A question: What foreign car do we not get here that you would like to see grace us?

dave shepard

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/GeneralFuture/articleId=117074

Jstas wrote: »

They are already here. The Infiniti G35 is the Nissan Skyline.

I thought the Nissan GTR was the Skyline.

EDIT***The link added is why I thought it was. Not picking, a fight just clarifying.

zingo

I rescind any Skyline comments that were not true on my behalf.

Here is a Europe only that wouldn't be bad for us; a hybrid Volvo garbage truck.

Jstas

F1nut wrote: »

Bring back the Yugo.

There are reports of you already owning a sky blue Yugo.

Jstas

Demiurge wrote: »

Don't get more awesome than that!

F1nut

Jstas wrote: »

There are reports of you already owning a sky blue Yugo.

Those reports would be false, but I did own the Bang Bus.

Music Joe

I want a Civic Type-R Diesel (coming to Europe) :mad:

avelanchefan

billbillw wrote: »

No Scirocco for the US. Hits Europe for 09 model year.
Sure, we have the GTI, but the low slung Scirocco is so much better looking.

I with Bill on this. I love the new Scirocco, but hey I'm a VW guy.

I was/am very intrigued with the Volvo C30. I will be taking a test drive in the next year to see if it is something I will be interested in. I know the back end of them have really been hammered by people, but it does not bother me that much.

Also I think the Scirocco is supposed to sport the new 7 speed DSG. I love my six speed DSG, incredibly quick and seamless shifting. The new Tiguan diesels are supposed to have the 6 speed DSG at the end of this year.

steveinaz

Demiurge wrote: »

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! Awesome.:D

avelanchefan

UUgghh I just read this about the C30, very disapointing for me.

GOTHENBURG, Sweden — Volvo on Monday said it will introduce a green C30 "Efficiency" model powered by a 104-horsepower 1.6-liter turbodiesel at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show. However, the company's U.S. spokesman said there are no plans to sell the vehicle in the U.S. "at this point."

Volvo spokesman Dan Johnston said: "We will not be doing anything unless this engine platform can work in all 50 states. The rest of the world gets this before our market."

Johnston said the most promising "potential" markets for the C30 Efficiency would likely be in such states as New York and California.

The C30 Efficiency gets a reduced chassis height, a new rear roof spoiler, new rear bumper, underbody panels, "optimized" engine cooling and 16-inch wheels. The gearbox has also been revised, Volvo said. The changes squeeze out slightly better fuel economy. The C30 Efficiency gets a combined 52 mpg, while the current Volvo C30 1.6D gets a combined 50 mpg. The C30 Efficiency has reduced C02 emissions "to below 120 g/km" (193 grams per mile); the current Volvo C30 emits 129 g/km of C02.

Volvo's home office said that, in addition to rolling out the C30 Efficiency, it will also show off a new diesel Powershift transmission for the Volvo C30, S40 and V50 at Frankfurt. The Powershift gearbox is made up of two clutches that work in parallel. The automaker said this setup results in no disruption in torque delivery during the gear shifting process, thus "delivering improved fuel consumption compared with a standard automatic gearbox."

Volvo explained that the two latest green efforts help to round out its green slate, which includes biofuels and hybrid technology. "Volvo is also making energy-efficiency improvements to conventional drivetrains," the company said in a statement.

Volvo also said it will "reveal future hybrid plans and new safety technologies" at Frankfurt, too. It did not give any details, however.

What this means to you: You may be among the last consumers on the globe to get the Volvo C30 Efficiency.

NotaSuv

No longer made......was at an auction where the body sans engine,wheels,seats,and rusted through out went for over 90K...but talk about one red sexy machine.........of course you all know this one.....

danger boy

this one

NotaSuv

danger boy wrote: »

this one

does it come with the tree? or is that an option

cmy330go

BMW 335d a humble 265 horsepower diesel yet an awesome 425 pound-feet of torque.

mule

I've been waiting for this one for years

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TBTkI8jKI4

heiney9

Not a huge fan of the current GTi. The performance and features are excellent I just aam not all that thrilled with the look of the car. This is the car VW should make available in the US. It's a lot sportier looking, but I'm sure it's not practical as the GTi.

http://www.leftlanenews.com/volkswagen-scirocco.html

heiney9

dkg999 wrote: »

The most awesome car ever built is about to return to the US market :eek:

Yes, Ford has announced that the Fiesta will resume production in Mexico and be available in the US market. My family had 3 Fiesta's back in the 70's. Each of them went an easy 200,000 miles with minimal problems and got over 40 mpg. This is a car whose time has arrived

And one of those 3 Fiesta's is still setting at a friends farm with trees growing up through it. After the body totally rusted out we cut the top off, welded up a steel cage, and made a go-kart out of it. The engine finally succumbed to an overdose of NO2 if I remember correctly.

