Hyundai HB20X

Talvez você lembre da intenção principal que a Hyundai teve ao iniciar toda esta empreitada que atende pelo nome de HB20. Para alcançar uma participação de mercado pelo menos no nível de Citroën, Renault e Peugeot, por exemplo, a coreana manteve a excelente fama iniciada com os modelos mais caros mas agora a estende às categorias de volumes maiores. Em outras palavras, depois de criar um compacto exclusivo para o Brasil, quem poderia duvidar que o próximo passo seria competir entre os aventureiros urbanos?

Como era de se esperar, as imagens oficiais e a publicidade da marca dão a ideia de que este carro consegue transpor trilhas que na realidade pertencem ao naipe de legítimos jipes. Os fatos, no entanto, são que o HB20X traz alterações de monta bem menor, porque sua intenção na verdade não é tão grande assim. A Hyundai brasileira acaba de colocar em prática o que os concorrentes da novidade com certeza farão assim que os seus modelos chegarem à época das novas gerações: aproveitar as vantagens de prever estas versões desde o começo do projeto. Carros como 207 SW, Fox e a própria Palio Weekend surgiram todos antes de este gosto virar uma moda tão forte, de forma que quando ela chegou os fabricantes precisaram recorrer a adaptações. Já o HB20 é um dos primeiros a contar com tal variação de nascença, o que lhe permite resultado visual bem melhor: ele troca o excesso de apliques de plástico, por exemplo, por parachoques exclusivos. Seu ar mais agressivo se faz com aspecto mais volumoso e itens como a grade dianteira bem maior, combinando com o bom gosto dos demais acessórios como o rack de teto e as rodas de liga leve exclusivas. É nada mais que repetir em escala de menor preço o que fabricantes como Audi e BMW fazem há alguns anos com os pacotes esportivos: projetá-los em paralelo com o desenho padrão do carro permite a esses kits complementar o estilo do mesmo, em vez de bifurcar as atenções.

Além disso, a ausência de mudanças mais extremas como o estepe direcionado à tampa traseira só volta a confirmar que a Hyundai deixou os extremos para seu crossover compacto, que terá a base do HB20 mas chegará nos próximos anos. As únicas mudanças da cabine foram os bancos com dupla costura, pedaleiras em alumínio e o volante revestido em couro na versão Premium, o que tem seu lado bom e ruim: trata-se de ter mantido um interior cuja qualidade já tem ótima aceitação do público, mas simples mudanças como cores de revestimentos e de luzes teriam dado ar muito mais condizente com a proposta da versão nova. O carro sempre usa o 1.6 16v flex de 128 cv, e a versão Style (R$ 48.755) traz de série airbag duplo, ar-condicionado, computador de bordo, Bluetooth, direção hidráulica, farois de neblina, rodas de liga leve aro 15”, sistema de som multimídia (sem CD player) com comandos no volante, trio elétrico e cabine com bancos em azul e console em preto. A Premium (R$ 51.255) soma ar-condicionado mais sofisticado, banco traseiro bipartido, chave multifuncional, palhetas Aeroblade, sensores de estacionamento e crepuscular, vidros com função one-touch e a curiosa opção de trocar o sistema de som por um que traz CD/MP3 player mas perde a conexão Bluetooth, esta opção sem custo extra. É uma pena que os preços sejam salgados já usando o câmbio manual: a caixa automática de quatro marchas passa as versões respectivamente a R$ 51.955 e a R$ 54.455.

Audi A6 Allroad

Se você acompanha as novidades automotivas do mercado brasileiro com certa frequência, com certeza lembrará que o ano passado foi muito importante para a Audi no país. Tivemos toda uma ampliação de sua linha, com modelos de todos os tamanhos e preços chegando sem tanto atraso e até acompanhados de outros até pouco tempo atrás improváveis. As novidades de 2013 também têm enorme importância, mas cada uma pelos próprios motivos. A primeira é esta perua, que segue uma tendência muito famosa no Brasil.

