The CarGurus Blog

The annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas is all about the mods. And we’re not just talking paint jobs and rear wings, we’re talking completely rebuilt and heavily modified aftermarket car heaven.

The show wrapped up yesterday, and here are the eight best cars that were there:

Delta Tech Engineering’s Suzuki Kizashi

While the stock Kizashi looks pretty darn good (for a Suzuki), this version makes it look downright hot. It was given a big open grille, a cold air intake, custom exhaust and all LED or HID lights. Sweet!

Carbon Fiber Mustang

Carbon fiber use was a bit of a theme this year, and no one used if better than Vaughn Gittin Jr. His carbon fiber RTR-C Mustang uses real carbon fiber panels, cutting about 500 pounds of weight. Only 10 cars were made, and each will cost you about $135K. But you also get a supercharger, if that helps make your decision easier.

Hennessey HP700 Camaro

Take a Corvette ZR1 LS9 engine, stuff it into a Camaro and tune it to deliver 725 hp, with 0-60 coming in 3.5 seconds. Flat-out coolest thing ever? Quite possibly.

Rhys Millen mid-engine Hyundai Genesis Coupe

We gave you a teaser of this thing a little while ago. Here’s the finished product! Car mods don’t get much more extreme than this: A 4.6-liter V8  producing 500 horses has been mounted where the back seats should be. Add a carbon fiber roof (why not, everyone else is), a body kit and before long you’ve got yourself a Ferrari-fighting Hyundai. Imagine that!

1959 Fiat 500 Funny Car

I don’t know whether to laugh or be in awe of this thing. Either way, it’s the epitome of why the SEMA Show exists. Legacy Innovations took a 1959 Fiat 500 and gave it a 725 hp (!) 427 small block. Go, little Fiat, go!

2010 Ford Raptor 6.2

Drool drool drool…

Of all the cars and trucks at SEMA, here’s one you could potentially buy from your corner Ford dealer. Even by Raptor standards, this is one extreme truck, boasting a 6.2-liter engine rated at 411 hp and equipped with more off-road capability than any one human ever needs. And it’s a bargain too… coming in at about $42K.

Pagani Zonda R

Any of the world’s most exclusive supercars get an automatic spot in my lists. Especially when outfitted in exotic carbon fiber. You kind of have to wonder though, now that carbon fiber has shown up on a Hyundai, how long before the material is remembered as sooooo 2009?

Local Motors Rally Fighter

Local Motors is showing us that a different way of building and selling cars is possible. The Rally Fighter was designed using an open-source model and will be sold by the company directly. Buyers even get to travel to a factory and help build the car with their own hands before driving it home. The Rally Fighter uses a BMW 335d drivetrain and is said to achieve 30 miles per gallon.

If you could have one of these, which one would you drive home from Vegas?

-tgriffith

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2009 Ferrari California

I’m a little jealous today of people in the UAE.

Normally, I count my blessings to live somewhere that never sees 120-degree days. Occasionally, though, it would be nice to experience something a little more exotic.

Take parades, for instance. In my city, the only parades we see consist of second-rate high school marching bands. Sometimes those parades include an “exotic” car, something like a 1987 Corvette. I can only dream of what a parade of over 100 Ferraris might look and sound like.

For those living in Dubai, though, a Ferrari parade is exactly what happened as part of the inaugural festivities of the city’s new (and world’s largest) Ferrari dealer. The Italian supercars wound through the streets of the UAE and ended up at the new Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.

Lucky for us Ferrari-deprived Americans, the cameras were rolling and captured nearly 10 minutes of exotic car heaven. Check it out:

According to TopSpeed,

Among those participating in the parade included no less than some of the most important and influential personalities in Ferrari, including company chairman Luca Di Montezemolo, seven-time F1 champion, Michael Schumacher, current Ferrari drivers Kimi Raikkonen, Felipe Massa, and Giancarlo Fisichella, and the region’s ambassador to Italy, Claudio Doniosi.

That’s a pretty distinguished list of paraders… one I’d take over a marching band any day. Even if that day was 120 degrees.

Did anyone in the Dubai area see the convoy of Ferraris? If you could see 100 versions of any kind of car in a parade, what would you choose?

-tgriffith

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Exotic Cars, Foreign Cars, General Chat

The new BMW ActiveHybrid 7 was recently spotted by an alert Autoweek reader in Los Angeles. Car and Driver gave it a skeptical first-drive review, suggesting (without saying so exactly) that this is a somewhat ridiculous, redundant car in the BMW lineup.

