car to ride: August 2012

Not Your Usual Mercedes-Benz S-Class Saloons

For more than five decades, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and its predecessors have defined the luxury car segment in many ways, from the technological advancements to their styling.

That's not to say you won't find the occasional odd looking example, like these two S-Class models.

Poltrona Frau, the Italian company renowned for its finely crafted leather interiors, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

To commemorate the event, Poltrona Frau teamed up with Lancia, with which it has cooperated since the early 1920s, to create a special edition version of the Flavia.

Nissan continues the new model assault on the North American market after the recent introductions of the mid-size Altima sedan and Pathfinder crossover with the next generation of the Sentra compact saloon.

If the 2013 version of the Sentra looks familiar, it's either because it's exterior design is modeled after the new Altima or you remember the third generation of the Asian market Nissan Sylphy sedan, displayed at the 2012 Beijing Auto Show in April.

We should point out here that the Russian market Nissan Almera, which debuted at this week's Moscow Auto Salon is based on the previous, second generation of the Sylphy.

In comparison to the previous generation Sentra, the 2013 model sports a 0.6-inch longer wheelbase at 106.3 inches and a 2.3-inch longer overall length at 182.1 inches. On the other hand, it's slightly lower in height (-0.6 inches) and narrower in width (-1.2 inches).

Once upon a time, not too long ago, you could easily find yourself in lots of trouble if some dastardly individual wanted to pull an insurance scam, let's say, by pretending to be hit by your car since it could be difficult to impossible to prove your innocence.

Nowadays, with the right equipment, which by the way, won't cost you an arm and a leg, frauds of this sort can be easily identified and resolved.

Take for example this Asian youngster who came running towards a vehicle and jumped on the hood acting as if he (or she) was hurt. What the scam artist didn't know is that the driver had fitted a camera on the dashboard that recorded the entire incident.

On Wednesday, August 29, TMC Fuel Injection System LLC filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia against Ford Motor Company, according to a report from Automotive News.

The Pennsylvania-based company is accusing Ford for infringing on one of its 2008 patents covering a fuel-injection system. TMC claims that Ford started selling vehicles powered by an EcoBoost engine that used the system after telling engineer Shou L. Hou, the inventor, that it had no interest in the technology.

We understand that each person or a group of people can have their own way of dealing with the loss of a loved one, but to honor a friend that passed away by illegally shutting down an entire highway to perform donuts with muscle cars in the middle of the day is taking it one-step too far.

It all happened earlier this week on Interstate 285 in Atlanta, Georgia, when a group of friends in several vehicles including a Chevrolet Camaro, a Pontiac G8 sedan and a Firebird Convertible had an entire highway stop and watch their antics.

With the first images of the open-top version of the DS3 B-segment hatchback having already hit the net, Citroen today released official information and a boatload of images of the DS3 Cabrio prior to its live appearance at the Paris Motor Show next month.

The DS3 Cabrio is based on the closed-top model which, in the two years since its launch, has already sold close to 180,000 units. The Cabrio sports the exact same dimensions at 3.95 m long, 1.71 m wide and 1.46 m high.

The obvious difference is that the center section of the roof has given its place to a folding canvas top, though the doors and roof arches remain intact.

For the second time this summer, Kia is teasing the upcoming Carens compact MPV with a set of sketches that were released in advance of the car's world premiere at the Paris Motor Show in September.

These three drawings outline the shape of the actual minivan and include realistic depictions of the lights and the front grille, all of which remind us of the Cee'd compact, which forms the base for the new Carens and will also lend its engine lineup of 1.4-liter and 1.6-liter petrol and diesel engines.

According to Ford, the latest generation of the Focus compact is the world's most popular new car scoring more than a half million deliveries in the first seven months of 2012.

More specifically, the Blue Oval said that it has sold 522,821 Focus models (74,688 units on average each month) including 153,400 in Europe from January through July this year, which puts it ahead of the Toyota Corolla and the Volkswagen Golf in terms of global sales.

The 16th Moscow International Auto Salon (2012 MIAS) is in full swing with the show set to open its doors to the public for the first time on Friday, August 31, and remain open until September 9.

The event is expected to draw more than 1 million visitors who will have the opportunity to get up, close and personal with many new models and concepts including 23 world, 21 European and 85 Russian premieres.

One of the main reasons why automakers from around the world are showing a vivid interest in the Moscow auto show is the improving economy of a nation with a population of 140 million people, a large number of which are driving old cars.

Until recently, using anything other than a gasoline-powered engine in a racing car was not an option.

Audi changed that in 2006 with its Le Mans-winning, diesel-powered R10 TDI, Peugeot followed suit with the 908 HDi FAP, and suddenly race viewers and race car drivers alike were treated to a different set of sounds.

