Tag: cars

The Serbian Fiat Countryman

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With the release of its Countryman mini-SUV, Mini acknowledged that some people simply need more than two doors (or, in the case of the Mini Clubman, two and a half doors). The Countryman has a distinctive dip at the rear window that looks weird, but somehow works:

I test-drove the Fiat 500 last year, and thought it was a fun little car with a small but capable engine – especially the convertible version with a manual transmission. But the back seat was just not credible. Even for small kids. Same goes for the original Mini Cooper. The Cooper S, with a supercharged engine, is even better, and Fiat is releasing its own Abarth version with a turbocharged engine, regrettable 5-speed, rather than 6-speed, manual transmission, and 160HP and 170 lb/ft of torque. While Mini sells cool Brittania, the Fiat 500 Abarth sells, well, this:

http://youtu.be/cpi2IAec9Ho

But the Fiat 500 has been a poor seller in the States mostly because it’s too small for anyone with a kid, so Fiat is bringing a new model, the 500L (large), which it will unveil at the Geneva Auto Show:

You’d almost think it was a badge-engineered Countryman, but it isn’t. I don’t dislike it, but a quick scan of the Facebook comments reveal words like “antipatica”, “brutto”, and “non ci piace”, which you don’t have to know Italian to understand.

It would be great if we got the turbo diesel they’ll get in Europe, and it’s notable that this mini-ute will be built in the same factory in Kragujevac, Serbia that brought the world the Zastava “Yugo”. It will offer seating for 5 and 7 in Europe, but only for 5 in the States.

Here’s the press release:

Fiat presented the first official images of the Fiat 500L, the new model which will have its world preview at the 2012 International Geneva Motor Show.

500L – the L stands for ‘Large’ – is the new addition to the 500 range, which, following the Abarth and Cabrio versions, furthers the brand’s strategy, with the aim of extending its offer by introducing models in a position to satisfy different types of customers.

With the ‘L’, the 500 expands and grows together with customers, to accommodate new experiences and needs once more.

With MPV passenger space combined with the feel of a small SUV on the road and the restrained dimensions and efficiency of a B segment car, the new Fiat model defies the conventional distinctions between the various segments, combining the typical characteristics of different categories in order to create a distinctive alternative to the traditional B and C segments.

With the Fiat 500L, the Fiat brand demonstrates its creative spirit once more: a marriage of functionality and emotion, it features a 5-seater single-volume structure which is 414 cm long, 178 cm wide and 166 cm high. It is a further development of the concept of ‘cab forward’ introduced by Fiat with the 600 Multipla, a precursor to the concept of the compact people carrier.

Produced at the Fiat factory in Kragujevac, Serbia, 500L is a ‘first car’ for those who won’t settle for anything less than Italian style, the versatility that comes from a functional design and engine technology that sets the bar in terms of efficiency.

The Fiat 500L will be introduced to Europe in the last quarter of 2012, with an engine range which will initially comprise two petrol engines (TwinAir and 1.4-litre) and a turbodiesel engine (1.3 MultiJet II) and the most advanced, state-of-the-art technology from Fiat Group Automobiles.

Lincolns in North Korea

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As you watch the hysterical, (as in hysteria, not as in funny), funeral procession of Stalinist lodestar of the 21st century, still-dead Kim Jong-il of North Korea today, take a look at the limo on top of which Kim’s coffin is being carried.

It’s a 1975 Lincoln Continental limousine, held over from Kim’s father, the very dead, but eternal President of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung. Even Kim’s mega-portrait gets a limo.

No one does cult of personality like the North Koreans. They are unsurpassed in history at totalitarianism.

Cars To a Tax-Free Main Street

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Inch by inch, block by block, the city of Buffalo is getting ready to correct what’s turned out to be a mistake that hastened downtown’s demise. The federal government has given the city a $15 million grant to return vehicular traffic to Main Street’s 500 block, approximately Mohawk to Huron – Lloyd‘s downtown corner to the Hyatt.  The 700 block has been done, and the 600 block is in the works.

Pedestrian zone in Delft, Holland

In my experience, most successful pedestrian-only shopping zones aren’t located along main thoroughfares; they’re instead made up of a jumble of side streets, creating what amounts to an outdoor pedestrian retail zone.  Simply removing cars from a main arterial street doesn’t seem to have worked, and the decline of downtown shopping that was hastened by Metro Rail construction disruption never had a chance to rebound.

Although hundreds of thousands of people come into downtown from all parts of WNY every day, it’s a retail wasteland at all times. It’s doubtful that there’s very much that can be done at this point to reverse that.

But as we plan for a reborn waterfront at Canal Side, which will soon expand onto the Aud block and other surrounding areas, if becoming a retail as well as cultural destination is desired, then creating a sales tax-free zone downtown would have a great stimulative effect. Part of the question is – how do you attract people to shop downtown merchants as opposed to the Niagara Falls outlets or the Walden Galleria – an 8.75% discount in the downtown core would probably be a great draw.

No, it’s not fair to merchants outside the zone. But life isn’t fair. Furthermore, most of the merchants in Buffalo and outside the zone serve the surrounding residents and will still be patronized out of sheer convenience. Furthermore, the influx of people and businesses attracted by what amounts to a Buffalo Special Economic Zone will ultimately help those businesses thrive, as well.

Main Street in the 50s

Development would still be subject to Buffalo’s zoning and planning bureaucracies, but the rules would be simplified and permits & approval would be harmonized and streamlined. Property taxes would be reduced or eliminated, depending on the parcel. However, properties would be assessed not based on what they are (e.g., empty lots), but on what their value ought rightly be if developed.

By turning the central business district into a tax-free special economic zone, you give people 8.75 reasons to do business and conduct commerce in downtown Buffalo over anywhere else. Creation of a waterfront district while ignoring the decline and blight of the rest of downtown seems to me to be counterintuitive.

By executing a plan such as this, zoning the waterfront districts, and having the ECHDC or state spend public money solely on the improvement and installation of necessary infrastructure, transfer of title for all parcels to one single entity to speed development, institution of a design and zoning plan that cannot be deviated from, and – most importantly – remediating the environmental nightmares under the soil throughout ECHDC’s mandated districts, we can then auction the parcels off to qualified buyers.

That is how downtowns revive organically – through private initiative and private money. Government can do its job and merely provide the private sector with the proper environment to do business and build. It doesn’t get faster, quicker, or cheaper than that.

Merely returning cars to Main Street isn’t going to return downtown to its former glory. A coordinated effort and plan to make downtown competitive and attractive to people and businesses is needed.


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