Test Drive: 2010 Hummer H3

By Kevin Harrison

Ever notice how bad timing happens way more often than good timing? For instance, I somehow found myself at a baby shower that was organized by my office for my very pregnant boss. I was roped into helping to organize it. What was even more puzzling than that was I was put in charge of coming up with fun games so that people didn’t gouge their eyes out after the awkwardness set in when they realized that they were indeed at an office baby shower. I’m not sure whose clever idea it was to have a male help out with a baby shower because all I kept coming up with were drinking games and inappropriate jokes during the whole process.

Then someone had an idea to get all the staff to bring in baby pictures of themselves and then our pregnant boss would have to guess who’s who. Still in inappropriate joke mode, I then decided to blurt out “well she’ll be able to get Judy’s picture right away because her’s will be the only picture in black and white”. Right at that moment, Judy, our Executive Director, had walked in the room. The look on her face could only be described as anything but amused. Why did she not come in about 5 minutes earlier when I had actually complimented her for her homemade potato salad she brought in the day before?

Likewise, why did the first ever African American President of the United States have to get elected right after one of the worst President’s in their history? He left the country in the worst possible condition and now President Obama must somehow fix all the problems that someone else created. As a result, Obama’s approval ratings are at an all-time low as people seem to want quick fixes to things that take time. So now because of this bad timing, the next time an African American offers his/her candidacy for President, all people will remember is how Obama didn’t fix things on the double and then said candidate will get no where before even getting started.

And so, the bad timing continues on in life with the latest being this very review. Fresh from Car Driven’s bad timing department comes our test of the Hummer H3. This is bad timing in many ways. Firstly, very few people are now in the market for a gas guzzling SUV so Hummer’s SUV only lineup isn’t exactly on the public’s radar. Secondly, and most importantly, it was announced just a few days ago that Hummer is going to cease to exist.

So why did I even bother?

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Hyundai Wants to Target Lesbians

According to gaywheels.com, Hyundai is one of only four brands that is not considered to be gay friendly. The other three are Kia, Porsche, and Suzuki. In order to be on the gay-friendly list with the rest of the automakers, Hyundai needs to offer benefits to domestic-partner workers.  For the record, gaywheels.com lists Subaru as being the friendliest brand for gays. Apparently 45% of lesbians and gay men prefer Subaru to any other brand

Obviously this is a rather large market that Hyundai is missing out on, so as a result, they have released this commercial for the Elantra that is meant to lure some gay customers to the brand.

Either that or they’re hoping to get more heterosexual male customers with this add.

Canadian Government Will Investigate Toyota

Just to clarify, we are not suggesting that the above cash was caused by the Prius or that it had faulty brakes. It’s more of a symbol of how Toyota’s direction is looking at the moment. Case in point, investigations galore. (And yes, that is a Tesla roadster involved in the crash).

President of Toyota Akio Toyoda is currently in Washington to testify against allegations that Toyota knew of recent sticking gas pedal and faulty brake issues prior to the recall, yet chose not to act. He is also offering apologies to all Toyota customers, especially to those injured or even killed in Toyota’s that needed to be recalled. The NHTSA is investigating Toyota’s actions in the matter.

The Canadian government seems to be following suit as they plan to hold similar hearings commencing March 3, with the full support of the opposition parties.

Although the purpose of the hearing isn’t exactly to place blame on anyone (how Canadian of them), the government wants to know how this happened, how it went undetected and what can be done to prevent a similar situation in the future.

All we can say is if Toyota knew of these problems and chose not to act, then they are getting what’s coming to them. They should’ve taken a page from David Letterman and came right out with it -it would’ve blown over a lot sooner. If they honestly didn’t know a thing before hand, then that means there needs to be a serious overhaul in every single department in Toyota to ensure this does not happen again.

This is What Happens When You Don’t Take Bailout Money

Your sales go up. Way up.

Of course, incorporating new product and upping the quality of existing product helps too.

