2003 Sl500 Rwd Convertible Roadster on 2040-cars

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Genesis G70 vs sport sedan rivals: How it compares on paper

We got our first look at the Genesis G70 sport sedan today. We think it looks good, with enough ties to its fellow Genesises (Geneses?) to further establish the brand and just enough distinction to help it stand out from the crowd. But ah yes, the crowd. Although Genesis didn't release the G70's full spec sheet, it revealed just enough for us to start sizing it up to its future competition. There are certainly others with which to compare (Lexus IS, Cadillac ATS, Alfa Romeo Giulia, Jaguar XE just to name a few), but we decided to take a look at the best sellers and most competitive luxury sport sedans. (And hey, if you like this, we can always do a follow up) So, here we have the Genesis G70 vs BMW 3 Series vs Audi A4 / S4 vs Mercedes-Benz C-Class vs Infiniti Q50. Nothing like a good chart to dig your teeth into on a Friday. Note that we only compared those models that line up with the G70. So, we left out the BMW 320i and Audi A4 Ultra entry level models as well as the Q50 3.0t mid-grade model that's considerably cheaper than the German performance upgrade models we listed. All 0-60 figures are rough estimates based on several sources, models/drivetrains and OEM figures. Related Video: Featured Gallery Genesis G70 vs other sport sedans View 15 Photos Audi BMW Genesis Infiniti Mercedes-Benz Luxury Sedan consumer infiniti q50 audi s4 genesis g70 mercedes-benz c-class bmw 330i bmw 340i

2015 Spanish F1 Grand Prix makes its Deutsche mark

The first race of the European Formula One season inaugurates the second phase of the Championship. Teams overhaul their cars with the big updates they've been working on since Australia, and at the end of The Battle of Spain we find out how the positions on the field have changed. Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver Nico Rosberg brought a big update to his psychology, straight-up beating teammate Lewis Hamilton to take his first pole position of the season. Mercedes owns the front row and Ferrari maintains its status as primary challenger, Sebastian Vettel lining up in third. Williams proved it's been hitting the books to do better in class, though, Valtteri Bottas slotting into fourth. And Toro Rosso's visit to a track that rewards strong aero rewarded them with the best team grid position since the Italian Grand Prix in 2008: Carlos Sainz secured fifth, ahead of Max Verstappen in sixth. Kimi Raikkonen's bout of Saturday woes – it seems the Finn is always handicapped by lots of tiny issues – continued in Barcelona with one of his sets of prime tires getting cooked by malfunctioning tire warmers. He recovered well enough to take seventh on the grid, but he's got some strong competition ahead of him. He led three other drivers in the Continuous Issues department, Daniil Kvyat unable to wrestle his Infiniti Red Bull Racing higher than eighth, Williams driver Felipe Massa getting it wrong in Turn 3 to fall five places behind his teammate Bottas, and Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull enduring another engine change and sloppy car behavior to get tenth. And while it turned out to be a steady race a little rough around the edges, the positions on the battlefield just might have changed. A little. Of the 66 laps in the race we might have seen Rosberg for three of them – maybe. The German got a smashing start, had a clear lead into Turn 1, and after that we checked in occasionally during his two pit stops and again at the checkered flag. He owned the entire weekend the way we're used to seeing his teammate do, and the cameras left him alone to run his race. No one got within seven seconds of him during the first third, and as the pit stop strategies played out that cushion grew. He finished seventeen seconds ahead of Hamilton, and 45 seconds ahead of third-placed Vettel. Hamilton, on the back foot all three days, stumbled out of the gate.

Hybrids to slowly replace diesels at Mercedes

German automakers have had some success bringing diesel-powered vehicles in America in recent years, but that may not last much longer. A product planner from Mercedes-Benz we spoke to in Austria apparently believes hybrid setups may be more favorable in the long run, and electrified hybrids will eventually replace oil burners. That's why most every concept car we've seen in the last few years features some sort of hybrid or plug-in hybrid setup while there have been very few diesels. "Yes, diesel is technically complex, and very expensive. The additives to reduce particulate matter are very costly. You'll see more hybrids to meet the changing regulations," according to our source. We've seen this exact scenario play out with Mazda, which has struggled to bring its 2.2-liter diesel engine to America, citing the costly process to reduce emissions in order to meet California-level standards while still maintaining suitable performance for the US market. It's certainly interesting that this news comes hot on the heels of revelations that VW, the automaker that offers the most diesel-powered models in the US, was found in violation of emissions rules on its popular 2.0-liter TDI engine. New Mercedes GLE Will Have An Active Chassis Mercedes has launched an all-out product offensive in the last two years, but the product planning think tanks in Stuttgart have a few surprises in store, too. While Benz has just launched its new GLE SUV family, GLE product planners are already hard at work on the next-generation – yes, a good 5-6 years away – and tell us it will evolve to boast new chassis technology, "something that doesn't exist today." The next-GLE is codenamed 167 – the previous ML (now replaced by the GLE) was internally referred to as 166 – and the GLE planner we recently talked to calls the platform an "active chassis." He further alluded that the next version could be electrified. Currently, the only aspect of the GLE's chassis that is 'active' today are the hydraulic pumps on the roll bars, he said. Many of Mercedes' models can already be had with an adaptive air suspension, multiple selectable driving modes, and other features that were rare or nonexistent just a couple generations ago. One More Compact Crossover On The Way The planner said we can also at least one more all-new, forthcoming compact crossover to be built on the GLA platform. In addition to the GLA, that architecture is currently shared by the A-Class, B-Class, and CLA-Class models.