mercedez: turbo

Dacia Logan MCV

And the low-cost market gets the spotlights once again. Since Dacia needed to update its line with this new generation which debuted last year, it took the opportunity to also rearrange these vehicles, investing in new categories to satisfy new customers and improving the existing competitors. It’s interesting to notice that the Romanian automaker’s worry with cheap prices doesn’t stop it of releasing its vehicles in style: sedan and hatchback arrived in the last Paris Motor Show, and now the wagon has used the Swiss event to join them.

That mentioned rearrangement can be explained as nothing but the most natural strategy for a smart automaker who really wants to prosper. The original Logan arrived in 2004 only as a sedan, but didn’t take long to achieve great sales. The natural response to this event is to increase the offer, not only at the sedan’s trims but at new models projected as Logan’s variations, in order to extend this name’s acceptance to more products. On the other hand, it was still needed to dimension how far the public was really willing to purchase low-cost vehicles instead of migrating to Renault’s line. The only way to diversify the offer without raising the costs too much was to adapt the sedan into the new categories, which was done as Sandero, MCV and Pick-up. The first ones were so successful that motivated Dacia to create the first “out-of-the-box” sibling: Duster now reaches its third year of nice sales both under Dacia and Renault, according to the market. There were so many great news that this family’s second phase needed bigger plans: defending “the Logans” from the improving rivals would need an even better offer, which started with two new members: Lodgy and Dokker made Dacia enter respectively into minivan and multivan/cargo categories. Both hatchback and sedan were already renewed, the pick-up is expected to follow them soon, but the station wagon had to receive some corrections.

Have you ever seen the first Logan MCV? Everything in that car seemed to scream the intention of working both as a station wagon and as a van, despite of Logan’s city-car dimensions. But if the second generation received a minivan to attend those with big families and a multivan for cargo transport, MCV was freed to be only a conventional SW… and to finally have decent styling. There were abandoned both the two-part vertical rear door, and the very weird “partially higher roof”, higher only at the central section in order to keep the sedan’s front doors. That’s what makes the second phase even more attractive than these pictures show. The elegant lines magnify the 14.7-ft length, which encloses the 20.2-cu-ft trunk which can achieve 53.6 cu-ft by folding the rear seats – which are only five now, to avoid competing with both the mentioned new vans. However, the car’s front half doesn’t deny the Logan genes, whose imponent lines and modern construction may not bring too much sophistication but ensure a secure and spacious vehicle. It’s possible to see the several internal storage areas compose a very practical room along with typical items such as infotainment system with a console touchscreen. This car will arrive in Europe next April featuring the sedan’s engines: with diesel there’s dCi 1.5L with 90 hp, while using gasoline it’s possible to choose between 75-hp 1.2L and 90-hp TCe 0.9L, with five-speed manual transmission.

BMW X6 2013

Observar os lançamentos do mercado automotivo nos últimos tempos tem estimulado muita gente a proferir uma frase digna de provocar as maiores doses de agonia nos profissionais do design: “os carros estão todos iguais”. Infelizmente existem mesmo alguns exemplos que validam esta afirmação quando vistos em certos ângulos, mas os que realmente merecem atenção estão no extremo oposto. Um destes ícones mais recentes do estilo automotivo é este crossover cuja nova fase acaba de desembarcar no Brasil.

Comercializado no Brasil pela Eurobike, o mérito do X6 não vem apenas de atrair muitos olhares porque isso se obtém mesmo com carros de aparição mais comum. Sua diferença está em ser um daqueles automóveis que prendem o olhar mesmo das pessoas que não têm tanto interesse nestes produtos. É muito fácil se deter por alguns minutos observando em primeiro lugar os padrões diferentes de formas e volumes, culminando na clássica dúvida entre ele ser um utilitário ou um cupê. Essa curiosidade vem do contraste que a BMW exerceu com muito êxito, ao partir de traços imponentes e volumosos que poderiam gerar qualquer crossover atual (como o próprio irmão X5, por exemplo), mas aliá-los a uma queda de teto digna de um fastback. A outra parte deste encanto dos observadores se expressa em que passar tempo olhando o carro de um lado a outro só melhora a impressão que se teve de início. Não existe um só detalhe que pareça ter sido esquecido, ou recebido menor atenção. São vários vincos e relevos conectando uma forma à outra, criando um conjunto tão fortemente relacionado que entra no clube de exemplos como as fases atuais de Fiat Bravo e Ford Focus: com eles é melhor esperar a época de trocar o modelo por inteiro, porque executar redesenhos parciais sempre tiraria o equilíbrio do design original.

Talvez seja esta a razão de o exterior do X6 2013 não ter trazido mudanças maiores que parachoques re-estilizados e novos farois, que não têm problemas em conseguir a intenção de atualizar o modelo para a segunda etapa do seu ciclo de vida – este crossover foi lançado mundialmente em 2009. Quem teve mudanças maiores foi o interior, cuja maior evolução foi eliminar o túnel da transmissão, o que traz o sempre desejado assoalho plano na região do banco traseiro, criando espaço muito melhor para o quinto ocupante. É este banco que também teve o seu reprodutor de DVD trocado, com a tela ganhando posição central. Isso termina de compor uma cabine recheada do nível de luxo e tecnologia típico dos carros desta categoria, cujo console central traz o mesmo padrão de estilo dos demais BMW e também as várias opções de cor, para combinar com os também diversos tons de couro dos bancos em várias possibilidades. As unidades do novo X6 que vêm ao Brasil estarão disponíveis em duas versões: começando em R$ 344.950, a xDrive35i usa o 3.0 biturbo de seis cilindros, que gera 306 cv. Quem quer ainda mais força pode levar a xDrive50i, responsável pelo 4.4 V8 que passa dos 400 cv e eleva o preço a R$ 414.950.

Land Rover Range Rover 4

Inovação é uma parcela muito grande do conjunto de estratégias de qualquer empresa que tenha pelo menos um mínimo de participação no mercado, mas ainda mais importante que ela é a adaptabilidade. O ato de reconhecer que a vontade do público não só muda com muita facilidade como o faz em uma infinidade de formas. São tantas que várias vezes incluem até mesmo não mudar. Este é apenas um dos intrigantes paradoxos que vêm garantindo o inquestionável sucesso deste fascinante SUV inglês por mais de quatro décadas.

Em outras palavras, essa questão consiste no contraste de vontades vindo da maioria dos clientes com o costume de buscar as opções mais recentes de um produto desejado exercido ao mesmo tempo que preservam certas preferências por muitos anos sem a menor possibilidade de troca. O mercado de perfumes femininos, por exemplo, vende uma série de marcas e modelos mas ainda tem Chanel n° 5 entre os líderes, por várias décadas consecutivas. Situação parecida acontece com Coca-Cola, Nestlé e várias outras, em geral uma marca por segmento. É exatamente isso que mantém a demanda pelo Range Rover inabalável desde os anos 1970. Rivais vêm e vão com os conceitos mais diversos e das mais variadas marcas – incluindo a própria Land Rover, com o Evoque – mas a demanda pelo “Rolls-Royce do fora-de-estrada” permanece sem se abalar. Este aparente paradoxo se torna especialmente interessante porque na verdade é composto por outro paradoxo: se a estratégia simbolizada pelo epíteto mencionado seja seguida atualmente por uma variedade enorme de modelos, quem a criou foi o próprio Range Rover. A receita de tanto sucesso é associar a cabine digna de uma limusine a preparo mecânico suficiente para permiti-lo trafegar nos mais diversos tipos de terreno e com os climas mais adversos sem perder a elegância.

