Haihaupro: December 2011

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Carscoop's 2011 Countdown: The Most Popular Offbeat Stories and Videos of the Year

As the year shrivels down to its last hours, we're getting ready to put our keyboards to rest and prepare for our New Year celebrations, but no before we wrap our 2011 Countdown with our final Top 10 list that includes the most popular Offbeat stories of the year.

This year's list includes a wide variety of offbeat news and videos ranging from fancy replicas to crazy accidents and barely dressed female dancers.

So join us for a look back at the most read articles in this segment right after the break. And just in case you missed out, click here for the Top 10 Scoops and here for the Top 10 New Car stories of 2011.

It's been a terrible year for Saab which ended with the worst possible scenario as after more than six decades of building cars with bespoke designs (or at least for the most part) and some quirky features, the Swedish company filed for bankruptcy on December 20.

Understandably, it's still too early to know what will happen next to the company and its assets, but even though in theory a new party could step in during the bankruptcy process and save the company, the chances for this happening are extremely slim.

The Lexus RX is a competent crossover on the road but it's not the kind of vehicle that will excite you with its off-road capabilities nor will it get you out of trouble when nature gets tough. Then again, it wasn't designed as a thoroughbred 4x4.

A group of men, possibly from Russia or one of the surrounding countries of the former Soviet Union, found that the hard way when what appears to be a Lexus GX was stuck in the mud and an RX came in to help.

See what happens next in the video that follows right after the jump.

Yesterday, we brought you our most popular Scoop Stories of 2011 (to be clear, not the most read overall, but the most viewed spy shot-related piece) and now it's time to tell you which new car presentations drew the most attention from readers this year.

To be honest, while we expected certain cars like the brand-new Volkswagen Beetle and BMW 3-Series sedan to make it on the top 10 list, some of the vehicles and especially the most read single post on a new vehicle even surprised us.

Just goes to show you than you can never be 100 percent sure what kind of stories/vehicles will prove to be the most popular. Curious to find out which new model gathered the most views this year? Sure you are, so just hop over the break and let the countdown on the most read "New Car" stories of 2011 begin…

Manufacturer figures on vehicle performance are not always accurate. That’s why many road test editors prefer to verify the numbers on their own.

Some of them even go as far as dyno-testing to see not only if the output figures match those announced by the manufacturer, but also what is the actual power that is transferred to the road and how much is lost on its way from the engine to the wheels.

As we reported earlier this week, in a second move this month after imposing new duties on U.S.-made cars, China’s National Development and Reform Commission and its Commerce Ministry announced that they are putting an end to investment incentives, effective from January 30.

The reason being that even though China has more than 70 domestic car manufacturers, the bottom 55 account for only 11 percent of total sales.

As reported by Bloomberg News, General Motors, the biggest automaker in China, is not worried about the new measures. “We expect the new guideline to have minimal negative impact on GM’s future plans in China," the company said in a statement on Friday.

The Year of the Sports Car at California's Mulholland Drive

As one of the most scenic roads in Los Angeles County, the Mulholland Highway is a popular destination for car drivers and motorcyclists alike.

Over the past year, a camera crew recorded many sports cars that made their way pass the twisty roadways and strung together a video with some of the most eye-catching models.

The cars seen in the film range from the new McLaren MP4-12C to a classic Bugatti 57 SC Atlantic (we believe this is a replica owned by Jay Leno), and from an Atom Ariel to the Audi e-tron Spyder Concept.

Buckle up and head over the jump to enjoy the video.

If you live within the European Union or at least in a neighboring country like Russia or Turkey, and you happen to own a Nissan GT-R (or any sports car, for that matte), the best place to thrash your car is without doubt the world famous Nürburgring race track in Germany.

And given the price of the GT-R, it shouldn't surprise anyone that many owners were indeed able to afford the trip and live the magic of the Nordschleife.

For the rest of us, we'll have to do with a four-minute long video prepared by a YouTube user, which includes many of the Nissan GT-Rs that were spotted on the 'Ring throughout the year. Enjoy the video right after the break.

