Dacia Logan MCV

And the low-cost market gets the spotlights once again. Since Dacia needed to update its line with this new generation which debuted last year, it took the opportunity to also rearrange these vehicles, investing in new categories to satisfy new customers and improving the existing competitors. It’s interesting to notice that the Romanian automaker’s worry with cheap prices doesn’t stop it of releasing its vehicles in style: sedan and hatchback arrived in the last Paris Motor Show, and now the wagon has used the Swiss event to join them.

That mentioned rearrangement can be explained as nothing but the most natural strategy for a smart automaker who really wants to prosper. The original Logan arrived in 2004 only as a sedan, but didn’t take long to achieve great sales. The natural response to this event is to increase the offer, not only at the sedan’s trims but at new models projected as Logan’s variations, in order to extend this name’s acceptance to more products. On the other hand, it was still needed to dimension how far the public was really willing to purchase low-cost vehicles instead of migrating to Renault’s line. The only way to diversify the offer without raising the costs too much was to adapt the sedan into the new categories, which was done as Sandero, MCV and Pick-up. The first ones were so successful that motivated Dacia to create the first “out-of-the-box” sibling: Duster now reaches its third year of nice sales both under Dacia and Renault, according to the market. There were so many great news that this family’s second phase needed bigger plans: defending “the Logans” from the improving rivals would need an even better offer, which started with two new members: Lodgy and Dokker made Dacia enter respectively into minivan and multivan/cargo categories. Both hatchback and sedan were already renewed, the pick-up is expected to follow them soon, but the station wagon had to receive some corrections.

Have you ever seen the first Logan MCV? Everything in that car seemed to scream the intention of working both as a station wagon and as a van, despite of Logan’s city-car dimensions. But if the second generation received a minivan to attend those with big families and a multivan for cargo transport, MCV was freed to be only a conventional SW… and to finally have decent styling. There were abandoned both the two-part vertical rear door, and the very weird “partially higher roof”, higher only at the central section in order to keep the sedan’s front doors. That’s what makes the second phase even more attractive than these pictures show. The elegant lines magnify the 14.7-ft length, which encloses the 20.2-cu-ft trunk which can achieve 53.6 cu-ft by folding the rear seats – which are only five now, to avoid competing with both the mentioned new vans. However, the car’s front half doesn’t deny the Logan genes, whose imponent lines and modern construction may not bring too much sophistication but ensure a secure and spacious vehicle. It’s possible to see the several internal storage areas compose a very practical room along with typical items such as infotainment system with a console touchscreen. This car will arrive in Europe next April featuring the sedan’s engines: with diesel there’s dCi 1.5L with 90 hp, while using gasoline it’s possible to choose between 75-hp 1.2L and 90-hp TCe 0.9L, with five-speed manual transmission.

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Land Rover Range Rover 4

Inovação é uma parcela muito grande do conjunto de estratégias de qualquer empresa que tenha pelo menos um mínimo de participação no mercado, mas ainda mais importante que ela é a adaptabilidade. O ato de reconhecer que a vontade do público não só muda com muita facilidade como o faz em uma infinidade de formas. São tantas que várias vezes incluem até mesmo não mudar. Este é apenas um dos intrigantes paradoxos que vêm garantindo o inquestionável sucesso deste fascinante SUV inglês por mais de quatro décadas.

Em outras palavras, essa questão consiste no contraste de vontades vindo da maioria dos clientes com o costume de buscar as opções mais recentes de um produto desejado exercido ao mesmo tempo que preservam certas preferências por muitos anos sem a menor possibilidade de troca. O mercado de perfumes femininos, por exemplo, vende uma série de marcas e modelos mas ainda tem Chanel n° 5 entre os líderes, por várias décadas consecutivas. Situação parecida acontece com Coca-Cola, Nestlé e várias outras, em geral uma marca por segmento. É exatamente isso que mantém a demanda pelo Range Rover inabalável desde os anos 1970. Rivais vêm e vão com os conceitos mais diversos e das mais variadas marcas – incluindo a própria Land Rover, com o Evoque – mas a demanda pelo “Rolls-Royce do fora-de-estrada” permanece sem se abalar. Este aparente paradoxo se torna especialmente interessante porque na verdade é composto por outro paradoxo: se a estratégia simbolizada pelo epíteto mencionado seja seguida atualmente por uma variedade enorme de modelos, quem a criou foi o próprio Range Rover. A receita de tanto sucesso é associar a cabine digna de uma limusine a preparo mecânico suficiente para permiti-lo trafegar nos mais diversos tipos de terreno e com os climas mais adversos sem perder a elegância.

Falar em elegância pode fazer com que muita gente logo lembre dos farois e lanternas claramente inspirados nas luzes do Evoque, mas o fato é que a personalidade do irmão maior é muito mais profunda. Outro símbolo que provavelmente nunca vai mudar é a silhueta do Range Rover, mesmo que a combinação de teto com queda leve associado à traseira inclinada tenha tido seu auge na época da primeira geração. Esta parte guarda um detalhe interessante, aliás: enquanto vários hatchbacks exibem o chamado “teto flutuante” como um detalhe de estilo recente, o SUV inglês já podia trazer todas as colunas em preto desde a primeira geração, obtendo exatamente o mesmo efeito de fazê-las parecer unidas às janelas como um só elemento em preto brilhante, que ao não impedir o teto de manter a cor da carroceria faz este último parecer visualmente desconectado da mesma. Mas assim que você tiver conseguido desviar o olhar do incrível equilíbrio entre passado e presente que é o design exterior deste veículo, começa o momento de estender o fascínio ao interior. A fartura de espaço para cinco pessoas foi exaltada com o aumento de entre-eixos em relação ao antecessor, além de o revestimento em couro se oferecer nos mais variados tons para combinar com a igualmente ampla oferta de tipos de madeira, tudo para compor o ambiente que mais agradar ao abastado proprietário.

Passar à parte técnica do novo Range Rover sempre merece a menção da sua nova plataforma, que recebeu aumento na tecnologia embarcada para não só ganhar em resistência como também para uma excelente perda de peso, que em certas versões chega a 400 kg. Uma novidade ainda mais surpreendente é a evolução do sistema Terrain Response, que abandona a necessidade de o motorista alterar o modo de direção: agora é o próprio veículo que avalia a condição do terreno em que está para escolher os parâmetros mais adequados de estabilidade, suspensão e tração. Em paralelo, o interminável pacote de equipamentos inclui mimos extremos como quadro de instrumentos feito por uma tela LCD e o reprodutor de DVD para os passageiros do banco traseiro. As opções de motorização mantêm o câmbio automático ZF de oito marchas para todas as versões, que no Brasil começam com a Vogue 4.4 V8 biturbo movido a diesel, com potência de 339 cv e torque de 71,1 kgfm e preço de R$ 551.800. Ele também equipa a Vogue SE sob o preço de R$ 575.800 e a topo-de-linha Autobiography, que por sua vez fica em R$ 596.800 – este trem-de-força lhe faz acelerar de 0 a 100 km/h em 6s9 e chegar à velocidade máxima de 217 km/h. Porém, quem desejar força ainda maior pode trocar o diesel pela gasolina que move o 5.0 V8, responsável pelos 510 cv e 63,5 kgfm e pelo desempenho de 5s4 e 225 km/h, este com limite eletrônico. Esta unidade equipa as versões Vogue SE Supercharged, de R$ 583.800, e Autobiography Supercharged, de R$ 601.400.

