Daily Archives: May 20, 2018
Three-Door 2019 Hyundai Veloster Starts At $19,385
It’s the only car right now with three doors—one door on the driver’s side and two doors on the other side. The weird and yet familiar design of the Hyundai Veloster skipped the 2018 model year, but would be back this 2019 with a few upgrades.
Base Veloster
The base Veloster will be coming with a naturally aspirated 2.0-liter inline-four that can produce 147 horsepower and 132 pound-feet of torque. Paired with a six-speed manual transmission and featuring a direct injection, it will be more powerful than the previous 1.6-liter four. Standard safety equipment are forward-collision warning with automated emergency braking, lane-keeping assist, and a driver-attention monitor.
Other tech goods include LED running lamps and a rear spoiler. Seventeen-inch alloy wheels, a 7.0-inch touchscreen, a six-speaker stereo, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, a six-way manual driver’s seat, and a real metal key.
2.0 Premium
With the same engine but with six-speed automatic and paddle shifters, the 2.0 Premium has a price tag of $23,635. That price will also get you 18-inch wheels on 225-width tires, blind-spot warning with rear cross-traffic alert, a panoramic sunroof, automatic climate control, heated front seats with leatherette inserts, keyless entry with push-button start, an 8.0-inch touchscreen with SiriusXM satellite radio (which is no longer standard on base Velosters), an eight-speaker Infinity stereo, and wireless device charging. You can also enjoy three years of Blue Link telematics services.
Turbo R-Spec
For $23,785, the Veloster will come with a turbocharged 1.6-liter that produces 201 horsepower and 195 pound-feet of torque. The six-speed manual is standard and upgrades will include thicker front and rear anti-roll bars, Michelin Pilot Sport 4 summer tires, LED taillights, LED low-beams with automatic high-beams, a black grille, adjustable rather than fixed rear headrests, specific cloth trim, and Active Engine Sound. The Turbo R-spec will not carry the 2.0 Premium’s blind-spot warning, panoramic sunroof, automatic climate control, and heated front seats.
The Turbo R-spec, however, can get the 2.0 Premium’s features plus the side-mirror turn signals and seven-speed dual-clutch automatic for $2,500 more.
Turbo Ultimate
The loaded Turbo Ultimate will be sold $27,535 for the manual and $29,035 for the automatic. Standard equipment would be the rain-sensing wipers, pedestrian detection, leather with contrast stitching, a dashtop head-up display, navigation, and HD radio. The automatic version will come with adaptive cruise control and the manual will have the summer Michelins.
BMW X8 Flagship SUV Focuses On Rear-Seat Comfort
BMW X8 render. (Photo Source: BMWBlog)
New details about BMW’s flagship SUV, to be called the X8, are emerging. Reports suggested that the BMW X8 will focus on giving rear-seat passengers a comfortable experience.
By all appearances before, the X8 didn’t look like it would go the coupe-SUV route. What was understood before was that BMW would focus on maximizing the rear seats for the comfort of the passengers, especially the Chinese consumers which the X8 will be targeting.
But an Autocar report published on Friday said that the X8 will feature a sloping roofline and a more coupe-like design like the smaller X4 and X6. The BMW is planning to position the X8 flagship as a rival to the Range Rover and to the Bentley Bentayga and the Rolls-Royce Cullinan if the X8 will tick off every box on the options list.
Now, in addition to the rear passengers’ extra space, the X8 will still feature a sloping coupe-like roofline that for most cars won’t be able to accommodate the needed extra space in the rear side. The X8, however, will be employing modern architectural and engineering technology to make this possible even with a slanted roofline.
The platform to be used will prove to be difficult for the German automaker, though reports indicated that the engineers will likely take elements from BMW’s CLAR modular platform and the Rolls-Royce Cullinan’s aluminum architecture.
This means that the 2020 BMW X8 will only be a four- or five-seater to achieve a comfortable experience for rear passengers. The upcoming BMW X7, which the X7 iPerformance concept previewed, will boast three rows of seats for a total of seven seats.
BMW will trademark the X8 to numerous markets around the world, including in Asia and most particularly in China. A final decision on how the X8 will look like will be made later this year before the SUV is released in 2020.
3 Things To Expect From The 2020 Audi SQ3
The Audi SQ3 is the sporty and level-up version of Audi’s second-generation Q3 crossover, which will be unveiled in late July. The SQ3 will come with the trademark aggressive S styling treatment and four exhaust pipes.
This performance version of the Q3 will match the power output of the outgoing RS Q3, which will have a new iteration of Audi’s turbocharged 2.5-liter inline-five that produces at least 400 horsepower later on. The RS Q3 was not released to the American market, making the SQ3 much more in demand and anticipated.
1. Platform
Like the base model Q3, the Audi SQ3 will use the Volkswagen Group’s MQB modular-transverse platform that is being used by a wide range of vehicles—from the small VW Polo to the Atlas SUV. The SQ3 will be similar in size to the current model, but the suspension will be tuned aggressively for minimum roll and sporty handling characteristics.
2. Powertrain
The Audi SQ3 will have the same EA888 turbocharged 2.0-liter four engine that can now be found in the Audi S3 and the Volkswagen Golf R. It can produce around 300 horsepower and can go from complete stop to 60 mph in just 4.5 seconds. It will have a top speed of 155 mph. The engine will come standard with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic and Quattro all-wheel drive. We don’t have information on other powertrains available for higher-end versions.
3. Estimated Arrival and Price
The Audi SQ3 is expected to arrive in the United States in 2019 as a 2020 model. There is no information yet about the prices, but it will have a starting price of $45,000. Other variants will go north of that range with the available options offered to the vehicle.
The 2020 Audi SQ3 is competing directly with the BMW X2 and the Mercedes-AMG GLA45.
Spy Shots
Here are some spy shots of the Audi SQ3 from CarAndDriver:
