Six weeks after its official announcement at the Beijing auto show, full details are finally being released about the 2011 Volkswagen Phaeton facelift. The Dresden-produced Volkswagen flagship saloon is available with either two individual rear seats or a bench, and can be purchased with a long wheelbase.
Changes to the car include a completely remodeled front end that incorporates LED cornering lights, and bi-xenon headlights that touch either side of the chrome grille. The rear light cluster is also comprised of LEDs behind smoked lenses. In keeping with Volkswagen’s current design language, “horizontal lines dominate the geometry,” according to a press release.
Inside, the driver can get the benefit of items from the Volkswagen Exclusive line, including Alcantara, leather and wood. 18-way seating is also featured on the front seats, while the optional individual rear seats are electronically adjustable. Four-zone climate control can also be found to keep things comfortable, while the driver has access to a new braking system, Dynamic Light Assist, sat-nav and an infotainment unit. Conveniently, the infotainment system can update itself through a mobile UMTS connection when connnected to a mobile phone.
The facelifted Phaeton has one turbodiesel and three petrol engines available. The V6 TDI kicks out 237 bhp (174 kW / 240 PS) with a 5.6 percent improvement in fuel consumption. It now uses 8.5 liters of diesel per 100 kilometers, or 27.7 mpg, while producing 224 grams of CO2 per km. A direct-injection petrol V6 that produces 276 hp (206 kW / 280 PS) is new to the Phaeton. Still available are the four-year-old 330 bhp (246 kW / 335 PS) V8, and the range-leading W12 engine generating 444 bhp (331 kW / 450 PS). Both could probably be tuned to be both more robust and more fuel efficient.
Pricing on the 2011 Volkswagen Phaeton was not yet revealed, even though the car will hit the European market later this month. The car will be sold in China beginning in August.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Arrival: 2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT Limited
Boasting blistering acceleration times of 0 to 60 in 4.5 seconds and the quarter mile in 13.3 at 101.3 mph, the Subaru Impreza WRX is one formidable four-door. Problem is, if you frequently need to transport adults in the back seat or haul a jumbo load of gear in the trunk, it’s less than ideal, due to 33.5 inches of rear legroom and 11.3 cubic feet of cargo capacity (WRX sedan). Luckily, Subaru has just the showroom solution.
The all-new Subaru Legacy 2.5GT gets the WRX’s 265-horse turbo flat-4 (mated exclusively to a six-speed manual), but bumps rear legroom to 37.8 inches and cargo load to 14.7 cubic feet. Overall interior volume jumps from 93.0 cubic feet in the Impreza to 114.7 in the Legacy. To top it off, NHTSA awarded the Legacy five stars in front, side, and rollover crash tests; the WRX received five stars for front and front-side, but four for rear-side and rollover.
The Legacy’s prospective buyers, many middle-aged and with kids, generally care more about crash scores than eye-popping acceleration.
So is the Legacy 2.5GT a mature WRX? On paper, yes, but in the real world, well, we wanted to find out for ourselves. To get an answer, we contacted Subaru and requested a year with Fuji Heavy’s fifth-generation flagship. We started with the $28,690 2.5GT Premium and quickly checked the $2000 Limited box, which adds a plethora of luxury items, including Bluetooth phone capability, heated front seats, harmon/kardon audio, dual-zone automatic climate control, and leather-trimmed seats. Often light deprived and directionally challenged, we chose the $2995 moonroof and navigation package, upgrading the interior with a power moonroof, voice-activated navigation, Bluetooth audio capability, backup camera, and USB/iPod port. A $461 Sirius satellite radio kit and a $393 trunk lip spoiler rounded out the accessories. Price as tested? A respectable $34,539.
Once we received our Satin White Pearl 2.5GT Limited, we headed for the test track, where it laid down brisk runs of 0 to 60 in 5.6 seconds and the quarter mile in 14.1 at 98.8 mph. Obviously, mature doesn’t necessarily equal unentertaining. Thus far, the Legacy has provided 4397 miles of trouble-free operation, though recently the airbag light has become an IP fixture (we plan to have that inspected during the first service at 7500 miles). While we’re excited to discover whether the 2.5GT is a grownup WRX, we’re hesitant too, as this may require our youthful staff to, um, grow up.
