Mercedes ready to answer a question no one seems to be asking

At the same time U.S. Automobile magazine’s Jamie Kitman accurately points the finger at German automakers for the demise of the more enjoyable to drive and environmentally-friendly station wagon in North America, word out of Germany suggests Mercedes-Benz is copycatting BMW again in the never-ending game called Fill That SUV Niche!

Not content with the midsize ML, fullsize GL, crossover (nee minivan) R, and militaristic Geländewagen, Mercedes is looking at yet another SUV, this time, similar in fashion to BMW’s odd-duck X6 Sports Activity Coupe, according to a German report.

Dubbed the Geländecoupé—or GLC, as speculated above—the coupe-SUV is said to be smaller than the X6, more than likely based on the 'Benz C Class chassis and debuting in 2014. If you’re keeping score, you may remember ‘Benz already has the C-based GLK SUV. Of course, I don’t have to remind you that the German automaker stopped bringing the more rational C Class wagon to Canada, apparently to help insure GLK sales. And the GLC, if it goes ahead, will essentially be a “coupe” version of the GLK,  But apparently the brains in Stuttgart figure there’s a niche to be filled there, whether customers are asking for a vehicle like the GLC or not.

Do new car buyers need an X6 rip-off?

Is Mercedes heading in the right direction offering more SUVs and less wagons to Canadians?

[Sources: Automobile, AutoZeitung]

Kia’s naming conundrum

On a recent trip to Hyundai-Kia Motors world headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, attending media had some time to chat with Kia head pen, Peter Schreyer. While the discussions centred around the brand's’s new European-influenced (Schreyer is a former Audi designer) styling, inevitably, the topic turned to all the automaker’s up market brand aspirations and its rock-and-a-hard-place its put itself in with its vehicle naming strategy.

You see, the forthcoming 2012 Kia Optima and Cadenza sedans aren't called that outside of North America. Instead, Kia uses a more Teutonic alphanumeric system: the Optima is the K (as in Kia, get it?) 5; the Cadenza the K7, a strategy Kia's vice chairman, Chung Eui-sun, believes can “strengthen” the brand. But the experience of other brands going down this name changing path should be heeded.

Most experts now consider Acura’s switch of its well known Legend and Integra nameplates to RL and RSX a marketing flop. The criticism mainly aimed at the idea of throwing a well-established franchise in hopes of expanding into other customer segments. Which, is exactly what Kia wants to do as well.

So what do you think?

Some Kia car names, like the Soul and Sorrento, are now becoming part of our car culture.

Is it a risk to rebadge them as say, the K-this or K-that?

Do you think Kia copying the typically German naming system puts the rising Korean brand in the same light as Audi, BMW or Mercedes?

[Source: Automotive News]

 

 

Toyota needs to come down off the ledge

Like a ketchup stain you can’t get out of your favourite shirt, Toyota’s woes caused by this year’s recall crisis just won’t go away. This week, company head cheese, Akia Toyoda, kept on laying on the apologies at a shareholders meeting.

While taking responsibility and promising to do better is all fine and dandy, Mr. Toyoda’s company needs to stop falling on his sward. In fact, apparently, Toyota’s chief broke down and cried at an American dealers meeting about the recall mess.

Obviously, Toyota’s in a pickle. But that’s great news for car buyers. Fat, lazy automakers make boring, take-no-risk cars. But desperate, this-is-our-last-chance-to-fix-things car companies are exactly the kind of manufacturer car fans want.

It was-for-the-umpteenth time on the brink of insolvency when Chrysler produced the Dodge Viper in the 1990s. And although Government Motors isn’t out of the woods yet, its troubles in the Naughties is one of the reasons it's now producing some of its best cars ever.

So hey, Mr. Toyoda, get over it. Grab a hanky. And do what you know your company needs to do: risky cars. Like the three new sporty Toyota the U.K.’s Autocar speculates are on the way.

The first, the FT-86, you may already know as a modern take on the mid-1980s rear-drive Corolla SR-5 coupe. It’s supposedly set to arrive in 2012.

The following year, a new mid-engine two-seater in the spirit of the MR2 will arrive, but this time with 1.5-litre gas four-hybrid power and, clearly, Honda’s new CR-Z hybrid in its sights.

The third new Toyota sportster is a larger coupe that will use the FT-86’s bits and bites. A spiritual successor to the old Supra, the 2+2 will use a hybrid V6 with styling coming from the FT-HS concept (above) from the 2007 Detroit show.

None of these potential sporty Toyota cars will help eradicate the damage done to the Japanese automaker's’s street cred and sales decline caused by the recall crisis.

But do you think this potentially FTD trio can get type of car enthusiasts that have abandoned the brand?

[Source: Autocar]

Nagare no more: Mazda pulls the plug on its “flow” look

Well, so much for that. After four years of teasing us with concept after concept, highlighted by the Furai concept (below, left) from the 2008 Detroit show, it looks like Mazda is canning its much bally-hooed Nagare design language.

“Nagare is done. After the 5, it’s highly unlikely that there will be another Nagare car. Mazda has moved on,” the Japanese automaker's European design boss, Brit Peter Birtwhistle, told the U.K.’s AutoExpress. If anything, the whole Nagare trip advanced a few designers’ career aspirations.

