Renault Twingo Conceptualized by Four Artists [72 Photos & Videos]

What would happen if you gave various artists from different fields and countries the opportunity to break barriers and explore new paths with the design and the use of a vehicle like Renault's entry in the small city car segment, the recently refreshed Twingo? Renault tried to answer this question by summoning four artists from the fashion, music, design and cooking industries to give their personal take on the Twingo.
The artist lineup includes: French fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, who came up with a presidential vehicle concept; Italian chef Davide Scabin renowned for his creative cooking, who decorated the interior of the Twingo accordingly; UK singer Nicola Roberts, who matched he passion for music and make-up, and pragmatic German designer, Nils Holger Moormann, who turned the Twingo into a rolling library.
You can check out all four concepts in the video and photo gallery below.

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2013 Cadillac ATS gets New 2.0-liter Turbo with 270HP, Plus 2.5L and 3.6L V6 engines [Video]

Cadillac is not…horsing around with its soon-to-be revealed 2013 ATS as the Detroit automaker will offer the compact sports saloon with a newly developed 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four producing an estimated 270-horsepower and 260 lb-ft. of torque (353 Nm) straight from launch. The 2.0T is a different engine than the one used on the current Buick Regal GS, with the ATS being the first GM model to receive the force-fed powerplant.
“This engine is the perfect match for the new ATS, which will be a refined performance luxury sedan,” said Don Butler, Cadillac vice president of Global Marketing. “The 2.0T has an exceptionally smooth and responsive power curve that will make the ATS nimble, quick and fun to drive.”
The Cadillac-tuned four-cylinder unit employs several technologies including a twin-scroll turbocharger with air-to-air intercooler, direct injection, continuously variable valve timing and a two-stage variable-displacement oil pump with jet-spray piston cooling.
Cadillac says that overall engine friction is reduced by up to 16 percent, which results into significant gains in fuel economy.
“The 2.0T is one of the most advanced and efficient engines of its kind, and contributes to the ATS’s exceptional balance of performance and great fuel efficiency,” said Mike Anderson, chief engineer for the 2.0T engine. “It has the exhilarating, responsive power available when you want it, yet can provide the fuel efficiency that will make the ATS a fully competitive vehicle in global markets,” he added.
Cadillac noted that at 135HP per liter, the 2.0T engine "has the highest power density among key competitors" providing a somewhat befuddling list that includes the M3's naturally aspirated V8 but not the new 328i's 240HP 2.0-liter unit:

• Audi A4’s 2.0L turbo (105.5 hp/L)
• BMW M3’s V-8 (103.5 hp/L)
• Lexus IS F’s V-8 (83.2 hp/L)
• Mercedes-Benz C250’s 1.8L turbo (111.6 hp/L)

Along with the 2.0T, Cadillac will also offer a normally aspirated 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine and a 3.6-liter V-6 engine in the ATS, which will make its world premiere the 2012 Detroit Auto Show in January.

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No More Mr. Cayenne Guy: Spain’s Financial Crisis Kill Sales of Luxury Cars

When a couple is married, they vow to love and cherish each other for richer or poorer, in good or bad times. Buying a car, especially an expensive one like a Porsche Cayenne, is kind like a marriage, in the sense that you get to live with it every day – except that you can have more than one and it doesn't talk back to you…
When things go bad, however, it’s not just couples that get a divorce: the ongoing financial crisis that has plagued Northern European countries is forcing owners to depart with their beloved vehicles because they simply can’t afford their expenses anymore.
Greece, Italy and Spain are the countries hit the hardest so far by the crisis, and as a result, their economies are crumpling and many citizens find themselves unemployed or struggling to hold on to their jobs.
In this economic climate, owning an expensive car is, like a Porsche Cayenne, is indeed, a luxury. You see, while the SUV saved Porsche from bankruptcy, it’s now threatening to do the opposite to many of its owners.
Take Roberto Murga from Barcelona, for example. “I can’t splurge anymore, and maintaining my precious Cayenne is just too expensive”, Murga told Business Week.
Before the crisis, his monthly income was around €8,000. When the real estate bubble burst, he had no choice but to fire half of his employees, as he admits, “we have no profit at all, we just try to survive”.
With Spain’s unemployment rate reaching an shocking 22.8 percent, things getting worse every day and no light at the end of the tunnel, the Spaniards are having a hard time indeed.
As in Greece, in Spain, the Cayenne was seen as a status symbol – an outright statement to onlookers that you have really made it.
Today’s dire financial situation has been labeled “the Cayenne crisis” by Victor Conde, a marketing professor at Madrid’s Universidad Nebrija.
“This car was the paradigm of how we lived above what we could afford”, he says. “Banks were giving away too many loans and everybody here was driving a Cayenne.”
 