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Volkswagen Golf Variant 7

Expect the Germans to restrict Golf only to the hatchback body would be a complete nonsense. Using a multiuse platform such as MQB certainly saves a lot of new cars’ projecting time, which has certainly had a huge responsibility for VW Group having released five of them in such short time, since the latest Seat León. Now it’s time to turn the spotlights once again to the parent brand, because even though this car family isn’t too big, it never misses a chance of having another complete rearrangement.

Volkswagen’s most successful nameplate has been divided in two “groups” since it was five, in 1979. While Opel and Renault, for example, name each member of a car family after the oldest, like Astra Caravan or Mégane Coupé, there are automakers like the North-Americans, which used to sell the same vehicles under different marques, like all the ones who came from the “Project J” around the world. “The Golfs”, however, had the sedan called Jetta since its first generation and using slightly different design, while the station wagon used to follow the hatchback. This situation only started to change at the third phase, when the sedan was called Vento in some countries. The fourth phase, in turn, not only changed this alternative to Bora as also requested the wagon for itself: the biggest sibling still adopted Golf’s front fascia in some markets but others received it with Jetta’s looks, always being badged as the “donor’s” Variant version. The fifth generation actually unified the family for the first time, with all members having one design only changed to each body’s rear, but their bigger sophistication leap raised the prices so much that the situation ended going berserk once again – today, Golf is at the seventh phase to stay as VW’s flagship vehicle, Jetta received an exclusive sixth one focusing on markets such as Brazil and United States and Variant was facelifted at the fifth. Not to mention all the original Bora’s variations still sold in other countries.

Nevertheless, it seems the MQB platform will restrict this strange badge engineering once again to nameplates. Giving Variant an entirely new generation may look unnecessary because midsize station wagons don’t have too big sales, but it wouldn’t be surprising if producing this one ends up easier than keeping the older. Despite the obvious advantage of offering a more modern vehicle, having Jetta in a totally separate lifecycle frees VW to enjoy nothing but the good part of a strategy this blog has mentioned with Kia pro_cee’d’s article. Golf’s design has a very horizontal roof with abrupt ending, which would demand several changes to be transformed into a sedan… but very few to create an SW. In fact, it was only a matter of adapting the rear windows to include a subsequent third glass and “stretch” the sheetmetal’s original lines. It’s really nice to see how the new Variant combined creases, volumes and glass to look elegant without looking too long like the previous phase. The new structure didn’t give big dimension increases but a surprising 231-pd weight reduction and a 21.3-cu-ft trunk, which can be expanded to 57.2 cu-ft by folding the rear seats. The pictures show the interior is shared with Golf as much as the powertrain, which uses EA-211 and EA-288 families respectively with gasoline and diesel but both with turbo, direct injection and start/stop system and the available DSG transmission.

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Volkswagen XL1

Even if your interest for cars doesn’t qualify you as a fan, you’ve certainly heard about concept cars, specially during auto shows. They’re always intended to take everyone’s attention, such as Citroën with Survolt’s design, but the purposes vary. While that one came only to impress at these events, others anticipate the automaker’s future trends. The design ones can come indirectly, like with Ford Evos, but the technological ones come much more clearly, like VW’s latest project to receive the production version.

Volkswagen’s projects of a super-efficient car have been developed for more than a decade, since the first prototype was showed in 2002, the 1-Litre concept car. All those studies have been done under Ferdinand Piëch’s management, which helps to explain the big similarities since the first project to this article’s car: the intention of achieving the lowest possible consumption rates was always there, like with every other automaker, but only VW has specificated it to the special number of 1 l/100 km, which can be expressed also as 235 mpg and 100 km/l and has been achieved since that first vehicle. The challenge, therefore, became adapting the test prototype to the production model. There was another concept car which seemed to take the studies to a different structure, called L1, but the final vehicle has very much in common with the first one. The essential concern with the aerodynamics has been expressed in the streamlined body, which is 153.1 inches long, 65.6 inches wide but only 45.4 inches tall. The wind flow also demanded a narrower rear axle with covered forged magnesium 16” wheels, although bigger and wider than the 15” front set – by the way, there is carbon fiber here, indeed. This car uses it on the monocoque, while other parts combine materials such as aluminum and magnesium. Another good part is that creating a super-efficient vehicle didn’t stop VW of making it look sporty.

The front fascia even follows its current design trend (looks like a compressed Scirocco’s), and there are several items to enhance the design without leaving the rules of aerodynamics: the arch-shaped LED tail lights give a futuristic touch, while the windows with small opening parts remind sports cars like McLaren F1 and the gullwing doors of the old race cars, opening with part of the roof to make the occupants’ entrance easier. The interior abandoned the original tandem configuration to have the seats almost side by-side. The cabin doesn’t expose much luxury, keeping the good impressions to the visible carbon fiber parts and, specially, to the door-panel monitors, which are fed by rearward-facing exterior cameras to serve as rearview mirrors. XL1’s extensive use of lightweight materials pays off at the final 1750 pounds, while dropping 1-Litre’s original aircraft-inspired canopy in favor of a conventional cabin didn’t disturb this car’s drag coefficient, resulting at 0.189. That’s why its hybrid powertrain needs only a two-cylinder 800-cc diesel engine with 48 hp, paired to a 27-hp electric unit to give a combined 69-hp power and 103-lb-ft torque; the DSG seven-speed gearbox with rear traction gives 0-60 mph in 12s7 and the top speed limited to 100 mph. XL1 will start with fifty units sold in Europe, but even if the acceptance spurs more units to be produced, this car’s profit won’t ever come in money. VW’s concern is to adapt most of XL1’s technologies to the conventional cars, just like it was revealed with up!: it’s expected that most of this powertrain is going to be applied to the supermini’s future hybrid version.

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Fiat Punto Classic

How many cars have you seen returning to the production lines after being completely discontinued and even already replaced? Now it‘s Fiat‘s time to enlarge what must be a really short list, ressurrecting their famous hatchback in some Western Europe markets. This article will show you that even though this return’s circumstances weren't really supposed to bring impressive news, it‘s always interesting to take a moment for observing how car industry’s standards can change so deeply in relatively short time lapses.

This Punto received the “Classic“ badge after seeing the following generation‘s arrival in 2005, which was first called Grande Punto. That was Fiat‘s marketing solution to create some differentiation between the two in order to make it easier for the public to accept both being offered at the same time; since the latter came bigger and much more sophisticated, the older was repositioned as an entry-level compact. As a matter of fact, it wasn't too much hard to see the old Punto as a Classic precisely because of all these big and frequent changes we‘ve seen in the car industry for the last years. After the first phase completing six years, Fiat decided to succeed it with a new generation, rather than dropping the name like with Uno. And just like the previous one, the new Punto received some of Fiat’s 1990s famous design trends but kept them to a minimum, composing a good-looking vehicle without being extravagant – there was an entire structure change, but the most noticeable visual differences were the sleek lights, reminding the Marea family in the front and using a narrower style of the elevated tail lights debuted with the previous Punto. This neutrality must’ve been the reason of this vehicle’s great sales around Europe, along with the large list of trim levels which reached three sporty options.