Suspensão elevada, revestimentos externos em plástico preto, detalhes como rack de teto e estribos laterais, cabine um tanto mais “rústica”… A receita dos chamados “aventureiros urbanos” começou em meados dos anos 1990 com duas peruas, uma na Europa e outra no Brasil. Volvo V70 Cross Country e Fiat Palio Adventure deram duas interpretações diferentes ao nicho de mercado que de início fez fama por representar a união entre a vocação familiar de uma station wagon com toques mais aventureiros vindos dos SUVs. A questão é que em poucos anos esse conceito convergiu aos crossovers, de forma que hoje em dia essas peruas têm um público bem mais restrito e precisam de maiores esforços para continuar agradando. Em outras palavras, é necessário que estejam em perfeita sintonia com o que seus clientes desejam. A faixa de V70 e A6 Allroad tem enormes diferenças da de Palio Adventure e VW Space Cross, mas todas vêm apenas em decorrência das faixas de preço – o conceito, no entanto, é o mesmo. O segundo batalhão é bem mais conhecido pelo brasileiro, em que as peruas compactas focam numa profusão de acessórios maiores e menores mas sempre em especial no exterior, para conseguir um visual bem diferenciado das versões comuns. O interior até recebe mudanças, mas ali a regra é oferecer o pacote de itens mais completo. Ou seja, o resultado é uma versão de topo com visual exclusivo e algum preparo para o off-road leve, mas sem investir demais.

Já quem faz parte do mercado de luxo e decide levar uma perua do segmento que também inclui a Peugeot 508 RXH tem outros objetivos. Eles também gostam da ideia de jovialidade trazida pelos acessórios exclusivos, mas não perdem o gosto pela discrição. E os que precisam se afastar dos centros urbanos ainda apreciam os equipamentos que trazem real aptidão para o fora-de-estrada, como a tração integral. No caso da Allroad, os vários protetores em preto e prata com revestimento em aço inoxidável dão um destaque interessante por não destoar do carro e nem tentar fazê-lo parecer outro. A jovialidade implícita pelas belas rodas é continuada no interior, em que os detalhes cromados fazem um par de ótimo gosto com os revestimentos em couro marrom. Os itens de série incluem ar-condicionado bizona, central de entretenimento com GPS e tela retrátil, teto solar panorâmico e volante esportivo. Já a segurança vem com os vários tipos de airbags, câmera de ré e indicador de pressão de pneus, entre outros. Vale observar a suspensão a ar adaptativa, que em terrenos acidentados eleva o veículo em 35 mm, mas em altas velocidades privilegia a performance e o rebaixa em 15 mm. Ele traz o motor 3.0 V6 TFSI, que gera 310 cv e acelera de 0 a 100 km/h em 5s9, e que ficou 20% mais econômico: a marca informa média de 8,93 km/l, sempre usando tração integral quattro e câmbio S-Tronic de sete marchas e dupla embreagem. Foi confirmado o preço de R$ 354.900.

Audi RS7

Do you remember what Audi used to do with its sporty line until the early 2000s? The only odd-numbered vehicle was A3 which, in turn, was also one of the Germans’ three “exceptions”: A2 never achieved success and TT seemed to be enough among the sports cars, so the several S-number were only sedans and wagons and there was only one RS at a time. The current market has brought enormous changes to this brand’s showroom, though, and one way of illustrating this event is presenting this article’s vehicle.

There’s no argument that Audi can create really good cars, but this one can also be seen as a very accurate example of how the automakers are always getting divided into two groups: it starts when someone comes up with some kind of innovation, whether in luxury, mechanics or even a whole car concept. If it obtains good acceptation, this brand can enjoy some months of excellent sales exclusively for itself, but soon all its competitors start to release their versions of the same idea. Some better than the original and some worse, but all with the same essence, which leads to divide the customers once again. This is what Audi has been doing with its cars for some years, in fact. They’ve followed BMW and Porsche with a luxury crossover and later with creating smaller sizes of it, and also Mercedes-Benz with both the four-door coupes and its own supersports line. Besides, after A7 received the always-expected S7 trim, now it’s time to copy every single urban Audi but A8 and release a RS7. Sports versions are always great, but the problem with this one is that Audi is decharacterizing it. The original strategy was always to give huge powertrain upgrades with slightly visual changes to its urban cars but as the S version, leaving RS as one single very special car like RS2, the very first of them. However, since today almost every Audi offers both sporty versions, they both seem pointless.

