Auto Lovers Land

Promising technology can sometime prove frustrating for carmakers. Hyundai continues to push forward on its fuel cell development, including its Xcient heavy duty trucks in Switzerland. Just last week, Ford Motor Co. announced  it was shutting down Argo AI , its autonomous vehicle unit since the technology simply has not developed fast enough to justify further investment. It’s a controversial call one that could come back to haunt Ford. Fuel cells, which can deliver the power needed to run electric vehicles, are another technology that have fascinated automakers years without reaching commercial maturity. But automakers keep investing and tinkering with the technology. Hyundai pushes fuel cells Only last week, Hyundai Motor Co. announced  its fleet of Xcient Fuel Cell heavy-duty trucks  in Switzerland has accumulated more than 5 million km in two years. Starting in 2020, the company exported 47 units of the hydrogen-powered, zero-emission commercial trucks to ...

Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has had an immediate and polarizing impact on the social media giant but it also threatens to create serious problems for the billionaire entrepreneur’s other big venture, Tesla. It wasn’t long after the acquisition of Twitter that Elon Musk already had to change direction. Within days of the change in ownership, Twitter found itself awash in controversy, with Musk responding to a surge in hate tweets by declaring it “cannot become a free-for-all hellscape,” and signaling he may pull back on his pledge to eliminate all censorship. Even as a number of longtime users quit the service, Twitter has seen a pullback by some key advertisers, including automakers General Motors and Ford. The question some automotive analysts are asking is if the controversy could spill over to Tesla. Some current owners and  potential buyers say they now will consider alternatives when they shop for EVs. “That’s a significant risk,” said Sam Abuelsamid, principal aut...

Acura ILX A-Spec It’s Halloween, the time when vehicles once lauded as the best and newest enter the annals of history and are either fondly recalled or mockingly scorned. The vehicles now entering the automotive afterlife for the 2023 model year must now be mourned. But were they a trick or a treat? Let’s find out. Acura ILX:  The Acura ILX was never as good as the Integra it replaced, and always seemed like a charlatan. Thankfully, Acura’s half-hearted attempt, now a decade old and two generations older than the current Civic, will be replaced by a new Integra for the 2023 model year.  Acura NSX:  The second-generation NSX demonstrated that hybrid vehicles didn’t need to be dull. Despite its continued relevance in the car world, Acura is eliminating their hybrid supercar even as the rest of the world’s exotic vehicle manufacturers are about to release theirs. Buick Encore Buick Encore:  There will be no encore for the Lilliputian Encore, a diminutive ...

This week we’ve got a little of everything, starting with a new vehicle update for the 2023 Kia Telluride. The company’s top-of-the-line large sport-utility vehicle gets some updates for the new model year, and we’ll tell you all about it first thing Monday morning — 12:01 a.m. The aftermarket industry is expected to generate more than $49 billion in sales this year. However, the big draw for many this week is big, fast and loud — its SEMA show week! The annual gathering of hot rodders in Las Vegas always results in some interesting vehicles from automakers. In fact, we’ve already seen one big story out of the event before it started. Dodge planned to reveal the final offering in its limited edition run of “Last Call” Charger and Challenger muscle cars at this year’s show but had to cancel because — in true SEMA fashion — engineers kept blowing up the engines in the beast during testing. Dodge chief Tim Kuniskis assures the performance brand has everything worked out, but the r...

Exquisite detailing, like the diamond-quilted Terracotta leather seats, imparts the 2023 Kia Telluride with a luxury vibe. Among the most popular jewelers in Palm Beach is the one that sells costume jewelry that looks anything but fake. Cubic zirconia never looked so good. It proves that no matter your income bracket, everyone loves something that appears more expensive than it really is — like the 2023 Kia Telluride.  Debuting in 2019 for the 2020 model year, the three-row Kia Telluride quickly banished any remaining reputation that Kia had earned from its early years in the U.S. market. Looking far pricier than it is, the Telluride’s popularity means that as many as 80% of Kia Tellurides are sold before they arrive at dealerships. Sales skyrocketed to 93,705 units last year from 58,604 in 2019. For 2023, Kia is increasing production capacity to 120,000 units, as the Telluride’s days-to-turn remain among the industry’s lowest. Overview Small details lends a brawnier lo...

It’s the car everyone knows, now an indelible part of the American cultural fabric: the DeLorean DMC-12 coupe. Its star turn in the 1985 Robert Zemeckis movie, “Back to The Future” starring Michael J. Fox enshrined it as an icon of the 1980s. And the company that built the car, DeLorean Motor Co., was established this week in 1975. And its beginning starts with an ending. Walking away from General Motors The 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 featured gullwing doors. Photo Credit: RM Sothebys April Fools Day, 1973; John DeLorean arrives at New York’s Waldorf Towers feeling numb.  “In less than 17 years, I had risen from being a greenhorn engineer at the Pontiac Division to an office on the prestigious Fourteenth Floor in General Motors’ World Headquarters in midtown Detroit,” DeLorean wrote in his book, “On A Clear Day You Can See General Motors.” “At 48, there are a better than even-odds chance of one day being President. But I was about to toss all that away.” Sitting in his room tha...

After a series of delays, Nissan’s second all-electric model, the 2023 Ariya, is finally in production and ready to start rolling into U.S. showrooms. And it couldn’t come at a more critical time. After a couple of delays, the Nissan Ariya is now prowling U.S. roads. The original Nissan EV, the Leaf, was a pioneering product, the first mass-market battery-electric vehicle. But the EV space is getting flooded with alternatives, from Tesla products like the Models 3 and Y to the big Ford F-150 Lightning. And the latest models, on the whole, offer more features, improved range and notably better performance than even the second-generation Leaf. For its part, the Ariya adopts a more popular crossover-style body, delivers more power and substantially better range — though it will cost a fair bit more than the Leaf, one of the market’s most affordable battery-electric vehicles. TheDetroitBureau.com had a chance to get into the new Ariya on a beautiful fall day, taking it for a windin...

Stellantis has offered a voluntary employment termination package to certain salaried employees as part of a plan to optimize the automaker’s operations toward new technology and low-emissions vehicles. Stellantis’ latest round of job cuts are aimed at making it easier to transition to zero-emission vehicle development. “As part of our transformation to become a sustainable tech mobility company and the market leader in low-emission vehicles, in October we offered certain salaried U.S. employees the option to voluntarily separate from the company with a favorable package of benefits that otherwise would not be available to them,” the company said in a statement issued to TheDetroitBureau.com.   The company declined to provide additional details.  Echoes of 2021 This sort of action is not a first for Stellantis. In fact, the  company made the same offer to salaried workers last November . The reason given is the same for both buyouts, “to assist in our transi...

In what could only be called an improbable collaboration, Italian luxury automaker Maserati announced a collaboration with Mattel Inc.’s Barbie to produce an ultra-limited-edition Maserati Grecale, the marque’s newest SUV. The partnership is a result of one of this summer’s latest online trends: Barbiecore. Haven’t heard of it? Well, the best way to sum it up is to think pink.  The Barbie Maserati Grecale is one of the 2022 Neiman Marcus Fantasy Gifts at the retailer’s Los Angeles holiday party. What is Barbiecore? In the previous year, pink has established itself as a fashionable mainstay, with TikTokers dubbing hot pink Barbiecore, named after Mattel’s Barbie doll. Barbie was introduced in 1959, making her the ultimate midcentury modern. Given the popularity of midcentury modern among those too young to remember it, the trend is just another cultural reboot.  But the hip factor was reinvigorated when photos of actress Margot Robbie, star of the upcoming Barbie movie...