Design: The Shooting Brake Makes a Comeback November 24, 2006
Although the shooting brake’s glory days came before World War II, the body style, a sleek wagon with two doors and sports-car panache, is showing signs of a renaissance. PARIS WITH demand for cars flat in the West and the number of models and nameplates rising every year, automakers keep looking for market niches yet unfilled and marketing opportunities yet to be exploited.Want a convertible pickup truck with limited cargo-hauling ability? Check. Chevy did that with its SSR.Need an ultraluxurious, superexpensive back seat in which to recline while your driver sweats the traffic? Choose a Rolls-Royce Phantom, or …
Technology: Mayday! Some Cars Will Lose OnStar Link
Some operators of OnStar, the service best known for its ability to bail out customers in a jam, will soon be signing off for some of its longstanding customers. FOR the last decade, OnStar has promoted itself as a paragon of convenience and peace of mind for car owners. Best known for its ability to bail out customers in a jam – and even make an automatic call for help when an air bag has been deployed in an accident – the service has about four million subscribers. OnStar makes its pitch in a series of alarming radio advertisements that …
Wheelspin: The Cars Are at Least 102, but the Run Is Even Older
The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, which brought hundreds of participants to a predawn rendezvous in Hyde Park, is open only to vehicles built before Jan. 1, 1905. EARLY this month I spent a pleasant Sunday with friends in an ’04 Cadillac, making the 60-mile drive from Hyde Park here in the British capital to the beach resort of Brighton, a trip that took most of eight hours.Simple arithmetic makes it apparent that our Cadillac was not zipping along at the pace of the latest muscle-bound sedan from the company’s high-performance V-Series. Still, ours was among the newest …
Design: At Aston, Life Beyond Bond November 20, 2006
Agent 007 has long driven products from Aston Martin. Soon he may wear the British sports car maker’s ties. MAREK REICHMAN pointed to the tie of an Aston Martin executive standing next to him. “This comes right from the cars,” he said. The focus of attention was not a grease spot on the neckwear, but the delicate silvery pattern on the tie’s red silk. Mr. Reichman, design director of Aston Martin, was explaining the inspiration for a new line of fabric and leather goods he is designing. The Ford Motor Company, which bought controlling interest in the British sports …
Behind the Wheel: Saturn Vue and Mercury Mariner: Hybrids, Mild or Seasoned, From the Motor City November 18, 2006
The hybrid sport utility represents a double-whammy American automotive fantasy: the go-anywhere image of an S.U.V. that’s green to boot. But do these hybrids really deliver? BERKELEY, Calif. MUCH has changed since the advent of the automobile. Newton’s mechanistic view of the universe yielded to Einstein’s relativity. Commerce shifted from heavy machinery to packets of ones and zeroes zipping through the air.But one thing remains the same. More than a century after the car kicked the horse to the curb, the most popular measure of a vehicle’s prowess is still horsepower. The postmodern digital age has not caught up …
Design: Cars So Green They’re Just a Dream
Automakers’ West Coast studios are competing to design the best green-car fantasies at the third annual Design Challenge. HOBOS wandering the back roads used to sing about an imaginary place called the Big Rock Candy Mountain, “a land of lemonade springs where the bluebird sings,” where “there’s a lake of stew and of whiskey, too; you can paddle all around ‘em in a big canoe.” Designers on the road to the future dream of similar technological pie in the sky in this year’s rendition of the Design Challenge, a shoot-out of car concepts submitted by local satellite design studios …
Behind the Wheel: Saturn Vue and Mercury Mariner: Hybrids, Mild or Seasoned, From the Motor City
The hybrid sport utility represents a double-whammy American automotive fantasy: the go-anywhere image of an S.U.V. that’s green to boot. But do these hybrids really deliver? BERKELEY, Calif. MUCH has changed since the advent of the automobile. Newton’s mechanistic view of the universe yielded to Einstein’s relativity. Commerce shifted from heavy machinery to packets of ones and zeroes zipping through the air.But one thing remains the same. More than a century after the car kicked the horse to the curb, the most popular measure of a vehicle’s prowess is still horsepower. The postmodern digital age has not caught up …
Design: Wax Is Waning at Vegas Show That Sets Trends November 17, 2006
Dozens of cars on display at this year’s Specialty Equipment Market Association show in Las Vegas wore nothing more than ungleaming black. LAS VEGAS A Savory Stew of Szechwan and Burning Rubber VIRGIL EXNER, the designer who headed Chrysler’s styling studio during the glory days of the tailfin era, once ordered all clay models of coming cars to be done in black clay. “Black,” he said, “is the color that shows my designs to their best effect.”His designs for signature models like the “Forward Look” land yachts of the 1950s were stunning in the satiny black of the …
Behind the Wheel: Hyundai Entourage and Kia Sedona: American Pie From a Korean Kitchen
The Entourage is virtually identical to the Sedona. The vans are also similar in shape, dimensions, powertrains, performance and features to models from Honda, Toyota and Chrysler. DETROIT MY family has a favorite recipe for sugar cookies, which we bake for nearly every holiday. We decorate the round shapes with orange frosting for Halloween, colorful sprinkles at Christmas and red sugar on Valentine’s Day.This is not unlike the auto industry’s approach to the minivan. You’ll find the same basic recipe no matter which carmaker’s kitchen is doing the baking, and the shapes are formed with cookie cutters that vary …
Head of Renault and Nissan Backs Away From Detroit
Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of Nissan and Renault, said he was no longer interested in adding a North American partner. DETROIT, Nov. 16 – Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of Nissan and Renault, said on Thursday that he was no longer interested in adding a North American partner, at least until earnings improved at the two automakers that he oversees. “We don’t think the timing is right,” said Mr. Ghosn, in his first public appearance in Detroit since alliance discussions with General Motors ended last month. “The right moment” to explore a partnership, Mr. Ghosn said after speaking to …
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