Toyota Prius

Esqueça o breve período em que este carro só foi visto nas ruas da capital paulista e com a cor branca e os adesivos obrigatórios para o uso como táxi. O híbrido mais famoso do planeta agora desembarca em nosso mercado com disponível para qualquer motorista, dando mais um passo de grande importância para a introdução definitiva de veículos mais ecológicos em nosso país. Mas além de todo o enorme carisma que esse carro apresenta, este artigo irá mostrar um pouco do que faz do Prius um carro tão adorado.

Entrar no mundo dos carros elétricos e híbridos requer ver o conceito de carro de uma maneira totalmente nova. Aqui a função de transportar não tem como segunda prioridade desempenho, luxo ou preço baixo como normalmente se vê, mas sim à eficiência. Estes carros focam em realizar sua função principal com os menores consumo de combustível e emissão de poluentes possíveis, de forma que aqui são os outros aspectos que fazem concessões a aqueles. Tudo isso parece muito interessante de ver, mas já representou grandes dificuldades nos primórdios do carro elétrico moderno. A questão é que essa tecnologia só voltou a se desenvolver com mais força na década de 1990, de forma que ainda não existia nada avançado demais. Em outras palavras, o famoso Saturn EV1 e seus contemporâneos não podiam escapar de baterias caras e pesadas, autonomia curta, desenho desagradável e custos altos para comprar e manter, um pacote não exatamente sedutor. Claro que a imagem de famosos comprando carros ecológicos para uso pessoal trouxe ajuda enorme à sua popularidade, mas isso não surgiu já de início. Como as marcas continuavam a investir nessa tecnologia, ela só prosperou quando as mencionadas concessões por parte do consumidor começaram a diminuir.

A fama mundial do Prius só foi começar com a segunda geração, de 2003: o desenho ficava muito mais caprichado, as baterias permitiam maior autonomia e a habitabilidade foi melhorada. Sem contar que neste momento já existiam cada vez mais concorrentes, como o Honda Insight. O futuro desses carros passou a ser ganhar as mais variadas melhorias, porque isso só lhes deixou mais próximos do que o cliente sempre esteve acostumado: era difícil fazê-lo trocar o carro com o qual tem costume por modelos que tinham aquelas desvantagens. Hoje em dia já se provou que tudo isso ficou no passado, primeiro para os híbridos e depois para os elétricos, mas existem concessões “menos graves” que ainda não se podem dispensar mas estão longe de trazer problemas. Um caso é o estilo do Prius: assim como em Leaf, Volt e similares, apurar a aerodinâmica é fundamental para evitar que o arrasto desperdice energia. Aqui se usa o chamado Kammback, em que a suave ascensão da dianteira à capota simula a forma ideal de uma gota, mas termina num corte traseiro bem abrupto; é provado que assim se consegue efeito muito parecido ao de prolongar sua queda até o final. Se o segundo Prius trazia visual ainda insosso, a fase atual deu grande atenção a estilizar tudo o que não implique em fugir do tal formato: itens como os farois recortados, lanternas transparentes e laterais imponentes trazem semelhança com modelos esportivos.

Entrar em carros mais ecológicos já não impressiona tanto, e isso é excelente. Afinal, ainda não se veem ambientes de luxo, mas sim o mesmo que trazem carros a combustão com porte similar, talvez com um toque extra de modernidade por causa das telas em LCD do Prius. O modelo brasileiro traz pacote muito parecido ao dos demais com preço ao redor dos R$ 120.830 que pede, em que os destaques são bancos e volante em material sintético ecológico, sistema de som multimídia com Bluetooth e mapas, entrada sem chave, heads-up display (HUD), sete airbags, freios ABS com EBD e controles de tração e estabilidade, entre outros. Há o motor de ciclo Atkinson a gasolina e o elétrico de 650 V de potência, que combinados geram um máximo de 138 cv, com câmbio CVT. Não é um número surpreendente porque o sistema nunca chega a usar os dois motores nas faixas de potência máxima. Também existe a frenagem regenerativa, o que permite explicar o esquema de funcionamento desse carro como se vê em seu hotsite: a partida e o uso em baixas velocidades se fazem somente no modo elétrico. Em velocidade constante os dois motores se revezam segundo o que for mais eficiente, as altas acelerações usam a maior força do motor a combustão, as desacelerações são aproveitadas para recarregar as baterias e ao parar o carro se usa o sistema start/stop, que desliga o motor até que se dê um toque no acelerador.

