Over to You: World Car of the Year nominees announced

With a panel of around 60 auto scribes from around the world as judges, the World Car of the Year awards supercedes any regional or specialty publication awards. Not influenced by any publication, auto show, automaker, or other commercial enterprise are just some the reasons yours truly accepted a request to represent Canada as a judge this year.

So, to kick things off, the nominees for the first round of the 2010 WCOTY has been announced.

The first round of voting that determines the Top Ten finalists will take place in January, with a second round of voting taking place the last week of February prior to the Top Three finalists being announced at the Geneva auto show during the first week of March 2010 including World Green Car and World Design of the Year.

Finally, the overall winners in all four categories will be declared on Thursday, April 1st at the New York show.

The full nominee lists are below. Some, like the Lexus HS250h aren’t on sale yet. While some, like the Renault Clio 3 Renault Sport aren’t anywhere to be found in Canada.

Anyway, feel free to let me know who you think the winners should be.

2010 World Car of the Year
FINAL LIST OF CANDIDATES
 
Audi Q5
BMW X1
BMW Z4
BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo
Buick LaCrosse / Allure  
Cadillac SRX
Chevrolet Camaro
Chevrolet Cruze
Citroën C3 Picasso
Honda Insight
Hyundai i20
Hyundai Genesis Coupe
Infiniti QX
Jaguar XJ
Kia Soul
Kia Cerato Koup / Forte
Kia Sorento
Lexus HS250h
Lexus RX
Mazda3
Mercedes-Benz E-Class
Mitsubishi Outlander
Nissan Cube
Nissan 370Z / 370Z Roadster
Nissan Patrol
Peugeot 3008
Porsche Boxster/Cayman
Porsche Panamera
Renault Scénic
Subaru Legacy / Outback
Toyota Prius

2010 World Performance Car
FINAL LIST OF CANDIDATES

Aston Martin V12 Vantage
Audi S4 Limousine / Avant
Audi TT RS Coupé / Roadster
Audi R8 V10
BMW Z4
BMW X6M / X5M
BMW 335i Performance Sedan
Jaguar XFR
Mazdaspeed3
Mercedes-Benz E 63 AMG
Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback Ralliart
Nissan 370Z
Porsche 911 GT3
Porsche Boxster/Cayman
Renault Clio 3 Renault Sport

Stereotype Alert: If you sell used cars, click away now

If you’re reading this blog, you probably own, or have owned, a used car. And to do that, you would have gone through the process of dealing with used car dealers.

It doesn’t hit theatres until mid-August, but The Goods: Live Hard. Sell Hard. (above), starring Entourage’s Jeremy Piven, looks like an interesting redo of the 1980 classic Used Cars (below) with Kurt Russell.

Based on your experiences with used car salespeople, how accurate are these flicks?

[Source: YouTube]

Green is Good: The incredible shrinking engine

Dearborn, Mich – With media types here at Ford Ground Zero getting the low-down on Ford’s 2010 lineup, the Detroit automaker confirmed today what most industry watchers considered a given: a four-cylinder EcoBoost engine is on the way (in some kind of Ford) for next year.

You may already know about Ford’s EcoBoost strategy.

Or that it’s first application— in 3.5-litre V6 format—is in a  bunch of large 2010 Fords and Lincolns.

Or if you’re a real EcoBoost geek, you may remember a 1.6L I4 version was displayed in the Lincoln C Concept from last January’s Detroit show.

Whereas that little EcoBoost four only made 180 hp and lb-ft of torque, Ford said the debut EcoBoost four-banger will be 2.0L in size, all the while pumping out a healthy 230 hp and 240 lb-ft—or about what we’ve come to expect from a run-of-the-mill naturally aspirated V6—but with an expected 20 to 30 per cent reduction in fuel consumption.

Ford is nudge-nudge wink-winking that the EcoBoost 2.0 may not necessarily roll out in a car. Methinks the Escape compact crossover would make a nice choice to take on the just revamped Chevrolet Equinox, non?

So what do you think about Ford’s EcoBoost?

Do you think a blown-six can take the place of a burly V8?

Will customers go for fours where only sixes went before?

