Audi recently revealed the 2013 model of the restyled A4 that is expected to hit the market by mid next year.
Consumers in Europe can expect the refreshed A4 coming in as a sedan, Allroad quattro, wagon, and as an S4 version. The car manufacturer said that the S4 version can go from 0 to 62 miles an hour in just 5 seconds. The top speed is recorded at 155 mph. The A4 returns a fuel rating of 29.4 mpg.
The new Audi A4 is expected to meet head on its rivals in the form of the C-Class from Mercedes-Benz and the 3-Series of the BMW. The A4 is ready for the competition as it gets styling upgrades, improved engines, and better interior.
On the outside, the Audi A4 gets more curves for its headlamps with its LED lamps now looking like a continuous band. It also sports a new six corner grille that comes in gray for 4-cylinder versoins and black for 6-cylinder variants. The hood also gets a restyling as well as the bumpers which gets trapezoid fog lamps. The rear bumper was also reworked going well with the chrome twin tailpipes. The tail lights also now feature LEDs similar to the headlamps.
The Audi A4 also features new steering wheel design, better dashboard quality, improved switch gear, and better navigational system.
The Audi A4 has an additional engine option in the form of the 4-cylinder 1.8L TFSI powerplant which is also utilized for the A5 Sportback. This engine gives out 168 horsepower or about 10hp better than the previous version. This new engine is paired wih a 6-speed manual gearbox. Fuel mileage is at 42 mpg. This engine has been released for the European market and is also being considered for the U.S. Audi also has a reworked its 2.0 4-cylinder diesel engine for some variants.
For Europe, the A4 still retains the 4-cylinder 1.8L engine and the 2.0L TFSI powerplant is retained for the U.S. market. The S4 still boasts of its 3.0L V6 that gives out 328 hp.
In an official statement made by American car manufacturer, General Motors Inc., the company states that they will cut in half the total number of automobile units and power plants used globally. This move by GM is said to be their solution to address their up and down ride in cost and product development problems.
According to the official statement, the number of GM automobile architecture will drop from 30 in 2010 to 14 in 2018. Their engine platforms will take a dive from 20 in 2009 to just 12 in 2018. Their long term goal is to make the engine platform figures to just 10. According to executives from General Motors, the number of unproductive development practices is causing them almost $1 billion annually. This is supported by the claim made by Senior Vice President, Mary Barra who confirmed that they lost almost $1 billion annually because of inefficient production practices and that they’ve been in an up-down cycle when it comes to product investment.
Barra added that the launch dates for the Buick Enclave, the GMC Acadia and the Chevrolet Traverse continue to take a drawback due to fluctuating financial conditions. Having common architectures will help the company take the product lines to the show rooms faster.
The press release also mentioned that the American brand will begin producing Cadillacs in China by the bulk late in 2012. Additionally, GM is will set up another assembly plant in Russia and about four more in China. Lastly, GM is said to be planning to debut about 16 new models in China in the span of five years.
German car manufacturer BMW is thinking of reconfiguring their strategy for naming their vehicles across all brand. This was according to the BMW marketing director during a recent interview in London.
BMW is foreseeing an evolution in terms naming the vehicles across the different brands. BMW has not revealed what the new smaller BMW model that will be positioned below the 1 Series will be called and so far the marketing department of BMW would not say a word. Director of marketing Ian Robertson though noted of the upcoming I models, and the Z, X, and M models. He added that a lot of numbers might be used in the future.
The naming of the cars for the Rolls Royce and the Mini can even get more complicated. Names that has already been copyrighted across the globe makes the situation even tougher. Robertson recalls his work with the Land Rover during which the company thought of giving the SUV the name Freestyle which can become Freelander for Europe and LR2 in the United States, but they found out that these names are already in use in different markets.
The marketing director of BMW did not give any hint of how the future Mini’s and Rolls Royces will be called but we think they will also be getting alpha numeric badges.
Different issues like copyright and the century long history of car production makes naming cars for different brands very difficult. We might see car names getting duller and boring as we go along.
J.D Power and Associates is an international marketing firm that specializes in surveys and studies for customer satisfaction. In a recently concluded J.D. Power survey about Chinese car consumers, the results show that European automobile brands are fast gaining popularity compared to domestic old-time favorite brands from Japan and South Korea.
The J.D. survey revealed that almost 32% of Chinese car consumers prefer to go after European brands. About 27% of the respondents involved in the survey expressed that they would go for a Japanese car brand like Toyota or Mitsubishi. The rate in the 2009 study was 32 percent. Furthermore, only 20% of the survey respondents revealed that they would patronize a Chinese brand.
The results of the J.D. survey suggest that Chinese consumers shift to European brands because of their high-tech transmission and engine technology as well as its topnotch quality and dependability. Moreover, the respondents added that strong verbal approval add to its appeal. The Audi A4L model has been regarded as the most wanted European model among Chinese consumers, along with the VW Tiguan as the most wanted SUV.
Sadly, Japanese brands have suffered low support from the Chinese consumers because of its lack of endorsements from families and friends who swear by them. However, the J.D. survey seems to have not mentioned American brands like General Motors Inc. which sold 2 million car units in 2010 alone. Popular GM models in China include the Chevy Cruze, Buick GL8 and the Chevy Sail.
If you're looking for info (or just looking for a better deal) on Motor trade insurance, check out DNA-Insurance.com!
The U.S. Department of Transportation is eager in its announcement that they have reached a “new frontier in the fight against drunk driving.” The government office has shared its plans to install a state-of-the-art technology that would detect alcohol in several vehicles sometime in the next eight to ten years.