After all, the customers who look for high performance cars at Audi’s price range wouldn’t take the “second best” trim only to avoid the price difference in favor of S. On the other side, there are so many RS cars that they’ve lost that uniqueness which in 1994 made that wagon worldwide famous. In other words, it would make much more sense to go back to offering only one line… just like BMW M or Mercedes AMG, by the way. Strategy issues aside, RS7 is the very latest Audi to receive the best performance upgrades these Germans offer. This aggressive design packed with beautiful 20” wheels really go much better with the casual very-high-end Audi than with its sedan sibling A8, also because now there’s a competitor for CLS 63 AMG and the recent M6 Gran Coupé. The driving can be customized with optional air suspension, sports rear differential and variable-ratio steering, stability control with sport option and “off” button and many others, making an already indefectible driving more suitable to each driver’s style. The common item is the twin-turbo V8 4.0L shared with RS6 Avant, delivering here 560-hp power and 516-lb-ft torque commanded by ZF’s eight-speed automatic transmission and quattro AWD system – this car goes from 0 to 60 mph in 3s9. The top speed, in turn, varies with the optional item packages which bring several improvements in style, handling and aerodynamics… and take the car from the 155-mph top speed to 174 mph or 190 mph.

Mercedes-Benz CLA

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Like many other pieces of popular culture, this phrase has proven itself an excellent advice millions of times. Mercedes has already shown several cars which two decades ago would be seen as an apocalypse prediction, but most of them were experiments, to find out what the market would want for the near future. Only some turned successful, but the overall result was excellent. The car you’re about to meet is the best prove that these Germans did find the right track to follow, once again.

Like many specialized texts have already stated, if the Mercedes cars were people with some sort of family relations, CLA would surely be a son whose both parents were the current generations of A-Class and CLS – this last one, in turn, could even be thought as a result of E-Class with CL. But before thinking of very unusual ways to use the family concept, the Germans deserve the bigger applauses for obtaining that mentioned knowledge concerning the car market in nowadays. In other words, since CLS’s concept has proven itself successful in sales and harmless to E-Class, later they started to think of reducing this formula’s scale. On the other hand, it’s easy to see they’ve finally found how to make A-Class prosper, so it would be very nice to take more advantage of that. So the sedan showed at these pictures is another result of the very concept that in Renault has just generated Captur. Examples like these are highly unlikely to bring conceptual revolutions because they’re the mere merge of other concepts, but once again this doesn’t come as a complaint at all. The truly meaning here is that Mercedes realized that cars like CLA are the right track to follow, so from now on it’ll be very hard to see this automaker releasing another “experimental” car. It is true that they needed to forget some of the old rules, but the final result is the much wider propagation of the image they’ve built through all these years.

There’s no doubt that image includes their particular standards for comfort, design, quality and performance, but what would those forgotten rules be? One of them is the front-wheel-drive, so far only used by the hatchback CLA shares platform with. But these cars are much more related than that: the newcomer is its sedan version, which is confirmed by the very similar front and side sections. But their biggest difference is conceptual, rather than at the measures: the hatchback is clearly much more sporty, designed to attract younger buyers while CLA still seek this public but using a more elegant style, with a less obvious way of expressing A-Class casuality. The specifications list will lead to notice that this car isn’t bigger than North-American compact sedans – Dodge Dart, for example, is 0.6 inch longer and has a 0.1 inch longer wheelbase – but offers very much from Mercedes’ equipments portfolio, of course. However, there’s an optionals list including panoramic sunroof, aluminum or wood internal details and item packages: Sport, Premium and Multimedia. Other specs concern the engine options: 120-hp 1.6L for CLA 180, 150-hp 1.6L for CLA 200, 210-hp turbo 2.0L for CLA 250 and 170-hp diesel 2.1 for CLA 220 CDI, always with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and the optional 4Matic all-wheel-drive. But while you wait for the AMG version, here’s an interesting tidbit: even the urban versions have a 0.23 drag coefficient. This is one of the best numbers of the current production cars.