Falar em elegância pode fazer com que muita gente logo lembre dos farois e lanternas claramente inspirados nas luzes do Evoque, mas o fato é que a personalidade do irmão maior é muito mais profunda. Outro símbolo que provavelmente nunca vai mudar é a silhueta do Range Rover, mesmo que a combinação de teto com queda leve associado à traseira inclinada tenha tido seu auge na época da primeira geração. Esta parte guarda um detalhe interessante, aliás: enquanto vários hatchbacks exibem o chamado “teto flutuante” como um detalhe de estilo recente, o SUV inglês já podia trazer todas as colunas em preto desde a primeira geração, obtendo exatamente o mesmo efeito de fazê-las parecer unidas às janelas como um só elemento em preto brilhante, que ao não impedir o teto de manter a cor da carroceria faz este último parecer visualmente desconectado da mesma. Mas assim que você tiver conseguido desviar o olhar do incrível equilíbrio entre passado e presente que é o design exterior deste veículo, começa o momento de estender o fascínio ao interior. A fartura de espaço para cinco pessoas foi exaltada com o aumento de entre-eixos em relação ao antecessor, além de o revestimento em couro se oferecer nos mais variados tons para combinar com a igualmente ampla oferta de tipos de madeira, tudo para compor o ambiente que mais agradar ao abastado proprietário.

Passar à parte técnica do novo Range Rover sempre merece a menção da sua nova plataforma, que recebeu aumento na tecnologia embarcada para não só ganhar em resistência como também para uma excelente perda de peso, que em certas versões chega a 400 kg. Uma novidade ainda mais surpreendente é a evolução do sistema Terrain Response, que abandona a necessidade de o motorista alterar o modo de direção: agora é o próprio veículo que avalia a condição do terreno em que está para escolher os parâmetros mais adequados de estabilidade, suspensão e tração. Em paralelo, o interminável pacote de equipamentos inclui mimos extremos como quadro de instrumentos feito por uma tela LCD e o reprodutor de DVD para os passageiros do banco traseiro. As opções de motorização mantêm o câmbio automático ZF de oito marchas para todas as versões, que no Brasil começam com a Vogue 4.4 V8 biturbo movido a diesel, com potência de 339 cv e torque de 71,1 kgfm e preço de R$ 551.800. Ele também equipa a Vogue SE sob o preço de R$ 575.800 e a topo-de-linha Autobiography, que por sua vez fica em R$ 596.800 – este trem-de-força lhe faz acelerar de 0 a 100 km/h em 6s9 e chegar à velocidade máxima de 217 km/h. Porém, quem desejar força ainda maior pode trocar o diesel pela gasolina que move o 5.0 V8, responsável pelos 510 cv e 63,5 kgfm e pelo desempenho de 5s4 e 225 km/h, este com limite eletrônico. Esta unidade equipa as versões Vogue SE Supercharged, de R$ 583.800, e Autobiography Supercharged, de R$ 601.400.

Volkswagen Golf Variant 7

Expect the Germans to restrict Golf only to the hatchback body would be a complete nonsense. Using a multiuse platform such as MQB certainly saves a lot of new cars’ projecting time, which has certainly had a huge responsibility for VW Group having released five of them in such short time, since the latest Seat León. Now it’s time to turn the spotlights once again to the parent brand, because even though this car family isn’t too big, it never misses a chance of having another complete rearrangement.

Volkswagen’s most successful nameplate has been divided in two “groups” since it was five, in 1979. While Opel and Renault, for example, name each member of a car family after the oldest, like Astra Caravan or Mégane Coupé, there are automakers like the North-Americans, which used to sell the same vehicles under different marques, like all the ones who came from the “Project J” around the world. “The Golfs”, however, had the sedan called Jetta since its first generation and using slightly different design, while the station wagon used to follow the hatchback. This situation only started to change at the third phase, when the sedan was called Vento in some countries. The fourth phase, in turn, not only changed this alternative to Bora as also requested the wagon for itself: the biggest sibling still adopted Golf’s front fascia in some markets but others received it with Jetta’s looks, always being badged as the “donor’s” Variant version. The fifth generation actually unified the family for the first time, with all members having one design only changed to each body’s rear, but their bigger sophistication leap raised the prices so much that the situation ended going berserk once again – today, Golf is at the seventh phase to stay as VW’s flagship vehicle, Jetta received an exclusive sixth one focusing on markets such as Brazil and United States and Variant was facelifted at the fifth. Not to mention all the original Bora’s variations still sold in other countries.

Nevertheless, it seems the MQB platform will restrict this strange badge engineering once again to nameplates. Giving Variant an entirely new generation may look unnecessary because midsize station wagons don’t have too big sales, but it wouldn’t be surprising if producing this one ends up easier than keeping the older. Despite the obvious advantage of offering a more modern vehicle, having Jetta in a totally separate lifecycle frees VW to enjoy nothing but the good part of a strategy this blog has mentioned with Kia pro_cee’d’s article. Golf’s design has a very horizontal roof with abrupt ending, which would demand several changes to be transformed into a sedan… but very few to create an SW. In fact, it was only a matter of adapting the rear windows to include a subsequent third glass and “stretch” the sheetmetal’s original lines. It’s really nice to see how the new Variant combined creases, volumes and glass to look elegant without looking too long like the previous phase. The new structure didn’t give big dimension increases but a surprising 231-pd weight reduction and a 21.3-cu-ft trunk, which can be expanded to 57.2 cu-ft by folding the rear seats. The pictures show the interior is shared with Golf as much as the powertrain, which uses EA-211 and EA-288 families respectively with gasoline and diesel but both with turbo, direct injection and start/stop system and the available DSG transmission.

Citroën DS4

Embora o mercado automotivo esteja dedicando enorme atenção aos projetos “para mercados emergentes”, o conceito oposto também vem merecendo grande destaque. Seja quando colocados no topo da gama da marca ou em sua divisão de luxo, analisar os carros de alto padrão é muito interessante por causa das propoções diferentes que dão aos aspectos que fazem parte de qualquer carro, aliados ainda aos “extras” próprios de cada um. No Brasil, o mais novo exemplar dessa estirpe é este belíssimo hatchback francês.

Grande parte das críticas que não demoram a surgir para estes modelos perde validez pelo simples fato de que analisá-los corretamente requer os padrões adequados, da mesma forma que é descabido escolher a melhor minivan por sua velocidade máxima ou o melhor esportivo pelo tamanho do seu porta-malas. A diferenciação da linha DS em meio aos rivais de cada modelo se extrai de eles não priorizarem um ou outro aspecto de maneira óbvia. Mesmo com os valores diferentes de tamanho e peso, os três conseguem atender aos perfis esportivos tão bem quanto a quem valoriza o porte dos carros de luxo ou mesmo a quem busca sobressair-se nas ruas e nos grupos de amigos. É fácil de imaginar que ter estilo atraente é fundamental para isso, mas o segredo da Citroën está nos detalhes. A dianteira da novidade apresenta uma interpretação de maior porte que a do DS3, com as atenções centralizadas na grade imponente e nos belos farois bi-xenônio. O parabrisa panorâmico termina em um teto curvo como o de um cupê, mas que aqui cobre o hatchback que de longe teve o maior sucesso na tarefa de dissimular as portas traseiras: além da típica maçaneta escondida atrás da janela traseira, você reparou que é o tamanho das janelas que mais ajuda a conseguir essa impressão? Mantê-lo foi tão importante que os vidros traseiros não têm aquela divisória mais fina: as portas abrem levando-os inteiros, e como eles são mais largos que elas, aproveitam que esta clientela não tem problemas com o uso do ar-condicionado.

