Cooler design than many European competitors

via youtube.com

As I often state, I am not a fan of limousines, ie 4-door sedans. Estates / wagons beat limousines in practicality and mostly look much better. If you want more sporty get a coupé. Then there is the new (old) breed of sporty 5-door sports coupés, they used to be called fastbacks. Many of them are interesting like BMW’s 5 GT, even desirable like the Panamera, some are quite elegant like Audi’s upcoming A7.
This Kia Optima (Magentis) is a shape I like. Subtle, not the bloated over-styled character lines that many Euro cars now feature from Ford, Mercedes, Citroen and even BMW. Subtle yet interesting. Clean, yet detailed. Good job.

Posted via web from automental.com by automental.com! via youtube.com As I often state, I am not a fan of limousines, ie 4-door sedans. Estates / wagons beat limousines in practicality and mostly look much better. If you want more sporty get a coupé. Then there is the new (old) breed of sporty 5-door sports coupés, they used to be called fastbacks …

M-series for Mad Marketing

The customer ain’t king if your choices are limited for artificial reasons. This time I pick BMW and their 1-series. Famous for sporty driving, the manufacturer tells you, no, not this one, if you wish to buy a 3-door BMW 135i “hatch coupé” with more than 320hp engine (called N54B30), you just get the 130i with around 270hp engine (named N52B30).

And if your are living in North America, you might ask, what the heck? What hatchback are you talking about?

CONTINUE READING on automental.com

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from automental.com by automental.com! The customer ain’t king if your choices are limited for artificial reasons. This time I pick BMW and their 1-series. Famous for sporty driving, the manufacturer tells you, no, not this one, if you wish to buy a 3-door BMW 135i “hatch coupé” with more than 320hp engine (called N54B30), you just get t …

Panamera after all

It’s not beautiful. But you can’t help to look at it. And it grows on you. The more you look the more details unfold. You turn around but can’t help to look back.

It has classic luxurious sport proportions, a bit like an old Bugatti. A long nose, long lines, big wheels which still seem small in relation to the car.

It has some faults…

READ MORE on automental.com

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from automental.com by automental.com! It’s not beautiful. But you can’t help to look at it. And it grows on you. The more you look the more details unfold. You turn around but can’t help to look back.It has classic luxurious sport proportions, a bit like an old Bugatti. A long nose, long lines, big wheels which still seem small in relat …

Please check out our new home on automental.com :-)

After a successful start we had to cool down a bit, running blogs cost more time than initially projected.  It’s great fun though.  On automental.com you’ll now find our new home  See you there…

Here is the welcome post on our new home blog http://www.automental.com/2009/09/automentals-new-home.html, which we have the pleasure to share with our German sister blog automentor (formerly automentor.wordpress.com)

Alpina & Brabus – more alike than it seems!

      
They have rarely been directly compared as companies, nor have their cars been pitted against each other very often.
Like Smart (Wikipedia) and Mini (Wikipedia), one similaity can be found in the relation of both Brabus (Wikipedia) and Alpina (Wikipedia) to Mercedes (Wikipedia) and BMW (Wikipedia) respectively. They are independant and in eternal coopetion with AMG (Wikipedia), Mercs housetuner, and BMW M GmbH (Wikipedia), the maker of the famous M-Series.

Brabus is maybe “just another tuner”, but it is the most famous one with a great brand recognition. And, on special projects, it is not AMG but Brabus being Mercs premium brand – think of Smart.

Alpina sells cars through the BMW network including warranty. The cars are manufactured under the name of Alpina, unlike all other BMW specialists, who “just” modify cars.

