12/09/2010

RPMGO Car Blog

RPMGO Car Blog


Silver – Still The Most Popular Color

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 12:21 PM PST

Silver is still the most popular color in the world, but it seems that black is gaining serious terrain. According to the 58th edition of DuPont global automotive report, there is a 2% gap between silver and black. The latter is very popular outside the North American continent. Between 2000 and 2007, silver was the most popular color in the world for cars, but it was dethroned by white that year. Two years later, in 2009, it climbed back to the first position and for this year, it rivals with black.

According to the DuPont color marketing manager, Nancy Lockhart – "black is so popular everywhere right now – mainly because it is known as a luxury-type color – that will probably surpass silver. Silver will always be a top color of preference. It just may not be No. 1."

In 2010, silver held the first place in South Korea, China, Brazil, South America and second for South Africa, India and Japan. In Europe, the most popular color was black, followed by gray and silver. In Mexico, the favorite color was black, second was white and ending the top three was silver. For the Pacific/Asia region, black and light neutrals held the top positions. In North America, the most popular color was white/pearl, for the 4th consecutive year. Black settled for the second place for compact sport and luxury automobiles.

Lockhart added that black is a top choice for China car buyers as well. She affirmed that luxury-type small-sized automobiles are becoming a more exclusive segment outside of a young market that wants bright and live colors. An emerging and rather new market is the one for small cars that have luxury features and colors (like black).

Globally, gray and white are competing for the 4th spot. This year, gray has benefited from a 3% in popularity. Lockhart added that "if you want to change up your car from silver but aren't ready for a huge shift, gray is a space that can be updated easily." She concluded that gray will remain as a top three solution as far as color request for cars.

Globally, silver holds the number one spot with 26%, followed by black with 24%, white / pearl with 16%, gray 16%, red 6% percent, blue 5%, brown / beige 3%, green 2%, yellow / gold 1% as well as other colors that have less than 1%.

The DuPont report for this year will include for the first time, trends from South Africa, which show 35% popularity for white.

Post published on Rpmgo.com

Silver – Still The Most Popular Color

2011 Land Rover Range Rover Supercharged

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 12:19 PM PST

2011 Land Rover Range Rover Supercharged

The 2011 Land Rover Range Rover Supercharged is the latest iteration of the company's most famous sport utility vehicle. The Supercharged model is sold along with a naturally aspirated version of its V8 5.0-liter. Although it is not as beautiful as the Range Rover Sport or the Jaguar XKR which are both powered by the same engine, it has the same incredible power and in addition, it can carry more cargo and will offer more room for the people in the car.

Back in 2002, the Range Rover received a significant update and since then, the British manufacturer refined and tweaked the model several times in order to keep it fresh in the eyes of potential customers that were willing to pay a six-figure price tag for a massive SUV. Last year, the model received an important overhaul, including the introduction of the powerful V8 5.0-liter. This power unit is available for other models from Jaguar and Land Rover. For next year, the car has been tweaked again, this time in a more gentle matter and in those areas where it matters the most to us.

The trademark of the Range Rover exterior was and still is the boxy appearance. Of course, the 2011 still looks just about the same: heavy and expensive, nothing wrong with that in our opinion. Looking at it from far away you will not notice many differences in comparison with the outgoing model but giving it a more attentive look, you will notice the few subtle curves in the slight hood creases. The car now rides on imposing 20-inch, 10-spoke aluminum rims. With this facelift, the Range Rover benefits from new headlamps as well as a set of LED taillights.

Despite the exterior of the car maintains the same traditional line we are all accustomed to, the interior is moving towards the 21st century with its tech-laden cabin. For those of you that enjoy the look and feel of metal, you should be happy to know that it was used for the pedals, shifter as well as other locations. The interior is available in a bundle of color variations and materials, like Ivory-colored elegant leather seats, Arabica Oxford hides and others as well that will suit various tastes and preferences.

Thanks to the high seating position of the Range Rover we all are accustomed to, the level of visibility is one of the best in its class. The Recaro power-adjustable front seats are not only very comfortable but very capable as well. In addition, the seats can be heated or cooled, for ultimate comfort, worthy of a car that costs more than $100,000. For those of you that are considering turning on the cooling fans of the seats, you should know that the noise level is audible, but that is the price to pay for luxury. In the back, the seats are also heated and can accommodate people over six-feet tall.

