Blog on 2040Parts

Pontiac Sport Truck

By Liz Turner Motor Shows 20 March 2008 11:10 Pontiac is going to have a tough time trying to stop its 2010 Sport Truck being called the El Camino. From the B-pillar forward its Pontiac G8, but on the back there’s a 6ft pick-up bed and the suspension has been beefed up to the take the expected loads and tows. Under the bonnet is the same 6.0-litre V8 used in the G8 GT, delivering 361bhp and 385lb ft, but Active Fuel Management and a six-box auto ‘box should keep the as-yet unstated fuel economy affordable.

Hyundai Genesis Coupe

By Liz Turner Motor Shows 20 March 2008 11:26 Hyundai debuted its new Genesis Coupe in the Banqueting hall of the Javits Conference Centre, and had a pair of cars do a series of doughnuts to celebrate the world debut. The two cars were different: one a 306bhp 3.8-litre V6; the other a turbocharged four-cylinder 2.0-litre delivering 212bhp. Both have rear-wheel-drive and independent suspension all round; both undercut their competition on price.

Acura TSX

By Liz Turner Motor Shows 20 March 2008 11:41 The Acura TSX sports saloon has a Marmite face that you either love or hate. The deep v-shaped grille has a self-satisfied smirk and the airdam forms two strange little prongs at the corners. It works better in the metal than you’d guess from the pictures, and PR chief Chuck Schifsky tells us that reaction has been positive.

CAR's guide to the 2008 New York auto show

By Ben Pulman Motor Shows 20 March 2008 12:23 Click here for all the latest new cars and news from the New York auto show our handy A-Z. CAR Online is bringing you all the new cars that count, including coupes from Hyundai, Pontiac and Scion. Pontiac has also unleashed some big V8 brutes, and GM has told CAR why the Cadillac Escalade Hybrid must exist.

Nissan Denki Cube concept

By Liz Turner Motor Shows 20 March 2008 16:24 Nissan's cute Cube will go on sale in the US in 2009 and a production version will be unveiled at the next LA Auto Show, Nissan announced in New York. This will be a petrol Cube: an electric Cube, based on the Denki concept unveiled in NY will follow. 'Denki' is Japanese for electric and the concept is the current Cube with a new EV powertrain, with various trim tweaks to remind you of the battery power.

Dodge Challenger

By Liz Turner Motor Shows 20 March 2008 20:51 Lucky US buyers can now get behind the wheel of a Dodge Challenger for less than $20,000 (about £10k). The base model is the 250bhp 2.5 V6, described as an ‘economy car’ because of its 25mpg, then there’s an RT with a 370bhp 5.7-litre Hemi, and then, of course, there’s the one everyone really wants, the 6.1-litre SRT-8. As is the tradition at Chrysler, the RT also offers an optional Track Pak.

Kia Koup concept

By Liz Turner Motor Shows 20 March 2008 20:58 Kia’s Koup. If you saw this compact coupe concept without its badges and had to guess who made it, there’s no way your first guess would be Kia. Its lines are simple and sporty, not a million miles from a Ford Puma.

Saleen S5S Raptor

By Liz Turner Motor Shows 20 March 2008 21:13 Saleen is best known for its red-hot Mustangs, but at New York it revealed an American supercar concept to rival the Europeans. Its S5S Raptor is around the same size as a Ferrari 430, and should be close to the same price, but boasts 175bhp more. It’s powered by a Saleen-built supercharged 6.0-litre V8, that will run on ethanol (like an increasing number of race cars).

Suzuki Kizashi 3

By Liz Turner Motor Shows 20 March 2008 21:18  The third car of Suzuki’s dramatic Kizashi trilogy had its world debut at New York, and we’re told this handsome sports sedan is close to the production vehicle. When it arrives in the US this Fall, the powertrain will be a 3.6-litre DOHC V6 delivering 300bhp via a six-speed auto’ with paddle-shifters. No price has been announced, but it will offer ‘good value’.

Alfa Romeo MiTo

This is Alfa Romeo's latest compact car, the MiTo. The new car draws its name from the abbreviations of two Italian cities: Milan, the city that brought the car's style into being, and Turin, which will be responsible for its industrial production. The first new Alfa Romeo to be built since the 8C Competizione, the MiTo borrows many characteristic element from its larger 'halo' sibling: the shape of the frameless side windows, the distinctive frontal treatment, the shape of the headlights and the LED tail lights.

Car Design News Contest 2008 - Deadline for entries in just over a week!

The Car Design News Contest 2008 deadline for entries is on Wednesday March 26th - just over a week's time! Entries in both the Professional Designer category and the Student Designer category will have to be submitted by this date - no late entries will be accepted - as the assessment process takes place directly afterwards. Each entry needs to be uploaded onto the Entry Submissions page of the Car Design News Contest site as "snap shot" views of a digital design model.

