By John LeBlanc for MSN Autos
After almost nine decades of manufacturing in the country, and citing increasingly high costs, dropping sales and mounting financial losses, America’s Ford Motor Co. will shutter its Australian automotive and engine assembly plants in 2016.
1967 Shelby GT500 Super Snake. Photos courtesy Mecum Auctions
By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos
Slow economy? What slow economy? Proving once again that super-rich people continue to buy whatever strikes their fancy, someone just set the unofficial record for the highest amount paid for a Ford Mustang at $1.3 million US.
Apparently, an official 50-car production run was planned, but the price would have been twice that of the next-most-expensive Shelby, so there wasn't much interest.
During the Mecum auction in Indianapolis from May 14-19, someone decided that this one-of-one Shelby was worth $1.3 million. Depending on who you ask, previous records for other Mustangs and Shelby's run from $990,000 paid for a '65 Shelby GT350 through RM Auctions and $1.1 million for the modified Shelby 'Eleanor' that Nicholas Cage drove in the remake of Gone in 60 Seconds. Either way, the Super Snake easily beats both of those by a substantial margin.
So, if you had the money, would paying over $1 million for a muscle car be worth it to you? Is paying over $1 million for any car, regardless of age or rarity, a complete waste? Would you buy a modern exotic instead? Let us know in the comments.
By John LeBlanc for MSN Autos
Last week in Paris, Japan’s Toyota revealed its new Me.We Concept. Unlike most show cars these days, the Me.We doesn’t brag about having a gazillion horsepower or is jammed with leather-this or power-that or more infotainment goodies than you’ll find at home. Instead, the Toyota concept is more like what an Apple iPod is compared to your grandparents’ hi-fidelity home stereo system; taking the less is more approach.
By John LeBlanc for MSN Autos
We’re through the first three months of the year— or “quarter” for you econ grads out there — and Hyundai’s compact Elantra is nudging out Honda’s perennially bestselling compact Civic for “bestselling new car” honours in the country.
Now, just to be clear, neither the Elantra nor the Civic are the “bestselling new vehicle” in Canada. So far for 2013, that title goes to Ford’s all-conquering F-Series full-size pickup trucks. With 28,870 copies sold through the end of March, the Ford truck handily leads the second-place Ram truck family, which sold 18,189 units. But when it comes to cars, the Hyundai and Honda are in a sales dogfight.
By John LeBlanc for MSN Autos
If you’re just getting use to the idea of having to keep track of six instead of five or four gears in your car’s gearbox, you may want to stop reading this article now. More than likely, your next new vehicle will have more gears than a mechanical watch.
By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos
The Automobile Journalists Association of Canada has traditionally been known for its Canadian Car of the Year Awards, which are awarded after a long testing and voting process by its members every year. However, while AJAC does have an award for best technology that includes 'green' powertrains and other new ideas, there's never been an category exclusively for environmentally friendly vehicles.
That's no longer the case. Announced during the Green Living Show in Toronto on April 12, the Ford Fusion Hybrid became the first recipient of the inaugural AJAC Canadian Green Car Award. The 2013 is the second-generation Fusion Hybrid and offers not only great fuel efficiency numbers (4.0 L/100 km city and 4.1 highway) but is one of the few 'green' cars to be more powerful and quicker than the 'regular' vehicles they're based on.
In fact, most of the nominees for the award are solid, entertaining vehicles to drive. The other finalists included the Ford C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid, the Hyundai Sonata hybrid, the Mazda3 SKYACTIV and Volkswagen Jetta Turbocharged Hybrid.
"The competition has made it clear that driving a green vehicle isn't a dull, obligation. On the contrary - they can be great fun," said Peter Gorrie, chair of AJAC's Green Car Award steering committee, who presented the trophy. "We're just at the beginning of a green revolution in cars. We want this award to help everyone understand and appreciate it, and make the best possible choice for themselves and the environment."
Besides the obvious areas like fuel economy and emissions, the panel also considered other environmentally friendly areas - for example, use of recycled or naturally sourced materials - and steps each manufacturer has taken to green its operations. Those were balanced against things like build quality, driving experience, overall features, availability, general consumer appeal and price.