Todo esse estilo termina numa traseira de desenho muito bem-elaborado: lanternas de formato irregular, parachoque, vidro, tampa do porta-malas, nada parece mais chamativo ou discreto do que deveria. Quanto ao interior, se a altíssima qualidade dos materiais já era de se esperar, o olhar é atraído pela futurista iluminação azul do quadro de instrumentos, e em seguida pela opção que oferece: é possível escolher entre cinco tons de branco a azul entre telas e mostradores analógicos, permitindo que o motorista forme o contraste que preferir. Os bancos trazem massageadores e regulagem lombar elétrica, e seu revestimento em couro traz quatro opções de cor para combinar com a pintura externa: ele vem em prata, cinza ou preto metálicos, e em branco ou vermelho perolizados. Uma exclusividade do DS4 é que os avisos internos, como de pisca-alerta ligado ou de chave esquecida na ignição, são feitos em quatro opções de estilo dos sons: Classic, Crystal Symphony Jungle Fantasy ou Urban Rythmik. Essas características são a real justificativa do preço de R$ 99.990, junto com itens mais triviais como central multimídia com widescreen táctil de 7”, GPS eMyWay, sistema de som Arkamys, seis airbags, controle de estabilidade, Hill Assist, alerta de presença nos pontos cegos e sistema de ajuda à baliza. Este carro repete o motor 1.6 THP de 165 cv, acelerando de 0 a 100 km/h em 8s2 e chegando à máxima de 212 km/h, usando câmbio automático de seis marchas com opção de trocas manuais.

Volvo S60, V60 and XC60 2014

For you who read this blog’s previous article, this is the second part of the comments on Volvo’s recent group facelift. But even if you came to this one first, there’s nothing to worry about. Since this event has involved several vehicles at once, writing appropriately about them demanded some kind of division. This blog has dedicated the first article to the traditional team of this automaker’s line, while this one is dedicated to the “subversive” group. In other words, you’re going to read about the other kind of very important Volvos.

Taking a quick look on these Swedish cars over the last decades reveals this brand was never really concerned with following each moment’s design trends. They were always reliable vehicles, with comfortable and spacious cabins and unbelievable worrying with the safety, but also just sailed through from the 1950s to the 1970s pretty much oblivious to the other brands’ dedication of creating and following new design trends. In fact, they’ve only became some sort of up-to-date in the 1980s because the whole market ended up converging into the “philosophy” Volvo had never stopped to follow – long story short, Volvo’s sedans and wagons like the 700 Series only became fashionable because everyone else was starting to use very similar stylings. Looking at the 1991 460 and 850 series led to think this decade wouldn’t change that attitude very much, but it turned out it did. This decade’s cars not only were recovering from the 1970s’ oil crises as were also approaching the long-awaited new millennium, which stimulated almost every automaker to create their own interpretations of futurism for their upcoming vehicles. Volvo started resisting to follow this creative moment, and one fact is this decision prevented it from having poorly accepted projects such as 1998 Fiat Multipla or 1994 Ford Scorpio, but that time’s market expectations wouldn’t maintain this “immunity” for too long.

Even though many of these “too futuristic” cars ended with poor sales, the overall result was the market starting to be more receptive to novelties than ever. The public started to like the idea of having different car designs, sizes and even categories, which made pioneers such as Citroën Berlingo, Renault Twingo and Volkswagen Sharan fairly successful. So Volvo finally decided to surrender, but doing it in style: it was hard to believe that the new entry line, S40 and V40, came one year before the upmarket S90. These cars were the first to make the Swedish automaker understand that sometimes even the heaviest traditions need to be revised somehow, in order to keep attracting customers. Few years later it was S80’s and S60’s time, not so “revolutionary” but still much more attractive than the replaced models. Their great acceptance by public and press motivated Volvo not only to keep updating the line as also to innovate beyond the level already established: that’s when V70 Cross Country deserves another mention. This time not for that crossover-pioneering merit, but for representing an initiative like Volvo hadn’t had in decades. After all, even with having several price ranges satisfied within the luxury class, Volvo’s reputation wasn’t too pleasant: most people became used to see these cars as rational, reliable and even sophisticated, but not enough to make worthy giving up of a German equivalent.

And now we arrive at the “Revolvolution” moment. After only starting to think about changing, releasing the first S60 in 2000 was the first firm step towards the new-millennium Volvos. Most of the station wagons carried over the boxy rear, but the overall impression was this time they were offering the same discretion of before but in a much more up-to-date style, with several elegant details such as a three-dimensional effect to make their transverse section wider from the handles’ height down than around the windows, giving imponent “muscles” which were followed by S60 and S80’s tail lights design. So since transforming those initial plans from the 1990s into actual changes were starting to get very positive feedback from everyone, the automaker started to be less “scared” of innovating. 2003 saw the very first Volvo true SUV’s release, XC90. After that, the C70 line was redesigned for 2005, and there was even a new entry-level car: C30 was a hatchback, but with a very attractive coupe-inspired styling and taking advantage from the brand being owned by Ford at that time – the compact’s platform was shared with Ford Focus’s family. The following years had some quiet time, until it was time to give S60 a new generation. And since the previous started this entire series of changes in Volvo, the second one had big expectations from the public. The 2010 arrival ended not only satisfying but also surpassing them, by a wide margin.

This is the moment when we converge to this article’s car family. Family because S60’s aggressive and sporty design has been so well-accepted that motivated its own station wagon, the also gorgeous V60… and even XC60. Once again Volvo’s changes achieved big approval, because these are very impressive cars. There brought better interior quality, cutting-edge technologies and even bigger safety package, but wrapped in a boldly attractive design. That’s why they found interesting to release an urban crossover at the same platform… and today that’s why the new facelift wasn’t so “understood”. They preserve all those qualities, but removing the two-part headlights for a conventional set with wider grille is like removing that “extra”. The great part, though, is the addition of items: the infotainment system’s display brings a new technology to enable being used with gloved hands, and offers Internet connection even as a Wi-fi hotspot for inside the car. The analogic dashboard was replaced by a TFT screen with three modes: Elegance is the traditional look, Eco brings green background with fuel consumption gauge and eco meter, while Performance throws bigger tachometer and power meter, turning the lights red. The safety package received anti-blinding lights system, Cornering Light, Pedestrian Detection, cross-traffic alert and blind-spot monitoring. Those are the only pictures so far, but we can always hope for the old boldness to return with the R-Design packages.

Volvo S80, V70 and XC70 2014

If you have at least around ten years of being a car fan, this article will give you a very pleasant déjà vu. It is focused on Volvo’s multiple facelifts, but when we have so many involved cars it’s impossible not to spend some time only to think what would be the best way of dividing them into this blog’s articles. So instead of dividing in sedans, wagons and off-roads, there will be two articles. The present one will take you back to those times when Volvos were very elegant square sedans and unforgettably boxy station wagons.

