Category Archives: HowStuffWorks
Future Car: 2015 Aston Martin Vantage
Even boutique automakers can’t escape new rules for lower emissions and higher mpg. That’s why Aston Martin is paring pounds and toning-up engines for its “junior” 2-seaters. The result should be a quicker, cleaner, and even sexier Vantage that 007 can endorse.
What We Know About the 2015 Aston Martin Vantage
Like most boutique automakers, Aston Martin has been having a tough time in the Great Recession. As Britain’s Autocar magazine recently noted, sales for Agent 007′s preferred motorcar purveyor dropped from a record 5,500 units in 2007 to around 3,000 in 2009. Aston is upbeat on 2010, forecasting production of 4,000 2-door models at its factory in Gaydon, England, plus 500 copies of the new Rapide sedan supplied from Austria by contract manufacturer Magna International.
Even so, Aston Martin is in as much hot water as James Bond gets into. For starters, the widely predicted global economic recovery, which all automakers are counting on, is likely to be both slow and weak, particularly given the sovereign-debt crisis in the European Union. In addition, Aston has agreed to take 2,000 Rapides each year from 2011 through 2016. That means the company might have to sell more cars than it did in banner ’07 just to stay afloat. And getting out of the Magna deal, should that be necessary, could cost up to $ 20 million by one estimate, a lot of money for a small automaker that now has little cash to spare.
Meanwhile, Aston faces the not-small task of meeting stringent new CO2 emissions standards in Europe and tough new fuel-economy mandates here in the U.S., regulations that start taking effect in 2011. While the company is small enough to qualify for a break or two, it can’t escape the new rules entirely, and so will have to make its products cleaner and more fuel-efficient than they are now.
That looms a large hit to the bottom line, given the aging under-skin design used for all of Aston’s signature 2-door grand-touring models. These include not only the core 4-seat, V12 DB9 coupe and Volante convertible but the 2-seat V8 and V12 Vantage coupes, V8 Vantage roadster, and the 2-seat, high-performance, DB9-based DBS coupe. The “entry-level” trio is arguably most in need of modernizing. As Autocar notes, Vantage sales “have suffered more than those of high-end Astons in the recession”–which reinforces the old proverb about how really rich folks weather hard times better than those who are merely well-to-do.
It all adds up to a predicament that would challenge 007. But like the wily fictional spy, Aston plans to win the day by being creative with what it has at hand. That’s why proposed clean-sheet redesigns have been shelved in favor of thoroughly overhauled cars that will save development cash, meet the new regulations and–helped by fresh styling–generate sufficient sales. At least that’s the theory. Not surprisingly, the first stage of this Plan B is a remodeled version of the mainstay-selling DB9. Autocar expects it to bow in Europe during 2013, which means a likely U.S. arrival for model-year 2014. The three-model Vantage line is next on the list. It’s forecast to launch over there in 2014, which suggests a 2015-model American debut.
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Future Cars from Consumer Guide Automotive
Future Car: 2018 Honda Accord
Honda’s top-selling vehicle, the Honda Accord, should receive a complete redesign for the 2018
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model year, but we don’t anticipate the automaker will veer far from what’s been a successful direction for this midsize sedan and coupe combo. We expect the next-generation Accord will continue to offer a winning combination of commuter-friendly performance, a comfortable and spacious interior, good fuel economy and sufficient–though perhaps not class-leading–features, all at competitive pricing. A fuel-saving Accord Hybrid, and an even more frugal plug-in Accord Hybrid sedan will likely continue in the lineup. The question is whether Honda will be satisfied playing the perennial number two to the top-selling car in the U.S., the Toyota Camry, or will it pull out all the proverbial stops to gain segment supremacy?
What It Is
The 2018 Honda Accord will represent the 10th generation of this popular midsize car line that dates back to 1976. Like a middle-aged child star, the current Accord bears little resemblance to its original iteration, back when it was a smallish compact hatchback, styled to resemble the larger U.S. cars of the period. A sedan followed in 1979, and the Accord would grow considerably in length and power over time. A coupe was added to the line in 1988, and a station wagon version subsequently came and went, though a modern-day version of it remains as the quasi-crossover Honda Crosstour.
Sold as either a midsize sedan or a slightly sportier coupe, the Accord was last redesigned for the 2013 model year in a moderately more-svelte version of its predecessor, receiving freshened styling, revised powertrains and adding a Plug-In Hybrid version; a more-conventional Hybrid version followed later in the 2013 calendar year.