Now the luxury SUV sales in Spain and Portugal have fallen 34 percent compared to 2007, their best-ever year. Porsche is not the only one affected; BMW sales are almost halved, being reduced by 47 percent.
Car dealers are experiencing a sharp decline in their revenue. “The Cayenne was the favorite car for many people, especially in the construction industry”, said Madrid-based Arguelles Automoviles sales manager Angel Rodriguez. “Later many found out they couldn’t afford it, or even pay for it at all, and I see them now driving a Renault”, he added.
Even mass-market manufacturers are feeling the strain. Ford has already announced that it will temporarily suspend 4,000 workers at its Valencia plant and even Seat is considering moving production to more cost-efficient facilities owned by the VW Group, in countries like China.
Economics professor Ricardo Mateo says that, without reforms, the Spanish auto industry is doomed: “Labor costs and taxes in Spain are high, unions very strong, and the industry needs to remain competitive as cars are now also produced in China, Korea, India and South Africa.”

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Gisele Keeps Abreast of Detroit's Sports Car Offerings [Video]

In today's world, when you have a good thing going, you don't want to put the pause button on it. After seeing the success of Gisele's spin in a Cadillac CTS-V Coupe, the hooter-loving crew over at Hightechcorvette called in the young lady for another high-speed run, this time in a turbocharged Ford Mustang. Gisele was apparently more than willing to place the seatbelt under her arm to get a taste of the Blue Oval's signature pony car, no doubt to compare it with Cadillac's V8-powered sports coupe.
We'll have to wait and see if she completes the trilogy with a ride in a Chrysler Group sports car in the not so far future. For now, head over the break for some bouncing action. 

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2013 Buick Encore Crossover First Teaser Photo

General Motors has just announced that its new Buick crossover model that will debut at the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit next month will be named Encore, confirming previous speculations. The company also published a cropped image of the 2013 Buick Encore giving us a glimpse of what’s to come, with the promise to release more photos over the next few weeks.
GM didn't share many details on the five-seat crossover model other than that it will offer "contemporary styling, signature QuietTuning technology, and a host of features and amenities customers expect from Buicks today".
Our sources state that the new Enclave's little brother will be based on Opel's upcoming small crossover model, spy pictures of which, you can check out here.

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New Nissan Pathfinder and All-Electric Van Concepts at Detroit Show

As we're approaching closer to the 2012 edition of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on January 9, more automakers are slowly rolling out their plans to create some additional buzz around their products. Today, Nissan confirmed that it's presence at the show will be highlighted by the worldwide debut of two concept vehicles, including a Pathfinder preview study and an all-electric van prototype.
Nissan says that the Pathfinder SUV concept previews the production model's "all-new look, style and attitude" adding that it will go on sale in the States in fall of 2012.
The Japanese carmaker's second concept model doesn't have a name yet, but according to Nissan, the van study previews a future production version of a pure electric model "designed to provide businesses or families with flexible, roomy cargo space, while offering a dramatic CO2 footprint reduction".
Nissan plans to release the complete skinny on both concepts, so stay tuned.
[2012 Nissan Pathfinder shown in pictures]

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Will China’s New Tariffs Harm Foreign Manufacturers Like GM?

Yesterday, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced that a new tax is imposed on U.S.-made vehicles with a motor capacity of 2.5-liters and above, effective today, December 15.

The so-called “anti-dumping” duties imposed not just on U.S. carmakers, but all companies that manufacture cars in the United States, were imposed because the Chinese authorities felt that U.S. imports were “damaging the local car industry”.
Most analysts, on the other hand, agree that this is China’s response to the World Trade Organization rejecting its appeal on U.S. duties on imported tires three months earlier.
“The move shows that China is always capable of intervening politically in its markets”, Bankhaus Metzler’s analyst Juergen Pieper told Bloomberg News. “The automobile industry is very dependent on China for growth, and there’s doubts about the pace of future expansion.”
Despite GM’s share falling to its lowest point since November 2010 after the announcement, JPMorgan analyst Himanshu Patel estimates that the newly imposed duties won’t hurt the carmaker that much.
 
That’s because most of the 2 million models it sold this year in China are made locally, and only a few, like the Cadillac SRX SUV, are imported from the U.S. However, Patel notes that “it may accelerate GM’s localization plans”.
Ford is not affected by the new tariffs, since it imports just one model to China, the Canadian-built Edge SUV. On the other end of the spectrum, Citigroup says that companies which have “material exposure” are BMW, which imports about 25,000 U.S.-built vehicles annually, Chrysler, with 24,000 imports, most of them Jeeps, and Daimler, with 18,000 units with an engine capacity of 2.5-liters and above imported each year.
While both Democrat and Republican Senators have lashed out against the new taxes, analysts don’t expect them to actually have that much of an impact.
As senior analyst at IHS Automotive Namrita Chow says, “this is hardly going to flummox the buyer of a high-end car. They’re really not going to be bothered by a few percent here and there.”
BMW representative Mathias Schmidt said that while the Chinese government’s decision was “regrettable”, he doesn’t expect to have a significant impact on the brand’s sales.

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