Buick Business Concept, a new concept car designed to showcase the vision of Buick "business class on the road" made its world debut at the Auto Shanghai 2009.
The multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) was developed in China by Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC), a design and engineering joint venture between General Motors and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), with input from the overall design.
Buick business concept captures the essence of language as a Buick in an elegant and expressive depth, with its taut surfaces, dual scan begins waistline, front and rear a strong identity and dynamic presence.
"Business Vehicle Buick has a great presence, and makes a strong statement when you pull in front of each plant," said Ed Welburn, vice president of GM Global Design. "Market of China and the businessman has some specific needs. Our team was responsible for a great solution for business and personal needs."
Classical influences with modern design

According to Cao Min, Concept Designer PATAC car chief, the design team wanted to create a modern and global Buick, but also a subtle Chinese essence and influence. To achieve this balance, they tried to pull their heritage outside the automotive industry - from classical art forms and ancient monuments.

Buick Business Concept Vehicle dynamics and external surfaces of the "yin and yang" interior tones are drawn from diverse inspirations including the Buick Riviera concept 2008, Chinese artifacts and modern electronic icons. The vehicle inside and out, communicates elegance correct beyond cultural boundaries and gives peace and power of Buick.

Looks like it gets the Civic front end. This car is basically a FIT sedan, available only across seas.

Source;
http://jokeforblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/honda-city-restyling-spy.html

Cadillac offers this spring, the Black Diamond Edition, a high-performance CTS-V that will be popular in a number of performance options and exclusive Tri-paint, which is also known as "Black Diamond".

Black Diamond edition, included in the CTS-V sedan, coupe and wagon models will be the first use of an automobile manufacturer of pigment JDSU SPECTRAFLAIR exclusive in North America. JDSU, a technology company Milipitas, California-based specialized in optical solutions for peak color in many markets. Its pigments are used in some paints DuPont is Cadillac.

The Cadillac CTS-V Black Diamond is a tri-dark paint with pigments embedded SPECTRAFLAIR Bright Silver. While the leaders of other luxury offers metallic paint, Black Diamond created through a laborious process that gives the extra dimension of painting.

On the other hand, contains a short, metal, pigment SpectraFlair Black Diamond uses aluminum flakes encapsulated in a glass-like substance called magnesium fluoride. The result is a paint that sparkles like a diamond as the light hits the surface from different angles.

"Cadillac CTS-V Black Diamond Edition is the well-designed, tailored tuxedo," said Michelle Killen, Cadillac exterior paint design. "Background color can be a simple black, but the detail and richness of the material set it apart."

Cadillac Loftet sløret den næste generation for 2010 Cadillac SRX AF mellemstore Luksus, og Helt På byder and mother nyt og design Effekt, motor højteknologiske worth På 2009 North American International Auto Show.

Cadillac has unveiled the next generation 2010 Cadillac SRX luxury crossover mid-sized, with a completely new design, more efficient engine options High-tech Fair 2009 North American International Auto.

"Uusi Täysin SRX crossover on tuoretta yes kiinnostavaa suunnattu suoraan painopisteet luksusta ostajia" Mark McNabb Sanoi, Pohjois-Amerikan johtaja, Cadillac / Premium Channel. "Uusi teknologioiden tehokkuuden lisäämiseksi turvallisuuden yes, uusittu SRX Crossover 2010 keskittyy seka emotionaalista yes käytännön kuluttaja puolin luxury."

In 2010, Cadillac SRX is designed to run efficiently, including the choice of two high-tech six-cylinder engines that are new to Cadillac. A new direct injection 3.0 liter V6 engine and E85 can is standard and a new turbocharged 2.8-liter V6 is optional. Both engines use technologies that help produce solid results, which is typical engine cylinder capacity. Direct injection allows a reduction of 25 percent of hydrocarbon emissions. Fuel economy in the mid-20 on the highway is planned, but the tests are still ongoing.



Performance and security will also increase available all-wheel drive (AWD), which is designed to optimize vehicle handling and stability in all driving situations. The AWD system features an advanced electronic limited slip differential (eLSD), which distributes torque as necessary, to the side along the side of the rear axle in addition to the front of the rear axle. Pre-emptive, active-on-demand system offers additional capacity measurement in wet or icy.

The new Subaru BRZ coupé will have the lowest centre of gravity of any production car when it goes on sale next summer, according to the manufacturer.

The BRZ’s rear-wheel-drive configuration has meant that Subaru's compact 2.0-litre Boxer engine can be mounted even lower in the chassis than would normally be permissible in the manufacturer's conventional four-wheel-drive layout.

Despite being co-developed with Toyota, the vast majority of the engineering work has been undertaken by Subaru; although the company has confirmed that the BRZ's flat-four unit will incorporate a Toyota direct fuel-injection system.

Power outputs, however, will differ with a Subaru-spec ECU liberating the BRZ’s power to “less than 300bhp,” compared with the FT-86’s 200bhp figure.

Details of the car’s final spec remain under wraps - even Subaru's UK new MD admitted to Autocar that he'd only seen a clay model of the finished product - but insiders suggest that the grille and bumpers will differentiate the RBZ from its Toyota-badged sibling.

A roadster version could yet play a part in future model plans, but a topless car is ‘under consideration’ rather than developmental reality.

