The Demo Site

This weekend, the MINI brand and its worldwide community is celebrating the 50th birthday of the brand. The MINI United Festivail takes place at the famous British race track in Silverstone and fans around the world have gathered for this special event.

With this occasion, MINI took the opportunity to introduce two special edition models. The two cars are being derived from the popular Cooper, Cooper S and Cooper D models, and are being branded with the names MINI 50 Mayfair and MINI 50 Camden. The new models are set to launch in September 2009 and they will run in limited numbers.

Some of you might wonder where the naming convention came from, the 50 Mayfair and 50 Camden, were named after famous boroughs of London. To quote from the long MINI press release, ” Both in their design and their features the MINI 50 Mayfair and the MINI 50 Camden stand out clearly from the current, “regular” production models. Numerous features helping to make these two cars truly unmistakable are indeed reserved to these individual anniversary models, making each version truly unique in its own right.

Special body paintwork, light-alloy rims tailored to the car, special materials and surfaces within the interior as well as a range of colors tailored specifically to the MINI 50 Mayfair and, respectively, the MINI 50 Camden underline the exclusivity of these special models available only for a limited period.

The jubilee placard proudly surrounded by chrome trim on the radiator grille provides clear testimony to the tradition of the brand now going back fifty years, bearing the number “50” in typical MINI design and boasting the colours of the Union Jack – red, white, and blue.”

It remains to be seen how serious Cerberus is about keeping Chrysler LLC going or if anyone else will step forward to take control of the Auburn Hills-based company. While the gang in the executive suite determine the company's fate, the engineers at the ENVI division have their shoulders to the grind-stone turning out a fourth electric vehicle for the 2009 Detroit Auto Show. This time the team has applied it's extended-range electric-drive powertrain to the Jeep Patriot. Like the earlier Town and Country EV, this one has an electric motor driving the front wheels, in this case a 150 kW unit. A lithium-ion battery pack of indeterminate capacity gives the Patriot EV a claimed 40-mile range per charge.
A surprisingly small 60-hp internal combustion engine/generator combo keeps the Patriot going after the battery is depleted for up to 400 miles. Since the Patriot is a rebodied Caliber, it seems plausible that if the lights are still on by the time we get to Chicago or New York, we might see an ER-EV version of the Dodge at some point, too. Unfortunately, unless the economy picks up and Chrysler's mainstream lineup is improved, the efforts of the ENVI team might all be for naught.

Navigon and Rand McNally have teamed up to develop some interesting new GPS features that make it easier for users to personalize their trips.
Landmark View 3D is s a $40 upgrade for Navigon's 2200T model and has the ability to display 600 North American landmark buildings in 3D to aid directions... or at least add some novelty to your nav. In keeping with the tourist theme, scenic routes and city guides will be available for $20 each. The scenic routes will feature weekend getaway suggestions, picturesque tours and regional trips. More than 1,400 cites are covered in the guides and routes can be customized to fit your interests. And for another $30 a year, Navigon owners can now be alerted to red light camera locations.
Headed overseas? Add maps of 38 European countries to your Navigon for $130. The update comes pre-loaded on an SD card and covers 4.5 million miles of road and millions of points of interest. The new features will be available for download from the Navigon Fresh software website sometime in the Spring.

Alpine has had iPod compatibility for years, but the user interface has been decidedly un-Apple. Alpine hopes to rectify matter with its new touch-screen iXA-W404 unit works, which boasts a new interface, new features and all the connected goodies audiophiles on the move require.
iPod and iPhone owners will notice that the Alpine's 4.3-inch, touch-screen face displays album art of the current song, and the names of the next two and most recent songs played. Song selection can be made from an alphabetical list just as on the iPod Touch and iPhone or by flipping through the album art in an animation similar to Apple's Cover Flow. Alpine's newest unit also supports video playback from an iPhone or any 30-pin iPod. W404 owners can choose to display three of five "widgets" included with the unit, which include a clock, calendar and photo viewer. The unit can be upgraded by adding components from Alpine's lineup, ranging from GPS, HD Radio, rear-view camera and Bluetooth connectivity. The W404 head unit can even control video display on rear-seat monitors.
The 2DIN iXA-W404 will be available in April for a suggested retail of $550. Alpine's HD radio tuner is a $230 add-on, the rear-view camera system is $220, the Bluetooth module is $180, navigation capability is $350 and a dual seven-inch headrest monitor package is $750.

