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2010-11-07T01:09:00.001-07:00

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Driving The World’s Cheapest Car: The 2011 Tata Nano CX

2010-08-07T20:25:00.000-07:00

Is North America Ready For A $2,500 Car?

People love the idea of super-cheap transportation. Two generations ago, Volkswagen captured the world's attention with the Beetle (known originally as “the people's car), but when people finally drove it they realized it was more than just a cheap car. It was inexpensive, yes, but entirely fun to drive.
India’s Tata Motors picked up on the people’s car idea several years ago. Motorbikes and pedal bikes are the go-to transportation options for millions in India, which presented an opportunity. But with the average price of a new car in the U.S. hovering around $30,000, an inconceivable sum in the developing world, Tata would have to do something very different -- the tiny Nano was the result. It's currently on sale in India at a cost in rupees of about $2,500. That sound you hear is over a billion people cheering because they can now envision themselves owning transportation they don't have to pedal.
The pint-sized sedan wowed crowds at its New Delhi introduction in 2008. Tata is already exporting the Nano throughout the developing world, and speculation swirled that the company would eventually target the U.S. after the car was put on display at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show.

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More Consumers Haggle Over New Car Prices

2010-08-07T20:19:00.000-07:00

A study shows that more and more people are haggling with dealers on the price of their next cars

What Are You Missing?

More car buyers are haggling over the price of their new car than at any point in recent history, according to new data compiled by CNW Research of Bandon, Oregon. Across the three main purchase paths –- cash, financing and leasing -- haggling has been on a steady rise over the last 15 years. Over 44 percent of all new car buyers are now negotiating their price against the dealer’s initial offer.
Data for the first half of 2010 showed similar numbers to years past: Those who buy with cash are in a much stronger position to negotiate. Some 66.1 percent of cash buyers now haggle, an all-time high, compared to 17.8 percent for those who lease. Consumers who finance are now haggling 48.2 percent of the time, also an all-time high.
CNW President Art Spinella told AOL Autos that the rise in haggling isn’t so much a result of more combative sales environment, but rather a savvier, informed shopper.
“Consumers have more information now than ever before,” said Spinella. “Through the internet, they have the ability to see things like invoice pricing that were previously unavailable to them.”
Spinella also noted that the rise in social media played a significant role in the increase in price haggling.
“Internet social media is incredibly important as people share what they paid for something more willingly than before,” said Spinella. “Their friends see that price then say to the salesman ‘My friend paid this price for that car.’”
The study was compiled through a combination of in-store surveys, observations at car dealerships and post purchase surveys, all of which centered on a common theme: Did the car buyer, upon receiving a price offer from the salesman, counteroffer with a different, lower price? If they did, Spinella said, that constituted haggling.

The Car Dealers

Car dealerships have noticed the rise in consumer negotiating and attribute it to the wide availability of information on the Internet as well. Free price quotes along with the transparency of invoice pricing and the ability of consumers to obtain financing quotes from institutions beyond the dealer has made for a much more prepared car shopper.
John Nelson, the Pre-Owned Operations Manager of Mercedes-Benz of Hoffman Estates, near Chicago, said that he was not surprised by the statistics. “You have a more educated buyer [in showrooms] today. With the amount of information available, there’s no more feeling of being in the dark,” he said.
That education on the part of the customer translates into a more aggressive car buyer, according to Nelson. But this does not necessarily mean that the process has become any more hostile. In fact, in many ways, car dealers have found negotiation has become an easier, tamer process for sellers and buyers alike.
“It makes for a much less stressful sale,” Nelson said. “The transparency is good, as it makes for much less of a fight. People don’t come in anymore and demand $10,000 off the price of a car. They are more realistic because they know what the car should cost.”
Nelson said that because the educated shopper has an idea already in their mind of what they want to pay, it has become a much easier process for the salesman and the consumer to agree upon a price.

How To Haggle Wisely

Click here to get great no-haggle pricing with AOL Autos' Best Deal Program

Fortunately, haggling isn’t a psychological game of cat and mouse with the guy in the plaid suit. It’s more about homework than anything else. Michael Royce, a former car salesman and consumer advocate at his beatthecarsalesman.com, told AOL Autos that knowing a few key things can put you in a position to be an expert negotiator without even realizing it.
“Information has always been available, just much harder to find and you had to pay for it. Companies like Kelly Blue Book and Edmunds as well as others published guides you could buy that would give you invoice prices. Now that information is free on the Internet. The websites tell you how to do it.”

Click to get free local dealer price quotes and negotiate for a great deal

Royce said that, counting the invoice price, there are three pieces of information that car buyers should always have prepared before they even think about setting foot inside of a dealer showroom, which makes negotiating a breeze and can put you at a huge advantage in the car buying process.
“Handling your financing separately, having the invoice price, and having a price quote are the three most important arms a consumer can have,” Royce said.
By handling one’s financing separately you will get a better deal as the quote will be void of any “padding” that the dealers like to add on, such as extended warranties. Thus, as you will already have a lower financing rate in your hand, Royce said, the dealer will be pressed to beat it when the time comes during the negotiation.
You can obtain financing quotes from your local bank or credit union or for free online by using sites such as car.com.
Obtaining the invoice price of the vehicle that you want to buy is of the utmost importance, Royce said. By doing so, you know how much the dealer stands to make on the markup of the car. You can then decide how much profit you are willing to let the dealer have by starting at the invoice price and negotiating up, instead of the other way around. Doing so will put you in a much better position to get the deal you are looking for.
Many sites these days will provide you with a vehicle’s invoice price free of charge and with relative ease. The new car pages within AOL Autos, for instance, provides this information on every kind of new vehicle currently available.
Finally, getting a price quote from other local dealers should be the third weapon in your car-shopping arsenal, Royce says. By having an idea of what other dealers want to charge for the vehicle you are looking at, you can pit them against one another. As the dealers duke it out for your business, you can sit back and watch your purchase price drop.

Ads On License Plates Could Be Trend of the Future

2010-08-07T20:13:00.000-07:00

But Is It A Good Idea? No

In the not-too-distant future, your choice of license plates could generate some serious cash.
California, land of vanity license plates and stadium-sized advertising billboards, is exploring combining elements of both in a new scheme to use digital license plates that deliver advertising. It’s one state senator’s idea to help plug the state’s $19 billion budget deficit and could, he tells AOL Autos, result in payments to motorists who choose to use the plates.
“We’re looking at all kinds of revenue raising,” said California Senator Curren Price, a Democrat from Los Angeles. “It’s a possibility for motorists to receive payment for carrying the plates.”
The general idea is similar to widely available vanity plates: A motorist would choose to pay extra -- a figure yet undetermined -- to the state department of motor vehicles to get a digital license plate that, when the car is stopped, would flip from a standard plate display to run advertising similar to those delivered through your TV or computer. It could also be used to generate Amber Alerts or traffic information.
Price’s bill, to form a study group to examine the digital strategy, passed the California Senate in a unanimous vote and awaits a floor vote in the legislature. The costs of the study would be paid by the state’s private-sector partners in the project.

But what motorist wants their car to display ads for, say, Viagra or the latest in weight-loss surgery? And what does the California Highway Patrol think of plates that don’t always display a motorist’s license number?
“The DMV would have responsibility [for administering the plates] as they do now with vanity plates currently available to the public,” Price said. “It would be voluntary -- you’d have to opt in to have it. Messages or infomercials would be pre-approved. It’s not going to be like the Wild West of advertising.”
The plates are essentially pre-programmed screens similar to those in elevators or information-access points. When a car is moving, its rear plate would show a pixelated display of the car’s standard license plate, but if the car stops for more than three or four seconds, it would revert to advertising. Price suggests it would also switch to a standard plate if the car came within a certain distance of a police cruiser, a change effected by sensors in the license plate and in the cruiser.
The plate could also be used to display private messages from the driver -- again, we ask is this really a good idea? -- or to show allegiance to a sports team or college alma mater. The technology, Price says, is currently “in development.” Under the bill, the DMV would be required to present its study findings to the state by 2013.
Concerns expressed in the wake of Price’s announcement include the vulnerability of the system to computer hackers who may seek to hijack another’s display or change their own to disguise their identity (to say nothing of the plate’s ability to withstand a rear-end collision). Any system where commission from advertisers is split between the motorist and the state would also come under heavy scrutiny from state, and possibly federal, regulators.
Price said the plates won’t be a distraction to other drivers as the adverts will only roll when the car is at a standstill. He said he has had encouraging discussions with state agencies and the CHP about the system (the CHP says it doesn’t comment on pending legislation), which would be developed in partnership with several small technology start-ups based in Northern California.
“We’re trying to look outside the box in partnership with Silicon Valley, harvesting the entrepreneurial spirit and new, innovative and creative technologies.”
Price says the state of Florida is studying a prototype of a similar system and he has received inquiries about his idea from as far away as England and Australia.
Unfortunately for Price, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently said he would veto the digital-plate bill if it passed the state legislature and landed on his desk. But Price remains positive that his idea will be realized.
“I’m not going to start a tit-for-tat with the governor, but I think he was more focused on the fact that the budget hasn’t been passed. We’ve had positive discussions with those in his office,” said Price.
Russ Radar at the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety says the agency has not studied the issue of digital plates but offers his own wry assessment: “There's so much advertising clutter, it's hard to imagine people paying all that much attention. Besides, drivers are likely too busy with cell phone calls and texting to notice more advertising on a license plate.”

