Station wagon fans can rejoice: the little BMW wagon won't go away.
By Clifford Atiyeh 9 hours ago
While wagons command barely 2 percent of the U.S. auto market -- less than that of hybrids -- BMW is keeping the faith with a sleek five-door version of its all-new 3-Series, set to debut next spring.The 2013 3-Series Sports Wagon is so bold that it uses the name “wagon” and not “crossover” (unlike the Volvo XC70 and 2013 Subaru XV Crosstek, which are ashamed to be called wagons). While previous 3-Series wagons were achingly compact, the new 3-Series wagon offers a 10-percent increase in cargo volume, thanks in no small part to a wheelbase grown larger by two inches, a 1.85-inch wider rear track, and an overall length stretched by 3.66 inches. BMW did not release official cargo capacities, but with the automaker now selling long-wheelbase 335Li sedans to the Chinese, the age of cramped BMW backseats should largely be over. (However, the 5-Series Touring is still largely absent from the U.S. market.)
By David Arnouts
By AutoWeek 11 hours ago
Chevrolet will debut the Trax, a small sport-utility vehicle, at the Paris motor show in September.
The Trax uses General Motors' global small platform, shared by vehicles such as the Chevrolet Sonic. The Trax has seating for five people.
Proposed legislation would make it illegal for car-rental agencies to offer vehicles facing safety recalls.
By Claire_Martin 11 hours ago
Each time you pull out of a car-rental lot, you could be driving a defective vehicle. In 2004, two sisters from Santa Cruz, Calif., were doing just that -- and died. The Chrysler PT Cruiser they had leased from Enterprise Rent-A-Car had been recalled a month earlier for a possible power-steering-fluidPartly as a result of this case, Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., have proposed legislation that would require rental agencies to fix safety defects that are the subject of recalls. "We were shocked to learn that car-rental companies have been leasing out defective cars," Boxer told California radio station KPCC. "It is just stunning to me."
Boxer says she has contacted the four major rental agencies -- Hertz, Enterprise, Avis and Dollar-Thrifty -- and asked them to stop the practice voluntarily, but she's taking it a step further by co-sponsoring the bill. (Hertz reportedly already has such a policy in place.)
CEO says downsized sedan is still years off and that an entry-level model 'would do no good to the brand.'
By Douglas Newcomb 13 hours ago
Last week we reported that Porsche was considering a downsized adaptation of its Panamera sedan as part of the performance automaker’s stated goal to expand its model lineup. It also recently announced that a baby Cayenne, named the Macan, is headed to production.But now comes conflicting reports about that expansion -- and a confirmation that Porsche won’t pander to the lower end of the market.
Last week, the German magazine Auto Bild reported that Porsche was planning a smaller version of the Panamera. But CEO Matthias Mueller told Porsche’s hometown newspaper, the Stuttgarter Zeifung, that the company is in no hurry to make a Panamera-lite (code named "Pajun"). He did, however, allow that it could be an option in five or six years -- which is exactly what Auto Bild reported: That would debut around 2017.
Mueller also nixed possibilities that Porsche would fill what some perceive as a void in its line at the low end.
Maker of plug-in hybrid Karma responds to story on Houston garage fire.
By Joshua Condon 16 hours ago
In response to Friday's Autoweek piece, republished on "Exhaust Notes," regarding the Houston-area garage fire that may have involved a Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid vehicle, Roger Ormisher, the manufacturer's senior director for global corporate communications and public relations, passed along Fisker's official response to the incident, which I'm republishing in its entirety, below.Media Statement: Fisker Karma Engineering Anaheim, CA – May 11, 2012
Fisker Automotive has noted unfounded allegations, reported in the media, about the engine compartment layout of its Karma model.
The manufacturer of the world's first extended range luxury electric vehicle has received full technical and safety certification for all systems developed and installed in the Karma.
That certification followed extreme testing of the vehicle, involving laboratory simulations of thermal incidents and on-the-road tests in extreme climate conditions.
No incidents of any kind involving engine systems were found.
Few men have made more of an impact on American motorsports. I never met him, but like a lot of people, I feel like I did.
By Sam Smith 20 hours ago
The old saw holds that celebrity deaths come in threes. Perhaps. This month, the list is a bit longer. Adam Yauch. Maurice Sendak. Donald "Duck" Dunn. And, of course, Carroll Shelby. I don't like this. It's a given that all your heroes eventually pass, but I can't take so much of it happening in the same month. If Chuck Berry, Dan Gurney, and Pete Townshend go in the next two weeks, I'm moving to a cave in Montana and not coming out.
Still, Shelby? To be honest -- and I say this grateful for every day he walked the earth -- I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. America's most famous independent carmaker and one-time chicken farmer famously suffered from health problems as long ago as the 1950s, most famously when he won Le Mans in an Aston Martin with nitroglycerin pills under his tongue. The heart transplant he received 22 years ago served him well; he was one of the longest-lived American recipients of the procedure, and he managed to cram a surprising amount of life and exposure into the additional time it gave him.
To borrow and distort an old line, Carroll Shelby was a hell of a thing. If you know anything about him, anything at all, I don't need to explain why he was important. If you don't, the past few days have produced a lot of obituaries, and I suggest you read at least one of them. (Start with Autoweek and The New York Times. Then move on to this and this.)
This isn't an obituary. This is just me remembering.
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