The Toyota Auris Touring Sports unveiled at the 2012 Paris Auto Show is not only the first station wagon model in the Auris line-up, but it is also the first estate version in the family car market with a full hybrid powertrain. It will go on sale in early 2013.
The new Auris Touring Sports continues the same design language revealed by the Auris Hatchback in early 2012, except that it is 285mm longer and will of course offer increased luggage space. Just like the five-door hatchback, the new estate version will be offered with "Skyview," one of the biggest panoramic sunroofs currently available on the market.
The Toyota Auris Touring Sports will be offered with a choice of two diesel engines – 1.4d and 2.0d – and two petrol engines – 1.33 and 1.6 - as well as Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive system.
Hit the jump to read more about the 2013 Toyota Auris Touring Sports.
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The Paris Motor Show is just hours away and we are starting to get things all ramped up. Porsche announced that it will be unveiling an all-new production concept when the show opens up, only to shoot out the official details a couple of hours later. This new concept is dubbed the Panamera Sport Turismo Concept and is slated to compete directly with the Mercedes-Benz CLS Shooting Brake.
The concept is supposed to preview a possible Porsche sports car of tomorrow, which would mean that they are not letting go of the idea that spawned the Cayenne and the Panamera: Parents need speed too.
Rumor has it that this model will debut at some point in the 2013 model year, so the concept model that we see here will most likely be almost identical to its production model.
Update 12/11/12: Porsche has released a sweet video outlining the development of the Panamera Sport Turismo Concept and how it came to life. You can see the video after the jump.
Click past the jump to have a look at the Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo Concept.
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We are all waiting with baited breath for the release of the Porsche 918 Spyder and every little bit of information we get is quickly gobbled up and processed. However, we had yet to hear any real track numbers for this awesome hybrid machine. Sure ,we know that it will boast an 795-horsepower drivetrain that uses a 4.6-liter V-8 gasoline engine and a pair of electric motors and will hit 60 mph in just about 3 seconds.
Still, that just is not enough information for us, but we just got our first taste of real life track information on the 918 Spyder and it’s all good. It recently completed the Nürburgring Nordschleife lap and pulled in a time of 7:14. Depending on the fractional seconds, this will place the 918 Spyder as the fifth, sixth, or seventh fastest car to ever take on the Nordschleife lap.
In addition, this puts it a full 18 seconds faster than the touted Carrera GT that it replaced. One thing to keep in mind is that the 918 that tested on the ‘Ring and got the fastest time was equipped with what Porsche calls the “Weissach package.” According to what we hear, this package includes upgraded brakes, a 6-point harness, air-conditioning delete, radio delete, and other weight-saving measures, so don’t go thinking that every 918 Spyder under the sun will lap the bankrupt, yet safe, Nürburgring.
Now with our whistles wet with fresh 918 details, we can rest easy for the day knowing that the 918 at least performs on the track as we have always hoped and expected.
The production version of the Porsche 918 Spyder won’t be arriving on the market until September 2013, but in a not surprising turn of events, what appears to be the official brochure of the model has surfaced on the internet. Next to a series of new images, this leaked brochure also offers a few more details on the next 918 Spyder.
It looks like the 918 Spyder will deliver a total of 800 HP (and not 720 HP as previously rumored) thanks to a hybrid system that will combine a 580 HP V8 engine with three electric motors. With a total weight of just 3659 lbs, the 918 Spyder will sprint from 0 to 60 mph in just 3 seconds and from 0 to 124 mph in just 8 seconds. It will also only consume 3 liters per 100 kilometers.
Porsche will also be offering a "Weissach Package" that will drop about 77 lbs from the car’s total weight. This package will include dive planes for the front and rear, a lightweight braking system, the elimination of the armrests and storage in the doors, and Alcantara or carbon fiber trim. As an option, Porsche will also offer a Special Liquid Metal Grey or Blue exterior paint and two special liveries: Martini and White/Red.
