A new E-Class is coming
The new Mercedes-Benz E-Class is for
world-wide release in 2009, and ‘teaser’ photographs have
been released on the internet to stimulate interest in this
new car, which will be placed against the BMW 5 Series in
the marketplace.
New
E-Class Benz
In line with most manufacturers these days, corporate
styling is used to identify the brand. Look at the new Honda
Accord and the new Honda City, for example. The City is a
scaled down version of its big brother.
The new E-Class sedan is adopting edgier styling that
follows design cues of the bigger S-Class and smaller
C-Class.
The new E-Class sedan - codenamed W212 internally - adopts a
sharper look than its predecessor. It swaps the outgoing
model’s distinctive quad circular headlights for two-piece
rectangular units, while the flanks look deeper and feature
two rising character lines.
Rear
end styling for new E-Class
Mercedes designers have added extra visual muscle to the
wheel-arches that surround the rear wheels. At the rear, the
edgy design theme is maintained with rectangular-shaped
tail-lights and dual exhaust pipes.
The new E-Class will be offered with two different front
ends, just like the current C-Class. Elegance models are
expected to feature a raised three-pointed-star badge on the
bonnet in Mercedes sedan tradition, while Avant-garde
versions will incorporate the Benz badge within the grille.
This new car - offering more interior space thanks to
increases in all key dimensions - will make its public debut
at the 2009 Geneva motor show next March following a media
reveal prior to January’s Detroit show.
The German car maker has already declared that the new
E-Class will be the safest car in its class, with about a
dozen new or improved driver assistance systems.
A new feature is a fatigue monitoring system called
Attention Assist, which alerts the driver audibly and
visually if it detects a change in established driving
behavior. Infra-red night vision and lane-departure warning
systems are also to be included as standard or options
depending on the model.
The new E-Class will again be offered with a range of V6 and
V8 engines running on either petrol or diesel and mated to a
seven-speed automatic.
At least half of the engines will feature direct fuel
injection technology, and Mercedes says, “Intelligent energy
management and a raft of other measures will make the new
E-Class consume far less fuel than its predecessor.”
The range will once again include an E63 AMG model, with a
6.2 liter V8 expected to deliver 386 kW. A Black Series
E-Class with even more power is also rumored, though
Mercedes’ high-performance badge may be applied to the new
coupe version rather than the sedan.
Mercedes’ most environmentally friendly E-Class will be a
new diesel hybrid model due in 2010. Fitted with a 560 Nm
2.2 liter Bluetec turbo diesel engine, the E-Class hybrid is
set to use just 5.1 liters per 100 km and emit only 134
grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilometer. Those fuel
consumption figures are around the Honda Jazz level of
superb economy, in a vehicle many times the size of the
Jazz.
A new E-Class coupe - based on the Concept Fascination from
the 2008 Paris motor show - will join the new sedan later in
the year.
I don’t know how many of you spotted the advertisements for
the current E-Class, with Mercedes-Benz offering zero
percent interest terms over 60 months. Perhaps I should
trade the Daihatsu Mira?
Honda Racing Fest
finale at Bira
Despite the parent Honda Corporation having
withdrawn from the F1 circus, Honda Thailand is continuing
next year with its very popular Honda Racing Fest series,
with its Jazz, Civic and Pro Cup categories. These are
always very closely contested, sometimes a little too close
as Jack Lemvard found out in the final of the Civic series.
Despite only having to finish fifth to clinch the title, he
allowed himself to become involved in fender benders, and
was lucky to finish in third place, and in so doing did
secure the title for 2008. Jack has yet to learn that if you
leave the door half open, someone will drive through it,
like Narasak in the photo.
The Honda Pro Cup B championship is under investigation
following an appeal by local driver Thomas Raldorf, who was
given the championship win on points gained over the year,
but was then told that there had been a mistake in addition
early on in the year, which was only discovered on the
afternoon of the final race, and he was demoted to second in
class. Hmmm!
When push
comes to shove (Photo Alan Coates)
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I asked at what university did
Henry Ford 1 study engineering? The correct answer was
‘none’. Henry Ford 1 was a self-taught engineer.
So to this week. Honda has pulled out of F1. What other
Japanese companies have just pulled out of international
level motor sport?
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first correct
answer to email [email protected]
Good luck!
Put your order in for a
BYD
That’s not BVD jocks, (by the way, BVD stands for
Bradley, Voorhees and Day, the New York City firm that
initially manufactured underwear of this name for both men
and women) but is BYD, a Chinese automaker.