This year was even more interesting. That’s because in the 2012 edition of the 24 hour race, both Audi and Toyota fielded hybrid-powered entries, the former filling all three places of the podium and the latter showing that it was a force to be reckoned with before retiring.

Here is more proof that German automakers do have some sense of humor. This online spot is for BMW's new 5-Series premium saloon (update: upon closer inspection, it turns out that our readers are spot on: it's not the 3-Series but the 5-Series sedan) and the available rearview camera system.

We are not going to spoil the ending by saying exactly what happens but it does involve a very happy young man getting ready for a date with a beautiful young lady.

Sebastian Vettel’s daily job is driving Formula 1 cars for Red Bull Racing every other weekend. Sure, he gets to do a lot of testing and the necessary promotional work for the sponsors, shaking hands and rubbing shoulders at glamorous events. Nevertheless, his job is to win F1 races and as his two back-to-back titles prove that he is quite good at it. Read more »

Ferrari 458 Italia Spider Tinkered by Kahn Design

Following Kahn Design's tuning proposal for the coupe version of the Ferrari 458 Italia, the British brand has now turned its attention on the Spider model that sports an all-aluminium roof that rolls out from below the flying buttresses.

The first and probably only eye-catching changes made by Kahn are the new Monza forged wheels in sizes 21-inches up front and 22-inches at the back that come with original Ferrari caps and encompass yellow brake calipers.

While we sincerely hope that no one was hurt in this accident, we cannot say that we feel for one of the drivers involved in the crash.

A pair of motorists - most likely in Russia - was squabbling on the road, with the driver of the grey hatchback being the most obnoxious and dangerous of the two, as he (or she) engaged in hazardous moves to block the path of the other car, which was trying to get away.

During July and August, the labor union at Hyundai’s South Korean plants staged a series of partial strikes over pay issues and working conditions.

It was the first strike in four years and a major setback as it cost the Korean carmaker $1.4 billion in production losses. This makes it the second-costliest strike in the company's history.

Today, however, Hyundai announced that it has reached a tentative wage deal with the labor union leaders and thus, end the strike and resume normal production.

This isn't the first time that Opel's as-of-yet, unnamed, Convertible model has set foot onto the Nürburgring, but up until now, we had only seen pictures of the production ready prototypes pushed around the famed race track in Germany.

This freshly filmed footage from the 'Ring shows the brand's engineers trying out a couple of Convertible test cars with their fabric tops in both up and down positions.

No sooner than we posted the first teaser images of the new Citroen DS3 Cabrio and one of our readers pointed us towards these full-blown pictures of the French firm's faux convertible.

We say faux because the DS3 Cabrio isn't a convertible in the real sense of the word as it retains the doors and roof bars of the closed-top model.

The word "Sport" has become one of the most abused terms in the auto industry by far, and this new edition of the 2013 Toyota Camry is a prime example.

What the Japanese carmaker describes as "Sport Limited Edition" is a mid-trim level Camry fitted with the base 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine producing 178-horses.

Postman Pat is an old school-style, stop-motion animated children's television series from Britain that first aired on BBC1 in 1981.

The main character of the series is Pat Clifton, a country postal worker who drives a bright red van, and it's this vehicle that inspired the creation of a closed-top kart racer.

Citroen will showcase the new DS3 Cabriolet at the 2012 Paris Motor Show from September 27, but to prepare us, the French carmaker dropped four teaser images today along with the tagline "See you tomorrow", hinting at a full online reveal for Friday.

The images seem to confirm earlier reports that the DS3 Cabriolet will be as much as a convertible as the Fiat 500C is.

While we're happy to see that at least one owner of the 458 Italia Spider broke the long-standing tradition of red-colored Ferraris, we're not sure what to make of the of this example finished inside and out in a teal (bluish green) tint that was filmed by YouTube user "Lamborghinisown" parked on the road.

In case you're wondering, the hardtop spider model was fitted with dealer plates from Connecticut.

Our first monsoon casualty! A branch had fallen on the Dzire & caused considerable damage. The rear windscreen was shattered, the boot lid dented & the roof had suffered some damage too. We got in touch with Maruti’s workshop, who informed us of the unavailability of the rear windscreen glass. The wait, coupled with the process of getting it fixed, took 15 days, & the hefty bill of Rs 21,161 came as a bit of a shock. It’s interesting to note that the rear windscreen cost us just Rs 1809, while the denting, painting & labour comprised the rest of the bill.