The year that is ending tomorrow night has certainly been a strange one for investors: while the Standard & Poor’s 500 will end flat, stock prices of the automotive industry have experienced a great fall.

After all that’s happened this year with the Euro debt crisis and the U.S. avoiding one at the 11th hour, this was more or less to be expected.

What is surprising though is that the worst performer in terms of stock price is the car company that has regained the number one position globally and rolled out many new competitive products. And yes, we are talking about General Motors, which saw its share price drop by 46 percent!

This past Sunday, on Christmas day, a chartered flight operated by AMC Airlines with 72 passengers aboard flying from Saudi Arabia to the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, was forced to make an emergency landing at the Jinnah International Airport (JIAP) in Karachi, Pakistan, after the pilot experienced a problem with the McDonnell Douglas MD-83's nose gear.

Several people captured the life-threatening crash landing on film. Amazingly, the experienced pilot was able through skill and a whole lot of luck to bring the plane down without a single person being hurt.

While Ford is not yet ready to let the cat out of the bag on the brand-new 2013 Fusion (which will form the base for the Mondeo's replacement in Europe as well), the Detroit carmaker revealed today that the mid-size model would debut a new optional safety feature called Lane Keeping System or LKS.

Like the lane departure warning systems used by other car manufactures, the LKS is designed to help drivers stay between the lines.

In the 1980s supercar battle, Ferrari had the raw F40, Porsche the highly sophisticated 959 and Jaguar had, well, nothing. That is, until its chief engineer, Jim Randle, decided to begin work on an unsanctioned project on a mid-engine, all-wheel drive Jag supercar.

The XJ220 concept, named after its 220 mph (350 km/h) claimed top speed, was unveiled at the 1988 British Motor Show. It sported a 6.2-liter version of Jaguar’s classic V12 engine with a quad-cam system developed for testing in the Le Mans XJR-9 racer and, as Randle envisioned, all-wheel drive.

Some gifted people have a knack for turning the simplest of things into works of art. Like David Beattie, the founder and owner of Slot Mods USA, who took a hobby and turned it into a six-figure business.

The former auto show exhibit builder leads a team of artists that create some of the most realistic and staggering hand crafted raceways for slot cars that we have ever laid eyes on.

The choices are endless ranging from vintage raceways to modern day circuits and even replicas of cars that open up to reveal a track like the Porsche 917 racer featured in the opening picture, which is built from fiberglass.

As far as cars are concerned, hearsay is many times more prevalent than the manufacturers’ own advice. One such case is the change of the engine’s oil: most car owners believe that 3,000 miles (5,000 km) is the appropriate mileage for an oil change.

This might have been true a few decades ago when engines needed extra care, but technology has moved on since then.

Nevertheless, despite the fact that almost all new vehicle manuals advise owners to change oil in their cars every 7,500 to 10,000 miles, studies show that a great number of drivers prefer to do things their own way.

"The 3,000-mile oil change just says that the marketing campaign by quick-lube companies has been effective", Steve Mazor, manager of the Auto Club of Southern California's Automotive Research Center, told the Detroit News.

If you happen to follow the automaker recall notes, you may notice that quite often they involve a specific batch of models, be that for a parts defect or an error during the assembly of a car.

In Honda's case, the safety recall involves only nine Odyssey minivans from the 2012 model year, built from October 31, 2011, through November 30, 2011.

The city of Melbourne is one of the best cities to live in, not only in Australia but in the world. Nevertheless, it can also drive you crazy with its variable weather conditions; one minute it's nice and warm and the other you get pounded by rain or even severe hail storms, as happened on Christmas day this year.

In fact, aside from the huge hailstones that damaged around 10,000 vehicles, the ferocious Christmas Day storms that hit Melbourne and northwest Victoria sparked some heavy flash flooding in certain areas.

But the flooded roads were no match for some Aussie firefighters who didn’t even blink an eye when their Isuzu truck plunged into very deep waters of what looks like a street somewhere in the Melbourne suburb of Eltham. Still here? Just go and watch the video we've got after the break.