Or are should we button down the hatches for another round of fuel-economy-first powerplants, like the dreadful mid-1980s turbo-four Mustang SVO?

[Source: Ford]

Green is Good: Ontario puts the EV cart ahead of the horse

Imagine this: N.H.L. commish Gary Bettman is holding a press conference to announce a sweeping, league-wide change in policy. Say, like a new playoff format or salary cap system.

But he’s announcing it in the Ottawa Senators’ home rink. Wearing a #11 Daniel Alfredsson jersey.

Not good, eh?

But that’s exactly the bias impression Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty left after yesterday’s press conference heralding new electric vehicle rebates of up to $10,000

At the Courtesy Chevrolet dealership on the Queensway in Toronto.

In a Government Motors’ Chevrolet Volt.

Okay. So McGuinty’s PR team needs a slap down for favouring a single manufacturer’s product. An automaker, by the way, that we Ontario tax payers now own a chunk of.

But the moaning and groaning aftermath from the suits at rival Toyota and Honda was no better.

Can you say Hypocrisy 101?

Both those companies don’t seem to have a problem with the $2,000 Ontario provincial sales tax rebate currently available to their respective gas-electric hybrid vehicles, do they.

PR bumbling, political hedging and corporate gamesmanship aside, the biggest problem with Ontario’s new EV rebate program is timing. Here’s what I mean:

In the near future, I’ll get $10k off my new plug-in EV. Fantastic. But where in the name of Nikola Tesla am I supposed to plug it in when the batteries die?

With no plug-in infrastructure in place, er, nowhere, I guess.

It’s simple: McGuinty has put the EV cart ahead of the infrastructure horse.

Oh, he half mentioned his government’s infant partnership with California high-tech company Better Place, which is working to build battery recharging stations for EVs and plans to open a demonstration centre in Toronto next year.

But the technology is not proven. And more importantly, not in place.

So until I can drive my EV from Toronto to Ottawa to watch the Leafs and the Sens play, sorry McGuinty, I don’t want your “free” EV money.

Bailout Blues: Will the next Chevy Caprice be built in Oshawa?

After extricating itself from U.S. bankruptcy courts last Friday, one of Government Motors bold, “new” moves was to bring back 77-year-old Bob Lutz to head up the automaker’s global advertising and marketing.

But “Bob being Bob” meant he could not not get in a few words on what type of cars he thinks GM should be building. And one of those is the reincarnation of the lame-duck Pontiac G8 sedan as the next Chevrolet Caprice, left.

Building on Lutz’s riff, today there’s now speculation from the web site Automotive Traveler that the rear-wheel-drive Caprice (currently made by GM’s Australian Holden arm for Middle East markets) will be built in Oshawa, Ontario, right alongside its platform mate, the Chevy Camaro.

The reasons: First, the long-in-the-tooth Impala, introduced in fall of 1999, needs to be replaced.

Second, GM is nowhere in the high margin fleet and police package markets that is currently dominated by the Canadian-made Ford Crown Vic. A domestically made Caprice would fix that.

Trouble is, both those arguments conflict with plans for the Impala to move to the new Epsilon II FWD platform in Oshawa, and Lutz’s comments that one of the reasons he wants to sell the Caprice in North America is to primarily to uphold contracts with Holden that is losing the G8 business.

Will the Caprice end up in Oshawa?

Don’t hold your breath.

[Source: Automotive Traveler]

The New GM: Same as it ever was?

“The new General Motors Company began operations today with a new corporate structure, a stronger balance sheet, and a renewed commitment to make the customer the center of everything the new GM does.”

The above from last Friday were the first, PR-friendly words from the automaker formerly known a General Motors. But how “new” will the New GM be?

Apparently not very much if we go by some recent tid bits:

1. New GM CEO, Fritz Henderson, is from the Old GM. Period. Full stop.

2. Recognizing that marketing will be the most important mission to get bruised and battered new car customers to even consider darkening the doors of dealerships, one of the New GM’s first orders of business was to name a new marketing guru.

You my recognize him in his former role at the Old GM until last April as the head of global product development who was ready to retire at the end of the year, but let’s all give a big round of applause for the New GM’s head of advertising and marketing, Bob Lutz.

