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2016 Chevrolet Spark Revealed: GM Lights a Fire Beneath its Tiny Hatchback – Official Photographs and Information
Fire etiketine sahip kayıtlar gösteriliyor. Tüm kayıtları göster
Fire etiketine sahip kayıtlar gösteriliyor. Tüm kayıtları göster
2 Nisan 2015 Perşembe
2016 Chevrolet Spark Revealed: GM Lights a Fire Beneath its Tiny Hatchback – Official Photographs and Information
2016 Chevrolet Spark Revealed: GM Lights a Fire Beneath its Tiny Hatchback – Official Photographs and Information
1 Nisan 2015 Çarşamba
22 Aralık 2014 Pazartesi
Hyundai’s Work to Fire Up Competitor to BMW M, Mercedes AMG Gets Boost from Former BMW M Chief Engineer
For effectively over a year, Hyundai has contemplated how to tackle the efficiency vehicle segment after announcing its new “N” sport-model series. Every choice was on the table, from adding graphics and a louder exhaust to otherwise regular cars to using bigger engines from higher-positioned models, up to a complete-fledged work that would rival—at least in concept—BMW M GmbH, Audi Quattro GmbH, and Mercedes-AMG. It appears that Hyundai’s efforts are about to get a excellent sturdy kick in the shorts, as the automaker just announced the hiring of BMW M’s chief engineer, Albert Biermann.
To be stationed at Hyundai’s R&D center in Namyang, South Korea, Biermann will be accountable for the improvement of high-efficiency derivatives for the Hyundai and Kia brands he is also tasked with the common improvement of ride and handling, as nicely as safety and comfort, of mainstream Hyundai and Kia models. The Koreans have made fantastic strides in dynamics the past handful of years—look no additional than the newest Genesis sedan—but they still have a techniques to go prior to sporty competitors like Honda and Mazda have something to be concerned about.
That said, we are excited over the prospect of higher-overall performance models for the 2 Korean brands, which we fully count on to rival the offerings of the German competition, as effectively as Cadillac’s V-series and Lexus’s F models. “N,” by the way, is a moniker derived from the Namyang R&D center but it could also stand for “Nürburgring,” exactly where Hyundai operates a new testing center.
But back to Biermann—clearly, Hyundai-Kia’s gain is BMW’s loss. With Biermann’s departure, BMW loses its second passionate auto guy from prime management ranks this month. Just 2 weeks ago, R&D chief Herbert Diess deserted BMW to head up the Volkswagen brand in Wolfsburg. Biermann, who is 57, apparently figured he wouldn’t have a lot of a profession left at BMW when the company announced that outgoing M GmbH chief Friedrich Nitschke would be replaced by Franciscus van Meel (48 years young) on January 1, 2015 (a move we 1st reported in May possibly 2014). At BMW, senior managers retire at 60, and it is a rule with couple of exceptions.
At Hyundai, Biermann will be the most prominent Western executive to be head-hunted soon after design chief Peter Schreyer abandoned VW for Kia. (Schreyer now heads up style for both Kia and Hyundai.) His hiring at Hyundai is serendipitous, for last year we were told that the automaker’s N models would attempt to emulate BMWs’ dynamics. To that end, Biermann’s crowning achievement at BMW might have been the current M3 and M4 with their downsized, turbocharged straight-6 engine and bespoke manual transmission and steering technique. We’d be okay with a little M3/M4 in some Hyundais. Would you?
Hyundai’s Work to Fire Up Competitor to BMW M, Mercedes AMG Gets Boost from Former BMW M Chief Engineer
27 Ekim 2014 Pazartesi
Clearly, Lincoln Motor Co. Demands to Fire Matthew McConaughey and Employ Jim Carrey
Lincoln’s Matthew McConaughey–powered commercials come across as an workout in strangeness: The star putters along in a 2015 MKC crossover, whisper-muttering bizarre musings a lot more match for Correct Detective‘s Rust Cohle than for a brand spokesman. Turns out, Lincoln may possibly have gotten the aesthetic correct, but what this idea truly necessary to resonate with the public was Jim Carrey’s take on it.Carrey’s Saturday Evening Live spoof on McConaughey’s wistful rambling is hilariously spot-on. The soft, slow drawl the strange hand gestures the crucial-sounding meaninglessness of what he’s saying—it’s all best comedy fodder. Carrey even looks the portion, nailing the slightly unkempt specialist attire that Lincoln chose, apparently to tailor its pitch to the apparent target industry of wealthy renegade philosophers.
This isn’t the very first time people have had enjoyable at McConaughey’s and Lincoln’s expense: Ellen DeGeneres gave us a attainable explanation for the Texan’s befuddling profoundness back in September. And hey, as far as Lincoln is concerned, there’s probably no such issue as undesirable press. At least it’s got people talking about Lincolns. Sorta.
