Monday, February 13, 2012

The Continental: Mini’s Rally Situation, Dutch Nostalgia, and Cars That Stay Where They Belong

The Continental

Each week, our German correspondent slices and dices the latest rumblings, news, and quick-hit driving impressions from the other side of the pond. His byline may say Jens Meiners, but we simply call him . . . the Continental.

On the heels of the debacle in which Mini "sponsored" a high-pressure weather system—the so-called "Cooper" front brought bitterly cold temperatures that killed more than 100 people in Europe—the company sent out a somewhat misleading, if far less tasteless, press release. In it, Mini announced that it would "follow a new path in the FIA WRC" and put its cooperation with Prodrive "on a new basis." (British engineering house Prodrive engineered and builds the Mini Cooper WRC car, which is based on the Countryman.) The official Mini WRC team was operated by Prodrive, but it won't be the factory team anymore: There is not sufficient funding to run the rest of this season and continue other previously agreed-upon partnerships. It's a regrettable situation, but one that was long anticipated. The factory entry now will be the oddly named WRC Team Mini Portugal; one of its two drivers is Brazilian, naturally.

Mini Countryman rally car

What does this mean for Prodrive? "The actual relationship doesn't really change," says spokesman Ben Sayer, adding, "We are pleased with the outcome. It reinforces a long-term commitment." For Mini, having a works team entered in the rest of the season ensures the Mini Cooper WRC car's homologation until 2018. Curiously, the WRC Team Mini Portugal won't score manufacturer points, but the Prodrive team will continue to do so. It remains the strongest team to run a Mini.

A Second Life for Vehicle Batteries?

There's a conspicuous question mark looming over the disposal of worn-out batteries, should electric cars begin to sell in huge volumes. Bosch deputy chairman Siegfried Dais suggests in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that tired batteries with remaining energy density should be repurposed for use in homes, "where weight is not an issue." They would, naturally, be charged with energy from the solar cells his company is attempting to sell. Dais says it is an example of the various markets in which his company operates, as he puts it, "gravitating towards each other."

Volvo 340 DL

Requiem for the Former DAF Plant

Mitsubishi is stopping production at its NedCar production site in Born, the Netherlands, at the end of this year. Opened in 1967 by DAF, Born is the last meaningful auto plant in Holland. Mitsubishi's European-market cars—mostly niche vehicles—will instead be sourced from Japan and Thailand. The closure strikes a personal note, as I've actually owned two cars produced in that former DAF and Volvo plant, including my first car, a Volvo 340 DL powered by a 53-hp diesel (pictured above with my father's Saab 9000). The 340′s stodgy skin hid a transaxle platform, which was patently unchallenged by the Renault-sourced diesel. The 360 sister models, powered by the 240′s 2.0-liter engine, were actually fun. My feeble 340 diesel wasn't, but it taught me to maintain momentum at any cost. Still, I'm glad my parents allowed me to get rid of it after a few months.

Volvo 480 Turbo

My second car from Born, after an interim Saab 900, was a factory-ordered Volvo 480 Turbo (above), number 315 of the last 480 units off the line. The 480 was quick, lightweight, had a superb chassis, and was full of clever ideas. Its futuristic body reinterpreted the 1800ES as a low-slung sports hatch, not as a chubby compact in the vein of today's C30, which poses as a modern-day ES. The 480 was originally designed for the U.S. market but never appeared there as the dollar took a dive in the late 1980s. I had great fun with the 480, but reliable it wasn't. Despite it being new from the factory, I've never owned a car that had so many defects and malfunctions—which of course began appearing shortly after its one-year warranty ran out. (I finally traded it for a used Maserati 430, which I still own and which has proven to be a far more dependable car.)

In 1991, Volvo partnered with Mitsubishi (and the Dutch government); Holland sold its share to the carmakers in 1999, and Volvo dropped out two years later after gaining access to Ford's manufacturing network. Mitsubishi managed to team up with Daimler, and the new Colt rolled off the line alongside the Smart Forfour from 2004 onwards. The Forfour is another great car, styled by Hartmut Sinkwitz, with many innovative features and which was pulled off the market far too early. Today, NedCar still produces the Mitsubishi Colt and the Outlander. The end of production there doesn't mark the end of Japanese transplants in Europe, but it might well spell the end for NedCar—and it underscores Mitsubishi's fall from being a viable mass vehicle producer to a faltering maker of only occasionally successful niche vehicles.

Mercedes-Benz Citan sketch

A New Benz That's Not for the U.S.

The cooperation between Mercedes-Benz and Renault-Nissan is bearing fruit: Here is a first official sketch of the Citan, a reworked and restyled Renault Kangoo. Its name is a combination of "City" and "Titan" and, judging from the sketch, it will be more substantial looking than the rather comical Renault. The interior also is better and a fully electric variant will be offered, but you shouldn't be unhappy this Ford Transit Connect competitor won't be offered in America. M-B's commercial vehicles are engineered to exceed by low cost, not comfort and premium ambience.

Toyota Aygo

Small Toyota gets an Update

The European-market Toyota Aygo, co-developed with PSA and produced alongside its sister models, the Citroën C1 and Peugeot 107, in the Czech Republic, gets another face lift. The pseudo-aggressive air intake and the positively aftermarket-looking daytime running lights are what appear to be a sorry attempt to relaunch it against the Volkswagen Up!. This car, launched in 2005, had its day, but this grasping-for-straws face lift proves it likely won't put up much of a fight.



from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com




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