Dave Mulroney is our Ambassador to China and he recently is catching some flack for a recent purchase. No, it’s not any sort of spending scandal but it’s apparently due to the choice of government vehicle that Mulroney recently posted pics of. Mulroney’s Toyota Camry Hybrid (which is identical to the one posted above) was immediately mocked by over 1000 Chinese as soon as he posted the picture. In China, most politicians are seen in uber premium German sedans, primarily Audis. One Chinese commuter commented:

“It’s always best to yield to an Audi — you never know who you’re messing with, but chances are it’s someone self-important.”

In China, Camry’s are generally regarded as cars the next step up from buses and bikes. That’s about it. A fellow Chinese Ambassador also joined in the ribbing as he posted to Mulroney’s pics saying “A Chinese mid-level cadre wouldn’t lay an eye on your car!”

Mulroney actually responded to the Chinese backlash saying that he only has a budget of around $32,000 (CAD) to spend on his governmental vehicle and that spending any more is outside of the set guidelines.

“I have to answer to Canadian expectations. What happens to China is for Chinese people to decide,” Mulroney continued. He also said he originally posted his hybrid because he often gets questions about how the embassy operates, and how much money is usually spent. Mulroney said he was just trying to seem transparent with the Chinese people, something that their government is often criticized for not being.

While this certainly won’t spark any sort of international incident, it does indeed show different cultures attitudes towards certain vehicles and vehicle makes.

[The Globe & Mail]

*UPDATE: Fiat has jsut released a pic of what the 500L is going to look like. Click past the jump to check it out.

If the Fiat 500 is just a tad too much on the small side for you, stay tuned because there is actually a five door coming.

Dubbed as the 500L, the five door version will get a taller roof line than the three door and will ride on the same chasis of the Fiat Punto. The 500L is expected to be slightly wider as well.

Likely to power the 500L is a 1.4 litre Multi-air four cylinder to make about 105 horsepower. A diesel option is expected as well, but whether or not that makes it to Canada is anyone’s guess. And if you’re a gambler I’d suggest betting against a diesel version gracing our shores.

The 500L will officially debut at this year’s Geneva Auto Show and will go on sale in Europe in July. North American sales will probably begin in the fall.

The 500L joins an already various 500 line up with the three door, cabriolet, and Abarth. An all electric version is planned down the road as well.

[Autoblog Canada]

Volvo may be pumping up performance in the S60 with the R-Design but that doesn’t mean that they’ve lost sight of their roots: safety. Case in point, the 2012 S60 has just earned perfect ratings in all categories including frontal, side and pole crash tests run by the National Highway Traffic Safety Association. The S60 aced the pole crash test in particular as no other vehicle’s occupants (read test dummies) has ever faired as well in that test.

The S60 is just the second vehicle to ever ace all of the NHTSA tests. It joins only the Chevrolet Camaro for perfect marks.

So, we have a stylish, fun to drive Swedish sports sedan that will likely keep you together in one piece if you wrap accidentally wrap it around a tree. What’s not to like? The S60 is starting to look more and more like this year’s most underrated car. Now all Volvo needs to go is offer it with a proper six-speed manual and then they’ll have a clear winner for sure.

Click the video above to see the side crash test of the S60.

[Examiner.com]

Just when it seemed like wagon aficionados were going to have to make an occupy-every-auto-manufacturer movement, BMW swoops in with some exciting news.

If Endras BMW is to be believed (who by the way seems to have taken over representing BMW in Canada from the ever dormant BMW Canada), the 5-series is going to be available on our shore in diesel form! The 550d in Europe gets a tri-turbo 3.0 litre six which makes 375 horsepower and a whopping 546 pound feet of torque all while returning on average 6.3 L/100 kms and producing 167 g/km of carbon dioxide.

But wait, it gets better.

The 550d will also come with BMW’s X-Drive all-wheel drive system optional as well as BMW’s M package being available to spruce things up look-wise.

But probably the best news of all? This can all be had in wagon for as well. BMW had decided to not sell the 5-series wagon on our shores with the 5-series GT stepping in to fill the gap. However, as good as the 5-series GT is, it’s not exactly a sales star.

The 550d with the M-pack and in wagon form was actually Jeremy Clarkson’s pick for car of the year this year and it’s not hard to see why.

All this seems too good to be true and when that happens, it usually is. However, Endras BMW claims an 550d Xdrive M wagon can be available to us Canucks as early as March.

Now, all BMW needs to do is add a manual transmission to that wagon and boy, do we ever have one drool-worthy family hauler.

[Endras BMW]

 Looks like Ford’s Explorer is going to be getting some steep competition in the form of the new Nissan Pathfinder….concept. Yes, despite its production ready looks, Nissan is still dubbing this one a concept.