Honda is, by nature, a company that’s notoriously tight-lipped regarding future model information, so we can only postulate when the next-generation Accord will arrive, what changes will be made to the line, and what it might cost. Based on past model cycles we’d expect the next-generation Accord to debut sometime during the 2017 calendar year as a 2018 model. Both sedan and coupe models will probably remain in the line, along with the aforementioned Hybrid and Plug-In Hybrid models. In the meantime the Accord could receive a mild refresh for 2015 or 2016 to help maintain its market presence, which would likely include little more than modest styling tweaks, new wheel designs, and perhaps some added features.
Where it Fits
The Honda Accord competes both in size and price with other mainstream midsize cars like the Chevrolet Malibu, Ford Fusion, Mazda 6, Nissan Altima and Volkswagen Passat, with the Toyota Camry being its closest rival. Only the Altima, however, offers a two-door model that competes directly with the Accord Coupe. A more luxurious, expressively styled, and slightly sportier version of the Accord Sedan is sold through Honda’s Acura division as the TL.
Note that the North American Honda Accord is significantly different that the same-named versions of the car that are sold in Europe and Japan, and that’s a practice we don’t expect to change for its anticipated model-year 2018 revision. While Toyota and Volkswagen likewise sell “Americanized” versions of the Camry and Passat in the U.S., other automakers, including Ford, General Motors, Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz, instead sell only modestly altered versions of their cars across the world, sharing platforms, engines, and other components in order to minimize their development and production budgets. In fact, according to a speech given in late 2012 by Honda’s President & CEO, Takanobu Ito, the company is overhauling its current product development strategy to give even greater autonomy to regional/local Honda affiliates. Instead of a top-down Japanese-centric approach, the new method will adopt a more-regional strategy.
The North American version of the 2018 Honda Accord will likely continue to be built in the U.S. Honda has been producing Accords at its Marysville, Ohio assembly plant since 1982, and says it’s built over 9 million units there through the end of calendar year 2012.
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Future Car: 2014 Jeep Grand Wagoneer
Jeep dusts off a classic nameplate for a luxury version of its latest Grand Cherokee, likely with 3-row seating. The new Grand Wagoneer will be nothing like the late, unlamented Jeep Commander, but it could spell an early demise for brand-cousin Dodge Durango.
What We Know About the 2014 Jeep Grand Wagoneer
Sergio Marchionne, CEO of the new Chrysler-Fiat alliance, is one of those executives who knows what he wants and has the clout to get it. So we took it as gospel when he declared at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show that “It’s about time we gave the market an upper-scale Grand Wagoneer. You’ll see it in January 2013.” That means a Detroit debut for either a lightly disguised concept or perhaps the finished product. Either way, the new Grand Wagoneer–the first in nearly 20 years–should be on sale by late ’13 as a 2014 model blending elements of the latest Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango midsize SUVs.
Here’s the back story. Chrysler Group is about to wrap up its “Project Genesis” dealer-consolidation plan that was accelerated by the company’s quick trip through bankruptcy in mid-2009, the proceeding that ushered in Mr. Marchionne as Chrysler CEO. The plan calls not only for fewer dealers but for each to be more profitable by selling all of Chrysler’s domestic brands–Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, and Ram truck (separated from Dodge post-bankruptcy). This is a good strategy from a market-coverage standpoint, but it means similar products with different labels in the same showrooms, and Mr. Marchionne doesn’t like that idea. He believes each Chrysler brand needs a clear identity to succeed, and for him that entails minimal product duplication among the four nameplates. Consider this comment to reporters as relayed by Bill Visnic of Edmunds Auto Observer: “Why would any brand but Jeep have an SUV [in the new Chrysler showrooms]? Jeep needs to define the SUV market and it needs to own it.”
Visnic notes that Marchionne was apparently “not all that thrilled with the product-development and marketing strategies–prior to [Fiat’s] management takeover of Chrysler–that led to the Durango and Grand Cherokee being derived from a common architecture. ‘If I had been there,’ Marchionne said, ‘the Durango would have been a Grand Wagoneer…’” No prizes, then, for guessing what’s coming in January 2013.
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Future Car: 2014 Porsche Macan
The Carrera of compact crossovers or a Porsche-prepped Audi Q5? The “baby Cayenne” will be both. Many other questions await answers but the Macan should definitely be a very different small SUV.
What We Know About the 2014 Porsche Macan
Volkswagen Group acquired sports-car icon Porsche in 2009 and wants to lift the brand’s yearly worldwide sales to some 150,000 units, about double the current level. New models are seen as vital to reaching that goal, and the powers in Wolfsburg have just green-lighted what should be the biggest boost to Porsche’s business, a compact SUV that’s been in the works under the tentative title Cajun.