What makes the ActiveHybrid 7 strange is BMW’s boast that it is the quickest hybrid sedan on the market. If speed is the objective, we’re not sure why a hybrid is the answer. Likewise, if fuel economy is the end goal, tuning the twin-turbo V-8 gas engine for an additional 40 hp and 30 lb-ft of torque seems silly. However, if a 7-series customer believes he needs a car more powerful than the 750i but doesn’t want to step up to the 12-cylinder 760Li—which we think he should—and also wants 15 percent or so better fuel economy, BMW has just the model.

Looking at the many entrants in the rarefied-price stratum of hybrids, the question we finally ask is “Why?” Particularly since the BMW goes head to head with the Lexus LS600h L, available now for at least two years. Why would one spend all that money to get a car that offers minimal performance and fuel economy advantages? To be hybrid hip, I guess.

Fisker has a different idea. They don’t want to build $110,000 BMW or Lexus-type hybrids but “affordable” plug-ins. We wrote last week that they were in negotiation for the old GM factory in Wilmington, Delaware, where they will reportedly build in three years a “family-oriented plug-in hybrid sedan that will come in at around $40K” after federal tax credits. The Karma S sedan (right) will start at $87,000. CEO Henrik Fisker isn’t all that concerned about engines. He told Autoweek that he “envisions a future where hybrids will get their own niche powerplants, specially tuned to the need of alternative technologies. A hybrid for example, probably doesn’t need to rev to 8,000 rpm.”

Fisker got a very good deal from a Department of Energy grant to buy and refurbish this plant, and that surely will give the company a leg up on the competition. Tesla just received a $29 million tax break from the state of California, which makes that state the likely home for the company’s future production.

Another stimulus, this one for electric car production, has come to Seattle to build a network of more than 2,000 car charging stations. “By December 2010, drivers in Seattle should be able to buy mass-produced, plug-in electrics that create no emissions and run for pennies a mile.” And the state has aggressively pursued not only federal money, which will fund this effort, but also the efforts of many hi-tech businesses that are greening up.

Another reason is that lots of “Generation Y” folks live in the Northwest, and they are partial not only to hybrid powertrains, but also to considering the purchase of Chinese or Indian brands of hybrids. This according to a study by AutoPacific reported in egmCarTech. If they are really hot for hybrids, they would do well to use the Hybrid Payback Calculator, which you can download here. It helps you determine whether the cost of a hybrid is really worth it. You enter in the car’s cost, miles per gallon, price per gallon of gas, and the estimated miles you drive in a month. Clever, eh? Maybe a prospective BMW ActiveHybrid 7 purchaser could use one.

What’s your opinion on high-priced hybrids? Are they worth it—and to whom?

—jgoods

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Domestic Cars, Exotic Cars, Foreign Cars, General Chat, Green Updates, Hybrid Cars

Bad drivers know no budgets

Inspired by Honda’s newest advertising campaign, I have a theory I’d like your help proving:

Everybody knows somebody who is a bad driver.

The person I know is my grandpa. More on that, and the laughable irony behind it, later.

First, I have to wonder why people never admit to being the bad drivers. Folks are sure quick to point out if they live with one. Or are related to one. Or shared the road with one on the drive to work this morning.

Whether they admit it or not, bad drivers abound. Now there’s news that a scientific reason might be able to explain their existence. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, say they might have discovered a gene that contributes to people driving like morons (not their exact term).

This might seem like an opportunity to crack a joke, and say that we’ve always known what gene creates bad drivers: the same gene that creates females. But I’ll never stoop to the level of that joke. Especially since, in my own family, my wife has never run her car into a stationary pole. Like I have.

So perhaps you should cut the bad driver in your life some slack. He may have a genetic disability that makes it harder for him to remember basic driving rules, such as applying the brakes when the light turns yellow. Or not colliding with poles.

Instead of yelling at these people and calling them names we’d never want our children to repeat, maybe we should open special driving schools for them and give them special (extra wide) driving lanes with 20 mile-per-hour speed limits.

We could even require genetic testing before driver’s licenses are issued. When people test positive, they could get a special placard to hang on their rear-view mirrors. This would give them access to the special lanes and make them feel important, while the rest of us benefit from having the driving outcasts separated from their driving superiors.

My grandpa would definitely get a placard. I would rank him as the worst/scariest driver I’ve ever ridden with. He doesn’t think he’s doing anything wrong when his tires scrape the curb at 40 miles an hour.

And that laughable irony I mentioned? He drives for a living. A school bus. And he has a commendable safety record.