Top Safety Picks 2010 from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
LARGE CARS Buick LaCrosse Ford Taurus Hyundai Genesis (built after 1/2010) Lincoln MKS Mercedes E class (built after 1/2010) Volvo S80 SMALL CARS Honda Civic (4-door (except Si) with optional ESC) Kia Forte (built after 10/2009) Kia Soul Nissan Cube Scion xB Subaru Impreza (except WRX) Toyota Corolla VW Golf (4-door)	MIDSIZE CARS Audi A3 Chevrolet Malibu (built after 11/2009) Chrysler Sebring (4-door w/optional ESC) Dodge Avenger (with optional ESC) Hyundai Sonata (2011 models) Mercedes C class Subaru Legacy Subaru Outback Volkswagen Jetta (sedan) Volkswagen Passat (sedan) Volvo C

Can Toyota Be Fixed?

2010-08-07T19:58:00.000-07:00

Toyota Motor Manufacturing, San Antonio, Texas (Toyota).

Carmaker’s Problems Are Larger Than Recalls

Before Toyota became faced with recalls of more than eight million vehicles that have now extended into both its Toyota and Lexus brands, and before it faced a series of sweat-inducing Congressional hearings about its corporate ethics, the company was facing fundamental problems typical of companies trying to grow fast and dominate world markets.  
Looking back a few years, Toyota seemed like a juggernaut, poised to take over the spot as world's largest automaker from General Motors. But to some, the company looked like a plane that was climbing in altitude by dumping fuel in order to lessen its weight. From the ground, it just looks like the plane is ascending higher and higher, but at what cost?

Growing Pains

Toyota did eventually pass GM for worldwide sales in 2008, though according to former and current executives, it wasn’t without a price: Toyota's once relentless focus on quality that would have engineers investigating the slightest niggles and hiccups when they were reported through dealers, its acute attention to consumer desires in design and vehicle packaging, and a certain institutional humility that made Toyota executives some of the best listeners in the industry as it rose from mediocre in the 1960s to industry masters in the 1990s.
One of the signs that Toyota was not the Toyota of old came in a report in 2009 from Merrill Lynch. In the firm's annual "Car Wars" report, it pointed out that the Toyota rate of new-model replacement had fallen behind the industry's average in North America. Because of that, the report said, Toyota could only be expected to gain a single point of market share between 2009 and 2013. Hyundai, Ford and Honda, on the other hand, were set up to gain three full points of share. That report, updated in 2010, now projects Toyota to lose a half-point of market share between 2010 and 2013. With the steady flow of recall news only abated by the BP oil spill’s headline-grabbing horror, Toyota's market share in the U.S. has fallen from 16 percent last year to 15.1 percent through June.

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Toyota is now is dealing aggressively with the assaults on its reputation. It recently led a group of journalists, including those from the U.S., through its safety technology and innovations near its headquarters in Japan, and made President Akio Toyoda available for questions. It has been supplying a growing amount of "Toyota Safety" content for the Internet, this designed so its own safety-related content appears as high as possible on Google searches for terms like "Toyota Safety" or "Toyota Recall."  
Unintended acceleration, the issue that has prompted most of Toyota's recent recalls, is probably the toughest problem to deal with for an automaker. Evidence of an engineering problem is scant or non-existent. History shows that unintended acceleration is typically caused by drivers pushing down on the accelerator when they think it's the brake. To make matters worse, the vast majority of cases involve women over the age 50, a tough constituency to blame.  
But two especially damaging aspects of Toyota's culture have come to light in the last six months, as reams of internal documents have been handed over to government investigators and trial lawyers. At least two American executives are known to have forcefully told their Japanese masters that the company was not responding to warning signs of falling quality and consumer complaints: Former Toyota Motor Sales President James Press warned a group of high ranking company officials in a presentation in Japan in 2006, and former communications chief Irv Miller warned his superiors in 2009. The impression has been left with media, lawmakers, bloggers and other influencers tracking the story that Japanese executives, prioritizing Toyota's image for quality, were blowing off and otherwise marginalizing the opinions of American executives. When faced with mounting recall problems starting in 2005, Toyota responded by upping its lobbying budget and hiring NHTSA officials to its payroll instead of digging in to what was causing the increased recalls.  
At the recent press program run in Toyota City, Japan, Akio Toyoda, as expressed in a corporate blog, "stressed that the company needed to take a step back and rethink how to make the customers’ voice our number one priority, and then develop products that emerge directly from that deep understanding. He believes this is the only way to truly regain the confidence of our customers."  
Press, who left Toyota in 2007 to go to Chrysler, has said in recent months that Toyota's culture, prior to Toyoda taking control last year, was corrupted by executive leaders more driven by purchasing efficiency than by quality and design. He was referring specifically to Toyoda's predecessors Katsuaki Watanabe and Fujio Cho. It was under the leadership of those two presidents that Toyota's chase for a number-one market share in the world took place, and the number of safety and quality recalls mounted.
Beyond salvaging its reputation amidst the recalls and ethics charges that the company systematically or negligently hid complaints of quality and safety problems, charges it rigorously denies, Toyota has to re-emphasize quality and sensible product development inside its ranks if it hopes to raise its market share in the U.S. and get its profitability back on track..

A Litany Of Issues

While the Lexus lineup continues to lead luxury brands and shows little sign of giving way to its German or American competitors, the Toyota and Scion brands seem riddled with issues.  

The Camry sedan, while still the best selling car in America, will be redesigned for 2012. The current model has a deficient interior, though it appears that its staunch loyalists didn't notice to the degree pundits did. The new Camry was designed amidst the company's worst period for recalls and culture breakdown. It will be scrutinized like no other Toyota when it is released.
The old reliable Corolla has become one of the most disappointing cars to drive in the subcompact segment. An all-new Ford Focus designed to higher European standards, a new Volkswagen Jetta priced lower than ever before, and GM’s Chevy Cruze, all are being hailed as excellent vehicles and good values by the media, and will severely pressure Corolla's image and sales.  
The Tundra full-size truck has been a bust. Sure, industry sales tanked and the pickup market sank just when Toyota launched what it thought would be a broadside into Detroit's hold on the market. Quality ratings are high, but sales are soft for the largest vehicle Toyota has ever built. It has been a blow to Toyota's reputation and sales momentum. The Yaris subcompact, Toyota’s smallest vehicle, is an also-ran in its segment comparing unfavorably to similar cars from Honda, Nissan, and Ford.  
The Scion brand, though it started out with great promise, has veered off course. Sales have sank, and its product design strategy is confused and misdirected at best. Speaking of strategic failings, Toyota Sequoia and 4Runner SUVs lag behind Detroit's offerings in almost every category -- ride, fuel economy, handling and design. 

Still Number One

For all the issues Toyota faces, there are still many bright spots. It continues to make a first class minivan, the Sienna, and the Prius hybrid is the juggernaut of the green vehicle movement.  
But Toyota's hybrid strategy going forward presents a lot of questions. The Prius has been wildly successful. But other hybrid attempts like the Camry and Highlander hybrid, and Lexus hybrids have been duds, leaving both consumers and the media scratching their heads about why they should bother paying big premiums over traditional gas-powered cars for relatively modest fuel economy gains.  

Click to see exclusive news coverage, videos, photos and much more on the 2010 Toyota Recall

Toyota has long subscribed to a philosophy called "genchi genbutsu”, which roughly translates into “go and see where work is done in order to gain fuller understanding.” It is clear from Akio Toyoda's own words the last few months as well as those by long-time Toyota veterans like Jim Press, that that cultural mantra inside Toyota lived on paper more than in the hearts of employees the last five to ten years.  
But more than spending time in the U.S to find out whether drivers are pressing the wrong pedal in the car, Toyoda, whose family founded the company, should probably spend a great deal more time finding out what is going on in his own design and technical centers. How does the Sienna minivan come out so right, for example, but Camry interiors and Corolla steering and handling come out so wrong? How did managers and product planners let the original Scion business strategy get so far off the tracks, going from cool, bold and edgy designs to ones that are more mainstream and dull.  
The big challenge for Toyota, especially in the U.S., is that its leadership, which has turned over a great deal in the last five years, has not known adversity until now. Ford's global head of marketing James Farley, who worked at Toyota for more than 20 years, told a group of reporters in 2008 that, "Working at Toyota was a bit like playing at a casino where everybody wins." He was referring to Toyota’s tremendous profitability in the last decade, topping $10 billion a year in some years, covering up a lot of mis-steps by managers.  
With General Motors and Chrysler having faced bankruptcy last year, it should be time for Toyota to thrive and grow in the U.S. But it appears instead that the automaker that was synonymous with quality for nearly three decades will be spending more time convincing consumers in the U.S. that it isn't actually a part of the American auto industry that ran off the road in 2009.