Despite this, Nissan is giving a few details. Probably the biggest change in the new Pathfinder is its unibody platform which, as Nissan points out, reduces weight significantly. This, in addition to a new V6 mated to a CVT, means that the Pathfinder will be more efficient than the outgoing model. 25% more efficient in fact.  While there are no official fuel economy numbers just yet, a 25% reduction in fuel usage for a 7-passenger CUV is fairly impressive.

“Nissan is in a great position today.  Sales are up, market share is increasing and our dealers have a great selection of 2012 Nissan cars, trucks and SUVs in inventory,” said Michael Colleran, Regional Vice President of Field Sales and Sales Operations, Nissan Canada Inc.  “This new Pathfinder Concept is just the beginning of a far-reaching wave of new products on the horizon for Nissan.  By the end of 2012, more than 70 per cent of our sales volume will be all-new or redesigned.”

Indeed, big things are happening at Nissan and it’s a bit risky to change over the platform of a tried tested and trusty model such as the Pathfinder, but Nissan hopes this will generate into more agreeable reactions to city driving all while keeping the Pathfinder’s offroad prowess.

Once the Pathfinder is revealed in non-concept mode, there will likely be more specs to report and Car Driven will have all the details. What do you think of the Pathfinder Concept?

[Nissan Canada]

Canadians still prefer the Honda Civic despite new offerings from Hyundai, Ford, Chevrolet and Mazda.

For the 14th year in a row, the Civic has been named Canada’s best selling car with 55,090 iterations of the Civic being sold. The runner up is the Hyundai Elantra, with the Mazda3 coming in next, followed by Chevrolet’s Cruze.

“First and foremost, we thank the thousands of Canadians who bought Honda Civic models this past year to make the Civic the number one car in Canada for the fourteenth consecutive year,” said Honda Canada in a statement.

And thank them they should since this model year Civic has been widely criticized for lackluster performance, sub-par quality and boring styling – things that never would have been said about Civics of the past. This, apparently, has not deterred Canadians and Honda should thank their lucky starts for that, as Consumer Reports for the first time ever did not recommend the 2012 Civic. It is rumoured that Honda is going back to the drawing board to address these issues. The changes could come as early as the 2013 model year.

[Honda Canada]

Better late than never I guess?

It’s fairly well known that GM’s full-size SUV’s are pretty easy to steal, specifically the Escalade as it consistently gets the unhonourable accolade of ‘most stolen vehicle’, except for this year that is. But regardless it’s consistently in the top ten most stolen.

For some reason it took GM this long to actually address the issues that make it so easy to steal an Escalade in the first place, namely making a steering column lock that actually works, an alarm system that actually comes on when when the windows get smashed, wheel locks and and encrypted key. But these new features are now standard on all Escalades which is a step in the right direction. So what if you own a Tahoe or Yukon which are equally is easy to steal? Better ensure you have great insurance coverage because GM hasn’t addressed those vehicles. Yet. Hopefully they will soon.

At least now it will take thieves longer than 14 seconds to steal an your Escalade if you’re an owner.

[General Motors]

Remember when Ford and Chevrolet put a V6 in the engine bay of their respected muscle cars? The consensus of muscle car aficionados was akin to something like Tim Horton’s taking away Boston cream donuts. It apparently was just unthinkable.

Well now there might be something in development for the Mustang which would be akin to hell freezing over for pretty much any ‘Stang fan, or muscle car junkie in general.

Apparently Ford may be looking into making an all-electric Mustang. Impossible you say? Maybe not. Consider this:

1) All-electric vehicles are making a come back in a big way. There are currently at least ten automakers investing heavily in the technology, not least of which is Ford with the preparation of the launch of the all-electric Focus to bow very soon.

2) Automakers like Tesla with their Roadster, Audi’s E-Tron or BMW with their i8 (I know, the latter is not fully electric, but there’s a lot of electric technology in there) are proving that electric vehicles don’t have to be boring. In fact, performance electric vehicles is a new emerging segment. Therefore Ford could easily nab the “cheap” performance electric vehicle title with an all-electric Mustang.

3) This is probably the most important point of all. I have a source that has revealed exclusively to Car Driven that a prototype is already made, in fact it was witnessed in seclusion by said source. It’s possible this was just a regular electric car conversion, however considering the fuss made when a picture was trying to be taken, it’s clear this is something that Ford wants quiet for the time being.

While all of this remains speculation at the moment, you can be sure that Car Driven will do more digging to see what else is out there on the electric ‘Stang.

What do you think of the idea of an all-electric muscle car?