That’s why the second generation’s first (and last) facelift came with the announcement of Punto reaching five million produced units so far, in 2003. At that moment Fiat was investing on more neutral styles in order to “ensure” satisfying sales, because the automaker was dealing with a very serious financial crisis. Looking at this hatchback explains why the third one caused such a revolution when arrived: Classic’s design would never succeed if it was released as a new car because although there’s nothing bad-proportioned or weird-looking, it really doesn’t stand in the crowd composed by the latest Citroën C3, Peugeot 208 and specially Seat Ibiza and Renault Clio. Fiat’s old hatchback is now produced at the Serbian plant of Zastava, side-by-side with 500L, offering the Western Europe countries a cheaper option to the minivan. Therefore, since the priority is to keep the costs to a minimum, there won’t be any updates concerning design, equipments or powertrain – the only difference from the former Italian production is that the Serbian plant has a better production process than what Mirafiori and Melfi had at that time, achieving higher quality and safety standards. This plant will also host the North-American 500L’s production and its long-wheelbase option, expected to come as 500XL.

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Volvo S60, V60 and XC60 2014

For you who read this blog’s previous article, this is the second part of the comments on Volvo’s recent group facelift. But even if you came to this one first, there’s nothing to worry about. Since this event has involved several vehicles at once, writing appropriately about them demanded some kind of division. This blog has dedicated the first article to the traditional team of this automaker’s line, while this one is dedicated to the “subversive” group. In other words, you’re going to read about the other kind of very important Volvos.

Taking a quick look on these Swedish cars over the last decades reveals this brand was never really concerned with following each moment’s design trends. They were always reliable vehicles, with comfortable and spacious cabins and unbelievable worrying with the safety, but also just sailed through from the 1950s to the 1970s pretty much oblivious to the other brands’ dedication of creating and following new design trends. In fact, they’ve only became some sort of up-to-date in the 1980s because the whole market ended up converging into the “philosophy” Volvo had never stopped to follow – long story short, Volvo’s sedans and wagons like the 700 Series only became fashionable because everyone else was starting to use very similar stylings. Looking at the 1991 460 and 850 series led to think this decade wouldn’t change that attitude very much, but it turned out it did. This decade’s cars not only were recovering from the 1970s’ oil crises as were also approaching the long-awaited new millennium, which stimulated almost every automaker to create their own interpretations of futurism for their upcoming vehicles. Volvo started resisting to follow this creative moment, and one fact is this decision prevented it from having poorly accepted projects such as 1998 Fiat Multipla or 1994 Ford Scorpio, but that time’s market expectations wouldn’t maintain this “immunity” for too long.

Even though many of these “too futuristic” cars ended with poor sales, the overall result was the market starting to be more receptive to novelties than ever. The public started to like the idea of having different car designs, sizes and even categories, which made pioneers such as Citroën Berlingo, Renault Twingo and Volkswagen Sharan fairly successful. So Volvo finally decided to surrender, but doing it in style: it was hard to believe that the new entry line, S40 and V40, came one year before the upmarket S90. These cars were the first to make the Swedish automaker understand that sometimes even the heaviest traditions need to be revised somehow, in order to keep attracting customers. Few years later it was S80’s and S60’s time, not so “revolutionary” but still much more attractive than the replaced models. Their great acceptance by public and press motivated Volvo not only to keep updating the line as also to innovate beyond the level already established: that’s when V70 Cross Country deserves another mention. This time not for that crossover-pioneering merit, but for representing an initiative like Volvo hadn’t had in decades. After all, even with having several price ranges satisfied within the luxury class, Volvo’s reputation wasn’t too pleasant: most people became used to see these cars as rational, reliable and even sophisticated, but not enough to make worthy giving up of a German equivalent.

And now we arrive at the “Revolvolution” moment. After only starting to think about changing, releasing the first S60 in 2000 was the first firm step towards the new-millennium Volvos. Most of the station wagons carried over the boxy rear, but the overall impression was this time they were offering the same discretion of before but in a much more up-to-date style, with several elegant details such as a three-dimensional effect to make their transverse section wider from the handles’ height down than around the windows, giving imponent “muscles” which were followed by S60 and S80’s tail lights design. So since transforming those initial plans from the 1990s into actual changes were starting to get very positive feedback from everyone, the automaker started to be less “scared” of innovating. 2003 saw the very first Volvo true SUV’s release, XC90. After that, the C70 line was redesigned for 2005, and there was even a new entry-level car: C30 was a hatchback, but with a very attractive coupe-inspired styling and taking advantage from the brand being owned by Ford at that time – the compact’s platform was shared with Ford Focus’s family. The following years had some quiet time, until it was time to give S60 a new generation. And since the previous started this entire series of changes in Volvo, the second one had big expectations from the public. The 2010 arrival ended not only satisfying but also surpassing them, by a wide margin.

This is the moment when we converge to this article’s car family. Family because S60’s aggressive and sporty design has been so well-accepted that motivated its own station wagon, the also gorgeous V60… and even XC60. Once again Volvo’s changes achieved big approval, because these are very impressive cars. There brought better interior quality, cutting-edge technologies and even bigger safety package, but wrapped in a boldly attractive design. That’s why they found interesting to release an urban crossover at the same platform… and today that’s why the new facelift wasn’t so “understood”. They preserve all those qualities, but removing the two-part headlights for a conventional set with wider grille is like removing that “extra”. The great part, though, is the addition of items: the infotainment system’s display brings a new technology to enable being used with gloved hands, and offers Internet connection even as a Wi-fi hotspot for inside the car. The analogic dashboard was replaced by a TFT screen with three modes: Elegance is the traditional look, Eco brings green background with fuel consumption gauge and eco meter, while Performance throws bigger tachometer and power meter, turning the lights red. The safety package received anti-blinding lights system, Cornering Light, Pedestrian Detection, cross-traffic alert and blind-spot monitoring. Those are the only pictures so far, but we can always hope for the old boldness to return with the R-Design packages.

Read more > Volvo S60, V60 and XC60 2014

Kia pro_cee’d 2

The concept of car family was founded around the 1970s, but became truly popular two decades later. Consists in entering multiple categories by deriving their respective body variations from one single car, enabling the automaker to promote only one identity at that price range. However, as the two-door E-Class’s article shows much better, prospering with this concept requires deep studies. One of its results, in fact, turned into the latest trend among the hatchbacks, which Kia has started to follow with the new pro_cee’d.

Do you remember when the ideal was to release taller hatchbacks in order to offer bigger internal space, just like what the minivans do? This trend rose in the early 2000s, with cars like Stilo, A-Class and 307 in Europe and Fox in Brazil – Volkswagen even created an additional model in 2005, Golf Plus. This concept didn’t take long to subside first because the actual minivans never stopped to exist (or to be a much better option for big families), but also for a second very important reason: being bad minivans deviated the hatchbacks from the sporty potential they’ve had for decades. The North-Americans may prefer the sedans and the Australians the pick-ups, but Europeans and Brazilians usually apply their high-performance packages on hatchbacks. Finally, one possible third reason would be the very limited “genetic predisposition”. In order to have a bigger cabin without an also big external size, these compacts needed to use rational designs, which fatally include the vans’ almost-horizontal roof line. Therefore, adapting coupés, sedans or other siblings turned impossible by the simple fact that all these designs need descending roofs. That’s precisely why the mentioned cars could only receive station wagon variations, respectively Multiwagon, SW and Variant (the latter using the original Golf) – the only possibility was to stretch them, like the Mercedes’ old extended-wheelbase L option.