Maybe, and thankfully, the gene turns off when the safety of kids is at stake.

Tell us about the worst driver you know. If it’s you, please speak up! And feel free to keep things anonymous.

-tgriffith

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Car Safety, Exotic Cars, General Chat

We’re seeing some interesting renderings of what purports to be the new Porsche 928. The car is presumed to be built on a shortened Panamera platform, giving the company another way to spread development costs and expand its range of offerings. The Panamera is supposedly in line for a gas-electric hybrid version to debut next year in Europe, and the sportier 928 could potentially use that powertrain too. Pricewise, it will come between the Panamera and the 911.

Other details from Auto Express:

The engine line-up will mirror that of the Panamera, so a 4.8-litre V8, with or without a turbocharger, producing 500bhp or 400bhp, will be available. The naturally aspirated variant is set to come with four or rear-wheel drive, while the range-topping turbo model will be 4WD only.

At this stage, much of what we hear is speculative, but the car does seem likely to be built, and the renderings look good. The 928 would basically fit into the Volkswagen-Porsche development plan tgriffith outlined recently. For a rear view, click on “Pictures” here.

1995 Porsche 928 GTS

For those of you too young to remember, the original 928 broke the rear-engine mold for Porsche and became (after the horrible 924) its first front-engine, water-cooled grand touring car. Built from 1977-1995, the car had lots of interesting tech features, including a rear-mounted transaxle, and I desperately wanted but could not afford one.

I still can’t afford one, but Porsche could be making a very smart move in bringing back the iconic 928. Until you get into the rarefied Ferrari-Aston Martin territory, the grand touring market is wide open.

Porsche’s development plans seem to make sense, at least so far. Do you foresee any roadblocks ahead as VW absorbs the company?

—jgoods

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Exotic Cars, Foreign Cars, General Chat, Hybrid Cars

With a population of 20 million growing at 2 percent a year, Mexico City has long been the smog capital of the hemisphere. It’s the third-largest urban area in the world and has been fighting air pollution with greater and lesser success for years. At the heart of the problem, of course, is the automobile, and specifically the proliferation of old, stinky, polluting taxis.

Now we have a far-out proposal from industrial designer Alberto Villareal for a fuel-cell-powered, drive-by-wire, solar-paneled (on the roof) taxi called MX-Libris (above), which may be just radical enough to do the job. The car won the Red Dot Design Award in 2008, and two Mexican firms have shown interest. Funding would come from the Centro de Transporte Sustentable, which promotes green transport. Go, Alberto!

Toyota FT-EV-II

Why do most electric cars look so ugly and commonplace? Do their designers deliberately turn out plug-ugly plug-ins because of some kind of group-think? These and other questions are delightfully addressed by Alice Rawsthorn in a New York Times piece. They are boring and ugly, she says, because of the problems inherent in new-car design, the reluctance of the industry to experiment and take chances, and the fears engendered by the huge investments required. As ever, however, there can be no reward without risk. Tesla has done it. Why can’t others?

New (U.S.?) Mazda 2

The Japanese want to take the lead in green car technology and production, and they are making noises as if they can and will do it. In particular, Mazda is working on the feasibility of diesels for the U.S. and, not surprisingly, they are looking at VW’s ability to market the diesel here with some success. The Mazda2 might be a diesel candidate, and there has been much speculation on what the 2008 World Car of the Year will look like, what will power it, etc., when it comes here. The car will get to the U.S. most likely in late 2010.

Honda CEO Takanobu Ito spoke out last week to a group of journalists (we mentioned it here) on Honda’s commitment to hybrids, EVs, fuel cells, and a really green, i.e., hydrogen-powered, sports car, “not like the Lexus” (the V10-powered, $375,000 Lexus LFA supercar). Plans include hybrids for the larger Honda models (Accord, etc.), but all this will take time. In any case, the CR-Z is coming soon, and that is good news.

Proof that green technology is catching on comes with the increasing competition for manufacturing facilities. Reva, the Indian carmaker, announced it was opening a plant in upstate New York; the Nissan Leaf will be made in Tennessee as well as Japan; and Fisker is redeveloping a GM plant near Wilmington, which event will naturally be announced by Delaware arch-booster Vice President Joe Biden.

Finally, we were caught up last week by a Wall Street Journal piece on “Five Technologies That Could Change Everything.” One of these is truly pie in the sky (space-based solar power panels), and another would trap and bury CO2 underground. The rest are: advanced car batteries, utility storage, and next-gen biofuels. Each clearly involves the concept of storage, which, as all car gurus know, is what finally, instrumentally, enables our vehicles to move. The costs and engineering challenges will be enormous, but in the end what choice do we really have but to move ahead? Just where to put the bets down will be the first problem.

