Test Drive: 2010 BMW X6 ActiveHybrid

By Kevin Harrison

There’s a problem with society. Well, there’s many problems actually. But most notably, we seem to always want and demand impossible combinations of stuff.

For instance, we all wish to eat healthy but as soon as companies cut fat or sodium from our foods, we all turn into pouty six year olds. With our arms crossed and our faces full of irritation we declare “I’m never buying this again” because the cheese with 25% less fat tastes like a rubber boot.

No matter where you are in Canada, people will insist that their roads are the worst in the country, as if it were some sort of accolade. But then when taxes get raised or money gets diverted to fix the roads, we all turn into selfish children yet again.

“Fix the roads with someone else’s money, not mine” we all say.

The same can be said for fuel efficiency and the environment. Sure, we’re all concerned about these issues (most of us are anyway), but are we willing to do anything about it? Nope. Because the energy efficient bulb takes a bit longer to reach its peak brightness it’s not worth buying apparently. And if you tell someone they’re going to have to downsize if they’d like to save on gas, they’ll look at you as if you hunt rats in the middle of the night for fun.

So due to these kinds of attitudes, we’re left with things like the X6 ActiveHybrid – a stab in the dark to try to bring us a solution to our uncompromisable problem – power yet efficiency. Has it worked?

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Oh Hi: 2011 Hyundai Elantra

It’s pretty much a Sonata mini-me. And that’s not a bad thing.

The new Elantra was revealed today at the Beijing Auto Show as the Avante (because that is what it’s called in China) and it is bigger than the current tired looking Elantra. It is expected to get a 138 horsepower direct injected inline four which makes 123 pound foot torque. It has a brand new 6-speed automatic which will help reduce gas consumption by 10%. We’re assuming a manual option will still be available.

There were rumours of a hybrid version being available as well to battle the Honda Civic Hybrid and, more likely, the Honda Insight. But Hyundai did not confirm this at the show.

The new Elantra will be available to buy here in either late 2010 or early 2011.

Keep up the good work, Hyundai! More pics after the jump.

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New BMW 3-Series Coupe Is Not Above Flirting With Men In Bathrooms

Yeah, you read that title correctly.

BMW Canada is targeting males aged 25-45 specifically for its new ad campaign of the newly refreshed 3-series coupe. How to you target men of that age? With sex of course.

Basically BMW is going to use new technology called ‘AddMirror’. When men approach the sink to (hopefully) wash their hands in a public bathroom, the ad will magically appear in the mirror using a proximity detector. But these men won’t know it’s an ad, at least not right away. The only thing that will appear are sexy/flirty type phrases that look like they’ve been written with red lipstick. Phrases such as “My body is absolutely stunning” or “I’ll make your heart pound”. BMW will also include a number under the flirty remarks for the men to text, thinking they’re texting some horny woman who is begging for some, um, attention. The men will likely be disappointed when images of the new BMW 3-series coupe is all that is returned from their text. Only mildly disappointed though, because the new 3-series coupe is quite the treat to look at.

This new campaign is being launched in men’s bathrooms at restaurants in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

Umm… Mazda2 Yozora Limited Edition Is A Bit Unfortunate

So…does Mazda hate Canada or something? What did we do to deserve this?!

You are looking at a Canada-only option for the otherwise sweet Mazda2.  Why the hell are there so many 2′s for decals? In case you forget what you’re driving? In fact, why is there even decals to begin with?

In addition to the ridiculous decals, the Yozora Edition will get you 16 inch silver and black eight spoke alloys, a ‘unique’ Yozora spoiler, and Yozora badging…everywhere. Even the floor mats.

So why is this Canadian only? Well because Mazda is also going to throw in 15 inch steel wheels with winter tires should you decide on the Yozora package. Where else rocks steelies 6 months of the year!

Thankfully, the Yozora edition Mazda2 is limited to only 500 units.

Yikes! Citroën Nemo Horribly Fails the ‘Moose Test’

You may be wondering why we are reporting about a car that isn’t even sold here and seemingly has nothing to do with Canada.

Well, two reasons:

1) In Europe they perform standard safety tests on all vehicles sold there, one of which is called the ‘Moose Test’ (also known as the ‘Elk Test’ depending on which part of Europe you’re in). We have these types of tests as well in North America, but they are commonly referred to here as “emergency lane change” tests. Seeing as how we have a large population of moose (or is it meese?), this test is pretty relevant for us. Especally for the fine folk in Newfoundland where car-moose crashes are unfortunately quite common.

2) Fiat has a car that called the Qubo, which is essentially the Nemo with different badging. Fiat is coming to Canada and they have released their five year business plan for us Canuks, which includes an MPV down the line. It’s very possible that the Qubo will be said MPV.