However, the car fans can be happy again because the current trend could be defined as having only the good part of the first Mégane’s concept brought back. In other words, the family concept is still being used, but no longer intensely to the point of the entire line being the very same car until the central console. The second pro_cee’d won’t ever deny being cee’d’s two-door sibling, but this didn’t stopped it from offering a much more sporty design. If the four-door was already very attractive, the younger brother received elements such as the imponent crease that starts around the handles and gets really strong at the back, to the point of making the cabin look narrower than the lower portion – this muscle impression on compacts became famous most recently with VW Scirocco, which competes with pro_cee’d just like Opel Astra, Renault Mégane and the upcoming Seat León’s “coupe-hatch” siblings. The car’s interior features a driver-centered console and a very sporty combination of matte and piano-black, without any excess of chrome items. Kia will offer S and SE trims, the first one already bringing electric windows, s climate control, multimedia sound system and a large safety package, while the other adds a 7” touchscreen and several style accessories. This car won’t take long to receive the GT trim, but even that one repeats what could be this car’s only important weakness: both the 1.6L GDi (gasoline) and CRDi (diesel)’s numbers leave Kia without competing as this car’s design suggests.

Read more > Kia pro_cee’d 2

Seat León SC

Every car fan must have at least one car which just looking to it leads to think “I bet it would be a huge success in the entire world”. Some of these potentials are squandered because the car is bad in some aspect, others because its brand doesn’t have the charisma to attract many customers… and others because its brand’s group prefers to have another vehicle taken to the foreign market. We all know that the new Golf is an excellent car, but wouldn’t be great if VW’s Spanish division was allowed to offer Leon around the world?

While some brands maintain heavy traditions when replacing a particular vehicle, others prefer to take the opportunity of projecting each time an entirely new car. León turns interesting to observe because Seat’s strategy with it acts like a halfway: the mid-size hatchback has been carrying the same name for three generations and fourteen years without even thinking of dropping this name. The first one couldn’t ever deny it arrived in 1999: the overall round, plain shapes were typical 2000s elements, while the wedged front with narrow lights and the high-deck rear remind the 1990s’ cars. Later, the second phase arrived with a much more organic design, using several strong creases only to highlight all the elliptical shapes, such as the headlights. And this time, the compass seem to have been dropped in favor of the ruler: in this generation we observe the smooth lines highlighting square elements. The nicest part is that Seat decided to extend this excellent work by giving León its very first two-door option, not only as a new version but with a whole new body. In other words, instead of only subtracting the rear doors, increasing the front ones and adapting the side panels to this, SC is actually a coupé-inspired hatchback, perfectly suitable to compete with Renault Mégane and Opel Astra.

And once again just like those others’ sporty variations, SC brings a very stylish exterior, with took advantage of VW’s MQB platform to become slightly shorter and wider than the five-doors, everything in order to improve the handling. Some might compare it to the new A3, but the fact is León once again managed to show how it’s possible to avoid the big traditions and deliver very nice products every time. The interior won’t be too focused on being spacious because this is a sporty version, but it’ll take four occupants with plenty of comfort. Besides, as it’s getting (too) usual with the VW Group’s cars, the cabin uses everything in black, gray and silver. It does create a modern impression, but adding some colored details would go really well with a car that comes from the same country as Pedro Almodóvar’s movies. But if you’re the kind of driver which prefers to see the landscape’s colors, specially as quick blurs, Seat will offer you a huge list of powertrain options: only with gasoline there will be the TSi 1.2 (85 or 103 hp), 1.4 (120 or 138 hp) and 1.8 (177 hp), while with diesel it’ll come with the TDi 1.6 (89 or 103 hp) or 2.0 (148 or 181 hp) – the latter ones will obtain very low consumption rates. The transmission options will be manual with five or six speeds or DSG with six or seven, depending on each of its three trims.

Read more > Seat León SC

Jeep Grand Cherokee CRD

Você lembra do breve período em que a Chrysler esteve nas mãos da Mercedes-Benz? Iniciadas no final da década de 1990, as boas intenções da aliança salvaram a montadora norteamericana de graves problemas financeiros e pretendiam aumentar a competitividade mundial de ambas, mas levaram apenas a uma sucessão de problemas. Nos dias de hoje, a união com a Fiat dá cada vez mais provas de que foi uma decisão bem mais acertada. Para nós, a mais recente é esta versão do SUV que agora chega ao lançamento oficial.

Guardadas as proporções, as chamadas joint-ventures podem ser entendidas com uma breve associação ao conceito de casamento. Mais ou menos como com as pessoas, uma empresa se associa a outra quando se detectam interesses comuns, neste caso para efetivar a ideia de começar dividindo os custos para no futuro aumentar os lucros. Mas com a convivência também surgem os projetos comuns. Começam em geral com uma cedendo veículos à outra para vendê-los em outros mercados, e continua com o uso compartilhado de tecnologias e por fim plataformas – é a evolução que Ford e VW tiveram no começo dos anos 1990 no Brasil, com a Autolatina. Atualmente, a Chrysler está por concluir a separação da Mercedes-Benz, mas já se encontra desfrutando de muitos benefícios da união com os italianos. Ou seja, depois de começarem com carros como Fiat Freemont e mais tarde RAM ProMaster, hoje em dia os benefícios estão chegando também às esferas mais tradicionais. A divisão de luxo Lancia, por exemplo, já expandiu suas operações na Europa ganhando modelos da Chrysler e até vendendo outros com essa marca, em alguns países. Já na América do Norte, a família 500 marcou o retorno da Fiat tanto em hatchback como na inédita versão minivan, chamada 500L. Por outro lado, carros como a versão CRD do Grand Cherokee abandonaram o motor de origem Mercedes-Benz por um de origem italiana.

Estima-se que as primeiras unidades do CRD (anterior ao face-lift que a linha receberá para este ano) chegaram ao Brasil ainda no final do ano passado, mas só agora se faz o lançamento oficial. Ele chega pelo preço de R$ 219.900, e com o mesmo atrativo que sempre garante boas vendas aos utilitários no Brasil: evitar o consumo de um motor grande movido a gasolina mas manter o ótimo desempenho. Trata-se do V6 3.0 24v turbo fabricado pela VM Motori, empresa italiana de propriedade da Fiat. A tecnologia Multijet II atua em parceria com duplo comando de válvulas no cabeçote, bloco de ferro, virabrequim de aço forjado e turbina Garrett de geometria variável. Tudo isso lhe permite chegar a 241 cv de potência e 56 kgfm de torque, força suficiente para fazer o Grand Cherokee ignorar seus 2.347 kg e acelerar de 0 a 100 km/h em 8s2, chegando à máxima de 202 km/h. Tudo isso é comandado pelo câmbio automático sequencial de cinco marchas (com opção de trocas manuais pela alavanca) e, obviamente, tração integral. Como dita a reputação de décadas que este carro exibe com orgulho, esse potencial para enfrentar as mais puras trilhas off-road fica restrito ao lado de fora. Ver a cabine faz pensar que se entrou em um sedã de luxo, seja por causa dos belos revestimentos ou da profusão de itens de conforto e segurança, carregados de tecnologia.

