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VW Reveals Concept Pick-Up Truck Early, Aims To Save The Seals

Featuring design cues that suggest heavy Chevrolet Avalanche/Honda Ridegline influences, Vee Dub has released preview photos of their new pick-up truck, which isn’t set to officially debut until later this week at the 62nd IAA Commercial Vehicles Show in Germany. Scheduled to begin production in Europe in the fall of 2009, VW says their first pick-up truck was not engineered for the casual pick-up enthusiast, but rather tailor-made specifically to accommodate coastal search-and-rescue crews.

View gallery after the jump

A four-door double cab, the production pick-up will be offered with both diesel or gasoline direct-inject engines and will be equipped with VW’s 4Motion all-wheel drivetrain. Prioritizing function over aesthetic to better suit the purposes for which it was intended, the pick-up truck’s interior will be mostly bare bones. The most “luxurious” accessory is the dash-mounted high-tech navigation system, but will include other understated, useful features like a cab-integrated storage units and a tail-gate embedded tool box that optimizes available bed capacity. Choosing to save the juicer details for the unveiling later this week, VW hasn’t released the pick-up’s name or pricing specifics. What we do know is that VW’s marine rescue vehicle is only intended to service the Europäische rettungsschwimmer, and will initially only be sold to the European market - no word yet on a North American debut.

[Photo Source: TheTorqueReport.com]

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The King of Cars Closes His Hummer Dealership

Hummer sales are plummeting all over the country. In the past year alone, eight Hummer dealerships have closed down, that’s an 5% decline in dealerships. And just the other day, Chop closed his doors. That’s right, The King of Cars, Dan Towbin, is out of the Hummer business. Apparently, he says he’s going to start selling Smart Cars and Vespas next year along side various mid-sized luxury cars. Can you image Chop selling Vespas?

Towbin’s known as a Las Vegas personality and Hummer enthusiast. He says the Hummer and Vegas are connected. “It’s all about bling and it’s in the desert,” he said. “I feel very aligned with the brand, neither General Motors nor I wanted to go this way.”

I just can’t picture The King of Car’s rapping about a Smart Fortwo. Can you?

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UC Berkley Tests The Self-Steering Bus, Begins Slow Phase-Out Of The Effervescently Cheery Mass Transit Worker

[Photo Source: Autopia]

According to Autopia, UC Berkley geeks have tested a successful way to circumvent the reckless bus driver with a penchant for vehicular manslaughter [or perhaps that's just New Jersey's own that's coloring our perspective slightly] with a magnetized, self-steering bus. Developed by the California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways, the self-steering bus isn’t completely automated as it relies on human braking and acceleration. It is self-piloting, however, and using magnetic strips embedded in the street, the automated bus flawlessly navigated a one-mile stretch of road and successfully parked itself within one centimeter of the curb during tests.

Magnetic guidance technology is what allows the bus to behave like a light rail transit vehicle, with magnetic markers placed in the street every 4 feet. Sensors mounted on the bus identify and track the markers, while the alternating polarity of the magnets allows an on-board computer to determine the buses precise latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates. The technology isn’t exactly new, but fuel, time, and money concerns are bringing it into the spotlight. Similar technology that would provide a buss rapid transit system to the bay area could wind up costing as much as $283 million, but simply outfitting the current fleet with a magnetic guidance system would only cost $5 million. Heralded as a major movement for improving traffic congestion and commuting conditions in general, the president of the Bay Area transit board of directors said, “The system has the potential to make bus rapid transit routes…as efficient as light rail lines, which in turn will make buses more efficient in getting people out of their cars.”

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Brilliance Brings BS BMW’s Stateside

Brilliance BS6

Small Chinese automaker and BMW-alligned Brilliance Jinbei Automotive Co. has recently scrapped plans to showcase 4 new vehicles at the Detroit Auto show in January. The original North American Brilliance line-up was to showcase 4 models, the BS6 mid-size sedan, BS4 compact car, BC3 sports coupe, and FRV hatchback. Today, Brilliance modified their U.S. debut to only include 2 models, the BS6 and BS4. In much the same way the Hyundai Genesis resembles a Mercedes S-Class, in the right light, the Brilliance BS models could pass for BMW 3- or 5-series sedans.

Brilliance BS4

Apparently, the plan was revised after Brilliance sent their model line-up to the U.S. in 2007 for government safety and emissions evaluation, and the cars failed to past muster. According to company VP He Guohua, the cars fared reasonably well during the crash testing, but emissions readouts indicated high levels of oxides of nitrogen. Determined to participate in the U.S. market by 2009, Brilliance hired both the engineering arm of Porsche AG as well as the U.S. engine technology company FEV Inc to bring their vehicles up to American safety/emissions standards. Guohua expects the design revisions to be completed by December, cutting it close but still allowing them to participate in the Detroit showing.

