Maker uses Bob Marley track in ads to hype new plan.
by Michael Strong on May.17, 2013
Hyundai is letting customers know everything's going to be all right in a new ad campaign.
Bowing to pressure from owners and potential buyers, Hyundai has decided to stop charging for basic safety and security services on vehicles equipped with its Blue Link telematics service — features that include automatic 911 calls when a collision triggers a vehicle’s airbags.
The shift, hinted at during a New York Auto Show new conference earlier this year, is being formally unveiled as part of a new ad campaign featuring music inspired by legendary reggae artist Bob Marley.
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Borrowing from Marley’s “Three Little Birds,” the automaker is telling owners “Don’t worry…about a thing…’cause every little thing is gonna be all right…” in its latest ad introducing the new three-year free subscription for Hyundai Assurance Connected Care.
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Tags: Blue Link, Hyundai, Korean automaker, Korean cars, MBrace2, TheDetroitBureau.com., bmw assist, concierge service, emergency roadside assistance, hyundai blue link, michael strong, onstar, road service, sync, telematics, thedetroitbureau, uconnect
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Maker hopes to head off rivals GM, Toyota with new plants.
by Joseph Szczesny on May.17, 2013
VW aims to maintain its lead in China with a mix of new products and more production capacity.
The automotive arms race in China is showing no signs of abating; if anything, the market’s leaders are stocking up more ammo.
General Motors, which this year expects to sell a record 3 million vehicles in China, has announced plans to raise its capacity in the booming market by 20%. Toyota also has disclosed plans to raise their presence in China – which is now the largest passenger car and commercial truck market in the world and is on its way to becoming the top luxury market in the world as well.
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Meanwhile, Volkswagen has marked the beginning of construction on a new assembly plant in Changsha in the south-central province of Hunan. The factory is being built as part of the maker’s Chinese joint venture Shanghai-Volkswagen (SVW).
“We are expanding our capacity in China to four million vehicles per year by 2018 in order to meet demand from our Chinese customers”, Jochem Heizmann, President and CEO of Volkswagen Group China, said at the groundbreaking.
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Tags: auto news, car news, china car sales, gm china, gm news, joe szczesny, svw, thedetroitbureau, volkswagen china, volkswagen news, vw china, vw china factory, vw china plant, vw china production, vw news
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A carbon fiber supercar that’s both mean and green.
by Paul A. Eisenstein on May.17, 2013
Porsche puts the emphasis on supercar performance with its new 918 Spyder.
For those who think battery-based vehicles are, by nature, slow and boring, the new Porsche 918 Spyder plug-in supercar could deliver a shocking surprise.
True, the carbon-fiber 918 is expected to yield significant improvements in fuel efficiency – and about 18 miles per charge on its lithium-ion battery pack, but it will also launch from 0 to 60 in less than 2.8 seconds. A Chevrolet Volt it definitely isn’t.
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The new supercar “demonstrates the potential of the hybrid drive to a degree never seen before: the parallel improvement of both efficiency and performance without one being at the cost of the other,” says Porsche, which first revealed a prototype of the 918 several years ago and is launching the production version this week.
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Tags: McLaren p1, Porsche Hybrid, auto news, battery cars, car news, electric supercars, electric vehicles, laferrari, paul a. eisenstein, paul eisenstein, plug-in supercars, porsche 918, porsche 918 spyder, porsche news, porsche plug-in, thedetroitbureau
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Rumored move could follow Italian maker’s complete merger with Chrysler.
by Paul A. Eisenstein on May.17, 2013
Fiat/Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has some critical decisions to make in the coming months.
With Fiat SpA hoping to wrap up its takeover of Chrysler LLC sometime this year, the maker appears to be thinking over what could be an equally significant step, the possible move of its corporate headquarters from Italy to the U.S.
Marchionne recently indicated he’d like to switch from having Fiat, Italy’s largest manufacturer, listed on the Milan exchange and instead traded on the New York Stock Exchange. But several sources say the Canadian-educated executive is also giving serious thought to basing the merged automaker out Chrysler’s sprawling campus in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills.
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It would be a sharp blow for recession-plagued Italy, but perhaps no surprise despite the fact that Fiat has been headquartered in the northern industrial city of Turin since it was founded in 1899 as Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino.
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Tags: Fiat-Chrysler, Sergio Marchionne, auto news, car news, chrysler news, fiat chrysler stock, fiat headquarters, fiat hq, fiat michigan, fiat news, fiat us, paul a. eisenstein, paul eisenstein, thedetroitbureau
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Swedish maker may be pulling off a surprise.
by Paul A. Eisenstein on May.17, 2013
Volvo's new teaser campaign leaves everyone guessing.
The Internet has been abuzz about the possible hidden meaning behind a trio of short video teasers from Volvo. With the tagline, “Leave the World Behind,” each features a member of the once-popular band, Swedish House Mafia, along with a mysterious vehicle that, the rumor mill is betting, could be the prototype of a new crossover.
Now owned by China’s Geely, Volvo promises to solve the mystery later today at a European news conference. But sources have spilled the herring, as it were, and TheDetroitBureau.com can clue you in on what to expect. Actually, we’ll start by telling you what not to expect: a new car.
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While TheDetroitBureau.com’s sources wouldn’t reveal all the details, they hinted that what we’re witnessing is a reunion of the once popular group — though considering the fact that the three Swedish House Mafia band members appear in separate teaser videos, we’ll have to wait to see how they all come together.
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Tags: auto news, car news, paul a. eisenstein, paul eisenstein, swedish house mafia, thedetroitbureau, volvo, volvo ad campaign, volvo crossover, volvo news, volvo teaser
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Critical step needed to end “range anxiety.”
by Paul A. Eisenstein on May.16, 2013
A new study expects to see more than 10 million EV charging stations worldwide by 2020.