"We are extremely proud that the 2013 Ford Fusion hybrid has been honoured by our country's top automotive journalists as the recipient of the inaugural Canadian Green Car Award," said Steve Ross, Ford of Canada's product marketing manager, sustainability and electrification. "The Fusion hybrid is an important vehicle in the Ford line-up, delivering leading fuel-economy, innovative technologies and a sleek, desirable design for eco-conscious consumers."
Besides the five finalists, other nominees included the Chevrolet Cruze Clean Turbo Diesel, Chevrolet Volt, Ford Edge EcoBoost, Ford Focus Electric, Mazda CX-5, Mazda6, Mercedes-Benz B 250 Turbo, Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Nissan Leaf and Smart Fortwo Electric Drive.
By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos
Detroit is in a big push to get its mojo back. The city's been the subject of several car advertising campaighs recently, including the famous Chrysler spot with Eminem debuting at the Super Bowl a few years back. The town that put North America on wheels is in serious decline, though, having lost most of its population to downsizing and outsourcing, leaving a ghostly industrial shell behind.
Things are starting to improve, though. The North American International Auto Show regained its stature as the place to be after more than a few years of cutbacks and manufacturer pull-outs. The Detroit Grand Prix is one of three events that'll hold double-header races in this year's IndyCar series, and the products coming out of the Big 3 are more competitive than ever.
In another bid to help rebuild, the city is hoping to land the 2014 Summer X Games, which would be a serious coup. More than 250,000 people attend the annual event, which would bring an immense amount of tourism bucks and city spirit. California has had not only the greatest number of X Games (15), but also the longest stretch (10 years straight at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.) The first two were held in Rhode Island and Vermont while Philadelphia got a couple years in the early '00s, but otherwise it's been a west-coast special.
Sure, most of the Summer X Games events are things like skateboarding and BMX, but the big numbers and highlights come from the ones with engines: Motocross and rallycross. Maybe that's why the first thing shown in the short promo video for the bid is Tanner Foust flaying his 600-horsepower Ford Fiesta RS Rallycross car around an abandoned downtown parking lot. That's before the dude on the bike and the guy holding a skateboard.
Anyway, we're all for a move to Detroit, if for no other reason that it'll be more accessible to a greater number of Canadians. Detroit is well within a day's drive for all of Southern Ontario and plenty of Quebec as well. And think of how well Windsor would do when all the spectators need someplace to stay? Win-win.
What do you think? Worth the effort? Too little too late?
h/t to Jalopnik.com
By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos
Jimmie Johnson won his second-ever Daytona 500 on Sunday afternoon, despite not leading many laps along the way. Johnson restarted in the lead with only six laps to go, and despite a charge by Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin, Johnson wasn't really challenged at the checkers.
“It’s a very, very proud moment. Plate racing has been a little tough on the 48 the last few years," Johnson said.
It was the first win for Chevrolet with its new Gen-6 SS racecar, and it also took six of the top-10 finishers. Ford had three while Toyota had only one, although it was third-placed Martin.
Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin were the most dominant in terms of laps led, but finished poorly in 37th, 20th and 14th respectively.
For those wondering, Danica Patrick set another record on Sunday by becoming the first woman to lead a Cup race at Daytona. She was racy all day and was into the mix until the final lap where she dropped from second to eighth.
Bad luck also gave Patrick's teammate and boss Tony Stewart a headache when he wrecked out early despite having won the infamous crash-filled Nationwide race the night before. Despite being Sprint Cup champ at least twice, he's never won the big one at Daytona.
Overall, the race turned out to be more a snoozer than NASCAR was hoping for. Apparently the Gen-6 cars were safe enough on their first outing, but it was difficult to pass and run two or three wide. However, the focus for the new Sprint Cup cars is to improve the 'show' at the mid-sized 'mile-and-a-half' tracks that make up the bulk of the schedule, not the two-mile 'plate' tracks like Daytona and Talladega.
Did you watch the race? What did you think? Were you rooting for Danica to win or crash out? Let us know in the comments.
