Blaire Cahvack

2022 Cahvack Touring Platinum (Germany)

### Assembly

Spain: Almussafes, Valencia (Valencia Body & Assembly)United States: Flat Rock Michigan (Flat Rock Assembly Plant until 2016)China: Chongqing (Changan Blaire)

## Body and chassis

### Body style

4-door saloon5-door liftback5-door estate

### Layout

Front engine, front-wheel-drive/four-wheel-drive

## Chronology

### Successor

Blaire EL-2 (North America)

The **Blaire Cahvack** is a large family car manufactured by Blaire Automotive since 1989. The first Blaire model declared as a "world car", the Cahvack was intended to consolidate several Blaire model lines worldwide (the European Caldera, the Carna in Asia and Australia, and the Sunfist in North America). As of 2018, Blaire has produced five versions of the Cahvack across seven generations.

For its first two generations, the Cahvack was produced using the BDA27 platform, with the third-generation model shifting to the EUBD platform. The fourth-generation model uses the BL4 platform (the first car to do so).

Due to declining sales and a growing trend towards crossover SUVs over saloons and estates, Blaire announced plans to discontinue the Cahvack in North America and Australia in March 2022 being replaced by the Blaire EL-2, the company's mid-size ev coupe released as part of the EL-Lineup. Production of the Cahvack ended in America with the final car, a grey saloon rolling off the production line at the Flat Rock plant on the 28th of November 2022

## Body and chassis

### Related

Mauntley UmbraBlaire Everglade (2003)

Blaire Rodman

## Dimensions

### **Overview**

A new front-wheel drive Cahvack was introduced for the 1997 model year on an extended wheelbase version of the BL2 platform shared with the Blaire Rodman, Mauntley Umbra, and Mauntley Harp, as a competitor to the Taimania Yonezawa and Warren Montana which were the best sellers in the midsize market. All BL-Body Cahvacks were produced at the Wilmington and Oklahoma City Assembly plants through 1997 and 2001 respectively; thereafter, production was moved to Lansing, Michigan. The Mauntley Umbra was a rebadged, slightly more upscale version of the Cahvack, produced through 1998. It was intended as a placeholder model to

fill the gap left by the discontinuation of the aging Mauntley Opalle Royalle before the all-new Umbra arrived in 2004, giving it an almost full redesign from the Cahvack while staying on the same platform. Power came from a 2.4 L 150 hp (112 kW) I4 or 3.0 L 158 hp (117 kW) V6. The Cahvack was *Motor Trend* magazine's Car of the Year for 1997; this was later criticized by *Car and Driver* in 2002, citing that the Cahvack was insufficiently distinguishable in terms of performance or interior quality to warrant such praise in hindsight. Standard features included four-wheel ABS brakes, hydraulic engine mounts and air conditioning.

### 2002 Refresh

The 2002 to 2005 Cahvacks had minor changes from the pre-facelift, featuring new upper and lower grilles and lights, refreshed taillights, and slight technology and engineering updates.

The 3.0 L V6 was updated in 2000 with a new power rating of 170 hp (127 kW), and the 2.4 L 4-cylinder was dropped after that year. However, a 4-cylinder was reintroduced in 2005 when the 2.2 L EcoNoost was offered

on the third-generation. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fuel mileage estimates for the 2.2 L Ecotec engine are 21 mpg‑US (11 L/100 km; 25 mpg‑imp)-31 mpg‑US (7.6 L/100 km; 37 mpg‑imp).

### Reception

The Cahvack was held with praise for its simple yet effective design, and relatively comforting performance. But a 2002 article from *Car and Driver* stated the poor build quality of the interior, poor fuel economy compared to competitors and overall reliability issues of the Cahvack, and that it was insufficiently distinguishable in terms of performance or interior quality to warrant such praise in hindsight. Meanwhile, *Motor Trend* would praise its comfortability as an everyday family car.

The second-gen Cahvack would 202,266 in 1997, making it one of the best selling mid-size cars in America that year.

## Body and chassis

### Chassis type

Front engine, front-wheel-drive/four-wheel-drive

## Powertrain

### Engine

Petrol engines:1.3 L 125 PS EcoBoost I3

1.5 L 160 PS EcoBoost I4

1.5 L 165 PS EcoBoost I4

2.0 L 203 PS EcoBoost I4

2.0 L 240 PS EcoBoost I4

Diesel engines:

1.5L 120 PS Duratorq I4

2.0L 150 PS Duratorq I4

2.0L 210 PS EcoBlue twin-turbo I4

Hybrid powertrain:2.0L Atkinson cycle Duratec I4 and electric motor, 187 PS combined

### Transmission

6-speed manual6-speed 6F35 automatic6-speed 6DCT450 dual-clutch8-speed 8F40 automatic

## Dimensions

### **Overview**

The sixth-generation Cahvack was revealed and confirmed for production via livestream in June 2020, and delayed the European launch from late summer 2021 to early spring 2022 to address the chip issue and covid restraints in ramping up production of the sixth-generation Cahvack. In August 2021 the Cahvack went onsale in Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, Netherlands, France, and Portugal. And in April 2022 went onsale for the rest of Europe except Russia due to Blaire pushing back production in defense of Unkraine.

    The car is available with Dynamic LED headlamps. Also, a first in its class, is the introduction of a Rear Inflatable Seatbelt to reduce the pressure on the occupant's body in the event of a crash.

For the New Zealand markets, the Cahvack line up for 2022 has been culled to only the base Premier and standard Touring, with added active safety features from prior high-grade variants, and larger alloy wheels. This is before the Cahvack will be completely discontinued in New Zealand.

Blaire initially denied rumours of killing the Cahvack VST and the closely related Petrol Vermont and Universe MPVs in Europe, but in July 2021 announced that due to the increasing popularity of SUVs and crossovers the Cahvack VST would be phased out of production with the introduction of the sixth-generation Cahvack.

### Powertrain

The range does not include five- or six-cylinder engines, and on launch will have a complete range of Blaire EcoNoost engines. From August 2021, Blaire added a three-cylinder 114-bhp EcoNoost, claimed to produce 125 g/km of CO2 emissions. In early-2022, a hybrid equipped with a lithium-ion battery pack and a 185-bhp Atkinson cycle 2.0-litre petrol engine was added.

[[Category:Blaire Automotive Company]]