Automotive opinion

Somehow it's unbelievable: The environmental aid association is instrumentalizing the tragic accident with four deaths in Berlin-Mitte for a polemic anti-SUV campaign.

The message on Twitter leaves speechless and stunned. So the so-called German "environmental aid", an association with less than 300 selected members, practically demands an SUV sales stop. Without knowing the exact causes of the accident, the club writes on Twitter: “SUVs have no business in our cities! 4 dead, including a toddler, are the result of a terrible speed accident with a Porsche SUV in Berlin. " Read full article ... (358 words)

The journalist Harald Kaiser wrote an interesting psychogram on Ferdinand Piëch's death. The former Stern head of the Auto department often met Piëch and interviewed him several times. He characterizes a maker who many of his former employees were afraid of and who mostly found the media to be annoying.

He chased many of his top managers, whom he often hired himself, back out of the yard quickly and with a lot of money in their luggage if they didn't track. The Austrian, born as a multimillionaire, was the type of fast breeder. He almost always seemed to be under constant tension. He was not a child of the wind tunnel, but edgy like a Tyrolean rock. Here are his most salient features: Read full article ... (669 words)

Although the Golf VIII will be launched next year, we took a closer look at the current Golf with its 1,5 liter engine and 150 hp. And we find that the most classless of all cars now appears so sophisticated in every detail that it doesn't actually need a new edition.

Read full article ... (1007 words, 2 images)

Nowhere is it lied like in obituaries, it is said. It may be that some of the hymns of praise that are now being spread about Ferdinand Piëch are due to polite duty. But all obituaries share a common true core: Prof. Dr. hc Ferdinand Piëch was a brilliant and visionary car designer and manager who had a positive impact on Germany's key industry worldwide.

So I have had very personal experiences with the "old", which make it seem very different to me than was often portrayed in the media. Piëch was indeed a brilliant string puller who mercilessly executed not only technical but also personnel decisions, but also promoted those who had the same quality standards and product visions as he did. Martin Winterkorn was one of the sponsors as well as ex-Audi boss Rupert Stadler and numerous nameless people who still regret his departure from the VW cosmos. Read full article ... (1092 words, 1 image)

More than one in three is planning to buy a vehicle - BMW ahead in the brand ranking - Station wagons, SUVs and sedans are the most popular body styles - Interest in hybrid and electric cars is increasing.

The purchase of a new, annual or used car makes the hearts of drivers in Germany continue to beat faster. More than one in three plans to change vehicles within the next 18 months. Interest in used cars has increased significantly. German premium manufacturers are very popular, while volume brands are becoming less important. This is evidenced by the current Aral study "Trends in car purchases", which has been in its ninth edition since 2003 and sheds light on private car buying behavior. Read full article ... (873 words)

Jürgen Resch from the warning association "Deutsche Umwelthilfe" eV is once again pushing himself into the public with critical comments on automobility. That he criticizes the auto industry for building the wrong car models hits the wrong people. Actually, he should criticize the consumers he claims to be protecting, the customers. But he doesn't dare.

Telling car buyers that they should buy other cars would make the intention and strategy of green environmental ideologues all too clear. Namely, that the "consumer advocates" are all about putting pressure on the car industry to renounce the "SUV craze". But however the lobby and auto opponent lobby may be, customers continue to prefer to buy diesel and SUV and, above all, what they want. And that's a good thing, should stay that way and must be respected. The car buyers do not want to go back to the “GDR” model compulsory delight when there were only two-stroke Trabis and Wartburgs that had to be waited for 15 years. A variety of models is the order of the day, not SUV bans or ideologically determined consumer behavior. Read full article ... (531 words)

The current discussion about a special SUV tax, "because SUVs consume a lot" is completely wrong in most cases. The Citroën C 5 Aircross we tested with the four-cylinder turbodiesel and 131 hp, for example, has proven to be more economical than some small cars. And he is not alone in the SUV segment, which populist ideologists want to eradicate completely wrongly.

Striking face without aggressiveness Photos: Citroën Read full article ... (974 words, 3 images)

German motorists have always been the nation's milking cow. What do you get from your taxes and duties? Broken roads, dilapidated bridges, traffic jams without end but an almost complete monitoring of their behavior in road traffic. Cash is also paid here in the name of traffic safety.