Ah yes, it's that time again when we all remember the best and worst of the year that was 2011. For our first countdown, we crunched up the numbers on our 10 most popular spy-related stories of the year based on our page views.

Over the course of the year, we brought you close to 300 scoop stories (285 to be precise) but for one reason or the other, these ten articles captured your attention the most.

In the list that follows after the break, you'll find a picture and a link to each story starting from number 10 and climbing to the most popular scoop of 2011. Enjoy!

When you are a Major League Baseball Hall of Famer like Tony Gwynn, you can pretty much afford to get whatever ride you like. In Gwynn's case, at some point he fancied a first-generation Chrysler 300 in a coupe form. And he got his wish.

But now, Gwynn's custom-made Chrysler 300 has popped up for sale at Beverly Hills Motor Cars in San Diego with the dealer asking for US$27,950 (€21,700).

General Motors has found itself in a somewhat embarrassing situation as the Detroit-based automaker revealed that some examples of its newly launched 2012 Chevrolet Sonic subcompact model might be missing an inner or outer front brake pad.

The automaker said it became aware of the problem on November 29 when a customer brought a 2012 Sonic into a dealership complaining about noises coming from the brakes. The company noted that here are no known crashes or injuries related to the issue.

In the battle of the ultra-powered pony cars, Ford currently has the upper hand thanks to its outrageous Shelby GT500 that was unveiled last month at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

On the other hand, the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 may fall 100HP short of its archrival’s 650HP, but it will offer a convertible version of the 580HP ZL1 in late 2012, while buyers of the Shelby currently have only one option: the coupe.

We have seen various types of vehicles drifting on and off the road but we can't honestly say that we ever remember seeing something like this before.

We will assume that the tanker truck had offloaded its oil before attempting this idiotic drift display – we doubt that the driver would have been able to pull it off if the tank was full.

The only question that remains to be answered is who the biggest fool is: the driver drifting the lorries tank or the man following closely behind? Hop over the jump to watch the video for yourself.

Japanese tuning firm Wald International likes to give its customers' rides a sinister look and its take on the new 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG is no exception.

Even though in stock form the AMG version of Mercedes-Benz's sports saloon comes with its own aero-aids, Wald International has prepared a new and more aggressive styling package named Black Bison.

The sad story of Saab is far from over as the court-appointed administrators who are overseeing the Swedish automaker's bankruptcy are now on the lookout for possible investors to either sell parts of the brand or the company as a whole.

In today's news, Bloomberg reports that Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, a maker of SUVs and a flagship company of the Mahindra Group, which is a multinational conglomerate based in Mumbai, India, is in private talks with Saab's administrators.

With less than two days left before 2011 comes to an end and gives its place to a another new year, Ford announced that sales of the Blue Oval brand in the United States this week topped the 2 million mark for the first time in four years making it the best-selling vehicle brand in America.

The last time any automotive brand managed to hit the 2 million sales milestone in the States in a single year was in 2007 -and again, it was done by Ford.

“Ford’s lineup of high-quality, fuel-efficient cars, utilities and trucks continues to attract more and more new customers,” said Erich Merkle, Ford’s sales analysis manager.

Stock Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Challenges Tuned Nissan GT-R on the Drag Strip

The Nissan GT-R and the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 are two very different beasts made by two companies that couldn't be more different, but there's one thing these two sports cars have in common: they are blazingly fast.

On one hand, you have a stock Bugatti Veyron 16.4 with 1,001-horses and a $2 million price tag while its Japanese contender, currently priced from US$90,000 in the States, normally gets between 480 and 550-ponies depending on the model year, but this particular model, is said to have been "lightly modified".

Consumer Reports has just announced its latest test results. This time, the nonprofit organization put two brand-new, family sedans under its microscope – and while the one came up trumps, the other was a mixed bag.

