Design: Cars So Green They’re Just a Dream November 24, 2006
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: The Shooting Brake Makes a Comeback
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 …
Volkswagen Neeza - photos November 21, 2006
Tune It! Safe!’s Brabus CLS Rocket Police Cruiser November 20, 2006
Tune It Safe! was set up by the German Federal Traffic Ministry and the local tuner association last year to cool down the scene and encourage automobile modifiers to set up shared guidelines.
Naturally, Tune It Safe! is using outrageous show cars to promote the initiative. The latest is this Brabus Rocket, dressed up as a highway patrol police car.
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 …
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 …
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 …
Design: At Aston, Life Beyond Bond
Behind the Wheel: Saturn Vue and Mercury Mariner: Hybrids, Mild or Seasoned, From the Motor City
November 18, 2006
Design: Cars So Green They’re Just a Dream