2014 Cars Photos Sneak peek

It's never too early to see what's under the hood for the world's car makers. Because of the peculiarities of the industry, some 2014 models have already been shown at auto shows like Paris and Frankfurt, or pictures have been released in advance of other shows like Los Angeles (in November) and Detroit (January).

Manufacturers like to keep new models under wraps until the very last minute, lest they steal sales from outgoing models, but sometimes complex logistics or simply corporate flag-waving take precedence over sales tactics.

For those who can't wait for the official start of the 2014 model year on October 1, 2013, here is a peek at some of the all-new cars and crossovers that will be emerging from design studios and engineering centers.

 

2014 Aston Martin Vanquish

James Bond drives a '60s-vintage DB5 in Skyfall, but actor Daniel Craig should trade it for the 2014 Vanquish faster than you can say "double-oh-seven." It has a skin of carbon fiber, the V-12 engine puts out 565 horsepower, and the car screams to 62 miles per hour in 4.2 seconds. With a top speed of 190 mph  (and a base price of $280,000), even George Lazenby would have had no trouble outrunning Blofeld.

2014 BMW i3

Unlike any BMW you have ever seen, the compact hatchback i3 is made of lightweight yet super-strong carbon fiber -- the same stuff used in the fuselage of the 787 Dreamliner. More importantly, the i3 is BMW's first all-electric car. Its range is said to be around 100 miles, and anxious drivers can add a small motorcycle-like gasoline engine that extends the EV to 190 miles. The i3 is expected to go on sale late in 2013 for about $45,000. Production versions will have doors that are solid, rather than transparent below the beltline,

C7 Chevrolet Corvette rendering

2014 Chevrolet Corvette

The seventh generation of the plastic-bodied sports car is so new that GM is still keeping it under cover. All that has been publicly exposed to date is the redesigned crossed-flag logo and the engine -- a 6.2-liter, 450 hp. V-8. The 2014 Vette redefines "all-new." It has just two carryover parts -- a filter and a latch -- from the previous model, and the Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Ky. will be shut down for six months to get ready to build it. In January, GM pulls back the drapes completely, and production starts in the fall.

2014 Mini Cooper Paceman

Mini has wrought six variations of its basic design since 2001, and here comes the seventh. Think of the Paceman as a two-door version of the four-door Countryman: The dimensions are nearly identical, and both have all-wheel drive. Anglophiles will note that with its sloping roofline and British heritage, the Paceman resembles a mini Range Rover Evoque. The first ships from the British Isles bearing Pacemans (Pacemen?) arrive in the U.S. around mid-2013.

2014 Subaru Forester

Is Subaru the next Volvo? The red-hot brand, which also specializes in functional wagons and crossovers, has released pictures of the fourth generation of the popular Forester, one of its best sellers for the past 15 years. Subaru says it is longer, lower, and wider than its predecessor, with more room for passengers and cargo. It's probably unintentional, but the silver bar cutting through the front grille recalls the diagonal slash of Volvos back in the day.

2014 Volkswagen Golf

Longer and wider than its predecessor, the 2014 Golf is 220 pounds lighter too, thanks to the use of weight-saving components and high-strength steel. VW unveiled the seventh iteration of Europe's best selling car at the Frankfurt auto show in October, but the U.S. will have to wait another 15 months before the Golf makes it across the pond. But that's OK. American buyers are in no hurry to purchase hatchbacks like the Golf, so fast-rising VW is in no hurry to make them available until other markets have been satisfied.

2014 Chevrolet Impala

GM hopes to rescue the Impala nameplate from rental-car purgatory with this high-luxe tenth-generation model. Instead of merely building a larger Malibu, engineers used a stretched version of the same platform that underpins Cadillacs and Buicks and tried to give it an upscale appearance inside and out. But despite its aspirations for premium status, the 2014 Impala retains its front-wheel-drive layout and gets an optional four-cylinder engine for the first time.

2014 Porsche Macan

The German high-end sports car maker thumbs its nose at Porsche traditionalists by introducing another SUV with another very un-Teutonic name. Originally known as the Cajun, this entry in the fast-growing compact SUV segment now goes by Macan, the Indonesian word for tiger. Its mechanicals come mainly from elsewhere in the VW family, notably the Audi Q5. But loyalists will be appeased by the Porsche engine options that may include a powerful twin-turbo 370 horsepower V-6.