One of the most important optional features of the 2011 Land Rover Range Rover Supercharged is the powerful HarmanKardon audio system that offers 1200 watts of pure surround sound through the 19 speakers. With the 2010 facelift, Land Rover removed the classic analogue gauges for the new 12.3-inch TFT – Thin Film Transistor screen. These new modern digital gauges can easily be read during the day and will allow the drive to change various car settings. They look excellent during nighttime driving, offering a very hi-tech look.

2011 Land Rover Range Rover Supercharged

The powerful V8 5.0-liter is linked to the new 6-speed automatic gearbox that is capable of sending the massive 510 hp and the 461 pound-feet of torque through all four wheels. The peak torque is available from 2,500 rpm through 5,500 rpm. This massive 5,900 pounds SUV needs only about 6 seconds to reach 60 mph from 0, which is quite impressive.

The air suspension of the car is one of the most versatile units that ever equipped an SUV. On the standard side of the ledger, the driver can raise or lower the car's ride from its normal height of 9.1 inches. The off-road mode of the air suspension will increase the ground clearance by two inches, reaching 11.1. The Terrain Response offers the following modes: rock crawl, mud & ruts, sand, grass & gravel & snow plus the standard road setting. The entire system will control the SUV's throttle response, engine speed and braking.

The average fuel economy for this sport utility vehicle monster is 12 mpg in the city and 19 mpg on the highway, according to Environmental Protection Agency. The new modern 6-speed automatic gearbox does a perfect job of channeling the massive power to the wheels, especially in the Sport mode, where the gear changes are done very fast, without affecting the inhabitants of the car. For efficient and safe braking, the engineers at Land Rover equipped the 2011 Range Rover with 15-inch front rotors with 6-piston calipers and 14.4-inch discs for the wheels in the back.

The question is: does the 2011 Land Rover Range Rover Supercharged deserve its $103,000 price tag? Some may say yes, while other may disagree. Some of its most important rivals in the same price segment are the Porsche Cayenne Turbo, the Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG and the BMW X5 M. All these have a massive powerful V8 power unit that is capable of outputting around 500 hp and a similar level of features. From all of these cars, the Range Rover is the slowest and the heaviest, but at the same time, it offers more room in the interior.

Source: AutoBlog.com

Post published on Rpmgo.com

2011 Land Rover Range Rover Supercharged

In Depth – 2011 Chrysler 200

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 12:18 PM PST

2011 Chrysler 200

The people over at Chrysler knew that they had some serious actions to take in order to regain the much important buyer confidence. It seems that the company is slowly but surely recuperating some terrain with the launch of the new models for Dodge and Jeep, some of which were already officially unveiled while others will be launched in the upcoming months. This improved situation is mostly because of the new management guided by the Italians at Fiat. However, the story with the Chrysler cars is not that great as there are no real indications of upcoming progress for their models and buyers are very confused as far as the company is concerned.

After the famous Chapter 11 Chrysler emerged from some time ago, it was clear since then that the automaker will not resurrect the Sebring model. The model had a very long and degrading lifespan as a rental car service and it was neglected by both engineers and designers. All these made the Sebring a car that was a few leagues behind its most important rivals, even in 2007 when Chrysler rolled out the third generation of the car.

The American manufacturer decided to get rid of the Sebring name probably because of its bad history and launch the 200 model. The Chrysler 200 is a small-sized sedan that is based on the Sebring but comes with new sheet metal parts plus an updated interior. The mechanical compartment of the car was also reworked in order to fill in the gap with its most important competitors. The final product is a car that should have been manufactured from day one – an efficient cruiser that offers a bundle of features even on the entry-level trims. With the 200 model, Chrysler is hoping that people will forget about the Sebring model and focus on the future.

The designers over at Chrysler did everything in their power to give the new 200 model its own personality, differentiating it from the now defunct Sebring model. What they did is they added interesting details like the sculpted headlights for example, that have projection lenses and LED accents. They removed the Sebring's weird striations and offered the 200 a fresh new look. To be more exact, they changed almost everything from the A-pillar forward. The front fascia of the 200 has now a more mature look with elegant brightwork that is nested down low plus a fancy grille that has blades which mirror the new updated design from Chrysler. Though the front look of the 200 model is somewhat anonymous, it still looks quite attractive in the opinions of many, including us.