Brilliance ultimately plans to participate in the global market and hopes to begin selling cars in the U.S. by 2009 and worldwide shortly thereafter. Despite the setbacks, Joe Serra, co-chair for this year’s Detroit show, said that Brilliance is a much-anticipated and very welcome addition to the ranks of auto makers expected to be in attendance.

Brilliance BC3

Brilliance FRV

[Source: Automotive News]

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Rumors Swirl About The 2011 Toyota Celica, A Subaru-Toyota Street Legal Speed Demon

Toyota FT-HS Concept

Although the Scion tC is widely regarded as the modern-day Toyota Celica, it’s generally agreed that Toyota hasn’t produced a performance car since the death of the Toyota Supra. Toyota’s FT-HS concept car and the fledgling Subieyota [Subaru-Toyota] partnership have people talking though, and there are rumors that Toyota [with the help of Subaru] is planning a sports-tuner comeback with the 2011 Toyota Celica.

Many expect designs for the 2011 Celica to draw heavily from the 400-hp Toyota FT-HS concept, but it’s still unclear exactly what the final product will look like. We do know, however, that the 2011 Toyota Celica will be offered with two trim levels: the GT and the GT-4. The Celica GT will be a RWD 2-door coupe and feature Subaru’s 2.0L boxer engine, while the GT-4 will be the stuff of street racers’ wet dreams. Anticipated as an Impreza STi/Celica crossbreed, the Celica GT-4 will feature the Impreza STi’s 300-hp 2.0L boxer engine as well as Subaru’s unique 4WD [complete with in-wheel electric motors for white-knuckle performance]. Careful to avoid direct competition with the 4- and 5-door offerings on the Impreza STi, the Celica GT and GT-4 will only be offered in either 2-door coupe or 3-door hatchback versions. Planned as a 2011 model, speculations place the European release of the Toyota Celica in late 2009, early 2010. Plans for a North American debut have yet to be confirmed.

Subaru Impreza WRX STi

Toyota Celica

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eBay Certified Pre-Owned Showroom: Another Way To Go In Debt

In recent news, GM, Chrysler, and Lexus have all jumped on the eBay band wagon. Free for dealerships to access, the new-and-improved eBay Motors features a new “Certified Pre-Owned Showroom” page and already hosts 70,000 certified listings from about 5,000 different dealerships.

Following the same format as regular vehicle listings, the Certified Pre-Owned Showroom allows dealers to provide a wider-circulation for their inventory while simultaneously allowing consumers to lose the shirt of their back without leaving the comfort of their home.According to eBay Motors, the site attracts 12 million unique visitors each month…roughly half of them eventually selling their souls to the online-auction giant (I say this without an ounce of irony). By far the heaviest eBay pre-owned hitter is GM, all 8 of its popular North American lines are listed; Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Hummer, Pontiac, Saab, and Saturn. Already an old hat at eBay Pre-Owned and currently latching on to any leg-up it can get is Ford (ipso fact Lincoln and Mercury), a reported user since the feature’s launch about a month ago.

Source: Automotive News

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Saving the Auto Industry?

Chrysler has been hurting lately, with plans to close at least its St. Louis truck plant, halting and/or reducing some minivan and truck production. Of course, this isn’t the first time Chrysler has had problems. They went through some trying times back in the K-car days. Those cars were relatively efficient at the time but none too sexy, and had other problems.

Still Chrysler lived through it - does anyone remember who bailed them out? Despite their problems, they’re part of the U.S. auto industry and it’d be a shame - economically - if the company went under. I’m not just saying that because I currently have a Dodge Caliber - my first domestic ever - though the videos like the one below worry me.

With suggestions that a Chrysler sale is near, despite denials by a spokesman, they’ll probably recover. Fortunately, they’re not considering bankruptcy, according to various spokespeople. The upshot of that is that some jobs will be saved.

If the company is for sale, though, who would buy them? Cerberus Capital Management has majority control, thanks to the original Daimler AG deal. Chrysler is unlikely to merge with an existing American automaker. That leaves what, European or Asian automakers? I don’t see that happening. Am I missing something?

Of course, Chrysler is not the only American automaker hurting. The whole industry is, with many job layoffs pending in the US and Canada. The head of GM recently told Obama how the U.S. auto industry could be saved. His suggestions include support and tax credit for new technologies, and assistance for converting factories, amongst other measures.

But will any of this be implemented in time? It’s not like we as a society can do without cars, but if you drive, you already know how much the cost of gas is hurting us. That affects our entire way of life, threatens jobs and the economy.

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