Don’t Buy These At Full Price, Ever

2010-08-07T19:52:00.000-07:00

The Most Overpriced Vehicles

It might seem a no-brainer that a list of the most overpriced vehicles would include the $1,990,000 Bugatti Veyron. Or perhaps even a $443,000 Rolls-Royce Drophead Coupe? But it doesn't. Truth is, they're not exactly the sorts of vehicles buyers would ever call overpriced, because that's part of the allure. To most of the people who buy these vehicles, they're worth every dollar in image and exclusivity.
Of course the market can be fickle, and a higher price and a luxury badge doesn’t always assure success. For instance, while demand has been surprisingly strong for the ungainly BMW X6 -- not quite a swoopy fastback sedan, not quite an SUV -- the similarly conceived Acura ZDX has languished on lots and even with substantial discounts isn't selling well. The ZDX made our list of most overpriced vehicles.
Being overpriced isn’t just the province of expensive cars. For many months, Chevrolet has had to sweeten its Aveo subcompact (base MSRP: $11,965) with incentives just to keep them moving off lots quickly enough. Currently, the Aveo gets $2,500 in factory incentives, while one comparably sized rival model, the $14,900 Honda Fit, remains a strong-seller and hasn't needed incentives at all. So the Aveo is at once one of the cheapest cars on the market and simply overpriced.
But before we get to the rest of our list, let’s examine how vehicles come to be overpriced.
It's A Matter Of Supply And Demand
Without making this overly complicated, pricing for cars is based in part around supply and demand, just like every other consumer product. If a car sits on the dealership lot, depreciates rapidly after the sale, or offers a questionable value for the money, it might be overpriced. Properly priced cars need fewer incentives, fewer discounts, and display less price fluctuation.
So what causes demand to drop? Lots of things. For example, the construction industry has collapsed in the U.S., and this has taken a significant chunk of the full-size pickup market with it. As SUVs have become less popular and less fashionable, automakers have cut models and increased features while holding the line on pricing. Even so, full-size SUV’s are still priced higher than what people are willing to pay.
“These are in some respects the true overpriced vehicles,” said George Magliano, director of automotive research for IHS Global Insight.

In Pictures: Top 10 Overpriced Cars

Hesitation To Buy, Hesitation To Lower Prices
The weak economy has been creating considerable uncertainty among buyers, with a resultant effect on auto sales. A lot of it has to do with consumer confidence, said Jack Nerad, executive editorial director for Kelley Blue Book. There's a lot of worry around payments, he explained. “People are asking, ‘Should I be taking on a big new piece of debt right now?’”
Jeff Bartlett, deputy editor, online, at Consumer Reports said that incentives up to $1,000 have become expected in today's market, and they won't adversely affect value in the long run. But with many of the domestic full-size truck models, incentives have become such a significant part of pricing strategy that their used values take a much steeper plunge than just a few years ago. And that creates downsides in leasing, so manufacturers end up having to artificially boost values with captive finance companies.
“I don't think a lot of automakers can keep going for much longer” with this level of incentives, said Nerad, and while it's kept cars moving off dealer lots, it wears on automakers' bottom lines.
Considering the welfare state the auto industry has become recently, prices can’t move much lower for many companies. Automakers could pull back on incentives and make supply even tighter if they wanted to, said Magliano, who predicted that incentives will be expanded even more this year. “This is an ingrained marketing tool, and the customer has become used to these things, to not paying sticker. But this is not the time to wean the consumer off incentives,” he said.
Strategies To Add Value
Instead of lowering prices, Bartlett suggested that a less expensive entry trim level could get people in the door. Another strategy would be to ratchet up standard equipment, such as safety features. Bartlett said that successful cars will address elements that matter to car shoppers -- and increasingly that's including connectivity features such as iPod and Bluetooth interfaces, as well as an impressive roster of safety equipment. It used to be buyers primarily wanted performance, style, and creature comforts. Now there's a shift from indulgent to pragmatic, with an emphasis on fuel economy, safety, quality, reliability, and pricing.
"Based on surveys in recent months, value is playing a very prominent role. Shoppers are looking more closely at what they get for the money," Bartlett said.
Which brings us to our list. These are vehicles that by our objective analysis have suggested retail prices that are just too high. This means that if you’re interested in any of these models, you should not even think about paying sticker price.
In order to compile the list, we looked at market pricing figures from Vincentric, an automotive data analysis firm, to calculate how much each vehicle is being discounted from MSRP, then we looked at days in inventory for sustained high inventories -- a sign that vehicles are sitting unsold, with low demand. Finally, we consulted Automotive Lease Guide's Depreciation Ratings. ALG takes into account many factors pertaining to the brand and the vehicle to help estimate what it might be worth at trade-in time. So, for instance, a vehicle that doesn't hold its value well might be overpriced. Throughout this process, we avoided models that are being discontinued or are being replaced.
Here Are Our Picks Of Ten Of The Most Overpriced Vehicles:

Behind The Scenes At Toyota's Safety Briefing

2010-08-07T19:48:00.000-07:00

Beleaguered Automaker Hopes To End Recall Hysteria

Six months after Toyota president and CEO Akio Toyoda went before a U.S. congressional committee to answer questions about his company's response to allegations of covering up defects that led to unintended acceleration, we paid a visit to Toyota's headquarters in Japan to see what the company has been doing about it.

Tarnished Reputation

Over the past year, Toyota has experienced the painful lesson that while it can take decades to nurture a positive reputation, this can be destroyed overnight. Despite some stumbles over the past decade, like sludge problems in some of its engines and broken camshafts in early-build 2008 Tundras, Toyota managed to retain its standing for building some of the highest quality, most reliable cars on the market.
However, beginning in late 2009, Toyota was stung with a series of recalls that shook consumer confidence to the core. The death of a California police officer and his family in a Lexus captured the attention of the mainstream media when it was reported that the crash was the result of sudden unintended acceleration. You know the rest of the story, which we’ve been covering for months. Yet even after agreeing to pay a $16 million federal fine, Toyota still hasn’t seemed to be able to shake the recall bug.
After spending the first half of 2010 propping up sales through incentive spending, Toyota is now actively trying to rehabilitate its image. Early on in the crisis, the company began running television and print ads targeted at convincing consumers that it was recommitting to its quality philosophy. Obviously a 30-second TV spot can't get into much detail on exactly how that will be achieved.

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To help get a more nuanced message across, Toyota invited a group of American media to its Japanese headquarters for a quality and safety seminar. We were given unprecedented -- for Toyota at least -- tours of its test facilities. Over the course of our visit more than a dozen managers and executives spoke about Toyota's product development and quality assurance processes and how they were being modified in order prevent a recurrence of the problems that have occurred in the past year.
After three days of listening to Toyota managers and executives discuss how they plan to recover from this year's recall crisis, we've got two major takeaways. First, Toyota has come to the realization that its engineers don't know everything about how customers use its products. The automaker is thus working on improving the ways it listens to customers and incorporates feedback into its testing regimen. The second is that Toyota will be renewing its commitment to quality. To a large extent this means learning how to implement lesson one about listening, but it also means some key structural changes.

Problem Solved?

The first concrete implementation of the automaker's new voice of the customer strategy was the establishment in April of its Swift Market Analysis Response Teams (SMART). Product engineers, field technical specialists and specially trained technicians were assigned to SMART and tasked with following up on all customer complaints of "unintended acceleration."
Since being established, the teams have investigated over 3,600 complaints from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) defect-reporting database. According to Toyota, none of the cases have shown any actual evidence of acceleration that was attributable to causes other than the floor mats or the sticking accelerator pedal that has already been recalled.
What the teams did discover is that there is insufficient granularity in the NHTSA categories. Unintended acceleration is lumped into the "speed control" category along with countless other problems including rough transmission shifts, complaints about the rate of acceleration (both too fast and too slow) in cruise control, and throttle response. Out of these thousands of complaints only a few hundred were actually specific to the car taking off unexpectedly, said Toyota.
While this sounds like Toyota is still denying the extent of the unintended problem, the automaker insists that this is not the case. In the future Toyota plans to continue monitoring and investigating all complaints coming in to the NHTSA database promptly, and then incorporating real issues into future product robustness testing. This is a marked change from the past, when Toyota has mainly relied on reports from dealers and warranty claims to become aware of such complaints.

The Floor Mat Conundrum

Over the past three decades, Toyota has grown to become one of largest and most profitable automakers in the world. Having access to all that cash means that Toyota has among the most modern and extensive test facilities in the industry. Unfortunately, as the events of recent months have shown, a tool is only as good as the operator. Having the ability to test cars won't take an engineer far if he doesn't understand what to evaluate.

A prime example Toyota offered is its floor mats. Toyota developed all-weather floor mats meant to be sold by its dealers as an aftermarket accessory. Apparently it never occurred to anyone that customers and dealers would simply stack the heavy rubber mats on top of the original carpet mats, rather than replacing those original mats. It was also assumed that the asymmetric mats would be installed on the correct side of the car so that the shape conformed to the corresponding foot-well. It turns out that both assumptions were wrong, resulting in a spate of consumer complaints that accelerator pedals were hanging up on incorrectly installed mats. This may seem like a relatively simple oversight on Toyota's part, but it has had the potential to be tragic.
Company officials acknowledge that over the past decade the automaker grew too fast and employees at many levels were not adequately trained in the Toyota way of ensuring quality at every step of the design and manufacturing process. So, in order to prevent problems like this from recurring, Toyota will be insert a new layer of management into its system to help address the issue. This move has come after Toyota looked at other groups that have grown “too large.” The rationale is that personnel have not received adequate on-the-job training and oversight, so a new group of assistant managers will work more closely with members of each team -- particularly younger engineers -- to help them understand that quality has to be designed in to avoid defects rather than corrected after the fact.