Starting with the new 2012 Toyota Camry, Consumer Reports tested three different models with a four-cylinder, a V6 and a Hybrid engine, all of which ranked amongst the best in their class.

As the magazines notes, compared to the model it replaces, the new Camry has a plusher interior, more responsive handling, improved ride and better fuel economy, with only the increased road noise and some cheap details tainting the overall picture.

In fact, while the 173HP 2.5-liter four-cylinder version ties with the Hyundai Sonata for best-in-class fuel consumption delivering 27 mpg (8.7 lt/100 km), the more powerful 268HP 3.5-liter V6 is just a smidgen more thirsty and, at 26 mpg (9.0 lt/100 km), beats most four-cylinder rivals.

Bradley Price is 31-year-old product designer from Brooklyn, New York, with a special passion for cars and a pretty creative mind. Combine those two and you get an interesting mix.

A couple of years ago, while driving his red 1983 Alfa Romeo GTV6 2.5 (yes, he's our kind of guy), Price had an inspiration: design a line of watches loosely inspired by sports car instrument panel gauges. Upon returning home, Price went to the drawing board and began rendering watch faces based on car gauges he admired.

The Brooklyn native continued to work on the designs of both the watch faces and casings and ended up creating a new company named Autodromo for his products.

“There are so many wonderful gauge designs from the 1960s and ’70s that I love,” Price told the New York Times in a recent interview. “I did some research and saw that no one was doing that for watches.”

We're not ready to call this video real yet, but if it proves to be genuine, the driver that violated the green light at this intersection passing between a cop car and a truck, allegedly in the capital city of Baku in Azerbaijan, should feel more epic than Chuck Norris in any of his 1980s movies.

Take a look at the security video footage after the break, and tell us what you think.

The upcoming third generation A-Class is one of the most interesting new vehicles currently being prepared by Mercedes-Benz and all for good reason as the only common factor it has with the current model is its name.

You see, the Stuttgart-based company decided to compete more directly with the BMW 1-Series and even the higher-end versions of the VW Golf and as a result, opted for a sportier looking hatchback body built on a conventional platform instead of the tall, minivan-like shape and sandwich floor of the first two generations of the A-Class.

These latest spy shots of a five-door prototype of the A-Class testing in Europe suggest that the development of the car is nearing its end as engineers have removed much of its camouflage. If you want to see what the final model will look like, you can check out the patent images we posted earlier this year.

Several Melbourne car owners may be experiencing the holiday blues these days - the reason being the severe hail storms that hit the capital of Victoria on Christmas Day, causing damage to thousands of buildings and vehicles.

Insurers are bracing themselves up for the claims that will follow, with the Insurance Council of Australia declaring the event a catastrophe.

The new year will bring some significant changes for carmakers that had plans to invest in China as the world's most populous country will stop encouraging foreign investment in the auto industry putting an end to seven years of benefits that included reduced tariffs on imported equipment.

China's National Reform and Development Commission (NRDC) and the Ministry of Commerce made a joint announcement on the move that is due to come into effect on January 30, 2012.

Modern automobile plants are an impressive sight to watch in action, but few outsiders actually get the chance to see one in person.

BMW wants to give us a taste of how one of its main factories in Germany located in the city of Regensburg works to produce the latest 1-Series five-door hatchback through a quick video tour of the plant.

Four centuries ago, they used to say that “the sun never sets on the British Empire”. Today, the Brits are content with much less – and the sun has more or less set on their local automotive industry after many decades of bad management and even worse products. As a result, foreign car groups own all major carmakers that managed to survive.

Lotus Cars, which was founded by the ingenious Colin Champan in 1952, was acquired in 1996 by Malaysia's Proton. Since then, it has introduced many variations of the lightweight Elise, its first new car in 12 year, the Evora, and showed no less than five new models in concept form at the 2010 Paris Motor Show.

If you are high on drugs, you can do some pretty foolish, and ultimately very dangerous stuff – like stealing a police SUV wearing nothing but your underwear, which is precisely what Ryan Elliot Cunningham did last Friday, December 23.

