Auto News For June 18, 2015 - Donckerwolke To Design Hyundais And Kias

Here are the five must-read, must-watch auto news stories, review and videos for Thursday, June 18, 2015.

FUTURE
The Mercedes-Benz GLK was nothing if not distinctive. Its replacement, the GLC, looks more like a downsized ML (soon to be called the GLE) or perhaps an upsized GLA. Forget the V6, the GLC will be fitted with a 2.0L turbo four, but with more power than the 2.0L turbo in the GLA. U.S. sales of the GLK increased in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014.

INSIDE THE AUTO DESIGN BUSINESS
Luc Donckerwolke made his name on the Lamborghini Murcielago. Now he’ll be designing Hyundais and Kias, and eventually he’ll take over from Peter Schreyer, the man who’s attracted so much attention for Kia design that they use him in commercials.

TTAC
Honda is discontinuing the Accord Plug-In Hybrid. You won’t notice, of course, since you never actually laid eyes on an Accord Plug-In Hybrid in the wild.

REVIEW
Like your big LX platform cars but don’t care for crazily-powered Hellcat Chargers and Challengers? Keep it a bit sane, then, in the Chrysler 300 V6 AWD. Car & Driver says it, “doesn’t make you feel like you settled for the cheap seats.”

WATCH
Times have changed, and you can actually buy an Audi S3 in North America. We’ve even reviewed it. But you still can’t buy an Audi S1.

LAMBORGHINI GALLARDO/MURCIELAGO/REVENTON EMISSIONS "IMMEASURABLE"

After arriving in Nova Scotia, The Good Car Brother bemoaned his Chevrolet Suburban's poor fuel economy and envied the efficiency of GoodCarBadCar's recent long-term addition, an '09 smart fortwo. Traveling extensively on highways all across this continent, his Suburban was achieving somewhere under 20 miles per gallon. The smart? Routine driving sees near 38 miles per gallon.

Converted to people miles per gallon, however, his Suburban would have been rated around 108 pmpg. GoodCarBadCar's smart with full human capacity wouldn't be rated beyond 76 pmpg. While it's true that no current Lamborghini could attain a pmpg rating over 40, there is another argument - another perspective, really - that ought to be considered when attacking the manufacturer for the consumption and emission of its automobiles.

Over its 46-year history, Lamborghini has produced approximately 22,000 cars. Americans made the Hyundai Elantra the tenth best-selling car in the USA last month by buying 21,673 sedan and wagon Elantras. Context given.

Of the 22,000 Lamborghinis manufactured in the last 46 years, only 11,000 are driven regularly. Unfortunately, this means 11,000 sit in living rooms, museums, and.... avert your eyes, junkyards. More context required? Toyota sold 10,656 Highlanders in August. One can assume they're all being driven. On the school run.

So few Lamborghinis are being driven, yes, but hardly driven in truth. On average, those 11,000 Lamborghinis are driven about 3,000 miles annually. GoodCarBadCar's long-term smart is driven sparingly yet will cover that distance in six months.

Measure the equivalent this'a'way. Take 2,750 cars and drive them each 12,000 miles per year. In other words, that's about 7% of the Honda Accords sold in the U.S. in August driven a regular amount.

Finally, says evo's Harry Metcalfe on Stephan Winkelmann's subject, the "CO2 levels of all the Lamborghinis ever produced is almost immeasurable". And yet, even amongst the automotive enthusiast society, we continue to expect companies like Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Bentley to produce E85-burning hybrids with hydrogen fuel cells and curb weights under 2,000 pounds.

Just for full disclosure's sake, here are some of the Numbers from the EPA on Lamborghini's 2010 models. By the way, the EPA (@ fueleconomy.gov) uses 15,000 miles per year to calculate the carbon footprint of automobiles.

Lamborghini Gallardo 6-speed manual: 12 mpg city/20 mpg highway, 12.2 tons of CO2/year

Lamborgini Murcielago 6-speed manual: 8 mpg city/13 mpg highway, 18.3 tons of CO2/year

Lamborghini Reventon Roadster: 9 mpg city/14 mpg highway, 16.6 tons of CO2/year

LAMBORGHINI INTRODUCES THE REVENTON ROADSTER- GALLERY

Around this time two years ago, Lamborghini unveiled the Reventon. Although criticized in some corners - including this one - for being comparably overpriced in light of the upgrades over Lamborghini's Murcielago, the Reventon's exclusivity and stop-you-in-your-tracks design led to some success. Now we have the Lamborghini Reventon Roadster. Rather extreme, we must admit, the Reventon in topless form still generates 661 horsepower, accelerates to 60mph in 3.4 seconds as it makes progress toward a 205mph top speed.