Subaru insists that no costing strategy has been established, but with the Volkswagen Scirocco confirmed as the main rival, expect the RBZ’s price tag to land somewhere in the current coupé ballpark.

The lack of a final figure - or even an image of the production car - has apparently not dissuaded Subaru fans from already registering their interest with the company's dealership network.

While the new 2+2 coupé is expected to fill a healthy new niche for the manufacturer, Subaru UK has made it clear that it intends to focus much of its energy on 'lifestyle' products, such as the new XV crossover, as it looks to achieve a sales target of 7500 units in 2012.

The Subaru BRZ will be unveiled at the Tokyo show next month.

Nic Cackett

Source;
http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle.aspx?AR=259739

The engine of the Ontario economy is starting to hum again, propelled mainly by a return to full production at Japanese auto makers’ plants.

Honda of Canada Manufacturing (HMC-N30.00-0.67-2.18%) in Alliston, Ont., said Wednesday that it will begin cranking out 1,600 vehicles a day in November, more than two years after it cut production during the recession and about eight months after it slashed output because of disruptions caused by the March 11 earthquake in Japan.

The two Honda plants in Alliston, located about 90 kilometres north of Toronto, will also operate on two Saturdays a month – likely until at least the end of the year – mainly to build more models of the compact Civic. The top-selling passenger car was redesigned for the 2012 model year, and production and sales were just starting to gear up when the earthquake created chaos in the supply chain and made it difficult for auto makers to get enough parts.

Honda’s move means that two-thirds of Canada’s car and light truck assembly plants will be running on overtime. That’s a major boost for a Canadian economy still in the midst of an anemic recovery from the recession and one in which gross domestic product fell by 0.4 per cent in the second quarter.

“The key point is that auto production did slow significantly in the summer and it did affect the overall economy, but now it is back in full swing,” said Carlos Gomes, a Bank of Nova Scotia economist who follows the auto industry closely.

There were signs in September that the worst had passed, noted industry analyst Dennis DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc., of Richmond Hill, Ont.

Car production at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc. (TM-N66.91-0.43-0.64%) in Cambridge, Ont., rose 19 per cent that month from year-earlier levels, Mr. DesRosiers said, compared with a 6.2-per-cent decline in the first nine months of the year.

Since then, Toyota’s other plant in Woodstock, Ont., has returned to a full, two-shift operation and is also working overtime to boost output of the RAV4 crossover.

Nonetheless, when compared with vehicle production in the United States and Mexico, “we’ve been the laggard all year and remained so in September,” Mr. DesRosiers said.

While the assembly industry is located entirely in Ontario and most of the supply base is in that province as well, the production rebound will also contribute to national economic growth, Mr. Gomes said.

The rebound will add almost a full percentage point to the annual growth rate in the fourth quarter, he said. His forecast is that the economy will grow by 1.2 per cent this quarter.

Japan-based auto makers want to increase their inventories, which stood at just 40 days of supply in the U.S. market in September, compared with the usual figure of about 60 days. In addition, U.S. sales jumped by a surprising 10 per cent in September. That means all auto makers want to make sure they have enough vehicles on U.S. dealers’ lots in the fourth quarter.

The U.S. market is the destination for 80 per cent of the Civics, Acura MDX and ZDX models that roll off the Alliston assembly lines.

The shortage of Civics since March means there are several thousand back orders for the car at Canadian dealerships, Jerry Chenkin, executive vice-president of Honda Canada Inc. told reporters at the Alliston plant on Wednesday. Some customers have been waiting as long as 45 days, he said, but the increase in production should cut that to 30 days.

The Civic has been the best-selling passenger car in Canada for the past 13 years and led the second-place Hyundai Elantra by 1,122 vehicles at the end of September, despite a 12-per-cent sales decline in the first nine months of 2011.

Source;
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/honda-cranks-up-output-as-auto-sector-sees-comeback/article2206417/

Mr. Opportunity should stop knocking. Honda’s found a new (and human) spokesman.

The animated character was known for his appearances in the automaker’s commercials for clearance events –- and for irritating legions of consumers with his blandness.

The “I Hate Mr. Opportunity!” Facebook page is filled with distaste for his “carefully ironed khaki trousers” and his similarity to “your high school geometry teacher.” The group’s description says: “Every time his commercials air, his personality grates on us, like the proverbial pebble in our collective shoe.”

Last year, one of Mr. Opportunity’s ads was voted the third worst in the country by visitors to the Consumerist blog, behind spots from Staples and Quiznos.

But lately, those viewers have noticed Mr. Opportunity’s absence from television screens and radio waves. Former "Seinfeld" actor Patrick Warburton is in his place on-air, calling himself an "all-out-multimedia-Honda-knowledge-dropping-tour-de-force.”

Warburton even takes a shot at Mr. Opportunity: “This year, they sent a man in to do a cartoon man’s job.”

The character’s demise stems from the ripple effect of the Japanese earthquake earlier this year on the supply chain and summer promotional campaigns, according to Honda’s ad agency RPA, via the Consumerist. Still, both RPA and Honda say Mr. Opportunity may not be gone for good.

Source

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/09/honda-replaces-mr-opportunity-with-seinfeld-actor.html