A biweekly roundup of automotive news, good, bad and just plain weird:
Camaro 1LE returns to eat Mustangs
Camaro: a small vicious animal that eats Mustangs. So Chevrolet's pony car was introduced to the media some fifty years ago, and so it remains today. In the battle of the Blue Oval versus the Bowtie, you pick your side and cheer whenever your team lands a knockout punch.
Ford's had a lot to shout about lately, with the new GT and the followup Shelby GT350 looking like a pair of haymakers. But here's Chevrolet's roundhouse, and it's got some muscle behind it. Already, the standard SS-grade Camaro is knocking out performance numbers not far off that of a Corvette.
Now here's the 1LE. As a performance designation, it's not as immediately recognizable as "Shelby," but it might just be the mongoose to take down the cobra. Available for both V-6 and V-8 versions of the Camaro, the 1LE adds in beefed up suspension components, better braking, and improved aerodynamics. The V-8 versions get a few more goodies than the V-6s - sixpiston Brembos for the former, four-piston for the latter, for instance - but both Camaros should be extra vicious when so equipped.
Fitted with the new aerodynamic package, they also look the part. Best of all, this isn't the final salvo from GM, who still has whatever the Z/28 is going to be tucked up their sleeve.
Just like everybody else, Maserati now has an SUV
It's called the Levante, and it's based on a rich heritage of motorsports and gorgeous grand tourers and will be assembled in Turin and I can't take it any more. Stop. Stop with the luxo-crossovers. I give up. Uncle.
They may wish to call it the Levante, but I hereby dub this unnecessarily large, unnecessarily expensive SUV the Quattroportly.
Given what the current range of Maserati sedans is like, the Quattroportly will probably be pretty decent to drive, with an eight-speed automatic transmission and twin-turbo V-6 engines that will somehow be breathed on by Ferrari. Possibly they'll be assembled in the same room as a large picture of Enzo himself.
And you'll likely see them soon enough at Park Royal, a fusion of Italian style and Grand Cherokee underpinnings with fair-to-moderate curb rash on the passenger-side rear wheel. I'm sure it'll be very profitable.
EPA may require VW to build electric vehicles in U.S.A.
VW's diesel woes seem to have everyone chiming in with possible solutions. Some months back, Tesla founder Elon Musk suggested that switching over to EV production would be a great way for Volkswagen to clean up its tarnished image, and it would now seem that the EPA is in agreement.
All is still at the rumour and innuendo stage, but one possible penalty applied by the EPA could be to force VW to convert some production of their Chattanooga plant to EV production. And yes, Chattanooga is a real place (in Tennessee), and not just the sound an old-timey Model T horn makes.
If you think about it, VW converting to heavy EV production makes a lot of sense. After all, the company grew out of an alternative to traditional motoring with the cheap, simple, air-cooled Beetle. If they can bring all the might of German engineering to bear to make an e-Golf that can best the range of the Chevrolet Bolt and the Nissan Leaf, then perhaps there's a long-term solution to grow the company. Well, as long as nobody types "VW" and "Electrical" into a Google search.
Volvo says goodbye to keys
Key fobs come in all sorts of shapes and sizes these days, from the discreet little Nissan ovals to the giant crystal-encased Aston Martin "Emotion Control Unit," which you're supposed to take out and wave around like a - well ... you get the picture.
Volvo thinks the age of the keyfob is dead, and you should be able to use your smartphone instead. Makes sense - we generally always have our phones with us, and most people feel like they're missing an internal organ if they forget theirs at home.
Volvo's app would also allow you to share your car with a co-worker or friend without giving them the keys, and give access remotely from thousands of kilometers away. Overseas on a business trip and somebody needs to borrow your ice scraper, or get the insurance out of the glovebox to make a claim? No problem.
It all sounds great, but there's an asterisk here for Canadians. Companies like VW and Hyundai are already looking into this technology in the U.S. market, but Canadian coverage is so spotty, we might not get it. You already probably know how ho-hum our data plans and cellphone coverage is, and it's the same problem for smartphone tech like this. It may come, but we might have to watch from the sidelines, paying double for our phone plans and clutching a huge ring of keys.
