Quick Spin auto news

Quick Spin: 2012 Ford Focus Electric

You know those "spot the difference" side-by-side photos that are commonly reserved for Highlights magazines in a dentist's waiting room? "Can you find seven differences between these two pictures?" Park a 2012 Ford Focus Electric next to its gasoline-powered kin and you'll essentially be playing a three-dimensional version.

But that's exactly why we like this zero-emission, battery-powered compact. It doesn't have a funky name, it isn't all bubbly shaped, and it's still as functional as any new Focus we've sampled to date.

So, does this whole package of anonymous electrification work? It looks like a Focus, but does it drive like one and offer the same refinement, too? We headed to the southern California coast to find out.

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First Drive: 2012 Peugeot 208 [w/video]

The challenge of small, efficient and clever hatchbacks catching on with the American masses is a long story that shows infrequent signs of becoming less challenging. The bottom line is that most U.S. consumers feel such vehicles are simply too small for our wide-open-spaces sensibilities. This smallness is only enhanced when one looks around while stopped at American intersections, only to see big and tall sheetmetal in all directions. There are admittedly serious strides being made in this segment in various U.S. markets, usually of the urban variety and on the coasts, but it will always be a struggle.

The last time Peugeot tried directly communicating in American English with imported product was back in 1991 with its 505 and 405 ranges that unceremoniously flopped. There was ongoing talk at that time of bringing over the 205 hatchback to try and improve things, but we missed out and Peugeot was gone. Perhaps the seven percent of PSA Peugeot-Citroën now owned by General Motors will someday result in the importing of the solid hatchback tested here, but I won't hold my breath.

Recently, the new Peugeot 208 was all over the French giant's show stand at the Geneva Motor Show, together with its legendary GTi trim and new XY upmarket trim. Back in 1984, it was the 105-horsepower 205 GTi that established the legend of the French hot hatch. While the 206 was then a smash hit with buyers between 1998 and 2006, the subsequently larger 207 has been far less popular in the face of much improved competitors - a group that blossomed from just 16 different models on the European market in 1998 to now 27 separate hatches today. In its prime, the 206 outsold even the mighty Volkswagen Golf and stayed at the top of Europe's sales charts for a time. The outgoing 207, however, has routinely lingered behind the Volkswagen Golf and Polo, Renault Clio, Opel Astra and Corsa, not to mention the Ford Focus and Fiesta.

Continue reading 2012 Peugeot 208 [w/video]

Quick Spin: 2012 Audi A6 Allroad Quattro biturbo diesel

As an American living in Italy, there are often entire month-long stretches where I drive nothing but European cars that will sadly never come out to play on American soil. Such is the case for the abundantly adored Audi A6 Allroad Quattro seen here. I was initially of the assumption that since the A4 Allroad had already been confirmed for the U.S. that the A6 Allroad would be coming as well, but I am dismayed to report otherwise.

Such a pity, too. The business case for giving North America the whole range of Audi models that Germany offers apparently just doesn't pan out financially - and for some of us, it's the old predictable story of unrequited love across the chilly Atlantic.

Team Ingolstadt brought me into their home in Neckarsulm just north of hilly Stuttgart for this drive through the area's precisely cultivated fields of hops. The aroma of beer is everywhere here, which may go some way toward explaining just why the new A6 Allroad felt so good under and around me as we freight-trained along the Swabian two-lanes.

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Quick Spin: 2012 Hyundai Equus

To hear Hyundai tell it, the company stumbled on something of a hit with the Equus. According to the automaker, the vehicle didn't just waltz past sales projections. It crushed them. Last year, 3,193 Equus models went home to loving families, and while that's not a huge number by any stretch of the imagination, the figure is well better than the 2,000 units Hyundai expected to sell. It was also good enough to snag the company a 5.7-percent share of the premium luxury sedan segment in 2011. So, how does the Korean automaker plan to build on this early Equus momentum? By adding power, of course.

For 2012, the Equus packs the same 5.0-liter V8 engine found in the Genesis Sedan R-Spec as well as a new eight-speed automatic transmission that helps keep fuel economy in check. With a few interior tweaks thrown in for good measure and the same gamut of standard equipment, the Equus continues to be a great reason to give the old stalwarts of luxury a second thought.

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Quick Spin: 2013 Volkswagen Jetta Hybrid

The world doesn't need another automaker claiming to have cracked the code for a fun-to-drive hybrid. The concept hasn't worked particularly well in any application. Just ask Lexus. And Honda. Twice.

Granted, we don't know how Volkswagen plans to pitch the 2013 Jetta Hybrid when it goes on sale this fall. We didn't get a two-hour long marketing presentation and associated PowerPoint. Instead, we snagged the keys while an executive-level engineer droned on about next-gen modular EGR systems and EU4-compliant oxidation catalytic converters.

We needed an escape and the Jetta Hybrid was it.

So maybe it was the sub-zero temps outside the VW pavilion in Wolfsburg, Germany or the chance to do something - anything - to combat the effects of three hours of sleep in 36 hours. But what we found during our all-too-brief drive of the Jetta Hybrid wasn't a cynical engineering-meets-marketing stop-gap, but instead the first compelling alternative to the Toyota Prius.

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Quick Spin: 2012 Mercedes ML350 BlueTEC w/ On&Offroad Package

Back in July, our man Bowman got his first chance to drive the new Mercedes M-Class in the wilds of Montana, and he came away particularly impressed by the ML350 BlueTEC 4Matic. It's great news that this updated diesel powertrain is coming to the United Stat in November, but in Montana, we missed out on the new-generation On&Offroad Package and innovative Active Curve System.