The Nemo fails the test badly. In fact it failed so badly that it actually rolled over. A big reason why is that the Nemo is not offered with stability control. Luckily, the Fiat comes with stability control standard so this likely won’t be an issue should the Qubo make its way to our shores.

But, as we’ve seen, the stability control doesn’t always work at the precise right time in order to prevent rollovers.

Citroen has said, after seeing this video, that stability control will be standard on all Nemos starting in July.

2012 Mercedes-Benz ML Prototype Involved In Fatal Accident

Mercedes-Benz was testing their new 2012 ML-Class this past weekend when they were involved in a fatal accident in Germany on the Autobahn.

There were three vehicles involved in the accident. A 26 year old man had been involved in a minor accident just moments prior as he apparently experienced a problem with his vehicle which caused him to collide with the guard rail. Two good samaritans pulled over to offer assistance.

As the 26 year old was exiting his vehicle, the ML prototype struck him and his vehicle at a high rate of speed. This caused the 26 year old’s vehicle to strike one of the good samaritan’s vehicle. Apparently the ML driver had not noticed the other accident. The ML then rolled over after striking both vehicles.

The 26 year old was killed upon impact and the driver of the ML was taken to hospital with serious injuries. The good samaritan’s received minor injuries.

Our condolences to the families of those involved.

Ouch! BMW Ups The Ante in Audi Rivalry

The BMW vs. Audi rivalry is heating up again!

The last showdown was in the form of television ads, but now BMW is apparently taking it to a whole new level: Audi’s own turf!

The pic you see above is a billboard that BMW erected in Hong Kong advertising the efficiency of the 3-series (likely the 335d). Seems harmless enough right? Well BMW decided the best place to advertise the 3-series was right above Audi’s own showroom! Ballsy!

Can’t wait to see how Audi will respond. And you know they will respond.

No matter which way you sway, whether its Audi or BMW, you’re going to end up with a tremendous performance machine, which is what makes this rivalry so interesting and exciting!

Good Work! Porsche 918 Will Likely See Production Thanks Public Interest

To those of you that can likely afford the Porsche 918 concept you see above and wrote in to Porsche to express your interest, give yourselves a pat on the back.

It’s because of you that Porsche now has a business case to actually build the 918. We mentioned a while back that Porsche would only consider building it if there was interest, so we pushed for people to write in. And it worked.

Porsche required “1,000 seriously interested people to build a business case” said the development chief for Porsche, Wolfgang Duerheimer. To date, they have 900 seriously interested people with the expectation of that number growing beyond 1,000.

Even if they somehow don’t reach that magic 1,000 number, Porsche is likely to build the 918 anyway. They built the Carerra GT afterall and that car, even though it isn’t around today, really set the benchmark in the hypercar world.

No doubt the 918′s supposed 0-100 in 3.2 seconds and its 3 L per 100 kms rating will also be benchmarking.

This is one of the many reasons why we adore Porsche.

Alfa Romeo Spyder Likely to Be Built In Ontario

In its 5 year business plan, head of Fiat Sergio Marchionne let us in on which Alfa Romeo models will be heading to Canadian soil. One of which is the Sypder.

During the presentation Marchionne was asked where the Canadian destined Alfa’s will be built, and he hinted right here in our backyard.

“That car may go to Brampton (Ontario)” replied Marchionne of the Spyder. Italian cars, Alfa’s specifically, aren’t exactly known for their reliability scores, so Canadian made Alfa’s is great news. If the Spyder gets built at the same Chrysler plant in Brampton, there’s a good possibility that other Alfa’s will be built there as well, which naturally, will create more jobs.

Expect Alfa Romeos to be available for sale sometime in 2012.

High Initial Demand For LEAF

Nissan has been officially taking orders for its new all-electric game changer, the LEAF, for the past few days. In 65 hours is has received 6,635 customers sign up to reserve one. A $99 refundable deposit is required to reserve a LEAF.

Demand was particularly high within the first three hours as 2,700 eager beavers couldn’t wait to reserve one.

So far people from Tennessee, Oregon, San Diego, Seattle and the Phoenix/Tucson region in Arizona are the ones mostly signing up – exactly Nissan’s targeted market.

Nissan also added that they have introduced six other colours for the LEAF, should the standard blue you see above all over the internets not tickle your fancy. Oddly enough, green is not an available colour. Perhaps Nissan figured that would be a bit too cliche?

Longest Name Award: Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SuperVeloce China Limited Edition

We knew Lamborghini wouldn’t just sit around while Maserati came up with a credible challenger for longest car name. Obviously, this is not why the Murcielago LP670-4 SuperVeloce China Limited Edition exists though.

