Chevy Returns To Subcompacts With The 2012 Sonic Sedan
Subcompacts are about to get the kind of overhaul we usually reserve for a trip to Auto Glass. Following in the recent trend of the major U.S automakers revamping the image of a compact, Chevrolet’s 2012 Sonic sedan has hit the market, brandishing 14.1 inches of additional trunk space over its predecessor the Sonic hatchback. General Motors has now released its third major competitive subcompact, after the Malibu and the Cruze, and can brag that the Sonic is the only subcompact built in the U.S.
Bentley courting Maybach celebs with letter-writing campaign
When Daimler let slip that Maybach was on the chopping block, the German automaker reportedly insisted that ultra-luxury editions of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class would replace the doomed marque. We’re all for a smattering of low volume, seriously pricey S-Class variants, but will the richest and most influential Maybach buyers feel the same way?
Automotive News reports that Bentley is betting that stars like Jay-Z and Samuel L. Jackson will want more than a gussied-up Benz, and the luxury car make is sending out olive branches in the form of a letter campaign. The premium Volkswagen brand is asking the high-rollers to step into a Bentley Mulsanne or perhaps a top-shelf Continental GT. To help persuade VIPs to switch to Bentley, the automaker is inviting select Maybach owners to tour its Crewe, England home.
Given the fact that many typical soccer moms and dads can afford an ML-Class, we can see why some movie stars and sultans would want to steer clear of the Three-Pointed Star. But is Bentley really going to gain much by wooing the 200 annual Maybach buyers? If a few more rap stars roll in a Bentley in their next music video, then the answer would appear to be yes.
Chevy puts out APB on missing Sonic brake pads, issues recall
We report on a lot of recalls, and most are seemingly innocuous defects that require the solar system to perfectly align before anything catastrophic could happen. Then there are recalls like this one for the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic that appear to be much more dangerous than they probably are.
It turns out that Chevrolet let a few Sonics built between June 2 and November 21 leave its factory in Orion Township, Michigan minus a brake pad. General Motors claims that of the 4,873 Sonics built during that time, some 20 to 30 may be missing either an inner or outer front brake pad. The company says 4,296 of the potentially shoe-less Sonics were sent to the U.S., while 577 migrated north to Canadian customers.
A car minus just one inner or outer brake pad doesn’t lose its ability to stop, but its braking performance will suffer and there is the possibility that other elements of the braking system, like the caliper or rotor, could be damaged as a result of their omission.
GM vows to notify all potentially affected Sonic owners and install any missing pads and, if necessary, replace any calipers or rotors free of charge.
BMW M5 quicker than 1 M Coupe quicker than M3
Autobild recently set out to settle the question of which M vehicle is the fastest in the BMW stable at the moment. Not surprisingly, the German enthusiast publication found the BMW M3 CRT to be the quickest around the Sachsenring, setting the magazine’s fastest time around the track with a 1:38.37 minute lap time. That’s impressive, but not nearly as astounding as the time drummed up by the new BMW M5. The portly sedan did the same deed in 1:38.90, or just three hundredths of a second slower than the special-edition M3.
And what of the sibling rivalry between the BMW 1 Series M Coupe and the standard M3? As it turns out, the magazine’s shoes have given the nod to the smaller of the two coupes. The 1 Series M Coupe barely eked out a win over the M3, though the M3 Convertible took nearly two extra seconds to make it around the course than its hardtop twin.
2012 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor
When thinking about the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor, one tends to picture an orange meteor barreling across the desert at absurd velocities, flying through the air, long-travel suspension dangling its dirty bits below. That’s partially because desert storming and bombing down muddy, root-strewn fire roads was the Special Vehicle Team’s design brief, and partially because those environs have dominated Ford’s advertising efforts. Marketing shtick aside, there’s little doubt that the Raptor has that Kool-Aid Man “Oooh, Yeah!” wall-crashing thing going on better than any other vehicle on sale today.
In fact, if you tend to picture the Raptor exclusively in terms of yumps and dry creekbeds, you’re not alone. Ford and SVT kind of admit they did, too. But in building this street-legal trophy truck, they’ve come to realize that they unwittingly created a vehicle that’s far more versatile than originally envisioned. Case in point: Back in 2009, a massive snowstorm crippled the ability of Ford staffers and media members trying to reach theChicago Auto Show. In particular, Mark Fields and other key execs had to journey from Dearborn to the Windy City, and company pilots refused to take off in the horrible weather. Fields and some other executives settled on boarding the train, arriving haggard eight hours later and barely making their press conference.SVT boss Jamal Hameedi and his crew elected to travel by Raptor. Driving their trucks through inches of thick slush and ice in the fast lane at more-or-less normal highway speeds (while what little traffic was sharing the road crawled along with hazard lights aglow) was a revelation. Despite building the thing, Team SVT simply didn’t expect something with wide, knobby tires and a higher center of gravity to cut through the frigid slurry like that.