By John LeBlanc for MSN Autos Canada
Let’s open up this discussion with some facts. The top three, full-size pickup truck sellers in Canada last year were the same trio that have been at the top since, well, forever: Detroit’s Ford, General Motors’ Chevrolet and GMC brands and Fiat’s Ram (nee Dodge). In total, they sold 254,268 full-size pickups, with the Ford F-Series leading the way with over 100,000 sold — a record. When you compare those domestic brand truck sales numbers with the respective sales numbers for the Toyota Tundra (7,241) and Nissan Titan (3,499), you have to wonder why the pair of Japanese brands continue to take it on the chin from the always-dominant Detroit Three. And based on recent news, it seems like both Toyota and Nissan aren’t giving up.
By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos
And the Ganassi Racing powerhouse wins once again. The undisputed heavyweight champion of the Grand-Am sports-car world put on a clinic of hard and clean driving, working your plan and the benefits of intense pre-race preparation. When the team's lead car crossed the finish line at 3:30 pm local time at Daytona International Speedway, it cemented its reputation as the winningest team in decades. This year's Daytona 24 win was CGR's fifth out of 10 attempts, and lead driver Scott Pruett's fifth overall victory, a feat that ties him with legendary Porsche driver Hurley Haywood.
Pruett's Daytona teammate Juan Pablo Montoya was tasked with bringing the 01 BMW-powered Riley home during the final stint, and did so despite mounting pressure from second-placed Max Angelelli in a Corvette DP. Montoya's gap over Angellelli was about 22 seconds at the end of 24 hours (plus one lap) of racing, which is pretty impressive, although other years have been one by significantly less time. The defending champs from Shank Racing fielded the same five-driver lineup as last year, but suffered a broken suspension piece early in the race and went seven laps down trying to fix it. In the end, they fought back to third place, but obviously without the mechanical issues would have been right into the mix with their Ford-powered Riley.
In GT, Porsche had dominated in qualifying taking the top-four spots on the grid, but by the end of 24 brutal hours, couldn't place higher than fifth... Audi took a one-two victory with its more-generously-supported R8's, a first for the manufacturer in Grand-Am. It might have been a podium sweep for Audi had the Rum Bum Racing R8 not run out of gas late in the race. That gave the Toronto-based AIM Autosport Ferrari 458 with Emil Assentato, Nick Longhi, Anthony Lazzaro and Canadian Mark Wilkins a well-deserved podium place.
The new GX class for more experimental and environmentally friendly racecars basically saw a trio of well-proven Porsche Caymans outlast the three brand-new never-raced Mazda6 SKYACTIV entries. The Mazda's 2.2-litre turbo-diesel engines were a first in Grand-Am, but proved fragile over the race. Mazda says it planned the Rolex 24 to be one giant test and the car can only improve from here.
Another Porsche legend David Donahue was the lead driver on the GX-class-winner Cayman from Napleton Racing, while Vancouver-based Bullet Racing with Canucks Darryl O’Young and Karl Thomson finished second.
Plenty of other Canadians in the race, including Paul Tracy, Alex Tagliani, James Hinchcliffe, Sylvain Tremblay, David Empringham, Michael Valiante, Dave Lacey, JF Dumoulin and Paul Dalla Lana.
There seemed to be fewer yellow-flag periods because of silly driving this year and more from general wear-and-tear or unproven parts. However, moving into morning, a giant bank of fog hit the track, forcing the race to run under yellow for around 90 minutes until conditions improved.
For full results, check out the Grand-Am page.
Anyone else watch the race? Enjoyable? I can't wait to see how it'll shake out with the additional cars in the merged ALMS/Grand-Am series.
Photos courtesy Grand-Am.
Justin Couture
Reportedly, the first word to come out of his mouth was "car," and since then it's evolved into a life-long passion. Justin is a fan of passionately engineered vehicles, but in general, loves the industry as much as the cars it produces. Justin is the Assistant Editor of MSN Autos, and manages The Passing Lane.
Mark Atkinson
Mark has a decade’s experience driving and writing about thousands of vehicles, and two decades before as an inveterate car nut and race fan. He’s also a first-time father, so you’ll need to excuse the occasional half-awake daddy rant about how his daughter’s car-seat won’t fit.
John LeBlanc
After a career in advertising and marketing, John decided to turn his jaundiced eye towards the world of cars. Since then, he's become one of Canada's most vociferous critics of the industry, delivering objective analysis of the new car scene.