This new Murcielago, as you can insinuate by its name, is for the Chinese market only. What makes it so special?  Well lots of things. Wait, no. We mean, not much. You’ll get the special grey paint you see in the picture as well as that orange stripe down the middle which is supposed to be like an erupting volcano (no relation to the erupting volcano in Iceland currently interfering with air travel all over the world). But yeah, that’s about it. The owner will also get their name on it with a numbered badge and that’s kinda cool… if you’re a huge douche. When time comes to sell it, who is going to buy a used Lamborghini with someone else’s name on it?

Oh Hi: 2010 BMW Gran Coupe Concept*

Our friends at TopSpeed have received official images of the 2010 BMW Gran Coupe that was unveiled today at the Beijing Auto show.

Clearly, it isn`t a coupe. This makes one question the name, but it is very sleek looking and coupe-like as a result and is possibly an answer to Mercedes-Benz`s CLS.

Despite the simplicity of the design, it is achingly pretty. If they offer a 6-speed manual with it, consider us very intrigued. Let`s hope BMW actually builds this concept that suspiciously looks production ready.

There are no specifications on engines yet, but you know we`ll update you as soon as BMW releases it.

See more of the Gran Coupe`s sexiness after the jump.

*UPDATE: Video of the live unveiling also added after the jump.

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BMW Will Build Megacity Electric Vehicle in 2013

BMW has been promising us a `Megacity`electric vehicle and they will be delivering that promise in 2013.

The biggest news is that it actually won`t be badged as a BMW. It`s going to be a part of a new sub-brand much in the same way that Mini is built by BMW but is its own brand. It`s unclear whether this new brand will be exclusively for electric vehicles or perhaps just for EfficientDynamics type of vehicles.

BMW is claiming that the new Megacity will be mostly made up of carbon fiber which helps to keep weight down, improving performance and efficiency. The only downside is carbon fiber is pretty expensive, so the hope of a cheap city EV isn`t too likely. BMW is hoping to get valuable information from the Mini E, an all electric Mini, which is currently in the pilot stage in selected states down south.

Also noteworthy is the expected appearance of an electric version of the new 5-series which is supposedly going to debut in Beijing. It will be called the `Echo`. BMW isn`t planning on producing the 5-series Echo, so Toyota likely won`t be up in arms about the name. It`s more of a experiment with the help of students from Tongji University in China.

BMW claims the Megacity will have a range of 257 kms before needing to be charged and they are not expected to lease the battery packs seperately like some automakers are doing *cough* Nissan Leaf *cough*

Chevrolet Volt MPV5 Revealed in Beijing

Toyota reportedly has plans to make a minivan version of the Pruis, so naturally, Chevrolet wants to try something similar with the Volt. When the Prius first debuted, it pretty much had the hybrid segment all to itself for a long time, so Chevy wants to make sure Toyota doesn’t have that advantage again.

The only problem is the Volt MPV isn’t likely to be built because apparently Voltec technology isn’t suitable for any vehicle that is bigger or even smaller than the Volt.

Alan Taub, Vice President of research and development explains “with battery technology as it currently stands, extended-range vehicles that are larger than the Volt – luxury saloons, trucks and SUVs – aren’t really possible; they would simply be too heavy to be efficient. For those types of cars, fuel cells and biofuels are the future“.

This doesn`t necessarily perclude the idea of a Volt minivan, SUV or even a pickup truck becoming a reality some day though, we would just need to wait a while before they come to fruition. GM would have to develop new technology that would be able to handle bigger and smaller vehicles.

Check out more pics of the Volt MPV5 after the jump.

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Oh Hi: Volvo C30 Polestar Performance Concept

Meet the C30 Polestar Performance Concept from Volvo. It’s one of the more attractive Volvos that you likely will never see on the streets because it won’t be available for sale. Bummer.

Its existance is purely for just-for-the-hell-of-it reasons because Volvo and Polestar were curious about what they’d end up with if they built a race ready C30 without the regulatory body getting in the way. The end result? Stunning. Even though it’s not the colour I’d choose (though I could easily warm up to it), this is the most interesting Volvo to come along in a long time. And those wheels are just fantastic.

It has the same T5 engine found in the roadgoing C30, but Polestar has tuned it to 405 horsepower thanks to a much bigger turbo, a massive intercooler and custom internals.  Volvo’s AWD system makes sure the Polestar C30 stays planted.

In addition there are brakes supplied by Brembo, an Ohlins suspension set up and a quick ratio steering rack.

Has this got you drooling yet? Me too. Volvo & Polestar aren’t nice at all for teasing us like this. Build it, Volvo!