August 20, 2009EIGHT GREAT CAR-IN-MOVIE SCENES: Part I
(in no particular order)
1) 1962 Ferrari GTO in Vanilla Sky
2) Saudi Arabian Freeway Explosion in The Kingdom
3) Porsche 928 in Risky Business
4) Mini Cooper in The Italian Job
5) 1950 Ferrari 250 GT California in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
6) Audi Q7 in Ironman
AND
Audi R8 in Ironman
7) Gone in 60 Seconds
8) H2 Hummer in Bad Boys II
August 17, 2009Volkswagen and Porsche to Embark on Gradual Merger
Article via Bloomberg, Photos via porschepedia.com and themotorreport.com:
Volkswagen to Pay 3.3 Billion Euros for Porsche Stake (Update1)
Chad Thomas and Cornelius Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) — Volkswagen AG, Europe’s largest carmaker, will pay about 3.3 billion euros ($4.7 billion) for a 42 percent stake in Porsche SE’s automotive unit as it executes a gradual merger of the two manufacturers.
Volkswagen will fully integrate the maker of the 911 sports car in 2011 as long as all merger requirements are met, the companies said today in separate statements. Volkswagen plans to issue new preferred shares in the first half of next year to help pay for the purchase, which values Stuttgart, Germany-based Porsche’s car division at 12.4 billion euros.
Volkswagen Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn said today that the merged carmaker’s operating profit will increase by 700 million euros annually. Winterkorn will be CEO of the Porsche SE holding company as of Sept. 15 and VW’s chief financial officer, Hans Dieter Poetsch, will take the same role at the company.
“This merger implies huge synergies,” Stefan Bratzel, head of the Center for Automotive Research Institute in Bergisch-Gladbach, Germany, said before the announcement. “Together, Volkswagen and Porsche can carve up the world’s car markets.”
The manufacturers announced plans in July for a transaction that would include a state-owned Qatari investment fund buying 17 percent of Wolfsburg, Germany-based Volkswagen and a possible holding in Porsche. Winterkorn said today that Qatar will be a “strong partner” for VW.
Beating Toyota
Executives have said the combined company will eventually overtake Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s biggest automaker, in sales and profitability. Winterkorn set a target in early 2008 of beating Toyota in sales and profit margins as the Toyota City, Japan-based competitor was poised to overtake General Motors Co. as the industry’s biggest carmaker by deliveries.
Winterkorn said the combined carmaker will have sales of 6.4 million vehicles and more than 400,000 employees. Porsche will become the 10th brand in the Volkswagen stable and will continue to have all of its production sites, Winterkorn said. Volkswagen brands include the Audi luxury division and the cheaper Seat and Skoda marques.
“As a group with now 10 strong, independent brands, we will further expand our unique global position,” Winterkorn said in a statement. “We now have what it takes to become the automotive industry’s No. 1.”
Management Changes
Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking and CFO Holger Haerter stepped down on July 23 and the company named Michael Macht, its personnel chief, to succeed Wiedeking as the head of the automotive business, called Porsche AG, which will remain based in Stuttgart. Macht will represent the Porsche brand at Volkswagen as the companies combine, Porsche said today.
The founding Porsche and Piech families will remain the largest VW shareholders and the German state of Lower Saxony will be the second-biggest investor, VW said today.
The family owners will sell an automotive trading company in Austria to Volkswagen as part of the deal. Porsche Holding Salzburg has an enterprise value of 3.55 billion euros and sells 474,000 vehicles a year, Volkswagen said. The trading business will be sold starting in 2011.
Proceeds from the sale of the Austrian business will be used to improve Porsche’s financial condition through the issuance of common shares, the company said. Porsche also plans to sell new preferred shares.
Debt Spiral
The planned combination ends a four-year feud for control that led to Porsche amassing at least 10 billion euros in debt as it accumulated 51 percent of Volkswagen’s stock in a failed takeover attempt.
Wiedeking left a job he had held for 16 years after his company’s board committed to selling the automotive operations to VW and seeking as much as 5 billion euros in capital, with Qatar as a possible investor. The Persian Gulf state would be the first shareholder outside the Porsche and Piech families to hold voting rights in the 78-year-old company’s history.
Porsche’s target stake in Volkswagen was 75 percent, a holding that could have given it access to VW’s cash. The sports-car maker held options for 20 percent of Volkswagen’s stock as part of the takeover effort.
Porsche is in “advanced” talks to sell most of the options it holds in VW to Qatar, which will result in the emirate becoming VW’s third-largest shareholder, Volkswagen said today. Porsche said on July 29 that it aimed to sell options to Qatar and that writedowns on the derivatives would cause a pretax loss of as much as 5 billion euros for the year ended July 31.
