Car News Articles

–Perry Stern

Hamilton too busy to join drivers’ safety quest.

Australian Grand Prix champion Lewis Hamilton has been heavily criticised for not joining a GP drivers’ safety crusade to prevent a fatal smash.

After just six cars survived Sunday’s Formula One crashes, the McLaren ace was yesterday told the sport was on borrowed time.

Motor racing legend Jackie Stewart, who saw his close friend Francois Cevert cut in half in a 1973 qualifying smash, is furious Hamilton has not joined drivers’ representative body, the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association.

When asked why he had not joined, Hamilton said: “There’s no particular reason. I had so much going on last year and the same is true now. It’s time as much as anything.”

But Mark Webber warned the British driver it could be his life on the line next.

“Maybe one day he’ll be in the barriers in Jerez and he won’t be breathing and he’ll need somebody to help him,” Red Bull’s Webber said.

The champagne was barely dry on his Australian Grand Prix celebrations when Hamilton got both barrels from leading figures infuriated that neither he nor world champion Kimi Raikkonen had joined the GPDA.

New regulations have escalated the dangers by removing driver aids, but Hamilton said he was too busy with sponsorship commitments.

Haunted by memories of the horrific death of his close friend Cevert, Stewart insisted Hamilton join the GPDA.

“It is completely wrong of Lewis not to be involved,” said Stewart, a retired triple world champion. “I am surprised and disappointed at him. He has been badly advised.

“So far we have been incredibly lucky. We are on the slate to have a big shunt. But what is going to happen is this — somebody is going to get killed.

“It has been 13 years and 11 months since the death of Ayrton Senna. At the speeds modern cars do it will be like an air crash.

“You can’t go on without something going wrong somewhere eventually.

“And somebody will die. The moment somebody dies there is a new awakening.

“It is going to be a big shock to this fraternity when somebody gets killed. These guys don’t know how to deal with a death. They have never seen it.

“They have never been to a body when it is still in the car, never had to identify a body, never had to pack that person’s clothes because the wife or the girlfriend can’t face it.

“I have the highest respect for Lewis. I think he is the best thing since sliced bread, but he is inexperienced. There will be even more accidents now that traction control is gone.”

Stewart’s concern comes after the opening race of the season in Melbourne.

It heralded a welcome new era with cars stripped of electronic aids and control returned to the drivers.

But just six of the 22-car field made it to the chequered flag. Never in Melbourne’s 13-year history has the grid been so decimated.

Webber feels equally passionate about Hamilton’s absence from the association.

“We are not reinventing the wheel with the GPDA, we are just working to improve safety. You don’t have to be a totally active member, it’s only 20 minutes a fortnight of your time.”

- Herald Sun

Fiat cars disappeared from our roads in the late 1980s when the Australian vehicle import quota regime was changed.

However, the Italian motoring giant is making its Australian comeback through its excellent commercial van range.

The Ducato comes in mid-roof and high-roof versions and the big-cube model is riding on the wave of popularity of these bigger vans, which include the Ford Transit and the Mercedes Sprinter.

Fiat sold 343 Ducato vans last year and has set a target of 600 this year. However, a slowing van market has stunted this ambitious mark. After four months, just 158 Ducatos were sold — but the sales are still better than 2004.

But it’s only a fraction of the Fiat Ducato’s European popularity. There were more than 20,000 Ducatos sold in Europe in April alone.

The first quarter of 2005 was the best-ever Ducato sales figure.

Fiat says the Italian, German,French and Spanish business operators are particularly attracted to the Ducato’s engine.

“The good performances have been driven by the customer appeal of the models powered by Fiat’s advanced JTD diesel range, that are appreciated by customers for the great performances and low fuel consumption,” a spokesman says.

The Ducato offers a 2.8-litre turbocharged diesel engine that features common rail and has better fuel economy than petrol.

The front-wheel drive provides extra space at the back and there’s 12 cubic metres of it.

With a GVM of 3510kg, this big boy crosses into the light-truck category, which, according to VFACTS, starts at 3500kg.

The Ducato can fit two pallets and be loaded either from the sliding side door or the back doors, which open 270 degrees.

The engine has 94Kw of power 300Nm of torque at 1800rpm.

The dashboard-mounted gear stick is placed for fast gear changing and it’s interesting to see the new Fuso Canter has also adopted this driver-friendly design.

The cabin is very upmarket and the van comes with ABS brakes, dual airbags, airconditioning, power windows and mirrors and remote central locking.

This keyless entry is a bonus for busy delivery people who don’t want to waste time fumbling around for keys 50 times a day.

The driver’s window is brought up and down with just one touch.

What gives this bigger van the edge is the high seating, which offers excellent vision.

But forget about trying to find a park in Westfield — unless you want to turn your 2.4m-high van into a convertible.

