As we entered the show hall, eyes were drawn to a pale green wedge on the turntable at Mercedes-Benz. The green color is this year's cue to fuel efficiency and I zipped over to see what was up.
The e-Cell concept is a smallish four-seater with a hatchback and a fully electric drivetrain. While the drivetrain is probably vaporware, the chassis is not, and I like it. There are so many great details in this concept that I feel the drivetrain is an afterthought. If the drivetrain is real, it's a lithium ion battery electric with a 240V charging station. The motor is rated at 100Kw or 134hp, and produces 236 ft-pds of torque. Because the vehicle is small and not so heavy, the 0-60 is estimated at 10.8 seconds.
I sat down for a bit with Tom Wegehaupt of VW's PR group in Herdon. He
had some good insight into what's going on over at the new HQ.
We started with the BlueSport - why Diesel? Tom noted that the concept
has been in development for some time, and a Diesel powertrain was
always in the picture. The timing was very good this year to show off
the flexibility that VW has with Diesel powertrains. While production
is not finalized for this particular model, the new platform it is
built on, the MQB platform, is slated for production and will underpin
quite a few VW and Audi cars.
My favorite detail of the new Taurus is the logo font—it’s totally retro and a throwback to the days when the Taurus was the hottest thing on the road. The new Taurus seriously impressed Rob and me, and it’s going to be very competitive. It’s based on the MKS platform and shares the basic profile, but the shared components pretty much stop at the floor pan. The interior has great detailing, with piped panels in the door cards and this wave motif that carries through all the way to the bottoms of the cupholders. The exterior has plenty of visual interest that flows into the cabin over the dashboard. Hedonistic! The Sync system will include the non-subscription text-based GPS, navi, and crash locating system that Ford has developed for people who don’t want to pay every month. The suspension will be sportier than the MKS (thank heaven!). Ford is going back to its roots with this version—the right place to go, IMO. Thanks to Matt and Mike for the killer video. Tons of pics after the jump!
I was highly impressed by this car too. While shooting photos anddoing Video clips for the little movie above, I started to like manyaspects of Fords new ride. And for the record, I mostly cover onlyEuropean brands and models!
Neucast Tour of BMW @ NAIAS 2009 for Bimmerforums.com
Written by Matt Wellumson
Saturday, 17 January 2009
Among many other cars at the show, Mike and I had the opportunity to sit in a few of the newly introduced BMW models for hte North American Market. This is one of two videos we will be posting up for Bimmerforums.com from NAIAS 2009. The cars featured in this video consist of the new Z4 sDrive35i, X5 Diesel, and 3-Series Diesel. The second and last portion of this video series will cover the new 7-Series from BMW
During our yearly trip to NAIAS we often have the opportunity to attend evening events put on by the various manufacturers, or other industry corporations. For 2009 they were somewhat scarce (likely due to the economy), and largely invitation only. As for Audi, they were actively handing out invites to a special screening of their Le Mans racing Documentary titled "Truth in 24".
We
discuss the happenings of NAIAS 2009, expected content update, and
videos you will be seeing in the next few days. This was all recorded
during our return trip to Minnesota.
It is 9am here in the Detroit area as we set out to head back to the frozen tundra of Minnesota. Temperatures are expected to be near -1 to -20 for the next few days, hardly the kind of weather that I would like to spend outside! This is great news for those that are interested in seeing what is at NAIAS 2009, as we have thousands of photos and videos to edit, and quite a few smaller articles that we will be posting up.
First up for Thursday morning, a quick video / audio tour of some vehicles you can expect to see at NAIAS 2009 in our standard Neucast format. We will also be posting up a video version of that same podcast.
There is much more to come from NAIAS, so keep watching our RSS feed for further updates, as we haven't even started posting up our collective content.
For reasons unknown to us,
Two European automakers that we love are representing themselves with all
or mostly white colored cars. The two offenders, Audi and Jaguar
appeared to have uninspired color palates, until you dug deaper into
what was actually going on within their booths.
When walking out to see Audi, one would
be greeted with an array of many models all in white. The only
exception to this rule was their newly unveiled models, and the new
Audi S4. It was obvious that they are attempting to draw attention to
their new models, the S4, the R8 V10 FSI Quattro, and the Sportback
concept. For someone that doesn't care for Alpine White, they will have
to look closer to the Audi models, to find something they like. Not a
problem for us to take on such a task, however the general public may
struggle to get past the monochromatic environment.
Over at Jag, we were amazed to see only
three models at the show, and sadly only one copy of each in white.
Lucky for us, they decided to utilize a black background which did
contrast with the cars better than the blinding mostly white background
at Audi. While the white cars did contrast well with their background,
they didn't exactly evoke the emotion their swooping designs should
inspire. Unlike Audi, Jag had nothing to distinguish their newest model
from the others.
Thanks again for getting this coverag...