Moving towards the back of the car, the Chrysler 200 is just as attractive, with its stylish sharp LED taillights, the cleaner rear fascia and the small strips of shiny down low and up top. Having a closer look at the back of the 200 model, you will notice that it looks similar to the Jaguar XF, which is definitely not a bad thing, taking into consideration that the XF is one of the most beautiful cars launched lately.

There are of course some bad parts with the Chrysler 200, like the same side profile and identical roofline with the Sebring. If you notice these, you will most likely think that the 200 is an updated version of the Sebring model. The car offers a clean look at its back thanks to the fact that it does not have any badges except the Silver Wing, but what we don't like is the fact that it has very unattractive chrome "200" emblems on the car's C pillars. We hope that Chrysler will eliminate them once they start working on the facelift model.

2011 Chrysler 200

Although the exterior of the car received many well-deserved updates, it is the interior that suffered many changes from the now archaic Sebring model. The Rubbermaid-style plastics are now history as the car now features soft-touch materials on the door panels and the dash. In addition, the car is now equipped with elegant high quality leather seats that are a delight to see and feel. The revision of the interior is capital as every single component (with two exceptions) of the cockpit has been either changed or thoroughly revised in order to forget about the rusty look of the Sebring. Which are the two exceptions you ask? The shifter and the hand-brake lever which still have the same cheap-feeling plastics that are not worthy of this new interior.

Moving on to the mechanical part of the 200, potential customers can get the car with the excellent V6 Pentastar engine that is capable of producing 283 hp and a decent 260 pound-feet torque. This new powerful V6 engine (linked to the all-new 6-speed automatic gearbox) will do 29 mpg on the highway, in comparison to the 31 mpg for the 4-cylinder. The latter has 100 hp less than the Pentastar which makes it a very unattractive offer, although it has 2 mpg to offer.

The entry-level Chrysler 200 will be available with the same 4-speed automatic transmission, just as the 2010 Sebring. Most likely, the 4-cylinder engine linked to this gearbox will be for the rental car duty. As an optional feature, the 200 can be fitted with a modern 6-speed automatic gearbox for the 2.4-liter and the 2.6-liter power units. For the 4-cylinder, Chrysler will be introducing a new 6-speed dual-clutch gearbox, as an optional feature.

The base model will have a price tag of $19,995, which is pretty good in our opinion. Even the more expensive trim level, the Limited that has the V6 under the hood will cost you only $24,495. The trim offers attractive 18-inch rims, a 30 GB hard drive-based stereo and stylish leather seats.

All things considered, the Chrysler 200 is a significant improvement over the Sebring model, but there are still a lot of issues to be resolved, hopefully with the next facelift due in a few years probably.

Source: AutoBlog.com

Post published on Rpmgo.com

In Depth – 2011 Chrysler 200

Mercedes Indian Plant Sees Production Growth

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 12:16 PM PST

Due to the increase of luxury cars demand in India, Daimler AG is planning on investing approximately $78 million (3.5 billion rupees) in the Indian factory that manufactures Mercedes-Benz automobiles. Starting today, Daimler has added a second shift at the Pune unit located in western India, a second shift that will be able to double the annual capacity of Mercedes-Benz cars, reaching 10,000 units, according to the local director of corporate affairs, Suhas Kadlaskar. He added that Daimler will spend an additional 2 billion rupees for a paint shop that will be open for business in 2012.

Back in September, the head of the local Mercedes Benz unit said that the company is expecting that the vehicles sold in India will rival to the UK within 10 years as rising wealth increases the demand for luxury automobiles. According to the data published by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, Daimler's passenger vehicle commercialization in India went up by 79% in comparison to the similar period of last year, reaching 3,827 cars between April and November. BMW's sales also went up, this time by 72%, reaching 4,031 units.

According to Forbes, the rich get richer in India as the combined net worth of the country's 100 wealthiest people reached the record level of $300 billion in 2010, which is the equivalent of approximately one quarter of the Indian gross domestic product. A report published two months ago by Credit Suisse Group AG, stated that the India's wealthy may double their assets over the next five years, reaching $6.4 trillion, as their economic growth swells their ranks. This possible increase will probably translate into a higher demand for luxury products, including automobiles.