Even though this rear design has made these cars worldwide famous for decades, the reason why it was adopted was purely functional: having such an abrupt end of the roof minimized the aerodynamic drag, which helped to improve both performance and consumption, since there’s less power demanded from the car to perform a given movement. That’s why this design’s pioneer in Volvo, the 140 Series, used these concepts making concessions only to the cargo capacity, which resulted in 1968 Volvo 145’s hearse-inspired styling. The following years received the 240 Series and a younger design, but, like Opel would conclude in the mid-1990s after adopting the same concept, it really required forgetting any wishes of creating design-award-winning wagons. However, if the German automaker started to abandon it in favor of more inclinated rear windshields, Volvo decided to make them its own symbol. The 700 Series showed that the 1980s would only give the Swedish cars cleaner sheetmetal, with less strips and creases, and nothing more. After all, Volvo’s cars were already been very well-received due to the classical incomparable concern with the safety, but pairing it to such a particular design choice made these cars famous and impossible to mistake when seen on the streets – which can be easily interpretated as one of the very first examples of a successful visual identity.

Another case of Volvo’s strong application of a design language has been produced right next to the station wagons, in all these decades: the sedans. Their concern wasn’t having the best aerodynamic or optimizing the trunk space (1983s Volvo 740’s, for instance, could fit an Europallet), but being classy and elegant. Since the 1960s models, it’s interesting to observe that Volvo’s sedans used to feature each and every design element known for avoiding a sporty styling and making the car look classical. Square lines, well-divided volumes with cab rearward, long and low-deck rear, third side window after the back doors… The last line to use this rigid recipe was 850, but both sedan and wagon became most known for a surprisingly well-accepted sporty potential: the turbocharged engines helped the great handling to deliver a very interesting performance that lasted until 1996. This concept would receive some changes only with S80 and V70, which became Volvo’s latest flagship cars. Their most notorious feature was the largely renewed styling, still carrying most of the traditional concepts but in a much more modern interpretation, with more fluid lines and smoother surfaces. Therefore, after presenting this new corporate design in the early 2000s, these cars were expected only to refresh the same style for some more years, just like at the previous phase. The impressive surprise came when the decision was to follow some of the new trends, but in Volvo’s own way.

There were even more “subversive” releases, such as C30 and XC60, but their pioneer was much more discreet, and yet much more surprising: who would expect the first modern-times Volvo to come based on V70, the current phase of Volvo’s most traditional lineage? The 1997 Cross Country version is frequently mentioned at this blog for being one of the precursors of the current crossover trend, along with Subaru Forester. But besides of the always-commented great idea of joining some of the SUV’s off-road potential to a comfortable urban station wagon, the bigger merit goes to the automaker’s attitude of trying some of the new trends, at least as an experiment. The then-called V70 XC appeared as only one more trim level, but ended so well-received that it motivated a true SUV (XC90) and, some years later, even a much more urban crossover (XC60), not to mention the right to follow V70 on its next generations. This turned out a very nice example of how heavy changes actually can give positive results. In fact, following this train of thought some more led Volvo to release a whole group of “new-age cars”, but remodelling the entire line is something every brand is doing in nowadays. What makes the Swedish automaker different is the ability to reconcile the past idiosyncrasies with excellent interpretations of the modern trends.

And now you’ve reached the reason why this was the chosen division for these news. This article’s trio represents the traditional Volvos, which still include several of those mentioned elements, but with modern touches like the very clear narrowing of the transverse section when going to the windows’ height, and even a slight smoothening of the wagons’ rear design. Therefore, facelifting such classical cars could only end at the very nice changes they’ll receive for 2014. Being hard to notice is just one of their good characteristics, because their purpose is to update the cars without taking away their visual harmony. The front bumper was redesigned, featuring more aggressive design and wider grille, along with LED daytime lights for XC70. All of them will also offer 19” wheels, but only S80 received minor updates to both lights. Another addition is the Sensus Connected infotainment system, which uses the central console touchscreen, like usual, but with the interesting possibility of being operated by gloved hands; everyone who has lived at least one harsh winter will be very thankful for this solution. Besides all that, this trio maintains the engine and equipment offers, which consists in the very sophisticated interiors and XC70’s particular off-road items, such as all-wheel-drive and hill-driving control.

BMW Série 6 Gran Coupé

Pode-se dizer que esta novidade foi antecipada pelo Inovar-Auto. Entrar no programa com projeto de fábrica no país trouxe a isenção do IPI de importados para os veículos da BMW, culminando na recente redução de preços em quase toda a linha nacional. Foi a lista deste evento que chamou atenção para ver que a Série 6 teria novidades em breve. A excelente surpresa é nós termos recebido um dos mais novos modelos da marca com menos de um ano de atraso, cujas informações você poderá conhecer neste artigo.

Prosperar no mercado de carros da atualidade é um objetivo que só tem alguma chance de se cumprir se os trabalhos para isso incluírem o ato de inovar. Seja em desenho, tamanho, equipamentos, o espectro de possibilidades sempre foi enorme, mas apenas nas últimas décadas tem sido explorado como sempre mereceu. A estratégia de procurar lacunas para preencher fez o mercado receber diversas categorias de carros que seriam inimagináveis quinze anos atrás, mas assim como criar novos conceitos nem sempre resulta em sucesso, mesmo o ato de apenas seguir um concorrente ao entrar no segmento que ele criou requer cuidados. Como a iniciativa do Mercedes-Benz CLS já foi seguida por Audi A7, Aston Martin Rapide, Porsche Panamera e até Volkswagen CC, mesmo que a BMW tivesse decidido segui-las, o atraso que teve foi compensado pelo conceito que traz o Gran Coupé. Sua dianteira mantém os traços da Série 6, mas seu pulo-do-gato está nas proporções: em vez de esticar o conceito de cupê até comportar as portas adicionais, a ideia aqui parece ter sido partir de um sedã convencional e deixá-lo muito mais casual e esportivo. Fica bastante claro que o objetivo de fazê-lo mais elegante que os rivais diretos foi cumprido, porque a esportividade do Gran Coupé ficou muito mais sutil, sem intenções explícitas como o caimento tipo fastback do A7.

Um traço comum a todos os modelos da Série 6 é que a parte traseira não dispensa o terceiro volume curto, mas bem pronunciado; ver isso no Gran Coupé permite a interessante elucubração de que se a BMW não fosse uma marca de tradições tão fortes, este carro poderia ter vindo como uma nova Série 5 ou Série 7 sem deixar nada a desejar. Mas o porta-malas de 460 litros é apenas a entrada dos fundos ao próximo encanto deste carro: a luxuosa cabine, dedicada a quatro pessoas. A novidade chega ao Brasil na versão 640i, cujo pacote inclui bancos de couro com ajustes elétricos, rodas de 19”, sistema de som com sete alto-falantes e disco rígido de 12 GB e o Connected Drive, a central multimídia que usa uma touchscreen de 10,2” para acessar a lista de funções que inclui navegação GPS e uso da internet 3G de celulares. Já o pacote de segurança inclui farois com LEDs e iluminação inteligente, seis airbags e controles de tração e estabilidade – como opcionais, ele terá controle ativo de velocidade, sistema HUD, novas opções de acabamento e o kit aerodinâmico M Sports. Espera-se a versão 650i para breve, mas por enquanto já se tem a performance do 3.0 turbo de seis cilindros, que entrega potência de 320 cv e torque de 45,9 kgfm, suficientes para que ele esqueça dos 1.825 kg e acelere de 0 a 100 km/h em 5s4 e chegue à máxima limitada de 250 km/h. Custando R$ 399.950, a BMW pretende vender cinquenta unidades do 640i até o fim do ano.