The all-new Subaru Legacy 2.5GT gets the WRX’s 265-horse turbo flat-4 (mated exclusively to a six-speed manual), but bumps rear legroom to 37.8 inches and cargo load to 14.7 cubic feet. Overall interior volume jumps from 93.0 cubic feet in the Impreza to 114.7 in the Legacy. To top it off, NHTSA awarded the Legacy five stars in front, side, and rollover crash tests; the WRX received five stars for front and front-side, but four for rear-side and rollover.
The Legacy’s prospective buyers, many middle-aged and with kids, generally care more about crash scores than eye-popping acceleration.
So is the Legacy 2.5GT a mature WRX? On paper, yes, but in the real world, well, we wanted to find out for ourselves. To get an answer, we contacted Subaru and requested a year with Fuji Heavy’s fifth-generation flagship. We started with the $28,690 2.5GT Premium and quickly checked the $2000 Limited box, which adds a plethora of luxury items, including Bluetooth phone capability, heated front seats, harmon/kardon audio, dual-zone automatic climate control, and leather-trimmed seats. Often light deprived and directionally challenged, we chose the $2995 moonroof and navigation package, upgrading the interior with a power moonroof, voice-activated navigation, Bluetooth audio capability, backup camera, and USB/iPod port. A $461 Sirius satellite radio kit and a $393 trunk lip spoiler rounded out the accessories. Price as tested? A respectable $34,539.
Once we received our Satin White Pearl 2.5GT Limited, we headed for the test track, where it laid down brisk runs of 0 to 60 in 5.6 seconds and the quarter mile in 14.1 at 98.8 mph. Obviously, mature doesn’t necessarily equal unentertaining. Thus far, the Legacy has provided 4397 miles of trouble-free operation, though recently the airbag light has become an IP fixture (we plan to have that inspected during the first service at 7500 miles). While we’re excited to discover whether the 2.5GT is a grownup WRX, we’re hesitant too, as this may require our youthful staff to, um, grow up.
First Drive: 2010 Saab 9-5 proves being born from chaos builds character
A funny thing happened on the way to bankruptcy court for General Motors. As part of a bid to have its red-stained slate wiped clean, it moved to divest itself of a number of brands in its bloated portfolio, with Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab all earmarked for sale or closure. However, only one brand inspired sufficient passion among both owners and those with the financial wherewithal to rescue it from GM’s ‘wind-down’ apple polishers. Oddly enough, it was the tiny Swede that successfully swam out to the life raft. Saab, the marque with the smallest and oldest product lineup, lowest volume, and the poorest brand recognition among American consumers somehow found a way to survive.
How, exactly, did this come to pass? For starters, unlike any other of GM’s death-row divisions, owners and fans rallied in dozens of countries, urging anyone who listened to “Save Saab.” Now, we’re not na?ve enough to think that a band of loyalists were all it took to change the course of automotive history, but it’s telling that there were no pitchforks and torches – or even a handful of picket signs – produced over the axing of the other brands. Saab remains a seldom understood, much loved brand, and we know that the displays of unity from Saab’s scorned faithful stoked the fire of unlikely suitor Victor Muller, CEO and owner of Spyker Cars, as his team waded through a stomach-churning series of negotiations. After watching from the sidelines while bids by other small automakers and investment groups fizzled, the Dutch businessman and his team eventually pried the battered brand away from GM – but not before Saab had been partially liquidated.
While Muller clearly has an affinity for the Swedish marque, he insists it wasn’t boyhood sentiment that drove the purchase – it was the company’s robust Trollh?ttan operations and a raft of promising, almost-here product that pushed his team to persevere. That stream of shiny new tin begins with the car you see before you: The 2010 9-5. Click through to the jump to see if Muller and Company have good reason to be optimistic.
During our trip to Gothenburg, Sweden to drive the new Saab 9-5, representatives vigorously pointed out that their new sedan positively brims with “Saabishness” despite being developed entirely under GM’s corporate umbrella. We had to wonder: Could the same Detroit decision-makers that gave us the half-hearted Subaru-based 9-2 and the utterly cynical Chevrolet Trailblazer-in-drag 9-7X actually know enough about the brand to deliver a competent and authentic 9-5 as a parting gift to its new owners – a Saab Saab? As it turns out, yes.