Chinese manufacturer BYD is planning to have vehicles on sale in the U.S. within two years, with similar ambitions for the European market. The company took a step closer to reaching those goals by launching the world’s first mass-produced plug-in hybrid vehicle in China last month, and at this week’s Detroit Auto Show it confirmed that it plans to enter the U.S. with a range of pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. BYD's future lineup will include the F3DM and the battery-powered e6, a mid-size five-passenger crossover vehicle with a driving range of up to 250 miles on a single charge.
BYD Auto F3DM plug-in hybrid

Behold, "The Great Indian Traveling Machine." According to Mahindra, the company's new XYLO has been completely engineered around the customer, and it is nothing short of a frontal assault on the era of sedans. The Indian automaker's new crossover/MPV spells almost certain doom for a project between Renault and M&M to develop a seven seat version of the low-cost Logan. The XYLO and Logan MCV would compete directly, and Mahindra has gone with its own product instead. 57 Mahindra dealerships will be the elite points of sale for this new vehicle that adds luxury items like captain's chairs, dual-zone air-conditioning, and "flight trays" to a vehicular market that requires ruggedness above all.
The XYLO's powertrain packs a 2.5-liter diesel engine that delivers a run to "60 kmph" in 5.8 seconds. 5.8 seconds to 40 miles-per-hour isn't exactly scorching performance, but it's not like traffic in India fosters wide open running, and being comparatively coddled while stuck in New Delhi gridlock strikes us as a serious selling point. As does its 624,500 INR starting price, roughly $12,700 in US dollars. Laugh at it if you will, take xenophobic shots if you must, but Indian automakers are rounding the learning curve quickly.

We really feel for the folks at Saab, and not just because we love the 9-5 SportCombi and that we pined for a Turbo 900 with the Aero package for what seemed like all of the '80s. Yet look ahead 20 years - specifically to the 2009 Detroit Auto Show - and all we have to get excited about is the Saab 9-5 Griffin Edition. Frankly, the press release is more exciting.
The grille is spruced up with matte chrome. Besides the fact that it looks like plastic, doesn't a matte finish defeat the purpose of chrome? Inside, as always with Saab, the two-tone seats are terrific places to plop one's rear, and the things covered in leather have the look and feel you want in your quirky luxury sedan. Elsewhere... well, it's the same thing Saab owners have been looking at for years, but with some of the plastic in different places. It isn't bad. It's "Why?"
It comes with almost everything; the only options being metallic paint, ventilated seats and navigation. But when this is everything, and everything in sedan form costs $42,775, who's looking for this? Oh Saab, wherefore art thou? You can read the press release after the jump, and check out the gallery of high-res photos below.

Yesterday's announcement from GM stating the 2010 Pontiac G8 ST was being canceled came to us like a knife in the heart, so today, we had a conversation with Susan Docherty, the Pontiac Marketing VP.

We all knew the G8 ST would be a niche product, with a concentrated but rabid fan base, us included—it was so close we could almost smell the burning rubber. Unfortunately, forces beyond the control of the General have colluded with forces within its control to put an end to the not-El Camino. But why? We took a half hour and talked to General Motors Vice President for Marketing at Buick, Pontiac and GMC, Susan Docherty.

First and foremost we had to ask if it was a postponement or a permanent cancellation. We're sorry to report it is a permanent cancellation. As part of the recovery plan submitted to Congress, Pontiac will "focus the brand on useful, sporty, passenger cars," the G8 ST just didn't fit into that definition. She further went on to note that, although it was a car enthusiasts were waiting for, it was a prudent business move to cancel the program.

But what of Pontiac? Well, the pointy-arrow brand is in for some shake ups. Just as Buick has been paired down to a leaner, meaner product portfolio over the last few years with the stylish Rendevous and the new 2010 Buick LaCrosse set to unveil at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, so too will Pontiac be slimmed down. The current lineup includes six nameplates if you include the to-be-released Pontiac G3 and GM now believes this is too many. Beginning immediately, Pontiac is evaluating its portfolio and examining product plans to determine what the brand will look like in the years to come.