Read more > Jeep Grand Cherokee CRD

RAM ProMaster

Fiat Group’s latest releases could be seen as a nice class of how to practice badge engineering avoiding its tricks. Like most of the decisions regarding new cars’ releases, there are so many definitions to set that the number of possibilities borders being endless… but to achieve a high-potential vehicle really requires dealing with those. So after creating Fiat Freemont as Dodge Journey’s twin in a way that brought great sales for both, now it’s time to follow the reverse path and adding this whole commercial line to RAM’s showroom.

Long story short, yes, this is a rebadged third-generation Fiat Ducato, which has been succcesssy sold in Europe for about seven years also as the French brother Peugeot Boxer. Since commercial vehicles have very different concerns, such as maximizing the payload and reducing the costs, it’s easy to understand the larger lifecycles these cars usually have. In other words, these customers see aging projects as reliable ones, rather than preferring stylish and always up-to-date designs. Ducato has sold millions worldwide due to its renowned efficiency and resistance, which couldn’t be better showed than with how easy is to see its versions at the European streets; this is an interesting sales argument for this category, rather than having the very latest technologies. This and the fact that it would be pointless to invest in structural changes to an already well-accepted project is what resulted on ProMaster arriving at the US changing only all the badges and the front bumper, to follow RAM’s corporate design. Some Dodge fans might still dislike separating the pick-up truck into a particular brand, but now it’s possible to see the Group’s point: having an exclusive brand gives the opportunity to get dedicated to the commercial vehicles without affecting Dodge’s sporty image.

In fact, this dedication is so big that ProMaster already comes in Ducato’s entire list of options, which denotes RAM’s intention of having an important share of this category’s sales. In other words, the new van comes in two roof heights (90 and 101 inches), three wheelbase lenghts (118, 136 and 159 inches) and four cargo floor lenghts (105, 123, 146 and 160 inches), not to mention the chassis cabs. This car’s structure was projected to be efficient, and this is seen in items such as rear clamshell doors with 260° opening, s-size sliding side doors, not-too-high ride height to facilitate access and all the vehicle systems located in the front, making the rear end very easy to modify. The biggest changes came to the powertrain, in order to adapt the line to Chrysler Pentastar V6 3.6L and its 280-hp power and 258 lb-ft torque; the diesel option is brought by Fiat, though: a four-cylinder EcoDiesel turbocharged 3.0L with 174 hp and 295 lb-ft. The first engine always comes with automatic six-speed transmission, while the second always uses a six-speed automated manual gearbox, but the traction system is always front-wheel-drive. This car will hit the streets in the next summer, highlighting numbers as a payload capacity of 5,145 pounds and, according to RAM, the status of being the best in class for cargo capacity, ceiling height, fuel economy, low load floor and step-in height.

Read more > RAM ProMaster

SsangYong Rodius 2

One of the biggest evolutions of the car concept was getting divided into categories. This allowed the vehicles to serve each time more customers, because they stopped being simple transportation tools and joined that to performing several other practical applications. The number of categories has only grown through the decades, which results in today’s cars being capable each one of focusing on some specific tasks very well, although it’s impossible not to leave others behind. This article’s car is one of the latest examples of that.

An automaker frequently needs to offer more than one single vehicle because each one actually reproduces the small-blanket problem: either you cover your neck or your feet. Translating to car language, a VW Golf GTI would travel on a quagmire as badly as a Ford F-250 would be driven at a parking building. Those come from the fact that the first one is dedicated to the performance, while the second was projected to take big cargo through farms and highways. What SsangYong had in mind as an opportunity to take with Rodius, therefore, was to provide bigger families’ transportation. Not to reach 200 mph, not to fit two of them in a conventional parking spot and not to climb mountains, but also not to the commercial use – that’s when all the fuss starts. The Koreans wanted a large family car which wouldn’t resemble a cargo van, such as Fiat Ducato and Renault Master which, in turn, have passenger and cargo versions with the same exterior. So besides avoiding the closed-window settings, this idea also included a much more creative styling, to get it visually closer to the urban cars. Rodius came in 2004 with a very interesting proposal of comfort and huge space for a family, not companies, but there was only one obstacle to its commercial success. Also sold as Korando Turismo and Stavic, this car’s looks was undeniably unique, and also distant from the vans… but in a way that takes only one photo to explain why it has never prospered.

Nevertheless, SsangYong didn’t give up. Bigger cars like this usually have longer lifecycles than sedans or wagons, so Rodius now prepares to turn nine years old receiving its very first facelift – it’s hard to believe that so many changes were made on the same project, indeed, but keeping the doors almost untouched makes it easier. Looking at this new phase leads to think that the intention was to make the car look imponent, rather than futuristic as before. That would explain the much more modern front fascia, with straight lines and solid volumes just like the rear one, composing some sort of SUV-inspirated style. What is really hard to understand is the contradiction created around the car’s back half. If the intention was transforming Rodius into an SUV, these cars naturally have much shorter rears. On the other side, cars which take eleven (!) passengers could really use the benefits of a s van, like bigger windows and sliding doors, but this one ended up trying to hide this family side with this new design and obviously fails, resulting at a really strange car once again. Much better than the previous one, though, but still weird, like an excessively stretched new Chevrolet Trailblazer. But once everyone finds out how to enter throught those small doors, the 10-feet wheelbase brings space for people and their baggage. It’ll use a turbocharged diesel 2.0L with 150 hp and a V6 3.2L with gasoline, paired to a six-speed manual transmission or five-speed automatic and available all-wheel-drive.

Read more > SsangYong Rodius 2

BMW 3-Series GT

Disclaimer: Even though these two words draw big smiles on each and every sports car fan, when they’re shown as a BMW vehicle’s version many of them might react with intense signs of rejection. Those were probably brought by the memories of the 5-Series-based sibling, which is actually understandable, but this article’s car turns out being worthy to receive attention because it shows its brand’s ability to learn from its own mistakes. So if you thought all the BMW GTs would be despicable, how about knowing this one better?

It would be impossible to start this article without acknowledging it took a lot of nerve from BMW for keep investing on the GT cars after the bad acceptance of the first one. This fact is interesting to notice because it clearly represents that there are actual limits of what people would like when it comes to crossovers – the time keeps passing but it never stops being surprising to see how many of those became successful in the past few years, in all kinds of automakers, sizes, proposals and markets. But after the big hits called X5 and X6, the Germans had a bad time with their first Gran Turismo, not because of its contents but its style. After all, as if it wasn’t enough to debut a fastback crossover in this very traditional automaker, the external design arrived way too strange, like if the elements don’t have any connection with each other. 3-Series, in turn, was designed with the intense concern of correcting this precise problem. The front fascia starts to reveal that it proudly shares DNA with sedan and wagon. GT’s elements are almost the same as those two’s, but the trick was to apply them with different proportions. The new car became some sort of “tougher” version without ever stopping to give the idea it’s a 3-Series, from every angle it’s observed – this is the biggest difference that makes this one a better-looking car than “5 GT”, the fact that it turned out an elegant car which has even managed to resemble its siblings.