Read more about Lamborghini here

Lamborghini's boss, Stephan Winkelmann, says the Reventon Roadster "adds an extra emotional component" to the most extreme car in the brand's history. Yeah, as if the buyers of the regular Reventon weren't a bit emotional over the whole thing anyway.

Lambo Reventon Roadster buyers will be asked to pony up €1,100,000, today's equal of $1,601,431 USD. That's way too much money to pay for a car with the Lamborghini Reventon Roadster's capabilities. However, there will be about 20 of Lamborghini's "friends and collectors" willing to shell out.

Find out which car compete with the Reventon Roadster for the wallets of the mega rich

LAMBORGHINI MAY NEED FRANCHISEE - WILL PRODUCE ESTOQUE

On the same day Lamborghini lets out that the Estoque four-door concept will be produced (thank goodness), the planet's best-selling Lamborghini dealership announces its doors will close. Shut. Lock. Firmly.

Santa Ana, California's Lambo store accounts for 10% of worldwide sales. Imagine for a second that were true of a Chevrolet dealer. Okay, now picture the profits attributed to this one dealership. Now picture Lamborghini's consternation at the thought of that dealer closing up. Okay, now start collecting donations from your friend so you can re-open that very same Lamborghini dealer. Because quite clearly, sales were not the issue.

True, Lamborghini doesn't sell a lot of cars. Typically, however, the vehicles sold cost above $200,000 and sometimes close to $400,000. Usually, OC Lamborghini could sell 240 cars per annum in modern Lambo times. With a middling profit margin of, say, 4%, OC Lamborghini would easily pull in more than $2,000,000. You could nudge that 4% upward safely and nudge up the earnings for "used" Lamborghinis and and servicing too. 

So, real estate issues are the suspected culprit. Many formerly rich Californians are just that: formerly rich. Perhaps the issues affecting OC Lamborghini are completely disconnected from sub-prime meltdowns. Nevertheless, there's never been a better opportunity to confront Lamborghini brass with a few million in coin with a suggestion that you run the OC Lambo biz. Get on the phone.

LAMBORGHINI GALLARDO LP560-4 FOR ITALIAN POLIZIA - 20 PICTURES

I know exactly what you're thinking: apparently the Italian troopers were insatiable. The regular Gallardo wasn't good enough? In 2004, a Lamborghini Gallardo began a stint in the police service with tasks that - generally speaking - weren't related to tracking down high-octane speeders. Transporting organs for transplants was one of the Gallardo's more likely tasks, in theory. 

That first Gallardo has almost 88,000 miles on its odometer. A second Gallardo used in more northern areas since '05 has almost clocked almost 70,000 miles.

Check out the older Gallardo along with other wild police vehicles here 

and here along with police vehicle suggestions here

Apparently Lamborghini and the polizia believed more everything was required. The upgraded LP560-4 features 59 more horses than the original Gallardo with fewer pounds to propel. Thirty officers are trained in driving the Gallardo as well as in the use of its medical equipment. Thus, police personnel accustomed to Fiat Bravos won't be seen steering the LP560-4 off a cliff at 200mph.

FOUR DOOR LAMBORGHINI ESTOQUE IN PICTURES

Along came the Porsche Panamera, Aston Martin Rapide, Bentley Continental Flying Spur Speed, and.... multiple drum rolls pleeeeeeeeez.... the Lamborghini Estoque. 

Sporting four doors, a sporting reputation, and a super-luxury pricetag, this segment is about to be blown wide open by a Lamborghini four-door that is oh-so-very Lamborghini. It's modern, aggressive, and unlike anything else available to mankind. Expect all-wheel drive and a high-octane V10, although Lambo is good at surprises.

L'Auto Journal has pics. Because of poor quality, GoodCarBadCar.net has switched them to B&W and boosted the colour a bit. This'll help show off the lines.