| _______________ | 11 |  | Official: 2014 Buick LaCrosse to sticker at $34,060* | Filed under: Car Buying, Sedan, Buick, GM, Luxury 
Buick first showed the facelifted 2014 LaCrosse at this year's New York Auto Show, and General Motors' luxury-ish arm has now confirmed that pricing for the updated sedan will start at $34,060 (*including $925 for destination), a increase of $1,505 over the 2013 model.
Buyers will be treated to an updated appearance, both inside and out. On the outside, tweaks were made to the LaCrosse's front and rear fascias, and new wheels are on offer (though the ones seen on the car pictured above seem to have been simply pulled from the 2011 Regal Turbo). Inside, there's a much cleaner center stack layout, complete with a standard eight-inch reconfigurable touchscreen IntelliLink interface. Buick is also offering a new Ultra Luxury interior package ($2,495), featuring Tamo Ash wood throughout the cabin, black synthetic suede on the headliner and leather seats in a new sangria color. Standalone options include different wheels, Bose audio, rear seat entertainment, navigation and a sunroof.
The 2014 LaCrosse's base powertrain is the trusty 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine with eAssist, which is capable of achieving up to 36 miles per gallon on the highway. But for folks wanting more power, a 304-horsepower, 3.6-liter V6 is available as a no-cost option, available with either front- or all-wheel drive.Continue reading 2014 Buick LaCrosse to sticker at $34,060* 2014 Buick LaCrosse to sticker at $34,060* originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments | |
| _______________ | 12 | | Official: Mitsubishi Outlander, Evo to keep things safe at Pikes Peak | Filed under: Sedan, Safety, Crossover, Mitsubishi, Racing 
Mitsubishi has already announced that it will be returning as a competitor to the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with a pair of all-electric MiEV Evolution II racecars. In addition to these entrants, the automaker will also be the presenting sponsor of the race as well as providing the official safety vehicles to the event using specially prepped versions of the 2014 Outlander and Lancer Evolution.
While it isn't clear what exactly will be demanded of the safety vehicles, this isn't going to your run-of-the-mill pace car duty. To get the Outlander and Evo ready for the 156-turn, 12.42-mile course, Mitsubishi teamed up with companies such as BBS, Cobb Tuning, AEM and Muellerized Suspension Systems as well as DC Sports and Kenwood to create these one-off safety cars. These vehicles, and all the racecars, will be at Pikes Peak later this month for the 91st running of America's second-oldest racing event. Scroll down for the official press release.Continue reading Mitsubishi Outlander, Evo to keep things safe at Pikes Peak Mitsubishi Outlander, Evo to keep things safe at Pikes Peak originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments | |
| _______________ | 13 | | Video: 2014 Cadillac ELR whirs into Jay Leno's Garage | Filed under: Coupe, Videos, Cadillac, Celebrities, Electric, Luxury 
While Jerry Seinfeld was gallivanting around LA with Sarah Silverman in a Jaguar XKE, our favorite car-loving comedian, Jay Leno, was checking out the all-new 2014 Cadillac ELR. Set to go on sale later this year, Cadillac brought its ELR to Jay Leno's Garage to show off some of its styling and technology as well as give Leno some seat time in the range-extended EV. Leno owns both a Volt and a CTS-V, and the ELR is a kind combination of the two (sort of).
In this episode, Leno spends some time talking to Frank Saucedo, GM director of advanced design, and ELR chief engineer Chris Thomason before logging a few miles on the sleek coupe. Interestingly, it seems that GM has definitely changed its tune a little since the introduction of the Volt a couple years ago; Saucedo and Leno both refer to the ELR as a hybrid, and Thomason says that it gets the "bulk of its propulsion" from the electric motors. Whatever you want to call it, scroll down to watch the latest episode of JLG with some great information and driving shots of the plug-in Cadillac.Continue reading 2014 Cadillac ELR whirs into Jay Leno's Garage 2014 Cadillac ELR whirs into Jay Leno's Garage originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments | |
| _______________ | 14 | | First Drive: 2014 Mercedes-Benz CLA45 AMG | Filed under: Sedan, Performance, Mercedes-Benz, First Drives, Luxury A Really Hot Little GT Plants The Seed For A Better AMG
Mercedes-Benz has AMG on an impressive growth curve these days, the official name of the effort being Performance 50. By the 50th anniversary of AMG in 2017, the Mercedes performance division will produce 30,000-plus units per year. That's up from today's 20,000 or so, and AMG will boast a catalog of 30-plus models. Despite that very full range, this new CLA45 AMG is certain to be an important contributor on all accounts.