Actually, it’s even possible to think there was some inspiration taken from X6, which was the very first BMW with this fastback-inspired design. But keeping the design matters aside, the fact is the new GT is an overgrown younger sibling: comparing with the other 3-Series, it became 3.2 inches taller, 7.9 inches larger and a 4.3 inches longer wheelbase, not to mention the 18.4 cubic feet bigger trunk (3.5 bigger than the wagon’s), which can be raised to 56.5 with all the seats folded down. And when it comes to seating, GT’s position is taller, with individually divided rear seats, bigger legroom and even several inclining positions. The whole interior keeps the concept of enlarging what is seen on 3-Series, with a very similar design and the same several coating options according to the version: it’ll be sold as base, Luxury, Modern, Sport and Urban, with the optional M Sports Package. In other words, this car strongly preserves the intention of being the 3-Series variation that offers what sedan and wagon don’t: while those are much more dedicated to great steering and typically-attractive design, GT tries to satisfy who is much more concerned to bigger comfort and internal space. Sharing that DNA also allows the new car to preserve the engines, composing three gasoline options and three diesel ones – some of them are 320i, 328i, 335i and 320d, with rear-wheel-drive or optional AWD. This Gran Turismo will be officially released at the upcoming Geneva Auto Show.

Read more > BMW 3-Series GT

Renault Scénic 2013

There are lots of opportunities in life that lead us to notice that even the smallest facts can provoke enormous results, whether good or bad ones. Those are so frequent that even when restricted to the car world still end up a very large list. Citroën Visa, for instance, went from failure to success mostly due to a front bumper change. Honda’s moderation with the 2011 Civic, in turn, ended risking a long-time reputation in USA. Now it’s these minivans’ time to get updated, but their goal is different: they only needed a retouche d’image.

The most common thought of the people whose countries don’t offer Scénic must be “Why changing this generation so soon? I think it would still look young in a couple of years”. But the truth is it surprises even the Europeans, although for a different reason: “But this car was facelifted last year!”… Aging opinions aside, both groups can calm down with knowing more about the latter facelift. Do you remember how the cars’ design used to be mainly two-dimensional? Headlights and tail lights were kept on the front and rear panels, while the doors’ designs were started and ended only at the sides. The exceptions were more obvious, such as the roof designs for a sedan and a hatchback. Today’s design is much more complex because all the car’s sections became sy connected, and one example of that is what Renault has changed on Scénic. The front fascia of a modern car is physically constructed only by the bumper, which has also the front grille and ends outlining the lights, making it possible to perform big visual updates by changing only one part. Therefore, observing the pictures with more attention will lead to noticing that Scénic’s tail lights received new internal design while Grand Scénic’s remained untouched, but the biggest change wasn’t even complete: the front bumper was nothing but partially redesigned.

That part received a new upper grille with everything else staying the same, but why is this so important? Because this car has received the “bowtie”, which is some sort of the flagship item of Renault’s latest design language. This is very important because this automaker was starting to lack identity, mostly due to the various origins of its cars: some came from Dacia and others from Nissan and Samsung, not to mention what the simple age differences brought. But instead of very strong rules like Audi’s, Renault fortunately seems to be satisfied with having only some common items among its cars, freeing each one to maintain its own personality – actually, these minivans should’ve received this facelift right after Fluence, but had to step back in order to give space for Clio’s new generation. And as the mid-size sedan, which in fact is directly project-related to Scénic, there was no need to change more than applying the new corporate design. Both short and long-wheelbase options stayed the same elegant and classy vans, which took inspiration from Citroën’s C4 Picasso duo: the five-seater has some items with more casual look in order to resemble the sporty vehicles, while the bigger sister’s classical touch is clearly connected with the even bigger Espace. If you put them side-by-side with the other “bowtied” Renaults it would be very easy to notice their shared “genetics”, but does some of them look like a scaled version of other? The obviousness of this negative is what should be making Renault’s designers delighted.

However, it’s always nice to observe when “delighted” doesn’t mean “satisfied”. If the intention was to make Scénic look more casual in the small version, this update took this opportunity to bring the latest version of what’s already one of this car’s traditions: the light-off-road sister. Even though in nowadays the group offers crossovers, some customers still prefer a bigger car than Captur, fancier than Duster, more spacious than Koleos and more family-friendly than all of those. That’s why this version started as RX4, turned into Conquest and now arrives as XMOD: it’s easy to notice the new intentions with the more aggressive front design (by the way, once again achieved just changing the bumper) with bigger grille and imponent black-plastic protectors, which are continued by the sides and ended at a rear bumper which resembles RX4 very much. There are roof racks and an interesting traction system: since the car only has front-wheel-drive, Grip Xtend brings three driving modes for the traction control: Road, Loose Ground and Expert. Besides, the only interior update for the entire line is the addition of R-Link infotainment system, while the Bose sound system will come only at the most expensive trims. These cars will also offer new Energy engine options: they were updated to achieve 15% better consumption and emissions and, as usual, come with several power options – the most powerful will be TCe 130, with 128 hp. The new Scénic family will be officially released at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show.

Read more > Renault Scénic 2013

Renault Kangoo 2013

Some months ago, everyone turned the spotlights to Mercedes-Benz and the latest member of its commercial vehicles’ line, the badge-engineered Citan. But this release also brought the memory that Kangoo, the French multivan whose project was used to create the German sibling, was completing four years at the current generation without having any style changes. Renault now takes the opportunity to give some updates which may not create design revolutions, but have a great importance to the car’s market position.

Do you know what does “kangoo” stand for? This word doesn’t have any meaning, actually. Renault used a computer program to create random pronounceable letter combinations until they liked this one, which they used to baptize their very first multivan, which came in 1998 to fight this category’ pioneers, PSA’s Citroën Berlingo and Peugeot Partner, and Fiat Doblò a few years later. But if the French twins tried to look like a conventional car as much as possible, the other two wanted to stand out in the crowd: like the Italian rival, the first Kangoo used very creative shapes and bright colors to compose a playful appearance, rather than discreet. But they all agreed to offer huge space for people and/or cargo (there were several body options) with resistant structures and inexpensive trim levels, which didn’t take long to result at a very successful quartet. They’ve started to receive the second generation around the tenth year, in which PSA only upgraded the original concept, while Fiat made Doblò much more elegant. Renault, in turn, decided to evolve Kangoo’s initial idea. The pictures show a more solid version of the first generation’s design, maintaining vivid colors and shapes but also receiving a new option: named Be Bop for passengers or Compact for cargo, it has smaller height and wheelbase, achieving a “cuter design” which makes it more suitable for companies with lighter demands.

And after shrinking at the beginning, this generation received the electric Z.E. version and ended with an enlargement: the second Grand Kangoo was also an extended-wheelbase option for both uses, but also like the first one there was a big surprise concerning the design: having the cost reduction as a priority resulted at very questionable design solutions, such as brutally stretched last columns at the first and rear fenders at the second. Nevertheless, worrying about award-winning designs or not is what creates the biggest difference between Kangoo and Scénic, to keep the comparisons in Renault’s showroom. These pictures show the rational van of those, and that’s why there weren’t great investments at this facelift. The entire front was restyled in order to syncronize this car with Renault’s current design language, which includes big headlights and the already famous V-shaped grille highlighting the brand’s logo – the Z.E. version adds the blue-chrome details seen at the photos and sets the charging port under the logo. Internally, there’s new dashboard and the R-Link infotainment system. Since this car focuses at the commercial use, there’s only one gasoline engine option, the 1.2 TCe – all the others use diesel, generating from 75 to 110 hp.

