Jeep doesn’t usually make the kind of attention-grabbing headlines in Europe the way it does in the States. But now that the company is slowly establishing its footing across the pond, it looks like their set to use the 2012 Geneva Motor Show as the perfect place to make a sparkling first impression.
All in all, Jeep is bringing three "production-intent" concept vehicles to Geneva. We’ve already touched on the Compass Black Look Concept and the Wrangler Mountain Edition. Now, we turn our attention towards the Grand Cherokee Sports Concept
Just like Compass Black Look Concept, the Grand Cherokee Sports Concept comes dressed with plenty of aesthetic modifications, including a a gloss black accent on the headlamp bezels, grille surround, tinted rear passenger windows, a lift gate light-bar, and roof molding covers that have taken the place of the roof rack. There’s also a new mesh grille, a lower bumper fascia appliqué in Platinum Chrome, black chrome dual exhaust tips, and a new set of 20" aluminum wheels.
Inside, special features include Nappa leather and suede seats, a heated leather steering wheel, carbon fiber trim pieces on the instrument panel and door trim panels, and bright brake and accelerator pedals.
No performance modifications were given to the special edition Grand Cherokee, which means that you can expect it to carry a 3.0-liter V6 turbo-diesel engine with Fiat’s Multijet II technology, one that produces producing 241 horsepower and 406 lb/ft of torque and mated to a five-speed automatic transmission with Electronic Range Select (ERS).
Every so often, students from the European Institute of Design of Turin build a concept car that makes its way to the Geneva Motor Show.
This year, Master of Arts in Transportation Design students of the IED are headed back to Geneva to present their latest concept vehicle, the Cisitalia 202 E.
Designed as a concept that pays tribute to the iconic Italian car of the 40’s, the full-scale concept model carries a design language that was described as "sculpture in motion" while also fitted with a rear-mounted V8 engine that produces an impressive 450 horsepower. Those numbers are not only impressive in today’s time, but it’s also a significant increase from the original model’s 1,089cc, four-cylinder engine that produced only 55 horsepower.
As far as the original 202 is concerned, the car is considered such a rarity these days - only 170 were ever produced - that one of those 170 currently sits as part of the New York Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. For a car that was considered one of the first vehicles in history to be built entirely out of a single body shell and was designed by no less than Battista "Pinin" Farina, IED’s modern-day interpretation of the classic 202 is about as real as any combination of old-school and new-school automotive ideologies we’ve seen in the past few years.
At this year’s Geneva Motor Show Jeep will bring a very interesting concept car: a Compass production-intent concept with the only purpose of showing us how cool a Compass can become with just the right additions. The concept has received a number of styling cues and functional elements that transform the SUV into a very cool looking model. In fact is something similar to the Jeep Compass by Mopar recently announced for the North American market.
The new Compass production-intent concept features exclusive black-gloss front-end accents, step pad and 18" aluminum wheels painted in black-gloss. The front grille has also received black-gloss inserts - same treatment being used for the roof rails and step pads, the headlamp and fog lamp surrounds.
For the interior Jeep has added new front and rear bright sill covers, but also a new UConnect multimedia navigation and infotainment system with Bluetooth UConnect Phone and 9-speaker premium Boston Acoustics sound system.
The concept has been built on the 2.2-litre turbo diesel version and delivers 163 HP and 236 lbs-ft of torque.
German automaker MINI doesn’t waste a good opportunity to show off some of their newest concept vehicles, especially when you have one of the biggest auto events in the calendar scheduled to open its doors in a few weeks.
On that note, the 2012 Geneva Motor Show is right around the corner and MINI is set to introduce a new concept vehicle called the Clubvan, adding yet another vehicle into their ever-expanding line-up of cars.
Despite still being in its concept guise, the Clubvan Concept is far from some of the previous MINI concepts we’ve seen lately - the Rocketman comes to mind - in that it doesn’t look a whole lot like a prototype but an actual production model.
The design of the concept won’t blow you away, although there are some elements of it that bears attention, including the addition of a partition grille that separates the front passengers from the enormous cargo area.
The car is scheduled to make its world debut at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show next month, at which point we’ll have more details to share regarding this rather peculiar looking MINI concept.
It remains to be seen if the British company will introduce a production version of the Clubvan.
Find out more about the MINI Clubvan Concept after the jump
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Italian design houses are all headed to the 2012 Geneva Motor Show with their own respective concept cars. Leading up to one of the world’s biggest auto shows, we’ve already seen teasers from Pininfarina, Bertone, and Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera.
Now you can add Italdesign Giugiaro to that list.
Not a lot of information has been given as far as Italdesign’s concept car is concerned. Even the single teaser photo of the car doesn’t say a whole lot because it’s so up close that it’s hard to decipher what part of the car it is.
Nevertheless, the influx of Italian design houses that are headed to Geneva has made these concept cars even more attractive. Hopefully, Italdesign Giugiaro reveals more of the still-unknown concept car leading up to the opening of the 2012 Geneva Motor Show on March 6.
Something about this one teaser photo leads us to believe that we’ll be completely blown away by this concept.