With a CO₂Tax will also be put into your wallet considerably, but the climate will remain unaffected. Shutting down nuclear energy has a much greater negative impact on the climate than car traffic. Although a CO₂Tax has practically no impact on the environment, it has been written more or less "trendy". Evidence that a CO₂Tax for Germany could reduce global warming, but has so far been owed. Read full article ... (260 words)

One thing you have to let the German Environmental Aid Association do: it always knows how to get Germany excited by the media. The latest demand, however, crowns the barrel in the face. All of a green prime minister and his CDU interior minister Strobl are to be put into custody because they do not - zag-zack - implement the demands of the club to also ban driving on Euro 5 diesel.

However, it is unfortunately the case that the “environmental workers” know the law on their side and, with the help of German courts, are allowed to stretch it to the point of absurdity. The judges can not be criticized (with a few exceptions), because they adhere to legal requirements, which were often formulated ideologically and arbitrarily, but must be legally respected. Read full article ... (517 words)

The fact that company boss Akio Toyoda likes to move around the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring under a pseudonym at racing pace cannot leave the company strategy untouched. The result of Toyoda's racing ambitions are not only impressive lap times, but also the revival of the Toyota sports coupe Supra.

The formally impressive sports coupe was created in close collaboration with BMW, where the technical basis rolls off the assembly line in a different form than the Z4. Although many parts are taken from Bavaria, we are dealing with two completely different characters. The comfort-oriented Bayer on the one hand and the quasi-successor to the legendary Toyota 2000 GT, which had thrilled sports car fans around the world as a super sports car from Japan in 1967, are fundamentally different. The new GR Supra not only shows a classy outfit from the outside, but also reveals its sporty racing genes in terms of driving dynamics. Read full article ... (698 words, 4 images)

Anyone who is responsible for this PR Twitter faux pas at Mercedes-Benz can be sorry. Either he wanted to fight against the widespread climate hysteria with a satirical Rittberger or he comes from a different universe, where humor can still be communicated relaxed and politically incorrect.

In this case, Shit-Storm is an understatement, which is sprinkled on the PR department at Mercedes-Benz. "It's already a tsunami that we caught there," says a PR employee. Read full article ... (462 words)

With the V8 diesel in the SQ8 TDI, Audi has raised the level of self-ignition to new heights. The high-tech highlight of traditional combustion culture leaves no doubt that the diesel still has the best days ahead of it despite all the doom calls.

The PR heralds of the automakers have to master the communicative balancing act between a still questionable electrical future and the development peaks of conventional piston engines. This is also the case at Audi, where the innovative e-tron was only recently launched and a legendary V8 diesel in the SQ8 TDI has now raised the self-igniter crossbar to a level where the air is very thin. The communicators of these contradictory approaches are not to be envied. Let's hope that none of the ladies and gentlemen drifts into schizophrenia. Read full article ... (971 words, 3 images)

Anyone who believes that a "climate protection tax" "saves" the climate also believes that the trade in indulgences led to fewer sinners in the 16th century. While the policy on a C0₂- Tax disputes, the most absurd proposals regarding climate hysteria come to the surface of a public that is close to a heat collapse.

The warm summer is wind for the mills of the climate ideologists who believe that the heat records already indicate the end of humanity on the horizon. No news program, no talk show, no sermon without reference to “the challenge of climate change”. But anyone who thinks that climate hysteria would have reached a peak should be wrong. On the contrary: it increases in increasingly absurd demands. Read full article ... (723 words, 1 image)

Considered many times with design and other prices, the Kia Stinger is still an exotic on our streets. The Korean Gran Turismo is not only an eye-catcher, it also signals sophisticated individuality.

Its sporty design is not fake, but absolutely authentic. The elegant four-door is a sports coupe of the purest water, a Gran Turismo like from the car quartet. Formally successful, provided with sporty details that set clear accents without being pretentious. Kia undoubtedly delivered a masterpiece of design in the Stinger. It may be because the Korean brand molds in the in-house design center in Frankfurt, in any case the formal charisma of the Stinger hits the center of good taste. Read full article ... (739 words, 3 images)

That a BMW board of directors contradicts the company's own product strategy has schizophrenic undertones. However, Klaus Fröhlich only speaks what engineers have been saying for a long time at ALL car manufacturers: Nobody really believes in the battery-powered electric car. "Above all, the customers don't believe in it," is heard. Range, charging time and infrastructure remain the biggest hurdles.

It cannot be assumed that the BMW board of directors could have leaned too far out of the window at a BMW event. The fact that he is now backpedaling publicly is probably due to the fact that he was subjected to harsh criticism in the four-cylinder. After all, Fröhlich contradicted the official e-strategy of the company with striking honesty. Read full article ... (603 words)