Hyundai has revealed initial teaser shots of an all-new Santa Fe SUV. Details of the new vehicle are scarce, but importantly it’s the first 4×4 to exhibit the future design direction for the Korean firm’s off-roaders.
Hyundai is calling the new look ‘Storm Edge’ styling. An evolution of the company’s current ‘Fluidic Sculpture’ design principles, it gives the new Santa Fe a much more chunky and rugged appearance than the similarly proportioned but smaller Hyundai ix35 crossover.
The trademark hexagonal front grille and intricate ‘jewel-like’ headlights remain, retaining a relationship to the rest of Hyundai’s range, while other details are reminiscent of Hyundai’s Geneva 2012 show car, the i-oniq.
Beyond the looks, Hyundai says ‘Refinement, Smartness and Practicality’ are the guiding elements behind the new Santa Fe’s creation, as it aims to take the vehicle further upmarket.
As such, expect perceived interior quality to be improved over the current model, as well as ride comfort, noise levels and fuel economy.
The all-new Hyundai Santa Fe debuts at the 2012 New York International Auto Show in early April. No word on the engines that will power the new car as yet, but expect more details and information after the car is unveiled next month.
Click here to read the full range review of the Hyundai Santa Fe.
Ford has released details of its upcoming 2013 F-Series Super Duty range which will offer a host of new technological amenities, complementing the pickups already sturdy capabilities.
With ‘Platinum’ trim fitted to an F-250, F-350 or F-450, customers will receive Ford’s SYNC voice-control system and the MyFord Touch physical infotainment interface which includes navigation and a reversing camera.
The ‘Platinum’ model also adds lavish amounts of chrome to the Super Duty’s grille, bumpers, mirrors, running boards and tailgate.
The bad news? You can’t buy the F-series here in Oz.
The Volvo V40 will become the biggest-selling model in the Volvo cars range within two years and, when launched next year, will finally answer two decades of demands from dealers.
Volvo has not had a Volkswagen Golf-rivaling five-door hatchback in its model range since the Volvo 440 model of the 1990s, despite calls from retailers. The new V40’s arrival is thus a defining car for the brand.
“The V40 will be THE car people assume stands for Volvo,” said acting Volvo UK Managing Director Nick Connor. It will take the brand straight into the family hatchback heartland, as a more upmarket alternative to the Ford Focus.
“We see it as a strong alternative to the Honda Civic,” said Connor. “Honda customers, we believe, associate closely with Volvo values.”
The V40 is the first example of a Volvo launched under the ‘Designed Around You’ philosophy, which makes customer clarity top priority.
It’s arrival will help bring clarity to a range of Volvo family cars that even the brand itself admits have been confusing. “Previously, we have had C30, S40 and V50 – all variants of the same car,” said Connor. “The V40 replaces the latter two and will be a much stronger statement in the market.”
Volvo has also simplified its previously confusing trim and engine range, work that continues with the V40. “We haven’t made it easy for ourselves in the past: if the choice is so vast for customers, they can’t get their head around it and it becomes meaningless.”
“The V40 will show a smarter way of doing things.”
The V40 will go on sale here in Australia sometime in 2013.
There are two ways of looking at the Boxster. The first says that there have already been several incarnations since the roadster was first unveiled to a delighted audience at the Detroit Auto Show back in 1993.
But the other, more genuine argument is that this 2012 Porsche Boxster is the first time buyers have been offered a genuinely new model. It’s groundbreaking fresh, both in body and engineering.
With a style that still instantly shouts Boxster, the cabin has been moved forward, the windscreen raked back and the side profile changed so that it looks like a couple of recent exotic Porsches, the Carrera GT and the 918. It’s a brilliant result that immediately makes the early Boxster look very dated indeed.
For some time the Boxster S has had a 3.4-litre engine with efficient direct injection, whereas the Boxster’s was a 2.9-litre with the previous technology. Now the Boxster gets an upgrade to direct injection too, going a little smaller at the same time, down to 2.7-litres but gaining 7kW to 195kW. That’s more than the original Boxster S.
The new Volvo V40 features the world’s first airbag for pedestrians – aiming to reduce injuries sustained when road traffic collides with human beings.
Volvo is known for its pioneering attitude towards safety, with innovations such as the three-point inertia reel seatbelt, energy-absorbent safety cages and deformable bumpers among its substantial list of achievements.
The latest innovation takes this a step further. On impact with a pedestrian, the all-new V40 will “pop” the bonnet up by four inches using pyrotechnics to create a greater space beneath the panel’s surface, cushioning the blow.
An airbag will then emerge from the base of the windscreen through the void provided by the bonnet, inflating to cover the car’s A-pillars and other “hard” areas to reduce the severity of injury sustained.
According to Volvo, the device can save lives in 85 per cent of cases where individuals would otherwise have sustained life-threatening or fatal injuries at speeds between 20km/h and 50km/h.