 Former Mazda head pen, Dutchman Laurens van den Acker, the man responsible for the original 2006 Nagare (left), 2007 Ryuga and Hakaze concepts that established the so-called Nagare’s “flow” design language, parlayed that success into the VP of design position at Renault, succeeding living legend Patrick le Quément.

Unfortunately, the wavy Nagare metal sculpting has only been applied to one production car: the 2011 Mazda5 miniminivan (right). And even Birtwhistle admits the Mazda5’s Nagare metal work looks a bit forced, saying the look was “particularly difficult to apply to a boxy people carrier shape.”

No kidding.

Anyway, Mazda needs to start all over again. And like another Japanese automaker that needed a quick design fix, it looks like Mazda is going to look to the West, to Italy, specifically, for some design mojo.

Birtwhistle says that Mazda is aiming to become “more like a Japanese Alfa Romeo, producing cars which are great to drive, but crucially that also have the right premium feel, particularly inside.” Apparently, we’ll see the first new Alfa-Mazda at this fall’s Paris show.

Do you think Mazda made a wise choice canning its Nagare look after all these years?

Is turning to a European brand for inspiration a good idea for a Japanese automaker?

[Source: AutoExpress]

Quality versus Power: Are JD’s rankings realistic?

Based on the latest U.S. JD Power’s Initial Quality Survey this week, it reads like the invading hordes of foreign automakers should pack up their Snap-Ons and go back to making bicycles.

With the chant of You!-Ess!-Eh!, You!-Ess!-Eh! not so faintly in the background, JD’s presser headline screams, “Domestic Brands Surpass Imports in Initial Quality for the First Time in IQS History.”

Yes. Sort of. But not really.

First, the definition of a “domestic” versus “import” really no longer applies in the indsutry, except for marketing and jingoistic purposes. With design, engineering and parts sourced from around the world these days, the terms “domestic” versus “import” are anachronistic, at best.

Second, as I’ve whinged about before, measuring “mechanical and design problems” in the first 90 days of ownership is no guarantee how a car will hold up on day 91, or day 1,095 when the typical three-year warranty evaporates.

The other big issue with its IQS reports is the way JD consolidates individual models under one brand score.

New car buyers buy single cars, not whole brands. So on the surface, Ford’s No. 1 ranking and Toyota’s big drop leaves the perception that every Ford is better built than every Toyota. But the truth is, from model to model, the quality scores in every brand are very different, and JD only releases scores on some (mainly top ranked cars), not all, models.

Do you think the U.S. brands are making better built cars than the European and Asian brands?

Would JD's latest IQS report have you trading in your Toyota for a Ford?

Green is Good: Nissan’s Leaf EV not attracting young buyers

Here’s a good one: Instead of the young, hip buyers that you would think an electric-vehicle would attract—you know, the types of buyers who are more interested in spending time updating their Facebook account and plotting ways to get Mom and Dad to pay for their next iPhone app—Nissan is saying that the average age of its Leaf electric vehicle pre-order U.S. buyer to date is above 50, while more than one out of three are over the age of 60.

If you think this goes against all the marketing huff that EVs are for kids, get in line. Of course, a big reason for the Leaf’s aging owner group is its cost. I mean, it takes a lot of hours working at American Apparel to pay for the Leaf's $32,500 USD asking price.

So why does the car of the future appeal to people who don’t have much of one?

Is it guilt for all those 1970s land yachts and muscle cars Boomers bought in their salad days?

Or is the Leaf—like every othr EV coming down the pipe—simply out of the price range of its intended demographic?

[Sources: Nissan-Leaf]

Is Cadillac rethinking its definition of “flagship”?

Despite the fawning from most media over Cadillac’s XTS luxury sedan concept, left, that popped up at last year’s Detroit auto show, I’ve never been a big fan of the Government Motors world-class luxury brands’ idea of a “flaghsip.”

I mean please, when Hyundai can make a legitimate flagship to take on the Germans and Japanese, what’s there to get excited about in the XTS? The car is essentially a stretched Buick Lacrosse. And now it looks like GM’s own head cheese, CEO Ed Whitacre, is having the same doubts about the XTS as Cadillac’s official lineup topper.

As Car & Driver’s Jens Meiners reports, “Cadillac fans will be thrilled to hear that Ed Whitacre himself has instructed the brand to build a true, full-size flagship above both the CTS and the upcoming XTS. The car has not been clearly defined yet. The Zeta platform (Holden Commodore, Chevrolet Camaro, etc.) is heavy and dated, and therefore the flagship is more likely be built on a stretched version of the CTS’s Sigma platform.”

Of course, this only brings up several questions, like…

• The XTS isn’t scheduled to arrive until 2013—maybe. Even if Whitacre signed off on the new, new flagship today, we’re looking at 2014 at the earliest before it hits showrooms. Again, maybe.

• What Jens isn’t mentioning is big Ed’s recently added responsibilities for global product planning he's taken on, basically Bob Lutz’s old job. Which scares the beejessus out of me. GM’s new product guy, on the day his CEO appointment was announced, said, "I know nothing about cars." Great.