Avro Mirage 720 Ford GT (2008) first official pictures

By Ben Pulman First Official Pictures 17 March 2008 12:09 Avro’s 720 Mirage Ford GT is the supercar for when one limited edition just isn’t enough. Just ten of these Roush-tuned Fords will be made, and yes, the 720 signifies the horsepower output. In 2007 Avro and Roush unleashed the 600bhp 600RE Ford GT.

College Exhibition: RCA/VW - Day and Night

Vehicle Design students at the Royal College of Art in London, UK, started work on a project sponsored by Volkswagen in October last year. Asked to research and visualize future market sectors and the needs, aspirations and desires of potential users; VW's brief to the students was to create a vehicle which had an innovative, integrated interior to reflect the research the students conducted, in a space that had equal value both in the daytime and at night. The brief also called for new space concepts for the person/machine interface through new functions and new packaging of components.

Baby Rolls revealed as boss leaves

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 14 March 2008 07:33 CAR today reveals the look of the new 'baby' Rolls-Royce - just as it is announced that boss Ian Robertson will head back to BMW as Munich's new sales and marketing boss. The new model due in 2010 will nudge the most famous of luxury brands downmarket nearer upper-echelon Merc S-classes, but the 49-year-old chief exec won't be around to see the launch of the landmark model.The baby Rolls-RoyceThe Phantom family has now grown to three models, after the Coupe was unveiled at this month's Geneva Motor Show to join the Drophead Coupe. And in 2010 Rolls-Royce will launch RR4 - the new £170,000 baby Rolls to stretch the brand 'downmarket' and plug the gap between cheaper Bentley Continentals and the super-luxury models from Rolls and Maybach costing nearer a quarter of a million pounds.It will be longer than the next-generation LWB BMW 7-series, upon whose mechanicals RR4 is based.

Alfa Romeo Mito (2008): first official pictures

By Ben Pulman First Official Pictures 14 March 2008 12:35 Welcome to the Alfa Romeo Mito. This is Alfa’s new baby, with a name inspired by the cities where the car was designed (Milan) and will be built (Turin). Only the Italians could get away with something like that.

Mercedes M-class facelift (2008): first official pictures

By Ben Pulman First Official Pictures 13 March 2008 11:43 Believe it or not, but this is the facelifted Mercedes M-class. And despite the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it styling, Merc claims to have meticulously revamped its SUV. The nose gets a new front bumper, new headlights, and in case the M-class wasn’t in-your-face enough, there’s also now a ‘more dominant radiator’.

Mercedes' production Bluetec diesel SUVs

By Ben Pulman First Official Pictures 13 March 2008 17:14 Europe loves diesel, America doesn’t, so welcome to the US-only Mercedes Bluetec SUVs. The R, ML and GL 320 Bluetec diesels will be launched in America in autumn 2008, but won’t be coming to Europe yet. The three SUVs, which Mercedes claims come with the world’s latest and cleanest diesel engine, may not even make it to the UK.  All three come with a 3.0-litre diesel engine that has revised piston crowns, a lower compression ratio, and a new turbocharger and ECU.

UK Budget 2008 'leaves motorists £1.6bn worse off'

By Tim Pollard Motoring Issues 12 March 2008 12:08 UPDATED... The UK's 2008 Budget has introduced a major car tax shake-up that will leave Britain's motorists £1.6 billion worse off, according to the Opposition. Motorists driving the highest polluting cars face tax hikes of up to £950 in showroom levies from April 2010.

Car Design of the Year Awards 2007

This year there was a close battle between the BMW Concept CS and the Mazda Taiki, with only 7 percent of votes between them finally. In the end, over 51 percent of readers awarded the BMW a top three ranking. However, this also represents an excellent and consistent result for Citroën, who came second last year with the C-Metisse, and for Mazda, who previously came third with the Ryuga concept.

Quirky cars in Geneva

By Mark Walton Motor Shows 11 March 2008 10:30 Geneva is renowned for throwing up weird and wonderful concepts and prototypes from manufacturers you’ve never heard of, and will probably never see again. While the big manufacturers churn out the same old saloons, hatchbacks and SUVs, the quirky side of Geneva shows us what lateral thinking is all about. Some cars are simply brilliant, some are monstrosities, and this is our guide to both.  K.O 7 My favourite car of the whole show.

Chevrolet at Geneva

By Guy Bird Motor Shows 10 March 2008 11:31 What’s new on Chevrolet’s Geneva Motor Show stand? There were more exciting show stands at Geneva but Chevy did muster up a small – in every sense – global unveil in the shape of the three-door Aveo supermini (the five-door was unveiled last autumn at the 2007 Frankfurt show). The smart-ish new exterior – all big grille and wraparound front lights – is a big improvement on the mundane Kalos it replaces but still a bit of a let down.