The thrill monitors at AMG have a long-established reputation for creating large, open-road rockets that err on the side of brute force and everyday comfort over zippy, tight-feeling sports car finesse and balance. The strategy has worked wonders for the company's sales ledger and created handsome levels of profit per unit, but entire developing sectors of the premium hot-car market have been knowingly left out of the AMG equation. While there are exceptions, AMG has never been considered a maker of truly agile machinery that's easily tossed around.
The very first thing that we notice while driving the CLA45 AMG - on schedule for North American deliveries beginning in April with a reported starting price of $47,450 - is exactly how lively its new 4Matic chassis can be. It's an entirely new feeling for an AMG, and it's entirely welcome by us. Some will complain about the price being asked for this super CLA-Class, but this little sedan is a true AMG of the new genre, and as such, it might just be something of a bargain.Continue reading 2014 Mercedes-Benz CLA45 AMG 2014 Mercedes-Benz CLA45 AMG originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments | |
| _______________ | 15 | | Elon Musk confirms Tesla Model S battery swaps, demo coming this week | Filed under: Emerging Technologies, EV/Plug-in, Tesla Motors 
For something as secret as a battery swap option in the Tesla Model S electric vehicle, we sure have heard rumors about it for years. Four (!) years ago, after all, we knew that the Model S was designed to accommodate battery swaps and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has talked about taking long-distance EV trips that included battery swaps, and Tesla's proprietary Supercharger network was supposed to have a battery swap component at one time. But then the discussion shifted to focus on that Supercharger network, and how, by stopping for lots of 20-minute sandwiches along the way, a cross-country EV road trip would be totally doable. And, for a while, the Tesla battery swapping talk disappeared.
"Live pack swap demo on Thurs night. Seeing is believing" - Elon Musk
Until, of course, Musk brought it back a month ago by tweeting: "There is a way for the Tesla Model S to be recharged throughout the country faster than you could fill a gas tank." That set off a fresh search for information, which we now know we will be cleared up later this week.
Yesterday, Musk tweeted: "Live pack swap demo on Thurs night at 8pm California time at our design studio in Hawthorne. Seeing is believing." He also tweeted that Better Place founder Shai Agassi "actually got the idea from a visit to Tesla. The idea is obvious (many things allow battery swap), but the technology is not."
We have so many questions about this new option: does it apply to all Model S vehicles? Will it be free, like Supercharging? Will the swap locations be at Tesla stores, Supercharger stations or at other locations? Why is Tesla thinking of battery swaps when it's also been so bullish on its fast-charging technology? We'll try to find answers to all of these questions when the first public swap is performed live on Thursday.Elon Musk confirms Tesla Model S battery swaps, demo coming this week originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments | |
| _______________ | 16 | | Report: GM will no longer release monthly production figures | Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, GM 
General Motors has announced that it will no longer disclose monthly production figures to automotive data providers. Automotive News reports that GM notified research and data providers IHS Automotive, Automotive News Data Center and Autodata Corp. about the change, saying that the company will now provide numbers for wholesale deliveries. Up until now GM, along with many other car companies, provided monthly North American production figures, broken out by individual models.
The automaker says that the new policy is due to a change in the way it records financials for vehicles. In the first part of this year, GM started assigning profit and loss to the country in which a vehicle is sold, rather than to the facility at which it was manufactured. This, says GM, makes the production numbers less critical to keep track of.
Concerns about the change in reporting are multitudinous. Many automotive suppliers use production forecasts that are based on real production data to plan their own manufacturing schedules for coming months. What's more, Automotive News tells us that the GM numbers have been used in many other standard indicators of economic health in the US, including those published by the Federal Reserve. While models exist for estimating the production data, nobody is exactly sure how accurate they'll be, or what the longer term fallout in the industry will look like.GM will no longer release monthly production figures originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments | |
| _______________ | 17 | | Report: Arrest warrant issued for NASCAR driver Mike Harmon | Filed under: Motorsports, Government/Legal 
The next step in the off-track saga involving NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers Mike Harmon and Jennifer Jo Cobb has been taken, with arrest warrants issued for Harmon and business associate David Novak. In May, Harmon was charged with stealing a car hauler and other goods worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from Cobb's shop, and after saying he didn't steal them and maintaining his innocence, seven of the stolen vehicles were found on two of his properties that same month.
The issue is an acrimonious commercial separation with Cobb on one side, Harmon and Novak on the other. Harmon drives for Novak's team - and Cobb did too until last year - and Harmon and Novak allege that the stolen property actually belongs to the team, but Cobb took it. Novak and Cobb are in court over the matter, but when a judge declined Novak's request to have Cobb return the property, it appears he worked with Harmon to get it back the five-finger way.