The system works through an array of sensors fitted to the front bumper that detects how hard an object is in a crash – if an impact with a flexible object, such as a human limb, is recorded, the bonnet and airbag combination is deployed.
The new system will be standard on the all-new Volvo V40, with the Swedish manufacturer intending to roll out the system across its entire future model range.
Official shots of Mercedes’ new line-up of SL-Class vehicles surfaced on the web a few months ago, but none of the crucial details accompanied them. Now they’re here.
Here’s the important stuff – there will be two options available for the sixth-generation SL-Class; the SL350 that features a 225kW/370Nm V6 engine, and the SL500 which comes with a 320kW/700Nm V8. Both engines use Mercedes’ new BlueDIRECT technology, with the SL500 representing a 12 percent power increase over the previous generation.
If you didn’t know, SL actually stands for “super light”, and the new models are now 125kg (SL500) and 140kg (SL350) lighter thanks mainly to an all-new aluminium bodyshell and other weight saving measures. Combine this with the power increases and you get 0-100km/h in 5.9 seconds in the SL350 and 0-100km/h in 4.3 seconds in the SL500.
Fuel consumption is down 30 percent for the SL350 to 6.9 l/100km, and 22 percent for the SL500 to 9.1 l/100km. This corresponds to some pretty reasonable CO2 figures of 159g/km and 212g/km respectively.
Forget the Nissan Navara. Forget, too, the Triton and the Ford Ranger. They are fine workhorses but if you want a load-lugger that will speed you between jobs like a Jack Russell chasing a ferret, there is only one car for the job, the HSV Maloo R8.
Maloo means thunder in Aborigine and upon first glance at the mad HSV you tend to agree that you are indeed in for a storm if you climb aboard this beast.
From the front it looks colossal, bedecked with massive intakes and snarling snouts, while at the back there is a pool table-sized load bay that doubles as the world’s best man bag.
Buried in the nose of the brute rests the 6.2 litre V8 engine that powers the R8, the Corvette and the Chevrolet Camaro. It is the latest ‘LS3’ engine, putting out 317kW and 550Nm of torque to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox. The engine is so powerful it is easy to bumble around in a high gear and let the engine do the work. Alternatively, you can make full use of the six gears to extract ludicrous performance from something so strange.
Nissan has revealed its radical new DeltaWing technological concept – a race car resembling the Batmobile set to race at the 24 hours of Le Mans in June.
According to the car’s chief designer, Ben Bowlby, the unique looking sports prototype is based on a “half everything” philosophy. This means the car’s drag, weight and front tyre width – standing at just four inches wide per tyre – are all around 50 per cent of that of a normal Le Mans car.
The car is powered by a 220kW 1.6-litre turbocharged direct-injection engine loosely based on the top-spec Nissan Juke’s 1.6 DIG-T unit – a move which Nissan claims will help translate improvements in efficiency on the racetrack to the road.
Although the car is not eligible for overall victory at Le Mans – it will compete in its own special open class designed to showcase future innovations and technology in motorsport – it should turn competitive lap times according to one of the car’s three drivers, Marino Franchitti:
“The DeltaWing is easy to drive and behaves like a normal LMP car really. The handling is very consistent and controllable – almost benign – and we’re predicting a lap time in between that of the LMP1 and LMP2 cars,” said the Scot.
In a clean sweep for German manufacturers, the top three contenders for the overall 2012 World Car of the Year title are the BMW 3 Series, the Porsche 911 and the Volkswagen Up!
It’s the second consecutive year that BMW is in the top three, and the previous 3 Series won the title in 2006. The shortlist was announced at a press conference at the Geneva Motor Show hosted by Bridgestone and the New York International Auto Show.
The top three finalists for Performance Car award are the Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4, the McLaren MP4-12C and the Porsche 911.
The top three Design finalists are the Citroen DS5, the Land Rover Evoque and the Volkswagen Up!
Finally, the top Green car contenders are the Ford Focus Electric, the Mercedes-Benz 250 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY and the Peugeot 3008 Hybrid.
The overall winner in each category will be declared at the New York Auto Show on 5 April 2012.
Just when you thought Saab had finally croaked its pulse has given one last beat in the form of a 9-3 racer, which will be fielded in the Swedish Racing Elite League.
The car will be entered by Flash Engineering and will compete against Volvo, BMW and Citroen in the race series.
“I have longed for 40 years to see the fight between Saab and Volvo on the race tracks. It becomes reality this summer and my biggest dream is to get all Saab fans to the TTA races to cheer us on,” said Jan “Flash” Nilsson, driver and Managing Director of Flash Engineering.
The team will be supported by the last surviving remnants of Saab, Saab Parts and the Saab Dealer organization, and will begin testing the car at a secret location next week.
