According to Autoblog.nl, these few photos are of the upcoming E-Class Coupe. Rumors of the vehicle have been circulating for a long time now and it seems as though Mercedes will actually go through with this two-door version of the E-Class. And why not, the CL is really just an S-Class Coupe.

Once thought to be somewhat of a long-shot, the model does seem like a reality now after viewing the recently released photos of the 2010 E-Class sedan.

We expect several models of the coupe to be available, including a 382hp E550 and several AMG varients – including a gunuine possibility of a Black Series.

[Source: AutoBlog.nl]

Today we attended the launch of Hyundai’s latest vehicle, the Elantra Touring. You probably haven’t heard a lot about it, as it isn’t as sexy as the Genesis Sedan or Coupe models that seem to be catching all the headlines lately. It is, however, certain to sell in significantly higher volume than those other two.

Having just piloted several versions of the car, we wanted to give a brief preview of the new model and our thoughts on it before the full review runs in just a few days.

Interestingly the Elantra Touring is not an Elantra at all. It is based on the European i30 model and has it’s own unique platform.

With a 138hp 2.0-liter engine it has enough power for the segment, however, we’re not fans of the four-speed automatic. It’s actually a fine four-speed, it’s just that five-speeds are increasingly the norm these days. The five-speed manual is a fabulous alternative if you don’t mind shifting for yourself.

From the front it’s a pleasant vehicle but the car’s best sides are the profile and especially the rear, which has a definite European flavor to it – somewhat like a mini Volvo wagon.

Competing with cars like the Pontiac Vibe and Toyota Matrix the Elantra Touring is less of a crossover and more of a wagon and has a lower seating position. The up-high seating position is all the rage right now but those who prefer the drive of a sedan with a sportier edge will definitely prefer the Elantra Touring.

Impressively the Elantra Touring has gobs of interior cargo space – especially with the rear seats folded down. We’ll have full volume specs in the review but we can say that it outpaces cars like the Vibe in a big way – boasting even more cargo space than the Hummer H3!

Interior trim quality is impressive and driving dynamics are even more so – especially with the Sport Package that includes 17-inch wheels.

Check the Reviews Section soon for our full review.

Official Elantra Touring release after the jump:

Continue Reading…

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Hyundai is spending some big bucks to kick off 2009 by advertising during the 43rd Superbowl. The commercial will feature a vehicle that Hyundai hopes will transform how people think about the Korean car manufacturer.

Motor Trend magazine was invited along to see the filming of the commercial and they have been kind enough to share their footage with us. Titled “Epic Lap” the video features pro racer Rhys Millen hammering on the Hyundai Genesis Coupe at Road Atlanta. Apparently the shoot required 50 laps of the famous race track at blistering speeds.

Millen, a former rally car racer and current competitor in the Formula D drift series certainly shows off his drifting technique in the rear-drive Genesis Coupe.

If you watch closely you can see that Hyundai employed some high-powered chase cars to keep up with the 310hp V6 Genesis Coupe, including a Porsche Cayenne and a Mitsubishi EVO.

[Source: Motor Trend]

Yesterday General Motors announced its worldwide sales figures for 2008, and in doing so made it official that the U.S. automaker is no longer the highest volume seller in the world. That title now belongs to Toyota.

The two companies have traded places several times over the past two years on who has sold more cars in a month or in a quarter but this is the first time Toyota has taken the lead for an entire fiscal year.

Toyota’s victory is really a silver lining that has a large dark cloud attached to it, as the title comes to Toyota during difficult times. In fact, both Toyota and General Motors posted huge decreases in volume in 2008, it’s just that GM’s decline was more significant.

In 2008 GM sold 8.36 million veicles, compared to Toyota’s 8.97 million annual sales. The overall volume decline for the General was 10.8 percent compared to a drop in sales of four percent by Toyota.

In the North American market GM dropped 21.1 percent, too much to make up for increases sales of 3.2 percent in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. Impressively GM even registered an increase in Toyota’s own back yard, posting a 2.7 percent increase in the Asia-Pacific region.

Specifically in the US, GM saw a decline of 22.7 percent in 2008, compared to Toyota’s loss of 15.4 percent.

2008 marks the first time in 77 years that General Motors has not held the title of world’s largest automaker.

[Source: AutoNews]

According to a report in the UK’s CAR magazine, Kia has entered into a partnership with Lotus that will see the British light-weight sportscar maker develop the suspension for all future Kia models – starting with the Soul. The only problem is, this special suspension setup with be specifically for the UK – or so CAR’s sources tell them.

The fact that Kia’s are priced so low in the marketplace does, however, make UK specific suspension setups seem improbable. The other side of the coin could be that Kia sells so few vehicles in the UK that having specific suspension setups on each one of them would not be a big issue (or investment).

According to the CAR report, the new suspension would be less for zipping around corners and more for softening the blow of Britain’s poorly-kept streets. The new setup would have greater compression and rebound with revised bumpstops to ensure the car used less of the full suspension range available.

There is no word from Kia on if the UK will serve as a test case to attract more performance oriented buyers – after all, the company is targeting a particular segment of the population (cough, Scion owners, cough) with vehicles like the Soul.

[Source: CAR]

Full Kia Soul details after the jump:

Continue Reading…

In a perfect world there would be a small office in the Hague dedicated to prosecuting crimes against automobiles. And enemy number one would be ASMA. OK, the real enemy number one would be West Coast Customs, but ASMA would at least hold the dubious title in Europe.

ASMA has produced several bizarre vehicles in the past but the company’s latest, the Perfectus SLR is just plain horrendous.