Great news!!!!!! I had Fiesta in high school. Lets just say they tried to copy the VW Rabbit and failed miserably. I nick named it the "tin can". I mean come on the Rabbit was about as basic of transportation you could get and the Rabbits built in the US were not nearly as good as the "Golfs" built in Germany (I'm a VW fan) but the Fiesta was somehow even less of a car. I had the "S" model with the racing strip and the the larger 175/70 12" tires whereas the non "S" model had 155/70 12" tires. Those damn 12" tires were hard to find.

Since gas is what it is I'd like to see VW make a higher fuel mileage car available in the US. The Rabbit with the 170hp 5 cylinder engine gets pretty poor gas mileage. The VW Polo is right up the same alley as the Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris only probably a little more sporty and feature laden.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4262351.html

billbillw

heiney9 wrote: »

Not a huge fan of the current GTi. The performance and features are excellent I just aam not all that thrilled with the look of the car. This is the car VW should make available in the US. It's a lot sportier looking, but I'm sure it's not practical as the GTi.

Did you miss Post #12?

heiney9

billbillw wrote: »

Did you miss Post #12?

Ha ha....lol, sure did. Great minds think alike

Jstas

heiney9 wrote: »

Lets just say they tried to copy the VW Rabbit and failed miserably.

No dude, the Fiesta was intended to compete with the micro-mini cars. It's VW competition would have been the Polo. But the original Polo was not a micro-mini. The Golf's competition from Ford would have been the Escort/Capri and then later the Escort/Tracer and now the Focus. The Fiesta has been in constant production since 1976 going through several generations since. It hasn't always been sold here though. It was also replaced by the Ford Festiva in 1986 which was essentially a rebadged Kia Pride. Ford actually owned Kia at one point. The car was developed from the Mazda DA platform and used Mazda engines. That was then replaced by the Ford Aspire in 1994 which was another Ford/Kia joint venture with Mazda engines.

I'm pretty intrigued by the Fiesta coming here. It's a vastly different car than it was when it first came out and it gets great reviews in Europe and is one of Ford's best selling cars world wide.

What I think would be cooler though is the Ka and the Ka Sport. Those would be neat to have here.

billbillw

heiney9 wrote: »

Ha ha....lol, sure did. Great minds think alike

One of my buddies back home had a 1981 Scirocco and he drove the snot out of that thing. To the redline just about every shift. Off road, on road, through ditches, etc. He used to use the handbrake to drift around dirt road corners back before anyone ever heard of 'drifting'. I've always held a warm spot for the Scirocco.

heiney9

billbillw wrote: »

One of my buddies back home had a 1981 Scirocco and he drove the snot out of that thing. To the redline just about every shift. Off road, on road, through ditches, etc. He used to use the handbrake to drift around dirt road corners back before anyone ever heard of 'drifting'. I've always held a warm spot for the Scirocco.

I had a 1975 and 1977 Scirocco before my Fiesta. Fun sporty cars for their time. They were rust buckets just like most "imports" of that era, but for the most part a great car mechanically, especially the fuel injected models which were 1977 and on.

Jstas, at the time the Fiesta was a direct competition for the Rabbit whether it was intended or not in the American market as the Polo has never been offered here. In Europe at the time I could see it being direct competition with the Polo. It was Ford's first "world" car and they played that marketing fact to the hilt. The original Fiesta was not as successful as Ford had hoped and that's what prompted the Escort, also initially advertised as a "world" car.

Did you ever own the original Fiesta? Mine was a 1978 "S" and it was a tin can and very basic. The Rabbit of the era was a better car in almost every respect and even those weren't all that great. Of course this is my opinion having owned and fixed both as well as other late 70's era economy cars.

H9

Jstas

heiney9 wrote: »

I had a 1975 and 1977 Scirocco before my Fiesta. Fun sporty cars for their time. They were rust buckets just like most "imports" of that era, but for the most part a great car mechanically, especially the fuel injected models which were 1977 and on.

Jstas, at the time the Fiesta was a direct competition for the Rabbit whether it was intended or not in the American market as the Polo has never been offered here. In Europe at the time I could see it being direct competition with the Polo. It was Ford's first "world" car and they played that marketing fact to the hilt. The original Fiesta was not as successful as Ford had hoped and that's what prompted the Escort, also initially advertised as a "world" car.

Did you ever own the original Fiesta? Mine was a 1978 "S" and it was a tin can and very basic. The Rabbit of the era was a better car in almost every respect and even those weren't all that great. Of course this is my opinion having owned and fixed both as well as other 70's era economy cars.

