AUTO MANIA: by Dr. Iain Corness [email protected]

Another GT4, but this time from Kia

Kia GT4.

Kia stunned all with the GT4 Stinger sports coupe concept at last month’s Detroit motor show, but a new report suggests the Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ rival has not only been green lit for production, but it will make its showroom debut before the end of 2014.
Speaking with anonymous Kia insiders, an American magazine reports that the GT4 Stinger concept was close to production ready - despite Kia’s refusal to confirm a production future at the time.
According to the report, the two-door coupe’s exterior design has been finalized, including those ADR-challenging low-mounted headlights, but the show car’s heavily stylized interior is expected to be scaled back for production.
The car is expected to ride on a version of the Hyundai Genesis Coupe platform, and use an uprated version of its 204 kW 2.0 liter turbo petrol engine that is also available in the US-market Sonata sedan. Kia claimed 235 kW for the GT4 Stinger concept, which likely well within the tuning limits for this engine.
The last GT4 was the 4WD Toyota Celica GT4.

Consumer Reports on public perception

The Consumer Reports magazine in the US scores the auto manufacturers each year. The magazine’s perception scores reflect how consumers perceive each brand in seven buying areas, ranked in the order consumers say are important: Quality, safety, performance, value, fuel economy, design/style and technology/innovation.
Here are the top 10 from the 2013 survey.
1. Toyota
2. Ford
3. Honda
4. Chevrolet
5. Tesla
6. Subaru
7. Mercedes-Benz
8. Volvo
9. Cadillac
10. BMW
Consumer Reports show that despite all the recalls by Toyota of a couple of years ago, Toyota continues to lead the Consumer Reports car/brand perception survey. Tesla and Subaru broke into the top 10 for the first time. One manufacturer that dropped was Hyundai.
Consumer Reports’ David Cole, chairman emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research, said it isn’t always clear what drives perceptions. “Recalls are a measure of quality and the question is how did they defeat perceptions from the recalls,” he said.
Perceptions “lag reality” and brands can take years and lots of advertising to turn around their image - even if their vehicles have dramatically improved.
The Consumer Reports National Research Center conducted the random, nationwide telephone survey of 1,578 adults from Dec. 6-15, 2013, and collected survey data from 1,764 adults in households that had at least one car.

Some changes in the podium positions

The latest figures show VW AG has edged GM in worldwide sales, with VW producing 9.73 million total good for number 2, behind Toyota, relegating GM to 3rd with a production of 9.71 million.
The quoted figures include VW’s heavy-duty truck sales from its MAN SE and Scania AB units, so some still say GM is the second-best selling automaker among light-duty vehicles.
Top of the tree was Toyota which sold 9.98 million vehicles in 2013, retaining the title as the world’s largest automaker for a second straight year. Its total includes sales from its Hino Motors and Daihatsu units.
Toyota was also the top-selling manufacturer from 2008-10, but GM regained the title in 2011 after Toyota production sank because of natural disasters in Asia. Before then, GM was the world’s largest automaker from 1931 through 2007.
Volkswagen AG has made its future plans known to be the world’s largest manufacturer by 2018 and has aggressive strategies to grow sales in the United States to 800,000 vehicles by 2018.
Michael Horn, a longtime VW executive who was named the new chief of VW in the U.S. late last month, told reporters at the North American International Auto Show earlier this month that the brand will grow commensurate with that output.
VW Group chief Martin Winterkorn set the sights even higher, commenting on the goal set in 2008 to sell 1 million VW and Audi vehicles in the U.S. by 2018. “If we get the product, yes, we can meet the goal,” Horn said. “If we want to be really successful, we need to do more than this because to get the economies of scale, to get the engines, the drivetrains being produced here, that’s when you start to get away from the dollar-euro exchange rate issues ... I think it’s a great strategy.”
In 2011, VW opened an assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., its first U.S. plant since it closed a Pennsylvania factory in 1986. It now assembles in North America more than 72 percent of the vehicles it sells in the United States, and has vowed to boost that to at least 75 percent.
VW announced last month it will invest $7 billion in North America over five years, and confirmed it will bring a mid-size SUV to the U.S. market in 2016, but did not confirm if it will build these at the Chattanooga plant.
The VW Group has more than a dozen brands across the world including Audi, Skoda, Lamborghini, Bentley, Porsche and Seat.

