Car Parts 2011

Like most auto enthusiasts, I've been going to car shows on a yearly basis for as long as I can remember.  The gleaming sheet metal, new car smell, and the future promises held by concept cars are absolutely intoxicating.  As exciting as all that is, nothing prepared us for our first media day at the New York International Auto Show.

Upon entering the show, there was a sense of occasion.  Industry honchos gave their state of the union addresses, manufacturers had elaborate setups for their press conferences, and celebrities of the automotive world were just as excited as we were at unveilings.  While all this is very grand in its own right, we're here for the cars.  Here are the unveilings that stood out:

Scion
Scion came to New York with both barrels locked and cocked.  When it came time for the press conference, they held nothing back.  While their FR-S has been seen in various other guises on the auto show circuit as a Toyota, this latest, more production ready variant was an absolute stunner.  Even amongst the seasoned automotive press, the car created quite a buzz.  The car is amazingly proportioned, if not achingly beautiful.  When's the last time anybody said that about a Toyota?



Mercedes-Benz
From one end of the automotive world with Scion to the other with Mercedes, it just goes to show there isn't any reason for a manufacturer to rest on its laurels.  Mercedes did this by showing off their brand new SLK and C63 AMG coupe.  They definitely brought their A-game with the unveiling of the A-class concept.  It brings a lot of style to the entry level Mercedes that will be sure to attract a younger demographic.  That younger demographic interrupted the whole press conference to show their appreciation for the car.






Kia
For years the affordable subcompact segment filled an important but uncelebrated niche. However, last week's small car unveilings showed that it is arguably the most competitive market today. Subcompact segment press conferences definitely stood out from the rest this year and off the top of my head, new small car debuts for 2011 include the new Honda Civic, Subaru Impreza sedan and five-door, Nissan's new Versa, Hyundai Accent, KIA Rio, Mini KISS Countryman, Volkswagen Beetle, FIAT 500, Mercedes Benz A-Class.

With an industry leading sales growth of 36.6%, Kia has been enjoying one of the greatest turnarounds in industry history! Rather than going the Ford and Hyundai route with a middle of the road "start-up family" conscious press conference, Kia introduced their Rio 5, Rio sedan as well as a facelifted Kia Soul on one of the brightest and loudest stages at the expo thanks to Brianna, the cute DJ!

At sub $14k, I predict the 148 horsepower, 40mpg highway, 1.6 liter 4 cylinder Rio 5 will be a real contender.

Love its SEAT dad

Fiat
Fiat is a returning player in the North American market. Needless to say, first impressions count and Fiat delivered. Thanks to a very pretty presenter as well as a very chic, very unique display with a vertical unveiling, the quirky 500 Cabrio surprised every journalist that attended. This is not a joke; the Fiat 500 was so popular, I never got the opportunity to snap a photo of the car without someone standing next to it. (To those of you that are curious, the handsome chap wearing a suit in the photo below is James Riswick, editor of Edmund's Inside Line)

A little more than a year ago, I recall an article revealing that the redesign of the Fiat 500 model will be heavily influenced by Apple's marketing and product development strategies. And now, one of the key attractions to the 500 right now is the Eco-Drive application. Driving information from your commute can be stored and shared so that fellow owners of the Fiat 500 can compete to see who can score better gas mileage. By making "saving the world" a game based on an app designed for young buyers, this car is hitting all the right buttons.

Finally, having finally seen the 500 in the flesh, it quickly made it onto my shortlist of cars I'd heavily consider owning.



Stay tuned for part 2!
I hope everyone's having a good weekend so far!

LeMans Blue, British Racing Green, Blue Water, Black Sapphire, Alpine White, Palladium Silver, Indium Grey, the list of color choices is endless. Sure, all of these colors are great, but let's get down to the basics, the nitty gritty. I'm thinking of a color that's bare bones, yet it's something that invokes a raw feeling: Flat Black.

We don't see many vehicles on the road this color, but when we do, oh man! Luke, we're sorry, but FPH is turning to the Dark Side!

In the United States, the weight behind the iconic Jaguar marque is... I don't think there's any weight at all. The older V12 XKS's were popular amongst young lawyers of the 90's, I imagine. But as the XKS finally went out of production and the XJ saloon showed its age, Jaguar steadily lost prominence in the North American market even though the Jaguar owner of the time was none other than Ford Motor Company.