A New Quality Organization

While these new assistant managers will attempt to reinforce the quality message, there is another organizational change at Toyota that may actually serve to undermine it.
On March 31 of this year, the first meeting of the new Global Quality Emergency Meeting took place at Toyota headquarters. From that meeting a new Design Quality Innovation Division headed by Katsutoshi Sakata was created. The new division came into effect on May 1, and over 1,000 employees have been reassigned from product development activities to address quality issues at a higher level than ever before. This new layer of oversight will slow the development cycle and Toyota has acknowledged that it will add an average of about four weeks to each program.
This presents quite a challenge to the Toyota way, as ever since the earliest days of the company, quality has been the responsibility of every single associate. It was driven from the bottom up. Moving "ownership" of quality to this new organization could be a double-edged sword. While the new quality teams are likely to stem the current recall tide in new products, a potential unintended consequence is that the company's traditional quality ethos will be undermined by fostering an attitude among lower level employees that ensuring quality is no longer their responsibility. If that happens it could lead Toyota down the same path to mediocrity that plagued Detroit automakers some 30 years ago.
Ultimately the bottom line is that Toyota has come to realize its products are not as perfect as it had thought – or its reputation suggested. Nothing can be done about the vehicles already on the road other than rapidly addressing any new issues that arise. Whether or not Toyota’s new processes and organizational changes will be enough to restore its image, only time will tell.

AOL Autos 2010 Guide To Motorcycles

2010-08-07T19:36:00.000-07:00

Motorcycles fire the imagination. Some people immediately envision the open road. Others conjure pictures of wildly customized choppers ridden by leather-clad ne’er-do-wells. Younger readers might picture motocross or X-Games style competitions. Evil Knievel comes to mind, as does Marlon Brando in The Wild One and Peter Fonda in Easy Rider. Worrying types visualize hospital beds and long recovery periods after the inevitable fall. Regardless of where your mind takes you, the reality is that the world of motorcycles is not exclusively the domain of daredevils, hoodlums, and hippies.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, there are more than 5.3 million motorcycles registered in the US. Yes, there are plenty of normal, sane people riding on a regular basis. Of this total, tens of thousands ride to work every day. Mortality statistics show that just a few thousand riders die in accidents every year. While grim, statistics also show you're more likely to be killed as a pedestrian than as the pilot of a motorcycle.

Armed with facts that throw a wet blanket over common misperceptions about motorcycles, here's the reality of modern motorcycling. We call it our 2010 Guide to Motorcycles.
Pick Your Bike
American Sylvester Roper may have invented the first motorcycle in the 1860s. Riding on two wheels, his two-cylinder contraption was powered by steam. Credit for the first gasoline motorcycle goes to auto pioneer Gottlieb Daimler of Daimler-Benz fame. His gasoline-powered two-wheeler first ran in 1885, the same year he created the world's first gasoline automobile.
Over 100 years later, there are more than a dozen major motorcycle manufacturers selling more than 100 different models in the US. Boutique manufacturers triple these figures. Generally speaking, these builders produce street bikes that fall into six broad categories:
• Cruisers
• Touring
• Sport
• Dual-purpose
• Standard
• Crossovers
In terms of power, engines come in a variety of configurations. The simplest are one-cylinder arrangements. There are also two-, three-, four-, six- and even eight-cylinder engines that are either water- or air-cooled. Transmissions have five or six gears that send power to the rear wheel via a traditional chain, a toothed belt, or a driveshaft (similar to a car). Some bikes offer "automatic" transmissions, including those that function as a CVT (continuously variable transmission). Nearly all bikes use powerful disc brakes, and some feature anti-lock braking and stability control systems. Honda even offers one model with an optional air bag.
Here’s how the various types of motorcycles stack up:

Today, nearly all bikes feature the following simplified controls:
• Right-hand twist-grip throttle
• Right-hand front-wheel brake
• Right-foot rear-wheel brake pedal
• Left-hand transmission clutch lever
• Left-foot transmission gearshift lever

Compared to an automobile with a steering wheel, two floor pedals, and an automatic transmission, motorcycle controls might seem intimidating. But remember, millions of riders have safely mastered these controls.If you have ever watched an episode of Orange County Choppers, it should be clear that people of all intelligence levels are capable of safely piloting motorcycles.

Cruisers
With a laid-back, feet-forward, and arms-out seating position, cruisers are what many people equate with “motorcycle.” These bikes attract buyers based on their cool "biker" styling. Cruiser sub-types include choppers (with long front forks), bobbers (with a shortened or removed rear fender), and hard-tails (with no rear suspension).
Cruisers are powered by many different sizes of engines, starting around 250cc and topping out well over 100 cubic inches (1600cc). (Some boutique manufacturers have even been known to stuff V8’s in their bikes.) The smaller bikes are lighter (around 300-pounds) but the heavier bikes can weigh more than double that. The big bikes can be difficult for some riders to maneuver and keep upright.
Touring
Easily identifiable by their large fairings (the body work surrounding the handlebars and front lights) and saddle bags, touring bikes are motorcycling marathon runners.
Tall windshields protect riders from the blasting air stream. Long wheelbases help deliver a smooth ride. Big engines (most are over 700cc and can have as many as six cylinders) lope easily along at highway speeds. Large seats keep riders comfy during long rides.
Sport
Adrenalin junkies love sport bikes. These bikes are compact, completely enveloped in aerodynamic plastic bodywork, have engines that sound like angry wasps, and require their pilots to ride in a nearly fetal position. They're all about doing everything fast. Very fast. The quickest production sport bikes are capable of 190-mph-plus and can accelerate from 0-100 mph in under three seconds.
Perhaps because they offer Ferrari-beating performance for the cost of a well-used economy car, a majority of motorcycle accidents occur on sport bikes piloted by male riders ages 16-23 years. Engines are sized from 250cc up to 1600ccs, with horsepower figures totaling more than 190 on the most powerful examples.
Many sub-groups exist within the sport bike category. There are muscle bikes, naked sport bikes, and barely street-legal race-ready bikes.
Dual-Purpose
For millions of boys (and some girls), learning to ride a dirt bike was a rite of passage. These off-road only bikes are commonly used for racing, in events like motocross. But there are versions of dirt bikes that are also street legal. For those who want the go-anywhere capabilities of a dirt bike that can also be ridden on the road, manufacturers offer these dual-purpose motorcycles.
These bikes feature knobby, off-road style wheels, long-travel suspension, and purposeful looks that are the direct result of their immense capabilities.
Standard
If you happen to live where the weather is predominantly pleasant, motorcycles can be a practical and economical way to commute. Especially when fuel prices spike, getting 60+ miles per gallon makes sense. In states like California where lane-splitting (riding in the same lane next to a car) is legal, commuting on a bike can also substantially reduce the time it takes to get to work, as a motorcylist can just breeze by stopped traffic.
Back in the late 1950’s, Honda got a foothold in the U.S. motorcycle market with the economical and easy to ride Super Cub. Tens of thousands were sold and used as basic transportation. Contemporary no-frills bikes are characterized by their traditional designs and economical engines. If you value economy over performance and style, look to this category of bike.
Crossovers
The automotive market is not the only place where crossover products are being introduced. Some manufacturers are introducing scooters that are more like motorcycles, motorcycles that are more like scooters, and truly innovative vehicles that occupy new geography somewhere between motorcycles and automobiles (some even have three wheels).
Ready To Ride?
Motorcyclists have never had access to more or better machinery, and if you do your homework, there's a bike out there for you. While it's tradition in many states for bikers to acknowledge one another with a wave, we'll forgive you if you don't want to take one hand off the bar your first summer out.
Click here to see our recommendations for motorcycles for each of the six categories listed above.

Toyota Recalls Another 412,000 Vehicles

2010-08-07T19:30:00.000-07:00

Avalons And Lexus LX 470’s Have Steering Problems

While the BP oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico may have shifted the media spotlight away from from Toyota's recall problems over the last several months, that doesn't mean the crisis has ended. One of two new recalls announced by the automaker today covers 373,000 second-generation Toyota Avalon models built between the 2000 and 2004 model years. The other concerns 39,000 Lexus LX 470 SUVs built between the 2003 and 2007 model years.
According to the Japanese automaker, the Avalon’s steering lock bars can crack, eventually leading to a break. If that failure occurs, the steering column interlock system can become difficult to unlock when parked, potentially disabling the vehicle. Worse, if the driver is in a right-hand turn with "sufficient lateral acceleration," under very specific conditions, the damaged lock bar can actually engage, locking the steering wheel and disabling steering control of the vehicle, a condition that increases the likelihood of an accident.   For its part, Toyota says it is unaware of any crashes stemming from the Avalon's steering interlock issue, and it will replace the steering column bracket in affected vehicles for free.
Toyota also claims that no accidents have resulted from the problem with the Lexus LX 470. According to Toyota, a snap ring that retains two sections of the SUV's steering column can get dislodged following a heavy impact on the front wheels of SUV, such as hitting a severe pothole. Without the snap ring in place, using the steering can result in the column working itself free. Toyota says a redesigned snap ring will keep the part where it belongs. LX owners can expect to see notifications in their mailbox starting in about two weeks.

Yes, I’m A Pontiac Aztek Fan

2010-08-07T19:25:00.000-07:00

Even Unloved Models Have Their Champions

The Pontiac Aztek seemed like a great idea at the time. It was the late ’90s, the American economy was booming, and we were buying Sport Utility Vehicles by the literal millions. By 2000, the light truck category accounted for approximately one third of the 17 million cars bought in the U.S., a ratio that would trend even higher as the decade progressed. The midsized Aztek was a can’t-miss opportunity, or so GM thought.
First sketched in 1994 as the “Bear Claw,” at first designers couldn’t decide if the vehicle should be a truck or a sports car. By the time the first concept rolled out in 1999, this “sport recreation vehicle” had a new moniker: Aztek. Reviews were mixed, but the Aztek had plenty going for it: a sporty, rugged look, gear-carrying capability, and the much-coveted-in-suburbia elevated driving height. GM didn’t know it at the time, but it was among the first automakers to develop a crossover.
But when the production Aztek rolled into showrooms for the 2001 model year, it was markedly different than the concept GM had shown two years earlier. This vehicle shared a platform with the Pontiac Montana minivan, and it was boxy and unattractive, to say the least. Introduced in both front-wheel-drive and “Versatrak” all-wheel-drive versions -- both powered by a barely adequate V6 engine -- the Aztek was so poorly executed that it quickly became the butt of jokes.