Dealers are apparently behind the culling as well. After the announcement of the cancellation of the G8 ST and a refocusing of the brand, Docherty says she received emails from dealers stating their support for the move. She's believes they'll be happy with fewer models if if the trimmed down product line is as good at Pontiac as it has been at Buick. Docherty also doesn't believe that a Pontiac full of "useful, sporty, passenger cars" will necessarily abandon the longterm "Driving Excitement" mantra at Pontiac. The decision to include the Pontiac G3 in the US lineup to satisfy the demand for a fuel miser makes us pause at that assertion, but we'll grudgingly admit it makes sense from a dollars and cents perspective.

It's a tough moment for GM, and it's requiring tough decisions. Painful as it may be to see products like the G8 ST fall under the knife, Pontiac, and in the larger picture GM, will probably be healthier in the long run. We don't have to like it though

We knew it was on the bubble, but just moments ago, Pontiac told dealers they plan to kill the Pontiac G8 ST. Yup, GM's killed the El Camino. Again.

Really, ever since we saw the Pontiac G3, we kind of knew the brand was moving away from the direction the brand deserved to be and into...well...something else. We also knew the new coming of the El Camino was on the ropes. So the news today from our sources with knowledge of the arrowheaded brand's product direction wasn't entirely unexpected.

The General's recent cash problems only heightened the reality. We're disappointed, of course, but we were more disappointed when the news came out the pickup-truck-ized G8 wasn't going to get the El Camino name plate. Well, it's over. Guess we can cross the G8 ST off our list of cars we want to buy in the new year. We're going to go and hit up CraigsList

Hyundai recently updated its Tucson compact SUV with a new four-cylinder engine but the next-generation model, seen here testing in prototype form, is less than a year away and is expected to be limited to a four-cylinder engine lineup. Due late this year as a 2010 model, the new Tucson will move to a more crossover-styled body and is tipped to share its platform with the next Kia Sportage. These latest spy shots show the upcoming SUV undergoing cold-weather testing in Europe. The rough outline of the prototype reveals that the next Tucson will have a much smoother design than the boxy style of the current model, but will remain largely the same size.
2010 Hyundai Tucson spy shots

Before Subaru entered the World Rally Championship in the Nineties, it was little more than an obscure Asian automaker. Though its rallying efforts helped to put it on the map, Subaru has decided to ditch the WRC this season. But another little-known Asian automaker may be ready to pick up what Subaru is throwing away. That company is Malaysian automaker Proton. And it's not as ridiculous as you may think.
The state-owned enterprise has a strong customer base in Asia, and is the largest automaker in the Muslim world. Proton also owns Lotus, which brings the parent company a considerably performance engineering knowledge base to tap into. Subaru's former partner Prodrive is looking for a new client. And to cap things off, now unemployed former champion Petter Solberg (who used to drive for Subaru), is now rumored to be signing on to Proton's rally team. Together with motorsport garage MEM, Proton has been busy preparing an S2000-spec rally car based on its Satria Neo hatchback for the lower-level Intercontinental Rally Championship, and if plans to switch the WRC to a modified "S2000+" formula come through, it could pave the way for Proton to mount an assault on the WRC by 2010, as the brand is eager to expand outside its regional market and establish itself in Europe.

Click above for high-res gallery of the Kia Soul

In addition to making its own sportscars that are renowned for their sublime handling, Lotus has helped a wide variety of other automakers - Dodge, Ford, Isuzu, Talbot, Tesla, Toyota, and Vauxhall to name a few - adjust the suspensions on their cars to Lotus standards. Kia is slated to become the next to benefit from the combined experience of Lotus' chassis experts, as the Korean automaker recently contracted the services of the British engineering firm.
The first car to benefit from Lotus' input will be the new Kia Soul, but the partnership is slated to extend to all of the Korean brand's future models. Although reports suggest that the collaboration is earmarked specifically towards setting up Kia products for British roads, we certainly hope that Lotus can help Kia's ride and handling dynamics across the board. This isn't the first time Lotus and Kia have collaborated, either, as Kia sold rebadged versions of the Elan for a couple of years after Lotus discontinued the model in 1995.

Gallery: Paris 2008: Kia Soul

Apparently while 50 Cent was recently in England to shoot a film or a video or who knows what, him or his crew locked the keys to someones Rolls Royce Phantom in the car and required the art of the coathanger to open the doors. The plates are from Dubai, which is apparently not uncommon for exotics in London to Dubai plates, however I doubt he owns this car let alone had anything to do with these photos