Kia pro_cee’d 2

The concept of car family was founded around the 1970s, but became truly popular two decades later. Consists in entering multiple categories by deriving their respective body variations from one single car, enabling the automaker to promote only one identity at that price range. However, as the two-door E-Class’s article shows much better, prospering with this concept requires deep studies. One of its results, in fact, turned into the latest trend among the hatchbacks, which Kia has started to follow with the new pro_cee’d.

Do you remember when the ideal was to release taller hatchbacks in order to offer bigger internal space, just like what the minivans do? This trend rose in the early 2000s, with cars like Stilo, A-Class and 307 in Europe and Fox in Brazil – Volkswagen even created an additional model in 2005, Golf Plus. This concept didn’t take long to subside first because the actual minivans never stopped to exist (or to be a much better option for big families), but also for a second very important reason: being bad minivans deviated the hatchbacks from the sporty potential they’ve had for decades. The North-Americans may prefer the sedans and the Australians the pick-ups, but Europeans and Brazilians usually apply their high-performance packages on hatchbacks. Finally, one possible third reason would be the very limited “genetic predisposition”. In order to have a bigger cabin without an also big external size, these compacts needed to use rational designs, which fatally include the vans’ almost-horizontal roof line. Therefore, adapting coupés, sedans or other siblings turned impossible by the simple fact that all these designs need descending roofs. That’s precisely why the mentioned cars could only receive station wagon variations, respectively Multiwagon, SW and Variant (the latter using the original Golf) – the only possibility was to stretch them, like the Mercedes’ old extended-wheelbase L option.

However, the car fans can be happy again because the current trend could be defined as having only the good part of the first Mégane’s concept brought back. In other words, the family concept is still being used, but no longer intensely to the point of the entire line being the very same car until the central console. The second pro_cee’d won’t ever deny being cee’d’s two-door sibling, but this didn’t stopped it from offering a much more sporty design. If the four-door was already very attractive, the younger brother received elements such as the imponent crease that starts around the handles and gets really strong at the back, to the point of making the cabin look narrower than the lower portion – this muscle impression on compacts became famous most recently with VW Scirocco, which competes with pro_cee’d just like Opel Astra, Renault Mégane and the upcoming Seat León’s “coupe-hatch” siblings. The car’s interior features a driver-centered console and a very sporty combination of matte and piano-black, without any excess of chrome items. Kia will offer S and SE trims, the first one already bringing electric windows, full climate control, multimedia sound system and a large safety package, while the other adds a 7” touchscreen and several style accessories. This car won’t take long to receive the GT trim, but even that one repeats what could be this car’s only important weakness: both the 1.6L GDi (gasoline) and CRDi (diesel)’s numbers leave Kia without competing as this car’s design suggests.

Seat León SC

Every car fan must have at least one car which just looking to it leads to think “I bet it would be a huge success in the entire world”. Some of these potentials are squandered because the car is bad in some aspect, others because its brand doesn’t have the charisma to attract many customers… and others because its brand’s group prefers to have another vehicle taken to the foreign market. We all know that the new Golf is an excellent car, but wouldn’t be great if VW’s Spanish division was allowed to offer Leon around the world?

While some brands maintain heavy traditions when replacing a particular vehicle, others prefer to take the opportunity of projecting each time an entirely new car. León turns interesting to observe because Seat’s strategy with it acts like a halfway: the mid-size hatchback has been carrying the same name for three generations and fourteen years without even thinking of dropping this name. The first one couldn’t ever deny it arrived in 1999: the overall round, plain shapes were typical 2000s elements, while the wedged front with narrow lights and the high-deck rear remind the 1990s’ cars. Later, the second phase arrived with a much more organic design, using several strong creases only to highlight all the elliptical shapes, such as the headlights. And this time, the compass seem to have been dropped in favor of the ruler: in this generation we observe the smooth lines highlighting square elements. The nicest part is that Seat decided to extend this excellent work by giving León its very first two-door option, not only as a new version but with a whole new body. In other words, instead of only subtracting the rear doors, increasing the front ones and adapting the side panels to this, SC is actually a coupé-inspired hatchback, perfectly suitable to compete with Renault Mégane and Opel Astra.

And once again just like those others’ sporty variations, SC brings a very stylish exterior, with took advantage of VW’s MQB platform to become slightly shorter and wider than the five-doors, everything in order to improve the handling. Some might compare it to the new A3, but the fact is León once again managed to show how it’s possible to avoid the big traditions and deliver very nice products every time. The interior won’t be too focused on being spacious because this is a sporty version, but it’ll take four occupants with plenty of comfort. Besides, as it’s getting (too) usual with the VW Group’s cars, the cabin uses everything in black, gray and silver. It does create a modern impression, but adding some colored details would go really well with a car that comes from the same country as Pedro Almodóvar’s movies. But if you’re the kind of driver which prefers to see the landscape’s colors, specially as quick blurs, Seat will offer you a huge list of powertrain options: only with gasoline there will be the TSi 1.2 (85 or 103 hp), 1.4 (120 or 138 hp) and 1.8 (177 hp), while with diesel it’ll come with the TDi 1.6 (89 or 103 hp) or 2.0 (148 or 181 hp) – the latter ones will obtain very low consumption rates. The transmission options will be manual with five or six speeds or DSG with six or seven, depending on each of its three trims.

Jeep Grand Cherokee CRD

Você lembra do breve período em que a Chrysler esteve nas mãos da Mercedes-Benz? Iniciadas no final da década de 1990, as boas intenções da aliança salvaram a montadora norteamericana de graves problemas financeiros e pretendiam aumentar a competitividade mundial de ambas, mas levaram apenas a uma sucessão de problemas. Nos dias de hoje, a união com a Fiat dá cada vez mais provas de que foi uma decisão bem mais acertada. Para nós, a mais recente é esta versão do SUV que agora chega ao lançamento oficial.

Guardadas as proporções, as chamadas joint-ventures podem ser entendidas com uma breve associação ao conceito de casamento. Mais ou menos como com as pessoas, uma empresa se associa a outra quando se detectam interesses comuns, neste caso para efetivar a ideia de começar dividindo os custos para no futuro aumentar os lucros. Mas com a convivência também surgem os projetos comuns. Começam em geral com uma cedendo veículos à outra para vendê-los em outros mercados, e continua com o uso compartilhado de tecnologias e por fim plataformas – é a evolução que Ford e VW tiveram no começo dos anos 1990 no Brasil, com a Autolatina. Atualmente, a Chrysler está por concluir a separação da Mercedes-Benz, mas já se encontra desfrutando de muitos benefícios da união com os italianos. Ou seja, depois de começarem com carros como Fiat Freemont e mais tarde RAM ProMaster, hoje em dia os benefícios estão chegando também às esferas mais tradicionais. A divisão de luxo Lancia, por exemplo, já expandiu suas operações na Europa ganhando modelos da Chrysler e até vendendo outros com essa marca, em alguns países. Já na América do Norte, a família 500 marcou o retorno da Fiat tanto em hatchback como na inédita versão minivan, chamada 500L. Por outro lado, carros como a versão CRD do Grand Cherokee abandonaram o motor de origem Mercedes-Benz por um de origem italiana.