It all started when Blackman-Leoni Township police arrested the 34-year old drug addict at the Colonial Inn Motel on Ann Arbor Road.

According to a report from MLive, the officers handcuffed Cunningham and placed him on the rear seat of their Chevrolet Tahoe SUV patrol car, while they went inside the motel to check his room.

We'll probably have to wait for a major international motor show to see what kind of "significant" design changes Bugatti has made to its original Galibier concept, as confirmed earlier this year by the brand's new CEO, Wolfgang Duerheimer, but in the meantime, here's a new design study for a Bugatti saloon that was sent to us by Dejan Hristov.

While a little rough on the edges, Hristov's Bugatti Super Sedan design concept proposes a different look that draws closer to the firm's Veyron 16.4 coupe than the Galibier showcar.

When you have the world's largest per capita production and proven reserves of both oil and natural gas, you can afford a little luxury for your police officers.

Case in point, Qatar's police fleet of Porsche Cayenne and Panamera cruisers, which along with several Toyota Land Cruiser SUVs, came together to celebrate the Arab state's National Day parade on December 18.

A video waits to satisfy your curiosity just after the break.

According to a report from Japan's Nikkei business daily, Mitsubishi is developing a pure-electric light truck that will be launched onto the market in the second quarter of 2013.

Mitsubishi has been one of the first carmakers to enter the EV market with its iMieV, an all-electric city car that like the Outlander SUV has also spawned PSA Peugeot Citroen variants.

Speaking of the Outlander, the report states that a plug-in hybrid version of Mitsubishi’s crossover will also hit the market at the same time as the electric truck.

The new Aqua is off to an excellent start in Japan as Toyota revealed that it had already received pre-orders for 60,000 cars ahead of the sub-compact hybrid hatchback's launch on Monday, December 26. That's five times the company's monthly sales target of 12,000 cars in Japan.

"It will take about four months to receive the car once an order is placed," Toyota managing officer Koei Saga told reporters during a media briefing earlier this week.

In modern day vehicles, in the event of an impact the door locks are programmed to open automatically so to allow the driver and passengers to exit the vehicle or if that's not possible, to make the work of firefighters and emergency crews easier.

However, as you can see in the video that follows, Lada seems to have devised an even better solution to solve this problem…

In late August, General Motors announced that it is preparing a raft of upgrades to improve the security of its Cadillac Escalade for the 2012 model year.

Today, GM released full details on the changes it has made and which the company claims will prevent the luxury SUV from a being a "pushover for push-away or towing thieves".

We'll remind you that a recent study from the Highway Loss Data Institute found that the Cadillac Escalade is more than six times as likely to be stolen by thieves compared to the average vehicle not only due to its popularity but also because it was easier to steal than other vehicles.

Thinking “green” is the latest mantra repeated over and over again by all car manufacturers. The most usual way of displaying their environmentally conscious approach is to advertise their vehicles' low CO2 emissions.

Volkswagen, while still selling and developing greener cars, is also implementing a new “Think Blue. Factory.” initiative that aims to make its product plants more environmentally friendly.

After more than 13 years in production, Suzuki may be ready to begin work on a successor to the third generation of the Jimny 4x4 that was first introduced at the 1997 Tokyo Motor Show.

While we remain short on details, Maruti Suzuki, which is a subsidiary of the Japanese automobile and motorcycle manufacturer, published a set of teaser photos on its website that hint at a concept model for a small 4x4 to be revealed at the 11th Auto Expo 2012 in New Delhi, India, next month.

Its name and the type of engine that will lie under its hood may be debatable, but plans for a successor to today's M3 Coupe do exist. However, you'll have to wait at least until 2013 to see the high performance model in BMW's dealerships.

For those of you that just can't wait to get a peek at the next M3 Coupe or perhaps as we may come to know it, the M4, graphic designer Jacek Kolodziejczyk has put his skills to work developing a pretty realistic rendering of the coupe model.

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Friday, December 30, 2011

Thursday, December 29, 2011