Do you think the XTS can hold water as a true flagship?

Or does GM really need a rear-drive luxury sedan to compete with the likes of Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and BMW?

[Sources: Car & Driver, Autoweek]

 

 

Is China’s latest Buick our next Skyhawk?

Like the debut of the Russian VW Polo, the release of a foreign market car gives away a new model coming our way. In this case, it’s the release of images of the Chinese-market Buick Excelle GT, a compact sedan that the Government Motors demi-luxury brand will sell in North America sometime next year.

Built by GM’s Chinese joint venture—Shanghai GM—the 2011 Buick Excelle GT compact sedan (above) will be available in China with either a 108 hp 1.8-litre four or 181 hp 1.6-litre turbo four. The sedan joins an existing five-door hatchback model.

In regards to meeting Buick’s previous small car standards, the Excelle should be an improvement.

The last Buick compact was the 1989 Skyhawk (left), a badge-engineered Chevy Cavalier that started life as a badge-engineered Chevy Vega in 1974 (right)—two of the hoariest, most dreadful platforms ever to emerge from Detroit, and a big reason why Honda Civics, Toyota Corollas and Mazda3s rule the top of the Canadian sales charts today.

But I digress...

Without a bit of irony, in the U.S., the original Skyhawk replaced the imported Opel Manta. And this latest small Buick, like the majority of the current sedans, shares a lot with its European cousins.

While previous Skyhawks were available in a variety of body styles, from two-door hatchbacks to station wagons, the Excelle is strictly a five-passenger, four-door sedan. Underneath, the Excelle’s nuts and bolts comes from GM’s global compact platform that supports the Opel Astra, as well as the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze sedan coming to Canada this fall.

But here’s the rub: Will GM do enough to differentiate the Excelle—or whatever it’s going to be called here in Canada—from the mainstream Cruze?

Will it offer enough powertrain or feature differentiation over the Chevy to take on the likes of other premium compact sedans like the new 2011 VW Jetta, Acura CSX, or Volvo S40?

Or is the small Buick simply a way to keep all those former Pontiac dealers happy who don’t have a Sunfire to sell anymore?

[Source: CarScoop]

Diesel-loving Canadians to get new 2011 Jetta TDI first

The next, new 2011 Volkswagen Jetta is going to be a big deal for the German automaker in North America. And it needs to be. Along with the new U.S.-made Passat-replacing-yet-to-be-named midsized sedan coming next year, the new Mexican-made Jetta is the first half of VW’s two-sedan attack to more than double its U.S. sales from last year to 450,000 cars.

Working towards an on sale date of the last week of September, Volkswagen Canada is giving us more and more info on the new Jetta, previewed by the New Compact Coupe concept from last year’s Detroit auto show (above.)

VW Canada’s Peter Viney confirmed with The Crank that to go head-to-head with the compact top-sellers like the existing Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic and Mazda3 and forthcoming Chevrolet Cruze and 2012 Ford Focus, the new Jetta is going to be bigger and offer more engine choice.

Don’t worry diesel fans, one of those mills will be the popular Jetta TDI diesel (TDI sales represented over one-quarter of all Canadian VW sales last month.) And while the U.S. market won’t get the Jetta TDI right away, Canadians will.

“This is a very important model to us. So we want to make sure Canadians get the TDI—along with the other new 2011 Jettas—right at launch,” said Viney.

Hmm…more room, more engine choice and more upscale styling…

Has VW done enough to get you out of your Corolla or Civic?

Is the guard changing in Canadian new car showrooms?

In my weekly Autonews column today, I reported that last month’s Canadian new car sales suggest the market is starting to be divided in to the “haves” and the “have nots.” However, Canadian auto industry analyst, Dennis DesRosiers has taken a longer view back than just a year ago. And he purports a more dramatic is happening in the market.

DesRosiers took a look at sales two years back, to 2008, which he states was a more “normal” May than last month. “Especially for some individual brands like Chrysler and GM who were in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings,” says DesRosiers. For example, Chrysler reported a sales increase this May of 53.5 per cent over May 2009. But when you look at Chrysler’s May sales from two years ago, they are actually down by 23.3 per cent.

DesRosiers also broadened his look to include January to May sales. For 2010, Chrysler's year-to-date sales are up 27.9 per cent from 2009, but still down by 18.3 per cent from 2008. And Chrysler’s not the only automaker that’s taking a long-term dive.

According to DesRosiers’ numbers, General Motors had taken the biggest hit in Canada, down 38 per cent. Honda is second, down 30.4 per cent, and Toyota, third, down 22.9 per cent.

As DesRosiers says, “We had gotten so used to these companies walking on water that we lose track of the fact that they can also stumble from time to time.”

He cites the two biggest big winners over the same period as Ford (up 10.6 per cent) and Hyundai (up 44.3 per cent).

After taking this longer view, do you think this change in the market is permanent?

Do you think former top sellers like GM, Chrysler, Toyota and Honda can regain their form?

[Source: DesRosiers and Associates]