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“That thing is butt-ugly!” my neighbor screamed, loud enough for all of Brooklyn to hear when I rolled up my block on a beautiful, sunny Tuesday in 2001, navigating a rain-slicker-yellow Aztek test driver. The comment was only the first of dozens of raspberries and guffaws I absorbed over a week driving the Aztek in and around New York City. The next came from my own brother: “That’s the Ernest Borgnine of SUVs.” GM might as well have hung a “Kick me!” sign on the Aztek’s rear bumper.
I wasn’t crazy about the Aztek, either, but my complaints weren’t about its looks. “The inside reminds me of an economy hotel,” I wrote in the New York Daily News. “Everything is clean but ever-so-cheap; I half expected a mass-produced painting to be bolted to a door.”
A few auto pundits praised where praise was worthy. The basic concept was sound: It was a mini-vannish, versatile family vehicle, distinct from every other similarly priced SUV on the market. The Aztek interior was vast, big enough to hold a piece of plywood, or so GM boasted. But the problem with its styling remained.
“Every time we look at the Aztek, we wonder what they were thinking,” said Car and Driver. “GM stumbles again... a hideous front end and a huge, angular rear end,” reported Forbes. “Jaw-dropping, chin-scratching, what-the-heck-is-that?” said The Car Connection. Time Magazine even called it one of the 50 worst cars of all time.
If there was anything GM did right it was in the accessory market. These included a bicycle rack, a tent with an inflatable mattress with a built-in air compressor, a center console doubling as a cooler, seatback-mounted backpacks and racks galore for the snowboards, canoes and bicycles. Finally, there were two rear cargo area options, a pullout tray with built-in wheels that held up to 400 pounds, or a cargo net rig that held up to 200 pounds and could be configured 22 different ways. It was this kind of stuff that led many of the Aztek’s early fans to embrace the vehicle, but as it turned out there were just not enough “active lifestyle” customers.

Plagued by nonexistent sales upon the Aztek’s introduction, GM changed the crossover’s plentiful grey cladding to body color and added a spoiler to the rear hatch just a year later. It also dropped the price by $1,450. Though GM had projected it would sell 75,000 Azteks each year (and had even hinted at larger volumes), it later revised that number to 50,000, which was still wildly optimistic. The best year for sales saw only 27,793 sold in 2002. By 2005, when GM cancelled the “Ishtar” of the automotive world, sales had dipped to just 5,020. The public had spoken, and that seemed to be the end of the Aztek story.
The only problem is that a lot of people bought Azteks, loved them, and are still proudly driving them today.

Honda Accord Crosstour

Honda Element

Lincoln MKT

Mazda CX-9

Mercedes-Benz R-Class

Toyota Venza

“I’ve had my Red 2001 Aztek since ’03, and I drive it every single day,” says corporate project manager Ken Rhyno, who runs a 1,700-plus member Aztek Fan Club from his home in Port Elgin, Ontario, Canada. “I still get cracks from people, but the car runs great, gets up to 30 miles to the gallon and the amount of stuff you can haul in it is fantastic. People have got to understand it’s not a Corvette. Its looks are not the point.”
Rhyno loves his Aztek so much that he bought Aztekfanclub.com in 2006. “I was a member of the club and then the original owner turned it over to me,” he says. “The last rally we had was in 2008, in Ohio. About 30 Azteks showed up from all over the country. We had people come up from as far away as Texas.”
Musician Lenny Lee told AOL Autos, “I've got a 2003 Aztek and can't say a bad thing about it, despite the ridiculous-looking rear end. I bought it from a relative in '03 who liked it but wanted the same vehicle with 4-wheel-drive and a tow package. Rather than taking a beating on a trade-in, he sold it to me with 2,000 miles for fourteen grand. I couldn't turn down the price.”
Lee says he hasn’t taken his Aztek camping, doesn’t own the tent accessory and doesn’t pay attention to mileage.
“Let’s just say it can get out of its own way,” the Dutchess, New York resident says. “It thrives on neglect. The odometer just passed 200,000 and virtually nothing has gone wrong with it. I’d never intended to keep it this long, but it’s been so dependable and still runs fine and the stereo system sounds good. I just drive it. I figure I’ll let her come in for a smooth landing when she’s ready.”
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” says Rhyno. “People where I work drive Honda Elements, which I think are pretty ugly.” Still, he says, “Nothing draws the fire like the Aztek.”

How Much Are You Really Paying For That New Car?

2010-08-07T19:15:00.000-07:00

Survey Shows Buyers Don’t Know How Much Interest They Are Paying

The report cards are in for first-time car buyers, and at least half of them are getting failing grades in one subject: Vehicle financing. In general, consumers have become the honor students of the auto business, doing their homework and taking home better deals as a result. But many first-time buyers are flunking the financial end of the deal, a recent survey commissioned by Capital One Auto Finance shows.
The survey found that nearly half of first-time car buyers do not know the interest rate they are paying on their loan. Only one-third checked their credit score -- a key determinant of their rate, the overall cost of their credit, and the size of their loan -- before making their purchase. Furthermore, nearly 60 percent failed to discuss financing options with a knowledgeable party. Only 20 percent of respondents did research on financing options online, and more than half did not know that they could have applied for a loan on the web, the survey found. The results were based on a national poll of 700 consumers in May.
All this almost certainly translates into higher car payments, lending specialists say. Many consumers simply aren’t targeting the lowest possible rates. As a result, lending specialists believe many car buyers are shouldering rates a couple points higher than necessary.

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High Rates Equal Big Profits

“It doesn’t completely surprise me, but it’s unfortunate, especially with so much fabulous press out there about doing your homework,” says Lea Anne Broseus, consumer lending manager at the KEMBA Financial Credit Union in Columbus, Ohio.
With some consumers paying too little attention to this area, it’s no accident that dealerships’ financing and insurance operations, the proverbial “back office,” have become their real profit generators. Shopping for the vehicle itself is a different story, as many buyers have managed to tip the scales in their direction, by being armed to the teeth with pricing information and unafraid to shop around. As a result, dealers have seen vehicle profit margins erode, money that has to be made somewhere else -- and that’s often accomplished by “marking up” interest rates on financing.
First-time buyers’ poor performance on the financial end doesn’t surprise Gail Cunningham, a spokesperson for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling in Silver Spring, Maryland. She told AOL Autos that millions of consumers do not know even the rate they are paying on their home mortgages, a sign that financial irresponsibility is not restricted to car buying.
There is little mystery as to how interest rates get lost in the shuffle at the dealer. The salesman typically starts things off by establishing a monthly payment the buyer can afford. Both parties leave the interest rate aside, at least for a while. “When you go to a car dealership, they don’t ask you what kind of interest you want,” says Broseus. “They ask what kind of payment are you comfortable with. Then they will try to fit you into the payment you told them, regardless of the rate behind the scenes.”
After contemplating a car purchase for months, buyers may be fixated on the size of the payment, too. But there are major benefits to getting low rates. A reduction of one to two points could save a buyer hundreds or thousands of dollars over the life of a contract, says Linda Stephens, vice president, consumer lending, at Wright-Patt Credit Union in Fairborn, Ohio.
At the right rate, consumers may even find they can afford a better car than they thought, she says. “For example, interest rates are lower for a new vehicle than for a used car. We may be able to help put them in a new car with a payment that was less than the used car they were looking at,” says Stephens.
If the interest rates and the payment end up too high, unwary consumers may end up paying for their mistake for a long time. The most serious problem is that they may end up “upside down,” owing more than their car is worth. This can be an absolute calamity when they want to sell it or trade it in, resulting in having to come up with thousands of dollars to pay off the old vehicle, which limits the amount of money that can be put down on the next car. Or, worse yet, the extra debt gets folded into the next loan. Either way, the buyer ends up saddled with extra costs for a long time, which means paying even more out in interest.

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Drop Your Rates Like A Bad Habit

But consumers have options to reduce their interest rates. Preparations to arrange financing should start early. Consumers should check their credit report at least three months before their purchase, pay any unpaid bills that it shows, and correct any errors in the reports. Buyers should also schedule their loan application for the time of the month when their credit card bills are mostly paid, according to Cunningham. For instance, if you regularly load up large sums on your credit card for business purposes but pay them off every month, you want your credit score to be calculated when you have no balance, she says. That will tend to reduce the total amount of debt showing up on their credit record. That in turn may lead to a lower rate.
After deciding on a model and the ideal monthly payment for it, she recommends that consumers undertake a little experiment to see if they can really handle the expense. For several months before the car purchase, they should “pay themselves” an amount equivalent to the payment they expect to make. If they expect to have to pay $368 a month, for example, they should put that sum into a savings account. “They should pay themselves to prove that they can do it,” she says. “It is no fun to have every cent spoken for and always be scrambling.”
Personal finance experts universally recommend that consumers shop around for the right rate as well as the right car. Broseus says people should phone ahead or check websites to get a rough idea of the rates that a bank or credit union is offering. That is preferable to applying for a large number of loans. In this way, lenders won’t be making too many inquiries about their creditworthiness. “More than about six inquiries in a month’s time frame is going to suggest the individual is desperate for money. This would actually drive down a credit score,” she says, adding that consumers should ask about any additional fees, “so you can compare to apples to apples. See if there is a credit bureau fee, an application fee, a loan generation fee, or a closing fee.”
Buyers may also qualify for discounts, too. KEMBA, for example, offers them if consumers make their loan payments with automatic deductions.
If a model is being offered with both a rebate and low-rate financing, line up your own financing first and then take the rebate, says David Adams, CEO of the Michigan Credit Union League. Adams has a rule of thumb to calculate how much buyers can afford to pay. Their total payments on their debt, everything from home mortgages to car payments and credit cards, should not exceed 40 percent of their gross monthly income. He also says buyers should try to stay away from long contracts if possible. They invariably increase financing costs.
“I personally don’t think that people should finance a new car longer than 60 months. It’s probably more prudent to go 36 or 48,” he says, adding that for a used car, it is even more important to shorten the term of the loan.
“If you can’t afford to stay within those parameters,” he says, “you probably should not be buying a car.”