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Honda Brio Amaze

The strategy of showing “teasers” few days before a car release is proving itself very successful for the automakers, when it comes to increase the media and public’s interest. The simple posting of a picture or a video on the Internet showing only a part of the about-to-arrive vehicle is enough to attract the world’s curiosity, no matter if it’s a super sports car or a low-cost hatchback. That’s what Honda used to attract the spotlights to their compact sedan, which will try to prosper in a very competitive market, at many countries.

In the past few years, the multi-category brands have understood that although the emergent markets’ car demands are very particular, these countries return their fulfillment with surprising sales, frequently comparable to what they get on their homelands with more expensive vehicles. Mazda already sells Mazda2, Mitsubishi created Mirage with big focus at the efficiency, Toyota released Etios, and now Honda follows this track with Brio. Their idea is to repeat their brands’ quality at construction, durability and technology, but with some concessions in order to offer the cheapest final price it’s possible. Competitive pricing really is a strong sales argument, but the average customer became each time more demanding, in all categories. In nowadays, the cheap cars have to keep low prices but without “seeming” it: they can’t have black bumpers and small wheels anymore, for example. Besides that, the interior needs to offer the biggest space it’s possible, and with big trim levels at the most expensive versions – those are the very particular demands that countries like Brazil, China and India present for their low-budget categories. But there’s one more aspect that these customers appreciate very much, and therefore makes a huge part of these cars’ success: the design.

If the buyers want their car to resemble more sophisticated ones, they expect it to start this by the exterior. Some take advantage of their brands’ visual identity, such as the latest Fiat Palio and Chevrolet Onix (both created in Brazil), with good proportions and no external parts shared with other cars, avoiding drawing freedom losses. These came precisely from two of the best-selling brands in one of the most experienced country when it comes to small cars, which denotes all the expertise they have. And here lies the Japanese problem, which was those other brands’ issue decades ago: as these cars are their very first incursions among the low-cost category, they still don’t have experience with them. So their first idea is to adapt what’s already done with the more expensive ones, but the problem is that it doesn’t work as the first impression may think. The size differences make some elements look good in some cars but not in others, not to mention the customer kind each car will have – try to imagine Hyundai Equus with Mini Cooper’s round headlights or Peugeot 107 with the first Land Rover Discovery’s roof windows, for example. When it comes to Brio, the original hatchback wasn’t already the best design example to remember, but what makes the sedan worse is the wrong choice of the elements.

The front needs to be short but keeping good space for the engine, so it’s a little tall. But using a very small central air intake with big headlights and big lower intake with large blank spaces between than gives the overall impression that these parts are “lost”, visually disconnected. The very strong creases at the side give a dynamism sensation at bigger cars, but in this sedan seem only too heavy. And the back would really deserve credit for the sophistication idea of the chrome details, if it wasn’t for the very, very small size seen at the pictures. The intention of projecting a small-scaled Civic or Accord is good, but this result seems like a squeezed version of those – at the side photo, have you seen how the roof falls to the trunk? Entering the car, its central console’s can’t be described without using “weird”, but the big internal space is a pleasant fact, along with the sophistication given by the three-colored coating and items such as the multimedia sound system. This car’s sales will begin with Thailand, going later to India, Indonesia and Malaysia. When it comes to the performance, it’ll maintain Brio’s 1.2 16v, with i-VTEC valve command and 90 hp with manual or CVT transmission options, but a very nice feature is the Econ mode: as in many other Honda vehicles, activating it changes several driving parameters to reduce fuel consumption.

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JAC Heyue A30

The Japanese have already finished it, the Koreans are around halfway, and the Chinese are trying to start it. The last decades saw lots of Eastern automakers following what seems to be a “magical path”, that converts them from unknown, low-selling brands to worldwide hits. The simple concept of finding some way to stand out in the crowd, at any subject, is as easy to define as hard to accomplish: the car releases around the world are increasing so much that to the Chinese prosper in nowadays it’s almost a Herculean task.