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Clearly, Lincoln Motor Co. Demands to Fire Matthew McConaughey and Employ Jim Carrey
13 Ekim 2014 Pazartesi
Jaguar XJ Sparks Dealership Fire Outdoors Boston, Destroys 19 Cars
October 13, 2014 at 10:29 am by Clifford Atiyeh | Photography by Sudbury Fire Division
An older Jaguar parked overnight at a dealership outdoors of Boston burned to the ground final month and brought 18 other new Jags, Land Rovers, Variety Rovers, and Jeeps down with it.
The news was first reported on September 22 in The Boston Globe and revisited final week. Sometime just before 1 a.m. at Herb Chambers’s Jaguar Land Rover dealership in Sudbury, Massachusetts—about 20 miles west of downtown Boston—a fire started in a 2004 XJ8 and quickly spread. Strangely enough, this specific XJ8 was on the lot to undergo repairs to earlier fire harm, despite the fact that it is unclear how the auto had suffered the prior harm. Sudbury fire chief William Miles stated there was no evidence of foul play or arson and that the fire originated inside the vehicle. Several of the cars have been burned so badly that all firefighters could determine had been seat frames.
“When the news media arrived, they have been seeking for an arson story, but that wasn’t the case,” Miles told us. “It was clear it was a mechanical failure.”
Some of the 19 vehicles were customer cars, and at the moment it is unclear no matter whether one particular or a number of insurance coverage organizations will spend out the estimated $ 750,000 in damages. Chambers, who owns 54 dealerships in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and took in practically $ 2 billion in sales final year, is not too concerned.
“The excellent news is nobody got hurt, and they’re just cars,” he told the Globe.
Chambers is lucky he didn’t have his 1995 McLaren F1 or his 1972 Ferrari 365GTB/4 Daytona Spider on the house, as he sometimes does for the Cars and Coffee meetups he hosts at his dealerships.
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Jaguar XJ Sparks Dealership Fire Outdoors Boston, Destroys 19 Cars
31 Temmuz 2014 Perşembe
2014 Infiniti Q50S Hybrid AWD Lengthy-Term Test Intro: Drive-by-Wire Comes Beneath Fire
Lengthy-Term Road Test Intro
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Drive-by-wire sports sedan joins our extended-term fleet.
Months in Fleet: 5 months
Present Mileage: 8268 miles
Typical Fuel Economy: 25 mpg
Variety: 440 miles
Service: $ 85
Regular Put on: $
Repair: $
Harm and Destruction: $
The initial new model to debut below Infiniti’s reshuffled alphanumeric nomenclature scheme, the 2014 Q50 requires the spot formerly held by the G37 sedan. As Infiniti’s torchbearer in the competitive entry-luxury sport sedan segment, the Q50 was tasked with covering a lot of solution bandwidth for the brand. As a result, when the revamped Q50 hit the ground at the 2013 Detroit auto show, it brought with it the announcement that a hybrid version would be available for 2014. Our interest was piqued–eco-posturing aside, what driver rewards would a hybrid Q50 offer that weren’t currently present in the nonhybrid version? To draw our personal conclusions, we ordered a 2014 Infiniti Q50S Hybrid AWD in a deep shade of Venetian Ruby for a proper 40,000-mile evaluation.
The Q50s Hybrid AWD arrived at our Ann Arbor offices wearing the exact same fresh sheetmetal, interior attributes, and pair of sinister-seeking front headlamp binnacles that adorn all Q50 trim levels. The variations begin with the powertrain: In addition to selecting up a 67-hp electric motor and its attendant 1.4-kWh battery pack, the hybrid version employs a 302-horse 3.5-liter V-6 in location of the nonhybrid’s 328-hp 3.7-liter V-6. Combined, the hybrid program is rated at 360 horsepower, a 32-pony enhance more than the normal automobile. Shared outright are the 6-speed automatic transmission and Infiniti’s controversial Direct Adaptive Steering technique (much more on that later).
All the Toys
Taking the important fob to a Q50S Hybrid AWD grants one particular access to a quite complete assortment of standard attributes, which includes Infiniti’s slick InTuition method, which permits the storing of preferred climate, audio, and driving settings on stated crucial fob, eliminating the require to reset them manually every single time a single enters the car—ideal for 2-driver households. Further standard niceties fitted to our Q50’s graphite-colored interior include a energy moonroof, 8-way power heated leather front seats with manually adjustable thigh supports, dual-zone automatic climate handle, and a heated, leather-wrapped steering wheel on a power-adjustable tilt and telescopic column. At the corners reside 19-inch aluminum wheels with 245/40 Dunlop 5000 SP Sport DSST CTT run-flat tires.
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The optional equipment on our test automobile was limited to the Navigation package ($ 1400), which brings voice recognition, SiruisXM Traffic, and 12 months of the proprietary Infiniti Connection telematics method, as well as the All Climate Package ($ 230), which adds 4 floor mats and a trunk protector. Including location, the Q50S Hybrid’s MSRP crept to an as-tested price of $ 51,035, close to the stickers of luxury-branded competitors such as the BMW ActiveHybrid 3 and the Acura RLX Sport Hybrid SH-AWD.