H9

You are going on the assumption that the Fiesta was designed for this market. It wasn't. It's a Ford of Europe car and was designed there, built in Germany and sold there before it ever hit our shores. It's intended target was the micro-minis. VW never sold the Polo here because it couldn't meet U.S. crash standards. The U.S. is the only place where VW had a market share and did not sell the Polo. You can still go to Canada or Mexico and buy a brand new Polo if you want. It's going to be a pain to get it federalized though. The Fiesta did not hit our shores until the previous fuel crisis in the late 70's. VW's Rabbit was already firmly entrenched in the U.S. because of that. Ford had the Escort with similar fuel mileage numbers but wanted something more miserly for the U.S. So they brought the Fiesta over and sold every one they could drag over here. So much so that they started building them here too. The Fiesta is sold all over the world, even in markets where VW isn't.

I don't disagree that the Rabbit was likely a better car. All I'm saying is that the reason your Rabbit was a better car was because it was in a different class of vehicles. Both were built in Germany, by Germans with German engineering. Fiestas could get the crap kicked out of them and keep going. They looked like hell, rattled like crazy and were pretty spartan in appointments but they were reliable and sipped gas. They were merely cheap transportation and one of the most globally successful cars of all time. Golfs had similar attributes but were better appointed with more space inside and such because they were a higher class of car. That's all I'm saying. The two didn't directly compete anywhere. Ford's competition for the Golf/Rabbit was the Escort and since the Escort was one of the best selling cars through most of it's run, even though the Golf/Rabbit was a better car, the Escort and the Fiesta both trounced the Rabbit/Golf in sales.

Jstas

Oh, as far as owning a Fiesta, no, didn't. Didn't have to own anything from Ford. My uncle was a Ford salesman for 35 years. I saw every new car that came on the lot the day it showed up. Fiestas were poo. So were Rabbits IMO. Then again, the Festiva and the Aspire were pretty much crap too. Never drove a Polo though but most of the foreign press considers it a waste bin with cute little wheels.

Jstas

One more thing, about the Escort. Again, that was around looooong before the U.S. had one. The Escort started in 1968. 8 years before the Fiesta. The Escort we got here replaced the Pinto, not the Fiesta. Although after the intro of the Escort, the Fiesta exited the U.S. market.

The Escort we got in 1981 used Ford's CE14 platform which was based on the European Escort which was redesigned the year before. Ford turned it into a "world car" and marketed it here as competition for the Golf because the FWD Golf platform took off. So Ford followed suit, ditched the RWD Pinto and gave us an Escort. It remained that way with Ford using a Ford of Europe platform for the basis of Escorts, Lynxs, Tracers, EXPs, Tempos, Topazs and the LN7 until 1994 when Ford switched all Escorts in the U.S. over to a cheaper to build Mazda B platform and ditched the mid-sized Tempo and Topaz variants. You could still get the Euro spec Escort in Canada though and that came along with the availability of the Escort Cosworth.

As far as the Fiesta went, Ford knew that the Fiesta was too small to compete with the Rabbit. The Pinto was sized right but inefficient comparably. That is why the Escort came along. It was intended to compete with the Golf and did so quite successfully.

audiobliss

SlowcarIX wrote: »

koenigsegg ccx

Ditto on that count! One of my all time favorite super cars. I've always said the McLaren F1 is my favorite...but if it really is the CCX is a CLOSE second!

avelanchefan wrote: »

The Powershift gearbox is made up of two clutches that work in parallel. The automaker said this setup results in no disruption in torque delivery during the gear shifting process, thus "delivering improved fuel consumption compared with a standard automatic gearbox."

In the last Road & Track issue, they had an article on the Nissan GT-R, and they took a stab at explaining how such a bulky, heavy car with no more power than it has could supposedly defy the laws of physics. One of the points was that it has a transmission just like the one described in that article. Though the automatic shifts take longer than with the pure-bred manual-shift auto's (like from Ferrari), it offers an uninterrupted flow of power from one gear to the next.

Oh, and if you like the new Nissan GT-R, I really recommend that article in Road & Track (June 2008 issue).

SlowcarIX

audiobliss wrote: »

Ditto on that count! One of my all time favorite super cars. I've always said the McLaren F1 is my favorite...but if it really is the CCX is a CLOSE second!

how about the Honda powered Ariel Atom? although no super car, this thing will drive circles around them

audiobliss

Oh yeah, that thing would be an AWESOME drive!! However, I think I'd like it better with an LS7 in it! :D

unc2701

Ariel Atom is available in the US, but they dumped the civic type-R engine for a GM, IIRC... Think they had some legal issues to sort through as well.

The Atom Top Gear episode is a classic.

audiobliss

Oh yeah. I remember the look on his face as he was talking about the intake trying to suck your brains out through your ears!

SlowcarIX

audiobliss wrote: »

Oh yeah, that thing would be an AWESOME drive!! However, I think I'd like it better with an LS7 in it! :D

the LS7 will mess up the weight distribution of the car....

there is replacement for displacement....its called psi those honda engines redline at ~8000rpm, perfect for a big snail