If you haven’t lived in Japan, how old are your first memories of cars from Honda or Toyota? Those brands started to sell outside their side of the world only around the 1970s, focusing in United States and Europe to take advantage of the oil crisis: the North-Americans, specially, were forced to quit their “eight-cylinder engines and sixteen-feet length” in order to drive less-consuming cars. But the worldwide success came with the high-performance cars, starting in the 1980s. Cars like Honda NSX, Mazda RX-7, Mitsubishi Eclipse, Subaru Impreza and Toyota Supra dazzled the sports car enthusiasts with huge technology working to extract unimaginable power from small engines. The typical Eastern aggressive design also had big participation at spicing up those brands’ reputation, which until then came only from the urban efficiency of Civic, 323, Lancer, Legacy and Corolla, for example. After that, the 2000s were surprised with the Koreans, specially from Hyundai and Kia: Sonata and Soul presented a style boldness never seen at their showroom. Their technology was invested focusing at the sophistication, to gradually update the entire line using a very attractive visual identity outside and lots of technology inside, in order to make their cars step up among the public’s impression.

In nowadays those Japanese brands already have a solid reputation of high quality and excellence in both performance and mechanical resistance, while the Koreans have already finished their first wave of new cars, and now invest at the maintenance of this excellent phase. Now the surprise comes from China, because the unbelievable market growth is stimulate the local brands to also take part of this, instead of letting the Europeans and North-Americans take their homeland’s customers. However, these automakers are still defeating the first part of the “magical path”: since they haven’t found their “thing” yet, they still have to follow what the other brands present. That’s why those cars always try to deliver high trim levels at low prices, for example. And that’s why there were so many cases of style imitation in the last years, from small “inspirations” to ridiculous copies. In nowadays, some of the Chinese cars have effectively evolved from that phase, specially regional projects such as the new VW Bora, although others insist on the wrong way. JAC now wants to participate among the most recent compact sedans, whose focus goes to much bigger internal space, cutting-edge technology and an attractive design.

This category is very successful in the emergent markets, but it will be hard to hide the fact that Heyue A30’s rear is very, very similar to Ford Fiesta’s. Design questions apart, though, there’s no denial that JAC’s new sedan is an up-to-date project. It features the most recent design trends and a size that gives it the showroom spot between Tongyue and Heyue’s sedan versions. There aren’t many official pictures of this car, but it’s already possible to see that it’ll compensate the bigger price with many equipments: the stylish interior uses two colors combined with items such as digital air-conditioner, touchscreen to the entertainment center and multifunctional steering wheel. This car will be sold with a 118-hp 1.5 which uses manual transmission with five speeds or a CVT one. Besides that, the big trunk is only one more reason to have big expectations of seeing A30 in other countries, such as Brazil and India.

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Mitsubishi Lancer GT 4WD

Este é um lançamento tão atípico para o nosso mercado quanto interessante. Se o Lancer Evolution compete entre os esportivos de alto desempenho mas com preço restritivo, alguns meses atrás a Mitsubishi trouxe as versões urbanas do modelo, que apresentam pacote excelente para brigar com os demais sedãs médios. Agora os japoneses se aventuram a estrear em mais um segmento típico daqui, mas em vez de trazer o mesmo que os demais sedãs médio-grandes, ele aposta nas diferenças que você lerá neste artigo.

Essa iniciativa se torna tão valorável por ser a resposta da marca às vendas do sedã, que embora não cheguem perto de afetar a liderança da categoria, mostram-se satisfatórias para um modelo que sofre com os impostos motivados por vir do Japão – é de se esperar que seus números melhorem se a produção nacional se confirmar. Não se pode negar que R$ 96.990 não são nenhuma bagatela, mas também é necessário lembrar que o Lancer GT AWD tem outro foco. Sua ideia é associar o enorme carisma do Evolution a uma versão bem mais em conta que o próprio, mas que preserva grande parte do conceito daquele. A tração integral vem associada ao câmbio automatizado CVT para conseguir uma dirigibilidade incomparável à dos concorrentes mais diretos, como Hyundai Sonata, Kia Optima ou VW Jetta Highline, cujas apostas neste quesito são restritas a motor e câmbio. O público-alvo deste Lancer é a parcela dos compradores de sedãs médio-grandes que valorizam luxo e requinte, mas não escondem o desejo de adicionar mais esportividade ao dirigir sem precisar de recordes de 0 a 100 ou velocidade máxima que na prática nunca vão tentar superar. Sem contar que o já mencionado carisma deste carro completa a exclusividade trazida pela presença comedida nas ruas: sua imagem torce muitos pescoços por onde passa, sem ser desvalorizada pela aparição massiva.