02/28/2012 update: Now it was time for releasing the facelifted Kangoo’s passenger version, after commercial and electric variations. The visual changes are the exact same here, but restricted to the medium-wheelbase vehicle, which has also received two new trim levels: besides Life, Zens and Intens there will be Business and Extrem. The first one is focused on companies, while the second deserved to appear in the most recent official pictures. Like PSA has done with Citroën Berlingo XTR and Peugeot Partner Tepee, now it’s Renault’s time to offer an “off-road inspiration” for this multivan, with 15” wheels, exclusive external stickers, chrome details and roof rack, while the cabin receives two-tone coating. It was also revealed that Kangoo will have hill-start assistance and stability control as standard items, with the R-Link infotainment system as an optional. The diesel engine options will actually be the same dCi 1.5L, with 75, 90 or 110 hp of power, while there will be only the 115-hp TCe with gasoline.

Read more > Renault Kangoo 2013

Opel Zafira Tourer BiTurbo

This release isn’t more pleasant only as it was unexpected. Minivans are the most family-dedicated car category ever created, so they’re expected to receive items such as seven seats and DVD players for all of them. But what would be created if someone goes the other way and packs Zafira Tourer with a diesel 2.0 CDTi engine whose two turbines produce 195-hp power and 400-Nm torque, being capable of taking it from 0 to 60 mph in 8s9 and to a 135-mph top speed? According to Opel, nothing but the fastest minivan of its class.

Read more > Opel Zafira Tourer BiTurbo

Renault Clio Estate

Do you remember how this station wagon made its very first public appearance? It was around the last Paris Motor Show, right after the fourth Clio was showed. But while the hatchback was having its official worldwide release, the family-dedicated sibling was only glanced, in a backstage video published by Renault at that time to show more information of the new cars. Estate is now released in Europe, but it’s still worth taking a moment to observe how great turned to be this job performed by Renault.

Creating a car leads to deal with lots of conceptual decisions, way before starting to convert the design sketches into what will be manufactured. Each category demands a particular external size and has its particular competitors, so one of the biggest decision is on what subdivisions the car will compete – in other words, what variations it’ll receive. The strategy of deriving sedan, wagon, minivan, pick-up and other categories from a single car became famous around the 1980s, with cars like Opel Kadett E and Renault Mégane. Since the main idea here is to reduce costs by having cars from different categories sharing several parts, the initial examples used to change almost only the rear section. But in nowadays it’s necessary to deal with a much more competitive market, which demands each car to be as original and creative as it can possibly be, even when it’s “related” to others. That’s why even those are receiving more exclusive parts, inside and outside, achieving whole different variations. However, if sharing parts is the solution to save money, the simplest logic states that reducing those common items would result at more expensive cars. That’s why there are so many automakers working to make that sharing start from the very beginning of each project.

Besides having each time fewer platforms for more cars, another very important strategy is to project all the intended siblings from the beginning. Renault was criticized for the second-generation Clio because of the Turkish Symbol: this sedan variation had no previous planning on the hatchback’s project and also had to be cheap, which fatally resulted at a very unattractive design and bad sales outside its homeland. The third phase never had a sedan but tried to offer a station wagon for the first time, which was so well-accepted that is now succeeded by the gorgeous car of this article’s pictures. It’s clear that Clio Estate (or Grandtour, for some markets) isn’t a last-minute adaptation of the hatchback. It brings the same elegant sportiness, with smooth volumes, a very stylish front fascia and great attention to the details, such as the opulent-but-not-too-big tail lights, the same hidden back handles as in the hatchback and all the columns with black paint but the front ones: the roof ends up like it’s floating over the windows, which in turn seem all connected. This car will offer the same items as Clio, which includes R-Link infotainment system and Bass Reflex audio, but with 443L to 1.380L at the trunk. With diesel it’ll use a dCi 1.5L with 75 or 90 hp, and with gasoline a 75-hp 1.2L or the TCe Energy 1.2L with 90 hp. The prices go from € 14.300 to € 20.500.

Read more > Renault Clio Estate

Volkswagen Golf 4Motion

After that Scandinavian group test whose photos were spreaded all over the Internet, the first member of the seventh-generation Golf siblings is now released. The all-wheel-drive system is now produced by Haldex and became more efficient: the equipment became lighter and has faster power management between the axles according to the demand, which also results at a 4.54 l/100 km fuel consumption. This system will be initially offered with the TDI 105-hp 1.6L and 150-hp 2.0L diesel engines, with a price addition of € 1.800.

Read more > Volkswagen Golf 4Motion

Mercedes-Benz CLA

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Like many other pieces of popular culture, this phrase has proven itself an excellent advice millions of times. Mercedes has already shown several cars which two decades ago would be seen as an apocalypse prediction, but most of them were experiments, to find out what the market would want for the near future. Only some turned successful, but the overall result was excellent. The car you’re about to meet is the best prove that these Germans did find the right track to follow, once again.

Like many specialized texts have already stated, if the Mercedes cars were people with some sort of family relations, CLA would surely be a son whose both parents were the current generations of A-Class and CLS – this last one, in turn, could even be thought as a result of E-Class with CL. But before thinking of very unusual ways to use the family concept, the Germans deserve the bigger applauses for obtaining that mentioned knowledge concerning the car market in nowadays. In other words, since CLS’s concept has proven itself successful in sales and harmless to E-Class, later they started to think of reducing this formula’s scale. On the other hand, it’s easy to see they’ve finally found how to make A-Class prosper, so it would be very nice to take more advantage of that. So the sedan showed at these pictures is another result of the very concept that in Renault has just generated Captur. Examples like these are highly unlikely to bring conceptual revolutions because they’re the mere merge of other concepts, but once again this doesn’t come as a complaint at all. The truly meaning here is that Mercedes realized that cars like CLA are the right track to follow, so from now on it’ll be very hard to see this automaker releasing another “experimental” car. It is true that they needed to forget some of the old rules, but the final result is the much wider propagation of the image they’ve built through all these years.

There’s no doubt that image includes their particular standards for comfort, design, quality and performance, but what would those forgotten rules be? One of them is the front-wheel-drive, so far only used by the hatchback CLA shares platform with. But these cars are much more related than that: the newcomer is its sedan version, which is confirmed by the very similar front and side sections. But their biggest difference is conceptual, rather than at the measures: the hatchback is clearly much more sporty, designed to attract younger buyers while CLA still seek this public but using a more elegant style, with a less obvious way of expressing A-Class casuality. The specifications list will lead to notice that this car isn’t bigger than North-American compact sedans – Dodge Dart, for example, is 0.6 inch longer and has a 0.1 inch longer wheelbase – but offers very much from Mercedes’ equipments portfolio, of course. However, there’s an optionals list including panoramic sunroof, aluminum or wood internal details and item packages: Sport, Premium and Multimedia. Other specs concern the engine options: 120-hp 1.6L for CLA 180, 150-hp 1.6L for CLA 200, 210-hp turbo 2.0L for CLA 250 and 170-hp diesel 2.1 for CLA 220 CDI, always with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and the optional 4Matic all-wheel-drive. But while you wait for the AMG version, here’s an interesting tidbit: even the urban versions have a 0.23 drag coefficient. This is one of the best numbers of the current production cars.

