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We are totally the iPhone's bitch at TheCarConnection.com.
TCC has its own iPhone application, half the office has one, 70 percent of those are about to get superseded by 3G models, and this photo plus caption of the new
Mercedes-Benz in-car iPhone adapter alerted not only the editorial brain trust, but got our CTO geeked enough to email it out on a Saturday night.
The new Benz device couples the iPhone directly into the heart of the
Mercedes' audio brain, so it can switch from calls to music quickly. The steering-wheel controls on
Mercedes vehicles will control the iPhone's functions, and the adapter keeps the Magic Phone within view of the driver (not always a great thing). It also charges the iPhone on the run.
Right now the iPhone kit's a German option, celebrating the addition of the phone to the T-Mobile network over there. You can tell this one's not in a U.S.-spec Benz, since there's no 64-ounce Chick-Fil-A cup in the holder. It's offered on the C-Class, E?Class,
CLK-Class,
CLS-Class, S-Class, CL-Class, SL-Class, M-Class, and R-Class, and will be offered with the new GLK-Class when it goes on sale in October. It's a $385 option in Germany; stay tuned to see if it's offered for U.S. cars.
Posted in : Mercedes-Benz, New Products, Technology
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Without a doubt,
Saturn is clanging pot lids together in order for people to consider it a
green, with-it division. To support their positioning, during their 2008
Detroit Auto Show press conference,
Saturn trotted out the Opel Flextreme Concept
hybrid (first shown in
Frankfurt) with new
Saturn badging, as well as the production
2009 Vue Green Line 2-Mode
hybrid and a concept
Vue Green Line hybrid with plug-in capabilities.
The Saturn/Opel Flextreme runs on GM's corporate eFlex platform that is under development for several upcoming vehicles, including the
Chevrolet Volt. The eFlex platform can, apparently, handle several different "range enhancing" electricity generating units, including the diesel generator shown in the Flextreme. (You may remember that the Volt featured a gasoline-power generator.
Cadillac's Provoq Concept uses a hydrogen-powered fuel cell.)
The
Green Line 2-mode is the first front-wheel-drive application of The General's advanced two-mode
hybrid system that it developed with
BMW and the old Daimler-Chrysler. This new technology is paired with the excellent direct-injected 3.6-liter V-6 from the
Cadillac CTS. Performance should be excellent on all counts; fuel economy (a 50-percent boost in city driving) and in performance.
Compared to the first two announcements, the last car on stage was the
Vue Green Line with plug-in capabilities. It struck the crowd as kind of a yawner. As the vehicle's current state of development, 4-5 hours of charging at your home's plug nets one 10 miles of pure electric, low-speed driving. Many questions were left unanswered, such as how slow is low … and is 10 miles really worth the effort. These issues will work themselves out between now and when a production version bows in a couple of years. The vehicle's battery package and charging system still needs to optimized.
Check out all of our coverage for the 2008
Detroit International
Auto Show here.
Posted in : 2009, Geneva Motor Show, Hybrid Cars, New Products, Saturn, Shoppers
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We are totally the iPhone's bitch at TheCarConnection.com. TCC has its own iPhone application, half the office has one, 70 percent of those are about to get superseded by 3G models, and this photo plus caption of the new Mercedes-Benz in-car iPhone adapter alerted not only the editorial brain trust, but got our CTO geeked enough to email it out on a Saturday night.;)