Lower Saxony will receive two seats on the VW supervisory board and will continue to hold a blocking minority on key decisions, VW said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Chad Thomas in Helsinki at cthomas16@bloomberg.net; Cornelius Rahn in Wolfsburg, Germany, via crahn2@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: August 13, 2009 15:34 EDT
August 8, 2009A New Lexus Convertible Leaves Much To Be Desired
top photo via Lexus.com, bottom two photos via Edmunds.com
I don’t generally care for Lexuses. For me, they either too closely resemble existing Toyota models or they too readily call to mind suburban soccer moms. That said, I couldn’t help but take note of the brand new Lexus IS Convertible that I passed on the street last weekend in East Hampton. With the top down, this is a pretty sexy car (note: when I went home and researched the car, I found that the car is infinitely less sexy with its top up - go figure). The IS Convertible is the spawn of Lexus’ entry-level sedan.
Beginning at about $39,000, it is among the more affordable vehicles in the Lexus fleet.
Attractive? Mostly. Would I want one? Not really. Why? Well, upon further consideration, for starters, I’m not such a fan of the interior which, to me, looks 1) decorated and 2) makes use of faux-looking materials (I don’t mind “faux”, so long as the “faux” looks “real”). Why else? Well, the exterior is not well-defined. By this, I mean that there are no distinguishing lines, features, characteristics that make this Lexus look any different from another car. Sure, the grill is well-conceived, but elsewhere as one takes in the perimeter of the car, there is nothing really eye-catching or unique about this vehicle.
The sides of the car and doors are particularly bland - where are the grooves, the vents, the break-out of shapes that makes vehicular architecture unique? They are all absent from this car.
Pros? There are definitely a few. Having spent a chunk of my childhood riding in the back of a Camaro Z28 Convertible, I appreciate a convertible with 1) a back seat and 2) an ample backseat. The IS Convertible appears to have a semi-roomy back seat (well, at least for a convertible). The retractible hardtop is also well done, with an efficient retraction time of about 20 seconds.
August 7, 2009Stick Shift: Vanity Fair's GAY Car Blog
If you haven’t already perused it, Bret Berk’s Vanity Fair car blog, Stick Shift, is quite entertaining…read Berk’s piece on the VW CC, VW Jetta Diesel, and the Cadillac CTS here.
August 6, 2009Can 'Cash for Clunkers' Help Jump-start the Auto Industry?
Read the Knowledge@Wharton Podcast transcript here.
photo via Huffington Post
August 5, 2009Creative Box's Nuvu Concept
Japanese design firm Creative Box designed this Nissaan concept car, the Nuvu…the renderings are pretty cool:
photos via Yanko Design
August 4, 2009Jalopnik Names the Top Most Traded-In Cars in the Cash-for-Clunkers Phenomenon
Check out Jalopnik’s Top 10 Most Traded-In AND Purchased Cash-for-Clunkers Cars
At the top of the list? Can you guess? Only one of the most popular cars of the 90s…
The Ten Most Traded-In Vehicles
1. Ford Explorer 4WD
2. Ford F-150 2WD
3. Jeep Grand Cherokee 4WD
4. Jeep Cherokee 4WD
5. Dodge Caravan/Grand Caravan 2WD
6. Chevrolet Blazer 4WD
7. Ford Explorer 2WD
8. Ford F-150 Pickup 4WD
9. Chevrolet C1500 Pickup 2WD
10. Ford Windstar FWD Van
Caption Days Are Here Again!
TODAY’S photograph comes to us from Laser Bread’s Flickr stream:
Here’s how it works: Create-A-Caption Tuesday is when I, the URR writer, invite, you, the readers, to hit the comments section with a vengeance and create a caption for an absurd, outrageous, amazing, or just plain sweeeet photograph. A winner will be announced on Friday. And since we all know how much winning rocks, feel free to enter as many captions as your thinking brain can conjure up so that your chances are better. Ah, the glory of triumph - just the thing to brighten a rough Friday in the office (or a tough bout with the books — for all you grad students and Skid kids checking the blog). Let’s playyyy.
July 30, 2009Utterly Fascinating: Study Finds that Breaking Rules of the Road Helps Traffic Flow Optimally
photo via Edmund’s
J. Mark Sternberg’s article from yesterday’s LA Times article can be accessed here. The first few paragraphs are displayed below:
“Green light, and right away my tach surges towards the redline. I keep my foot planted, sending me a fair amount over the speed limit before I even make it off the on-ramp. Smooth sailing for another 100 yards or so because the lane ends ahead. The sheep to my left merged about a mile ago, leaving beautiful, useful, open asphalt in front of me. I drive all the way to the end, then a quick lane change or two and I’m on my way. Someone is calling me a jerk or some other insult for sure, but I can’t hear him. He’s all the way back there.
People have been calling we, the drivers who actively move through traffic, all kinds of names over the years: jerk, psycho and my personal favorite: gas waster. But here comes a new one: good for traffic.