Best July Finance Deals

2010-08-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

Automakers are still relying heavily on interest rate incentives to keep their vehicles rolling off dealership lots, and that’s good news for consumers. In some cases, the interest rates are even lower than they were last year when the economy was in worse shape than it is now.
> In Pictures: 20 Great July Finance Deals
As they have seen their sales rise with the improving economy, car manufacturers haven’t been inclined to take their foot off the incentives accelerator. So there are even substantial promotions for perennial crowd-pleasers like the Jeep Wrangler, the Toyota Camry and Tundra, and the Lincoln MKS – all vehicles that seemed able to make the grade without much in the way of incentives in the past. This month, those incentives translate into an opportunity for consumers to swoop down and grab a choice model they have eyeing before the promotions disappear. Ford, flush with rising sales this year, has already trimmed back the incentives on its biggest sellers. Toyota’s youth-oriented brand, the Scion, has retreated, too. Still, consumers continue to benefit from overcapacity in the global auto business, along with the expanded role for newer, low-cost players like Kia and Hyundai, and that won’t change anytime soon. But 0% interest rates on the most popular vehicles could soon be harder to find.
Select The Vehicles Below And View The Incentive:

Fullsize Cars	Fashion	Pickups	Midsize Cars	Convertibles
Grand Marquis	Kia Soul	Toyota Tundra	Toyota Camry	Chrysler Sebring
Cadillac DTS	VW New Beetle	Dodge Ram 1500	Ford Fusion	Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder
Lincoln MKS	Honda Element	Chevrolet Silverado	Mitsubishi Galant	Volkswagen Eos
Chrysler 300	Jeep Wrangler	GMC Canyon	Nissan Altima	BMW 128i

Editor's Pick: 2010 Toyota Camry
Toyota has put some great interest rates on the Camry, hoping to offset the fall-off in demand that the brand has experienced since its recall woes earlier this year. But these rates may not last for long. For years, the Japanese automaker has mightily resisted the very idea of incentives. Now that it evidently has the issue of unintended acceleration under control, its interest rates can be expected to rise -- as indeed they already have on some models. In much of the country, however, interest rate incentives of 0% over five years are still available on the Camry. The difference between buying now and buying later could be as much as $1,500 -- that’s how much you could save with a 0% interest rate versus the more normal Toyota incentive of 3.9%, presuming you are financing three-quarters of your purchase. Whatever you pay, you get a high-quality, nicely powered midsized car with a 2.5 four-cylinder or 3.5-liter six-cylinder engine. Expect more savings down the road in the form of good resale value and solid fuel economy topping out at 33 mpg highway -- which is better than many compacts offer.

First Drive: 2011 Porsche Panamera

2010-08-07T19:03:00.000-07:00

Sedan Conceals A V6 But Gives Up Little Else In The Transplant

We're the lone vehicle in the far left lane of the Autobahn outside of Köln, Germany. The traffic has lightened, so we mash the accelerator to the floor. While we pull strongly up to about 200 km/h (125 mph), the speedometer counts much more slowly as it spins around the right side of the dial. Moments later, the digital indicator on the cluster passes 250 km/hr (155 mph). The late-model BMW 5 Series trailing in our wake has met its electronic speed limiter, so it slowly falls away in our rearview mirror. It takes another ten seconds for the display to stop counting and hover at 261 km/hr (160 mph). Bringing our fun to an end, traffic on the horizon forces us to drop back down to more reasonable speeds just a few seconds later.
Northern Europe is the ideal venue to drive Porsche's latest Panamera models, each fitted with new 300 horsepower 3.6-liter V6 powerplants. We spent time driving both the rear- and all-wheel drive models in crowded cities, the open countryside and unrestricted highways. Where did the new V6 come from and what makes it unique? Where does the powerplant position the Panamera in relation to its competition and what is its new price point?

The 2010 Porsche Panamera, the automaker's first four-door sedan, debuted in the summer of 2009. The initial offering was three different models fitted with two incredibly capable eight-cylinder engines. The rear-wheel drive Panamera S and all-wheel drive Panamera 4S boasted 400 horsepower 4.8-liter V8s, while the flagship all-wheel drive Panamera Turbo featured a mighty 500 horsepower variant of the identical engine that could launch the four-passenger sedan to 60 mph in well under four seconds. This summer, the three carryover models are joined by two new six-cylinder variants that exchange some of the brawn for brains -- a more tolerable bankroll and better fuel economy.
The two new six-cylinder models are simply named the Panamera (rear-wheel drive) and the Panamera 4 (all-wheel drive).
Deception was not the intent, but without any identifying "V6" badging to be found, only enthusiasts will be able to distinguish the difference between the new six-cylinder Panamera models and their eight-cylinder siblings without cracking the cowl. Take a closer look, because there are subtle exterior differences. The chrome finish on the window surrounds has been replaced by a matte black treatment and the quad exhaust tips are now twin brushed stainless steel ovals. The standard wheels are unique 18-inch, five-spoke alloys and the multi-piston aluminum monobloc brake calipers are painted simple black (not "V8" silver, "Turbo" red, or "ceramic" yellow).
Open the aluminum hood and the all-new six-cylinder engine, nestled deep against the firewall, stares back. While you will likely mistake the exterior of the six-cylinder Panamera for its eight-cylinder or turbocharged siblings at first glance, don't confuse the new 3.6-liter V6 in the Panamera with the revised 3.6-liter V6 in the 2011 Porsche Cayenne -- they are completely different. The SUV shares its Volkswagen-sourced, 10.6-degree iron-block six with the Touareg (touted as the "VR6 FSI"). However, Porsche has developed an all-new, lightweight, 90-degree, aluminum-block V6 for its flagship sedan. Not only does this dissuade potential naysayers, but it allows the automaker to assemble the V6 alongside the V8 (they share 40 percent of their componentry) and easily adapt the V8's all-wheel drive system to the new V6.

As surmised, the advanced new powerplant is based on the automaker's 4.8-liter V8, minus two cylinders. Chopped down to 3,605 cubic centimeters, the all-aluminum, water-cooled six with integrated dry-sump lubrication utilizes direct fuel injection (DFI) and "VarioCam Plus" (adjustable valve lift) to generate 300 horsepower (at 6,200 RPM) and 295 pound-feet of torque (at 3,750 RPM). While the Europeans are offered a six-speed manual (we took a brief spin), the only transmission arriving in North America will be Porsche's seven-speed Doppelkupplungsgetriebe (PDK) double-clutch automatic gearbox with identical gearing to that of the eight-cylinder models, with the exception of a shorter final drive ratio to improve driving dynamics.
According to Porsche, the 3.6-liter V6 is 66 pounds lighter than the 4.8-liter V8. This helps contribute to the six-cylinder Panamera's respectable curb weight of just 3,880 pounds (undercutting its European luxury competitors by several hundred pounds, or more). According to Porsche's typically conservative acceleration figures, the rear-wheel drive Panamera will sprint to 60 mph in 5.8 seconds (with the "Sport Chrono Package Plus" and launch control) towards a top speed of 160 mph. Thanks to a better launch, the all-wheel drive Panamera 4 managed the run to 60 mph in 5.8 seconds and tops out at 159 mph. Neither six-cylinder Panamera is a slug.

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In the interest of fuel economy, all Panamera models are fitted with a standard "auto start-stop" function and a proactive charging system. Under most conditions, the engine shuts down when the Panamera comes to a standstill (don't worry, the audio and climate control systems continue blasting and blowing unfettered). If the stop is extended, the engine will automatically start again to spin the air conditioning compressor or charge the battery if voltage falls significantly. Instead of waiting for accelerator pedal movement, the engine is automatically re-started in a nearly seamless manner when pressure is let off the brake pedal and the start-stop function on the new six-cylinder Panamera has reportedly been calibrated to be less intrusive than its predecessors. The alternator does its part by reducing engine load under acceleration, instead choosing to generate electricity under braking when the energy would otherwise be wasted as heat. If you're not a stop-start fan, the feature is easily disabled with the push of a button.
Combine a modern, direct-injected, six-cylinder engine with a dry-clutch transmission, start-stop technology, intelligent alternator, a lightweight chassis and a low drag coefficient (.30) and it pays off at the pump. In EPA testing, the Panamera earns 18 mpg city and 27 mpg highway (the all-wheel drive is rated 26 mpg on the highway cycle) giving the sedans an easy 500-mile cruising range on their 21.1 gallon fuel tanks (interestingly enough, those fuel economy figures are strong enough to embarrass the Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid).
As mentioned in Autoblog’s First Drive last Fall, the eight-cylinder Panamera S starts at $89,800 (plus $975 destination) while access to the Panamera Turbo begins at a stiff $132,600 (plus $975 destination). Those are hardly entry-level prices in its Euro-luxury segment, especially when optioned. However, something interesting happens when you slice a couple cylinders off Porsche's 4.8-liter V8 -- the two discarded aluminum pistons ring like $15,400 of silver bullion hitting the concrete floor.
That's right. The base price of the six-cylinder Panamera is $74,400 (plus $975 destination), while the all-wheel drive six-cylinder Panamera 4 is only marginally higher at $78,900 (plus destination). That's not bad when you consider the eight-cylinder Audi A8 starts at $76,000 (plus $825 destination) while the six-cylinder Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid starts at $87,950 (plus $875 destination). Only the twin-turbocharged six-cylinder BMW 740i undercuts the Panamera with its base price of $70,150 (plus $875 destination). Fuel efficiency and environmental friendliness aside, the introduction of the six-cylinder Panamera has effectively priced Porsche's first sedan back in the midst of its European competition.

