Autoblog

Automoblox, maker of heirloom quality toy cars, is on an upward trajectory that hasn't slowed since we first encountered them a few years ago. In fact, while birthday shopping for my three-year-old nephew recently, I encountered Automoblox on the shelf of a local toy store for the first time, and then again at the little rug-rat's birthday party where a family friend bought him the X9 sport utility to go along with the S9 sedan I got him when he was born.

Times are so good for Automoblox that it's bucking the trend by unveiling a brand new model, the A9-S convertible. Based on the A9 compact, the A9-S is the first open-air Automoblox model ever and the first to feature a new white color palette for its speedster windshield, rear wing and rubber tires. The wheels are jet black with three fat spokes each and the two plastic passengers even have their hair swept back. Like all Automoblox cars, the German beech wood body of the A9-S can be taken apart and its parts and accessories mixed and matched with other cars to create new vehicles.

Christmas is right around the corner, and it's a safe bet we'll be buying the A9-S, which retails for $38 at the Automoblox Store, to add to our own growing collection that includes the X9, X9-X, C9-R and a trio of Automoblox Minis. We've also been told there's another hot version of the C9 in development, and have a teaser pic to prove it.


[Source: Automoblox]
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Ford Performance Vehicles, otherwise known as FPV, is celebrating its fifth birthday as being the sharp end of Ford Australia's performance stick. FPV presented itself with a gift at this week's Australian International Motor Show in the form of a special edition FPV 5th Anniversary model. Only 200 units will be produced of the rear-wheel-drive Falcon-based birthday present, ensuring instant collector car status for the discerning Aussie buyer. The car features Alpine Silver 19-inch multi-spoke wheels, 6-piston Brembo brakes, sports seats upholstered in Nudo leather and special "5th Anniversary" decals on the trunk, ahead of the rear wheels, embossed on the front headrests and on the floormats. The FPV 5th Anniversary model will be available in Lightning Strike or Silhouette, both with striping, and starts at $71,890 in Australian dollars, which FPV says equates to $9,600 worth of extra goodies for only $5,300 more than the FPV GT sedan. So happy birthday to FPV, and we hope that Ford invites us to your rear-wheel-drive performance sedan party some time soon.


[Source: FPV]

The beating General Motors and Ford took on Wall St. yesterday has people loosely throwing around the word "bankruptcy" this morning. GM made its position clear in a statement just released (read in full after the jump) that "bankruptcy protection is not an option." It's true that both automakers are in a bad way after yesterday's sell off. Shares of GM ended the day at 4.76, which gave the giant U.S. automaker a market capitalization (cost of a single share times the number of shares outstanding) of less than $3 billion, while Ford shares closed at just 2.08 to give the Blue Oval a market cap of $4.7 billion. Further adding fuel to the fire is speculation that the debt rating of each automaker may slip further into junk status.

But how real a prospect is bankruptcy for these two iconic automakers? Though some consider the prospect a real, if almost inevitable, possibility, the reality is that neither GM nor Ford is likely to voluntarily enter Chapter 11 anytime soon. For one, both companies still have billions of dollars of cash on hand that should last them well into 2009, despite the fact they're burning through their reserves at an increasingly quicker pace. They also have still have untapped lines of credit and assets to unload. Ford has sold off a number of its brands like Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover, while GM is seeking buyers for HUMMER and its medium-duty truck business.

But the real obstacle to bankruptcy is the position that these two companies hold in the fabric of American life, which is both material and emotional. Combined they employ hundreds of thousands of people and indirectly are responsible for many times more. They're also more near and dear to our hearts than big investment banks on Wall St., so politicians would likely step in before it was too late. No one can predict the future, and the markets seem to be stuck in a self-perpetuating downward spiral at the moment, but that doesn't mean we should listen to alarmists on TV looking for higher ratings.

[Source: LA Times, General Motors]
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General Motors and Ford just concluded an absolutely brutal business day on Wall Street, which echoed the performance of the markets in general as the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid another 678.91 points to close below 9,000 at 8,579.19 points. GM closed the day at 4.94 after having dipped as low as 4.72 just minutes before the bell rang at 4PM, while Ford ended today at just 2.14. Analysts are noting that GM shares haven't been this cheap since the 1950s and that a single share of Ford stock costs less than a gallon of gas at the moment. We are most certainly not financial analysts, but we do know these companies are heading in the wrong direction fast and that a brighter future is not weeks but months and years away.

[Source: AOL Money and Finance]

Autoblog has decided to finally put the power of Twitter to good use and start our own feed. What's a Twitter feed? You go here and choose to follow "therealautoblog" Twitter feed (our procrastination led to us losing "autoblog" as a name to Autoblog.nl – no relation), and then whenever we publish great features like our In the Autoblog Garage review of the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640, cool posts like the recent Nissan 370Z spy shots or excellent event coverage from auto shows, you'll be the first to know via a text message, email or visiting your own Twitter page. We know you don't have time to sit in front of Autoblog and press F5 all day, so following us on Twitter will ensure that you don't miss the good stuff while you're away. Again, just go here and choose to follow "therealautoblog" and we'll make sure you have the automotive hookup 24/7.