A new study released in Physical Journal E (a bunch of eggheads who study various forms of complicated physics) has found that traffic flows best when about 40% of drivers are breaking the rules of the road. This tends to help break up traffic and keep jams from happening…”
July 28, 2009Getting Intimate With the 2007 Audi A8
Despite their willingness and generosity, borrowing my parents’ Audi A8 is always a little harrowing. It’s hard not to feel a little panicked when driving a car that costs about double one’s income (before taxes) and is kept in mint (I mean, mint) condition by one’s dad. Add to the concern about driving the car the difficult driving conditions served up by New York City (potholes, double parked cars, delivery guys on bicycles, double-long buses, and aggressive cab drivers) and the panic is quickly intensified.
That said, it’s hard to remain in an anxious state for too long. Once inside of the vehicle, the A8’s interior cabin quickly envelopes its captain, allaying all (well, most) fears and worries. While the same could probably be said about the interiors of the BMW 7-Series and Mercedes S-Class sedans, the interiors of those cars feel much more corporate to me. The A8 is unusual in that it is really the only oversized luxury sedan that doesn’t scream business. The model I drove is appointed with velvety cognac leather, copious brown suede accents, generous berle wood touches, and carefully place brushed steel.
The car’s tidy instrument cluster is both pretty to gaze at and highly functional. The on-board computer is expertly conceived, with an easily to navigable interface steered by a handy turn/depress knob that is almost foolproof to figure out (this is Audi’s MMI system and it is about the best of the high-end luxury sedan computers). The car’s Bang and Olufsen stereo system is a perfect amalgam of form and function, with neither element getting the shaft in design. Chrome speakers located throughout the cabin contrast exquisitely with (in the case of my parents’ car) cognac leather and the spiffy speakers that emerge from just beneath the car’s windshield are an archiectural wonder. The sound that comes from them isn’t too shabby either. When driving alone, it’s hard to resist cranking the volume up high - what a pleasure to drive in a car whose stereo system can so effortlessly accommodate unreasonably high decibels of sound. The very easy to use steering wheel controls enable my propensity for volume cranking.
Load several friends and their corresponding cargo into the car for a trek to the countryside, and everyone is not only comfortable but has ample room to spread out (the A8 is available in a long wheelbase model which adds 5 inches to an already sizeable interior cabin that, without the extension already offers 37 inches of rear legroom). The words “can you move your seat up just a little bit” are not likely to be uttered unless your friends are 8’0 tall. Further, the trunk space is sufficiently large and can accommodate several suitcases and all of the other junk that four city girls headed for ruralscape might have in tow.
And then there’s the ride. It shouldn’t surprise many readers to read these words: the A8 is a dream to drive. With a ride as smooth as the one offered up by the A8, it is easy to feel like a passenger even when you are a driver. To feel more in tune with the road, the 6-speed Automatic transmission can be effortlessly turned to Tiptronic mode, and, once in Manual, the driver can advance through the gears by tapping wheel-mounted paddle shifters or by toggling the gear stick forward and back. Alternatively, the car performs flawlessly in Sport Mode which is ideal for high speeds and/or curvy roads. The vehicle’s Sport Mode operates about one gear behind traditional Drive, pressing the number of engine revolutions per minute higher and causing the car to hug the road a bit more. Though Sport Mode more readily parches the A8’s engine (thereby depleting the gas tank more rapidly), this is truly the best way to enjoy the car’s 350 horsepower 4.2 Liter V8 powertrain and superior handling (facilitated by adaptive air suspension and the Audi Quattro - four-wheel-drive - system).
I absolutely cannot write a review of the A8 without mentioning the headlights. The 2007 Audi predated the super cool Audi headlamps with the LED perimeter trim that became a phenomenon with the movie Ironman. Nevertheless, I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the A8’s xenon headlights. Not only do they provide superior illumination at night, but the headlights turn as the driver turns the wheel, the ultimate feature on dark country roads. I am also a big fan of the illuminated door panels which make riding at night very pleasant.
Magnificent as it is to drive and ride in, the car is not without it’s shortcomings, but they are pretty numbered. Among them, there are some profound blindspots and checking one’s mirrors is not entirely sufficient for making sure it is safe to change lanes…this, however, is to be expected from a car of the A8L’s size (and, it should be noted, the rearview camera that is automatically activated when the car is put in reverse is very helpful). Further, the 2007 model was issued just before iPod integration had begun to be commonplace. For me, this is a huge setback as there is also no tape deck in the car and, having had little luck with radio-integration iPod devices (they really suck in urban locations), there is really no way to listen to an iPod in the car. This is a bit of a bummer, but is certainly not a dealbreaker.
Finally, the last item on a list of A8 shortcomings is something I consider to be a bit of an asset: the exterior’s understatedness. A casual glance at the A8 and the car could easily be mistaken for an A6 or even an A4. This quality lends a certain humility to the car that I rather like. The A8 is not flashy and it does not immediately reveal its price tag. This feature makes the A8 less of a status symbol and more of a vessel for the ultimate driving experience.
photo via: http://farm3.static.flickr.com (bottom), autos.aol.com (top)