Infiniti Q50

Have you ever noticed that some automakers can become really confusing with the alphanumeric codes used to name their cars? BMW and Mercedes-Benz at least stick to numbers no longer according to the car’s engines, but other strategies seem to be understood only by their own creators. A few days ago Infiniti has announced some changes to theirs in order to simplify it, but also showed some very interesting small teasers. So what could be a better way to release that new naming method than with a whole new car using it?

There are many cases of cars which couldn’t succeed marketwise mostly because of a bad name choice, even when they were good on everything else – you might want to check out what caused Alfa Romeo 164 to fail in China, Buick LaCrosse in Canada and even Mitsubishi Pajero in Spanish-speaking markets. But even though Infiniti’s nomenclature hasn’t such deep problems, the brand needed some struggle time before prospering. It was founded in 1989 with the exact same goal as Acura and Lexus: escape of dealing with Nissan’s lower-cost image to have better chances at the competition with the German luxury cars. Whether for the not-so-inspired design, bad publicity or neglecting some of the customers’ preferences, the 1990s ended with Infiniti very close to extinction, but they didn’t give up. There was adopted a whole new strategy, with several all-new vehicles focusing at sporty luxury including SUVs. At that moment there were FX35, G35 and a new Q45, not to mention the cars which have followed them. It were still the mid-2000s, but Infiniti was starting to discover what in nowadays is some sort of a “success recipe”: an automaker needs to give what the customers are used to expect from luxury cars, but treating this as a standard: it’s also important to combine that with any “extra features” that make it worth for them to give up other brands.

Q50 was chosen for this new turning point because it’ll fill a very important spot for this brand. After all, it’s intended to replace G37, which was an upgraded G35, which in turn was nothing but the very first Infiniti to become successful. They really wanted big changes once again, so Q50 presents a much more modern style. It’s very nice to see that the success of crossovers such as FX have made their influence at items such as the sedan’s long, round front section and the overall shape of all the items. This car carries the classic touch wanted by most of the luxury buyers but without looking old-fashioned at all. Besides these organic shapes could fit very well at most of the European cars, it’s nice to observe some very creative points such as the rear window cut – details like that denote a high-quality project, just like everyone wants to buy. The interior pictures show a huge level of sophistication wrapped in a very attractive design, crafted with high-quality materials and plenty of technology; the Infiniti InTouch system, for example, brings not one but two big touchscreens. This car will start with two V6 engines, a 3.7L with 328 hp and the hybrid 3.5L, which will be paired to the electric unit to result at 350 hp, but diesel options are expected for later. Besides, it’ll always use automatic seven-speed gearbox and rear-wheel-drive, with optional AWD.

Hyundai HB20 2013

Em quatro meses ele já muda para a linha 13/13. Os sistemas de som ganharam Bluetooth, com a versão Comfort 1.6 diferindo das mais caras por vir com tela menor, entrada USB no som (as outras a têm no console) e sem CD player. Seus volantes somaram as teclas de ligações, e os vidros elétricos agora são um-toque e se acionam pela chave. As luzes do painel ficaram todas em azul, vieram palhetas do limpador tipo flat-blade e novos detalhes internos cromados para Comfort Style e Premium e prateados quando com 1.0, entre outros.

