Manufacturers ramp up minivan inventory

COURTESY OF HONDA CANADA

Honda says the Odyssey’s third-row seats will “comfortably” hold three adults because of a sliding side-door motor that has been repositioned below shoulder height.

John LeBlanc

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

With the additions to the market of mid- and full-size three-row crossovers, sales in the overall minivan market have taken a beating in the past couple of years.

According to Canadian industry analysts at DesRosiers & Associates, minivan sales are down by almost a third compared to this time last year while intermediate SUV sales are up almost 40 per cent and large SUVs are up over 50 per cent.

Much of that minivan sales slide has been a result of some former key players like Ford and General Motors abandoning the segment. Despite this, the remaining players seem happy enough to keep investing in new product, with three new or updated minivans arriving for the 2011 model year.

Toyota has already released its thoroughly refreshed Sienna for 2011. Chrysler is scheduled to update its popular Town & Country and Dodge Caravan models by the end of this year. Nissan, which dropped the current Quest last year, has announced a new version is on the way next year. Even Mercedes-Benz is in on the action. It pseudo-minivan R Class has been updated for 2011 and will be supported with a substantial boost in advertising.

And now its Honda’s turn.

As a follow-up to the concept that debuted this spring, the Japanese automaker has released photos and details of the production version of the 2011 Odyssey that goes on sale later this fall.

Lower, wider, roomier, lighter and more aerodynamic than the outgoing model, the 2011 Odyssey sticks to its basic minivan form but adds some less-than-conventional styling via the concept version’s lightning-bolt signature at the base of the side window glass.

While Honda says the Odyssey’s third-row seats will “comfortably” hold three adults due to a sliding side-door motor that was repositioned below shoulder height, new options will include a “coolbox” that can hold a six pack of beverages and a 42-cm wide entertainment system screen for second-row passengers.

Canadian pricing hasn’t been announced, but Honda in the U.S. is pricing its Odysseys close to the current 2010 models.

Mercedes-Benz’s new ‘green’ super sports car

Under the bright lights of Mercedes-Benz’s display at last year’s Frankfurt auto show, the German automaker unveiled its new SLS AMG Gullwing super sports car.

And while the assembled media and hangers-on applauded and cheered as the 563 hp sports car revved its V8 and sprung open its exotic “gullwing” doors, the automaker also tried to add some balance to the obvious celebration of gratuitous horsepower by announcing that an all-electric version of the SLS was in the works as well.

Cynics may have scoffed at ‘Benz’s “green” super sports car ambitions. But the hype surrounding Tesla’s battery-powered plug-in electric, and recent debuts of eclectic sports car concepts from Ferrari and Porsche, suggest the idea of a non gas-burning sports car isn’t all that far-fetched.

And now, U.S. Automobile magazine has published details on the Mercedes SLS AMG E-Cell Prototype.

The E-Cell is a driving prototype, part of Mercedes’ AMG Performance 2015 strategy, which is to “continually reduce the fuel consumption and emissions of new models in the coming years, while at the same time enhancing the core brand value of performance,” according to Ola Källenius, Mercedes-AMG GmbH’s new chairman.

So, instead of one large gas engine, the SLS E-Cell uses four electric motors — one for each wheel. Power comes from a lithium-ion polymer battery that Mercedes says makes an “industry best” 480 kW.

Combining all four of the E-Cell driving prototype’s motors produces 526 hp and 649 lb-ft of instantaneous torque and a naught to 100 km time of four seconds.

Inside the car, the centre console features a touch screen infotainment system, which along with operating audio, climate, and navigation functions also displays the flow of power from the four electric motors.

Still years away from production, the costs and availability of the Mercedes all-electric super sports car are still to be figured out.

Honda’s big push for 2011? Another hatchback

After last year’s Insight hybrid and Accord Crosstour crossover, the big push this year from Japanese automaker Honda is another hatchback, the 2011 CR-Z sports coupe, a two-seat, three-door version of the five-door Insight.

Honda is calling the all-new 2011 Honda CR-Z the “world’s first sport hybrid,” and to back that up it’s offering the first six-speed manual transmission to be offered in a hybrid, “sporty handling” and the 1.5-litre gas four-cylinder from the Honda Fit “assisted” by a 10-kilowatt electric motor for combined 122 hp and 128 lb-ft of torque.

While Canadian pricing hasn’t been announced, in the U.S., CR-Zs will start at under US$20,000.

But, of course, as with any hybrid, the big selling feature is exceptional fuel economy.

Accordingly, Honda Canada says the CR-Z will get 6.0L/100 km combined city and highway with the stick, and 5.3L with the optional CVT automatic. That’s better than a Smart ForTwo, but worse than larger hybrids like the Prius, Civic Hybrid, Insight and even Ford’s Fusion.

Before the CR-Z has even hit the market, though, it looks like it will be getting some small coupe competition from Korea’s Hyundai.

Autoblog is reporting that at a recent media event, Hyundai Motor America president John Krafcik indicated that its forthcoming small coupe (rumoured to be called Velostar or Tiburon) would better the CR-Z’s fuel economy using only a conventional four-cylinder engine (speculated to be a 140 hp 1.6-litre.)

Krafcik also hinted that the Hyundai coupe will have two more seats than the Honda, and more utility (i.e. cargo space.) And seeing that there won’t be any expensive hybrid bits and bytes, the coupe will more than likely cost less than the CR-Z.

V8 engines are not going to go anywhere

As governments around the world demand cleaner and more fuel-efficient automobiles, the demise of the thirsty and dirty V8 engine has been widely predicted. It only makes sense.

Many automakers have embarked on an engine-downsizing plan, replacing displacement and cylinders with forced induction technologies like turbo- or supercharging. Yet recent prognostications of the death of the eight-cylinder may have been greatly exaggerated.

True, the availability of V8s is and will be less than in the past. But we like what we’ve seen with Ford’s new 2011 5.0-litre Mustang GT V8, a 412 hp monster that stills scores a reasonable 7.6L/100 km on the highway, which shows there’s still a place for big displacement engines in the marketplace.

“V8s are going to be smaller, more powerful and weigh less, and they will be in vehicles where customers expect a V8,” Ford U.S. spokesperson Said Deep told Automotive News.

In addition, General Motors recently invested US$893 million to upgrade one of its plants to build new all-aluminum V8s.

For the foreseeable future, V8 fans can breathe a sigh of relief.

According to David Champion, senior director of U.S. Consumer Reports’ Automotive Test Division, smaller, turbocharged engines don’t always live up to high mileage expectations.

“A turbo does well on the EPA cycle, but in real-world driving conditions, sometimes a larger-displacement engine gives almost the same fuel economy and much smoother driving.”

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