New Maruti Swift Dzire Zdi steering and interior view

As soon as the car came back, I took it to Nashik for one of my now rather infrequent trips home. Thanks to the late hour, driving out of Mumbai was hassle free, & it did not take me long to appreciate the finer points of the Dzire. The 1.3 Multijet unit is smooth & complements the overall character of the Dzire quite well. While it felt a bit hesitant at lower rpms, I had no reason to complain once past 1900rpm, when the turbo kicked in. Hereon the Dzire displayed a strong pull, with a very instantaneous response to the throttle inputs. Out on the highway, it felt right at home. The suspension set up seemed to have struck the right balance between softness & stiffness. The steering, though light at city speeds, provided decent feedback at highway speeds.

It was pouring cats & dogs all through my drive, but the Dzire gave me no reason for worry. The grippy 185 section tyres worked nicely on the wet surface, inspiring confidence. The wipers did a good job of keeping the windscreen clear while the rear windscreen defogger worked overtime. The headlights were decently bright & the fog lamps helped in lighting the sides pretty effectively.

I found the driver’s seat a very comfortable & supportive place to be, & the two tone interiors worked well for the cabin. However, the beige floor mats seemed to highlight every little speck of dirt. Our Dzire is the ZDi variant, which comes with a factory fitted music system that supports MP3 & has Aux in & USB connectivity. However, I like being spoilt for choice when on a long drive & could have done with Bluetooth connectivity too.

But I ought not to complain. With the highway being empty, the Dzire gobbled up the kilometres to Nashik happily without burning a big hole in my wallet, despite some spirited driving. All this & the drive back to Mumbai was done in less than half a tank of diesel!

Main Features :

Odometer: 9,500km

Price: 8.74 lakh (on road, Mumbai)

Test economy: 17.2kpl

Repair costs: Rs 21,161

Faults: None

Renault Samsung Reveals SM3 Facelift in Korea, Previews Updated Fluence

It's no secret that the European market Renault Fluence and the Asian market Samsung SM3 sedans are one and the same, which leads us to believe that the changes seen on the updated version of the Korean saloon will likely be applied to the French model. Read more »

Ferrari's di Montezemolo Says Increased Demand Will Result in Record Sales and Profits This Year

As a whole, the global automotive sector is facing many unknowns. China, the world’s biggest car market, is slowing down, the US, despite being on a positive track so far, is not immune to fears of a future recession, and Europe is facing the worst crisis in its recent history.

Even so, Ferrari Chairman Luca di Montezemolo expects his company to report all-time sales and operating profit highs in 2012.

While the BMW Group's DesignworksUSA division and Thermaltake had originally planned to launch its new Level 10 M gaming mouse onto the market this spring, the high-end computer mouse has just arrived in retail and online stores in the US, in Europe and Asia.

The stylish gaming mouse, which the design studio says resembles a tiny racecar in looks, is available in four colors, including Diamond Black, Iron White, Military Green and Blazing Red, with the sales price to be "around 99 US Dollars".

We know that you might be expecting to hear a deep voice coming from the background saying, "I'm in good hands", but instead what you will be hearing in this video after the crash is a whole lot of "Oh's" and an assortment of curse words.

We don't have much information about the accident, though the vehicles involved in the crash appear to belong to some sort of sports car convoy (that or it's a viral video for a insurance company – we just can't be sure).

Ford Performance Vehicles (more commonly knows as FPV), which was originally established as a joint venture between Prodrive (51%) and Ford Australia (49%), will be absorbed by the Blue Oval's local arm.

The announcement was made on Thursday with Ford and FPV, the maker of cars like the Falcon-based GT RSPEC and F6 high performance sedans, expected to complete negotiations shortly.

The hip-hop Hamsters are back with a new TV spot for the 2013 model year edition of the Kia Soul small crossover.

The campaign is named "Bringing Down the House" and it will make its debut on some 18,000 movie screens on Friday, August 3 with television airings to begin with MTV's Video Music Awards on September 6.

For the impatient ones, Kia has just unleashed the full-length (1 minute and 31 seconds) version on the web, which you can watch for yourself right past the break.

The much-anticipated 2014 Mazda6 sedan made its first public appearance at the Moscow International Auto Salon this week before it goes on sale in Europe and Japan later this year and the rest of the world, including the U.S. and Canada, in early 2013. Read more »

New Mercedes-Benz S-Class Could Debut in China, if Local Execs get their Way

In another sign of how times are changing, Mercedes-Benz executives in China are pushing for the brand to host the world premiere of the next generation S-Class in one of the country's major car shows in 2013, according to a report from Beijing's Jinhua Times.

"There is no doubt that the Chinese market will be key to the sales of this product; therefore we have a strong case to make for it to debut in China," said Klaus Maier, CEO of Mercedes-Benz China.

