Automotive Trends

      While I couldn’t convince my wife that she needed one, the Volvo C30 is one hot little number. Shown here at the 2007 NAIAS.

      The Opel Antara GTC Concept shown here at the 2007 NAIAS gives us a strong indication of what the next Saturn Vue will look like.

      There’s nothing like spending a summer day down by the lake. So we booked a First Class flight on a 2007 Audi Q7 and pointed the nose east to Lake Huron.

      As if it wasn’t cold enough (outside) already for the 2007 NAIAS, Mercedes-Benz decided that they would setup an ice rink (inside) to showcase that nearly all of their models would be available with 4MATIC all-wheel drive.

      With the work done for the day we stopped to enjoy the sunset over a freshly harvested wheat field in the 2007 Land Rover Range Rover.

      Happy Easter from your friends at Automotive Trends!

      In typical Saab Swedish quirkiness tradition the Aero X Concept decides that swing out doors are too common place. The benefit, however, of having the cockpit rise up to allow ingress/egress is that the windshield is then a one piece wonder providing a full 180 degrees of seemless visibility. The Aero X is shown on display at the 2007 NAIAS.

     The 2007 Saturn Outlook arrived on the crossover scene in a big way! With seating for eight or room for 116.9 cubic of stuff, this Lambda platformed crossover will perform nearly every task a typical family would ask of a Chevrolet Suburban or GMC Yukon XL and get better fuel mileage doing it.

      The 2007 Cadillac Escalade has seating for eight, an exhaust note that betters a Corvette, and a 403-hp 6.2L V8. That spells not too shabby in our book!

Lotus Says the S Stands for Supercharged, We’re Thinking More Like Stupefying

      Lotus, like other conventional automakers who like to drop an “S” or a “T” somewhere in the name of a car to denote the presence of a supercharger or turbocharger, would have us believe that’s all the suffix represents here. But Lotus is no conventional automaker, and one run through the gearbox of the quickest Lotus roadcar available and you’ll agree that a rechristening is in order here. My dictionary says something that is stupefying will “make somebody unable to think clearly because of boredom, tiredness, or amazement”. We can testify from experience that when piloting the Exige S it’s not boredom or tiredness you’ll be feeling. Even on the mind numbing interstates of Metro Detroit, where driving joy seems a thousand miles away, you’ll be too busy avoiding pot holes and lane-drifting, slack-jawed hooligans with cell phone cameras to ever get bored. Now being unable to think clearly because of amazement, that’s something you’ll experience with every flex of your right foot. That means one thing: this must be the Lotus Exige Stupefying Edition. Read more…

Stiff Competition Makes Life Difficult For The Improved XL7

     Here’s a good example of just how competitive the auto industry is in 2007. Let’s be honest, Suzuki’s XL7 has been rubbish since it debuted. But when the details on the new generation started to leak out there was a lot of reason for hope. The whole thing was going to be based on a stretched version of GM’s Theta architecture, which works fine in the Chevy Equinox, and even better news was Suzuki’s decision to drop their old, underpowered engine in favor of GM’s 3.6-liter V6 and smooth shifting 5-speed automatic. Read more…