Chevrolet Corvette C7

Here it is. After several months of spied prototypes, leaked pictures of external parts and related material, some official teasers and dozens of computer projections, this is the real deal. Corvette has become one of the most famous symbols of North-American vehicle performance of all times, so its fiftieth birthday deserved that Chevrolet once again faced the task of not only improving this car in every possible way but also of finding the right way to do it. The meaning of this expression is what you’ll discover with this article.

Chevrolet’s task is even harder than Ferrari’s, for instance, because the traditions it maintains are heavier. Some of the sports cars automakers have built their reputation around several vehicles, like the mentioned Italian one, but there are others which prefer to dedicate themselves to improving one single car over the years. These are exactly opposite strategies, but the chances of success and failure are the same for both – it only depends on their execution. Corvette is an undeniable example of the second one, just like 911 is for Porsche. And also like with the German coupe, dealing with such a huge tradition became a true challenge for its brand because whenever it’s time to perform changes the same question appears: “Would it be better if it looks like the previous generations, or is it time to create a whole new car?”. Nevertheless, the last years showed that while the European sports cars started to focus at the future, with new design languages and even new car categories, the North-Americans decided to work looking back. The 2000s were full of past-inspired cars like Chevrolet SSR and Plymouth Prowler, and some of them resist until now: once again it’s possible to decide between Chevrolet Camaro, Dodge Challenger and Ford Mustang and notice that all of them expose retro designs. So it turns very surprising to observe that Corvette wants to break this “rule”, like Dodge has recently done with their own super sports car, SRT Viper.

Some people won’t take long to claim the seventh Corvette looks too much like the new Viper. Others will go further by remembering that since Viper received some criticism of becoming too European, Corvette would have become an US-made Ferrari. But the fact is Chevrolet decided to express this car’s big traditions in a less obvious way. Investing so hard at resembling forty, fifty years old cars reduces the designing freedom, therefore avoiding to improve the car’s performance – which is an extremely important aspect for a sports car. So the new Vette became more aggressive, with plenty of strong creases and a beautiful selection of acute-angled shapes, which all contribute to a very modern look, much different from the smooth lines seen until C6. But the mentioned past references are still easy to observe: the front is elevated at the center but even more at the extremes as in C3, but with the headlights far from the center, as from C4. And the rear windshield creates a triangular shape that ends at an abruptly cut rear only reminds what’s seen since C2. The tail lights, however, brought a fascinating combination: they still use double units like in every Corvette, but lost the round shapes in favor of rectangles, to go better with the overall style and resemble Camaro. Even the front grille’s chrome line could give a hint of Chevrolet’s current design language for this item.

Looking to this car’s roof is another interesting ambiguity, in fact. Although the black spot here means a removable roof, having it next these black-painted A-pillars makes it impossible not to remember the 1990s futurism of Lumina APV. The other meaning is that roof represents the cutting-edge technologies received by this car. The console uses a modern interpretation of Corvette’s typical driver-centered interior design, now filled with some aluminum and carbon fiber details and several coating options. The big touchscreen summarizes that this car now brings all the current trend items, like multimedia sound system, and it’ll be possible to choose between comfortable daily-use seats or competition ones. Even the quickest glimpse at the tech specs sheet will reveal enormous structural improvements, which managed to improve aspects like body stiffness and weight, Brembo braking system, suspension, wheels (with specific tires) and efficiency. C7 Vette proves it deserves using the Stingray name also with the powertrain: the naturally-aspirated small-block V8 6.2L hasn’t left the front section, and produces 450 hp and 450 lb-ft of power and torque. It’ll also features cylinder deactivation with active exhausts system as a standard item – using an automatic six-speed transmission or the manual seven-speed gearbox, the result of all that is a 0-60 mph done in about four seconds and better emissions and consumption rates than C6’s. Pretty good use for those four exhaust pipes, right?

Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 and E 63 AMG

Sports car fans have been delighted with high-performance versions of conventional cars for decades. Audi S and RS, BMW M, Chevrolet SS, Dodge SRT and R/T, Fiat Abarth, Ford ST, Volkswagen GTI… There are lots of examples around the world, but they’re only different ways of achieving the always impressive balance between all the sportiness of coupes and convertibles and the particular features of each car which receives them. So how about meeting not one but four of the best sporty versions of the entire world?