How about letting us know what kinds of energy topics you would like to see covered in future Green Updates? Please leave us a comment.

—jgoods

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How would it look in Volkswagen dress?

It’s either music to a car fan’s ears or blasphemy to a Porsche enthusiast’s heart.

According to the folks at Autocar, Porsche is prepared to share the Panamera and 911 platforms with Volkswagen.

Much has been made about Porsche’s financial troubles and VW’s quest to become the world’s number one automaker. Now that Volkswagen has announced plans to close on the Porsche merger in 2011, it stands to reason that the the two companies products will merge as well.

Imagine the possibilities: A Porsche Panamera could be rebadged as a VW Phaeton. A 911 could find new life as VW’s Bluesport concept. Porsche purists take note, though: The arrangement doesn’t extend to engines, so we won’t see the 911 Carrera’s 385-hp engine show up in a Jetta.

While injecting new sales possibilities into the Volkswagen brand, what does the platform-sharing arrangement bring to Porsche besides a dent in its exclusiveness? Money, for one thing.

The Autocar article says,

Following its failed attempt to take over VW, Porsche is now concentrating on riding out the global downturn. Before the credit crunch the firm was targeting sales of 150,000 cars a year. But this year sales have slid by 24 per cent to just over 75,000. Porsche will attempt to pursue its original target with its three basic model families (Cayenne, Panamera and 911/Boxster) but it is also looking at further additions to the range.

No word on what those further additions could be, but the arrangement with VW at least buys Porsche some time to develop them while also working on V6 and diesel variants of the Panamera.

I for one am psyched about this new possibility. Bringing Porsche-inspired design to the masses while giving Porsche new opportunity to grow is good for car lovers everywhere.

What do you think: Is Porsche’s sharing of the 911 and Panamera platforms a good thing?

-tgriffith

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The movie “Where The Wild Things Are” is out in theaters. I’m sure it’s a fine movie, and I’ll probably see it, but when I think of “wild things,” two things come to mind. One is not appropriate for this blog, and the other is cars.

So I got to thinking: Where in the USA are all the wild cars? My first guess of course was California. Last time I was there I was passed by a Lamborghini, a few Bentleys, and a Maserati. On one highway.

I figured the best way to get an idea of where the wild cars are in our country would be to find out where the dealers are. I used this map from NewCars.org. Turns out we’re surrounded by wild cars (by my definition, cars that cost at least $100K) with not much to speak of in the middle of the country.

1st Place: California

Bugatti Veyron in California: Yours for $1.6 million

Check out these numbers: California has five Ferrari dealers, five Lamborghini dealers, five Maserati dealers, seven Bentley dealers, five Aston Martin dealers, and 17 (!?) Maybach dealers. Oh, and three of the 9 U.S. Bugatti dealers. I could end this blog right now, because California is no doubt where the wild cars are. Nearly all of them. But I’m curious, so I’ll keep going.

2nd Place: Florida

Ferrari 612 Scaglietti: available in Florida!

I should’ve known. Florida is basically the East Coast’s California, but with more Buicks. The state does have some impressive wild-car numbers, though: Five Bentley dealers, five Aston Martin dealers, two Lamborghini dealers, four Ferrari dealers, four Maserati dealers, and even the elusive Bugatti dealer.

3rd place: Texas

Bentley Continental GT: The perfect oilman's car. Just needs a set of steer horns on the hood.

Oil millionaires have ample opportunity to spend their cash and fuel their oil addiction with two Aston Martin dealers, two Bentley dealers, three Ferrari dealers, one Lamborghini dealer, three Maserati dealers, and three Maybach dealers.

4th Place: The Northeast

A screamin' deal on a Maserati!

I guess it’s the winters and the mountains that keep the money-saturated Northeast out of the Top 3. Who wants to drive a Lamborghini on a frigid Boston day? Still, the Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts area combines for some decent numbers. Between the states, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Bentley, Maserati, and Lamborghini are all represented.

5th Place: Tie between Arizona and Washington

Aston Martin DB9: yours for just under $200,000!

Believe it or not, rain-soaked Washington and sun-spoiled Arizona are pretty similar in numbers. In Washington you can find one dealer each for Aston Martin, Bentley, Ferrari, and Maserati. Arizona also has Aston Martin, Bentley, Ferrari, and Maserati. Neither has Lamborghini. Arizona’s tiebreaker could be the presence of Bugatti in Scottsdale.

