Friday, January 24, 2014
Richmond Review · Page 27
driveway
The Motor City is looking to a brighter future by Keith Morgan
As goes the North American International Auto Show, so goes the industry to which it provides high profile. Every year at this time, journalists from around the world descend in their thousands on this former industrial powerhouse, now economically depressed Michigan city. The Driveway team has just returned and we all agreed there was an air of optimism on the show floor that we haven’t witnessed for some years. Representatives of the Big Four domestic manufacturers believe they have turned the corner and the fellow scribes appear to agree that the North American brands have been revitalized. Today in print and online, we each pick five vehicles that caught our eye. Yours truly has been a fan of Honda’s premium Acura brand. All solid performers but in recent years the design team has let the range down with uninspiring looks. The 2015 Acura TLX Prototype unveiling suggests the team is out of its uninspiring funk. This performance-luxury sedan, which will launch this summer, looks fresh and sporty. It will replace the TL and the TSX and will be the design leader as new models are revealed during the next few years. TLX customers will be able to choose from two-wheel and all-wheel drive configurations; two high-performance, highly fuel-efficient new engines – 2.4-litre in-line four and 3.5-litre V6;
erating 272 horses, and two new advanced a 3.6-litre V6, 321 hp is transmissions; and the also available. next generation Acura Interesting little Super-Handling All Wheel feature: because coupes Drive (SH-AWD) and typically have large, Precision All-Wheel Steer long doors, the reach (P-AWS) dynamic perbehind the shoulder to formance and handling grab the seatbelt can be technologies. The Big a stretch. The ATS Coupe Audi showed of its Four domestic has motorized carriers compact crossover manufacturers believe to “hand” the seatbelt concept, unimaginatively dubbed the All they have turned the to the driver and front passenger upon entry. Road Shooting Brake corner. The Toyota FT-1 coupe concept. It’s based on Keith Morgan concept caused a stir the forthcoming TT, this among those hungering concept uses the S3’s for a return to the days The Toyota FT-1 coupe concept. 2.0TFSi engine of 292hp. It also gets a hybrid motor between the of the Toyota Celica/Supra. Company officials were coy about whether it will engine and the S-Tronic transmission. The market for the wagons is not big on go into production but judging by the this side of the pond but this could be a media attention it will. The Volkswagen Beetle Dune has a game changer. rugged off-road look, largely due to It combines the elegant lines of a wagon with the wide and higher stance the raising of the body by 50 mm and the addition of 19-inch wheels with of an offroad capable vehicle. large tyres. “The show car combines sex appeal, Just like the old days, the new highly efficient e-tron-quattro technology that produces 300 kW of power yet Beetle features a rear-mounted skirack. The concept is actually a return only consumes 1.9 l/100 km of fuel and to an idea from January 2000, when cutting-edge electronic applications,” VW showed the New Beetle Dune says Audi board member Prof. Dr. Ulrich concept in Los Angeles. That was a Hackenberg. The 2015 Cadillac ATS Coupe is based flight fancy, this concept is built on the current production model and on its sedan sibling and should be the German manufacturer is looking available by mid-summer, starting at for the nod to proceed from Beetle the mid $30,000s. buyers. The base power plant is a 2.0-litre, Audi’s All Road Shooting Brake concept. keith.morgan@drivewaybc.ca turbocharged inline four-cylinder, gen-
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