BMW X1

The picture below shows a reliable interpretation of the new BMW X1. The car should be presented as a concept car in the next few days and should have a mini-X5 overall design theme. That is good, actually, it looks great.

The new small-SUV is actually almost the size of the X3 (the next X3 will grow a bit) and will bring family credentials to the einser lineup with a base price cheaper than the X3 (but not much).

This is not good news for the good people at Ford, Renault or VW that lately brought new mini-SUVs to the market (Kuga, Koleos and Tiguan). Those new car are not selling very well because of oil prices and the new X1 will not help their cause.

Update: concept car images arrived. Here's the rear, not that similar after all. And I'm not showing the front of the car...

Ford Taurus

The Taurus name is an important one in American automobile landscape. A name that is currently associated to a failed car that started as the Ford five-hundred and later changed to Taurus seeking more success. Anyway, the impression below shows a reliable interpretation of the future Taurus. It doesn't look very exciting, but it doesn't need to be.

This is not the car that will save Ford of North-America. It doesn't neet to be. This car needs to look big but inoffensive, like a bigger Camry with interiors like a Camry or Accord. Just that, keeping it simple and adopting tried and tested tactics from Toyota and Honda. And that is what Ford will deliver, and with some new more fuel-efficient engines. It might not be the sales leader but it will improve sales greatly from the current model. And if every new model from NA-Ford delivers just that a safe path for the future will follow. We know this new Taurus is an improvement in the right direction, as well as the future Fusion, and the new Fiesta and the next Euro-Focus...

VW Robust

The image below shows a VW Robust prototype doing its thing, being a VW it probably had some electric malfunction.

I don't remember bothering too much about this new pick-up. But it does have some interesting points. First is the timing. Maybe VW knows something we don't but in a period where pick-up sales are going downhill it seems strange to make all this effort to enter a declining market. Hopefully VW knows that very soon oil prices will fall, ... hopefully.

Then there's the name, a VW Robust? If I well remember last time VW models had some kind of robustness was in the 80s. Maybe they are in for some comic attibutes when the new pick-up arrives in the market and starts displaying the behaviour shown below.

2010 Audi A8

There's some photoshop job in the image below but still, we have reliable sources indicating that it's very close to the final version. It's that a Bangle-butt?... well it sure looks like one but it will arrive 8 years late... Will the new A8 finally end Mercedes S-Class/BMW 7-series dominance?... We can all claim that possibility and for sure Audi will bullish a lot when the A8 arrives but.... folks that can actually buy such cars will probably shrug their shoulders at these claims.

Renault Megane break

This is a good-looking CGI predicting the future Megane station. The new Megane is a nice design if only a bit inofensive. Still, much better that the previous one.

The only problem with the new Megane is the same as the Astra (if the Astra indeed gets the Chevrolet Cruze platform): no multilink at the rear! It has been 10 years since Ford introduced it at first generation Focus. Since then the Ford family got it (Mazda 3, volvo S40) as well as the Golf family (Golf, Audi A3, several Seat and Skodas) and even Hyundai/Kia have a multilink at the rear.

EV Future: Chevrolet Volt Design Inspirations and Designers

A great video on the volt. Several more are available at GMnext channel on youtube.

I have such a good feeling about this car, maybe it's because of the music in the video. Enjoy it, you can see many details of the new car in these videos.

Inside the Chevrolet Volt

I'm not a big fan of the ipod white. But probably that can be customized. Like the instrument display that can be personalized and show the information a particular driver wants. The design really touches important points: it is different from other cars to suit the green image and associated individuality. But still manages to look different from the Prius. You know, the Prius will change but the exterior of the Volt will still look more sporty.

Of course, the important bits are related to the electric drivetrain and onboard generator. But still it's good that it doesn't look like crap right?

2011 Chevrolet Volt

Finally it's here. It looks great. Our concept car of the year 2007 will arrive in 2010, hopefully. The picture below shows a really nice design, clearly individual to reflect a new powertrain paradigm but still different from the Priusinsights.

I really hope that this is for real, it must be or else GM wouldn't make this the most important presentation of the Centennial party. Anyway, if this is not for real, other cars from Nissan, toyota or BMW will be. The EV future starts in the next decade.

This car is also a giant middle finger to some folks around globe. Right Mr. Chavez?

2009 Opel Astra

Opel is on our radar! We don't usually follow Opel future cars a lot because we don't care about the brand. But lately Opel presented some cool stuff: mainly the new Insignia that is a great effort. Very good design, wonderfull station version and availability of 4WD are strong points of the Insignia. So maybe we should care more about Opel.

The new Astra could be an interesting vehicle, it seems to get some cool headlights with leds and the design in the CGI below looks ok. The car needs to have more road presence than the current version, particularly it needs to look wider than the Focus or the Golf. We are interested! Of course, we can quickly loose interest if the new car doesn't have a multilink in the rear...

Mini crossover: a future mega hit

Sometimes is fun to make predictions. Will a new car be a hit or a flop? We could bet on that... Sometimes it's easy, the new Renault Laguna is a flop and just looking at the front of the car we can see why, but the new Citroen C5 doesn't help Renault either...

The new Mini crossover, small-SAV or SUV or whatever, looks like a safe bet. Of course, it's easy to forecast succes since it's a Mini, but remember the new Clubman sort of van thing is not doing really well.

The key feature for this new Mini-SUV is the proportions, there is something about the Infiniti FX there that screams mega-hit. On top of that this could be a proper practical car with some luggage space. Maybe BMW can even achieve sub-120g/km in the 1.6 diesel version. Looking beyond the concept-car detailing this is a great car in the making.

EV Future: another Prius CGI

This one doesn't look really good, as many recent Toyotas. Just check how boring the new Avensis design is. But the next Volt doesn't look very special either. However, it doesn't matter, the real joy in the new Prius is when it arrives plug-in enabled ant what is the range in full electric mode.

Renault Megane sedan

This is just a CGI of a possible design for the sedan version. This type of car does not sell a lot in Europe so this is more interesting for other markets like Brasil.

EV Future: VW Golf Twin Drive

Got to love the first sentence: "The future is electric".