Rolls Royce Phantom II Extended Wheel Base

Rolls Royce recently revealed the face-lifted Phantom II Extended Wheel Base model in China.

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Rolls Royce

Jaguar XJ Ultimate iPad

Jaguar XJ Ultimate, a new line in Jaguar’s biggest car XJ. During the Beijing Auto Show, Jaguar revealed the Ultimate. It may not sound that different but the interior received a serious upgrade and became one of the best interior on market. Actually, the level of craftsmanship and quality look quite similar to Rolls Royce and Bentley. 

Like its competitors (Mercedes S-Class, BMW 7 Series and Audi A8), Ultimate offers individual two seat at the rear, so you don’t have to get close with the other passenger. And best part is champagne chiller! I don’t know why the automotive industry is obsessed with champagne chiller, each luxury brand offers this features. So, if you are very rich and driven by a chauffeur, you have to drink champagne not water or anything else, champagne.

Jaguar also follows the trend of placing iPads inside car and Ultimate come with two iPads with wireless keyboard. The only problem will be, when people see the sharp screen of iPad and then they see the blur navigation and instrument panel screens of XJ, they might be disappointed with this. Because, Jaguar’s navigation and instrument panel screens are below the contemporary technology standards in terms of pixel per inches. When you have opportunity to compare with iPad, you will understand the difference.

I hope Jaguar will replace these screens soon!

If you want to know what is this pixel per inch, here is the answer! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_density
Last generation iPad has 264 PPi!

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Jaguar

Lamborghini Urus

Lamborghini Urus is finally revealed in China. We have been waiting for ages. When will Lamborghini reveal the new SUV or is it just a gossip. According to released photos, it looks like a Mars Explorer vehicle that will be sent next year to Mars to explore new sites. Especially asymmetric reminded me the Mars Explorer from 1997! Also, this asymmetric design promises one more thing; no rear view.

Anyway, Mars explorer inspired Lamborghini Urus features new elements to SUV market. Such as rear diffuser, a tailgate mounted spoiler (I suspect it will be moving up and down). It will be powered by 600 PS engine with double clutch auto gearbox. As I know none of the big size SUV offers double clutch gearbox and Urus will be the first one.

Lamborghini estimates 3000 sales per year and I am sure they will achieve it easily! I don’t think it will share the same fate with the too early SUV, LM002!

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Lamborghini

Range Rover Evoque Victoria Beckham Edition

Victoria Beckham and Range Rover = Evoque! Unfortunately this happened. Land Rover preferred Ms.Beckham as the brand ambassador of the Evoque. I was expecting to see her all the time on TV or media with an Evoque but, this did not happen. Actually, Evoque and Beckham relationship seemed to end up before starting. Or we thought it like that!

Since the first time, I saw the Ms.Beckham with the Evoque, I was expecting to see a limited edition Evoque with animal print interior with lots of tattoos around the vehicle. In addition, specially designed storage for her heels and handbags, in case she needs to change them!

In order to see how the Beckham Edition looks like, we have to wait until it is revealed at Beijing Motor Show tomorrow in China.

Mercedes Concept Style CLA / CLC with Cloud Technology

Mercedes Concept Style will be revealed at Beijing Motor Show next week. But Mercedes revealed the photos early!

Mercedes calls it Concept Style or we can call it CLA not CLC. Because, CLC was used for the previous C Class coupe and it was a failure. From the marketing perspective, using the CLC for a new and ambitious car will not be a good decision. The CLC already associated with particular notions that constructed CLC's brand image and it is not that good! Instead of refurbishing an image of a car, it is better to use a brand new one, CLA!

Mercedes-Benz suggests that, this new car will be a benchmark for avantgarde design in the executive segment. This is really a bold statement! However, the existing design promises a real different car for the market, I hope they will stick with it for the production. Also, there will be design cues from the new A-Class. Panoramic roof, no B-Pillar, frameless side windows, diamond-look grille.

Interior will feature a very nice function, the air vents in instrument panel will change its colour according to adjusted temperature from blue to red. It would be quite useful to understand the temperature.

Concept Style will be powered by a four-cylinder turbo petrol engine with 211 PS coupled with 4MATIC all-wheel drive system and 7G-DCT dual clutch auto gearbox (Gear shifts will be very quick). So, this will provide a really good acceleration and destroying the over steering fun in corners!

The most important feature with Concept Style is the engagement of Cloud technology to COMAND system. The application on COMAND system will be stored Daimler Vehicle Backend servers, unlike your mobile phone, the applications will not stored at the COMAND system. When you wish to run, they will be recalled from the Daimler’s servers, which might be a pain if you don’t have a fast connection. Also, many customers will be complaining for this in future. Existing 3G technology, time-to-time suffers from peak hours and whist on move, it is quite hard to sustain the same signal level at very place. This is one of the biggest problems of internet connection when you are mobile. And relying a new mobile application experience on cloud technology is a big risk. Most probably, Mercedes will develop an update to store applications on COMAND system. They might be using the 4G technology, but there are still dilemma going around for this technology. We need to wait at least half a decade to use it properly.

In general, this car looks amazing and will create a new path in automotive. Also, it doesn’t look that boring like other Mercedes vehicles!

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Mercedes

Ferrari 458 for only China!

Here it is, the special limited edition only for Chinese customers, Ferrari 458 Italia. If you are a car collector from Europe or USA, unfortunately you are not eligible to buy one these 20 cars. Only 20 Chinese have the opportunity to own these special edition.

Ferrari introduced this model to celebrates its 20th year in China in a special way. Technical features are the same. The figures on the 458 Italia is inspired from the Chinese mythology. And the thick black sticker symbolise the race track.

I mentioned before, we will see more limited edition for China.

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Ferrari

Longer BMW 3-Series

In last five years, China became one of the most powerful economy. From mobile phone to shoes, they manufacture everything. Their economy is growing without any stop or pause, as a result of this growing economy their demand to vehicles are unbelievable. 

One decade ago, US was the major market for automotive industry and their demand was shaping the faith of the vehicles. Now, US is still a key player but, when Chinese demands for a vehicle, it stays on production or it will be produced for them. Like long-wheel base BMW 3-Series!

In China, many passenger vehicles are offered with long-wheel base option from Ford Mondeo to BMW 5-Series. Chinese market is concentrated on passenger-focused travel and many rich Chinese likes to be driven! Therefore, they need more legs room at rear seats. Unfortunately, European models are not that generous for rear seats and this is not welcomed by Chinese.

Thus, automotive companies started to manufacture long-wheel base for most their models just for China. And recently, BMW revealed the new 3-Series long-wheel base. This is the same 3-Series with extra 11cm at the rear. Some people may think, why they don’t offer this in Europe or US? They won’t because, when 3-Series is longer, many people will not buy 5-Series. In China? The market is so big and demanding, each model has its own customer. If you are willing to change a shape of a car, try to increase your population :)

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BMW