Harmon and Novak have been charged with breaking and entering, as well as larceny after breaking an entering. At the time of writing, neither man had been arrested, the hauler still hasn't been found, and as for the cars that were recovered it's been claimed that they were stripped and are worth something like $10,000 apiece, a steep drop from their original reported value of $150,000 apiece.Arrest warrant issued for NASCAR driver Mike Harmon originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments | |
| _______________ | 18 | | Official: Suzuki back in MotoGP for 2015 | Filed under: Motorsports, Suzuki, Motorcycle, Racing 
It had been planned for 2014 but it's going to be 2015 instead - that's when Suzuki returns to the manufacturer ranks of MotoGP after quitting the series at the end of 2011 because of The Great Recession. When Suzuki stopped after 37 continuous years of racing, it said it intended to return three years later and it has been in talks with MotoGP's rights holder, Dorna Sports, since last year. No doubt, though, that fan anticipation of the team's return outdoes any dismay at the delay. It will join Yamaha, Honda and Ducati in the premiere league.
Its bike has already been testing in Japan and was with the official MotoGP tribe in Barcelona, Spain on Monday when Suzuki announced its return. It's said the development bike is called the XRH-1, being ridden by official tester Randy de Puniet (who currently races in MotoGP on an Aprilia-based bike with TeamAspar). and after a day of testing de Puniet got the new Suzuki to within seven-tenths of a second of the top time posted by other MotoGP teams. Davide Brivio, who once ran the Fiat-Yamaha team and has been close with Valentino Rossi, will be the team manager.
Speaking of Rossi, The Doctor is back with Fiat-Yamaha after a bad run with Ducati but is only contracted to the end of 2014. Brivio is the man who got Rossi to join Fiat-Yamaha, then got him to Ducati. Until he took the head of Suzuki's works effort, Brivio was working with Rossi's VR46 management company, heading areas like merchandising. The rumormill has already begun its work, with folks wondering if Rossi will head to Suzuki in 2015 if his second stint at Yamaha doesn't prove fruitful before then. Scroll down below for the official press release from Suzuki.Continue reading Suzuki back in MotoGP for 2015 Suzuki back in MotoGP for 2015 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments | |
| _______________ | 19 | | Spy Shots: Lamborghini Cabrera spotted, ready to fill Gallardo shoes | Filed under: Frankfurt Motor Show, Spy Photos, Coupe, Performance, Lamborghini, Luxury 
Facebook user Marchettino (already a minor YouTube celebrity for his supercars channel) spotted the successor to the Lamborghini Gallardo throne out and about on public streets and was kind enough to snap a few photos of the machine. Word has it that a concept car precursor to the newest supercar will bow at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show this September under the Cabrera name. As you've likely already heard, the model is said to ride on the second-generation Audi R8 platform, complete with a composite aluminum and carbon fiber construction to reduce weight as much as possible. How light will will the Cabrera be? Lamborghini is reportedly shooting for a curb weight of around 3,300 pounds.
Power will likely come from a massaged version of the 5.2-liter V10 in the current Gallardo. Expect around 600 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque.
The vehicle in these photos looks to have abandoned some of the Gallardo's angles in favor or more organic lines, though it's possible body cladding is hiding the car's true design. Murcielago SV-style sills and side air intakes serve up quite a bit of aggression and the quad exhaust looks properly menacing as well. We can't wait to see the finished product.Lamborghini Cabrera spotted, ready to fill Gallardo shoes originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments | |
| _______________ | 20 | | Report: Porsche-Piech buy 10% stake in VW's holding company | Filed under: Europe, Porsche, Volkswagen, Earnings/Financials, Middle East 
In August, 2009, as the scuttled merger of Porsche and Volkswagen had gone bad and Porsche was backed up against the ropes, Porsche Automobil Holding SE (PAHSE) relinquished a ten-percent stake in itself to Qatar Holdings as well as options it held on 17 percent of VW shares. The sale meant that, for the first time since the founding of the company 61 years before, an entity outside the Porsche and Piech families had a say in the running of PAHSE.
Buying that ten-percent stake back returns full ownership to the two families, the holding company's sole possession being ownership of 50.7 percent of VW's common shares. The price paid wasn't disclosed, but at market rates the purchase would be worth close to $1.25 billion. Qatar intends to hold onto the 17-percent stake it has in Volkswagen.Porsche-Piech buy 10% stake in VW's holding company originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments | |
