In Germany, having a reliable car is almost a rite of passage. That is, you won’t be granted passage onto the roadways if you’re car hasn’t passed the government’s strict testing regime.

Called the Technischer Überwachungsverei and generally shortened to TÜV, the organization first gets its hands and diagnostic equipment on your new car after its third year of service, and then again every two years after that. If your car fails its first go-round at the TÜV, it gets sent to a repair shop. If it fails again, it’s off to the great junkyard in the sky.

No wonder, then, that consumers are eager to see the results of the TÜV’s checkups year after year. And for 2011, after 7,779,312 million inspections, the Toyota Prius and Porsche 911 have taken home golden trophies in two different classes.

Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Germany’s iconic sports car was found to be so reliable, even after 10 or more years of ownership – after all, we’d imagine that most owners take extremely good care of their pride and joy. Plus, the 911 employs a design that practically dates back to the dawn of the German automobile itself, which means Porsche has had plenty of time to refine its mechanicals.

If you’re looking for something a bit newer, it seems the Toyota Prius is your best bet. For the second year in a row, the Japanese hybrid hatchback earned top marks in the three-year-old category, beating out the Toyota Auris and Mazda2.

And the worst? The Ford Ka. After 10 years, Ford’s mini-mobile fails its TÜV certification a whopping 38.9 percent of the time. As for the three-year-olds, the Dacia Logan’s 12.7-percent failure rate puts it in last spot.

Porsche 911 is officially Germany’s most reliable car originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve already gotten our first glimpse of the BMW M5 Concept bound for the Shanghai Motor Show, and now we can give up the full monty on BMW’s fifth iteration of its world-beating super sedan.

In keeping with BMW tradition, the M5 “Concept” is deceptively close to the production model that’s set to hit Europe this Fall and come Stateside next spring, but so far, BMW is only telling half the high performance story.

Based off the current F10 5 Series chassis, the M5′s exterior has been pinched, pulled and imbued with the understated aggression that typifies BMW’s M-fettled products. Up front, a revised front fascia houses three enlarged black mesh-covered intakes to feed the turbocharged eight-cylinder and supply the front brakes with cool air. The lower edge of the sculpted front bumper is a pure representation of BMW’s latest M models and extends rearward to the aerodynamic rear apron equipped with an integrated diffuser. A deceptively subtle lip spoiler spans the trunk to provide downforce at speed, while M-specific quad exhausts shuttle spent hydrocarbons out the back. Hit the jump to continue reading, watch a video of the unveiling and check out the official press release.

Live photos copyright (C)2011 Damon Lavrinc / AOL

[Video Source: M5Board via YouTube]

Continue reading Officially Official: BMW M5 Concept bound for Shanghai [w/video]

Officially Official: BMW M5 Concept bound for Shanghai [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mazda has dropped the official details on the company’s Minagi Concept. The sleek CUV is intended to give us all a little taste of exactly where Mazda’s design is headed in the near future as well as show off the company’s new Skyactiv drivetrain technologies. Mazda isn’t telling us exactly what’s under that sculpted hood other than to say that the Minagi gets its power from a Skyactiv engine and puts it to the ground via a Skyactiv transmission. In addition to those fuel-saving components, Mazda claims that the Minagi also uses a host of weight-saving tricks to boost fuel economy.

The concept wears the new Mazda design theme called Kodo, or soul of motion. From what we can see from the renderings, the look is a full galaxy ahead of the all smiles design the Japanese automaker is currently employing. We’ll be interested to see how the lines translate to the real world when the concept shows up at this year’s Geneva Motor Show in March. Hit the jump for the full press release.

[Source: Mazda]

Continue reading Officially Official: Mazda Minagi Concept headed to Geneva

Officially Official: Mazda Minagi Concept headed to Geneva originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 19:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, BMW is going to build a small, urban electric car – the Megacity – in a few years, but we’re pretty sure there are a lot of Bimmer drivers who won’t much care for that little thing, no matter what the powertrain. For them, BMW has announced a second treat today: the Vision Efficient Dynamics (VED) concept will indeed make the jump to production form.

We first saw the VED a little over a year ago at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2009 and BMW says the concept was met with an “overwhelming response.” Little surprise, then, that BMW was interested in building this for the people – well, people who can afford the 0,000, give or take, the car will likely cost when it come to market in a few years. Since the VED contained a fair bit of “completely or virtually production-ready components,” BMW is confidently giving out media test drives at the Leipzig trade fair center of a road-ready technology showcase vehicle based on the VED.

Final production numbers won’t be known for a while, but the prototype features wing doors and a 2+2 seating arrangement. Underhood, a three-cylinder turbo diesel engine “with a hybrid synchronous motor at the front axle and a full-hybrid engine at the rear axle” put out a total of 241 kW/328 bhp and hits 0-100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) in just 4.8 seconds. The sleek car can do this while burning just 3.76 litters of fuel per 100 kilometers (a Toyota Prius-beating 62.5 miles per gallon U.S.) and emitting 99 grams of CO2 per kilometer. The production VED will also be a plug-in, with the ability to go 50 km (31 miles) on lithium-polymer battery power. Hit the jump for the full details in BMW’s press release, as well as a video of the Efficient Dynamics prototype.

[Source: BMW]

Continue reading Officially Official: BMW confirms Efficient Dynamics production [w/video]

Officially Official: BMW confirms Efficient Dynamics production [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 11:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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