Citröen Metropolis concept car (2010) first pictures,Cars website,car news,Buy and Sell New and Used Cars,Car Loans,Car Insurance,New Car Quotes,

Citröen Metropolis concept car (2010) first pictures

By Chris Chilton

First Official Pictures

19 April 2010 16:34


Citröen is using this week’s 2010 Shanghai motor show to give a sneak view of how a new Citröen limo could look. The press statement says the Metropolis concept ‘pays homage to China’s extraordinary development’ but just how this Citröen forces millions of people to live in poverty with no access to an uncensored media isn’t yet clear.
A massive 5.3m long (longer than a stretched 7-series) but only 1.4m high, the four-door coupe’s styling has echoes of Citröen’s incredible GT supercar concept of 2008 and was developed by Citröen’s Shanghai-based design team. China’s car market is phenomenally lucrative and rich Chinese are hungry for luxury saloons so the Metropolis is likely to resurface as a Chinese-market limo rather than point to the next C6.

Mercedes Shooting Break concept (2010),Buy and Sell New and Used Cars,Car Loans,Car Insurance,New Cars, Used Cars,Cars website, car news,

Mercedes Shooting Break concept (2010)

By Tim Pollard

First Official Pictures

19 April 2010 23:00

Mercedes is this week – volcanic ash cloud notwithstanding – due to unveil this new Shooting Break concept car at the 2010 Beijing auto show. It's a barely disguised show version of a sporting CLS estate. Think a Mercedes wagon for picky types who find the E-class Estate a tad too sensible.
Stuttgart is being unusually candid about this car's provenance, sprinkling the press kit with hints that this will join the next CLS family as a sporty, crossover coupé-estate. There's even an internal codename – X218 – hinting at its production intent. It seems to us that this Shooting Break concept is an altogether far more attractive offering than the 5-series Gran Turismo which fills a similar nano-niche in rival BMW's range. Mercedes-Benz Shooting Break concept car (2010): the lowdown

The CLS 'coupaloon' was conceived as Merc's 'Jag fighter' and has been a success story since launch in 2004. Now it's time to replace the CLS and this is our first look at the new styling direction planned for the 2011 CLS family – albeit in 20in-shod exaggerated show car form. If this shooting break looks familiar, that's because it follows in the footsteps of the 2008 Paris show car, the Fascination concept. Look out in particular at the body surfacing and the new-look nose – the floating grille appears separate from the bonnet, and those headlamps are entirely LED (all 71 of them). 'The Shooting Break concept car is based on the great tradition of a stylish, cultivated sportiness which has always characterised the great Mercedes coupés, and it takes this unique legacy an exciting step further,' gushed Professor Gorden Wagener, chief designer at Mercedes-Benz. 'At the same time it points the way towards the future design idiom of Mercedes-Benz.'

Lexus LS 460 L,Cars website, car news,Actual Car Information,Car information, new car prices, used car values, used car reviews,new car,latest car,

Lexus LS 460 L
Click to enlarge pictureLexus LS 460 (© Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.) Lexus LS 460



Obviously, $84,125 is hardly bargain pricing for a vehicle, but consider that a Lexus LS 460 L ($70,925) outfitted with the Executive-Class Seating Package ($13,200) gets you most of what you get in the aforementioned Maybach 62 at about one-fifth the price. You have your reclining rear seats (one of them has a footrest) with — ooh, la, la! — lumbar massage; primo leather; a wood-trimmed table; and a cooler for drinks and such.

Click to enlarge pictureLexus LS 460 (© Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.)

Lexus LS 460

An extra $2,080 will upgrade you from the standard 10-speaker stereo to a 19-speaker 450-watt, Mark Levinson surround-sound system.

Read: Lexus Targets the Mercedes-Benz S-Class with a Sporty LS 460

Maybach 62,Actual Car Information,Car information,new car prices,used car values,used car reviews,Cars website,car news,latest model car,

Maybach 62

Click to enlarge pictureMaybach 62 (© Mercedes-Benz USA) Maybach 62


Oh my! Did we just say "cheap seats?" Not so in the Maybach 62, a $392,750 luxury land yacht for wealthy folks whose time is too valuable for them to drive themselves. Certainly it's hard to find a bad seat in a car where everybody gets Grand Nappa leather, auto-adjusting belts, heated and cooled seats and a 600-watt, 21-speaker Bose surround-sound audio system.

Click to enlarge pictureMaybach 62 (© Mercedes-Benz USA)

Maybach 62

But the Maybach 62's luxury amenities definitely have a rear-seat bias. Built into the rear-center console is a compressor-driven refrigerator. Each rear seat has its own folding table surfaced with your favorite lacquered wood. The seats not only recline, but have extendable footrests. The rear passengers have their own sunroof made from electro-dimming glass that turns from transparent to opaque at the touch of a button, and champagne flutes come standard.

Baby Got Back Seats,car news,Car information, new car prices, used car values, used car reviews,Actual Car Information,car model,car,

Baby Got Back Seats.