I recently had to rent a car for my day job and reserved a mid-size. When I got there to pick up the vehicle they told me they had a shiny new silver Dodge Caliber waiting for me. Aside from the fact that the Caliber is not considered to be a mid-size, I had to insist on another vehicle. Luckily another vehicle has available so I took it, but I also said “you must get that a lot” right after she announced the Dodge Caliber was the vehicle I’d be driving.

“Actually we get specific requests for the Caliber,” she replied. Shocked, I could only muster an abashed look followed by “really?”

“Yeah but it’s either a request to specifically get the Caliber or a request to get anything but a Caliber,” she continued. It seems the Caliber is either a love it or hate it car. Put me in the hate camp.

The good news, for us in the hate camp anyway, is that Dodge has officially stopped production of the Caliber today. I can’t lie, I might have cracked open a celebratory beer when I heard the news.

When the Caliber came onto the scene in 2007 to replace the equally bad SX 2.0 (aka Neon 2.0) it was met with polarizing opinions and mixed reviews. The car’s chunky, sloppy styling matched with a garbage Jatco-sourced CVT, an unrefined ride, no feedback to the steering wheel, poor interior layout and materials, and lackluster fuel efficiency made it easy to label the Caliber as a joke compared to its competition. Exclusive features such as a cooler-like glove box for drinks and a drop down stereo for tailgate parties was not enough to overlook just how terrible the Caliber really was.

Dodge then tried to come up with a credible contender to the Honda Civic Si and Chevrolet Cobalt SS. The Caliber SRT-4 (pictured above) was probably the only interesting iteration of the Caliber but they somehow managed to make it uglier than the more sedated versions. On top of that, it still lacked the refinement and precision of the Civic Si.

So generally an overall fail in my books, however if you are one of the few on the love-the-Caliber bandwagon, sorry for your loss.

The good news is the Caliber’s replacement is expected to come in the form of a re-badged Alfa Romeo which should make Dodge’s new offering in the segment much more competitive. The replacement can’t come soon enough.

I would say R.I.P to the Caliber, but I’ll just end by saying good riddance.

[The Detroit News]

]]> http://www.cardriven.ca/2011/12/dodge-finally-stops-producing-the-caliber/feed/ 0 http://www.cardriven.ca/2011/12/audi-to-drop-manual-transmission-on-r8/ http://www.cardriven.ca/2011/12/audi-to-drop-manual-transmission-on-r8/#comments Wed, 21 Dec 2011 21:14:56 +0000 admin http://www.cardriven.ca/?p=3979

Another casualty.

Audi has just announced that it will no longer offer a manual transmission option for the 2014 model year of the R8 if Car Magazine is to be believed. And there really is no reason why they shouldn’t because it seems manual transmission options are dying off faster than support for Mayor Peter Kelly (that’s a Halifax reference for all you non-Haligonians).

Likely the reason for the omission is due to an unfortunate disinterest from most R8 customers to spec their new Audi with a third pedal. Curious, since manual transmissions are pretty synonymous with performance (at least with purists). The R8 can be described as nothing but a brilliant performance car. However the fact of the matter is, most automatic DSG transmissions can shift faster and more smoothly than you ever could. This certainly is an advantage on the track, however with the R8 being able to handle daily driver duties quite well, I personally would rather row my own gears while blasting through the countryside bends.

Another thing the 2014 R8 will not have is the signature side-blade.

Guess I’ll need to buy my R8 before 2014. Then again, Porsche still understands the joy of a performance machine mated to a manual transmission. I suppose I’ll be taking a 911 over an R8!

[Car]

If the picture didn’t already give it away, it’s the 2009 Toyota Venza. Shocked? Don’t blame you. The Cadillac Escalade and Honda Civic SiR have consistently traded the not so honourous title over the past several years.

It seems as though Venzas taken without permission are being sold to unsuspecting owners and it’s quite easy to do so. Also parts for the Venza are apparently in high demand (who would’ve thought), so those big 20 inch wheels are usually nothing but dollar signs for car thieves.

“Consumers need to be aware when they’re in the market for used vehicles or parts,” said Rick Dubin, Vice-President of Investigative Services at the IBC. “Those luxury, high-end vehicles may be hotter than you think.”

When Mercedes first announced that they were going to re-introduce the C-class coupe to our market, I was pretty excited. Then when details came out, I was left fairly underwhelmed. Why? Well there were three main things that stuck out for me:

1) The coupe was not going to get a manual transmission option. While I understand that automatics outsell manuals, Mercedes’ rivals, namely BMW, Audi and Infiniti, all offer manual transmission options in their small coupes. So there is at least some justification for a manual.