This new technology, aptly called the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety, would come with a system called the Tissue Spectrometry, a touch-base system that would be able to detect the presence of alcohol in ones blood concentration. Another option would be to use the Distant Spectrometry device that would detect the alcohol presence in the driver’s breath. Once the system detects that the driver is intoxicated, the car would go into self-disabling mode. Pretty ambitious indeed, thought it might pose a great deal of a problem for those who work in bars and places where they serve alcohol.
At present time, a five-year $10 million cooperative budget effort has been made between car makers and the government in order to make these technologies available. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the project will start with actual demonstrations of these technologies to the public towards the end of this year. Here are some of the car makers that have joined the project: Mitsubishi, Toyota, Volkswagen, Volvo, Porsche, BMW, Ford, Chrysler, Hyundai/Kia, Mazda, GM, Jaguar/Land Rover, Nissan, Honda and Mercedes-Benz. Clearly, this looks like a promising effort being made by the car companies themselves and the federal government to lessen the number of drunk drinking incidents in the US.
New and Used Class B Motorhomes
Long time luxury car segment leader Lexus is outclassed by rivals Mercedes and BMW in terms of sales. Toyota’s luxury brand Lexus have been the annual top leader among the luxury car marques for eleven years.
The sales of Mercedes-Benz jumped by 11% or by 16,398 units compared to their last year’s numbers. BMW sprung by 21% or by as much as 15,905 vehicles. Lexus on the other hand fell by 17% or by 12,860 vehicles.
Lexus was able to protect its position last year and held off the two other rivals BMW and Mercedes to keep the top position in terms of sales in the Unite States. Lexus held the position for 11 years. The German brands have outpaced and outpositioned the Japanese Toyota unit with the X3 of BMW hitting the showrooms and the C-Class of Mercedes Benz getting a face lift.
The lead of Lexus is getting smaller with its 2009 19,473 units lead shrinkign to 9,216 last year. The sales of Lexus jumped 6.2% in 2010 or by around 229, 329 units while BMW’s numbers sprung by 12% or by as much as 220, 113 vehicles for 2010. Mercedes-Benz was able to achiev a 14% jump or 216,448 cars for 2010.
Lexus had a good push towards the end of 2010 to keep it afloat. The good race between the three luxury brands will impact the stats for the segment early this year. Lexus surely suffered from the recalls made by Toyota resulting to more incetive spendings for the company.
A great site to find conversion vans for sale check it out!
General Motors Co. has included the standard warnings for present and future investors in its 734-page filing to go public. This includes the many risks that GM faces in the industry like the stability of its supply base, weak sales figures, and changes in regulations to name a few. Of course, the risks that GM has disclosed almost paint the picture that the American automaker might just face bankruptcy in a year’s time.
The 734-page file also includes the state in which senior management is being paid an uncompetitive salary because of the limitations that comes from the government’s aid to the GM. There is also the matter of unhealthy financial controls inside the company the negative effects of GM’s deflating dealer body to its market share and sales in the U.S.
According to GM, the sales and market share will suffer when they decide to let go of several brands and cut down their U.S. dealer network. In 2009, there were approximately 5,600 GM dealers in the U.S. In June 2010, the figure goes down to 5,200. The initial plan was to cut down the dealerships by 3,600 to 4,000 in the long run that in 2009, the automaker has ended their franchise deals with over 2,000 dealers. But the new federal law urged GM to revive at least 700 of these terminated dealerships while some were restored through government mandated negotiations. GM now plans to cut their US dealers to around 4,500 towards the end of this year.
We do not hear very often how the car manufacturers design the sound of their engine. BMW is among the leader in this technology and they coined theirs as Active Sound Design.
Mini gets an engine note to make its 4-cylinder diesel powerplant sound like a V8 muscle car. The engineers actually came up with four notes which are now being tested with a Mini and with a prototype BMW 635d.
The sound technology makes use of the vehicle’s own sound system to create a better driving experience. Drivers will perceive that the vehicle is performing better when compared to a same vehicle with the same specs but without the V8 sound technology. The sound technology feeds a generated sound through the cabin via the sound system of the car while also utilizing panels to lower the real sound of the car coming from its engine bay.
(more…)
Finally, another neat safety tool that is constantly being seen in a lot of the newest cars I the rollover prevention/mitigation; which basically ensures that you car is extremely stable and that it is going to keep you safe. If you take a corner too fast or swerve over too fast, have you ever felt like your car is going to tip over?
This is especially apparent in a lot of cars that are top heavy. Well, this system actually senses a potential rollover situation and will apply the brakes and modulate throttle as needed in order to help make maintain control of your car.
This technology seems to be popping up everywhere from GM to Ford all the way to Volvo and the one common goal is to ensure that your car does not flip over!
Now that we have talked a little bit about the adaptive cruise control, let’s move onto another technology that is actually exploding onto the market and that is the blind-spot detection. One reason this is such a huge deal because many people get into car accidents because they do not check their blind spot.
This tool actually alerts you whenever you are trying to merge over and someone is in your blind spot. Something will either flash in your mirror or there will be a small beeping alarm that will let you know.
Usually, this tool responds whenever you put on your turn signal, so that is kind of a trigger.
The new Audi A4 is expected to meet head on its rivals in the form of the C-Class from Mercedes-Benz and the 3-Series of the BMW. The A4 is ready for the competition as it gets styling upgrades, improved engines, and better interior.