In this fiscal year, Tata Motors who is the owner of Jaguar Land Rover will be opening up 10 new dealerships for the luxury car brands in the country as well as beginning to assembly the Land Rover SUV models in India starting with mid-2011. The Indian finance ministry raised the economic growth forecast yesterday for the current financial year. It seems that there are good chances that the economy will go up by about 9.1% this year. The projected growth rate was for about 8.25% – 8.75% back in February.

In addition to all these, the benchmark of the Sensitive Index of the Bombay Stock Exchange grew by 10% in 2010, making it one of the best performers in the 10 largest stock markets of the world.

Post published on Rpmgo.com

Mercedes Indian Plant Sees Production Growth

Ford Kuga/Escape Concept Will Be Revealed At Detroit Show

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 12:16 PM PST

2008 Ford Kuga

According to Automotive News Europe, the Ford Motor Company will be unveiling a near-production concept of a medium-sized sport utility vehicle that will replace the Escape in the United States and the Kuga in Europe. The official announcement will be done at the Detroit Motor Show that will be organized in January. The SUV will go into production in the second part of 2012 and it will be sold in the United States as a 2013 model.

The company has not decided yet if the new model will have the same name Kuga/Escape or they will share the same badge once it will be officially unveiled. The One Ford strategy uses a single name for the cars that are sold in different parts of the world, like the Focus and the Fiesta.

The Ford factory in Saarlouis, Germany will most likely lose production of this upcoming model for one of the factories in the United States. Most likely, the new model will be manufactured at the Louisville factory in Kentucky, where Ford is currently making the larger SUV model, the Explorer. In Kansas City, Missouri, the company is producing the Escape model, including a hybrid configuration.

According to Bernhard Mattes, who is running the Ford factories in Germany, the output of the new Focus model that went into production at the beginning of this week will be of about 1,850 per day. The 2012 Focus will be available for sale next March in Germany and by the second quarter of 2011, it should be available in the rest of the continent, according to Mattes.

2008 Ford Kuga

The Ford Kuga was first introduced at the Geneva Auto Show back in 2008 and since then it became a very popular car, ending 2009 as the 2nd best selling SUV in Europe. The best selling SUV of that year was the Volkswagen Tiguan, with 64,546 cars sold. According to JATO Dynamics, the German automaker managed to sell 107.897 Tiguans last year. For the first ten months of this year, Ford was able to deliver 61,146 units of the Kuga, which is 16.6% more in comparison to the similar period of last year. This increase of sales has shrunk the gap between the Kuga and the Tiguan, the latter managing to sell approximately 89,301 units.

The next generation of the Ford Kuga will be manufactured on the new global C architecture that debuted this year with the arrival of the C-Max medium minivan. With this new architecture, Ford will be manufacturing 2 million cars per year. The models underpinned by this architecture will share approximately 80% of the parts whether made in the United States, China, Russia or Europe The 10 models based on the new architecture are the current 5-seat C-Max, current 7-seat Grand C-Max, new Focus 5-door hatchback, new Focus 4-door sedan, new Focus wagon, full electric Focus, the replacements of the Kuga/Escape, Transit Connect small LCV replacement, possible Lincoln variant of the successor of the Kuga/Escape and possible 3-door coupe model, named "Capri."

Once the model is officially launched at the Detroit Motor Show in January 2011, we will be able to bring fresh information about the replacement of the Kuga/Escape SUV model from Ford.

Post published on Rpmgo.com

Ford Kuga/Escape Concept Will Be Revealed At Detroit Show

BMW, Toyota, Daimler Borrow Battery Strategy From Tesla

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 12:14 PM PST

Toyota RAV4 EV

It seems that BMW, Toyota and Daimler are looking for new and affordable ways of powering their future electric-powered cars that will replace the conventional gasoline-powered vehicles. These carmakers are testing at the moment the lithium-ion battery packs that are assembled by Silicon Valley for Tesla Motors. These units are more affordable than the bigger and car-only models that Nissan, General Motors and Mitsubishi are using. The beautiful and innovative Tesla Roadster that has a price tag of $109,000 is powered by no more than 6,831 cylinder-shaped cells that are manufactured by the Japanese giant Panasonic Corporation. With this battery, the Roadster is capable of doing 295 km (245 miles) on a full charge.