Fortunately, we were recently afforded the chance to test all of this goodness over a small paved circuit in Austria, as well as up and down a truly hellacious off-road course. By the end of the day, we were convinced that this ML350 diesel 4x4 thus equipped can finally take it to a similarly optioned BMW X5 or Porsche Cayenne. And, as Mercedes Germany tells us, North American buyers will at long last get a crack at this On&Offroad harder-core package for 2013. Are they at risk of messing with the winning on-road recipe that has made the M-Class the world's best-selling premium SUV, with over 1.2 million sold?

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Quick Spin: Zenvo ST-1 [w/video]

The soundtrack of existence is mostly thrum and clatter, the day's small deeds and smaller conversations usually having no more affect on you than the burbling of a refrigerator. And then there's a noise that makes an impact and catches your attention. For us it was: "The Zenvo ST1 will be in town, want to drive it?"

It was three years ago that we first wrote about the outlandish coupe, with specs like a 7.0-liter, twin-charged (that means it's supercharged and turbocharged) V8 hammering out 1,104 horsepower forcing the admission, "Attention officially granted." Then there was that body, penned by a cabal of intergalactic villains, Predator and Klingons handling the ridges up front that fade into Robotech and Romulan sleek out back.

What's more, there's the fact that it's from Denmark, a land continually offering up enduring icons of understatement: the Egg Chair, the Sydney Opera House, The Little Mermaid and Helena Christensen, among others. That means, even with 1,104 horsepower, the Zenvo ST1 cannot escape the pull of its own heritage. Obviously, then, it is the wildest looking, most wildly understated supercar ever.

Continue reading Zenvo ST-1 [w/video]

Quick Spin: Local Motors Rally Fighter [w/video]

I had just passed the point of no return. Actually, that's not entirely true - I hadn't just passed it, I had hurled mud, gravel and everything else that got in my way as I transitioned from a sweeping arc of pavement onto a much slipperier surface of slightly damp, hard-packed dirt.

Suddenly, what moments before had seemed like heavy but reassuringly direct steering felt more like I was only able to send gentle suggestions to the front tires as to where I wanted them pointed. I couldn't let off the gas, having been told to hit the ramp at about 40 miles per hour, and an acute lack of run-up room meant I had to keep power fed to the massive rear Goodyear MTR Kevlar-laced tires in order to make my speed.

It was at this point that I began to question my insistence that I jump the Local Motors Rally Fighter so that I could accurately describe what it's like to earn one's four-wheeled wings.

It had all seemed like such a good idea a few moments before. Despite what should have been an ominous sign - our affable host and experienced off-road racer Buddy Crisp exiting the vehicle just before the most dangerous stunt we'd attempt (gleefully offering to hold the camera), I had clicked myself into place using a three-point safety belt whose tightly knit weave of nylon appeared woefully inadequate for keeping me in the seat in the event of The Unthinkable.

Luckily for me, it didn't. The Local Motors Rally Fighter sailed 40 feet through the air with more grace and aplomb than the Wright Brothers' first flight. And, though none of us were there to witness Orville and Wilbur's Kitty Hawk triumph back in December of 1903, I'd bet our landing was far less eventful than theirs.

Continue reading Local Motors Rally Fighter [w/video]

Quick Spin: Icon Bronco

"The watch industry is a very interesting parallel in that none of us need watches anymore," Jonathon Ward, founder of Icon 4x4, offers as a metaphor for his latest project. "The secret to them succeeding and prospering and furthering their design efforts in the modern market is in the execution - making the execution distinct and purposeful and bespoke. We are trying to take that unnecessary ethic from other industries and evolve it into niche transportation."

In other words, Ward knows that his custom creations are superfluous, but like timepieces, people appreciate them for more than just their practical use. We count ourselves in that group, as we've previously sampled the Icon CJ3B and found it to be more than the sum of its parts.

The company's latest project is the Icon Bronco. After completing the development of the FJ series and the aforementioned CJ3B, Ward has turned his unique perspective to Ford's legendary off-roader from the 1960s and 70s. Icon will officially debut this Bronco at SEMA in Las Vegas later this week, but when Ward called us up earlier this month and asked if we wanted a sneak preview, we jumped at the chance. With the Bronco needing to maintain its like-new condition for the show, however, we would be limited to a short jaunt around the city streets of his facility in Van Nuys, CA. That would have to do, though, as we were eager to see what sort of unique details and materials Ward's team has implemented into the Bronco's design.

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Quick Spin: Flyin' Miata V8 Targa MX-5 Miata

Wedging myself into the cockpit of Keith Tanner's 1994 Mazda MX-5 Miata turned Targa Newfoundland podium finisher, I'm struck with the realization that most race cars are the automotive equivalent of a pet electric eel. They look fantastic lounging around, and you may even be struck with the impulse to get close, but the reality is that it's only a matter of time before it reaches out and lights you up like a cheap string of Christmas lights. This notion is only underscored when Tanner hands me a set of noise-cancelling headphones with an integrated com system.

"Here. You'll probably want these," he says. "It can get kind of loud in here."

With a 400-horsepower General Motors L33 wedged between the fenders of the poised Miata, it's only a matter of time before the stripped interior resonates with the sound of eight furious cylinders. I ask if there's anything I should know before I hit the ignition. Tanner says no. I'm beginning to suspect he's lying to me.

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