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Mercedes announced pricing and details for their massive E-Class estate – prices from £29,785, a boot of 1,950 litres, up to 49.6mpg and AdBlue on the E350 BlueTec diesel. Red Bull released a snazzy video of Sebastian Buemi driving on ice in Canada, to celebrate F1’s return to the country. And there were some rumours of Citroen making a DS3 hot hatch.
Jaguar announced that XJ prices will start from £53,775 for the three litre turbodiesel, and rise to £90,455 for the LWD V8 when it goes on sale in April. Kia released a picture of its Ray plug-in hybrid concept that’ll appear at the Chicago motor show in February. And Michael Schumacher wrote on his website that his neck doesn’t hurt.
Mitsubishi officially revealed pictures of its ASX Crossover, which will want to pinch buyers from the all-conquering Qashqai when it arrives this summer. The world’s cleverest man, Ross Brawn, said Michael Schumacher will win the 2010 F1 Championship, but not the first race. And a spokesperson from Saab’s hospice said the company is still hopeful of being revived by Spyker.
Toyota revealed a new version of the FT-86 ‘Toyobaru’ concept – a coupe its building in conjunction with Subaru, fitted with a boxer engine. BMW updated the looks and engines of the 3 Series convertible and coupe, to now be in line with the saloon. And Michael Schumacher received loads of praise for driving a GP2 car at a reasonable pace.
The hilariously named British supercar-mongers Climax Cars revealed a racer/supercar to take on the Ariel Atom V8 and KTM X-Bow – it’ll cost less than £100k and have a Ford V8. It was rumoured that Geely will finish buying Volvo from Ford by February 2010. And Mercedes GP CEO Nick Fry said he wanted Schumacher to drive for them next year.
Alfa Romeo revealed a jazzed over, matt black version of the Brera made in conjunction with designer label Italia Independent. Ford tweaked the S-Max and Galaxy, giving both cars a new ‘Ecoboost’ turbocharged 2.0 petrol with around 200bhp but 189g/km of CO2, as well as upgraded diesels and funked cosmetics. And Ferrari said Schumacher was free to leave their contract.
Yes, we know it’s now Monday so this is old news… but we went to the pub on Friday and have only just left. So, for the sake of continuity, here’s Friday’s news on Monday:
Some Formula 1 news happened: Renault sold 75% of its team to an unnamed buyer, keeping 25% for itself; and the points system was changed with 25 points for 1st place, down to 1 point for 10th. There were rumours of Kia making a rear-drive coupe, based on the Hyundai Genesis. And pictures of Honda’s CR-Z leaked onto the internet.
Aston Martin revealed that their Panamera-embarassing Rapide four-door will cost £139,950 when it goes on sale in March 2010. Nissan’s Cube pricing was also announced – starting from £14,000 when it hits shelves in January. And in motorsport, Raikkonen signed up as a 2010 Citroen WRC driver, while Renault’s F1 carcass was fought over by Prodrive and some bankers from Luxembourg.
In non-A8 news, the possibility of Nissan building its upcoming Leaf electric car in the UK looked in doubt, due to their failed bid to supply 2,000 of the cars for the 2012 Olympic games. Tata boss Ratan Tata said a hybrid version of the Nano econo-box would be a good idea. And Schumacher still won’t deny an F1 drive.
Volkswagen were reported to be thinking about supplying Formula One engines from 2012. The Phoenix Four Rover ruiners returned £3,000,000 to MG, after an out of court discussion about how treacherous they are. And the Russian government announced they’d pump £1billion into Lada’s parent company Avtovaz, in exchange for Renault (who own 25% of the company) providing some new technology.
More details emerged about GM’s European job cuts, with news that around 4,200 jobs will be lost between two plants in Germany while 354 are lost from Luton and none at all from Ellesmere Port. Michael Schumacher’s manager said he is fit enough to race in F1 next year. And MG’s Chinese owners pledged to build the MG6 in Birmingham
In a slow news day, there was a small furore around Autocar’s discovery of some Ferrari patent drawings showing a new door design – hinged at the wing, opening diagonally upwards. Crazy Dutch car-maker Spyker will move their manufacturing to crazy… Coventry. And Bernie Ecclestone gave Silverstone until the 11th December to finalise the deal on hosting the 2010 British GP.
Button was confirmed as Hamilton’s chief visor-wiper/team mate at McLaren, Raikkonen mumbled about having next year off and the world rumoured about Schumacher driving for Mercedes GP. Also, new GM Europe boss, British Nick Reilly, spoke some rare positive words about keeping Ellesmere Port and Luton plants open, as well as potentially producing the Vauxhall Ampera in one of them.
Noting the international coverage Bugatti gained from their Texan lake videos, Ferrari president Luca Montezemolo performed his own incident in a Ferrari California.
Unfortunately, despite having his 2010 F1 drivers Alonso and Massa in the back, it looked rubbish compared to driving a Veyron into a lake. The moral of the story? Always carry a low flying pelican.
Hyundai unveiled a facelifted Santa Fe SUV with a better engine, less enviro-poison and a lower price – starting at £21,495. Peugeot confirmed that they’ll join Citroen in releasing an electric Mitsubishi i-MiEV clone next year, which they’ll call the iOn. And a Spanish newspaper said that Schumacher won’t be advising Ferrari F1 next year. It was a slow news day.
The Germans took Brackley, as Mercedes bought a majority stake in Brawn GP, renamed it Mercedes GP and were said to be considering hiring the disconcertingly Aryan Nico Rosberg and Nick Heidfeld to drive, with Button rumoured to be joining Hamilton at McLaren. In duller news, Fiat released a new Doblo and European cars sales were up 11.2% over 2008.
Because they spent so much money on calculators, lawyers, tea and biscuits when desperately trying to buy Volkswagen, Porsche announced record losses of £3.9 billion. Toyota put the plans for their now redundant 2010 F1 car up for sale. And the Veyron lake crasher was found – he’s called Gilbert Harrison, and apparently he crashed after being distracted by a pelican.
