Car Throttle News Bites: 22nd February 2012

The Geneva show is almost here, and the pre-show debuts are rolling in.  Just today, there are four pieces of big news: new compact luxury hatches from Audi and Volvo, the AMG version of the new Mercedes SL, and the world's fastest convertible.  Plus rumors of a GM-Peugeot tie-up, and a teaser shot of a new Toyota concept for the big show.  Here are the News Bites!

The first two real images of Volvo's V40 5-door hatchback surfaced on facebook today through a Polish car site, of all things.  From the two images, we can get a better glimpse of the styling of Volvo's new baby, and I like what I see.  The front-end treatment is a toned down version of the angry alien face on the S60, with a nice pinched-waist front bumper with some neat air ducting work.  The surface detailing on the hood is unusual for Volvo, who's pretty determined to break away from their stodgy styling.  The panoramic sunroof is a nice touch, too.

From the back, the V40 is more dramatic.  This thing has got some hips.  The randomly kinked-up body line above the rear door handle is almost willfully bizarre, but the XC60-style tail lights look groovy, as does the C30-style false rear glass on the hatch.  There's some subtle body kitting on this one, which probably won't be present on lower-end V40's.  This new 5-door hatch is likely based on new Focus architecture (it sure looks like it!) and could replace the S40, V50, and C30 all with one model.  If you're going to replace a sedan, wagon, and 3-door hatch with one model, a swoopy 5-door hatch is probably a good choice.  There are no details on the powertrain or shots of the interior yet; we'll probably have to wait till March for that.

And here are the first official images of the brand-spanking-new Audi A3, which will go head to head with the V40.  It looks to me more than a little bit like the old A3.  But when a car already looks great, why change it too much?  The big news for the A3 is the shift to VW's corporate MQP (Modular Transverse Matrix) platform, which will underpin many transverse-engined (obviously!) VW Group cars in the future, including the Mk7 Golf, Passat, Seat Leon and Skoda Octavia, among others.

Being a concept car, they had to do something to make the interior stand out.  Thus the bright-friggin'-orange inserts inside an otherwise typically Audi grey and black interior.  Ignore the retina-searing hue and you can see that the A3's interior continues to be a slightly nicer place to sit than the VW Golf which it is underneath.  I like the narrow, clean layout of the dash and the S2000-esque high center console.  But one question Audi: tell me that pop-up navigation screen isn't going to obsure like 50% of your vision.  Be honest.

The new A3 will be sold in this three-dour form, as well as a 5-door SportBack, 2-door convertible (why?) and a first for the A3, a 4-door sedan- likely for America, where we hate space utilization and like trunks.  One last curiosity: at launch, the A3 will be available with a 1.4L TSI 4-cylinder... with cylinder deactivation.  So, three cylinder A3?  Two?  One?  Who knows.  More details on the A3 will be out at, you guessed it, Geneva.  Stay tuned.

Soon to be pleasing rich people with good taste everywhere is the brand-new Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG.  This one's based off of the new SL architecture, which uses a lot of aluminum and is considerably lighter and stiffer than the outgoing model, but sadly now the badge on the trunk is a complete lie.  As with most of the rest of AMG's V8 lineup, the new model is actually a 5.5L V8, augmented with direct injection and twin turbochargers, instead of a 6.2L V8.  The new model will be available in two outputs: the standard model makes 530bhp and 590lb-ft torque, good for 0-100km/h in 4.3s and 200km/h in 12.9, with an electronically restricted top speed of 155mph.  Opting for the Performance Pack ups power to 556bhp and 664lb-ft, dropping times to 4.1 and 12.6, with the speed limiter upped to 186mph.  Fuel efficiency for both is 30% better than the outgoing car, averaging 23.8mpg (US) or 9.9L/100km.  The SL63 will be on sale in Europe this May, with prices starting from... wait for it... €157,675, or €189,269 for the Edition 1 with the Performance Pack.  That's almost a quarter-million dollars, although the US pricing will likely be lower than that.

The Bugatti Veyron's production run is coming to an end soon, closing perhaps the craziest chapter ever in automotive history.  And it's going out with a bang, in the form of the Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse.  Ignoring the name stolen from an 80's Rover, the Grand Sport Vitesse combines the upgraded engine from the Super Sport (the 8.0L W16 with larger turbochargers and intercoolers) with a tarmac-twisting total of 1,200bhp and 1,106lb-ft torque, and the open-top design of the Grand Sport.  So this is probably the world's fastest convertible, and probably will be the world's fastest convertible until the end of time, because they're not going to be building cars like this in the future.  They're going to be diesel/hybrid/fuel-cell/solar powered crap that you have to plug in and pay tax on your electricity and blah blah blah, and the Grand Sport Vitesse is the end of a magical era, and it makes me sad.  Someone get me a drink.

In this ever-tightening auto market, where weak brands die surprisingly quickly, mergers and platform-sharing are becoming more and more common.  The latest rumor is that Peugeot-Citroen is looking to enter into a component-sharing agreement with General Motors.  This could be mutually beneficial for both parties: it could cut PSA's operating and development costs, and potentially bring GM's Opel division back to profitability.  It was previously rumored that PSA was considering a merger with GM, but French Labor Minister Xavier Bertrand said on a radio show yesterday the deal will be more of an alliance.  Interesting.  Good of PSA to be wary of a merger - considering GM's track record with absorbing quirky European brands.

And finally, Toyota put out some teaser images of the FT-Bh concept it's bringing to the Geneva show - looks like a headlight, but I'm not sure.  The FT-Bh stands for Future Toyota B-Segment Hybrid, and it previews a new take on packaging and hybrid tech.  Toyota says the car weighs in around 800kg (or about 1,750lbs) but has as much space inside as a larger 5-door hatchback, with a redesigned compact-hybrid drive sytem.  So is Toyota already working on a successor to the Prius C just as it's coming out?  We'll see.