Pajero renewed

Mitsubishi Pajero, or Montero as it is labelled in Spanish-speaking countries (without going into details on why...) will get a long overdue diesel engine upgrade in the 2010 year models coming to your dealer soon.

Instead of the pretty slow and fuel inefficient 3,2 liter 170hp engine Mitsubishi have increased the horsepower to 200 and decreased the fuel consumption, from 10.6 l/100km to 9,6 l/100km, breaking that psychologically important 10 l barrier! Finally the Pajero is catching up to its peers, the Nissan Patrol and Toyota Landcruiser, in terms of fuel efficiency. And in terms of power, not to mention value for money, it looks like it's going to give them a really hard time.

Have fun in Italy!

If you're heading for Italy this summer, and if you pack extremely light, you might just want to visit hertz.com and book a Lotus Elise to take you through this beautiful country. The Elise will be part of Hertz's Fun Collection, and I do hope we'll also see it at our local Hertz some time soon. Would be fun to take one for a spin or two over a weekend.

Photo: The Pug Father

A work of art

This has got to be the most perfect car interior ever manufactured. A work of art, quite simply. Yes, it's the new Porsche Panamera, and never have i wanted a Porsche more. I just want to squeeze that sculptured steering wheel firmly, and caress the gearshift lever gently, and press some of those buttons every once in a while. I feel like a child again in a presence of such beauty. There are only two drawbacks: I'm not really comfortable with the rear of the car (but that may grow on me though), and fuel consumption is a killer (well, considering the performance it isn't really bad, but it's not really good either). Give me a plug-in hybrid Panamera, or preferably one that doesn't run on fossile fuel (hey, if Bentley and Koenigsegg can do it, so should Porsche!) and we're talking!


The pics are courtesy of Car Body Design.

Volvo and Geely?

So, Saab was bought by Koenigsegg, a luxury sports car manufacturer extraordinaire. Volvo, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be as lucky, as it appears they are in the process of being bought by Chinese car manufacturer Geely, who are best known for their fine selection of metal death traps, or "death vessels" as China Car Times calls them, and their embarrassing and poor copies of well known car models.

I'm guessing acquiring Volvo is a way to improve the safety of these cars by utilizing Volvo's technology. It's harder to see what Volvo could possibly get out of this marriage. Not much, I'd say.

Too little, too late, Audi

Apparently Audi are aiming to launch a Q5 hybrid in 2011. That's two years from now, and way too late to jump on the hybrid-wagon. Who will buy a car with old hybrid technology when there are plugin-hybrids available or right around the corner that will take you to and from work on battery power alone (in a time when fuel prices will probably be soaring again, like they did in 2008)?

Volvo seems to have understood this, and have abandoned their plans for a V70 hybrid, focusing on launching some kind of plugin hybrid model in the V70 size range in 2012.

So, Audi, could we hope for a Q5 plugin-hybrid, or will it be a hopelessly outdated hybrid with marginally lower fuel consumption than its diesel counterpart?

Photo: Captain Nandu Chitnis, Master Mariner

Koenigsegg and Saab

It seems true then, that Koenigsegg will be buying Saab Automobile, backed by a number of large investors.

Will this mean that Saab will finally get to broaden their model palette, and actually get some of their pretty cool concept cars into production during my lifetime? And will they possibly include some fancy schmancy technology from Koenigsegg as well?

I know I wouldn't mind a Saab 9-3 with a 800+ hp BioFuel engine...

No matter what the future brings it's still bound to be a much better deal than Saab ever had over at GM.

Photo: createordie

Volvo V70 "trifuel"

Finally Volvo have announced the details around their new, and I must say very desirable, V70 offering: A V70 2,5 FT that is converted for gas/lpg (but still under the original warranty), giving it the following advantages:

• Choose between petrol, E85 or gas - whichever is cheapest or at hand!
  
• Powerful engine (231 bhp should be enough for most people).
• A reasonably roomy, yet environmentally (and wallet-) friendly estate car.
• Looks good, both exterior and interior.
  

What more can a guy ask for?

I'll tell you: If Volvo could only supply me with a V70 2,5 FT AWD with this brilliant gas conversion I would go straight out and buy one.

