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Thursday, July 31, 2014

Mob Rules: Watch A Quintet of BMW M235i Coupes Take Urban Drifting to A New Level [Video]

Drifting in heavily populated urban areas can be difficult for a novice: You've got to find shelter from the weather, procure a can of beans, and single out a few tolerant citizens to panhandle from, all while keeping an eye out for the man. BMW, on the other hand, has the clout to drift with impunity.

By shutting down a small section of public roads with the full cooperation of the authorities, the automaker was free to bring in a crew to document the process with a multicamera shoot. It also helps that they aren't hobos and the type of drifting they're partaking in involves sliding a quintet of M235i automobiles around a picturesque traffic circle. As far as we know, very few canned goods were heated over an open flame during the filming.

Entitled The Epic Driftmob, the finished video is a textbook example of drifting as ballet, the five drivers expertly slip-sliding the BMWs along the roundabout with startling precision. Although the cars were "drift-ready," as stunt coordinator Riley Harper puts it in the accompanying Making of featurette, without the talents of the drivers—including urban drifting and Pikes Peak veteran Rhys Millen—this exercise could have had catastrophic consequences.

After you finish watching the main feature, check out the Making of and then the bonus footage of Millen working through some trust issues with an M235i on the track.

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Jaguar Releases New Photo of 3 Series-Fighter XE

Jaguar XE

Jaguar is wetting people's appetites for the all-new midsize XE with a glimpse of the 3-Series fighter poking its nose out of a building — the rest of the car is still under wraps. The recently released image isn't a very different angle from what we've already seen, though shows a flesh and blood (aluminum and composite?) depiction instead of a heavily disguised rendering.

When it goes on sale in 2016, the aluminum-chassis XE will use a new 2.0-liter four-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines, plus offer a full range of engine choices with enough juice for one particular XE to top 186 mph.

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Eye-Nine: BMW Reportedly Preparing High-Performance i8 Variant

With only weeks of real-world experience under its belt (the first customer cars were delivered on June 5 in Munich; U.S. deliveries are slated for August 16 at the 2014 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance), it looks as if BMW's i8 hybrid may be getting a more athletic sibling. According to Germany's Auto Motor und Sport—via Autoblog, where we picked up on the news—word is circulating that BMW is preparing an even higher-performance version of the innovative hybrid to celebrate the carmaker's 100th anniversary in 2016.

Speculatively referred to as the i9 (we've also heard rumblings of the M1 moniker being revived), the uprated hybrid is rumored to employ a six-cylinder gasoline engine and more-powerful electric motors. The combo is reportedly stout enough to get the car from rest to 60 mph in less than four seconds. That's not saying much, as our recent test of the i8 with its three-cylinder gasoline engine and electric motors producing 357 combined horsepower, returned a zero-to-60 time of 3.8 seconds.

With its futuristic styling, innovative powertrain, and unmistakable gullwing/scissor-door configuration, the i8 is a polarizing vehicle. Although its $136,000 price puts it out of reach for most people, you can bet that BMW will apply everything it learns from the i8 and rumored i9 to the rest of its lineup.

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Return Of The Rear-Drive Rally Car

Motorsports fans, I have a question for you: when was the last competitive rear-drive rally car?

Having grown up in an era of WRC homogeneity (the biggest departure from the pack was the front-drive Citroens of the Sebastian Loeb era), it's always a bit of a surprise to see any rally car that isn't all-wheel drive and turbocharged, let alone one that sends power to the rear wheels.

The GT86 rally car, shown above, is being developed by Toyota for competition in WRC. Power is boosted to between 237 and 246 horsepower, with a rally-style sequential box sending power to the rear wheels. For now, the GT86 will serve as a "recce" vehicle, with WRC competition serving as the end goal.

The post Return Of The Rear-Drive Rally Car appeared first on The Truth About Cars.

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Recall Alert: 2014-2015 Fiat 500L

2014Fiat500LRecall

Vehicles Affected: Nearly 26,000 model-year 2014-15 Fiat 500L small crossovers

The Problem: The driver's knee airbag may not deploy in the proper position if the driver is not wearing a seat belt. Chrysler said in a statement that it discovered the problem during routine testing and is unaware of any related injuries.

The Fix: Chrysler will notify owners and advise them when they can schedule service; repairs will be made for free. The automaker has not yet announced a notification schedule.

What Owners Should Do: Owners can call Chrysler at 800-853-1403 for more info. The automaker advises owners to wear their seat belts at all times.

Need to Find a Dealer for Service? Go to Cars.com Service & Repair to find your local dealer.

More Recalls

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Generation Why: A Sub-$30k Car “Wouldn’t Be A Lexus”

Mercedes and Audi all have a sub-$30,000 entry in their American model ranges. BMW's cheapest model is just a few hundred dollars above that price point. Infiniti will likely have their own model in that space. So why not Lexus?

