Here’s another one of those Porsche promotional footages of their products – this time it’s the new baseline Porsche Panamera and Porsche Panamera 4, which with their V6 power joins their more powerful Panamera S, Panamera 4S and Panamera Turbo 4S siblings to complete the Panamera range. Or at least for now – I’m expecting at least one hybrid variant, and could we perhaps see a diesel as well, since there is a diesel Cayenne?
A new Nissan compact car will be unveiled at the Geneva show at the end of this month, and Nissan has given us a preview of what they will be launching in the form of a video that shows interviews of members of the project team.
Some juicy details revealed include the fact that the car will be powered by a new 1.2 litre 3-cylinder engine, although both 3-cylinders and 4-cylinders were considered at first. According to Nissan, it was “obvious” that the 3-potter delivered the best balance of performance, cost effectiveness and environmental friendliness. This new engine will also be mated to a new CVT transmission that uses a sub-planetary gear. All these new components will sit on a new platform called the “V-platform”.
This new compact car will be none other than the new Nissan March/Micra and we’ve actually already seen spyshots of this car (shown above) – and they seem to match the previously released sketches (shown at the top).
Check out the video below. You’ll have to put up with the team members going on and on about what a breakthrough the car is though. Nissan says sales of the production car will begin in Thailand in March, with European sales starting in the autumn. Wonder if a Thai introduction means ETCM are able to bring it in Malaysia anytime this year?
The last time we saw Pierce Brosnand and a BMW star in the same movie, it was in Tomorrow Never Dies. Pierce Brosnan will be reacquainted with a BMW this year in the new Ghost Writer movie. But Pierce won’t be driving it – Ewan McGregor will be the BMW’s driver, and the BMW in question here is the new BMW X5, not a 7-Series with a V12 or anything like that. BMW has put up a trailer of the movie on its YouTube page, and from what I see the X5 really gets loads of screen presence. There’s also a very obvious in your face plug for BMW’s ConnectedDrive service in there, where the system tells Ewan’s character that traffic is clear to where he wants to go. Don’t get me wrong, the X5 is a nice vehicle but as a car enthusiast I’d rather see something like the E92 M3 Coupe in action, perhaps fully decked up with the Competition Package bits 
Toyota posted up four videos related to its ongoing recall crisis. The first one and probably the most important one if you own one of the affected Toyotas is a safety instruction video letting you know what to do in case your Toyota’s accelerator pedal goes bonkers on you and won’t release when you take your foot off it. The rest are to do with the floor mat recalls, how an electronic throttle works, and how the pedal assembly works (and why it sometimes sticks). Look after the jump to watch the videos.
Read more ›
Volvo has released a few videos of the soon to be available Volvo S60 sedan, and you can catch them all here on this blog, streamed from local servers. The videos cover a few topics such as exterior and interior beauty shots as well as demonstrations of various technology in action such as adaptive cruise control, collision warning and pedestrian protection. Check the videos out after the jump.
Read more ›
Porsche has released a collection of 4 videos to promote the new Porsche 911 Turbo S, set to make its public debut at the Geneva show later this month. The videos are quite interesting as they give a visual walkthrough of the technologies found in the Turbo S – we get to see cutaway animations of how various technologies work such as the dynamic engine mounts. A must watch for the Porsche-loving geek. Check them out after the jump.
Read more ›
BMW has updated the second generation E70 X5 with the “LCI” treatment, which basically means a mid-life facelift in BMW speak. LCI stands for Life Cycle Impulse. The X5 gets the typical updates you’d expect from a 2010 BMW – an all-turbo line-up and the ZF 8-speed automatic transmission.
The new E70 X5 range consists of the xDrive35i, the xDrive50i, the xDrive30d and the xDrive40d. Over here in Malaysia the pre-FL X5 is sold with a 3.0 litre normally aspirated inline-6 (3.0is), a 4.8 litre V8 (4.8i) and a 3.0 litre turbodiesel (3.0d). It would be bloody nice if the 3.0is is replaced with the new xDrive35i model – that would be a proper 5-seater version of the scorching X6 xDrive35i that we can see increasingly often around the streets of KL.
The xDrive35i’s N55 engine uses a single turbocharger, but BMW still calls it a TwinPower Turbo, using the excuse that the turbocharger has twin-scroll technology. It makes 306hp at 5,800rpm and 400Nm from as low as 1,200rpm all the way up to 5,000rpm, taking the X5 xDrive35i up to 100km/h in 6.8 seconds while consuming about 10.1 litres per 100km.
The top of the range regular X5 (it’s still lesser than an X5 M)’s 4.4 litre twin-turbo V8 makes 407 horsepower between 5,500 to 6,400rpm and 600Nm of torque from 1,750rpm up to 4,500rpm. 0 to 100km/h takes just 5.5 seconds.
The xDrive30d has the new aluminum crankcase found in the 730Ld (the 3.0d pre-LCI X5 in Malaysia uses the engine preceding this aluminum crankcase model) and makes 245hp at 4,000rpm and 540Nm from as low as 1,750rpm to 3,000rpm.
The new xDrive40d variant is powered by the BMW TwinPower Turbo version of the company’s 3.0 litre turbodiesel engine, ,akin 306hp at 4,400rpm and a massive 600Nm of torque from as low as 1,500rpm. The engine in the xDrive40d uses a smaller turbo to get the engine going and then switches to a larger turbo to handle the upper reaches of the rev range.
Other than the obvious aesthetic changes which include new headlamps that have LED white corona rings instead of the yellow version that’s being phased out from the BMW range, the xDrive50i and the xDrive40d also gets updated suspension settings.
Look after the jump for a hi-res gallery and a video of the new LCI-ed X5.
Read more ›
Lots of F1 teams are unveiling their cars this month, following Ferrari’s move to unveil their new racer first. This is the new MP4-25, the 2010 race contender from Vodafone McLaren Mercedes which will be piloted by Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. Both are World Champions – 2008 and 2009 respectively. The new McLaren is powered by a Mercedes-Benz engine. Mercedes-Benz have their names on two teams this season.
Look after the jump for a video of the unveiling where both Button and Hamilton say a few words about the car and the upcoming 2010 season.
Read more ›
Mercedes-Benz Used 1 is the name of Mercedes-Benz’s pre-owned van (or commercial vehicle) program in the UK and various other parts of Europe. In the UK, vans sold under the Used 1 program are under 5 years of age and have less than 100,000 miles on the clock. Qualifying vehicles also get a minimum of 6 months Mechanical Breakdown Insurance.
Definitely sounds like a somewhat serious subject matter but it looks like the even the more ‘serious’ side of Stuttgart has a sense of humor. They produced this viral video and uploaded it online – it’s called “Avoid Surprises”.
In Malaysia, there is no Used 1 commercial vehicle program but there is a passenger car program called “Proven Exclusivity“, which sells used cars that have gone through a 215 point check, are not more than 5 years old and have less than 100,000km mileage.
Check the video out after the jump.
Read more ›
This new promo was created by Wieden+Kennedy London for Honda UK and it basically showcases Honda’s wide range of products, all in one ad. Quite befitting for the title of the ad which is “Everything”.
Honda has always called itself a mobility company instead of a car company. They have a very wide range of products from cars, ATVs, marine engines, motorcycles, the Honda Jet, the ASIMO robot (this could lead to Honda robotic prosthetics?), and even funky new concept devices like the U3-X.
The car featured is the FN Civic, which is made in the UK. Enjoy!
Read more ›