Commissioned by the Royal Family in Abu Dhabi, the altered SLR features a completely reworked body made of carbon fiber. Power has received an upgrade with a modified version of the 5.5-liter supercharged V8 now pumping out 700hp and 630 ft-lbs of torque. ASMA claims this is good for a 0-62 mph time of 3.5 seconds and a top speed of 218 mph.

ASMA has said it will produce additional version of the Perfects SLR for an asking price of one million Euros, but one can only hope the company is brought to justice before any more atrocities make their way onto the streets of the world’s wealthier regions.

When Ford showcased the Lincoln C Concept at the 2009 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, we commented that we’d love to see a model from the blue oval that used such a dual-clutch transmission. Apparently we will be getting out wish.

Ford has just announced that in 2010 it will bring a six-speed dual-clutch transmission to market in the small-car segment. Operating much like VW’s DSG system, Ford is highlighting the fuel-efficiency of the new PowerShift transmission, although it will also make for improved performance, offering shift times faster than a manual but operating much like a automatic (with, we presume, the ability to shift gears manually through paddle shifters).

Instead of re-hashing the press release, we’ll let the Ford PR folks do the talking as they managed to quite succinctly sum up how the system works.

“PowerShift provides the full comfort of an automatic with a more sophisticated driving dynamic, thanks to uninterrupted torque from the dual-clutch technology, which consists essentially of two manual transmissions working in parallel, each with its own independent clutch unit. One clutch carries the uneven gears – 1, 3 and 5 – while the other the even gears – 2, 4 and 6. Subsequent gear changes are coordinated between both clutches as they engage and disengage for a seamless delivery of torque to the wheels.”

Currently Ford offers a similar setup in the Focus in Europe. That transmission is, however, a wet clutch dual-clutch system whereas the PowerShift will be a dry clutch unit.

The PowerShift dual-clutch transmission is just one way that Ford intends to significantly reduce overall fuel-consumption as the company plans to equip all of it’s models with six-speed transmissions by 2013.

While dual-clutch transmissions have both fuel economy and performance advantages, Ford has designed its PowerShift unit with several other unique features. They are:

• Neutral coast down – The clutches will disengage when the brakes are applied, improving coasting downshifts and clutch robustness as well as reducing parasitic losses for increased fuel economy.

• Precise clutch control in the form of a clutch slip to provide torsional damping of the engine vibration – This function improves noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) at low engine speeds and enables lower lugging limits for improved fuel economy.

• Low-speed driving or creep mode with integrated brake pressure – This function simulates the low-speed control drivers are accustomed to from an automatic transmission. The amount of rolling torque in Drive and Reverse is precisely controlled, gradually building as brake pressure is released.

• Hill mode or launch assist – Prevents a vehicle from rolling back on a grade by maintaining brake pressure until the engine delivers enough torque to move the vehicle up the hill, providing improved driver confidence, comfort, safety and clutch robustness.

Official release after the jump:

Continue Reading…

If people vote with their wallets then Jeff Gordon is more popular than Tony Stewart – at least according to the dollar values that cars driven by the two NASCAR racers fetched at the Barrett-Jackson auction. 

Coming in at $181,500 was the 2007 Home Depot Monte Carlo that Tony Stewart won three races in, including the Banquet 400 at Kansas Speedway on Oct 1, 2006, the Bass Pro Shop 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on October 29, 2006, and the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on November 5, 2006.

Trumping Stewart was none other than Jeff Gordon who’s #24 2006 Monte Carlo fetched an astounding $550,000 – despite winning just two races. Gordon topped the podium at the USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on July 19, 2006 and the Bank of America 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on October 13, 2007.

To be fair, the car also ran 14 times during that season with four top-five finishes and five top ten finishes.

Part of the Jeff Gordon allure may be that the car came with a “certified” Jeff Gordon winning SB2 358cid V8 race engine, along with extensive documentation, certificates of authenticity and even race day photos and videos.  

All proceeds from both cars were donated to charities with Stewart’s car helping the Darrell Gwynn Foundation and Gordon’s car helping the  Hendrick Marrow Program.

As manufacturers tend to do these days, General Motors put the rights to buy the first 2010 Camaro on the block at the 2009 Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, AZ. The lucky wealthy owner paid $350,000 for the privilege of owning what will no doubt be a serious collector’s item.

The owner will, however, have to wait until March 16th – the date GM has set to start production on the reborn icon.

While the price paid is actually more than ten times what the vehicle is worth, (the V6-powered LS priced at $22,995 and the SS starting at $33,430) the dollar amount pales in comparison to amounts paid recently for other high publicity, low volume American-made machines.

The first Challenger SRT8 left the block for $400,000, the first Shelby GT500 KR topped out at $550,000 and last year the rights to the very first ZR1 went for a whopping $1 million.

All proceeds from the sale will be donated to the American Heart Association.

[Source: Barrett-Jackson]

A lot of vehicles at the Barrett-Jackson auction garner attention and fetch ridiculous sums of money, but even the vast majority of them are not as rare a a bird as the Raven Black 1955 Thunderbird that hit the auction block on Saturday. Verified by the Ford Motor Company as the very first Thunderbird to ever roll off the production line in Michigan, this restored T-Bird fetched no less than $660,000.

Final assembly of the car was completed on September 9, 1954 and this Raven Black with black and white interior T-Bird is equipped with the 292 Y Block and Fordomatic transmission. It is also well-equipped with power steering, windows and seats.

Now former owner George Watts found the car in 1965 and restored it to its original condition. Since then the car has been featured in books, magazines, promotions and tv shows. FoMoCo continues to “borrow” the car, often for events at Ford HQ. Generations of Ford execs have had their picture taken next to it, as have the likes of Carroll Shelby and Jay Leno.

[Source: Barrett-Jackson]