Each week, our German correspondent slices and dices the latest rumblings, news, and quick-hit driving impressions from the other side of the pond. His byline may say Jens Meiners, but we simply call him . . . the Continental.
Congratulations to the Fiat 500. Produced in Poland and in Mexico, it has just has broken the 1-million-produced barrier. That is a fantastic number, keeping in mind this minicar was not designed with maximum practicality and mass appeal in mind. Instead, it is focused on design, being fun to drive, and enjoying a healthy dose of luxury for a small car. In terms of sales numbers, the retro-styled 500 now has almost caught up with the rather basic Cinquecento that was produced in the 1990s as the successor of the 126. However, it still lags far behind the original post-war 500, of which 3.7 million units were sold. But that was a car for the humble masses, not for the boutique crowd.
Another boutique minicar that has just been launched could be having too much fun already. The Opel Adam, designed primarily for Europe, now is being shown as a rally car; the Astra OPC also will be offered as a base model for rally racing. Opel Motorsport won’t have its own team, but it’s a good move, nevertheless. Opel has a rich history of rally and race cars, including the first-generation Commodore, the second-generation Manta and the second-gen Ascona. Later, Opel raced in the DTM series, but left in 2005. I hope the Adam does well; the rally package certainly endears Opel’s youngest family member to me.
Piece by piece, Mercedes-Benz is releasing information on the new S-class, which needs to reassert the brand’s superiority. The latest news concerns lighting. Full LEDs will be standard on every S-class, and they can be upgraded with adaptive light functions, such as bending light, and a high-beam assistant that will cover the light beam in certein spots when oncoming traffic is detected. Surprisingly, even the interior of the S-class gets LEDs only. There are altogether more than 190 of them—and that includes the vanity mirrors. Other carmakers have avoided LEDs and stuck with conventional bulbs for this particular application, as the warm glow of a conventional bulb makes you look more pleasant in the mirror.
True Exotics
German sports-car maker Gumpert has sold another car. That’s great news as the company went into insolvency just last month. The optimistic company already identifies “strong demand,” and company founder Roland Gumpert expects “to sell four to five cars” in the next quarter. The Apollo is his own child, a hand-built supercar that puts speed over refinement. While all sports-car enthusiasts wish that Gumpert will find the strength—and customers—to pull himself out of insolvency, it would perhaps be appropriate for him to refrain from lashing out at competitors who find themselves in a similar situation. “Compared to other small series producers which face insolvency (Melkus, Artega), the Apollo comes with self-contained technical developments on the highest level,” Gumpert boasts in a press release.
Things are not going well for Suzuki. The brand is leaving the U.S. market; in Europe, it’s still present, but it’s not truly successful. Its lineup there features some interesting cars but is lacking in novelty. Beyond the models being wheeled off U.S. showroom floors, Europe gets the short-wheelbase Grand Vitara; several minicars, such as the Alto and the Splash; and a mini SUV called the Jimny. Shown here is an oversized Alto in one of the worst photoshops ever.
The Chinese know how to trigger a good laugh. I just stumbled across the Yema F12, a crossover SUV that looks like a previous-generation Subaru Forester with a Kia Sorento front fascia grafted onto it. There are grounds for the suspicion that there’s still technology from the 1980s Austin Maestro under the skin.
What We Want
Here’s a great car from Europe that you can’t get: The Renault Mégane Estate GT 220, a limited-edition compact station wagon that is powered by a 217-hp, 2.0-liter turbo four and fitted with a six-speed manual transmission. Top speed is 158 mph, and the suspension is based on the sport chassis available on the high-performance Mégane RS.
- Comparison Test: 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth vs. Mini John Cooper Works
- Instrumented Test: 2013 Mercedes-Benz GL450
- Long-Term Road Test Wrap-Up: 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Wagon
This Renault, by the way, is the prime example of a car that a lot of colleagues and myself enjoy. Over lunch with a couple of PR executives in New York last week, the topic of station wagons invariably came up. My wish list was an old hat to them: station wagons and diesels. I was interrupted by one of them before I could finish my sentence: “with a manual transmission.” The problem? These cars don’t sell. If nobody goes out and buys awesome wagons, they’ll go away. The Cadillac CTS wagon comes to mind. We wanted it, we got it, and now Cadillac can’t get them off dealer lots. With the next generation, I have learned, it will sadly be history.
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DIGITAL JUICE
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