Although there are lots of enthusiasts that cheer with each and every car release of nowadays because they know the quality level involved, there are lots of people that still ask themselves “Why do they have to create so many vehicles? Why can’t they only stick to improve what they already have?” and other similar questions. On the other side, this blog and the entire specialized press have written so many times about the increasing need to find new markets in order to keep offering competitive products that it won’t take too long for us to run out of different ways of rewriting the same information. Nevertheless, this blog doesn’t even think of stating that as criticism because it recognizes that it doesn’t take more than a moment spent thinking as a “car fan-but-not-freak” to realize that it is really hard to notice all of this conceptual information delivered at these texts. There are many pictures of the article’s car, but also many paragraphs referring to lots of other cars, turning it very difficult to only imagine all that. Since this blog always tries to go beyond one more plain repetition of each release’s features, these four cars have been referred in this single article in order to receive also a brief illustrative comparison. The first animated picture displays the new CLS 63 AMG at its Coupé and Shooting Brake versions, while the second one shows the facelifted E-Class Sedan and Estate now as E63 AMG.

If you were guessing the first mentioned aspect would be the external design, you’re right. There’s no way to avoid it, in fact. The main guideline that inspire these cars’ differences is the ability of each one taking a particular customer, reducing the internal competition to its minimum. E-Class has always gone after the more traditional public, which has preferred the same things for decades, while CLS receives who goes to a Mercedes dealer for the absolute quality but would really prefer something different, more casual. The shared platform enables those cars to share lots of internal parts, not to mention the engines, but stays far from being a barrier against their breathtaking conceptual differences. CLS’s four-door rear is only the first symbol of the opposition to E-Class’s three well-divided volumes. And since they both have SW versions, CLS’s interpretation resulted at the Shooting Brake body. E-Class’s sides use more horizontal creases, bringing a solid, classy impression while CLS makes a contrast between the narrow but long lines dying at the rear doors right where the very imponent fender starts, reminding the North-American muscle cars idea of movement. E-Class’s elements take most space of one only side of the car, probably to remind its several previous generations: most cars from the 1970s to the 1990s used a “folded-paper design”, where you couldn’t see much of the headlights, for example, if you were looking to the hood or the sides – CLS’s shapes are much more tridimensional. And since the lights were mentioned, it would be impossible to skip them.

E-Class can join them or split them at the front or redesign them at the back in any way, but they will always remind even the 1960s ancestor – so yes, you must’ve already guessed that right: at least until now, CLS preferred to make big changes from its previous generation. Fortunately, both cabins agree at delivering fascinating quantities of sophistication and safety, but this is one of the few truces here. CLS’s cabin is more fluidic, reducing the idea of a rectangular space while E-Class is much more likely to be driven by a chauffeur. The sedans even differ at the seating: E-Class sticks to five seats, but CLS dedicates itself to four. The wagons, in turn, diverge at the trunk: if E-Class is much more focused at the families, its sister’s space is bigger in length and smaller in height, privileging cargo such as golf clubs and hunting guns. Besides the bigger wheels and the more aggressive aerodynamic kit, the AMG version brings the same “heart” for these cars: the final (and most important) truce is the twin-turbo V8 5.5L, with that performance package from before the facelift now offered as a standard item. This means this engine now produces 550 hp of power and 531 lb-ft of torque, always using the AMG SpeedShift transmission: there are double clutch, seven speeds and four driving modes. Besides, these cars use rear-wheel drive or the 4Matic AWD system, but the (even more) special feature is the S package: this new performance kit uses 4Matic and boosts these cars to 577 hp and push the speed limit to 186 mph, with average 0-60 mph times of 3.6 seconds.