BYD
F3
BYD have produced the BYD F3 DM, which is a plug-in hybrid,
and has beaten the world’s car manufacturers to produce the
first mass-produced plug-in, by a sizeable margin. That
includes GM’s Chev Volt and Toyota and Renault-Nissan, whose
plug-ins will not be available till 2010 and 2012.
This new BYD can run for 100 km on battery power alone and
takes seven hours to recharge overnight from the home wall
socket. It has a secondary petrol engine as a back-up if you
are going more than 100 km between plugs. That is where the
DM comes in - dual mode.
The BYD is also about 40 percent cheaper than the Toyota
Prius hybrid (which is not a plug-in) in China. BYD is also
China’s largest manufacturer of rechargeable batteries, so
it probably is in the right arena to produce plug-ins.
As China is the knock-off capital of the world, take another
look at the BYD photo. Does that not look a lot like the
previous model Toyota Corolla Altis?
New Volvo S60 avoids
pedestrians
Volvo will unveil the new S60 Concept at next
month’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit,
with the production version touted as being very close to
the concept.
New
Volvo S60
Both the concept and the production vehicle are the work of
company design director Steve Mattin, who is also
responsible for the soon-to-be-released XC60. All three
vehicles share the same EUCD platform that also underpins
the XC70, V70 and S80 models in Volvo’s portfolio.
According to the blurb, “The interior expresses a typically
Scandinavian feel: fresh, light and airy. In the middle of
the four-seater car glitters the jewel in the crown - a
floating centre stack crafted from handmade, solid Orrefors
crystal. It floats like a gentle, calm wave from the
instrument panel all the way to the rear seat backrest,” Mr
Mattin stated.
The S60 Concept’s job does not stop there, as it also ushers
in future preventative safety technology such as Volvo’s
‘Collision Warning with Full Auto Brake’ function that
stomps on the brakes if the driver is too slow to do so.
A radar and camera mounted in the grille area monitor the
distance ahead and work in conjunction to confirm that there
is an object in the way before applying full-force braking
if required. That object can be a pedestrian, and it is
tipped that this feature will also make it into production.
The radar also works in conjunction with an updated Adaptive
Cruise Control system that now works in slow-moving queues
that often result in repeated starting and stopping. The
previous set-up deactivate below 30 km/h.
On the subject of motion, the S60 Concept also introduces
Volvo’s new 1.6-litre GTDi technology. It is a
petrol-powered direct-injection four-cylinder turbo unit
that delivers 134 kW of power while returning 5.0 liters per
100 kilometers and 119 grams of carbon dioxide emissions per
kilometer.
Volvo says using direct-injection results in around a 20
percent cut in petrol use and pollution over a similarly
sized engine. Expect the next-generation S40/V50 models, as
well as the C30 and its derivatives, to be the first
recipients of the GTDi technology from later in 2010.
Other high-tech features in the S60 Concept include a
head-up display for the instrumentation, increased
connectivity and connection via the steering wheel controls,
and Volvo’s Blind Spot Information System to make it into
the production S60.
Things are grim, but
not that grim at VW
Latest reports indicate that the Volkswagen Group
delivered 5.73 million vehicles from January to November in
2008. Those are world-wide figures, and this puts VW among
the few automakers this year who have matched or even
slightly exceeded last year’s delivery figures.
However, the last month showed a 16.5 percent fall compared
to November 2007, but with the industry overall being down
24.5 percent, VW are certainly not doing too bad.
Detlef Wittig, executive vice president group sales and
marketing said, “The Volkswagen Group held its own well in
the first three quarters of this year as overall market
demand continued to weaken. The slump on the world market in
the fourth quarter is really putting us to the test, but we
have still grown market share even though vehicles sales are
falling.”
Volkswagen Passenger Cars, the Group’s highest-volume brand,
delivered 3.37 million vehicles (+0.2 percent) to customers
worldwide from January to November 2008, of which 482,000
vehicles (+1.5 percent) were delivered in Germany.
However, there has also been a sharp decline in momentum on
what have to date been growth markets. Nevertheless,
development in Volkswagen Group deliveries during the first
eleven months of the year was positive. In Brazil, the Group
delivered 591,800 vehicles from January to November, an
increase of 11.9 percent. In China, too, the Group reported
good growth of 10.1 percent during this period, with
deliveries totaling 931,100 units. There was significant
growth in Russia, where deliveries rose 61.6 percent to
118,300 units and India, where deliveries increased by 59.7
percent to 17,700 vehicles. Thailand sales have remained
numerically very small, however.