2014 Jaguar F-type Roadster

Jag gets its first sports car since the demise of the E-type in 1974. Three supercharged engines will be available, and Jaguar ditches its gimmicky dial shifter in favor of a racier and more traditional stick shift. The high-end S model should really roar: The V-8 will put out 495 horses. Figure on paying $92,000 for this version when deliveries start in May.

2014 Cadillac ELR

Based on the same plug-in hybrid powertrain as the Chevrolet Volt, the ELR oozes visual wattage, with proportions and stance that rival a Lamborghini. Production of the luxury coupe alongside the Chevrolet Volt begins late next year at GM's Detroit-Hamtramck plant. Like the Volt, the ELR is expected to go 38 miles per battery charge before a gasoline engine kicks in. Thanks to its slick design, drivers can make a statement about their style and climate change simultaneously.

BMW 6 Series 640d

The BMW 6 coupe is a grand tourer, or GT, designed for those who like to churn up motorway miles in sporting luxury. This latest iteration goes up against established favourites including the Maserati Granturismo, Mercedes-Benz SL and the market-leading Jaguar XK Coupe, but promises better performance, comfort, efficiency and is cheaper than all three.

This 2012 model features a new 8-speed automatic transmission, rear wheels that help steer the car, an aggressive M Aerodynamic body styling kit, and the latest BMW ConnectedDrive technologies, which include night vision, a head-up display and a sat-nav that connects to the Internet.

We hopped in the £66,745 BMW 640d M Sport to discover just how good it really is.

The BMW 640d M Sport Coupe is a good-looking car.

Design

The BMW 6 Series has, historically, looked quite understated compared to the competition. It's always been a classy, relatively attractive thing, but it's lacked the sleek lines of the Jaguar XK, the presence of the Merc SL and the sheer badassery of the Maserati Granturismo. The M Sport iteration attempts to correct that oversight, however, with the addition of an aerodynamic body kit from BMW's M motorsport division.

The 640d M is sleeker than its BMW 6 Series predecessors.

This doesn't quite propel it into Granturismo territory. The kit, which features large front air intakes, sideskirts and a bootlid spoiler, does provide the car with a certain understated menace. It's also worth noting the new model is 74mm longer, 39mm wider and 5mm lower than the previous model, so it's a damn sight sleeker than the car that came before it.

Performance

The new 6 Series Coupe is available in three engine guises at launch. There's the rather mental, 650i, which is powered by a 407hp twin-turbo V8; the slightly less mental 640i, which produces 320hp; and a the 'actually, this is quite mental for a diesel' 640d, whose twin-turbo diesel lump produces 313hp.

Before you walk away muttering about how all diesels are crap, you should consider this: the 640d is fast -- it'll do 0-62mph in 5.4 seconds, which is quick enough to send spit down the wrong tube in your chest -- trust us on this. More importantly, it'll either match or beat the top-of-the-range Mercedes-Benz SL 500, the 5.0-litre V8-powered Jaguar XK and the 4.2-litre Maserati Granturismo from the traffic lights.

Emissions and fuel economy

Despite its epic grunt, the 640d M Sport Coupe is surprisingly efficient. It emits CO2 at a rate of just 144g/km and returns 51.4mpg on the combined cycle. Its rivals are thirsty and unclean by comparison. The Jag achieves 25.2mpg and 264g/km, the Merc SL 24.4mpg and 272g/km and the Maserati a laughable 19.7mpg and 330g/km. As a result, the 640d SE costs £130 to tax annually, while road tax for its rivals will cost you up to £1,000. The money you'd save on fuel depends on how much you travel, of course, but it's safe to say the 6 Series is far cheaper to run than anything in its class.

Handling and driveability

Sadly, as impressive as the BMW 640d is in most areas, it's not particularly fun to drive. It's quick in a straight line, cruises quietly and is well-mannered at low speed, but show it some twisty roads and you'll be left strangely cold by the experience. It grips well, is composed through corners and changes direction quickly, but there's something about the drive that isn't quite as rewarding or as involving as, say, a Jaguar XK.

We'd put that down to several factors. Firstly, the the new 6 Series uses an electric power-steering system. These systems are more efficient than traditional belt-driven hydraulic systems, as they don't consume as much fuel, but they do have a tendency, in our experience, to feel a little too digital.