Hyundai i30 2

Você lembra de quando o i30 fez sua estreia no Brasil? Enquanto o Sonata começava a revolução de estilo que deu importância mundial à Hyundai, o hatch médio focou no custo/benefício para tentar firmar a marca entre nós, que até então era representada apenas pela importadora Caoa. Mas mesmo com aquelas propagandas de ufanismo cômico, o fato é que aos poucos ele conseguiu prosperar no país, ganhando uma aceitação tão grande que sua segunda geração agora chega em um contexto totalmente diferente.

Além do fato de o modelo destas imagens ser uma geração completamente nova, as diferenças entre ele e o i30 antigo têm outra razão muito importante: elas correspondem a diferentes fases da Hyundai. Lançado em 2007, o primeiro não fugia da sina que acometeu os carros coreanos nessa época: eles usavam construção moderna e já não pareciam tão antiquados como na década anterior, mas não havia inspiração. Eles eram bem diferentes entre si e não haviam muitos desenhos extravagantes ou desequilibrados, mas não chamavam atenção. Careciam de destaque, de algo que fizesse o cliente olhar para um Hyundai, Kia ou SsangYong buscando algo além de um simples meio de transporte. A fase atual do Sonata e a chegada do Kia Soul provocaram enormes mudanças nessa reputação porque as marcas aproveitaram a oportunidade para passar por uma completa melhoria. Pouco a pouco renovaram todos os modelos à venda e criaram novos e melhoraram a qualidade de construção e apostaram em projetos modernos. Isso tornou sua presença cada vez mais importante mesmo nos mercados mais exigentes, a ponto de exercer ameaça até ao mercado das marcas mais tradicionais. Hoje em dia se considera um Hyundai ou um Kia pelas mesmas razões que um Honda, Peugeot ou VW, por exemplo.

Com isso, depois de se estabilizar nessa posição muito mais confortável, o começo da presente década permitiu certo relaxamento para os coreanos. Nunca no sentido de deixar seus produtos ao sabor do passar do tempo, mas sim sem a necessidade de inventar outra revolução estilística a médio prazo. Isso culmina com a nova geração do i30 porque seu lançamento mundial feito no ano passado mais uma vez comprova que a Hyundai agora se dedica a aperfeiçoar o que criou. O hatchback das fotos passa a ser uma versão dois-volumes do Elantra, para aproveitar a excelente aceitação que ele já garantiu mundo agora – aqui os nomes diferentes se mantiveram, mas nos Estados Unidos o i30 é chamado Elantra GT. Claro que nada disso impediu o i30 de ter suas particularidades de estilo, muito pelo contrário. Enquanto o irmão aposta numa profusão de cortes com formas mais arredondadas, o estilo do hatchback é mais retilíneo. Talvez para agradar os homens, a esportividade do novo i30 começa com os arcos cromados que dão uma nova interpretação à famosa grade hexagonal bipartida. Os farois esguios ainda estão lá, mas trazem um esquema interno em duas cores que combina muito bem com os vistosos farois de neblina. As laterais sugerem imponência com a linha de cintura bem elevada e em subida, e contam com muito bom gosto no recorte das janelas e na escolha de vincos. Já a traseira conta com a elegância das lanternas não tão esguias como no sedã e formas sem excesso de volume.

A cabine evoluiu muito em todos os aspectos, não só no belo desenho que mistura as cores preto e prata combinando à iluminação azul já característica da Hyundai. Até o momento o novo i30 está sendo oferecido apenas em pré-venda na rede de concessionárias, por enquanto em versão única. Ele traz airbag duplo, ar-condicionado digital, freios com ABS e EBD, navegador GPS, rodas de liga leve aro 17”, sistema de som multimídia com controles no volante e sistemas de abertura das portas e partida do motor sem chave, entre outros itens – apenas o teto solar será um opcional. Já o trem-de-força teve mudanças dos dois tipos: a transmissão automática agora tem seis marchas, mas o motor passou a ser o 1.6 16v flex de 128 cv de potência e 16,5 kgfm de torque, que equipa o Veloster e até mesmo o HB20. Ainda se pode esperar por opções com câmbio manual e motor 2.0, esta para daqui a mais tempo, mas o maior problema do novo i30 é o preço: cobrar R$ 75.000 pela versão citada só se explica ao considerar argumentos supérfluos como o veículo ser a última novidade da marca ou mesmo que terá demanda muito grande. Sem contar que outra vez a importadora Caoa restringe a paleta de cores ao preto e ao prata. A estratégia usada nas revendas até agora é de o cliente assegurar sua unidade com adiantamento de 10% do valor, para receber o carro 30 dias depois e finalizar a transação.

