European Cars. Europe Auto Market News

Smart has recently redesigned the Fortwo and is now bringing it to America as both a coupe and a convertible.
Conceived by Swiss watchmaker Swatch and designed in conjunction with Daimler, parent company of Mercedes-Benz, the Smart Fortwo microcar has been all the rage in traffic-choked European cities since its introduction in 1998.
The Fortwo’s 1-liter 3-cylinder engine puts out 70 horsepower and 68 lb-ft of torque. Smart claims the Fortwo — which weighs 1808 lbs, 600 lbs less than a Honda Fit — gets to 60 MPH in a lazy 12.8 seconds and tops out at 90. In reality, pickup is snappy, if not quite quick, and the Smart putters along happily at 75 MPH, though it struggles on steep hills.
Fuel economy is good, though not as good as you might expect: I averaged 35.8 MPG. For comparison, I got 31.3 in the last Honda Fit I tested. To make matters worse, the Smart requires premium fuel.

For Volvo, the biggest change has perhaps been on the outside. Long known as “Swedish bricks” due to the success of the long running 240-series, a change to more rounded and organic shapes took place with the debut of the C70 coupe in 1997, followed by the first generation of S80 in the summer of 1998.
The base engine in the S80 is a three-liter, double-overhead camshaft 6-cylinder (in-line) engine that puts out 235 hp at 6,200 rpm. Thanks to other enhancements such as variable-valve timing and a variable intake system, the torque picture is even better; with the twist factor being 236 lb/ft of a relatively low 3,200 rpm.
The interior is the type of warm, well-lighted place that Hemingway might have approved of. A modern wood inlay has replaced a classic wood inlay for the 2008 model year. In the center is the same floating center console you’d find in corporate cousin, the S40.

159,300 Euros: this is the final Euro list price for the Alfa Romeo 8C uber coupe. That’s a whisker over £100,000 at current exchange rates…

Intriguingly, Alfa has also announced that 99 of the 500 units it plans to produce of the 8c will be heading Stateside. Hence, the 8C will be the first Alfa sold in the US for around 12 years.
Powered by a Maserati-derived 4.7-litre V8 cranking out around 450bhp, the first 8Cs are expected to arrive with customers before the end of the year.

Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione

Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione

Because Apple writes a legend for every object that it creates, many voices consider that it is time for them to produce a car.
Steve Jobs, Apple Manager met with its homologue from Volkswagen, but it seems that after this first discussion will result only a Golf individualized with Apple gadgets.
Anyway… it’s a good start!

Apple Volkswagen

Tags: apple, volkswagen, golf, car news, gadgets

At the same time we all looked at Los Angeles Auto Show, 2007, in Europe, Opel unveiled new 2008 Zafira Facelift, which will have its official premiere at Bologna Motor Show, in Italy, on 7th December.
New Zafira comes with minor cosmetically improvements, like: redrawn spoilers, new lights, better quality finishes and interior.

The engines for this model were upgraded, but adding one gas engine, the Twinport Ecotec 1.6 liter, with 115 hp and 2 turbo-diesel engines: 1.7 CDTI, with 110 hp and 125 hp. These engines are instead of the 1.9 CTDI, with 100 hp and 120 hp ones.

More BMW’s in USA

BMW will increase its production capacity of the South Carolina factory from 140,000 pieces (the production from now) to 230,000 pieces.
So, at Spartanburg will be produced X3, X5 and the new X6, being possible the transfer of production of 6 and 8 cylinder engines.

Tags: BMW, car news, production, engines