Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Concept802 Range Rover Sport Platinum R Wide Body Kit New Images

Body kit re-styles the Range Rover Sport with a new set of wheels and finely-designed body panels

Concept802 describe themselves as a "dynamic styling company" and founder Barry Graham has kindly sent us the following live images of the Range Rover Sport Platinum R wide body kit in the flesh without "computer enhancements" this time.

The styling graces that Concept802 offer with this wide-arch kit includes new front and rear bumpers, side skirts, a new front grille, and a carbon fiber rear diffuser housing Concept802-designed exhaust tips for the Range Rover Sport.

Concept802 also fits the Range Rover Sport with their own set of wheels - 3-piece forged alloy V2 wheels in a multi-spoked and "deep dish" design. Customers have a wide selection of sizes to choose from too, with rims starting at 19-inches and going up to quite a muscular 24.

And what can we expect next?

Well, Concept802 is working on their own re-imagining of the Lamborgini Murciealago and the Porsche Cayenne. They will also have their take on Aston Martin models sometime in the future too.

Audi sales boss rules out A1 for the U.S.

Peter Schwarzenbauer says the brand isn't well established enough in the US to support sales of small cars

Audi's sales boss says the brand isn't well established enough in the US to support sales of small cars.

Peter Schwarzenbauer, responsible for global sales and marketing at Audi, also ruled out bringing the upcoming A1 to the US market for that same reason.

Audi has spent the better part of the last 15 years successfully building its brand to compete against its chief rivals, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. But Schwarzenbauer doesn't believe the brand can easily go down market in the US like the 3 German premium brands have done in Europe. Over the last decade, those automakers have introduced smaller models such as the Mercedes A and B Class, the BMW 1-series and Audi with the A1, A2 (discontinued) and A3 models. Schwarzenbauer also ruled out a sub-brand like BMW has with MINI and Mercedes has with Smart.

Automotive News has previously reported that Audi dealers were initially keen on the A1 until they found out the car would come with a price tag of 25,000 US dollars, while they were thinking more along the lines of an 18,000 dollar starting price.

Of course, given current exchange rates, it is simply not viable to sell small, European-produced cars in the US. And the US consumer is still resistant to paying a lot for small vehicles.

Apparently, Schwarzenbauer thinks so too.

"...if you look at the real numbers [MINI and Smart sales in the US], it's not huge volumes. I'm not so sure yet we really see a trend to small cars in the United States," Schwarzenbauer told Automotive News.

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