Though Tesla Motors might have achieved its first-ever profit during the first quarter, sales of plug-in vehicles is generally lagging way below expectations, something analysts blame on the high price of battery-based vehicles as well as their limited range.
But the nascent electric vehicle market may get a big boost if a new study from IMS Research proves on target. It predicts the number of EV charging stations will grow from a mere 135,000 worldwide in 2011 to as many as 10.7 million in 2020, with the fastest growth likely to occur in the U.S., China, Japan and Germany.
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“While (EV and plug-in hybrid sales) volumes may not reach the levels imagined in the hype of 2009, it is clear that there needs to be charging infrastructure in place to support this change in mobility,” says Alastair Hayfield, associate director at IMS Research.
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Tags: auto news, battery car charger, car news, electric vehicle charger, electric vehicles, ev charge, ev chargers, ev charging, ev charging station, evgo, paul a. eisenstein, paul eisenstein, tesla supercharger, thedetroitbureau
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Test designed to replicate real-world crashes.
by Paul A. Eisenstein on May.16, 2013
The Subaru Forester was specifically designed to meet the new small overlap crash test.
Five popular small crossover-utility vehicles failed the new overlap crash test designed to simulate an impact with a pole or other narrow object — one of the more common sources of highway fatalities.
Only the 2014 Subaru Forester passed the test, earning a “good” rating from the trade group the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport landed an “acceptable” rating.
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Among the vehicles to fail the test, earning a “poor rating,” were the recently updated Ford Escape, the Jeep Patriot, the Buick Encore, the Kia Sportage and the Hyundai Tucson. The Jeep Wrangler, Nissan Rogue, Mazda CX-5, Volkswagen Tiguan and Honda CR-V were among those compact crossovers to earn a “marginal” rating.
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Tags: 2014 subaru forester, Ford Escape, Jeep Patriot, auto news, auto safety, car news, car safety, crossover crash tests, forester crash test, iihs crash test, mitsubishi outlander, paul a. eisenstein, paul eisenstein, small crossovers, small cuv, small overlap crash test, thedetroitbureau
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Engine problems "almost killed me," alleges one owner.
by Michael Strong on May.16, 2013
Ford's 3.5-liter EcoBoost engines undergo torture testing. The engine is now the subject of two lawsuits.
The lawsuits against Ford Motor Co.’s highly acclaimed EcoBoost are mounting as two disgruntled F-150 owners filed a class-action suit in the state of Louisiana. They make essentially the same claims as were found in a separate suit filed in Ohio last week.
In the Louisiana lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim the 3.5-liter V6 EcoBoost engine “can shudder, shake and then rapidly lose power while drivers are accelerating.” The suit claims the “aggregated claims…exceed the sum value of $5,000,000…”
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“My Ford EcoBoost almost killed us,” said one of the drivers in the filing. Both plaintiffs drive 2011-2012 Ford F-150 pickups.
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Tags: Ecoboost, F-150, Ford, Ford Ecoboost, Ford Motor Co., Ford class action lawsuit, Lincoln MKS, MKS, NHTSA, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, TheDetroitBureau.com., class action lawsuit, flex, ford f-150, ford flex, ford taurus sho, michael strong, taurus sho, thedetroitbureau
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Type of vehicle more relevant than safety ratings.
by Paul A. Eisenstein on May.16, 2013
You'll have a lot better chance of surviving if you're driving the SUV, according to a new study.
In a head-on collision between a passenger car and a sport-utility vehicle, the driver of the SUV is as much as 10 times more likely to survive, according to a new study – even if the passenger car has a better crash safety rating.
The findings, to be presented at an emergency medicine conference today, show that despite more than a decade of efforts by federal regulators and automotive engineers to reduce the risks in car-truck crashes, there’s only so much that can be done to overcome the laws of physics.
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“The overwhelming majority of fatalities occur in the smaller and lighter of the two vehicles,” explains Dr. Dietrich Jehle, a professor of emergency medicine at New York’s Erie County Medical Center, and one of the authors of the new study conducted by the University of Buffalo.
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Tags: IIHS, NHTSA, auto news, auto safety, automotive safety, car news, car safety, car suv crash, car-truck crash, crash ratings, paul a. eisenstein, paul eisenstein, safety ratings, thedetroitbureau
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New flagship features 500 LED lamps, 455 horsepower, stereo cameras -- and a hot-stone massage seat.
by Paul A. Eisenstein on May.16, 2013
Mercedes redesigns its flagship S-Class for 2014.
There was a time when luxury cars were defined by their sheer size and mass, their power, performance and, of course, exclusive details like leather seats and wood trim.
Those are all factors that help distinguish the 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class, as you might expect, but there’s a lot more to the completely redefined German flagship that fit the changing nature of the auto industry. From its 500 LED lamps to the 3D cameras, radar and night vision systems that allow the new sedan to virtually drive itself, the new S-Class is a technical tour de force that will likely have competitors racing to catch up.
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The long-awaited remake of the classic full-size luxury sedan was staged at an Airbus factory in Hamburg, Germany – no surprise because parent Mercedes-Benz also holds a stake in the European airline manufacturer. But the venue was clearly chosen to underscore the technical sophistication of the new S-Class.
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Tags: 2014 mercedes s-class pics, 2014 mercedes-benz s-class, 2014 s-class, auto news, car news, german luxury sedans, mercedes news, mercedes s-class, mercedes s-class review, mercedes-benz news, paul a. eisenstein, paul eisenstein, premium luxury cars, premium luxury sedans, s-class review, thedetroitbureau
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