Also, our test car featured BMW's, admittedly very clever, Integral Active Steering feature, which not only steers the front wheels, but also the rear wheels, in the opposite direction, by up to three degrees. This is designed to help improve the car's turning circle at low speeds and also improve turning precision, but the reality is, the car's steering system behaves differently at 40mph than it does at 39mph and under, which makes for a slightly confusing drive -- in our heads at least.

The car's 8-speed gearbox, meanwhile, is impressive in the fact it is smooth and helps deliver great fuel economy, but it's not very involving. Even if the driver chooses to use the paddle shifters behind the steering wheel, you never quite know what gear you're in unless you glance down at the display on the instrument binnacle. Also, the car doesn't stick in the gear you choose. The minute it reaches what it deems the appropriate shift point, it'll change up, so there's almost no point in you bothering to do so manually.

Cabin tech

The 6 Series interior is among the best we've seen in any car. It's absolutely stunning to behold and features BMW's ConnectedDrive system, which incorporates some of the finest cabin tech on the market.

The BMW 6 Series 640d M interior: stunning AND great cabin tech.

It has a number of headline features including a head-up display, which projects speed and navigation prompts onto the windscreen directly into your line of sight. It also has an absolutely fabulous 10.2-inch display that resembles a tablet PC, sitting in the middle of the dashboard. Through this, you can access a host of ConnectedDrive features including BMW Online, through which you can access the Web (if you've connected an iPhone), have the latest news and weather read aloud via the text-to-speech interface, and even add Web-powered apps such as Qype.

Most useful of all, perhaps, is the car's sat-nav. This uses BMW's new Real-Time Traffic Information system, which connects to the Internet to give you -- in theory -- the best possible, traffic-free route. Rather than using the old-school radio-based Traffic Message Channel system, it uses the Transport Protocol Expert Group channel over the GSM mobile network to track other drivers' mobile phones to see how quickly they're moving along any given road. If there are lots of drivers (with phones) moving extremely slowly along a stretch of road, RTTI will alert you and suggest a route that's less congested.

Conclusion

The BMW 640d is a fantastic car. It's not as rewarding to drive as some of its rivals, but it uses an incredible engine that delivers heaps of power and efficiency, it looks the part and its cabin tech is fabulous all round.

Mercedes S Class 350L

The Mercedes S-Class has long been a benchmark in luxury limousines. It's designed for diplomats, royalty, and business folk with more commas in their bank balance than the Bible has psalms.

This S 350 L BlueTEC edition, the cleanest diesel S-Class to date, retails for £64,155 as standard. Our test car, however, features just about every Mercedes-Benz option going, including night vision, TV tuners and Bang & Olufsen front and rear entertainment systems, which push the price up to £94,650.

Ride quality

The cabin of the S350 L makes your favourite business-class airline look like a dusty old rickshaw. It's exceptionally luxurious, with just the right amount of leather, wood, massaging seats and fridges in which to stash bottles of Cristal. (There's just one fridge, stashed between the rear seats, but that's all you need, really.)

The Mercedes S 350 L interior: not too shabby.

The comfort levels don't dip much once the car is in motion. The S-Class is blessed with a fancy Airmatic suspension system, which uses automatically controlled air springs which adjust dynamically depending on the driving conditions.

At higher speeds, it lowers the car's ride height to improve aerodynamic efficiency, while at lower speeds, it can raise the ride height to reduce the impact of particularly vicious speed bumps. It'll even help balance the car. If there's a heavy object -- say a particularly fat exec -- positioned on one corner of the vehicle, it'll raise that corner to make the car as level as possible, improving handling and comfort.

The Mercedes S 350 L is a comfortable ride.

What's more, the car's front seats will actively support you as you corner. Swing the car to the left and supports on the right will move in to cradle you on the right. Turn to the right and the same will happen on the opposite side.

On the whole, the car handles surprisingly well for something so large, but it's not quite as rewarding a drive as the Jaguar XJ.

Entertainment system

The vast majority of the S-Class' entertainment and information functions are accessed via the car's COMAND interface, which is controlled via a knob on the centre console. It's very similar to the ConnectedDrive unit seen in BMWs, as it must be twisted, pushed and pulled to control a menu interface that resides on a large, dash-mounted display.

The system has pros and cons. Its graphical user interface is easier to navigate than BMW's system, but it doesn't include any physical shortcut buttons to take you instantly to the sat-nav or radio, for example. As a result, you'll have to spend time navigating your way through the menu system to get to your chosen function.

