Honda Research and Development, North America: Honda Helix
Mazda R & D of North America: Mazda Souga
Nissan Design America: V2G
Toyota’s Calty Design Research: Toyota LINK
I’m not sure but do these cars still run on gas? I hope they’ve taken into consideration not only the environmental effects but also the economical effects of being too dependent on gasoline and oil. The last thing we need are even more gas guzzling giant vehicles. Nevertheless, they look cool and I hope to see and ride them in my lifetime.
Entries will be judged by Tom Matano, Director of Industrial Design at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University; Imre Molner, Dean of Detroit’s College for Creative Studies; Stewart Reed, Chair, Transportation Design, Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design and Jason Hill, Principal of Eleven, LLC and Designer of the Aptera electric and plug-in hybrid/electric vehicle.