Estima-se que as primeiras unidades do CRD (anterior ao face-lift que a linha receberá para este ano) chegaram ao Brasil ainda no final do ano passado, mas só agora se faz o lançamento oficial. Ele chega pelo preço de R$ 219.900, e com o mesmo atrativo que sempre garante boas vendas aos utilitários no Brasil: evitar o consumo de um motor grande movido a gasolina mas manter o ótimo desempenho. Trata-se do V6 3.0 24v turbo fabricado pela VM Motori, empresa italiana de propriedade da Fiat. A tecnologia Multijet II atua em parceria com duplo comando de válvulas no cabeçote, bloco de ferro, virabrequim de aço forjado e turbina Garrett de geometria variável. Tudo isso lhe permite chegar a 241 cv de potência e 56 kgfm de torque, força suficiente para fazer o Grand Cherokee ignorar seus 2.347 kg e acelerar de 0 a 100 km/h em 8s2, chegando à máxima de 202 km/h. Tudo isso é comandado pelo câmbio automático sequencial de cinco marchas (com opção de trocas manuais pela alavanca) e, obviamente, tração integral. Como dita a reputação de décadas que este carro exibe com orgulho, esse potencial para enfrentar as mais puras trilhas off-road fica restrito ao lado de fora. Ver a cabine faz pensar que se entrou em um sedã de luxo, seja por causa dos belos revestimentos ou da profusão de itens de conforto e segurança, carregados de tecnologia.

Alfa Romeo 4C

Geneva was where the concept car’s first appearance took place, and now, two years later, Geneva will be where the production version’s arrival will take place. The current times are asking for new strategies, so Alfa Romeo will use this car as its first solid attempt to expand the sales around the whole world, just like almost every car fan has dreamed to see for decades. If there isn’t only one correct direction to achieve success, it’s undeniable that Alfa’s is the most commendable one: 4C comes as Italian as it could possibly be.

Like most of the European brands, Alfa had to reorganize its plans in order to become more profitable. Fiat, like every other car group, won’t ever give too much information about what it’s trying to do with each brand, but it’s possible to think the intention is to make both Alfa Romeo and Lancia have a full-size showroom, working from mid-size to entry-luxury price ranges but always maintaining their very heavy conceptual difference: the Alfas would be always sporty, while Lancia would take care of the classy side, leaving Maserati to the high luxury zone – it would be the only way of keeping all of them and living in peace with each other, but so far this is nothing more than speculation. The great fact for now, though, is that 4C comes with really small changes from the concept version, such as the different headlights. The customers which were waiting for new GTV and Spider unfortunately will have to keep praying, because this one brings a totally different style, which is actually closer to some English cars like Lotus Elise. In other words, the Italian coupé focuses much more at the best handling it could have than to break speed records. The design, for example, has only 13.1-feet length but 6.6-feet width, combined to a 3.9-feet height. Like Chanel and Dior (or Versace and Dolce & Gabbana, to keep it Italian), Alfa wanted its new sports car to be concentrated in a small, but very, very beautiful flask.

Smaller sports cars aren’t used to be very attractive because there isn’t much space to use those opulent creases and volumes such as Enzo Ferrari or Mercedes-Benz SLS’s, but 4C turned out very well-designed. The MiTo-inspired front fascia still uses big and round headlights, but the black painting made them very elegant. Besides that, it’s nice to observe that Alfa used cleaner lines, which suit smaller cars much better than too many shapes: the lower grille seems to create only one big element, getting divided only by the cuore sportivo, which also defines two big lines that make the hood seem smaller – simply excellent. Those two lines fade after the doors, whose windows became visually connected to the windshield by black-painted A-columns, and give space to the imponent real air intakes. And going a little further we see the beautiful tiny rear, which takes the attentions to the round lights and the rear windshield, this one because of the rear-mid engine: this car uses the turbocharged 1.8L with four cylinders (that’s why it’s called 4C) debuted with Giulietta Quadrifoglio Verde. It’ll generate 232-hp power and 251-lb-ft torque, leading to expect that the carbon fiber chassis’ reduced weight will help to achieve very interesting performance. 4C will use only a six-speed dual-clutch TCT automatic gearbox, but it also features the DNA selector: there will be Dynamic, Natural and All Weather modes as usual, but here along with Race, each one with different driving parameters.

RAM ProMaster

Fiat Group’s latest releases could be seen as a nice class of how to practice badge engineering avoiding its tricks. Like most of the decisions regarding new cars’ releases, there are so many definitions to set that the number of possibilities borders being endless… but to achieve a high-potential vehicle really requires dealing with those. So after creating Fiat Freemont as Dodge Journey’s twin in a way that brought great sales for both, now it’s time to follow the reverse path and adding this whole commercial line to RAM’s showroom.

Long story short, yes, this is a rebadged third-generation Fiat Ducato, which has been succcessfully sold in Europe for about seven years also as the French brother Peugeot Boxer. Since commercial vehicles have very different concerns, such as maximizing the payload and reducing the costs, it’s easy to understand the larger lifecycles these cars usually have. In other words, these customers see aging projects as reliable ones, rather than preferring stylish and always up-to-date designs. Ducato has sold millions worldwide due to its renowned efficiency and resistance, which couldn’t be better showed than with how easy is to see its versions at the European streets; this is an interesting sales argument for this category, rather than having the very latest technologies. This and the fact that it would be pointless to invest in structural changes to an already well-accepted project is what resulted on ProMaster arriving at the US changing only all the badges and the front bumper, to follow RAM’s corporate design. Some Dodge fans might still dislike separating the pick-up truck into a particular brand, but now it’s possible to see the Group’s point: having an exclusive brand gives the opportunity to get dedicated to the commercial vehicles without affecting Dodge’s sporty image.

In fact, this dedication is so big that ProMaster already comes in Ducato’s entire list of options, which denotes RAM’s intention of having an important share of this category’s sales. In other words, the new van comes in two roof heights (90 and 101 inches), three wheelbase lenghts (118, 136 and 159 inches) and four cargo floor lenghts (105, 123, 146 and 160 inches), not to mention the chassis cabs. This car’s structure was projected to be efficient, and this is seen in items such as rear clamshell doors with 260° opening, full-size sliding side doors, not-too-high ride height to facilitate access and all the vehicle systems located in the front, making the rear end very easy to modify. The biggest changes came to the powertrain, in order to adapt the line to Chrysler Pentastar V6 3.6L and its 280-hp power and 258 lb-ft torque; the diesel option is brought by Fiat, though: a four-cylinder EcoDiesel turbocharged 3.0L with 174 hp and 295 lb-ft. The first engine always comes with automatic six-speed transmission, while the second always uses a six-speed automated manual gearbox, but the traction system is always front-wheel-drive. This car will hit the streets in the next summer, highlighting numbers as a payload capacity of 5,145 pounds and, according to RAM, the status of being the best in class for cargo capacity, ceiling height, fuel economy, low load floor and step-in height.

Kia Forte Hatchback 2

If Hyundai’s current prestige started when Sonata introduced Fluidic Sculpture, Kia’s “image boost” also came from a very successful new design language, Tiger Nose. It’s interesting to notice that even though these sister brands always share platforms and engines, each one managed to develop its own image with complete freedom and, therefore, compose its own public. After releasing Forte sedan last year, the Koreans now show the even more attractive five-door sibling. Here you’ll read why this is such an irresistible car.