If I were to walk out now and ask a stranger on the street to name five prestige brands off the top of their head, although I'm not sure why I would, their answer will most likely begin with Mercedes Benz, BMW, Audi and Lexus before they would get around to Jaguar, if at all.


It's a shame as I've been quite fond of Jaguars. It's got that heavy, industrial, bank heist, Irish baddie with fingerless driving gloves charisma. On the flip side, it leaves Coventry with that proper upright posture to play as the British royal carriage. Unfortunately, like everyone else, I've been wary of Jag's history of unreliability.

I was pleasantly surprised, then, to learn that Jaguar performed very well on JD Power & Associate's 2011 dependability score. Jaguar has really been on the move lately. After Tata Motor's recent ownership, the line-up received a healthy and very promising rejuvenation.


And according to the Tata executives, Jaguar's next mission is to introduce a compact sport luxury sedan marketed squarely against the German titans of the segment-- BMW 3 series, Mercedes Benz C class, and the Audi A4. The reasoning behind Jaguar is simple; in order to effectively compete with the other players, they must compete in every single segment.

With BMW's ever growing niche market vehicles like their 5-series gran turismo crossover, I'd disagree with Jaguar's "every single segment." But surely, to enter BMW 3-series territory is a practical thing to do. It comes across as common sense.

There is one thing though. A catch. Jaguar also acknowledges that the platform will be front wheel drive. And this concerns me; ever since the 3-series came to market more than 30 years ago, how many fwd competitors were able to surpass it? The Ford Mondeo and the Volvo S60 are respectable, but neither came even close. Neither held the same brand equity and one of them isn't even sold here. Moreover, Jaguar's last efforts was in the failed X-type. I don't even want to talk about it.

But now it's the revival of Old England we're talking about, India's Tata Motors or not! Every single Jaguar model of late has been better than the one before it, they're back on the radar and Ian Callum is the chief exterior designer. This is their moment and with the anticipation of a smaller Jaguar, I'd expect to see a nimbler brawler with all the charisma of the Mk2 and I certainly expect to see a Jaguar I want to buy.

Look down at your center console (now at me, now back to your console...damn Old Spice commercials).  I bet there's at least 3 things that you notice right away.  There's the shifter, a cup holder probably, and the hand brake.  This last item goes by many names.  There's hand brake, parking brake, and emergency brake, or e-brake for short.  I've decided that e-brake will from now on mean "enthusiast brake."  Let me explain after the jump.

My Mazdaspeed 3

This is a picture of the three most important hand controls in a car.  The steering wheel...er... steers.  The shifter transmits power from the motor to the wheels.  For normal people, the e-brake prevents the car from aimlessly wandering into some negative circumstance.  However, the e-brake is an enthusiast's Leatherman multi-tool.

Now, I don't condone anything that I'm about to tell you.  I'm just saying that certain people do, in fact, use the e-brake for these reasons.  These might include e-brake drifts, j-turns, and front-wheel drive burnouts.

As enthusiasts, we are proud that we can make a car dance around corners and control its every movement.  The e-brake simply aids in the festivities.  Soon, these stop sticks will be replaced by something like this:

Audi parking brake

Mercedes E-Class

MP4-12C worldcarfans.com

I'm done with midterms! Sunny 73 degrees! Wow, it's as if I've forgotten what 73 degrees feels like.

Though this would be the first weekend I'll get to enjoy the warm weather, the race season has already begun without me last week.

Bahrain kicked off a season that looks to be more dramatic than the season before (for all the good reasons). A significant rule change in F1 dictates that teams are no longer permitted to refuel after the start of the race. In the past, both teams and F1 fans could have calculated pit times to predict where each team will eventually finish. However, Last week displayed blazing pit stop times of less than 4 seconds on average for the replacement of tires only and losing only 2 positions in the process. To that end, where the driver will join and reform from exiting the pits is no longer significant.

Other than the redesigned rule for this season, we now see that there are four teams vying for the championship-- Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes Benz. Let's hope tight racing continues for the rest of the season.

The other racing series I'm excited about is ALMS this weekend at 12 hours of Sebring. The last few years have displayed some outrageous racing in the closing laps, most notably with the GT class Porsche Flying Lizard Team. Will they win again?