We caught a glimpse of the Peugeot Onyx Concept a few weeks ago on Peugeot’s Facebook page. Peugeot, however, chose to be a little coy and not actually release the information, but we managed to peg it down as the Onyx.
Peugeot has now decided to spill the beans about its fancy new concept joining it at the 2012 Paris Auto Show, the Onyx Hybrid. Peugeot has released more detailed specifications and some pretty detailed pictures of this new supercar. And this car is much more impressive than any of the initial rumors could have ever alluded to.
Though the press release shows us no indication of when Peugeot plans to officially unveil the Onyx to the public, we can safely assume that it will be at the 2012 Paris Motor Show. Even without the official public reveal, all of the information and images that Peugeot has released, we can now pass a detailed review of Peugeot’s supercar concept on to you.
UPDATE 09/17/2012: Peugeot has touched base with us to say that the Onyx’s gasoline engine puts out 1160 Nm (855 pound-feet) of torque and the electric motor puts out 280 Nm (206 pound feet) of torque for a combined 1,061 pound feet of peak torque. They also let us know that Onyx will not ever be produced (duh), but it is rather just a future styling and technology piece.
Click past the jump to read all about this supercar concept and to find out when and if Peugeot plans to put it on the market.
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The BMW Concept Active Tourer is set to be unveiled at the 2012 Paris Auto Show, which begins on September 29th and it will debut with some all-new BMW technology. BMW sees the Active Tourer as its way to fit in with the 5-percent annual mpg growth required by the recently passed CAFÉ extension through 2025. Believe it or not, this compact crossover actually shares a small amount of DNA with the upcoming i8 plug-in hybrid sports car, which we will get into later.
The Concept Active Tourer is just as its name alludes to, a concept. However, it is a great glimpse into the upcoming technologies that BMW plans to add to its line up in the coming years. One brand-new item the Concept Tourer bears is the eDrive system, which we’ll describe in more detail later. The second new technology is the first-ever appearance by the much-anticipated BMW 3-cylinder engine.
As with any concept car that we see, we have to ask a few questions. First, is this concept a reality or is it a pipe dream that will likely never see the light of day in its conception form (See: Pontiac Sunfire)? Secondly, can this concept even compete in its market in both price and performance?
Click past the jump to read all about the BMW Concept Active Tourer and get the answers to these questions.
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BMW has been working on a 3-cylinder variant of its Twin-Power engines for quite a while now and we have all been a little skeptical on a BMW 3-banger. Rightfully so, we must say, as the only 3-cylinder engine that really sticks in our minds is the 60-something horsepower over-sized paperweight that GM used in the Metro many years ago. If you owned one of these, you know exactly what we’re talking about.
Then again, this is BMW we’re talking about and this is the era of low-displacement-high-horsepower engines, so our hopes remain high for this Bimmer 3-pot. Well, we can finally put to rest part of the mystery behind this new engine, as BMW has just released some basic info on this line of engines.
BMW plans to release the 3-cylinder models in both gasoline and diesel power and the lineup will begin with the 1.5-liter unit that we expect to see in the Concept Active Tourer. These engines will all boast BMW’s now-famed Twin-Power technology, which introduces the power of twin turbochargers with only one twin-scroll blower.
Per the report, these 3-cylinder engines will boast between 120 horsepower and 220 horsepower, the latter we expect to see in the upcoming i8, and between 133 and 177 pound-feet of torque when being fed gasoline. The diesel variants will feature between 80 and 180 horsepower, and 165 and 243 pound-feet of torque. From what we are seeing here, these engines will be very impressive from top to bottom; even the 80-horsepower diesel will feature a high level of torque to get it moving.
One thing that may concern buyers is the cost of producing these engines, but BMW is countering this by engineering them so like-fueled engines share 60 percent of their components and even the gas and diesel models share 40 percent of their components with one another. This helps lower the cost of production, thereby lowering the engine’s impact on your wallet.