Wow. No offense to Lutz’s 46 years in the biz. Or his past accomplishments.

But how does a 77-year old Lutz connect with young customers? Those who exist solely in social media like Facebook or Twitter? Who don’t watch TV?

3. One of for reasons shedding Saab, Saturn, Hummer and Pontiac was the long standing complaint that the Old GM had too many products that cannibalized sales and overlapping brand strategies.

But the New GM doesn’t seem much different.

A last-minute decision to drop a four-banger in the new 2010 Buick LaCrosse Allure does nothing to support Buick’s mission as a Lexus-fighter and steals sales away from Chevy’s Malibu.

While a speculated FWD Cadillac version of the Malibu/Allure, dubbed XTS, not only gets away from Cadillac’s RWD mission to take on the likes of BMW and Mercedes, but also starts stepping on the aforementioned Buick’s toes.

So let me reiterate: What’s so “new” about the New GM again?

[Source: Automotive News]

Autopocalypse: China’s sales lead makes Canadians fourth-class citizens in the automotive world

So the Chinese are buying more cars than Americans.

Big fat hairy deal, right? Why should you care, eh?

While the news may confirm the long coming shift in economic power from the West to the East, it also indicates which market automakers will continue to focus their new product development.

And if you think that being a Canadian new car buyer you played second-fiddle to U.S. customers’ wants and desires (i.e. a dearth of wagons, hatchbacks and too many SUVs), get ready to get bumped down the food chain even farther.

With China being numero uno—and looking like it will be that way for the foreseeable future—car companies have to cater to the Asian market first if they want to survive.

Take for instance the latest trend of limousines from sports car makers.

One of the big reasons the Porsche Panamera, BMW 5er Gran Turismo and Aston Martin Rapide exist is to chauffeur around rich Chinese customers in the crowded streets of Beijing or Shanghai.

And why do you think BMW’s gotten all-conservative with its new 7 Series styling? (I’ll give you a hint: it’s not because of Canadian focus groups.)

Why do you think Government Motors so-called “American luxury” Buick brand’s styling direction is being directed form its Asian design studios?

No doubt, the tide has changed. Since the automobile was invented, Europeans and North Americans have enjoyed the products that those markets' sales dominance provided.

But going forward, we all better get use to a future new car menu of Chinese cuisine.

Backseat Beauties: Is this (finally) the end of the luxury SUV era?

SPARTANBURG, South Carolina – If you think the new “sports car SUV” 2010 X6 M twists your idea of what a BMW is (which I’ll have first drive impressions here at Wheels.ca from a Road Atlanta track session later this week), how about the latest brand-bender from Munich: a hatchback version of the next mid-range 5 Series.

But hold on a second. A BMW hatchback? Haven’t automakers been telling us for decades that adding a fifth door to a sedan was anathema to luxury car buyers?

However with this new 5 Series Gran Turismo, Porsche’s Panamera, Audi A5 Sportback and Aston Martin Rapide, luxury hatchbacks are ballooning into a full-blown trend.

But why now?

First, automakers need some kind of safety net as customers wise up and start trading in their big and thirsty BMW X5s, Porsche Cayennes and Audi Q7s.

Second, to meet ever tightening fuel economy and emissions regulations, automakers are being forced to make more efficient vehicles than said SUVs.

In the case for the new 5er hatchback, BMW says the idea behind the four- or five-passenger Gran Turismo was to combine the “formality of a sedan with the functionality and high-seating position of a crossover.”

If that sounds like a business class version of the coach Toyota Venza, you’re not far off.

Although it has a “5” on its rear hatch, the car utilizes a lot of engineering from the larger 7 Series luxury sedan, as will the next 5 Series sedan and wagon.

One reason for using the larger platform was the desire to give rear seat occupants in the 5er GT a limousine-like experience.

While we’ll have to wait until around the time of the 5er GT’s official unveiling and first drive at September’s Frankfurt auto show to find out how the car drives. But BMW teased media at the X6 M first drive event by chauffeuring us around a closed loop here at the German automaker’s South Carolina assembly plant testing track.

We would love to show you how much room we had in the 5er’s roomy back seats. But for this event, BMW clamped down on any media photography.