Indian ‘Quality’

Goodness, gracious me!

It appears that “Made in India” and “Quality” is an oxymoron. This comes after the results from the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) where the Tata Nano, billed as the world’s cheapest car, and a host of other top-selling small models from India have failed their first independent crash tests.
The five entry-level vehicles - including the country’s best-selling small car the Suzuki Maruti Alto 800, as well as the Ford Figo, Tata Nano, the Hyundai i10 and the Volkswagen Polo - scored no stars out of five for protection.
The tests, carried out by NCAP, had the basic models, all without airbags, driven at 64 kilometers an hour into a block simulating a head-on collision.
All would leave the driver facing life-threatening injuries.
“It’s worrying to see levels of safety that are 20 years behind the five-star standards now common in Europe and North America,” said the head of NCAP Global, Max Mosley, the former head of the FIA.
NCAP also tested the cars in a crash simulation according to United Nations standards - a frontal collision at the slightly slower speed of 56 kilometers an hour - and none of them passed.
The five vehicles tested account for about 20 percent of all new cars sold in India annually.
The NCAP tested only the basic models of the cars in question and it said the Figo and Polo would provide much better protection if fitted with airbags, which were an optional extra.
But the Nano, the i10 and the Alto had “inadequate” structures that meant that even air bags would “not be effective in reducing the risk of serious injury”.
As a result of the tests, Volkswagen has withdrawn its Polo model without airbags, NCAP said.
 

A Walk Through Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi Assembly line.

Following some good PR work by John Moreton of the Pattaya Car Club, an invitation was extended for a factory tour of the Mitsubishi eco-car factory at Laem Chabang.
Even though Mitsubishi may not have the largest production figures (around five hundred thousand) in the automotive sphere in Thailand, it is still a major player after Toyota, Isuzu and Honda.
Three car assembly factories are in the Laem Chabang compound with the first assembling Mitsubishi Lancer and Pajero Sport with a 90,000 unit capacity annually. The second assembles pick-ups and pick-up derivatives and has a 220,000 capacity. The third factory assembles the eco-cars (Mirage and Attrage) with a 200,000 unit capacity. There is also the engine assembly plant with a capacity of 500,000 units both gasoline and diesel.
The group was taken through the third factory and followed the production of both the Mirage and Attrage, which come down the same assembly line.
In the stamping (press) area robots handle the sheet metal as they are stamped; however, the final stacking of the pressed pieces is done manually.
After the main body parts are brought together, the spot-welding is carried out, but once again this is a manually controlled step. There is checking of the welds and weld quality, a little further down the line.
Doors are fitted, with persuasion from a strategically used hammer, and the finished shell then goes to paint. Interestingly, the doors are removed before painting to be married up to the shell later. It was noted that paint quality was very good.
With the Attrage (silly name) being a “booted” Mirage, they can easily come down the line together. I noticed two stiffening struts are added in the Attrage to the rear firewall area.
The line becomes increasingly manual assembly and continues until a fully assembled car starts and drives off the line to then go through the shower test and a running test on the Mitsubishi track.
Many thanks to the Mitsubishi personnel who looked after us on the educational trip.
Whilst cars have changed over the years, the assembly line technique as pioneered by Henry Ford is still the mainstay of vehicle production.
 

Autotrivia Quiz

So to last week’s quiz. I asked what was this car? Hint: a family fortune was squandered in the production of these cars. It was the Bucciali TAV, one of my favorite cars from that era.
So to this week. What car is this? Straight eight engine with alloy head supercharged, three speed manual gearbox with dual ratio rear axle, semi elliptical springs front and rear, maximum speed 174 km/h, weight 1702 kg. Hint, American, two door coupe, mascot on rear flank was the radiator mascot cut in half, plaque on dash guaranteed 100 mph.
For the Automania free beer this week, be the first correct answer to email [email protected].