As Muller told us, GM finally started to ‘get the picture’ with Saab in 2005, back when it decided to develop the stunningly canopied Aero X coupe. Despite never making it to production, the arresting 2006 concept (only the second showcar in Saab’s entire history) actually gave Saab a much-needed fresh design direction, the production adaptation of which can be clearly seen in the new 9-5.
While the 9-5 doesn’t have the Aero-X’s jet-inspired tilting canopy, clear acrylic gauges or its novel drawer-style trunk, it does have an expressive, modern design that’s extremely slippery (.28 cD). Its face is clearly evolved from the Geneva concept, along with details including blue-tinged ‘ice block’ lighting, turbine-style alloys, and blacked-out A pillars that lend the windshield a similar wraparound look. More traditional Saab cues including the ‘hockey stick’ greenhouse surround and prominent C-pillars also make the scene. Overall, it’s a deeply handsome set of clothes that we think will wear the years particularly well because it doesn’t rely on fussy surface development, tacked-on aero addenda or a lather of chrome.
Make no mistake – this is a very big car whose clean design helps it hide its bulk. At 197.2-inches long, the 9-5 shadows its chief rival, the Audi A6, by nearly four inches, and it’s more than four inches longer than BMW’s new 5 Series. Dimensionally, the closest comparison we can draw is actually to the Buick LaCrosse, which is predictable because they both ride on long-wheelbase derivatives of GM’s Epsilon II architecture, the basic platform of which also underpins the Opel Insignia and Buick Regal (albeit in a shorter form).
Despite shared architectures and similar drivetrains, the 9-5 looks, feels and goes down the road in a wholly different fashion than its TriShield relatives. Indeed, sampled back-to-back, you’d probably be hard pressed to find much common ground. That’s not a knock on any of the models in question, but instead a testament to the efforts of both Saab’s stylists and its engineers. Perhaps we shouldn’t be terribly surprised – GM made sure that the Scandinavian team had considerable input into the dynamics of the entire Epsilon II family, an assignment that apparently gave technicians the proper perspective to ensure adequate differentiation and, well, Saabishness.
That coherence may start with the exterior, but it carries over into the 9-5’s cabin, which is unlike anything else in GM’s stable. Traditional Saab cues like a driver-centric dashboard, joystick-toggled eggcrate vents, green instrument lighting, and a console-mounted ignition (now push-button instead of key-based) are all present and accounted for, as is a nifty new round information display nestled in between the analog tachometer and speedometer. The latter can display everything from trip mileage to speed limits to an amusing altimeter-style speed readout that’s more fun than functional.
There’s even Saab’s excellent ‘Night Panel’ function that extinguishes all non-essential gauges for distraction-free nighttime driving – something that’s particularly welcome now that there’s an eight-inch screen in residence. Unfortunately, the Night Panel switch looks exactly like other automakers’ start buttons in both form and location, and while that won’t be a problem for owners who spend a few weeks with the car, it’s an ergonomic snafu likely to haunt the unfamiliar.
More praiseworthy are the center stack controls and the easy-as-pie touchscreen infotainment unit. The buttons and knobs are all logically arrayed, and we’re quite pleased that Saab has avoided the temptation to fit an all-in-one controller like those popularized by German rivals. One thing that is remarkably Teutonic in feel, however, is the 9-5’s somber dashboard. Particularly on the doors and in front of the passenger, there really isn’t enough to hold one’s interest in terms of trim. We’re not advocating for wood (we hear a grain package will be available, however), but something to break up the darkness would help make the interior feel more premium, be it piano black or some sort of additional aluminum trim.
How, exactly, did this come to pass? For starters, unlike any other of GM’s death-row divisions, owners and fans rallied in dozens of countries, urging anyone who listened to “Save Saab.” Now, we’re not na?ve enough to think that a band of loyalists were all it took to change the course of automotive history, but it’s telling that there were no pitchforks and torches – or even a handful of picket signs – produced over the axing of the other brands. Saab remains a seldom understood, much loved brand, and we know that the displays of unity from Saab’s scorned faithful stoked the fire of unlikely suitor Victor Muller, CEO and owner of Spyker Cars, as his team waded through a stomach-churning series of negotiations. After watching from the sidelines while bids by other small automakers and investment groups fizzled, the Dutch businessman and his team eventually pried the battered brand away from GM – but not before Saab had been partially liquidated.