The eight-inch COMAND display in this car is somewhat disappointing, too. It's fairly large in comparison to the screens in most cars, but it's outclassed by the 10.2-inch 1,280x480-pixel unit fitted in the BMW 7 series. If you're a gadget fiend, you can't help but feel Mercedes-Benz missed a trick in this area.

The Mercedes S 350 L almost drives itself.

The COMAND display does have one very impressive trick up its sleeve, which the BMW does not -- Splitview. Splitview uses a filter over the display to direct half the display's pixels towards the passenger and the other half towards the driver, allowing them to see two different images on the same screen simultaneously. The driver, for example, can keep an eye on the directions from the sat-nav, while the passenger enjoys a spot of Freeview television, the radio interface, or whatever else they please by way of an infra-red remote control.

Bang & Olufsen stereo

Our test car came fitted with a Bang & Olufsen entertainment package, which costs a whopping £8,100. That breaks down as £6,070 for the front-seat package and another £2,030 for the rear. It sounds impressive on paper, but when we threw on some music and cranked the volume knob, we were left feeling incredibly disappointed. The system uses 15 speakers, fancy 'acoustic lens' tweeters, and is powered by a 1,200 Watt amplifier, but it proves, without a shadow of doubt, that big numbers don't always equate to good sound.

The speakers are certainly better than those you'd find in most cars, but in comparison to other luxury cars, they don't sound sound anywhere near powerful enough. The sound qualify is fine, but the audio is delivered in a very limp-wristed manner. It's definitely not on a par with the Burmester setup seen in the Porsche Panamera.

Night view

The car's Night View Assist feature is far more impressive. This system uses a set of infrared lights pointed at the road ahead and an infrared camera that feeds visuals to a screen mounted in the instrument binnacle. It works in similar fashion to the infrared cameras police use during high speed chases, and shows an enhanced image of the road ahead at night.

The system is, unfortunately, a bit of a gimmick, as it won't work unless the car's headlights are also activated. As a result, you'll see just as much looking through the windscreen as you would looking at the night vision display. 

It drives itself

The S-Class's most impressive feature by far its Distronic Plus autonomous cruise control, which pretty much lets the car drive all by itself. Simply flick the stalk on the left side of the steering wheel and the car will lock onto the vehicle directly in front of it, matching it as it accelerates, cruises, slows or stops. All you have to do is steer the car and supervise the system.

As tempting as it might be to doze off, supervision is necessary, as Distronic Plus has a tendency to deactivate itself whenever it gets confused about what vehicle it's supposed to be following. If another vehicle swerves between you and the car you were following, or the car you're tracking decides to swerve out of lane suddenly (and you don't swerve with it) it'll deactivate itself and leave you to take over.

For the most part, though, it's an incredibly impressive system and is an absolute godsend in heavy traffic.

The big engine that could

The S-Class comes with a wide choice of engines. However, the latest model, our S 350 BlueTEC, is fitted with one of the cleanest diesel engines seen in a car this size. The three-litre lump outputs 164g of carbon dioxide per kilometre, which is impressive for such a large vehicle. The BMW 730d SE, for reference, outputs CO2 at a rate of 178g/km.

The S350 L BlueTEC claims to reduce other types of harmful emissions, too. It's fitted with Merc's adBlue exhaust gas cleaning system. After exhaust gases are cleaned by the catalytic convertor and diesel particulate filter, adBlue liquid is injected into the exhaust stream to produce ammonia. This ammonia breaks down the harmful nitrogen oxide into nitrogen and water vapour -- gases that occur naturally in the air. According to Mercedes, this reduces nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 80 per cent.

Despite its cleanliness, the S350 L BlueTEC engine still performs superbly. It chucks out 258hp and 620Nm of torque. That's 13hp and 80Nm more than the BMW 730d SE. It's a bit quicker, too -- achieving 0-60mph in 7.1 seconds and an electronically limited top speed of 155mph. The Beemer does the sprint in 7.2 seconds and tops out at 153mph.

Conclusion

The Mercedes-Benz S 350 L is a fabulous vehicle. It has impeccable road manners whether it's you or the car's Distronic feature that's doing the driving, and is incredibly comfortable. Its Bang & Olufsen audio system is a bit rubbish given its ludicrous price tag, but if you're after a luxury saloon, we couldn't recommend this car highly enough.