• Both are quite old compared to other car specialists, Alpina is 42 (1965) and Brabus just turned 30 (1977).
• Both are very distinctive and exclusive, more so then AMG or M-Series.
• Both emphasize torque, whereas M and AMG play the sporty high revving game.
• Both have a more subtle body style for their cars compared to the loud AMG and M-Series.
• Both have recognisable characteristics and styles: both have special wheel styles, both have their favourite colours, Alpina has got the elegant blue and green with light cream interior, whereas a typical Brabus is black.
• Both enhance and improve the basic car characters of BMW and Mercedes. Brabus is the classy brute, powerful and impressive, yet representative and relatively understated. Alpina has got finesse and elegance. Alpinas have got relaxing power delivery compared to the hyper-nervous Ms. Alpina is proud of sophisticated engineering, often shining with lower fuel consumption then lesser powered factory Bimmers.

Some prefer the AMGs and Ms of this world, I am more the Brabus and Alpina guy. I particularly like the Brabus C- and CL-Versions with big engines and the Alpina B3, B5 and B7. I usually have a penchant for estates and if a convertible is on the wish list, there will be no competition between the B3 and the future M3 Cabrio. Convertibles are about enjoying and savouring the ride, not chasing and racing.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Brabus, Alpina, BMW Alpina, B3, B7, B5, Cars

Mini and Smart have a lot in common…

Both are individual brands belonging to the two arch-rivals of the German car industry: Mercedes and BMW.  Both are aimed at the premium segment of the small car market.  Both brand (re-)launches were hedged bets to avoid tainting the main brands in case things went wrong.  Both were (desperate) attempts to gain younger customers (they did succeed) and both are sexy, cute, cool and  fun.  Both offer a wide variety of accessories, options and body kits.  Both like unusual spicy names for the equipment packages:  chilli, pepper, lemon, pulse.  Both have their desirable top versions linked to famous specialists, Cooper and Brabus (something for the competitive and techy part of the brain). Both play with combinations of colours, in fact they are an integral part of the branding (something for the shopping instincts).

I like both brands.

And I like both in white with either black or silver body kits… blackish alloys  those of the Mini Sidewalk trim are really cute, the classic Brabus wheels are great too)… brownish or terracotta-red leather…  and of course nearly every option on the list, usually the most expensive one is the one to have…

If you insist on sending me samples, please don’t forget to include the most powerful engines, please.  Any body choice will do, convertible, coupe or clubman.  Thank you.

The article is now published on automental.com and can be found on http://www.automental.com/2007/09/mini-and-smart-have-lot-in-common.html

Yes!

If the driving the new XF is on par with the looks, Jaguar has got a winner.  The design is clean and fresh.  There is simply no comparison to the previous drab old boring retro-look, which was neither classy nor chic. The XF has a bit of that clean modern look of Lexus (IS and GS, which is a good thing) without looking like a copycat (no pun intended).  Congrats.
Note: this is a good relaunch of the brand which Ford is able to use as a bargain in the sales negociations…




Someone please tell me what is so special about the Kia Cee’d?

I’ll start saying that I haven’t driven the Kia Cee’d so I may be a bit unfair here, but, having checked it put thoroughly during motorshows, and read some tests by respected British publications, I am a bit surprised about the generally quite positive reviews.

I will start with the car’s design…

Buy two and get one for free

My money is on a buy-out of PAG backed by private equity and hedge funds. Who knows, maybe some big automotive suppliers might be part of such a deal. None of the automobile manufacturers is a likely buyer, either because of their own problems, or because Volvo/Jaguar/Land Rover would not be compatible and easily integrated.

The arguments which speak for Porsche are valid for the three brands on their own…

My surprise candidate, if it weren’t for…

VW. I mean Porsche, of course, buying all three: Volvo, Land Rover and Jaguar. Outlandish? Less so than the surprise deal with VW at the time.

Think about it. If you forget the VW deal for a moment, Porsche is a surprisingly good candidate. Porsche has the money. Porsche with Land-Rover, Jaguar and Volvo could be very interesting and complementary. Much more so then VW. All three are relatively small brands, very characteristic, very known, very individualistic, very dedicated and loyal customers and potentially very high margin. Sounds like a description of Porsche, doesn’t it?