While Muller clearly has an affinity for the Swedish marque, he insists it wasn’t boyhood sentiment that drove the purchase – it was the company’s robust Trollh?ttan operations and a raft of promising, almost-here product that pushed his team to persevere. That stream of shiny new tin begins with the car you see before you: The 2010 9-5. Click through to the jump to see if Muller and Company have good reason to be optimistic.
During our trip to Gothenburg, Sweden to drive the new Saab 9-5, representatives vigorously pointed out that their new sedan positively brims with “Saabishness” despite being developed entirely under GM’s corporate umbrella. We had to wonder: Could the same Detroit decision-makers that gave us the half-hearted Subaru-based 9-2 and the utterly cynical Chevrolet Trailblazer-in-drag 9-7X actually know enough about the brand to deliver a competent and authentic 9-5 as a parting gift to its new owners – a Saab Saab? As it turns out, yes.
As Muller told us, GM finally started to ‘get the picture’ with Saab in 2005, back when it decided to develop the stunningly canopied Aero X coupe. Despite never making it to production, the arresting 2006 concept (only the second showcar in Saab’s entire history) actually gave Saab a much-needed fresh design direction, the production adaptation of which can be clearly seen in the new 9-5.
While the 9-5 doesn’t have the Aero-X’s jet-inspired tilting canopy, clear acrylic gauges or its novel drawer-style trunk, it does have an expressive, modern design that’s extremely slippery (.28 cD). Its face is clearly evolved from the Geneva concept, along with details including blue-tinged ‘ice block’ lighting, turbine-style alloys, and blacked-out A pillars that lend the windshield a similar wraparound look. More traditional Saab cues including the ‘hockey stick’ greenhouse surround and prominent C-pillars also make the scene. Overall, it’s a deeply handsome set of clothes that we think will wear the years particularly well because it doesn’t rely on fussy surface development, tacked-on aero addenda or a lather of chrome.
Make no mistake – this is a very big car whose clean design helps it hide its bulk. At 197.2-inches long, the 9-5 shadows its chief rival, the Audi A6, by nearly four inches, and it’s more than four inches longer than BMW’s new 5 Series. Dimensionally, the closest comparison we can draw is actually to the Buick LaCrosse, which is predictable because they both ride on long-wheelbase derivatives of GM’s Epsilon II architecture, the basic platform of which also underpins the Opel Insignia and Buick Regal (albeit in a shorter form).
Despite shared architectures and similar drivetrains, the 9-5 looks, feels and goes down the road in a wholly different fashion than its TriShield relatives. Indeed, sampled back-to-back, you’d probably be hard pressed to find much common ground. That’s not a knock on any of the models in question, but instead a testament to the efforts of both Saab’s stylists and its engineers. Perhaps we shouldn’t be terribly surprised – GM made sure that the Scandinavian team had considerable input into the dynamics of the entire Epsilon II family, an assignment that apparently gave technicians the proper perspective to ensure adequate differentiation and, well, Saabishness.
That coherence may start with the exterior, but it carries over into the 9-5’s cabin, which is unlike anything else in GM’s stable. Traditional Saab cues like a driver-centric dashboard, joystick-toggled eggcrate vents, green instrument lighting, and a console-mounted ignition (now push-button instead of key-based) are all present and accounted for, as is a nifty new round information display nestled in between the analog tachometer and speedometer. The latter can display everything from trip mileage to speed limits to an amusing altimeter-style speed readout that’s more fun than functional.
There’s even Saab’s excellent ‘Night Panel’ function that extinguishes all non-essential gauges for distraction-free nighttime driving – something that’s particularly welcome now that there’s an eight-inch screen in residence. Unfortunately, the Night Panel switch looks exactly like other automakers’ start buttons in both form and location, and while that won’t be a problem for owners who spend a few weeks with the car, it’s an ergonomic snafu likely to haunt the unfamiliar.
More praiseworthy are the center stack controls and the easy-as-pie touchscreen infotainment unit. The buttons and knobs are all logically arrayed, and we’re quite pleased that Saab has avoided the temptation to fit an all-in-one controller like those popularized by German rivals. One thing that is remarkably Teutonic in feel, however, is the 9-5’s somber dashboard. Particularly on the doors and in front of the passenger, there really isn’t enough to hold one’s interest in terms of trim. We’re not advocating for wood (we hear a grain package will be available, however), but something to break up the darkness would help make the interior feel more premium, be it piano black or some sort of additional aluminum trim.
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