VW makes same mistake as Volvo

Volkswagen seem to be going down the same path as Volvo with their compact suv, Tiguan. In the interest of keeping CO2-emissions to a minimum, VW are announcing a front-wheel drive version of the Tiguan, with a Bluemotion-sticker on it... The result is, granted, a bit better than the Volvo XC60, in terms of fuel consumption and emissions, but assuming it's powered by the 110 hp diesel engine this could make for an extremely boring ride.

Also, my question still remains: Who is going to buy such a car? If you want a suv you'll probably want four-wheel drive as well. Buying a car like this with front-wheel drive is like buying a Porsche 911 with a 1,2 liter engine from Fiat.

Bizarre "eco"-propositions from Swedish government

Sweden seems to have found their own special way of solving the global warming issue. In a press release today the ministers of enterprise and energy, finance and environment presented their grand new plan:

• More taxes on diesel fuel. Of course, this makes sense, since the most energy efficient vehicles today use diesel, and new technology makes diesel cars as clean as petrol cars... Unfortunately, Sweden will continue to be an anti-diesel country.
• Higher annual tax for practically all car-owners. Today the size of your annual car tax depends on the CO2-emission (and, of course, being the anti-diesel country it is, if you own a diesel car, this is multiplied by 3,5!). Now the government wants to increase this tax, which is in no way connected to driving the actual vehicle. It can be parked in a garage all year, and you will still have to pay.
• Cars with CO2-emissions less than 120g/km will be exempt from the car tax for 5 years from the date the vehicle is registered. Wait, this actually makes sense. Did I miss anything?
  

Now, excuse me, but the two first points can hardly be seen as more than a pure fiscal tax, with no impact whatsoever on the environment. Probably, more people will find a diesel car hard to justify, and go for a petrol car instead, with higher CO2-emissions as a consequence. And raising the annual tax? Well, it's not like Ola Svensson will buy a brand new car just because his car tax increased by 1000 SEK, is it? Basically all this does is slap people in the face with a tax increase that they can do nothing about (except buying a new car, which is probably not an option for most people). Also, this tax increase will only apply to light vehicles. In fact, the real polluters out there, the big trucks, semi-trailers and buses will get a lower annual tax, to compensate for the higher diesel tax!

The only sensible suggestion in this big pile of rubbish is the suggestion to exempt the low-emissions cars from annual tax for the first 5 years. Now that's something that will make people think twice when they buy a new car. The problem is, you won't be able to sell your old car, after the increasted tax burden has made them more or less worthless...

Volvo's new DRIVe models - impressive or not? Not.

Volvo has just presented no less than 7 new cars with the DRIVe sticker on the back. The DRIVEe models are basically optimized for low fuel consumption, for instance using start/stop technology, and Volvo promises that both the V70 and S80 will use under 5 l/100 km (ECE, mixed). Here are the numbers for all seven cars:

Volvo C30, 3.9 l/100km, 104g CO2/km
Volvo S40, 4.0 l/100km, 107g, CO2/km
Volvo V50, 4.0 l/100km, 107g, CO2/km
Volvo V70, 4.9 l/100km, 129g, CO2/km
Volvo S80, 4.9 l/100km, 129g CO2/km
Volvo XC60, 6.0 l/100km, 159g CO2/km
Volvo XC70, 6.0 l/100km, 159g CO2/km

The smaller cars, C30, S40 and V50, are powered by a 1,6 liter diesel engine. The larger ones, V70, S80, XC60 and XC70, are powered by a 2,4 liter diesel engine.

This looks decent enough, although the V70 and S80 are really no better than a regular BMW 520d. And what's the deal with front-wheel drive versions of the XC60 and XC70? The XC stands for Cross Country, damnit! And I'd like to know what's so cross country about a front-wheel drive car. Plus, they the fuel economy isn't really that much better than its' FOUR-wheel drive competitors.

The C30 is about the same size as a standard Mini Cooper D, and has the same fuel consumption. Yaaawn.

The only thing that actually manages to impress me a bit are the S40 and V50. Tiny as they may be, they're still a family sedan and a family saloon, and although the engine is probably hazardously boring, the fuel consumption figures are pretty nice.