Dead Last Place:

Everywhere from Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming to Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. The only wild cars here are the trucks used to hunt the real wild things: hogs, elk, and bears.

Where do you live, and have you ever seen a real exotic car on the road in your area?

-tgriffith

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Exotic Cars, Foreign Cars, General Chat

Another one has crashed. Yup, one of the world’s fastest, most exclusive sports cars, the Koenigsegg CCX, bit the dust, this time driven by a New York dealer who apparently was racing a Porsche 911 GT2, hit a guardrail, and damaged the Porsche as well. No word yet on what the owner of the car had to say.

There are only 10 Koenigsegg CCXs in North America out of 25 produced for the world. The price I see most frequently quoted is $545,568. There have been at least three crashes now, as I count them. Besides this one, Norwegian millionaire Tommy Sharif gave us a fabulous example of how not to drive a high-powered car in the video below.

Mr. Sharif returned the car, says MotorAuthority, and it was then sold to another owner who “ended up crashing the car within 18 hours of taking delivery”—into a garbage truck, no less. Earlier, in May 2007, a Koenigsegg engineer put the biofuel-powered CCXR into a ditch and really messed up the world’s first green supercar.

Clearly, the car is too hot to handle, at least for most mortals, and that’s a shame, because it is truly state-of-the-art in design and performance. The standard-bearer CCX, for instance, will do 0-100 km/h (0-62 mp/h) in 3.2 seconds, 0-300-0 km/h in 29.2 seconds. Its top speed is 395+ km/h (245+ mph), and it will come to a stop from 100 km/h in 32 meters. Incredible. These figures are from the factory website, which has lots of interesting info and some history.

And yes, Koenigsegg is the same group that wants to buy Saab from GM. Yesterday the European Investment Bank approved a €400 million loan, with possibly more loans to come from the Swedish government, thus bringing the deal close to fruition. Let’s hope a little of this money can be used for better owner-driver education programs.

Koenigsegg has shown that it can go toe-to-toe with Lamborghini, Ferrari, et al. Is there some reason why drivers keep crashing its cars?

—jgoods

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The future of Honda minivans?

The Tokyo Motor Show is under way right now.

Normally when a major international car show is happening, I’m overwhelmed with news of what hot new cars might make it to the U.S. soon. This time, the news is a bit… underwhelming.

First, Honda is showing a concept called the Skydeck. While there are no production plans whatsoever on this design exercise, it could be a peek into what future Honda minivans will look like. This concept has scissor Lambo-style front doors and wooden seats inside. Exciting, huh?

Tokyo is at least bringing some sexy to the party, with the super hot Lexus LF-A (which we brought to you yesterday) and the FT-86 Concept, but other than that, we’re not getting a lot of drool-worthy material. There are lots of “green” cars and electric concepts, which my fellow blogger jgoods will cover soon, but not much that offers real driving excitement and horsepower.

For that we need to look elsewhere, and we’ll start in Italy.

MSN reports that the Alfa Romeo 159 Sedan, Brera Coupe, and Spider will make it to the U.S. for 2010. Frankly, I have my doubts that is true. I’d bet that any Alfa making it to these shores will be at least two years away and then come to us wearing Dodge clothes, courtesy of Chrysler’s new Italian overlords at Fiat. But maybe MSN’s Bill Gates and Fiat’s Sergio Marchionne had dinner and made some arrangements. Who knows?

Okay, now lets get to some serious business, in the form of 487 horsepower. Mercedes-Benz has revised its C63 AMG with a new package called the Performance Package Plus (PPP). The PPP increases pony output over a “standard” C63 AMG by 30 to the aforementioned 487 and reaches 62 miles per hour in 4.4 seconds. MB hasn’t said whether or not this animal will come to the States, but as long the company isn’t saying no, we’ll latch onto the possibility that there’s still a chance.

If you need to race across a desert anytime in the near future, or just impress the heck out of your friends and neighbors, take a look at the newly available Ford F-150 SVT Raptor. The word “beast” is often used to describe a truck, but this one earns the label. What other truck comes direct from the factory with racing shocks, massive 35-inch tires, and a 320-horsepower, 5.4-liter V8?  This ain’t your neighbor’s F-150. This is the truck he wants his F-150 to be. And at under $40,000, it’s actually a pretty good deal.

For $40,000, would you be more likely to buy a Ford F-150 Raptor or an Alfa Romeo 159?

-tgriffith

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