In Pictures: 2011 Porsche Panamera. Michael Harley@Autoblog.com©

As mentioned, there are only trivial differences between the exterior of the six- and eight-cylinder sedans. The cabins, on the other hand, are virtually identical. All feature soft leather seating surfaces, quality switchgear and intuitive primary analog instrumentation (we're still getting used to the overwhelming sea of buttons on the center console). In fact, when it comes to ambience and features, all Panamera models share the same equipment and options list -- neither six-cylinder Panamera is a stripped-down model.
Tooling around Germany in a rear-wheel drive Panamera, we found the 3.6-liter V6 more than adequate for city stop-and-go traffic (we also spent plenty of time in the Panamera 4 -- they behave nearly identically on dry pavement). Thanks to the PDK's ability to keep the six in its torque band, we never had to goose the throttle to induce a kick-down in normal driving. Obviously down on horsepower and torque when compared to its burly siblings, the six-pot drives heavy (mostly because it's bit less immediately responsive to throttle inputs), but not annoyingly so. Last year, when we first drove the V8 and Turbo models, we said the weight seemed to fall off with increased speed. It's the opposite feeling with the V6, an engine that is more taxed as velocities exceed triple-digits.
The platform is unaffected by the engine swap (it may actually be a bit better balanced, as the lighter V6 sits further back in the engine compartment), and the Panamera remains every bit as enjoyable to drive when the straights turn to curves. We never came even remotely close to the grip limits of the tires, despite some aggressive driving.
The six-cylinder Panamera is astonishingly comfortable, quiet and frugal on the highway (it would be an excellent candidate for a New York to Los Angeles cross-country dash). On the limitless German Autobahn, the V6 only felt inadequate under hard high-speed acceleration when it was fighting aerodynamic drag. We genuinely missed the muscle of the V8 and Turbo models that allowed us to effortlessly jump from 70 mph to 150 mph as the various speed zones passed beneath us (the Panamera Turbo hits 125 mph in about 14 seconds, while the Panamera V6 takes 26 seconds). The V6 is capable of covering real estate at an impressive clip, but it takes time getting to speed, creating a rather interesting phenomenon in light traffic.

In Pictures: 2011 Porsche Panamera. Michael Harley@Autoblog.com©

Germans are very observant drivers who are well aware of the unwritten social hierarchy on the unlimited sections of Autobahn. Seeing our Porsche badge in their rearview mirrors, BMW and Mercedes-Benz owners would move out of the left lane to let us pass in areas where the speed limits were lifted. They would hold the lane immediately adjacent to us and accelerate hard while waiting for the Porsche Panamera to zoom by. Unbeknownst to those drivers, we didn't have a V8 or Turbo mounted under our hood (and remember there are no visual clues to suggest otherwise). They expected us to open the gap with afterburners lit... so there would be an uncomfortable moment as we crawled by at a mere snail's pace above 125 mph. For obvious reasons, North American drivers will never face this situation.
For torque and horsepower addicts, Porsche's new 3.6-liter V6 still passes muster. We like its no-compromise build (all aluminum block and heads with magnesium valve covers and aluminum bolts throughout for further weight savings), low-profile 90-degree architecture, smooth power delivery thanks to a balance shaft rotating in the oil sump and impressive fuel economy. The only thing missing is a sexy exhaust note, but rest assured that the aftermarket will soon solve the issue.
The six-cylinder Porsche Panamera is a well-engineered and masterfully executed machine. Stripping two cylinders from most high-performance cars undeniably cripples driving dynamics and gravely reduces consumer appeal, but these V6-powered sport sedans seem to buck that trend. Rather than becoming two gutless entry-level models relegated to the bottom of the pecking order by their power loss, the smaller engine redirects focus towards the vehicle's luxury and refined driving dynamics. It would be a shame to dismiss these new variants solely on displacement. Instead, consider the 2011 Porsche Panamera and Panamera 4 very competent 300 horsepower sport sedans that just happen to be fitted with a thoroughly modern six-cylinder powerplant.

Car Thieves Target Cadillac Escalade, SUVs

2010-08-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

The 2011 Cadillac Escalade topped the list as the vehicle with the highest average insurance claim for theft (GM).
HDLI Data Shows Highest Claims For Car Theft

The Highway Data Loss Institute released its official list of vehicles with the highest and lowest insurance claims for theft. The study combines the rate of insurance claims per vehicle as well as the cost of those claims, helping companies that supply coverage determine exactly how much to charge us poor saps. The 2007-2009 Cadillac Escalade is the vehicle with the highest insurance claims for theft.

Chevrolet Corvette Z06

Hummer H2 4WD

Nissan Pathfinder Armada

Chevrolet Avalanche 1500

Chevrolet Silverado 1500

GMC Yukon

The Escalade has $146 in theft loss payments per insured vehicle, per year. On average, insurance companies pay out around $11,934 per theft claim when it comes to the Escalade, with 10.8 of the SUVs stolen per 1,000 vehicles. That's more than 10 times the theft rate of the vehicle with the lowest theft losses – the Volvo S80.
"Sedate family cars and fuel sippers aren't on the hot list," says Kim Hazelbaker, HLDI senior vice president. "Thieves are after chrome, horsepower, and HEMIs."
HDLI noted that the Escalade ranked worst in overall theft in six of the last seven reports. In fact, of the top 10 vehicles on the Highway Data Loss Institute's list, six were of General Motors origin and most of them are full-size trucks and SUVs. How do the thieves get around the bad-guy battling OnStar vehicle immobilization? Easy. They load the coveted SUVs onto a flat bed and drive away.
The company reports that since 1998 the frequency of theft claims for cars and SUVs has declined while average insurance payments per claim have increased.

Methodology

While other "most stolen cars" lists abound, HDLI claims their data is the most accurate because their information takes into account the real costs of theft for these vehicles, not just the sheer number of claims.

Volvo S80

Saturn VUE 4WD (2008-09)

Nissan Murano (2009)

Saturn VUE (2008-09)

Honda Pilot 4WD (2009)

Subaru Impreza (2008-09)

HLDI's are the only reported theft results based on the number of insured vehicles on the road. Information on theft losses published by the National Insurance Crime Bureau doesn't take into account the number of each vehicle insured, so the most popular vehicles on the road tend to top this organization's list of most-stolen vehicles. This doesn't tell an individual owner how likely a particular car is to have a theft claim. To answer that question, HLDI identifies vehicles with the worst theft losses by counting the number of insurance claims by make and model relative to the number of each make and model insured. This indicates the vehicles that are most likely to be theft targets, taking into account their exposure on the road.

“Best Losses”

You won’t be able to find a new car in America that thieves are guaranteed to avoid, but you can cut your losses by looking at HDLI’s lists of those cars that present the lowest claims.
The company says the Volvo S80 leads its list with the lowest overall costs of claims.
The 10 best vehicles have overall theft losses less than 15 percent of the average. Average payments for a theft claim are less than one-third the average.

How To Fight A Speeding Ticket

2010-08-06T21:39:00.000-07:00

Alternative strategies to help you beat a ticket

You've probably read articles about fighting traffic tickets -- but the reality is many of us (probably most of us) just don't have the money to hire a lawyer -- or the time/expertise (let alone gumption) to actually challenge a ticket on our own.

There are some alternatives, however.
Plead Guilty -- With Explanation
Sometimes you can get a reduced charge by pleading guilty -- but with an explanation. Provided you have an otherwise clean record -- and the charge itself is relatively minor -- often, this can yield good results.