While the sister always invests at plenty of creases and folds, the path followed by Kia may be more discreet in a first sight, but the fact is it only takes a closer look to be fully appreciated. Peter Schreyer’s team created an organic style, with smooth transitions between the volumes contrasting with the stronger-shaped elements. Although the Europeans have their own medium-sized Kias (the cee’d line), Forte’s styling has heavy influences from what those markets use on their cars – Alfa Romeo Giulietta and Citroën DS4 are good examples of that. But if Kia really wants to offer high-quality products, it would be a nonsense to create this Forte sibling as nothing more than a shortened-rear sedan. There are several exclusive items at this hatchback, starting with the front fascia: the famous grille became much shorter, just to create a visual connection between the headlights, in order to make room for an impressive lower intake. The sides use exclusive rear doors whose design goes against the European cousin’s: Forte doesn’t use the third window even in cee’d’s creative shape; that two-part design actually resembles DS4 once again. And when you see this Forte passing at your side, nothing says a more stylish goodbye than those gorgeous irregularly-shaped tail lights. But this car surely has much more to offer.

The interior is entirely shared with the sedan, but this is a great fact. It means this car brings good-looking console and plenty of room for five, but with the addition of a huge equipment list: it’ll be possible to drive the new Forte with items such as heated seats and steering wheel, keyless entry, leather seats and xenon headlights, divided into a couple of trim levels: EX, for example, comes with the sedan’s 2.0L with 173-hp power and 154-lb-ft torque always using a six-speed automatic transmission – the 1.8L won’t be used here. The surprise, however, comes from SX: the upmarket trim adds 18” aluminum wheels with 225/40 tires, LED tail lights, twin exhaust tips and some style accessories, which composes the perfect sporty ambiance to the turbocharged 1.6L and its 201-hp power and 195-lb-ft torque, this one offered with the same gearbox or an optional six-speed manual. This must be the very same engine as what recently was revealed to be used in cee’d GT, which gives this Forte a very important position: at least while Kia doesn’t come up with some more special variation, Forte SX will be the Korean hot hatch for the North American market, being capable of taking very famous names such as Ford Focus ST and Volkswagen GTI with the same level of attractiveness but a little less power, just like the European brother.

SsangYong Rodius 2

One of the biggest evolutions of the car concept was getting divided into categories. This allowed the vehicles to serve each time more customers, because they stopped being simple transportation tools and joined that to performing several other practical applications. The number of categories has only grown through the decades, which results in today’s cars being capable each one of focusing on some specific tasks very well, although it’s impossible not to leave others behind. This article’s car is one of the latest examples of that.

An automaker frequently needs to offer more than one single vehicle because each one actually reproduces the small-blanket problem: either you cover your neck or your feet. Translating to car language, a VW Golf GTI would travel on a quagmire as badly as a Ford F-250 would be driven at a parking building. Those come from the fact that the first one is dedicated to the performance, while the second was projected to take big cargo through farms and highways. What SsangYong had in mind as an opportunity to take with Rodius, therefore, was to provide bigger families’ transportation. Not to reach 200 mph, not to fit two of them in a conventional parking spot and not to climb mountains, but also not to the commercial use – that’s when all the fuss starts. The Koreans wanted a large family car which wouldn’t resemble a cargo van, such as Fiat Ducato and Renault Master which, in turn, have passenger and cargo versions with the same exterior. So besides avoiding the closed-window settings, this idea also included a much more creative styling, to get it visually closer to the urban cars. Rodius came in 2004 with a very interesting proposal of comfort and huge space for a family, not companies, but there was only one obstacle to its commercial success. Also sold as Korando Turismo and Stavic, this car’s looks was undeniably unique, and also distant from the vans… but in a way that takes only one photo to explain why it has never prospered.

Nevertheless, SsangYong didn’t give up. Bigger cars like this usually have longer lifecycles than sedans or wagons, so Rodius now prepares to turn nine years old receiving its very first facelift – it’s hard to believe that so many changes were made on the same project, indeed, but keeping the doors almost untouched makes it easier. Looking at this new phase leads to think that the intention was to make the car look imponent, rather than futuristic as before. That would explain the much more modern front fascia, with straight lines and solid volumes just like the rear one, composing some sort of SUV-inspirated style. What is really hard to understand is the contradiction created around the car’s back half. If the intention was transforming Rodius into an SUV, these cars naturally have much shorter rears. On the other side, cars which take eleven (!) passengers could really use the benefits of a full van, like bigger windows and sliding doors, but this one ended up trying to hide this family side with this new design and obviously fails, resulting at a really strange car once again. Much better than the previous one, though, but still weird, like an excessively stretched new Chevrolet Trailblazer. But once everyone finds out how to enter throught those small doors, the 10-feet wheelbase brings space for people and their baggage. It’ll use a turbocharged diesel 2.0L with 150 hp and a V6 3.2L with gasoline, paired to a six-speed manual transmission or five-speed automatic and available all-wheel-drive.

BMW 3-Series GT

Disclaimer: Even though these two words draw big smiles on each and every sports car fan, when they’re shown as a BMW vehicle’s version many of them might react with intense signs of rejection. Those were probably brought by the memories of the 5-Series-based sibling, which is actually understandable, but this article’s car turns out being worthy to receive attention because it shows its brand’s ability to learn from its own mistakes. So if you thought all the BMW GTs would be despicable, how about knowing this one better?

It would be impossible to start this article without acknowledging it took a lot of nerve from BMW for keep investing on the GT cars after the bad acceptance of the first one. This fact is interesting to notice because it clearly represents that there are actual limits of what people would like when it comes to crossovers – the time keeps passing but it never stops being surprising to see how many of those became successful in the past few years, in all kinds of automakers, sizes, proposals and markets. But after the big hits called X5 and X6, the Germans had a bad time with their first Gran Turismo, not because of its contents but its style. After all, as if it wasn’t enough to debut a fastback crossover in this very traditional automaker, the external design arrived way too strange, like if the elements don’t have any connection with each other. 3-Series, in turn, was designed with the intense concern of correcting this precise problem. The front fascia starts to reveal that it proudly shares DNA with sedan and wagon. GT’s elements are almost the same as those two’s, but the trick was to apply them with different proportions. The new car became some sort of “tougher” version without ever stopping to give the idea it’s a 3-Series, from every angle it’s observed – this is the biggest difference that makes this one a better-looking car than “5 GT”, the fact that it turned out an elegant car which has even managed to resemble its siblings.

Actually, it’s even possible to think there was some inspiration taken from X6, which was the very first BMW with this fastback-inspired design. But keeping the design matters aside, the fact is the new GT is an overgrown younger sibling: comparing with the other 3-Series, it became 3.2 inches taller, 7.9 inches larger and a 4.3 inches longer wheelbase, not to mention the 18.4 cubic feet bigger trunk (3.5 bigger than the wagon’s), which can be raised to 56.5 with all the seats folded down. And when it comes to seating, GT’s position is taller, with individually divided rear seats, bigger legroom and even several inclining positions. The whole interior keeps the concept of enlarging what is seen on 3-Series, with a very similar design and the same several coating options according to the version: it’ll be sold as base, Luxury, Modern, Sport and Urban, with the optional M Sports Package. In other words, this car strongly preserves the intention of being the 3-Series variation that offers what sedan and wagon don’t: while those are much more dedicated to great steering and typically-attractive design, GT tries to satisfy who is much more concerned to bigger comfort and internal space. Sharing that DNA also allows the new car to preserve the engines, composing three gasoline options and three diesel ones – some of them are 320i, 328i, 335i and 320d, with rear-wheel-drive or optional AWD. This Gran Turismo will be officially released at the upcoming Geneva Auto Show.