Parking this big vehicle is easy in normal car parks as the 3700mm wheelbase fits neatly in a normal car parking spot. However, the high roof is attracting interest from camper manufacturers.

- The Daily Telegraph

Ford Australia president is very confident about the future of the Falcon.

Newly appointed Ford Australia president Bill Osborne brashly predicts that not only will the Falcon survive a threat to its existence but it will overtake the Holden Commodore as the family car leader.

It’s a big call as, apart from beating the Commodore by a few dozen sales for the month of September 2003, the Falcon has not been a dominant force in the large car segment for more than a decade.

The FG Falcon arrives for duty in May with the eighth-generation family car coming at a time when the segment has been decimated chiefly by those either migrating to SUVs or by downsizing in both fuel economy and cabin space to medium and small cars.

The market for large cars has dipped by as much as 20 per cent on year-to-date figures to the end of February. The Falcon is down 1288 while the Commodore has dropped 1495.

Dark clouds continue to give the domestic family car bunch a gloomy future but Osborne remains optimistic that the sales erosion will not continue at such a rapid rate.

Ford says it has managed its run-out of the existing BF Falcon to the point where it will have a clean changeover with few run-out models remaining.

Osborne warns that he does not expect the large car segment to rebound to any significant extent although he says the FG will help rebuild Falcon sales.

He says the FG will ultimately overtake Holden’s VE Commodore but did not nominate a time frame or specify a market share figure.

“I won’t give you market share predictions at this point but I do believe it (Falcon) will ultimately attain market leadership,” Osborne said.

“It’s something that’s not going to be accomplished overnight.

“But I think it is head and shoulders above our principle competitors in the market and I say that without apology.

“I have no fear of comparing this product head to head with the Holden or the Toyota (Aurion) offering because I do believe it is world-class.”

Ford’s challenge is going to be spreading the message far enough and wide enough so that people will come and drive the FG Falcon.

“It’s up to us to convince consumers we have the best product in that market and up to our dealers to get people in the vehicles and drive them head to head.

“If you offer a product for a compelling and appealing price and tell enough people about it, eventually they will come.”

However, Osborne says there is no silver bullet that will bring people back to large cars, saying that offering the best engineered sedan was crucial.

“Our simple strategy is to offer the best engineered and built sedan in the segment. It’s still an important segment for us and we plan to do well in the class.”

In a year which heralds another milestone in the Falcon’s history, the Falcon-based Territory faces its moment of truth.

There is no upgrade for 2008 and the versatile wagon is treading water in sales volume in a segment where business continues to soar.

It is chiefly driven by Toyota’s Kluger and solid Holden Captiva business, while Mazda’s stylish and functional CX-9 seven-seater has provided incremental growth.

“I wish we had a freshened (up) Territory,” Osborne said.

“We will be examining how we go to market with Territory for the rest of the year.

“It continues to be a very important vehicle for us and I would describe it now as holding its own.”

Ford has learnt valuable lessons in take-up rates following its failure to detect potential demand for the diesel variant of the new Mondeo medium car. The mix is up to 40 per cent for the diesel, a figure Ford undersold by 100 per cent, which has constrained sales performance.

“We are working to fix that. We undercalled the diesel mix at introduction and did not have enough diesel stock at the launch,” Osborne said.

“I don’t think we will make that mistake again.”

- The Courier-Mail

The all-new Honda Accord Tourer took top honors in the 51st international ‘red dot’ award for high design quality, coming ahead of 3,000+ proposals from 51 countries.

The red dot design award is one of the world’s most prestigious design competitions held annually by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Germany, where products with outstanding design quality from 11 different categories are selected and rewarded.

The Accord won in the ‘Transportation’ category, due to its innovative production, appeal and high quality of its design concept.

Honda’s other models have been the recipients of this award in the past. The Honda S2000 did it in 2001 and the Honda Civic achieved the same feat in 2006.

Congratulating Honda, Prof. Dr Peter Zec, Initiator of the red dot design awards, said “Faced with the greater number of high-quality products, our international jury of acknowledged experts this year found the task of selecting the winner to be particularly challenging. This distinction explicitly acknowledges your creativity and innovative drive, and pays tribute to the high quality standards of your product.”

The awards will be distributed in a grand function thats scheduled to happen on June 23 in Essen, Germany.

This news gives us another strong reply to our very own question of the day where we asked your opinion on station wagons.

2009 Honda Accord Picture Gallery

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We were extremely busy while trying to cover the snot out of the New York Auto Show this past week at the Jacob Javits Center. Even when we were running across the show floor to make a press conference and get a good seat, we still had our fingers on the trigger of our many DSLR cameras. At times we caught some interesting and downright funny things that just didn’t fit into any other gallery except one devote to the odd and slightly hilarious. Check them out in the gallery below, complete with captions that add some context and extra chuckles.