Bertone BAT 11

By Guy Bird Motor Shows 10 March 2008 11:43 What’s new on Bertone’s Geneva Motor Show stand? Italian coachbuilder Bertone might be in deep financial trouble – it didn’t have a stand at the Geneva show – but its styling division, Stile Bertone, revealed an incredible one-off car on the night of the first press day instead at Auto Design Night, a special event for car designers held at city centre night club La SIP. The stunningly streamlined BAT 11 doesn’t take its odd name from the bat-like rear wings, but because BAT stands for ‘Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica’ in Italian, the ‘11’ indicating that it is the fourth in a series of one-off Bertone designs for Alfa Romeo following on from the BAT 5, 7 and 9 from the mid-1950s.

Italdesign Giugiaro Quaranta

By Guy Bird Motor Shows 10 March 2008 11:53 What’s new on Italdesign Giugiaro’s Geneva Motor Show stand? The Quaranta concept. It celebrates 40 years of Italdesign and its founder, Italian car design legend Giorgetto Giugiaro, the man behind the VW Golf Mk1, BMW M1 and the original Alfa Romeo Brera concept.

Pininfarina Sintesi

By Guy Bird Motor Shows 10 March 2008 12:03 What’s new on Pininfarina’s Geneva Motor Show stand? Italian coachbuilder and design house Pininfarina showed another stunning concept at Geneva to follow the 2005 Maserati Birdcage and 2004 Nido. The 2008 Sintesi is strictly an ‘ideas concept’ imagining a future vehicle that can communicate with other cars to avoid traffic and accidents and thus reduce the need for current passive safety requirements – like longer and heavier front noses to meet pedestrian impact laws.

Chrysler to close Pacifica Advanced Design Studios

The 20 designers at Chrysler's Pacifica Advanced Design Studios in Carlsbad, California will soon be finding themselves out of a job. The struggling North American automaker announced the closure of the facility on Friday, stating that the company is ‘leveraging resources worldwide, forming new joint ventures and alliances and consolidating operations in order to better achieve global balance.' Responsible for many of the more successful designs hailing from Chrysler in recent times, including the Chrysler 300 sedan and the new Dodge Challenger musclecar, the Pacifica Advanced Product Design Center also yielded the Nassau concept car and the Pacifica crossover – bearing the same name as the west coast studios in which it was created. The work done at the Pacifica Advanced Design Center will be consolidated into the Advance Design function in Auburn Hills and continue to be led by Senior Vice President of Design, Trevor Creed.

Porsche to take majority stake in VW for £7bn

By Ben Whitworth Motor Industry 07 March 2008 11:26 Porsche is about to become the majority shareholder in Volkswagen. The sportscar maker has been given the green light to purchase further stock in VW, taking its share past the 50 percent mark to give it a controlling interest. As soon as various legal checks have been cleared, Porsche plans to purchase a further 20 percent of VW stock – it already owns 31 percent - at an estimated cost of around £7 billion.

Alfa Romeo 8C Spider at Geneva

By Mark Walton Motor Shows 07 March 2008 17:11 What’s new on the Alfa Romeo Geneva Motor Show stand?Alfa’s youthful new CEO Luca De Meo swept into Geneva like the heir-apparent he no doubt is, to unveil the Alfa Romeo 8C Spider. Even though this is now a well-known car that’s been previewed a dozen times at events around the world (including the 2006 Goodwood Festival of Speed and 2005 Pebble Beach) it still drew a big crowd for the official launch; and when the silky red cover was drawn off, there were still an audible gasp from audience, despite the familiarity. Shown in white with dark grey alloys and a deep tan interior, the Spider is an achingly beautiful car – a stunning, proper, drop-dead drop-top, arguably even more sensuous and dramatic than the 8C Competizione coupe that preceded it.

Hyundai HED-5

By Jonny Smith Motor Shows 07 March 2008 17:13 What’s new on Hyundai’s Geneva Motor Show stand? Reinventing the Trajet by all accounts. Everyone’s doing MPVs now so it’s time to spice up the long toothed Hyundai under the concept codename of HED-5.

Skoda Superb at Geneva

By Mark Walton Motor Shows 07 March 2008 17:26 What’s new on Skoda’s Geneva Motor Show stand?Skoda launched its second-generation Superb, aimed at the mid-sized, middle class Mondeo market. It’s a handsome car, with more than a little 1990s BMW 5-Series in it – from the way the bonnet meets the headlight glass, to the famous ‘Hofmeister Kink’ in the C pillar. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Kia Souls and eco Ceed range

By Jonny Smith Motor Shows 07 March 2008 17:29 What's new on Kia's Geneva Motor Show stand? Proof that the Koreans have come a long way since Prides with 12-inch whitewall tyres. Kia unveiled its new compact weapon with a trio that made Ford’s Fiesta look fairly average – the Soul.