2) While there’s nothing inherently wrong with the C-class coupe’s design, it’s not really all that unique from the sedan. It seems all the designers did was remove the rear doors and lowered the roofline. Again, Mercedes’ rivals have made an effort to distinguish their coupes from their sedan siblings in terms of design.

3) There was no AWD option. BMW, Audi and Infiniti all have AWD as optional on their coupes.

Well, since the higher ups at Mercedes consistently read my blog and take my critcisms as sound advice (at least I like to tell myself that), they went ahead and addressed issue number three. Next year AWD will be optional on both the C-class and E-Class coupes. However, this option will be limited with models equipped with the 3.5 litre V6 which makes a healthy 302 horsepower and 273 pound feet of torque. If you wish to go with the more tame C300, it’s rear wheel drive only for you. Which, let’s face it, can be a good thing most of the time.

Now, all Mercedes needs to do is, at the very least, address issue number one and they will have a credible contender in a very tough segment.

Would you equip your C-class coupe with AWD or leave it to the rear wheels to do all the work?

[Car and Driver]

What’s the average lifespan of the Maybach brand? Well apparently about 10 years.

If Autoweek is to be believed, and there’s no reason why they shouldn’t, Mercedes-Benz is going to kill off the uber luxury mark in 2013. Mercedes resurrected the Maybach brand back in 2002 but sales have been disappointing ever since the launch. As a result, Mercedes made the obvious decision.

But if you are indeed in the 1%, then don’t fret because the two models currently sold under Maybach, also known as the 57 and the 62 (the latter is pictured above), will continue on once the next generation S-class arrives. They will officially be named the S600 Pullman and it will be Mercedes’ answer to Bentley and Rolls Royce.

This is also unfortunate for rapper Rick Ross who foolishly decided to name his record label Maybach Music Group due to his love of Maybachs. Not the best idea in hindsight. Oh well.

[Autoweek]

Shhh! If you live in Calgary you might want to think twice about adding an intake to your vehicle. That’s because the police in Calgary have teamed up with a company that procudes what it calls Noise Scan – a camera that comes to life through sound. If your car is too loud it will snap a pic of your vehicle’s license plate and you can then look forward to a $200 ticket in the mail.

Each Noise Scan costs roughly $112,000 but the police in Calgary were lucky enough to snag one for free as a part of a pilot project.

So, what’s the point of it all? Well apparently the creator of Noise Scan, Mark Nesdoly, decided to create it because one night a bunch of motorcylces drove by his house and woke up his daughter. Yeah, that’s it. That’s the only reason why we now have another cash grab for the government. Pretty sweet, eh?

That said, I can somewhat relate to Nesdoly’s frustration as most of the time when you are having a pleasant conversation on a nice summer’s day it will be rudely interupted by a bunch of Harley’s roaring by. But that still wouldn’t anger me enough to invent such a device, I would just chalk it up as a minor nuissance. And it’s not as if it’s the owner’s fault that the particular vehicle he/she is driving is so loud (unless they modded it for that purpose). Case in point, have you ever heard the exhaust note of a Maserati Quattroporte? If you haven’t, click the video above. Not only does it sound like a symphony of greatness, but it’s probably just as loud as certain motorcycles and that’s certainly not the fault of the owner that their vehicle comes that way from the factory.

There has been no detail given as of yet as to what decible level will trigger the Noise Scan but the Calgary police have stated that they will provide free clinics for people who are concerned their vehicles might be too loud. Not sure what that would entail, but at least the option is available.

What do you think of the new pilot project? Do you think it’s worth it? Do you find exhaust notes of certain vehicles to be a problem where you live? Sound off in the comments.

[Calgary Herald]

I recently had the opportunity to review the 2011 C30 T5. My conclusion? A very capable, fun to drive hot hatch. The turbocharged 5 cylinder engine is quite good. But now Volvo is giving current T5 owners the opportunity to make it even better.

If you are the current owner of a 2008+ C30, C70 or S40 with the T5 engine, Volvo will upgrade your engine with 23 more horsepower and 29 more pound feet of torque for $1,295. That will give your Volvo a total of 241 horses and 236 pound feet of torque. Considering the price and the fact that it will not void your warranty, that’s a pretty good deal.

“Our performance-minded customers have demonstrated that there is interest in developing warranty-friendly performance upgrades for their vehicles,” said Carol Kitchen, vice president of customer service for Volvo Cars of Canada, “This Polestar tuning program allows driving enthusiasts to unlock the power potential of our engines.”

Volvo received immensely high praise when they teamed up with Polestar to produce the C30 Polestar concept earlier this year.

Sounds like Volvo is very close to perfecting the performance + safety recipe. Exciting!

Would you pay for the performance upgrade?

[Volvo Canada]