By Sam Foley of MSN Autos In most vehicles, the front seat sees most of the action. According to the latest census data, 75.5 percent of Americans drive to work alone every day. Many pickup trucks and sports cars don't even have rear seats. And the automotive vernacular bemoans the "back-seat driver," labeling him or her a crank and a nudge, who has no business meddling in the act of operating an automobile. In other words, back seats are largely ignored, left fallow or covered in fast-food wrappers and old soda cans — and if there are to be occupants, it is best if they just buckle up, pipe down and enjoy the ride.

Traffic Fatalities Drop to Record Low,Actual Car Information,Car information, new car prices, used car values,used car reviews,Cars website,car news,

Traffic Fatalities Drop to Record Low
Traffic deaths on U.S. roads have declined for the fourth straight year.



By the Editors of Consumer Reports Driving Into the Sunset (© Digital Vision/Getty Images)Click to enlarge picture Traffic fatalities in 2009 reached the lowest level since 1954, according to preliminary statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The estimated toll for 2009 fell to 33,963 deaths, a drop of almost 9 percent from 2008's tally of 37,261 deaths.

If the final numbers hold true, then 2009 will mark the fourth year in a row of declining traffic deaths on U.S. roads. Total deaths have been reduced even while the number of cars and drivers have increased. Miles traveled has stayed the same. That's demonstrated by significant drops in the fatality rate, which looks at deaths per 100 million miles traveled. The fatality rate itself has also declined for years on end, dropping from 1.46 in 2005 to 1.16 in 2009. Full 2009 fatality statistics will be available this summer.

North America Crucial to Fiat's 5-Year Plan,Cars website,car news,Car information, new car prices, used car values, used car reviews,Actual Car Info,

North America Crucial to Fiat's 5-Year Plan

Fiat chief plans to sell a combined 5.5 to 6 million vehicles by 2014.




By Luca Ciferri of AutoWeek

Dodge NitroClick to enlarge picture

The new five-year plan for Fiat is expected to continue selling the Dodge Nitro in Europe, but with a Fiat badge.

Alfa Romeo will play a key role in the U.S. market, Jeep will lead the charge in Russia, Chrysler cars will bolster the Lancia lineup in Europe and Dodge crossovers and SUVs will wear the Fiat badge in Europe. Those are key elements of Fiat S.p.A. CEO Sergio Marchionne's new five-year plan for the Italian automaker.

The plan won't be unveiled until April 21. But based on earlier announcements and conversations with industry watchers, we've been able to sketch out some likely key elements of the plan.

Marchionne already has promised that Fiat Group and Chrysler Group will sell a combined 5.5 million to 6 million vehicles by 2014. He says Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram will account for 2.8 million of the total. This means Fiat's seven brands (Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Fiat, Lancia, Maserati, Fiat Professional) will have to sell 2.7 million to 3.2 million units in 2014 to do their part.

Last year, Fiat Group sold 2.3 million units while Chrysler Group sold 1.3 million.

Toyota to Test Stability of All SUVs,Actual Car Information,Car information, new car prices, used car values, used car reviews,Cars website,car news,

Toyota to Test Stability of All SUVs

In the wake of concerns over the Lexus GX 460, Toyota is testing all its SUV models for potential problems with lift-throttle oversteer.


By the editors of AutoWeek

2010 Lexus GX 460 (© Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.)Click to enlarge picture

In the wake of concerns over the Lexus GX 460, shown, Toyota is testing all its SUV models for potential problems with lift-throttle oversteer.

Toyota Motor Corp. said on Thursday that it will conduct safety tests on all of its SUVs after suspending sales of the Lexus GX 460 following a report of a risk of rollover accidents.

Toyota stopped GX 460 sales earlier this week. Consumer Reports, which admitted it has automatically given certain Toyotas "recommended" ratings without ever driving them, warned against buying the GX 460, calling it a potential safety risk in certain corners. Toyota also suspended sales in the Middle East and Russia, the other markets where the GX 460 is sold. Toyota has sold 5,400 2010 GXs in the United States and Canada in the four months it has been on the market, 580 in the Middle East and Russia.

BMW 6-series coupe (2011) scooped,car,new car,car news,car information,latest car, letest car information,

BMW 6-series coupe (2011) scooped

By Tim Pollard

Spyshots

12 April 2010 10:29

The new BMW 6-series goes on sale in spring 2011 and these are our latest scoop photographs of Munich’s new coupé. The new Six follows the recipe of today’s sports car range, with a tin-top and soft-top versions in the pipeline (click here for our previous scoop of the convertible).

Codenamed F12 and F13, the new 2011 6-series coupé and convertible are both 2+2s in the classic big sports car mould. They’re aimed at the Mercedes SL and Porsche 911 sector of the marketplace and usher in a new, less controversial design statement as is the trend in Munich’s design studios these days.

The wheelbase is slightly stretched over the outgoing 6-series, according to CAR’s sources, while the overhangs are minimised. One of the biggest design flourishes was due to be the lack of B-pillars, allowing both models to drop all four side windows for the full fresh-air experience – but these latest spy shots appear to show quite chunky pillars.