Lexus IS 3

Do you know what does “L-finesse” stand for? This is Lexus’ latest design language, like Ford’s Kinetic or Hyundai’s Fluidic Sculpture. Toyota’s luxury brand is starting to succeed at the long-term desire of creating a more inspired style for their cars, an initiative that has recently received great help from LFA’s production. They’ve already renewed the bigger brother GS and facelifted the even bigger LS, but the entry-level became much more different. This article will show a little more about this “entry-luxury” sedan.

As it has been mentioned several times by the specialized press, each automaker has created their own visual identity in order to distinguish their cars from the competitors. Besides, this came in handy for the Eastern brands because of their own design issues of that time: those cars were excessively alike until the 1990s, all of them with too classic lines and plain shapes. The Japanese started to change that around the early 2000s, but the Korean took some more years. Lexus’ problem, in turn, wasn’t creating good-looking designs but more appropriate ones. The bigger complaints went to the fact that they didn’t look like the upscale vehicles they are, which led many people to mistake them for cheaper cars. Acura and Infiniti faced the same problems at some time, too, but neither took too long to solve it: Honda’s brand decided to follow the North-American luxury cars, with smoother volumes and straighter lines, while Nissan’s division tries to follow the Europeans: the organic shapes contrast with stronger creases and very well divided volumes, which helps to give a high-performance impression. And now Lexus seems to have found the path to follow by looking at its own homeland. The new IS proves that Lexus is investing on acute angles and strong creases, which have all been the Japanese recipe for sportiness for decades.

That’s what explains this front design which will certainly turn each and every neck from which this car passes near. Whether for the tuning-like aggressive air intakes, the headlights with separate-but-visually-connected LED part or the most imponent spindle-shaped grille you’ve ever seen, taking inspiration from the LF-CC concept car has worked very well for what’s Lexus’ sports sedan now more than ever. The sides preserved the elegance of few creases and taller windows, but with a hint of sportiness that will be finished with the rear section: that elevated rear window cut without following the door handles line comes from the very first IS, taking the memory back to 1999. The second generation made it more visible and imponent, giving a very nice look with the chrome contour. Now there weren’t big changes to its shape, but it became paired to a very strong line born beneath the B column: it rises in the exact same proportion as the rear windows, creating the very nice impression that the car is always moving – it’s a complete change from the first IS, where all those horizontal lines made it too bulky. And the Grand Finale is made by these tail lights which seem to take more space from the sides than the rear. Paired to the absence of many lines, they give the last section a slim look which could easily be found at many current sporty coupes. This is definitely the right car for who doesn’t appreciate “limousine-like” sedans.

The first official pictures show only the F-Sport version, so the ones who didn’t like the scarlet seats shouldn’t worry. However, it’s hard not to notice the beautiful interior, with plenty of black and chrome as most of the sportier cars. But Lexus states there’s much more to observe: the bigger wheelbase improves the internal comfort, while the whole cabin became more ergonomic. The luxury extremes were restricted to IS’s bigger siblings, but the F-Sport version brings aluminum pedals, perforated leather steering wheels and even metal details with 3-D effects. This car will be officially presented at the upcoming Detroit Auto Show at all its versions: IS 250, IS 350 and IS 300h – the hybrid one being the first one to bring the Lexus Hybrid Drive. The respective engine options will be a V6 2.5L with 200 hp, a V6 3.5L with 300 hp and a four-cylinder 2.5.