Ford has done both and is definitely fairng the best out of the big three. The public seems to be rewarding their hard effort with increased sales, even in low volume segments. The F-150 SVT Raptor is already selling way more than predicted and now comes news that the 2011 Mustang ain’t doin’ so bad either. In fact, the 2011 Mustang is selling three times more than the 2009 Mustang did. The V6 is particularly doing well accounting for over half of the 2011 Mustang’s sales. We’re guessing that the 305 horsepower engine that returns 7.8 L/100 kms in fuel economy is the big draw.

The California Special edition is also doing well as it has also sold three times as much as two years ago. There apparently was already 11,000 orders for Mustangs placed in January and that number is expected to increase.

Time to step up your game, Challenger and Camaro.

We can’t wait for the Fiesta and Euro Focus to arrive!

Black Beauty: 2010 Porsche 911 Techart G-Street R

Bad. Ass.

We are complete suckers for Porsche 911s. We are are especially suckers for black ones.

The one you see here is based on the incredible 911 Turbo except it has been tuned by Techart to produce 660 horsepower and 635 pound feet of torque! 0-100 is 3.5 seconds and top speed is 344 kph!

And it looks incredible. The body kit, along with the front splitter and 22 inch black rims really just complete the overall look. Don’t let that huge spoiler ruin it for you though because it’s apparently height adjustable so you can lower it to a less moronic height.

More pics are after the jump if your heart can handle more sexiness.

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Video: 2011 Mini Countryman

If the still shot of this video didn’t make you laugh, then the video itself will. And not because it’s actually funny, but because it’s a tad awkward.

Mini tries to add a ‘hip’ spin to the newest member of their family with strange music and shots of people ‘living life’.

Thoughts?

Oh Hi: 2011 Porsche Cayenne

Meet the facelifted Cayenne.

This new Cayenne has Panamera-esque headlights, a reworked front facia, new LED tail lights and an updated interior.

There will be lots of flavours to choose from: A V6, a Cayenne S, a Cayenne Turbo and an all new Cayenne Hybrid. Since there’s no mention of the diesel version, we’re guessing it got the axe, which is unfortunate.

The Hybrid will use a supercharged version of the 3.0 litre V6 making 333 horsepower along with a 47 horsepower electric motor. Porsche claims V8 performance with V6 fuel economy with this set up.

The Turbo will get a twin-turbo V8 producing 500 horses, the Cayenne S will get a V8 making 400 horses and the V6 will be good enough to produce 300 horsepower.

Porsche has managed to knock off 400 pounds from the already porkly Cayenne and is claiming fuel savings of up to 23% as a result. In turn, CO2 levels also get reduced to around 193 g/km for the hybrid.

The new Cayenne is expected to go on sale in June of this year.

See more pics after the jump.

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See Ya! Hummer Brand to Wind Down

Hummer will be no more.

The sale of the brand to Chinese company Sichuan Tenzhong has apparently fallen through as GM announced “the orderly shutdown of the HUMMER operations”. There is no word on what caused the breakdown of the sale. Maybe there is some involvement of gang related activity again? The Chinese Triads perhaps?

Hummer has long been the whipping boy of environmental groups for its overall excess and has long been the vehicle of choice for rappers, rock stars and even politicians (we’re looking at you, Arnold).

To celebrate pay respects to Hummer shutting down, we figured the embarrassing tastefully modded pink Hummer H3 you see above would be an appropriate homage.

But seriously, as much as we dislike Hummer, any loss of brand in the car industry is painful to take for most petrol heads. In this case, there will be one thousand plant workers now out of a job.

Like Saturn and Pontiac, GM is promising to  honour warranties along with service and parts support to Hummer owners around the world.

Spyker to Revive 9-3 Hatcback?

The sale of Saab to Spyker was finilazed today, so now we can all breathe a sigh of relief and start the fun process of drumming up new possible models for the former terminally ill Swedish brand.

Among the models rumoured to return is the beloved five door hatchback version of the 9-3. This makes perfect sense to us as premium hatches are on their way back to popularity with the Mercedes-Benz B-Class, Volvo C30, and Audi A3 proving Canadians’ interest. Lexus’ CT 200h is around the corner and BMW is going to jump into the fray as well.

The previous generation hatch only 9-3 was well known for swallowing up just about anything you put in the back, which was one of its many good selling points.