Photo: lander2006

Road toll operator harasses swedes

The norwegian road toll operator Fjellinjen AS runs several road toll booths in Norway, most of them fully automated (meaning they take a picture of every car, and save this together with information about the car owner, creating quite a nice lite archive that has even been used by the police in tracking criminals, and by nosy spouses who want to see who has been in the car together with their husband at a given time - an ever expanding orwellian nightmare, basically).

Lately even more of Fjellinjen's toll booths have been automated, causing an interesting issue. Since this poor excuse of a company insists on spending money tracking down foreign cars and sending invoices of 15 NOK out of the country (where postage alone exceeds the amount on the invoice), there's the obvious, and probably well known, risk of mixing up licence plates from different coutries. Polish licence plates, for instance, are practically identical to the norwegian ones. And lithuanian licence plates are identical to the swedish ones.

Because of this, Fjellinjen has been harassing swedish motorists, demanding payment for cars that have never even been to Norway. Now, instead of dealing with this problem in a proper way, by simply not pursuing ridiculously small claims abroad, Fjellinjen continues to send out their "spam mail" (invoices) throughout Europe, and insists that all motorists who feel wrongfully debited should try to contact them to sort it out. They will do nothing to solve this mess themselves.

Personally, I don't understand why the swedish authorities allow Fjellinjen direct and automated access to information about car owners, facilitating this ridiculous spam operation from a company that time and again has proven to be all but serious? Block this access immediately, and problem solved.

Saab 9-3X - there's the BioPower!

I have to say this caught me by surprise, but apparently the two engines available in the coming Saab 9-3X will be the 2,0T 210 hp with and without BioPower! This means that Saab will finally give the car buyers the option to buy a 4 wheel drive Saab that runs on E85. Great news, and definitly a car I'll be looking into when it hits the streets.

I just hope they've managed to make it a bit less thirsty than the current 9-3 2,0T...

Foto: Auto Motor & Sport

Saab 9-3X - where's the BioPower?

Norwegian car magazine bilnorge.no has an article on the coming Saab 9-3X and 9-5. Personally, I think the 9-3X looks really neat, but then I'm also a fan of the regular 9-3.

This particular car is fitted with the familiar 2.0T 210 hp engine, and of course the XWD-system from Haldex that we already know from the 9-3 XWD models. There is talk about diesel engines as well, like the 1,9TTiD 180 hp.

Strangely enough, though, no talk about BioPower! The 2.0T enigine is already built for E85, so there's not a whole lot that needs to be done in order to give the customers a 9-3X BioPower. Where is it, Saab, where??

Photo: Carparazzi/Bilnorge.no

Volvo misleading customers

I've noticed a poster that has popped up around where I live, with a picture of a Volvo XC60, and the text, translated from my language, "The most fuel efficient car in its segment". Well, now, is it really? I've already written about the XC60 and how it's competitors are light years ahead when it comes to fuel efficiency, so the answer is obviously no. If anything, it's the least fuel efficient car in its segment, and nothing to brag about at all. Granted, there's a new version coming, in around 4 months (!), with a newly developed diesel engine that is bound to be better than the current one. Also, this particular version of the XC60 will be a front-wheel drive, and it is expected to have a fuel consumtion of 0,6 liters/10 km.

That would all be fairly impressive, if it wasn't for the fact that this car lacks the 4WD that all of its competitors have, with only slightly higher fuel consumption. In other words, Volvo are not directly competing against all these cars (Audi Q5, BMW X3, Land Rover Freelander, Mercedes GLK) with this one.

I understand the financial situation Volvo's in, but misleading your customers is really never a good idea.

Chevrolet Volt - impressive figures

GM's upcoming plugin-hybrid, the Chevrolet Volt, just keeps getting more interesting. In fact, I believe this car could help turn GM around, leaving Toyota Prius, Honda Insight and Lexus RX400h in the dust.

According to this article in the swedish Auto Motor & Sport, the fuel consumption for the Volt is incredibly low, 1,6 liter/100 km, measured using the standard ECE R101 cycle. Plus, it looks a heck of a lot better than the Prius and Insight.

Personally, I can't wait to see this car on the road.