Speaking to Automotive News, Lexus boss Mark Templin said

"We could go down and build a car under $30,000, but it would be decontented, and you'd be cutting corners. It wouldn't be a Lexus…To be honest with you, you can't build a Lexus with the quality, the durability, the reliability, the craftsmanship, the content that we put in a Lexus and sell it profitably under $30,000. You just can't do it."

Templin's comments are about as clear a swipe at the Audi A3 and Mercedes-Benz CLA as one can get. While CLA sales have been big for Benz (as much as 11 percent of the brand's total, by AN's count), reviews have been mixed.

Mercedes-Benz, like other European luxury brands, face an additional dilemma beyond the usual matters of scale, volume and profitability requirements associated with those issues. In many mature markets, their buyers are getting older, while a new generation of buyers is both moving away from cars, and arguably less able to afford a new luxury car. Products like the CLA and A3 offer an affordable entry-point into the brand, while also appealing to the aesthetic, environmental and economic tastes of the Millennial generation. Lexus doesn't necessarily have this problem in the same way that the Germans do, but they also don't have much of a presence in Europe either.

What Lexus is doing, as AN pointed out, is attempting to stake out the "high ground" by keeping the price floor above $30,000 (the entry-level CT hybrid starts at about $32,000), which will ostensibly further entrench their "luxury" position. But Lexus, for all its success, has never achieved true global success as a luxury brand, which is something that only the Germans have managed to earn. And as we all know, it's easier to reach downmarket than try and move up. The A-Class was a hit for Mercedes, but Volkswagen didn't fare well with the Phaeton. And Audi is just finally turning the corner after a decades long climb to Tier 1.

The post Generation Why: A Sub-$30k Car "Wouldn't Be A Lexus" appeared first on The Truth About Cars.

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2014 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport: Car Seat Check

2014HyundaiSantaFeSport

The 2014 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport earned Cars.com's Family Car of the Year award for 2014, and it's easy to understand why after spending some time in it. With roomy backseat, sizable cargo area and family-friendly touches such as an optional panoramic sunroof and rear sunshades for the side windows, the Santa Fe Sport has a winning combination of features that appeal to families.

We found this two-row crossover easy to work with in terms of child-safety-seat installation. While we have some gripes with the seat belt bases, we seemed to have less trouble with our car seats' impact on front passenger legroom with this year's model as compared to the 2013. Read on to find out how the current model measured up.

How many car seats fit in the second row? Two

More Car Seat Checks

What We Like

There were two sets of Latch anchors in the outboard seats, situated inside the seat bight and easy to use with both the hooklike and rigid connectors. Tether anchors were located on the seatbacks and also were easy to use.
Our rear-facing infant seat installed easily and left the front passenger plenty of legroom.
In both the rear-facing and forward-facing positions, our convertible seat installed with ease, with no need to move the front passenger seat forward.

What We Don't

While our booster seat also fit well, the seat belt buckles in the outboard seats sit in well in the bottom seat cushion and must be grasped and pulled upward to use.
Moreover, they're on floppy bases, which could prove difficult for children to work with independently.

Latch-A

InfantSeatA

RearFacingA

ForwardFacingA

Booster-B

Grading Scale

A: Plenty of room for the car seat and the child; doesn't impact driver or front-passenger legroom. Easy to find and connect to Latch and tether anchors. No fit issues involving head restraint or seat contouring. Easy access to the third row.

B: Plenty of room. One fit or connection issue. Some problems accessing third row when available.

C: Marginal room. Two fit or connection issues. Difficult to access third row when available.

D: Insufficient room. Two or more fit or connection issues.

F: Does not fit or is unsafe.

About Cars.com's Car Seat Checks

Editors Jennifer Geiger, Jennifer Newman and Matt Schmitz are certified child safety seat installation technicians.

For the Car Seat Check, we use a Graco SnugRide Classic Connect 30 infant-safety seat, a Britax Marathon convertible seat and Graco TurboBooster seat. The front seats are adjusted for a 6-foot driver and a 5-foot-8 passenger. The three child seats are installed in the second row. The booster seat sits behind the driver's seat, and the infant and convertible seats are installed behind the front passenger seat.

We also install the forward-facing convertible in the second row's middle seat with the booster and infant seat in the outboard seats to see if three car seats will fit; a child sitting in the booster seat must be able to reach the seat belt buckle. If there's a third row, we install the booster seat and a forward-facing convertible. To learn more about how we conduct our Car Seat Checks, go here.

Parents should also remember that they can use the Latch system or a seat belt to install a car seat, and that Latch anchors have a weight limit of 65 pounds, including the weight of the child and the weight of the seat itself.

Cars.com photos by Evan Sears

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Thursday, July 31, 2014

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