We’ve been down this road before. A “baby Cayenne” was rumored back in 2008 as the “Roxster,” but Porsche firmly denied it, partly because the small but profitable automaker was then plotting to take over giant VW, an audacious scheme that ultimately failed due to a boardroom fight and suspicious trading in Porsche stock. Now, however, Porsche is firmly under the VW tent, and although the two companies are linked by family history and many prior joint ventures–including the Cayenne premium-midsize SUV–Porsche can benefit from VW’s vastly greater resources as never before.
And there you have the short answer for Porsche’s second SUV, expected to bow in North America during 2013, likely as a 2014 model. There was some question about the Cajun moniker. Mathias Müeller, named Porsche CEO with the VW takeover, would say only that the name might be used or might not. Others were reportedly being considered. But in February 2012, Porsche itself announced the Cayenne’s little brother will be named Macan. The company says the name is derived from the Indonesian word for tiger.
Styling and major technical features are still being debated too, but there’s no question that the 2014 Porsche Macan will be based on the Audi Q5, much as big-brother Cayenne shares engineering DNA with the VW Touareg and Audi Q7. Not surprisingly, the Macan is tipped to look considerably different than the Q5, with a unique coupe-like profile, a Cayenne-type nose, and a 2-door body style that Audi doesn’t offer. The last is expected about a year after the obligatory 4-door. According to Motor Trend, “Previous reports indicated the Macan would be 2-door only, but Porsche apparently believes it needs both variants to insure its success.” We imagine design chief Michael Mauer and his crew will strive to give the 4-door Macan a strong visual link to the Cayenne while making the 2-door look as much like a racy Porsche 911 Carrera as they can.
Dimensionally, both 2014 Porsche Macan body styles should retain the Q5’s 110.6-inch wheelbase, which implies similarly good interior room for a premium-compact SUV, especially in back. However, we think the reskinning will leave the Porsche crossover some 3 inches longer than Audi’s, plus maybe an inch wider and at least an inch lower. Despite the shared architecture and standard all-wheel drive, the Macan could also end up being quite a bit lighter than Q5, depending on whether it makes appreciably greater use of aluminum and other weight-saving materials. Predictably, the Macan will get its own interior, likely with a driver-oriented dashboard and perhaps seating for 4 only, the latter also underlining this SUV’s emphasis on sport over utility.
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Future Car: 2014 BMW 1-Series Compact
Inside This Article
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Reality Check: 2014 BMW 1-Series Compact
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BMW goes front-wheel drive–really–for a new smaller car based on its next-generation Mini. Slotting below the compact 1-Series, it aims to snare new customers, maximize investment, and outsell rival minicars. And, no, it won’t be called “0.5-Series.”
What It Is
The smallest BMW in 50 years and the company’s first production model with front-wheel drive. According to Automobile and Britain’s Autocar magazines, the baby Bimmer will be positioned below the compact 1-Series in size and price. The launch is said to be on for calendar 2013, which could mean a 2014-model U.S. debut.
The 2014 BMW 1-Series Compact will share a new modular architecture with the third generation of BMW’s British-built Mini (expected to start rolling out in calendar ’13) but will have different dimensions and BMW styling cues. Name? Not yet decided apparently, but Autocar believes the front-driver will be tagged 1-Series as well, which is bound to cause confusion, as the larger rear-drive 1s will continue. (They’re being redesigned for a calendar-2012 reveal.) We use the Compact suffix here for clarity and because BMW might do likewise–as indeed it did circa 1990 to distinguish a price-leader bob-tailed hatchback coupe based on the contemporary 3-Series. In any case, marketers will have a tough time minting a moniker consistent with BMW’s existing oddball model nomenclature.
Autocar says the 2014 BMW 1-Series Compact will be offered as a tall 4-door hatchback with a short nose and “one-box” profile, and as a lower, sportier 2-door hatch with a longer front and “two-box” shape. Both body styles will stretch less than 160 inches long, putting them somewhere between today’s Mini Cooper and Clubman and the current 1-Series coupe and convertible. The new unibody platform–designated UKL, short for unterklasse in German, i.e. “entry level”–can accommodate a range of wheelbases and track widths to suit both future Minis and the baby Bimmers. It’s also engineered for optional all-wheel drive with the addition of a multi-plate clutch and rear differential, as on the upcoming 4-door Mini Countryman.
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Inside This Article
1.
Reality Check: 2014 BMW 1-Series Compact
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