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Runtime: 8:27
0:29 VW Parts Ways with Audi’s CEO
0:54 U.S. Car Sales Slump in September
2:15 Renault’s Wild EZ-ULTIMO Concept
2:47 VinFast Debuts 1st Vehicles in Paris
3:33 Exercise While You Drive
4:55 Corvette Grand Sport Impressions
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On today’s show…thanks to strong Jeep and Ram sales, FCA outsold Ford in September…Volkswagen parts ways with Audi CEO Rupert Stadler…and I’ll share my driving impressions of the Corvette Grand Sport. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily the voice of the automotive industry.
VW PARTS WAYS WITH AUDI’S CEO
Volkswagen announced its terminated the contract of Audi CEO Rupert Stadler. He was suspended by the company in June after being taken into custody by German authorities, who accused him of interfering with its diesel emission investigation. The two sides are parting ways because Stadler can’t fulfill his duties while in custody and to let him focus on his defense.
U.S. CAR SALES SLUMP IN SEPTEMBER
Automakers saw sales slump in the U.S. in September. According to WardsAuto, 1.43 million new vehicles were sold, which is down 2% compared to a year ago. But the SAAR hit 17.36 million, which is an improvement from August’s 16.62 million figure. Pretty much all of the top manufacturers struggled in September. General Motors dropped by 12% and Toyota was down 7%. But look at FCA. Not only did sales jump nearly 20%, it outsold Ford by more than 7,600 units. Honda and Nissan were also down last month. Most of the drop in sales can be blamed on the plunging passenger car market. The segment fell by more than 110,000 units compared to a year ago, which is one of the worst drops we’ve seen.
U.S. SEPTEMBER 2018 SALES | ||
---|---|---|
Sales | 1,427,100 | -2.2% |
SAAR | 17.36 M | |
TOP OEMs | ||
General Motors | 235,770 | -12.2% |
Toyota | 203,098 | -6.8% |
FCA | 198,590 | +19.3% |
Ford | 190,913 | -8.0% |
Honda | 132,668 | -3.3% |
Nissan | 122,819 | -8.7% |
Passenger Cars | 424,078 | -110,769 |
Light Trucks | 1,003,022 | +20,793 |
Source: WardsAuto |
VinFast is a new brand from Vietnam trying to make inroads in the global auto industry. And we’ll tell you more about it, right after this.
RENAULT’S WILD EZ-ULTIMO CONCEPT
Renault showed off its vision for future mobility with a wild looking concept called the EZ-ULTIMO. It’s an autonomous, electric, connected, and shared mobility vehicle. It isn’t equipped with a steering wheel or pedals and there’s just a single swiveling seat for the rider, plus a bench seat for other passengers. The interior also features premium materials like leather, wood and marble. It was designed for upscale ride-hailing for a single trip, an hour or for a day.
VINFAST DEBUTS 1ST VEHICLES IN PARIS
VinFast, the first volume car manufacturer from Vietnam, just took the wraps off of two world premieres at the Paris auto show, the first time an automaker from the country has displayed vehicles at a major international auto show. Called the LUX A2.0 Sedan, and the LUX SA2.0 SUV, they were developed in Vietnam and will also be manufactured in the country. The styling of the vehicles was done by Italian design house Pininfarina. Both models are powered by a 2.0L turbo four-cylinder gasoline engine that’s mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission from ZF. Deliveries of those vehicles start in Vietnam in June of 2019 and global shipments will begin in 2020.
EXERCISE WHILE YOU DRIVE
Would you like to work out while driving a car? Well, there may soon be something for you. FitCar is a vehicle, an Audi A4 in this case, that has had its throttle replaced with a bicycle pedal mechanism. The pedals are mated to a flywheel, which will generate an electronic signal to engage the accelerator. Want to speed up? Just pedal harder. There’s 3 driving modes, Drive Slow for congested urban traffic, Drive Fast for the highway and No Drive for when you’re not moving. With the new setup, there wasn’t room for a brake pedal, so it’s been replaced by a hand brake, similar to what you might find in a disabled person’s vehicle. The developers of FitCar say they would like to see an automaker adopt the technology to offer a healthier version of a city car or offer it as an aftermarket conversion kit. I don’t know. I like the novelty of the idea, but I don’t see it ever catching on.
Coming up next, we’re reminded why people are so passionate about Corvettes.
CORVETTE GRAND SPORT IMPRESSIONS
With hellions spewing out over 800 piston-thumping horsepower and electric wunderkinds hitting 60 miles-per-hour in under 2.5-seconds, I’ve been guilty of looking past what are otherwise sporty cars. The kind that have enough power to have fun, but a wider threshold before you hit that point of no return. They’re predictable. They’re controllable. And every time I get into one, I say to myself “how did I forget about this car?” The Corvette Grand Sport we recently had at our office fits right into this category for me. It didn’t take long, but I realize I had forgotten just how good this LT1 V8 is. It almost has this progression of engine/exhaust notes. Light throttle yields a nice, low burble, but you can just feel it has a lot more to give. From there it transitions to a deeper grunt and finally over to this high-revving race engine sound. It gives the driving dynamic a lot of character. But one place that’s lacking character is the interior. I remember driving the new C7 when it first came out and I liked the interior. It was a big step up from the previous generation car. But 4 years later it looks, well, a bit, meh. You may notice parts and pieces from other GM vehicles, which helps to keep cost down, but it just ends up dating the interior quite quick. And that’s even with all the added suede, leather and blue stitching of the 3LT package in our test car. I actually think coming up with a Corvette interior is one of the hardest things a designer could do. I believe it’s one area where Corvette designers could go more retro and get away with it. I, however, don’t feel the same way about the exterior. It looks as good, if not better than it did 4 years ago. Our test car included a thick black strip down the middle, red graphics over the fenders and a carbon fiber ground effects package, which really helped to accentuate the lines of the car. And the color is really unique. It’s called Ceramic Matrix Gray Metallic. Although, I’m not sure it would have looked as good without all the add-ons. And speaking of those add-ons, they really add up on this car. A Corvette Grand Sport starts a little over $65,500, but our test vehicle came in at $94,300. That’s nearly $28,000 in options, after you factor out destination charges. I could easily do away with a lot of it and still get a really good-looking car. I would miss the amazing carbon ceramic brakes. But unless you’re really going to use them, who would want the typical brake squeal that comes from carbon ceramics and the $8,000 price tag, which also includes summer-only tires and the Z07 suspension package? Just give me the exterior graphics and the carbon fiber ground effects and I’d be good. I calculate that would cost around $75,000, which is a little easier to stomach.
But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.
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John McElroy is an influential thought leader in the automotive industry. He is a journalist, lecturer, commentator and entrepreneur. He created “Autoline Daily,” the first industry webcast of industry news and analysis.