Another part that will lighten the load on your wallet is these engines’ fuel economy, but BMW has yet to release that information. We’ll keep an eye out for that.
We received an email today from some random Ferrari dealer saying that we had been chosen as a potential buyer for the upcoming F70. Attached to this email was an image. We had never seen it before so we all got excited that maybe Ferrari mistakenly emailed out the official images ahead of time… Until Google kicked us down 13 notches by showing us that it was a little-known rendition by Constantin-Gabriel Radu.
After kicking the ground a few times like a 10-year old scolded by his mommy, we then realized that said email did contain a few bits of information that we need to pass on. First and foremost, we have been anticipating a 2013 release of the F70, but apparently, it is much closer to being done than the test mules running around town are showing us, as the email says that the F70 will be released “in a few weeks.”
The second bit of information is even more impressive, as the email lets us know that the F70 will exceed the 1,000-horsepower mark with its 900-plus-horsepower V-12 and a 120-horsepower KERS system. We had been under the impression that the F70 would have at least 20 fewer ponies.
The third and final bit of info is the fact that the Ferrari F70 will sit atop the supercar world as the fastest serial-numbered street car in the world. That means it will trump the mighty Bugatti Veyron Super Sport’s 258 mph record.
Though the leaked images would beat this information by a long shot, this is still extremely cool to hear. Stay tuned for more information.
When the Honda Concept S hit the stage at the 2012 Beijing Auto Show, two models came to mind, the Odyssey and the Jazz. It is slightly larger than your average hatchback, but significantly smaller than the American Honda Odyssey, so the final production name is up in the air. Keep in mind that the Odyssey in some Asian markets has a much lower-slung roof and a shallower windshield rake than the American version, so therein lays the possibility that it could become the new Odyssey.
Of course, production of the Concept S was never a guarantee, as with nearly every concept car. However, when an automaker produces a video on a specific concept car, you can pretty much rest assured that it will hit production in some form or fashion. That is exactly what Honda has done with the above video.
Seeing the video and people actually sitting in the seats, the Concept S really seems to have more of an MPV type of setup. All of that headroom and the spacious rear seats nearly eliminate it as a replacement for the Jazz, which is closely related to the Fit in the States. Then again, maybe Honda is trying to gain an edge by making the Jazz slightly larger than your typical 5-door hatchback.
Either way, we can say that the Concept S’s style is unmistakably awesome and its potential for release just increased 10-fold by Honda releasing this video.
Hopefully we’ll have an announcement on a production model soon. Those in the U.S., you’ll have to sit this one out, as the Concept S looks like it will be an Asian-market model only.
Even though the Baby Boxster is still supposedly on hold, we all know that the Baby Cayenne (AKA the Porsche Macan) will make its debut sometime next year. We also learned, via Autocar, that the Macan will bear a 370-horsepower 3.0-liter V6 at its top end and will likely feature a 220-horsepower 4-cylinder at the bottom end. Mixed in the middle may be a 295-horsepower, 3.6-liter 6-cylinder and a 2.0-liter diesel engine with 190 horsepower.
Additionally we knew that Porsche was planning to limit first-year production to just 45,000 units. According to Automotive News Europe, via WirtschaftsWoche, Porsche has recently upped that number to 75,000 units. There’s no rhyme or reason to the increase, but apparently Volkswagen, Porsche’s new majority owner, sees the Macan as a key piece to hitting the 200,000-unit sales number goal by 2018.
The reports of this increase come without any sources cited, so we are not sure of its validity. Porsche will certainly make an announcement of this increase in production numbers soon, given it is a true report. Hopefully, VW seeing that there is a market for Porsche to get into smaller and less-expensive versions of its existing vehicles will lead to a restarting of the Baby Boxster project, but, we’re not holding our breath on that one.
We’ll update you with any more information that pops up on the Macan as we inch closer to its debut.