Strapping our test gear to the auto revealed some encouraging numbers: The zero-to-60-mph sprint clocked in at 5. seconds and the quarter-mile at 13.7, bettering the numbers of the rear-wheel-drive 2014 Q50S Hybrid we tested previously by .1 second in both measures. Interestingly, it was just mere tenths behind the 4.9- and 13.5-second marks set by a nonhybrid rear-wheel-drive 2014 Q50 also tested. Digging a tiny deeper, we found that the acceleration numbers matched these of the 2013 BMW ActiveHybrid 3 in the zero-to-60 run and gave up only .2 seconds in the quarter-mile. Hauling the 4161-pound Q50 to a cease from 70 mph needed 174 feet, a shorter span than necessary by either of the aforementioned hybrids. The Q50 Hybrid did, even so, suffer from heavy fade.
Touchy, Feely
However, those respectable overall performance numbers don’t translate to a tactile feel at the helm, specially in the places of braking and steering. In spite of an update early in the model run to address drive-quality deficiencies, the Q50 Hybrid’s logbook is littered with criticisms directed at the car’s fully electric, drive-by-wire Direct Adaptive Steering (DAS), one particular editor going as far as saying that “playing Gran Turismo on a dual-shock controller delivers much more feedback and feels a lot more organic.” Particularly, the majority of the complaints focus on the steering’s “freaky” fast nature, coupled with zero feedback and the require to make virtually continual corrections. The brakes also inspired some colorful commentary, centering on a grabby initial pedal response followed by a basic lack of linearity. One editor summed it up nicely by stating, “they are not possible to modulate smoothly.”
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Nonetheless, the Q50 managed to roll up considerable miles in its 1st handful of months right here. Early in its stay, we swapped the all-season Dunlops for Bridgestone winter rubber, which combined with the Q50’s AWD drivetrain to make the vehicle double as a snow machine for the duration of the long harsh winter. To this point, Virginia is the farthest from residence that the Infiniti has traveled. So far, it has yielded an all round fuel efficiency of 25 mpg, a disappointing 2 mpg under the EPA city rating. 1 especially relaxed-pace excursion into the flat expanses of Ohio generated a ideal-but quantity of 30 mpg, proving that the Q50 Hybrid is capable of attaining its EPA highway rating of 31 mpg when driven in accordance with state targeted traffic laws.
Just after the snow receded right here in Michigan, we sent the Q50 Hybrid westward for a stint with our Montana bureau editor John Phillips. We’re confident he’ll have no shortage of words and insights when it comes time for the Q50’s initial extended-term test update.
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2014 Infiniti Q50S Hybrid AWD Lengthy-Term Test Intro: Drive-by-Wire Comes Beneath Fire
16 Temmuz 2014 Çarşamba
The Roof Is On Fire: Chrysler Recalls 895,000 SUVs for Vanity Mirror Fires
July 16, 2014 at 6:18 pm by Clifford Atiyeh | Photography by Michael Simari
Quit looking at your glorious moustache in the mirror, Ron Burgundy—your Dodge Durango’s sun visor may be melting.
Chrysler is recalling the 2011–2014 Durango and Jeep Grand Cherokee for electrical shorts within the sun visor’s vanity-mirror lamp circuit. During repairs to the vehicle’s headliner, screws attaching the sun visor can pierce the lamp wiring and trigger a quick if the wires aren’t routed far enough from the screw holes. According to Chrysler and an ongoing investigation by the National Highway Traffic Security Administration that’s been open given that August, there have been 62 reports of shorting wires and at least 38 fires. Owners have reported open flames at the headliner and even fires spreading to the front seats and door panels, which, in one report, broken the sunroof and shattered the glass. At least 3 injuries have been reported.
Chrysler mentioned it first received reports of “sun-visor thermal damage” starting in March 2011 and blamed the difficulty on dealer technicians improperly installing the sun visor soon after a repair. In 3 separate situations among June 2011 and October 2012, Chrysler twice shortened and rerouted new vehicles’ production wiring—which isn’t protected by a fuse—and updated its repair documents. A single of the fires occurred after the latest repair details was sent out, Chrysler stated.
Dealers will install spacers that’ll route the wires in a new path for all of the 651,130 SUVs in the U.S., whether or not they have received prior repairs involving the headliner. In April, far more than 850,000 2011–2014 Durango and Grand Cherokee models were recalled for faulty brake boosters, and an extra recall for 25,000 of the 2012–2013 models was issued in March for anti-lock brakes. Earlier this month, Chrysler recalled almost 696,000 minivans and crossovers for faulty ignition switches.
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The Roof Is On Fire: Chrysler Recalls 895,000 SUVs for Vanity Mirror Fires
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