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The EyesOn Design awards are sponsored by the Detroit Institute of Opthamology and judged by a panel of automotive designers including ex-VP of Design for GM Wayne Cherry, Chrysler's Senior VP of Design Trevor Creed, the renowned Henrik Fisker, GM's VP of Global Design Ed Welburn and Mazda's Franz von Holzhausen.
The equipment levels will meet market expectations, with power steering, windows, locks, and mirrors. Not a cupholder in sight, though. Materials inside the Anony-Truck will have you reliving the glory days of 1985, when truck interiors were seemingly blow-molded on the same production line as 2-liter soda bottles. Power comes from a 2.7-liter four cylinder serving up 150 horsepower and 180 lb-ft of torque through either a five speed manual or four speed automatic. Chortle now, but keep in mind another automaker from Asia that got its start with cheap little un-named pickups -- Toyota. For CHAMCO, it could be a smarter entry point than cars, anyway. The Ranger can only carry on for so long, and everyone else has pushed up the size and price of their once-small trucks.
Well, Holden just lost the U.S. market, as Bob Lutz told Australian journalists at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show that the VE Sportwagon, a higher-octane version of the VE Commodore Wagon, would not be coming to America. His reasons include the cost of meeting U.S. regulations and the fact that Yanks don't seem to be interested in wagons at all anymore. Audi, BMW and Mercedes offer them but sell hardly any, while Dodge tried to make the sport wagon mainstream again with the critically-acclaimed Magnum. We all know how that turned out.
With that in mind, we were surprised to find this Genesis V6 model with a different grille on the floor of the 2008 Detroit Auto Show. When asked what it was doing there, Hyundai responded that the badgeless grille is the only Genesis grille for now, but this version was done up as a kind of market research exercise. We were also told that it had been taken out of Hyundai's display before the Detroit Auto Show opened up to the public.
“The LRX concept delivers the powerful message that we are as serious about sustainability as we are confident about the continuing relevance and desirability of our vehicles,” says Phil Popham, Land Rover’s managing director. “LRX is in every respect a Land Rover, but it’s a very different Land Rover.
It can do the zero to 60 hop in 5.8 seconds and reach a top speed of 125 mph. It can run on just electricity or in sports mode which uses the four-cylinder engine. Luxury features of the four-door sedan include a navigation system and DVD player with headrest-mounted displays. The first 99 will be signed by the designer. The cars won't be available until 2009 and sell for $80,000.
This modular electric/lithium-ion technology that all three employ is being developed by Chrysler's new ENV1, an in-house organization at the company that's focused around developing electric-drive vehicles and advanced-propulsion technologies.
The FC was developed in-house by Geely and features a 1.8L four-cylinder with variable valve timing producing 137 horsepower and mated to a five-speed manual. A 13-second trip to 62 mph isn't a world record, but it's just enough to keep up with traffic and return good fuel economy at the same time. There's also an available in-dash navigation system, dual airbags, and ABS brakes with electronic brake force distribution. The interior, as well, didn't look or feel like it was made from recycled Tonka toys.
The Chrysler ecoVoyager concept is a sleek, rounded one-box design - looking like a low-sling crossover vehicle - that's said to celebrate the "romance of automobile travel embodied in a four-door, four-passenger distinctively American design." Chrysler design chief Trevor Creed named elegance, simplicity, and serenity as design priorities. With an overall length of about 191 inches and width of 75.2 inches, its footprint is similar to that of a mid-size four-door sedan.
This modular electric/lithium-ion technology that all three employ is being developed by Chrysler's new ENV1, an in-house organization at the company that's focused around developing electric-drive vehicles and advanced-propulsion technologies.
And as our spy photographer pointed out, the first test mules of the Ford Flex also used Freestyle sheetmetal. We’ll see if anything shows up at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show in a couple weeks.
Kia executives said they expect to sell 48,000 of the new models worldwide in 2008, primarily in North America and China, with global sales growing to 80,000 units in 2009. The U.S. edition will go on sale later this year as a 2009 model.
But despite what appears to our eyes as the obvious Ridgeline-esque styling, Toyota claims the look of this unibody-platformed concept truck is unique -- based on "the 'trapezoid' silhouette from the side profile of the Toyota Prius." But don't think for a moment this concept is all car and no truck. The A-BAT's able to shed the five-person crew-cab-like set-up with a tiny four-foot bed and transform itself into a two-seat "El Camino" configuration with a full eight-foot bed. The transformation's accomplished by dropping both the liftgate and the "midgate" ( that sound you hear is Chevrolet's legal team opening up their briefcases in unison) on either end of the mini-bed.
The rotorheads over at Mazda-Madness.nl managed to pick up this Japanese mag story of the Mazda RX-8 RS, which will bow at the Tokyo Auto Salon and include those fierce looking wheels, Recaro seats (as pictured), spoiler and new rear suspension.
Called the Kia Borrego, the 7-seater SUV from Kia will be made in Korea and will go on sale in North America in late spring or early summer of 2008 as a 2009 model.
IRVINE, Calif. Sept.5, 2007: Quantum Technologies and Fisker Coachbuild, LLC announce the launch of a joint venture in Fisker Automotive, Inc. - a green American premium car company. Fisker Automotive will offer a range of environmentally friendly premium cars – with the first production car to make its Worldwide North American debut at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show in January. Initial production is anticipated to be 15,000 vehicles annually with pricing to start under $100,000.
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