The launch of the lightly refreshed 2013 Grand Vitara (as the Escudo) in Suzuki's home market of Japan earlier this summer has been followed up by the reveal of the European specification model at this week's Moscow International Automobile Salon.

The update brings some cosmetic tweaks on the outside and new design features on the inside to keep customers interested in the compact SUV that has started to show its age as the current model has been in production since 2005.

Styrofoam may be as light as a feather but try dealing with a board coming your way on the highway...while riding on a motorcycle and it's a completely different story, as a group of bikers found out earlier this week.

This incident, which was recorded by one of the riders equipped with a GoPro helmet camera, took place in McAllen, Texas.

"Thanks to some idiots who didnt tie down their box of styro foam it flew out of a trailer and hit 1 guy he fell and the rider behind him clipped his bike and fell aswell," said one of the bikers, nicknamed "Astat4" on YouTube.

Thanks to a long-standing partnership between Lexus Australia and Sydney Motorsport Park, track officials can now look forward to the ownership of a permanent GS 350 F Sport safety car.

CEO of Sydney Motorsport Park and the Australian Racing Drivers’ Club, Glenn Matthews, said that the GS was a great addition to the course in light of recent changes.

Needless to say, there are a lot of things to like about a virtually brand new 1999 Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 that has covered only 53 miles (85 kilometers) since it rolled off the brand's assembly line in Japan and which has been listed for sale by the Specialtysales dealership in Pleasanton, California.

What we do need to explain are all the things that you may not like about the car – and we’re not talking about the $49,990 (€39,900) that you may be missing to buy it nor the depressingly plain, grey interior.

We shared the news on the unveiling of Nissan's new budget sedan at the Moscow International Auto Show earlier today, and now, we have the first set of videos that show the Almera inside and out as well in motion on the road.

Measuring close to 4.7 meters, the new Almera promises to offer the cabin space of a D-segment model like the Ford Mondeo at a price of a B-segment vehicle.

At this year’s 16th annual Moscow International Auto Show, local carmaker AutoVAZ premiered one of its more impressive concepts to date, the Lada-branded Xray crossover.

Devised by all new design chief Steve Mattin of former Mercedes-Benz and Volvo Cars fame, the concept's new front-end seamlessly molds together the headlights and bumper into a sharp ‘X’ shaped design, a look that Lada says will be present in all future models.

For the third round of Ford's "Focus ST Sessions" web series, the Blue Oval called in professional rally driver Ken Block and Team Mustang drifter Vaughn Gittin Jr. to compare the brand's new hot hatch against the current iteration of the car that gave birth to the category, the VW Golf GTI.

After winning a game of rock, paper, and scissors, Ken Block chose the 252hp Focus ST leaving Vaughn Gittin Jr. with the 200hp Golf GTI Mk6.

French carmaker Peugeot is looking to expand its range of crossover and SUV models that currently includes the 3008, 4008 (based on the Mitsubishi Outlander Sport / ASX), 4007 and 508 RXH with a new entry level model, likely to be named 2008 or 208 RXH.

This small crossover is based on the recently launched 208 supermini and will compete with the likes of the Volkswagen CrossPolo and possibly the Nissan Juke.

If only the blue-colored SUV was parked a few feet ahead we could have been talking about an unbelievable outcome in this accident.

What we see in this dash-cam video (likely sourced from Russia) is a driver of a Subaru Legacy Station Wagon speeding and not paying attention to the road while trying to change lanes.

Japan's third biggest carmaker Honda announced today that it set a new all-time record for worldwide production in July with 345,180 cars, up 67 percent from the same month last year.

From the beginning of 2012, Honda has produced 2,507,995 vehicles worldwide, an increase of 66.2 percent over 2011. Keep in mind though that last year's numbers were negatively affected by the impact of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Volkswagen is moving ahead with the development of the production version of the XL1 Super Efficient Vehicle (SEV) diesel-electric hybrid concept, which we first laid eyes on at the 2011 Qatar Motor Show

Set to be one of the most radical production cars ever to wear the Volkswagen badge, the XL1 was confirmed for launch late last year by VW Group CEO Martin Winterkorn. "We will start small series production by 2013 – in Germany," he told reporters.

Our spies captured two prototypes of the XL1 on separate occasions while testing in Spain. The only difference between them was that one vehicle was fitted with exterior mirrors and had an unpainted body.

The styling of both the exterior and interior has remained true to the concept, including the 'Gullwing' style doors – though, both prototypes were missing the rear wheel cover and were fitted with different rims for testing purposes.

One of the most impressive cars to bow at the recent 2012 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in California was the second concept model to come from BMW's partnership with Zagato.

You have likely already seen the pictures of the BMW Zagato Roadster, but YouTube user "BrianZuk" captured the open-top model on film at the famed California show.