Spyker is also rumoured to continue on with the new 9-5, 9-3X wagon and the somewhat unfortunate 9-4X. All we ask is that they bring back Viggen models like the one you see pictured above. There was no hope of GM doing it, but it seems there is a bit more hope with the Dutch behind Saab’s proverbial wheel.

Oh Hi: 2011 Maserati Quattroporte Sport GT S Awards Edition

To be unveiled at this year’s Geneva Auto Show, Maserati will be showcasing a limited production edition of their high roller sedan. It will be called the Maseratti Quattroporte GT S Ego Edition Awards Edition.

Apparently the only reason why Maseratti is introducing this model is to brag about how many awards it has gotten over the years, 56 to be exact. Apparently they’re also gunning to take away the longest name award away from the Lamborghini Murcielago LP 670-4 Supervolce.

The ‘Awards Edition’ will get you matte finished paint with a matching suede interior, charcoal 20 inch wheels with polished calipers, satin wood inserts and of course ‘Awards Edition’ badging.

One-upsmanship is always the name of the game in the car business, so this doesn’t entirely surprise us. However with the likely extra 10 grand more that the Awards Edition will cost over a regular Quattroporte GT-S just for some speacial wheels and paint, we hereby give the Awards Edition an award for the ultimate one-upsmanship.

Check the jump for more pics.

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Raptor In High Demand

The Ford F-150 SVT Raptor is outselling Ford’s initial predictions.

The ridiculously capable off-roader has received more than 5,300 orders to date, forcing Ford to increase production. The 320 horsepower V8 has even caught the attention of U.S officials, who are considering adding some Raptors to their fleet to monitor the U.S-Mexican border.

A 6.2 litre, 411 horsepower Raptor is now available for order.

This is how off-roading is done, Hummer.

You Can Buy a VW Scirocco in Canada Now!

When the new Scirocco first debuted, VW was quick to crush any hope that it would come to Canada. They said they wouldn’t make any money on it because it would be a low volume seller and all the money that it takes to make it Canada-ready just wouldn’t be worth it.

The VW Scirocco is essentially a better looking, racier version of the already awesome GTI and it has been receiving nothing but good reviews in Europe. Too bad you can’t experience it yourself.

Or can you?

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Oh Hi: 2011 Audi RS5 *

It is expected to make its debut in Geneva next week, but images from a brochure have now landed online.

There is little detail on the specs of this new RS5, but expect it to slot between the RS4 and RS6 which make 420 horsepower and 571 horsepower respectively. It will likely get its get up and go from a turbocharged version of the RS4′s V8 engine.

And on top of that, it’s damn sexy. We’ll report on more updates as they arise.

*UPDATE: Audi has confirmed that the new RS5 will make 450 horsepower from an updated 4.2 litre V8. Pound foot torque is going to be 317 and Audi is claiming a 0-100 time of 4.6 seconds.

See more sexiness after the jump.

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Antonov Still Wants In on Saab-Spyker Deal

The sale of Saab to Spyker has been officially been approved by GM thanks for Spyker following certain stipulations, some of which were a bit odd. Case in point, the reported request that chairman Vladamir Antonov be removed from Spyker.

It was originally thought that this request was made so that GM technology wouldn’t fall into Russian hands, but the true nature of the request was due to Antonov’s alleged ties to the Russian mafia.

Antonov agreed to step down, but he is now speaking out as to the reasons surrounding his role in the deal. And he still wants to be a part of it.

Could this cause enough friction to make the deal fall apart?

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Hyundai Going After Cheap Hot Hatch Segment

Car & Driver have spotted a new hatchback from Hyundai that is supposed to take aim at cheap pocket rockets such as the Volkwagen GTI, Mazdaspeed3, and Mini Cooper S.

It is going to be called the Veloster, and considering how much we liked the Genesis Coupe, we’re going to bet that the Veloster will have a lot of good things going for it (except its name).

The new hatch will be front-wheel drive and is expected to feature the same 2.0T engine found in the Genesis coupe, making 210 horsepower.

Expect the Veloster to show its face for 2012.