Nissan continues to parade around a 370Z prototype near the Nürburgring in Germany, and today our spy photogs have nabbed its interior during a refueling stop. As you can see, the interior is definitely a Nissan, and in facts looks Infiniti-esque thanks to the large nav screen and joystiq-controls dominating the center stack. The spies say the quality of materials appear to be a vast improvement over the current model, and you can see this particular prototype's interior is wearing bright orange suede door panel inserts and orange seats. Certainly livens things up, no? Elsewhere there are three gauges atop the dash that point towards the driver and big paddle shifters behind the steering wheel, which our sources suggest may indicate that Nissan will use a version of the GT-R's six-speed dual-clutch transmission. That may not be the case, however, as the current car's five-speed automatic with paddle shifters, which Infiniti already pairs with the company's 3.7L V6 in its G cars, would look the same from peering in through the car's windows. Check out more interior and exterior pics that we've added to our gallery of 370Z spy shots below.


[Source: KGP Photography]

Nissan's upcoming redesign of its Z car is almost here, and proof positive is this prototype caught cruising around in the vicinity of Germany's famed Nürburgring. The redesign is on full display here, with the boomerang-style headlights and taillights first seen on the new Maxima clearly visible. The whole front end is new but retains a visual connection with its predecessor, while big fender flares give away that the new car might be rolling on a wider track. There are also a few more kinks and creases on the new car, which are on display in the chunky C-pillar. We think it looks terrific as an attractive evolution of the current 350Z. The new car will change its nomenclature slightly to 370Z when it debuts this auto show season thank to the addition of Nissan's new 3.7L V6 that will be producing well over 300 horsepower in the new Z. Word has it that Nissan has also worked hard to address one of the biggest criticisms against the current car: weight. We'll probably have more spy shots of the 370Z as soon as Nissan begins running it around the 'Ring, and wouldn't be surprised to see the car officially debut at next month's LA Auto Show.

[Source: KGP Photography]

Autoblog reader Pedro turned us on to this interesting and perhaps very useful website called Meetways.com that just went live this past August. The premise is simple: give the site two addresses and a point of interest and it will find the halfway mark and a place to meet. For example, if you have a meeting with a business associate on the other side of town, give the site your current location and the whereabouts of the other person, specify "coffee house" and Meetways.com will find a Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts that's an equal distance from the both of you. I tried it out with an extreme example and gave it my address in Cleveland and my brother's address in Oakland, California, then specified I wanted to meet him at a restaurant. According to the site, I can buy my bro' a Peanut Buster Parfait at a Dairy Queen in Sidney, Nebraska. We think the site might be more attractive to business users who do a lot of out-of-office meetings, and may actually save gas for people who have been guessing the mid-way point between two locations all this time. Thanks for the tip, Pedro!

[Source: Meetways.com]

One of Chrysler's long term success trategies is to partner with as many other automakers as possible to share the burden of developing new cars that would otherwise sink the Auburn Hills-based company if it were forced to go it alone. For the longest time we've known that the Pentastar was in talks with various Chinese automakers to develop a small car, and so far the only fruit of that is a rebadged version of the Chery A1 called the Dodge Breeze that's been spied out and about. China Car Times is now reporting that Chrysler and Great Wall may be working together on a car that would be produced by the Chinese automaker and sold around the world as a rebadged Chrysler. The U.S. automaker has reportedly sent engineers to China to help develop the car and ensure it's up to the world standards for safety and emissions. We don't yet know if the two companies are working on an all new vehicle that might be inspired by the Dodge Hornet concept or will use an existing one in Great Wall's lineup, though more than a few of its cars on sale in China come dangerously close to being clones of other cars like the Scion xB, Opel Astra and Fiat Panda. Check out Great Wall's full line-up and let us know what vehicle you think could wear the Pentastar badge proudly.

[Source: China Car Times]

Just a day after unveiling its innovative and controversial MyKey system, Ford has come back with another piece of new technology, this time safety related, that will start appearing on some 2009 models. It's called Collision Warning with Brake Support, and it uses the radar system that makes Adaptive Cruise Control possible to detect what's in front of the car. If the system senses contact with something might happen, most likely another car, it will at first sound an audible alarm and activate a warning light. At the same time it will "precharge" the brakes and activate a brake-assist function in case the driver needs to slam on the brakes. While Ford doesn't give the details about what's exactly happening, it sounds as if this radar system will monitor the distance between your Ford and what's in front of you, and if a collision is deemed imminent will effectively get the brakes ready for a panic stop. We're told the technology will begin on appearing on select Ford and Lincoln models for 2009, along with other radar-based technologies like the aforementioned Adaptive Cruise Control that debuted on the 2009 Lincoln MKS and BLIS, a blind spot warning system. Check out video of the Collision Warning with Brake Support after the jump along with Ford's official press release.


[Source: Ford]