Contudo, quem pensar que este Lancer deixa os demais quesitos em segundo plano vai adorar saber que se enganou. Seu pacote de itens é fechado e completo, trazendo vários itens que em alguns rivais são vendidos como opcionais. Ou seja, ele conta com ar-condicionado automático, bancos de couro central multimídia com DVD, conexão Bluetooth, controles de tração e estabilidade, farois bixenônio com lavador, freios com ABS, EBD e BAS, navegação GPS em português, piloto automático, pedaleiras esportivas, retrovisor interno antiofuscante, rodas de 18”, sistema direcional AFS, sensor de chuva e crepuscular e sete airbags, entre outros. Tudo isso com o já famoso estilo Mitsubishi de cabine: as imagens mostram que este carro dispensa a sobriedade das cores claras e dos revestimentos em madeira em prol de um ambiente muito mais jovial, combinando a cor preta com os detalhes em prata com muito bom gosto. E se você ficou apreensivo com a parte do parágrafo anterior que menciona o desapego deste Lancer com recordes de desempenho, pode ficar tranquilo: os 160 cv gerados por seu 2.0 16v são mais que suficientes para tracionar as quatro rodas deste carro à velocidade máxima de 193 km/h, com 11s5 para atingir a primeira velocidade de três dígitos.

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Renault Fluence 2013

It doesn‘t take to be a car fan to notice the many levels of changes that can be performed into a vehicle. Since minor trim levels updates to a whole new project, this “science“ consists of considering several different factors to find the best possible combination to apply at each case. Some can‘t manage to collect the prize even with big investments, but there are others who have corrected only what was needed and therefore enabled themselves to an increased-sales future. Fluence now has definitely made its way to the second group.

What makes this topic very interesting to analyze is the variety of good and (specially) bad examples. Face-lifts should be only a short-or-medium-term update to boost the car’s sales at the second half of its current generation’s lifecycle, but they can only accomplish that when well done. There are some neutral examples, such as 1989 Fiesta’s updates for 1995 and 1999 or the 2005 Hilux’s updates for 2008 and 2011. However, looking to Fiat Multipla’s good sales from 2004 to 2010 gives the second reason to its facelift, following nothing more than meeting the 1998 car. Similar situation was faced by the 1978 Citroën Visa, which had only to change that hideous front design into a more conventional one in 1981 to see the sales prosper. Unfortunately, some cars end up losing the style harmony among the various attempts of looking modern and attractive, like the first Chevrolet Aveo: from a really neutral debut in 2003, it became a much more elegant car in 2006 but fall into the idea of being more sporty and came to 2008 with a very exaggerated design – similar fate was given to the Mexican first Chevrolet Chevy, which went from the widely known Corsa’s design to a particular one in 2004, and to what must be GM’s biggest front air intake ever made to a city car, in 2009.

When it comes to Fluence, despite of this one being its first official facelift it’s a fact that this car has already had its share of restylings. The car came in 2009 first as Samsung SM3 in South Korea, being restyled a few months later to receive Renault’s badge a few months later – in fact, some other Eastern markets decided to only rebadge the Korean car. The next year received the European’s electric version, and there came another different design to what was now called Fluence Z.E.. And to follow this pattern, the first facelift will be actually two “and a half”: there will be a new SM3, the new Fluence seen in this article’s pictures, and Mexico’s SM3 rebadged as Fluence – how many cars do you know that had seven different designs around the world in less than four years? The sedan enters 2013 with Renault’s new design identity, whose flagship car is the fourth-generation Clio. But it’s impressive to observe how it took only a new front bumper to finish this car’s natural opulence. The air intake became much wider to connect both headlights and a much bigger brand logo, resulting in a much stronger personality: Fluence now takes attention also from the front angle. And if it wasn’t hard to get a better-looking lower part than the 1990s-inspired one used by its previous phase, the new one brings the sophistication of the LED daylights along with grilles that give this car the elegance it has always deserved.