Renault Scénic 2013

There are lots of opportunities in life that lead us to notice that even the smallest facts can provoke enormous results, whether good or bad ones. Those are so frequent that even when restricted to the car world still end up a very large list. Citroën Visa, for instance, went from failure to success mostly due to a front bumper change. Honda’s moderation with the 2011 Civic, in turn, ended risking a long-time reputation in USA. Now it’s these minivans’ time to get updated, but their goal is different: they only needed a retouche d’image.

The most common thought of the people whose countries don’t offer Scénic must be “Why changing this generation so soon? I think it would still look young in a couple of years”. But the truth is it surprises even the Europeans, although for a different reason: “But this car was facelifted last year!”… Aging opinions aside, both groups can calm down with knowing more about the latter facelift. Do you remember how the cars’ design used to be mainly two-dimensional? Headlights and tail lights were kept on the front and rear panels, while the doors’ designs were started and ended only at the sides. The exceptions were more obvious, such as the roof designs for a sedan and a hatchback. Today’s design is much more complex because all the car’s sections became fully connected, and one example of that is what Renault has changed on Scénic. The front fascia of a modern car is physically constructed only by the bumper, which has also the front grille and ends outlining the lights, making it possible to perform big visual updates by changing only one part. Therefore, observing the pictures with more attention will lead to noticing that Scénic’s tail lights received new internal design while Grand Scénic’s remained untouched, but the biggest change wasn’t even complete: the front bumper was nothing but partially redesigned.

That part received a new upper grille with everything else staying the same, but why is this so important? Because this car has received the “bowtie”, which is some sort of the flagship item of Renault’s latest design language. This is very important because this automaker was starting to lack identity, mostly due to the various origins of its cars: some came from Dacia and others from Nissan and Samsung, not to mention what the simple age differences brought. But instead of very strong rules like Audi’s, Renault fortunately seems to be satisfied with having only some common items among its cars, freeing each one to maintain its own personality – actually, these minivans should’ve received this facelift right after Fluence, but had to step back in order to give space for Clio’s new generation. And as the mid-size sedan, which in fact is directly project-related to Scénic, there was no need to change more than applying the new corporate design. Both short and long-wheelbase options stayed the same elegant and classy vans, which took inspiration from Citroën’s C4 Picasso duo: the five-seater has some items with more casual look in order to resemble the sporty vehicles, while the bigger sister’s classical touch is clearly connected with the even bigger Espace. If you put them side-by-side with the other “bowtied” Renaults it would be very easy to notice their shared “genetics”, but does some of them look like a scaled version of other? The obviousness of this negative is what should be making Renault’s designers delighted.

However, it’s always nice to observe when “delighted” doesn’t mean “satisfied”. If the intention was to make Scénic look more casual in the small version, this update took this opportunity to bring the latest version of what’s already one of this car’s traditions: the light-off-road sister. Even though in nowadays the group offers crossovers, some customers still prefer a bigger car than Captur, fancier than Duster, more spacious than Koleos and more family-friendly than all of those. That’s why this version started as RX4, turned into Conquest and now arrives as XMOD: it’s easy to notice the new intentions with the more aggressive front design (by the way, once again achieved just changing the bumper) with bigger grille and imponent black-plastic protectors, which are continued by the sides and ended at a rear bumper which resembles RX4 very much. There are roof racks and an interesting traction system: since the car only has front-wheel-drive, Grip Xtend brings three driving modes for the traction control: Road, Loose Ground and Expert. Besides, the only interior update for the entire line is the addition of R-Link infotainment system, while the Bose sound system will come only at the most expensive trims. These cars will also offer new Energy engine options: they were updated to achieve 15% better consumption and emissions and, as usual, come with several power options – the most powerful will be TCe 130, with 128 hp. The new Scénic family will be officially released at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show.

Renault Kangoo 2013

Some months ago, everyone turned the spotlights to Mercedes-Benz and the latest member of its commercial vehicles’ line, the badge-engineered Citan. But this release also brought the memory that Kangoo, the French multivan whose project was used to create the German sibling, was completing four years at the current generation without having any style changes. Renault now takes the opportunity to give some updates which may not create design revolutions, but have a great importance to the car’s market position.

Do you know what does “kangoo” stand for? This word doesn’t have any meaning, actually. Renault used a computer program to create random pronounceable letter combinations until they liked this one, which they used to baptize their very first multivan, which came in 1998 to fight this category’ pioneers, PSA’s Citroën Berlingo and Peugeot Partner, and Fiat Doblò a few years later. But if the French twins tried to look like a conventional car as much as possible, the other two wanted to stand out in the crowd: like the Italian rival, the first Kangoo used very creative shapes and bright colors to compose a playful appearance, rather than discreet. But they all agreed to offer huge space for people and/or cargo (there were several body options) with resistant structures and inexpensive trim levels, which didn’t take long to result at a very successful quartet. They’ve started to receive the second generation around the tenth year, in which PSA only upgraded the original concept, while Fiat made Doblò much more elegant. Renault, in turn, decided to evolve Kangoo’s initial idea. The pictures show a more solid version of the first generation’s design, maintaining vivid colors and shapes but also receiving a new option: named Be Bop for passengers or Compact for cargo, it has smaller height and wheelbase, achieving a “cuter design” which makes it more suitable for companies with lighter demands.

And after shrinking at the beginning, this generation received the electric Z.E. version and ended with an enlargement: the second Grand Kangoo was also an extended-wheelbase option for both uses, but also like the first one there was a big surprise concerning the design: having the cost reduction as a priority resulted at very questionable design solutions, such as brutally stretched last columns at the first and rear fenders at the second. Nevertheless, worrying about award-winning designs or not is what creates the biggest difference between Kangoo and Scénic, to keep the comparisons in Renault’s showroom. These pictures show the rational van of those, and that’s why there weren’t great investments at this facelift. The entire front was restyled in order to syncronize this car with Renault’s current design language, which includes big headlights and the already famous V-shaped grille highlighting the brand’s logo – the Z.E. version adds the blue-chrome details seen at the photos and sets the charging port under the logo. Internally, there’s new dashboard and the R-Link infotainment system. Since this car focuses at the commercial use, there’s only one gasoline engine option, the 1.2 TCe – all the others use diesel, generating from 75 to 110 hp.

02/28/2012 update: Now it was time for releasing the facelifted Kangoo’s passenger version, after commercial and electric variations. The visual changes are the exact same here, but restricted to the medium-wheelbase vehicle, which has also received two new trim levels: besides Life, Zens and Intens there will be Business and Extrem. The first one is focused on companies, while the second deserved to appear in the most recent official pictures. Like PSA has done with Citroën Berlingo XTR and Peugeot Partner Tepee, now it’s Renault’s time to offer an “off-road inspiration” for this multivan, with 15” wheels, exclusive external stickers, chrome details and roof rack, while the cabin receives two-tone coating. It was also revealed that Kangoo will have hill-start assistance and stability control as standard items, with the R-Link infotainment system as an optional. The diesel engine options will actually be the same dCi 1.5L, with 75, 90 or 110 hp of power, while there will be only the 115-hp TCe with gasoline.

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