Auto Trends

all photos by shyana5150.

The Honda FC Sport Concept was shown at the LA Auto Show this past week. And onlookers had only one thing to say, “… … … … …”

Yes, that’s right, they had almost nothing to say. Which is either a good thing, or a if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all, type of thing. The FC Sport is another way for Honda to try to get consumers really excited about hydrogen powered vehicles (a.k.a. fuel cells), which almost never seems to happen, no matter how funky a sports car they throw at them.

Perhaps it is the trillion dollar infrastructure necessary to really make a go of it in the U.S. that makes them lose interest. Or perhaps further still, the price tag that would be accompanied by this kind of technology at this point.

We really don’t know, but Honda has taken a backseat to the full on plug-in electric vehicles, stating that battery technology has just not caught up enough to put them to good use. The less-than-sporty conventional version of a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, the Honda FCX Clarity, has proven itself as a decent option with its 134 available horsepower through its all electric drive train.

What would make the FC Sport a real screamer, is that all out torque burst that the “powerful electric motor” would provide. As you may or may not know, electric powered vehicles do not need to build up rpm in order to increase torque, so their torque curve looks like a brain spike after solving the worlds hunger problems the minute the foot hits the accelerator. Add this to the “ultra-low center of gravity” and “lightweight design” Honda has put together with this package, and they darn near have us sold.

It’s the serious lack of hydrogen stations that have us bummed, not to mention the body styling, of which reminds us of a pair of Honda tighty-blackies draped over the hood where a grille should be. Yeah, we could always make our own hydrogen, but most of us slept through that portion of high school science lab!

While this is only opinion mind you, but as the new 2010 Ford Mustang burned rubber behind the golden curtain and spun around the corner as the announcer hollered, “Here’s Johnnie,” we couldn’t help but smell a hint of the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro coming off tits tailpipes. Okay, yeah, there isn’t a whole lot of difference going on here from the original design, but we see you Ford, you’re not fooling anyone…

First off, the grill has been completely redesigned to feature a much more narrow opening, similar to the Camaro, giving the Mustang a bit more of an aggressive and sinister stance. The new grille also has adopted the slight triangular shape of the popular Shelby GT- 500 Mustang which has proven itself to be quite popular among enthusiasts.

The headlights almost appear to be furrowing now in defiance, saying, “That stupid Camaro is no better than me!” The main horse emblem in more muscular and angularly shaped. Ford has also added a little more personality to the overall body, such as softer curves in the rear taillights and the subtle mako shark swoop in the upper rear quarter panel in place of the poker straight line that used to reside. The power bulge on the hood can now be accentuated with a second bulge called the, “power dome”.

The interior has been cleaned up as well. It is not quite as plastic-looking as it was. Perhaps that is because it now has a one piece soft instrument panel… yes, it looks like Ford was actually listening to consumer complaints. The entire interior is just a bit more refined, which should be expected after about 5 years of reading reviews and mulling over where they went wrong the first time around.

The dash continues to be retro, with a nice instrument cluster layout (similar to the Camaro’s) and a slightly updated steering wheel with a brushed aluminum-looking emblem. The interior just seems to flow better, not to mention being easier on the eyes, without all the hard black plastic, fake aluminum, and bright plastic chrome.

And Ford now has a hot a new Mustang website, featuring a grumbling Bullet Mustang sounding exhaust, cool Matrix movie type camera panning around a tire smoking 2010 Mustang, and some techno music to boot. Even if you can’t stand the techno, you’ll still have to crank your computer speakers just to hear the sweet rumble of the V-8.

Looks good Ford, but so does the Camaro… we guess it will all come down to whether your a Ford or a Chevy person!

(All photos courtesy of Ford Motor Company)

Nissan Versa SL 2008 & Mont Cosmos Observatory, originally uploaded by digitalpingouin.

The 2008 Nissan Versa!

While some manufacturers are trying to come out on top with the best looking, or fastest vehicle for their customers buck, others try to starve their overall package just enough to literally come out with the cheapest vehicle on the market.

As of today, which is November 18^th, 2008, the cheapest buy for an American would appear to be the 2008 Nissan Versa sedan, which comes to us at an amazing $9,990.00 (without tax, handling, and shipping)… which is about $9 less that what we were expecting. $9,999.00 just flows off the tongue a little easier we think.

The Versa beats out GM’s Chevrolet Aveo, which the last time we reported the cheapest car in America, was holding up at around $10,300.00. So how did Nissan do it? What could they possibly have left off (that we don’t really need) to get down to such an all-time low for 2008?

Well, the Flintstones cut-outs were considered, but later dropped for the ideal of installing one of the smallest engines that has ever been offered here in the states, a 1.6 liter. The previous 1.8 liter bare bones package Versa came in at around $13,685, but take off .2 liters, air-conditioning, automatic transmission, and strip down all traces of what could be perceived as “accentuating trim”, and suddenly you’re in the history books.

Similar to the bare bones Chevrolet Aveo package, you are not looking at too much over a few seats, steering wheel, windows for air-conditioning, a hood to keep the engine from falling out, and of course 4 wheels, so the thing actually rolls.

The only grudge we can think of, is a mpg rating of 26 city and 34 highway, just seems awfully inefficient if you take into account that it has just a little over 100 horsepower of juice. So is the juice worth the squeeze on the new bare bones 1.6 liter Nissan Versa?

Actually, all jokes aside, the word from most reviewers is that this is not a bad deal if you are really wanting a reliable brand new car at a used car price. It’s got that new car smell, has its warrant fully intact, and if you can do without the creature comforts of plush seats, climate control, traction control, etc., then this would certainly appear to be of respectable value.