The Monterey weekend is packed with events for every type of car enthusiast. While the majority will go to simply look at the cars, a select few will make the trek to Northern California to possibly put a new car in the garage. There are no fewer than five different auctions during the weekend - RM, Russo and Steele, Bonhams & Butterfields, Gooding & Company, and Kruse. Hundreds if not thousands of cars will cross the auction block, from Shelby Mustang GT-H Convertibles to a multi-million dollar Jaguar racing prototype. Inside Line's Ken Gross has put together a list of the ten best cars up for sale at the Monterey auctions, and it has us drooling in anticipation of seeing the cars in person. Included are the following: 1938 Bugatti 57SC Atalante, 1906 REO Model A Touring, 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spyder, 1960 Jaguar E2A, 1939 Talbot-Lago T150C-SS, 1969 Porsche 908/2, 1957 Chrysler Diablo Concept, 1954 Bentley Continental R, 1972 Lamborghini Miura SV, and 1973 Ferrari Daytona Spyder.
Volkswagen is making money hand over fist right now thanks to cost cutting measures and increased global sales, and the German automaker wants to keep the good times rolling. High commodity prices for items like steel, aluminum and rubber are beginning to eat away at VW's cash horde, so the German automaker may hike the prices of its vehicles. VW marketing chief Detlef Wittig told reporters that he feels automakers are afraid to raise prices in such a competitive sales environment, and that the company was monitoring the situation closely. While VW may not be afraid to pull the trigger on price hikes, it likely still won't ask customers to pony up the entire amount for high commodities. A lot will depend on whether VW's many competitors also jack up MSRPs, and by how much.
It seems as though most automakers here in the States have either announced price hikes or are "thinking about doing it." The market is even more competitive in Europe, so such a decision isn't as easy. Wittig expects several automakers to raise prices in the second half of the year.
Most car enthusiasts know about the Lamborghini Miura, one of the most beautiful and desirable cars from the '60s and '70s, but few know about the one-off Miura Jota and subsequent SV/J models. The Jota was built in 1970 as an experimental car to test new ideas for the upcoming Miura SV. It featured a lightweight body with extra vents, a split sump engine (implemented on later SV models), "Megaphono" exhaust pipes, and a bevy of bespoke features. After the car was finished, it was sold to a loyal customer. Unfortunately, the Jota was involved in an accident and was completely destroyed when it burned to the ground. However, when several of Lamborghini's customers heard about the car, they asked if they could buy one of their own. Lamborghini decided not to officially build a production Jota, but they did offer conversions based on the SV model. The Lamborghini Registry lists only six "works" SV/J models, all featuring the Jota bodywork. The one seen here is chassis number 4892, and it will be auctioned off at the upcoming Russo and Steele classic car auction in Monterey. It's tough to tell what the car will go for since the SV/J models rarely ever change hands, but you can bet it won't be a paltry sum.
The skyrocketing cost of commodities like steel and aluminum have pushed several automakers to raise the price of 2009 models. Hyundai is bumping the price of its 2009 models an average of two-percent to help cushion the blow in Korea and in the States. The price of steel has risen 60 percent in a little over a year, and other commodities are up over 20 percent as well. That's bad news for all automakers, and Hyundai expects the trend to continue. Hyundai's Kia brand stlil hasn't announce price hikes, but we're guessing the economical car maker will follow in big brother's foot steps.
To further complicate matters for the Korean automaker, its unionized workforce is unsatisfied with wages. The rank and file have scheduled four-hour work stoppages for Wednesday and Friday. Unless the government intervenes in the matter, the union will likely get some kind of wage increase, giving Hyundai and Kia yet another justification for raising prices.
Some designers engage in strange practices to gain inspiration for their next big creation, but the creative types at the Bavarian Motor Werks had to have some serious... bearings to whip up its newest ode to "kinetics." After the jump is video of 714 metallic spheres that appear to be floating in mid-air in the new BMW museum. The display is pretty wild and we have no idea how it was done, but it's worth taking a look at. You may want to supply your own tunes though, as three-minutes of elevator music will make you want to apply your finger nails to the nearest chalkboard.
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The Tata Nano exudes frugality, and when you're trying to build a capable vehicle for a paltry $2,500, that's not exactly unexpected. Unfortunately for the Indian automaker, the quickly rising cost of steel may thwart plans to hit the magic price-point. The price of steel has risen by 50 percent in less than a year, and even though the little Nano is only 1,300 lbs, when you're making an econobox on the mega-cheap, every penny counts. Like US automakers have done in the past, Tata is looking to its suppliers to shoulder some of the financial burden. Amazingly, the suppliers are okay with that, provided that Tata does its share.
Even with concessions from suppliers, it's still up in the air as to whether Tata will achieve its lofty target. It appears using a nice round price as a selling point for a vehicle that's a year away wasn't such a good idea after all.
A few years ago, high(ish) gas prices and fierce competition had Detroit automakers talking about the "perfect storm" that the domestic industry was facing. Fast forward to 2008 and the entire auto industry, not just U.S. automakers, is in a full-blown tsunami. Gas is $4 per gallon, the U.S. is muddling its way through some seriously wobbly financial times, and now the price of steel has nearly doubled in five months to $1,035 per ton. Since just this January, the cost of steel in your automobile has risen $500 per car. The reasons for the sharp incline in prices includes both the increased cost of energy for steel makers and higher demand for the strong stuff coming from rapid growth in countries like China and India.
With everybody feeling the pinch of high materials, which also includes sharp increases in platinum and aluminum, suppliers are passing these costs on to OEMs, who in turn will be passing them on to us. That means we may soon be paying a lot more for our next vehicle. With rising gas prices, inflation, and a weak U.S. economy, car customers appear to be experiencing their own little thunder storm, too.
A new Audi A6 is expected to hit showrooms in 2010, and aside from an A4/A5-inspired facelift, the automaker's new 5-series competitor will be underpinned by an evolution of the chassis technology originally developed for the Audi TT. According to Car, the next iteration of Audi's Aluminum and Steel Spaceframe (ASF II) technology will be utilized on all future models, and uses half the steel of the outgoing platforms while providing 50-percent more torsional rigidity. The passenger cell will be made up entirely of aluminum, with steel and foam reinforcements if needed, and the front and rear subframes will be beefed up units integrated into the structures of the nose and tail. The ASF II system will finds its way into other vehicles, including Audi's CUVs, where it has the potential to shave off over 650 pounds from the Q7's curb weight.
Naturally, Audi will continue to offer front- and all-wheel-drive on the next A6, but the combination of more potent mills mounted further back into the engine bay will lessen its rival's lead in the handling department. Car's sources suggest that a variety of V6 engines, ranging from 2.8- to 3.2-liters will be offered, along with a pair of diesels, the 4.2-liter FSI V8 found in the RS4/R8, the 5.2-liter V10 (S6) and a twin-turbo 5.0-liter V10 for the RS6.
In the past few years, we've all heard about the price of cars and trucks being impacted by the price of steel. We've also heard about the reduction in the numbers of trucks sold due to the downturn of the housing market. According to this article (sub. req'd), there is a new raw material affecting the price of vehicles: sawdust. It seems that the slow housing market means that fewer scraps of wood are being reduced down to dust, which is used in the manufacture of certain interior components, like steering wheels. Apparently, there are a few substitutes to sawdust in the farming industry, like cow manure. This fact raises an interesting question: would you rather pay more for your car or have the steering wheel made with cow manure? Or, how would the use of cow manure in the making of your next car affect that "new car smell" that we all know and love?