 What we can tell you is that with more headroom than the Panamera, two rear passengers will have to be N.B.A. prospects in size to feel cramped.

But in the three abreast bench seat version, we would draw straws for the middle position. It’s quite narrow with little support and sits over the rear-drive car’s driveline hump.

Although its not an industry first (European Skoda’s Superb sedan introduced the idea a few years ago) one trick the 5er GT has over the Panamera is what BMW calls a “bimodal trunk.”

Essentially, one button opens up a trunk lid while keeping the hatch glass and cargo partition in place, which BMW says reins that “cozy” luxury car feeling.

Or, subsequently, you an open the lid, hatch and cargo partition in one fell swoop.

The first 5er GT model that will go on sale in Canada later this year will the 550i Gran Turismo. It employs the 750i’s engine (a twin-turbo 4.4-litre with 400 hp), suspension and advanced safety systems.

Pricing won’t be announced until then, but expect a juicy premium over the $80,400 550i four-door sedan.

All-wheel drive and six-cylinder models will follow in 2010.

These new luxury hatchback present a new option for customers who want the versatility, but don’t want to show it (i.e. it’s NOT an SUV or a station wagon.)

Do you think hatchbacks like the 5er GT and Panamera are The Next Big Thing?

[Source: BMW]

Bailout Blues: taxpayer money getting close to the $100B marker

Remember back in the 1980s when then Chrysler head Lee Iacocco took all that heat when he snagged a US $1.5 billion in loan guarantees from the U.S. government? Compared to the current bailout money, Lee's numbers seem like the proverbial bag of cashews.

The current auto industry bailout money from tax payers has topped $95 billion, including contributions from our own sage Canadian politicos:

General Motors
Received	$27.90 billion
Approved but not yet received	$21.50 billion
Chrysler	$15.50 billion
GMAC Financial Services
Direct aid	$12.50 billion
Loan guarantees	$4.50 billion
Auto suppliers	$5.00 billion
Chrysler Financial	$1.50 billion
Cash for clunkers law	$1.00 billion
Received or approved for GM by Canada	$6.30 billion
Total	$95.70 billion

Do you think this will be the end? Or just a bottomless pit?

Do you think Ford will be next at the trough?

[Sources: Automotive News, General Motors, Congressional Budget Office, GMAC, Chrysler Financial]

Just Asking: Are electric-vehicles the new ethanol?

Electric-vehicles, like the 2010 Mitsubishi iMiEV I recently drove, are a dream come true for those who don’t want to burn fossil fuels in their cars. But not everybody view EVs as the green motoring panacea that others are making the so-called “electrification of the car” out to be.

Timothy P. Carney, a Washington Examiner columnist, thinks governments are blindly rushing into financially supporting EVs, much as they did with ethanol— a “green” fuel which the writer cites as having created water pollution, soil erosion, deforestation and even air pollution.

And Carney’s biggest worry is the lithium required for EV battery packs.

There are some definite advantages to using lithium. Relative to lead acid (the most common car batteries) and nickel metal hydride (the most common hybrid battery), lithium-ion batteries are less toxic, more powerful and longer lasting. But Carney sees the lithium supply chain offering the kind of political quagmire that has the U.S. at war to secure foreign oil.

Apparently, half of the world’s lithium reserves are in Bolivia. And a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report warns a "major shift" to lithium-powered cars “could substitute reliance on one foreign resource [oil] for another [lithium."

Carney says, in the name of "clean energy," Washington is subsidizing a switch from gasoline-powered cars to cars powered mostly by coal. And in the pursuit of "energy independence," the feds may foster addiction to a fuel concentrated in a socialist-run South American country.

And although EVs emit and use no gas in operation, harvesting lithium may not be so earth friendly.

“Extracting lithium from locations where it is abundant, such as in South America, could pose environmental challenges that would damage the ecosystems in those areas,” warns Carney.

Hmmm… Is this just the rantings of another paranoid conspiracy theorist?

Or do you think the clean promise of EVs is worth the potential dirty results he brings up?

And, knowing what we now know about ethanol, do you have any confidence that politicians have the capability to properly research lithium’s sustainability before piling on the tax-payer-funded moneys?

[Source: Washington Examiner]