Read more > Mercedes-Benz CLA

Renault Captur

Almost every best-seller car was released with much more modest intentions from its brand. VW, for instance, would have never imagined that Golf and Gol would not only defeat Beetle’s respective sales records in Europe and Brazil as also overcome it so easily. But even though selling a car is getting harder and harder, it’s still easy to notice that some formulas have proven themselves true money makers. Renault surely knew the new Clio would be a huge success, so why hesitate to combine it to another golden eggs goose?

The fourth-generation Clio is being so well-received worldwide for the simple reason of offering most of what people are searching in a car today. Since this car has never been so attached to traditions, like Golf’s C pillar or C3’s round body, this project took advantage of this enormous freedom. Renault chose a very attractive new design language, and managed to create a “magnetic” car. Whether for the aggressive front elements which highlight the brand’s logo, lots of inspiration from sports cars applied to the sides and a very elegant rear or a spacious interior filled with technology, safety, comfort and very efficient engines, the fact is this car is an excellent project. So the overall reaction did nothing more than just proving once again that everyone do prefer what’s best. However, one of those formulas of the current car market is the crossover concept. The idea of offering most of each category’s advantages in a single car must be as old as the very categories because it comes from the purest common sense, but the true challenge has always been how to execute it in a customer-attractive way – Pontiac discovered the effects of doing this wrong with Aztek, by the hardest way. So when the first modern crossovers achieved worldwide success, it was a matter of time for each and every automaker to create their own ones. And since Renault had on one hand this successful Clio, and the assurance of the crossovers’ good acceptance at the other, what else could you expect them to do next?

Captur is the simple result of applying Clio’s concept to the crossover category, but this comes as the exact opposite of a complaint. While Chevrolet creates a tougher style with Trax, Ford relies at its SUV experience with EcoSport and Peugeot goes classier with 2008, this Renault becomes closer to Buick Encore’s (and its German brother Opel Mokka) proposal. There’s plenty of organic shapes and smooth volume transitions, creating a very European design filled with a very tasteful sportiness. In other words, Captur expresses itself with its own design, without relying on accessories. There are no spoilers or too many chrome details because it isn’t a sports car, but neither external protection items, roof racks or even a snorkel because it doesn’t intend to cross a river or climb a mountain. Another reflection of that is the interior, whose console is very similar to Clio’s. The beautiful dashboard brings the modern touch, while the colored seats (and the exclusive roof color) give the playful idea. In spite of the 13.5-ft length, Renault claims Captur’s room distribution is as good as in a minivan. Besides, as in every modern car, the big touchscreen anticipates the lots of electronic systems for comfort, safety and entertainment. Since this car shares Clio’s platform, it’ll surely bring most of the hatchback’s engines, all of them with very good emissions and performance numbers. This car’s official debut is expected for the next Geneva Auto Show.

Read more > Renault Captur

Audi SQ5

That unmistakable dark blue was first chosen for the concept car exposed at the Paris Motor Show, and now the same unmistakable dark blue will be hitting the streets right before you know. But it was realized that not everyone appreciates moving a sports car with diesel. So Audi decided to stop being so cruel… and decided to make their new crossover use two types of fuel. And if you’re wondering what this car will bring to be the best, it’s time to click this article’s title and enjoy SQ5’s complete text.

It’s very strange to see Audi releasing such an important version of this crossover when it’s about to turn five years old worldwide, because at that age most of the automakers are used to wait the car’s half-age facelift or at least using the new version to give bigger importance to that facelift, like Ford has recently done with Fiesta ST. Nevertheless, it’s always exciting to remember the unusual letter combination at this car’s name reminds this is Audi’s very first sports crossover. This is an important moment because represents when the S versions’ tradition meets the recently created Q family – Audi has been releasing sports versions for decades, but their first crossover came only in 2005. Besides, it represents one more example of the luxury brands’ most recent practice: in order to increase sales, they’re investing more than ever at entering new categories and, whenever it’s possible, creating them. There are luxury minivans and hatchbacks, four-door coupes, sporty crossovers… And they never take too long to receive their sports varieties: there are sports versions (like Audi S, BMW M and Dodge R/T), even sportier versions (like Audi RS and Dodge SRT) and only the accessories kits (usually referred with the previous labels but followed by “Package” or “Line”). Of course, it’s always nice to see a company working for please its customers, but this easily leads to wondering if some limit will be ever achieved.

However, if there was some kind of restriction about joining crossovers to very-high-performance versions, BMW has broken it years ago with X5 M and X6 M and now became followed by Audi. It consists at nothing more than applying the widely known Audi S formula to this slightly taller and tougher vehicle. There’s an aerodynamical kit including new bumpers, side and rear spoilers, bigger wheels and chrome details, as always, but it’s interesting to notice the effect it was produced at this particular car. There are many specialized texts stating that the luxury crossovers may look like a true SUV but never worry about copying their off-road characteristics. Audi Q family confirms this with only looking to its cars: Q7 has a big family car look, while Q3 never denies it’s a tougher A3. The middle sibling, in turn, manages to stand out by a bigger SUV look. Q5’s capacities at the hardest tracks aren’t compared to a Land Rover’s, but it does have bigger size than Q3 along with a nimbler impression than Q7’s, making it the best Audi option for the ones who doesn’t like an excessively urban crossover. With that considered, it becomes impossible to forget the thought that a sporty version erases this Q5’s potential. Sports car demand smoother surfaces, more painted exterior items and lower ride height, being the perfect opposite of the off-roads. In other words, this is the Audi for who prefers Q3 and Q7’s proposal but couldn’t decide the size to take.

That engine matter mentioned at this article’s beginning is also important because it’s related with the fact that SQ5 is also the first Audi S to use a diesel engine – in this case, the concept car was first shown with a twin-turbo V6 3.0L of 314 hp. But, as it was mentioned, most of the important markets outside Europe would prefer gasoline engines, which made Audi give it a TFSI propeller. More specifically, the twin-turbo V6 3.0L with 354 hp used in S5, but here paired to quattro traction system and eight-speed automatic gearbox. They end up delivering similar performances because if the TFSI brings more power, the diesel engine delivers more torque and at lower RPM rates, giving it the best acceleration time among them – 5s1 for it and 5s3 with gasoline, both with the electronically-limited 115 mph top speed. Not to mention the better average consumption rate of 30.6 mpg against 25.9 mpg. Entering this car reveals a very well-equipped cabin, with the best trim level available for Q5 in a 1.2 inch lowered ride height. The owner can choose aluminum, carbon fiber or wood details, sport seats in Alcantara or Nappa and the lots of standard technology and safety items. This car will use 20” wheels with an optional 21” set, but the dark blue won’t be the only option: it’ll also come in black. Audi is already projecting new crossovers and therefore new sporty versions, so you’ll might be seeing an R added to their names soon. Or expect they come up with better solutions than showing cars which could be easily mistaken for an “Audi répondez s’il vous plaît”.

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