Volvo V60 Cross Country to go on sale in early 2015

Volvo isn't giving up ground in the all-wheel drive station wagon market to Subaru, as has just about every other automaker.

The Swedish company will introduce the Volvo V60 Cross Country at the Los Angeles Auto Show in just a few weeks. The V60 Cross Country has been in the works since the debut of the V60 itself.

It will become Volvo's smallest awd model in the U.S.

The V60 Cross Country will make use of Volvo's 2.5-liter turbocharged five-cylinder gas engine, which Volvo says will produce 250 hp (and presumably 266 lb-ft of torque) in Cross Country tune, coupled with all-wheel drive and an automatic transmission.

The company says the Cross Country's five-cylinder engine should be good for a combined 23 mpg, well below the 29 combined mpg rating of the 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four V60 front-wheel drive model, though specific EPA figures won't be published until the start of sales.

"With ground clearance increased 65mm (2.6 inches) compared to the V60, the Cross Country’s sturdy construction offers unparalleled control on and off the beaten track, coupled with an enhanced sporty driving experience thanks to torque vectoring technology and corner traction control," said Lex Kerssemakers, senior vice president for product strategy and vehicle line management at Volvo Cars. "The V60 Cross Country really is a getaway car -- enabling an adventurous lifestyle in pure rugged form."

Along with higher ground clearance, the V60 Cross Country will also feature revised side sills and wheelarch surrounds, as in other Cross Country models.

The V60 Cross Country will be offered with Hill Descent Control as standard, and will be offered with new 18-inch and 19-inch wheel designs specific to this model.

Volvo has not identified other special equipment that will be offered, but it is expected to be equipped with many of the luxury features carried over from the standard V60 wagons.

Volvo also has not indicated whether the V60 Cross Country will receive an R-Design variant, which is available as a luxury trim level on the current V60 awd model.

North American sales of the V60 will start during the first quarter of 2015, just in time for Volvo to woo buyers in ice-locked states with the wagon's awd prowess.

Pricing for the Cross Country will be announced at the Los Angeles Auto Show or a short time thereafter, though it is expected to be a few thousand dollars higher than the $37,715 starting price of the standard awd five-cylinder V60.

(From:http://www.autonews.com/article/20141106/OEM04/141109875/volvo-v60-cross-country-to-go-on-sale-in-early-2015)

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Tuner guru sees hope for really young buyers

RJ de Vera's auto industry resume is as free-form and hard to read as a graffiti wall in urban L.A.

His job title -- "leader of the customer engagement group" at the car-care brand Meguiar's Inc. -- doesn't come close to explaining the man, who helped bring Southern California's Japanese import tuner craze into auto industry business plans in the 2000s.

De Vera, 37, has been a trend predictor and under-the-radar consultant since his 20s, editing street-racing magazines, forming car clubs and creating special-edition one-off vehicles that have unofficially influenced automakers on matters as small as accessories and edgy paint color options.

He began buying and selling trending car parts as a kid, working part time and blowing his entire paycheck to fill his baffled mother's condo with high-end wheels and sets of racing tires before he had a car to put them on -- or a driver's license.

He has consulted on programs at Honda, Acura, Scion, Lexus, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Mazda. He also was the street-cred consultant on Hollywood's The Fast and the Furious. He recently broke away from the SEMA show in Las Vegas to talk with Staff Reporter Lindsay Chappell.

Did The Fast and the Furious get the L.A. tuner scene right, or did you wince when you saw the film?

I winced at a couple of parts. I felt like some of the car colors and graphics weren't right. Most of it was OK. But for example, they had four cars drag racing side by side. Nobody does that. I'm not sure they really listened to me. Although, since the movie came out, we've seen the rise of four-car drag racing.

The auto industry is afraid that young people are losing interest in cars. They're more into their cellphones.

Yeah, I see that. But I also see something more promising. Younger kids -- and I mean little kids, like 10 and 12 years old -- they're really into cars. I'm seeing it. I go to car shows and clubs all the time. I might pull up in a limited-edition Lamborghini, and there will be five or six kids who rush over and start taking pictures on their iPads and iPhones. They know exactly, specifically, what car it is and they know the specs. It's crazy. It's happening all the time.

You're right: Young adults -- 18, 20, 25 years old -- have lost some of their interest, for whatever reasons. The economy maybe. But the little kids coming up behind them -- watch out.

What should we call that wave?

I don't think there's a good name for them yet. It's the touch-screen generation. Gen Z.

How can automakers capitalize on that?

Don't blow it. Reach out to them on their own terms. These kids want to know everything about every car. Gaming is going to play a huge role.

These kids want more information. They want to experience them on video games. They want to see cool cars in action. Just give 'em what they want.

It will be interesting to see if the car companies can keep them interested over the next 10 years.

(From:http://www.autonews.com/article/20141109/OEM03/311109982/tuner-guru-sees-hope-for-really-young-buyers)

RJ de Vera

• Title: Leader of the customer engagement group, Meguiar's Inc.

• Age: 37

• Family: Single

• Hometown: Los Angeles, by way of the Philippines

• Current home: Irvine, Calif.

• Ride of the moment: 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Gullwing

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Tesla's trump card: Used cars

SAN FRANCISCO -- Elon Musk, in his quest to transform Tesla Motors from a scrappy electric-vehicle startup into a mature, profitable automaker, may have an ace up his sleeve: used cars.

Tesla is developing a program to sell the Model S secondhand, Automotive News has learned, in a bid to lower the cost of entry for the $71,070 sedan and unlock the earnings potential of Tesla's factory-owned retail network.

Tesla's vice president of communications, Simon Sproule, confirmed that the company is developing a certified pre-owned program to compete with those offered by luxury brands such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

"With the Model S fleet now heading toward the first cars hitting three years old," he wrote in an email, "we are looking at CPO and how best to structure."

Tesla is racing against a clock that started ticking in April 2013, when Musk -- determined to reassure customers about buying an unproven electric car from a brand-new automaker -- personally guaranteed the resale value of the Model S.

Since then, buyers who financed a Model S under certain terms have been given a contract allowing them to return the car after three years and recover 43 to 50 percent of its sticker price. The payouts were designed to be comparable to the trade-in value of a 3-year-old German luxury car.

"Even if Tesla is unable to honor [the buyback guarantee], I will personally do so," the founder and CEO, who is worth an estimated $10 billion, told reporters at the time. "That's what I mean by putting my money where my mouth is."

If owners take up the offer, it would bring Tesla a steady stream of used Model S sedans starting in the spring of 2016, with many more to follow in 2017: Tesla, which has offered business leases since April, quietly started offering 36-month Model S leases to retail customers on Oct. 1, with offers starting at $5,000 down and $932 a month. The offer is available in 37 states.

In an email, Sproule wrote that the new lease offer, combined with traditional loans and the resale value guarantee, "completes a suite of products ... that covers a comprehensive range of financing needs for Model S customers."

Although records of private Model S sales are spotty, early signs indicate that the Model S sedans returning in 2016 will be worth more than what Tesla has promised to pay under the buyback program.

The influx of trade-ins could start even earlier, when the Model X crossover arrives next year, giving early buyers of the Model S a chance to choose something different from the Tesla stable.

(From:http://www.autonews.com/article/20141006/RETAIL04/310069963/teslas-trump-card-used-cars)

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Visualization of Canadian population data

Data: various • Chart ID: MapandTable1 • googleVis-0.5.5
R version 3.1.1 (2014-07-10) • Google Terms of Use • Data Policy: See individual charts

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