And if the headlights were the only parts good enough to survive the restyling, it was easy to guess that the car didn’t change anything else but the wheels design: the sides and specially the rear were such well-designed that when it comes the time of bigger changes it’s better to show a whole new project rather than taking the risk of an unbalanced partial update. The interior received the Mégane family’s digital dashboard, front and rear parking sensors, electronic handbrake and the R-Link multimedia entertainment system: it brings Bluetooth connection, media player and GPS navigation through a big touchscreen on the top of the console. The car is expected to be start arriving at Turkey next January and then at the other 55 markets which sell it, and at first using a 16-valve 1.6 with 115 hp with Renault’s new CVT X-Tronic transmission. The new SM3 and the Mexican Fluence received similar internal updates, but Fluence Z.E. isn’t expected to change soon.

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Subaru Forester 4

This car’s discreet design doesn’t boast it, but this is the fourth generation of a true pioneer. Forester will debut its new shapes at the upcoming Los Angeles Motor Show, but the official information was first shown today. Analyzing this car becomes interesting when it’s noticed how Subaru has managed to follow many of the latest car trends at the same time they kept a lot of Forester’s original concept, first shown in 1997. Those connections and their most recent result are what you will read at this article.

All this pioneering comes from the fact that Forester was one of the first cars to express the crossover concept, which in nowadays is completely spreaded among the biggest automakers. Defining only one foundator of this car category is impossible specially because the idea of concentrating several proposals at one single car has been widely used by lots of vehicles worldwide, which even includes Volkswagen Kombi’s first years. Having this considered, it becomes easy to understand why the last decades had lots of cars trying to practice some sort of alchemy in order to find which pair of categories would be more successful to offer simultaneously. From Chevrolet Lumina APV’s futuristic attempt of creating a sports minivan to Pontiac Aztek’s inexplicably hideous interpretation of a family SUV, most of those cars unfortunately had much more inspiration than sales success. However, there were some particular vehicles starting to prosper among all those failures. Subaru Forester emerged at the same year of Volvo V70 Cross Country, with the very similar proposal of a halfway who can be observed as a tougher station wagon, with full traction and paintless external parts to withstand dirt and mud, or also as an urban jeep, with better internal space and much more comfort. After all, this one ended up being the golden goose everyone was looking for.

Nevertheless, Forester had a more modest debut than the Swedish station wagon. Its first generation shared platform with the famous Impreza, but nothing of its iconism – in fact, it wasn’t hard to mistake it for Outback, another Subaru which is the station wagon of Legacy. But Forester started to earn great acceptance due to its conceptual differences when it comes to proportions: if Volvo had an upgraded station wagon, the Japanese offered a “domesticated SUV”. Besides that, offering good trim levels at good prices have also helped it to prosper at several markets, including United States. Gradually, this car created a great market performance and deserved not only a second generation, but also a third and the fourth one seen at these pictures. Forester started in a typical 1990s design, with well-separated volumes and plenty of straight creases. The second one was nothing more than an evolution of that, featuring updated lights and windows’ shapes, but the third one entered 2008 with a radical change. At that point the crossovers became a normal car category, with an increasing number of members around the world – Volvo even released two of them, XC90 and XC60. So the Japanese took the opportunity to only adapt their car to what the customers began to search.

That initially mentioned outstanding part concerns about how even though Forester has became closer to a SUV than it was at 1997, Subaru managed to maintain what made it famous in the first place. Instead of following the “recipe” of giving it an attractive design and focusing only at the urban performance, the Japanese applied their latest design rules but keeping Forester’s discretion, resulting at a modern but still imponent style. Besides that, it has increased a little in every direction, achieving bigger internal space. The pictures also show that the car followed some current trends such as the panoramic sunroof and the entertainment system with a big touchscreen at the central console. This car’s sales will offer a boxer 2.5 with 170 hp and a 2.0 turbo with 250 hp, but in markets such as Europe there will be also a boxer diesel 2.0. The transmission options will be a six-speed manual and a CVT automatic for both markets, and the AWD traction has changed to improve the driving at different ground types. Besides that, the pictures show that Forester’s trim levels will bring visual differences, such as sport bumpers, spoilers and exclusive wheel sets. After all, as a typical crossover Forester needs to be up-to-date with the customers’ preferences, in order to attract now both station wagons, SUVs and another crossovers’ buyers, like it has done for the last fifteen years.

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