According to Sanyo Electric Company, who is at the moment the biggest producer of batteries in the world, the development of automobiles powered by lithium-ion batteries will triple the sales of these manufacturers in 10 years to $60 billion (5 trillion yen), from only 1, 5 trillion yen in March 2010. A Tokyo analyst that works for Advanced Research Japan stated that these rechargeable consumer-electronics batteries will benefit from an economy of scale which will most likely reduce the costs for manufacturing and cut the prices for electric cars. Endo added that "it may lead to the total component cost of an electric car getting lower than that of a gasoline car. As the cost lowers, there'll be more likelihood that retail prices of electric cars will drop."

According to Bloomberg  New Energy Finance, the cost of an electric vehicle at the moment is more than three-quarters higher in comparison to gasoline cars, as the Chevrolet Volt manufactured by General Motors has a base retail price of $41,000 while the Nissan Leaf's can be bought for a starting price of $32,780. According to consultant Frost & Sullivan, the cost for an electric automobile is almost double to manufacture in comparison to a gasoline-powered vehicle, because of the very expensive batteries that power these vehicles.

J.D. Power and Associates estimate that the sales of hybrids and electric vehicles will reach by the end of this year 954,000 units worldwide which is about 2.2% of the market share. The biggest shareholder at Sanyo is Panasonic, who is the main supplier of the lithium-ion batteries that power the Tesla. Last month, the Japanese electronics giant bought stakes that value $30 million at the company in Palo Alto, California. Besides Panasonic, other important companies that own stakes at Tesla are Daimler and Toyota.

After opening a new factory in Osaka, Japan; Panasonic raised their annual production rate for small-sized batteries by 9%, reaching 1.4 billion batteries. Due to the tougher competition in the television manufacturing business, Panasonic is searching for ways to increase their sales of energy-related products. The German automaker BMW has leased 450 Minis that will be powered by laptop cells. Volkswagen is at the moment studying the technology in their facility located in California, United States.

Toyota RAV4 EV

Tesla's founder Martin Eberhard, affirmed that the cost of manufacturing larger lithium-ion batteries is about $700-$800 / kilowatt hour, in comparison to the mass-produced packs that use small laptop cells that cost about $200. He added that "it's a much more effective approach. There's a huge advantage in terms of economy of scale."

He added that in the present, the factories that are manufacturing small cells are running at their maximum capacities in order to fulfill the increasing demand. From this situation will benefit many electric vehicle produces that cannot afford developing their own batteries. General Motors has a partnership with LG Chem Ltd., located in South Korea, for the batteries that power the Chevrolet Volt, while Nissan teamed up with Nec Corporation, who is the largest PC maker in Japan, for making the batteries that power the popular Leaf model.

The Japanese automaker giant Toyota is working side by side with Tesla for the electric version of the small sport utility vehicle RAV 4 model, while the plug-in Prius hybrid as well as the small, electric vehicle that is due in 2012, will employ larger batteries. The president of Toyota Corporation, Akio Toyoda said that "when the customer decides "this is the car I want", we want to be that full-time marker who has the answers for that customer. By using both car batteries and laptop batteries, we are able to provide customers with a wider variety of choice."

The Tesla shares rose more than 80% in 2010, compared to an 11% increase in the Russell 1000 Index, although the carmaker delivered less than 1,500 units of their Roadster model since 2008. The shares of Toyota have plummeted 15% in 2010, mostly because of the many car recalls.

The problems that might appear with lithium-ion batteries in the consumer electronics market relate to the fact that they have a long history of recalls due to overheating issues that can cause a fire. The world's largest cell phone manufacturer, Nokia, offered three years ago to replace no more than 46 million Panasonic phone batteries. In order to reduce the risk of overheating, Panasonic is now using an insulator film located between electrodes, according to a spokesman from the company.

Back in 2006, Sony Corporation recalled about 9.6 million lithium-ion batteries due to metal parts that infiltrated into the cells during the manufacturing process which could have caused overheating and short circuits.

A Roadster owner by the name of Scott Painter stated that he doesn't have to worry about what is going under the hood of his car as he hasn't noticed any problems with the battery since he got the car two years ago. He is the CEO of Truecar Incorporated, who is an automotive-sales and data-marketing firm located in Santa Monica, California. He also said that "I've never been found wanting on the batteries. I step on the pedal and it goes like a bat out of hell."

Post published on Rpmgo.com

BMW, Toyota, Daimler Borrow Battery Strategy From Tesla

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...