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Weekly Recap: Ferrari, Ford and Porsche power up for Geneva

Monday was Groundhog Day. Tuesday, apparently, was Sports Car Day. The Ferrari 488 GTB, the Ford Focus RS and the Porsche Cayman GT4 all debuted within hours of each other ahead of their rollouts at the Geneva Motor Show. Three sporty machines, three vastly different approaches – and a lot of implications for enthusiasts. That's a day worth repeating. It also illustrates the opportunities automakers see in the performance market, which is expected to grow in the coming years. Ford estimates the segment has expanded 14 percent in Europe and surged 70 percent in North America since 2009. The Detroit Auto Show was evidence of this, and performance cars of every stripe debuted, including the Acura NSX, Ford GT, Alfa Romeo 4C Spider and several others. This isn't a fad. Performance cars aren't going away. The question is why? Stricter CAFE standards are looming in the United States, as are tighter emissions regulations in Europe. And no one expects gas prices to remain low in America. None of this matters for sports cars, and automakers are increasingly using them to elevate their images. That's why Dodge rolled out two 707-horsepower Hellcats last year. It's why Ford has decided to resurrect the GT for road and track. It's why in the depths of bankruptcy, General Motors continued work on the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, not to mention the Z06. "Great brands are made one car at a time," Ford of Europe president Jim Farley said at the reveal of the Focus RS. Still, companies make those cars for different reasons. View 5 Photos Mainstream brands like Ford and Dodge want to build cars that get people talking, excite their bases and drive more potential customers into the showroom. They probably don't buy a Focus RS or a Hellcat, but suddenly the regular Focus hatch looks a bit hotter, and that V6 Charger seems to be just a touch more muscular. The halo of performance is alive and well in the eyes of automakers and their customers. "It's one of the most effective catalysts for ingenuity and innovation," said Joe Bakaj, vice president of product development for Ford of Europe. That also leads to a trickle-down effect. Some of the technologies inevitably make their way to other products. It's hard to think the new all-wheel-drive system in the Focus RS that distributes torque front to rear and side to side won't be used in other vehicles. It's different for Ferrari and Porsche.

Infiniti brand will finally make its debut in Japan, but not the name

Nissan left the automotive media scratching its collective head when it announced that its Infiniti luxury brand would be renaming all of its vehicles, with cars wearing the Q designation and CUVs/SUVs wearing the QX badge. So the G Sedan became the Q50, and the G Coupe became the Q60. The QX56, meanwhile, became the QX80, and the FX crossover became the QX70. It is still thoroughly confusing nearly a year later.
Not content to confuse its US customers alone, Nissan will be fiddling with the name of one of its most revered Japanese-market models - the Skyline. Rebadged for the US as the Q50, and before that as the G Sedan/Coupe, the new Skyline will wear an Infiniti badge. What makes this truly confusing, though, is that the car won't be called the Infiniti Skyline, despite its badging. It won't even be called the Nissan Skyline, anymore. It's now just the Skyline. Apparently, Nissan thinks it can capitalize on the Skyline's link to the Japanese royal family (the Skyline was originally a product of Prince Motors, which provided vehicles for the Emperor and his family), by ditching any brand names and referring to it as its own model, according to Automotive News.
Now, confusion aside, there are things about Infiniti badging in Japan that make sense. Badging all the Nissans that eventually become Infinitis as Infinitis in the first place goes a long way to make the brand seem separate and distinct from its parent company. Speaking to AN, Infiniti's executive vice president of global product planning, Andy Palmer, puts it this way, "We have to treat Infiniti, if you will, in the same [way] that Volkswagen treats Audi. It's not a Nissan-plus. Infiniti has to stand head-to-head with any of those German competitors."

'Charge lock' on Nissan Leaf doesn't actually prevent cable theft

Is it a feature or a bug? According to AutoblogGreen reader Francois Viau, the locking mechanism that holds the 110V trickle charge cable to his Nissan Leaf is too weak, and that's a problem. That's because while he thought the cable was locked to his car during a charge session at work, someone stole the cable, and it cost him $2,200 to replace it (in Canadian dollars, from the Nissan dealer). To see just how easy it is to unlock the mechanism, Viau had a "small assistant" jimmy it open with a plastic comb on video (watch it below). "The charge lock feature on Nissan Leaf is not intended to prevent theft of the charging cordset." – Brian Brockman We wondered if this was a common problem and, through the magic of Facebook, we had AutoblogGreen reader Phil Tipper try it out on his 2013 SL Leaf. He said he used an insulated handle flat screwdriver and was not able to defeat the lock. "I admit that I didn't want to force the mechanism for fear of breaking it, it didn't look like that kid used much force at all," he said. "Maybe this guy's mechanism was damaged in the theft and now it's very easy to trip the lock out of the way." Fifty percent of a sample size of two isn't a reliable metric, but if you're worried about locking your cable in place, you can see some of Viau's anti-theft solutions here (in French, with pictures). Turns out, though, that the white plastic bit that prevents the cable handle from working during a charge isn't really an anti-theft device. Brian Brockman, senior manager of corporate communications for Nissan North America, told AutoblogGreen that, "The charge lock feature on Nissan Leaf is not intended to prevent theft of the charging cordset. It is designed to discourage someone from unplugging the vehicle while a charging session is in progress. The trickle charge cable features a small hole in the release button to allow the owner to insert a lock to reduce the chance of theft." So, now you know. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.