Archive for International News

You could say the most recent Mercedes Benz E-Class model spearheaded Mercedes Benz’s new reputation for bad quality control, something that many international members of the automotive industry have been talking about. A pity though, as my uncle-ish taste (I drive a Perdana don’t I?) is fond of the E’s looks.

The boys at Stuttgart did an amazing rebound recentty though. After years of what some call a humiliatingly low position in the J.D. Power Initial Quality Survey, the recently redesigned Mercedes Benz E-Class has come up tops in the premium mid-sized category of the most recent IQS! The new S-Class also topped the large mid-sized sedan category, but in a tied position with the Audi A8.

“Mercedes-Benz shows dramatic improvement, particularly with its newly-redesigned S-Class, which improves 63 PP100. Overall, Mercedes-Benz improves its nameplate rank by 20 positions—the greatest rank increase of any nameplate in the study. All Mercedes-Benz models in the study improved substantially, and the breadth and speed of these improvements demonstrates the Mercedes-Benz commitment to quality,” said Neal Oddes, director of product research and analysis.

The Mercedes Benz brand itself moved up twenty places up in the rankings for overall model quality. Combined with it’s recent disposal of the bleeding Chrysler group, there’s definitely reason for Stuttgart to be patted on the back.

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There is a tussle in the boardroom of Volkswagen AG over the Porsche Cayenne and the Volkswagen Touareg. Porsche is using it’s majority stake shareholding to influence Volkswagen product planning and marketing, especially with it’s joint projects such as the Cayenne-Touareg, two SUVs developed in such close cooperation that alot of people have called the Cayenne merely a dressed up Touareg.

Volkswagen plans to launch an all-new model change Volkswagen Touareg in late 2010, but Porsche wants to launch the Cayenne earlier during the first half of the year. “We aren’t at all pleased with a significantly longer model life for the current Touareg compared to the Cayenne. After all, the vehicles are in competition with one another,” said a high-ranking Volkswagen executive.

“If we can’t come to an agreement at the level of the working teams, the CEOs will have to hammer this out,” said an official of Porsche.

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Volkswagen’s new second generation Phaeton will be developed using Audi’s new MLP platform, and will be smaller than it’s stable-mate the Audi A8 in interests of product differentiation. The new Audi A8 will be revealed in August 2009, while the new D2 Phaeton will be out by 2010. The first car to use Audi’s new MLP platform is the new Audi A5/S5.

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Toyota is considering adding a small monocoque two-door pick-up truck (think Proton Arena) to the Scion car line-up, which should fit right in to the whole youth and lifestyle angle of the Scion marque. Rumours are that a likely name for this new vehicle would be the Scion xP, with the P naturally standing for Pick-Up.

Scion currently has three cars in it’s line-up - the xB and xD 5-door hatches and the tC 2-door coupe. The new Scion xP’s styling could be based on the previously exhibited Scion FUSE concept shown above, which is something like a 2-door pick-up, except the truck bed is a large boot integrated into the coupe-hatch-like design. Translated into a real world production version, a traditional pick-up bed might be used instead.

Piezo fuel injectors are all the rage for turbodiesel engines these days for the superior performance they have. Pieze injectors (graphic shown) can inject fuel using multiple jets and multiple injections per cycle, and is the key to reduce in-cylinder emissions, boost performance, and reduce noise. This comes at a cost however - piezo injectors are expensive as the piezo crystal that gives it it’s name is expensive to produce.

Robert Bosch GmbH says it has succeeded in developing a solenoid valve injector that can handle up to 29,000 pounds per square inch of pressure and will launch it later this year. This new solenoid valve injector comes very close to the performance of piezo injectors.

While high end manufacturers like Mercedes Benz would likely still go for piezo instead for benefits of better refinement and reduced engine noise, Bosch targets the mid-range customers for this new solenoid valve injector.

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The Volkswagen Golf GT is quickly becoming a favourite with the automotive world, heck, even I wish I could lay my hands on one, and the little boost meter on the top right of this blog is actually from the Golf GT’s dashboard meter panel.

The engine requires no introduction - the highest end of the TSI engine family that makes 170 horsepower and a peak torque of 240Nm thanks to the use of a supercharger and turbocharger for the low and top ends of the rev range.

The latest award to be received by Volkswagen for the Golf GT is the Barcelona International Motor Show Awards, of which more than 100 automotive projects compete for to win the honour of the “best technological innovation of the year.”

Increasing demand for diesel-burning Toyota cars in the European market has prompted isuzu to build a new plant in Japan to increase supply to keep up with demand. The new US$110.5 million plant in Hokkaido is set to be completed by 2012, and will make up to 200,000 units of a new 1.6 liter turbodiesel engine a year.

Japanese newspaper Nikkei reports that this new 1.6 liter turbodiesel engine will be jointly developed by Toyota and diesel-experts Isuzu, and will be used in C-segment cars like the Toyota Corolla for the European market.

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The Nissan Titan is Nissan’s full-sized pick-up truck offering in the US, and is powered by a 5.6 liter 32 valve V8 engine codenamed VK56DE, making 317 horsepower and 522Nm of torque at 3,600rpm. It uses the same ladderframe platform as many other Nissan trucks, including the Nissan Frontier available here on local shores.

Nissan wants to change this from being a petrol-only offering to one that has a diesel option by 2009, proving that more and more manufacturers are responding to a growing interest in diesel vehicles in petrol-loving America.

The new diesel engine will be built by U.S. truck and engine maker Navistar International Corp. For it to have more torque than the petrol’s 522Nm, it would need to be at least a 3.0 to 3.5 liter I suppose. A modern turbodiesel around that size could make between 600 to 700Nm of torque.

PSA Peugeot Citroen said going into the market of premium vehicles with a new marque might be one of the options it is considering, a move much like Nissan and Toyota with their Infiniti and Lexus brands respectively. While these two brands have had considerable success (especially Lexus), a similira move by Mazda with the Amati badge was a failure even before it was launched.

French magazine Challenges reported that PSA Peugoet Citroen might revive the old Panhard brand for it’s luxury marque, a report that PSA Peugeot Citroen declined to comment on. Panhard was a French car manufacturer that was established in 1890, but it’s modern day existence is limited to light tactical and military vehicles.

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Honda wants to sell diesel-powered cars in Japan by 2009, in an attempt to reignite Japan’s dead diesel passenger car market, which is also the world’s third-biggest auto market. There is only one car manufacturer in the whole of Japan selling a diesel car - Mercedes Benz with it’s Mercedes Benz E320 CDI mid-sized luxury sedan.

Honda recently unveiled it’s second generation i-CTDi diesel engine with a NOx catalyst for reduced emmissions. There are a few Japanese manufacturers with newly developed diesel engines - Subaru with it’s new turbodiesel boxer comes to mind. Toyota also has a nice 2.2 liter D4-D with a high torque output of 400Nm for the European market. Cars equipped with these modern diesel engines could be sold in Japan if the market can slowly accept diesel cars.