Remember -- what they want most is money. The charge itself is of secondary importance.
A great deal depends on the judge, however. Some are hard cases, others more reasonable. Before you decide to go this route, it's smart to get to court early and watch how your judge handles other cases -- especially those similar to your own. If you think, based on his actions, that he's going to throw the book at you -- you can always request a continuance; in many states, these are granted automatically upon request. Simply tell the judge you are not ready to go to trial. A continuance will push your court date off for another few weeks or so and give you time to prepare a defense -- or hire a lawyer.
Bargain
Traffic courts are a lot like buying a new car -- because there's lots of haggling involved. You can ask the judge (or the prosecuting/commonwealth's attorney) about the possibility of agreeing to attend driving school and/or pay a fine in return for dropping the charge against you -- or changing the charge to a non-moving violation, which avoids DMV "points" being assigned to your driving record. That means your insurance company won't have a pretext for a rate hike. In some counties/states, certain charges aren't reported to the DMV at all -- especially if it's an out-of-state ticket. (Mostly, these include non-moving violations such as "defective equipment" -- a common "lesser charge" that's often assigned in lieu of the original moving violation.)
The key thing, however, is to avoid the moving violation conviction -- even if it means paying a larger fine than you'd otherwise have paid for just the ticket/offense you were originally charged with. A one-time hit to your wallet is infinitely preferable to having that ticket held against you for anywhere from three to five years -- the length of time it will be on your DMV record -- and used by your insurance company to justify higher premiums. The total cost of a single moving violation on your DMV record can easily exceed the one-time hit of a fine for "defective equipment" (or whatever) many times over. And keep in mind: If you should be unlucky enough to receive another ticket before the old one "drops off" -- your jeopardy has just doubled. The points stack up -- and your insurance goes through the roof. How likely is it you can go for another five years without getting nailed again? For many of us, that's a virtual impossibility!

Bottom Line
Either of these alternatives -- pleading guilty with an explanation or bargaining your way to a lesser charge -- can be more cost-effective than hiring a lawyer or spending days/weeks of your own time doing what's necessary to fight the ticket yourself. Most of us have jobs and responsibilities that make that very difficult, if not impossible. And it can be very intimidating for a layman to go up against the system, subpoenaing records, questioning the ticketing officer in open court -- and so on. By challenging the system in this way, one also runs the very real risk of antagonizing the court -- and becoming the target of an angry judge looking to "teach someone a lesson." It's true you can always appeal a conviction (in many states, a traffic law case may even entitle you to a jury trial, if you want to take it that far). But that involves yet more time, yet more expense. How much of either can you afford to spend on a traffic ticket beef?
Yes, there's the principle involved. If it's a really unjust ticket, you may be motivated to go all the way -- and do whatever it takes to beat the rap. But sometimes, it's smart to pick your battles -- and go for the best outcome you can realistically hope for given time and other constraints.

Why Car Makers Love Inflatable Gorillas And Helium Balloons

2010-08-06T20:37:00.000-07:00

Do End Of Season Sales Really Work?

August marks the time of year that we see the worst the auto industry has to offer in terms of advertising. Summer to auto advertisers is kind of like summer TV programming is to the networks. Programs that run in the summer are usually forgettable, as networks roll out a long succession of reruns and a few pilots that are under consideration for the regular season but just as many that have no chance of ever being picked up.
When I was at Chrysler I loathed this time period because it was mandated that we create a sale event campaign to help clear out those last vehicles of the model year to make room for the new cars that would come for the fall. Except that sometimes the quantities we had to sell were closer to launch volumes than a clearance. We would do our very best to be creative, and sometimes we did well, but others we really mucked up.
My favorite was probably the Lee Iacocca and Snoop Dogg sales event that we ran during the waning days of the summer in 2005. People may have watched it the way they watch an oncoming train wreck, but we did stick out from the pack and drive a few more sales. And those two things, standing out and selling more cars, are the most important elements of determining if your ad has done its job.
So let's take a peek at what the auto industry has served up this summer.
1. Kia's Sweet Summer Sales Event
This ad is as cheesy as it gets, but I do like the music. It’s the music that you remember more than anything when you see this ad, even if you don't remember Kia -- or any of its products. Unfortunately, the silly ice cream truck driver with his goofy hat, ridiculous “thumbs-up,” and, um, ice cream-eating grin, sticks out much more than any of the Kia vehicles. The real meat in this sandwich is the $149 monthly payment offer at the end of the commercial, but I am not sure many people will pay attention that long.
Grade: C+
2. Dodge Tent Event
Have I mentioned that when you use a cute animal or a baby in a spot, you are just admitting defeat? (Yes, I have done it myself, so I know.) The tent sale is one of the oldest sale event tricks in the book, along with the crowded showroom, the clown, the hot dog stand, and balloons and streamers -- overused and uninspired, all. Dodge uses most of these gimmicks in this spot, but adds the gratuitous monkey at the end. The flat, monotone voiceover tries for the sarcastic comedic element, but I’m not sure it was worth the production cost. Lost among all this foolishness is a "return the car if not satisfied" deal for the first 60 days, plus cash back offers. Seems like Chrysler couldn’t decide on one approach, so chose “all of the above.”
Grade: C (And let’s give the monkey A+ of his own)
3. Suzuki Free Gas For Summer Event
This is just 30 seconds of really bad graphics and B-roll footage shot in a desert. Yes, automakers shoot a lot of footage of vehicles driving fast in desert sand and on salt flats and the like. We are all too aware that no one actually drives like this but it is cheap to film there because we don't need permits to close down roads and we don't need to manage props or anything else... even if it is usually quite boring. Suzuki uses some of this footage with these graphics to announce what is probably the most interesting hook of the summer auto ads: Free gas. It stands out, gets repeated several times, and you read it on the screen too, so I walk away knowing very little about Suzukis or even what they really look like (since the desert footage shows little) but I do know about the deal and it might just get them on my list if I am shopping deals. (Maybe it would work better if gas was topping $4/gallon again, too?) Simplicity seems the name of the game here, but my worry is that this kind of ad is so commonplace that I have likely tuned out or clicked away before it started.
Grade: C-

4. Hyundai Uncensored: Sweet Ride

It seems as though Hyundai has copied Ford's “Switch My Ride” campaign in this ad. Basically, it shows customers inside vehicles talking about the product while they are driving. You see almost nothing of the car itself, less than two seconds from my estimate, but plenty of the various customers being showcased. Whether you’re the one talking about how dumb you were to drive that Mercedes, or one of the many proclaiming how sweet a ride the Hyundai is, you get to see yourself reflected in the ad, or so the marketers hope. While this is definitely a "been-there-done-that" ad, it is not a sale ad that risks distressing the brand.
Grade: B-

5. 2011 Chevy Corvette: Still Building Rockets

This ad stands out among the year-end sales event ads, because it’s not one of those at all. Not that it’s terribly original, but it is well done and it sucks you in from the opening, slowly building the anticipation and finishing strong with the ultimate climax that is the 2011 Corvette ZR1 in all its glory, even if we don’t get a really good look at the car. Chevy has to leave you wanting more, after all. American spirit is the prevailing theme and we are rewarded with a true American icon that has been refreshed for the 2011 model year. This ad is refreshing itself amongst the sea of truly bad car advertising we endure in the summer months.
Grade: A- 

6. Kia Soul: Black Sheep

It pains me to say so, but this spot grows on you. When I first saw it, I hated it, but I definitely watched it and remembered it. I went on my Facebook page to ask my "friends" what they thought the worst ads of the summer were and also what they thought of this spot. Twenty people responded and all but one seemed to like it, a lot. If you look online, it's getting rave reviews. Why people in hamster suits rapping over a 20-year-old backing track should be award winning is beyond me but you can't deny the fact that it's catchy music and that the ad shows the vehicle, inside and out, featuring some of its technological elements as well. So entertaining and memorable for sure give it points. That said, Kia seems to be on a roll. Between this ad and its Superbowl ad with the Paul Frank stuffed monkey and his friends, Kia has stumbled upon a cult following which, while potentially annoying to some, will likely help it stand out from the crowd and probably even garner a few sales.

With New 2011 Explorer, Ford Turns Toward Safety

2010-08-06T20:28:00.000-07:00

New Technology Offered In The Wake Of A Decade-Old Disaster

Remember all the doomsaying that surrounded Y2K? People at Ford Motor Company recall it too, except that in their case the 21st Century delivered all the grief that wasn’t forthcoming to the rest of us. In May of 2000, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened a safety investigation into the Ford Explorer, in the very same year that Ford reported record sales of its best-selling SUV, a whopping 445,157 units. When NHTSA dug in, it found that certain Firestone tires experienced a statistically higher rate of failure when installed on Explorers. These blowouts led to an estimated 150 deaths due to crashes and rollovers.
Ford became enmeshed in countless lawsuits over the issue, and the situation became a true public relations nightmare. The reputation of the Explorer was harmed, even as Ford switched tire suppliers, redesigned the vehicle and added safety equipment like stability control. But Explorer sales lagged, and along with a general downturn in sales of large SUV’s, some people still questioned whether the Explorer could be trusted.

Wiping The Slate Clean

A decade later, Ford is in the process of introducing it's all-new 2011 Explorer. This new, seven-passenger model, due in dealerships this winter, couldn't be more different from the Explorers that preceded it.
With sales of truck-based, body-on-frame SUV's now accounting for only single-digit market share, Ford wisely made the new Explorer a unibody vehicle, akin to the crossover class that’s currently the most popular thing going in auto sales. Over this new, car-based Explorer, Ford layered on safety features like phyllo dough in baklava. In other words, don't expect the new Explorer to make headlines for behaving badly.

Naturally More Resistant To Rollovers

Generally, car-based vehicles are more stable than traditional truck-based SUVs because they have lower centers of gravity. Vehicles made with unitized bodies -- as opposed to body-on-frame designs -- ride lower, making them tougher to flip over. This is certainly the case when comparing the 2010 model to the new 2011 Explorer. The new unibody model rides about two inches lower, as well as being nearly five inches wider and three inches longer. If you're looking for improved stability, lower, wider and longer is better.

The Explorer shares some of its underbody components with the Ford Taurus and Ford Flex. Even though it is car-based, Ford engineers knew the Explorer still needed to be an SUV that’s tough enough to do things like towing and driving off-road, so much of this stuff has been significantly strengthened. A spokesperson told us that the Explorer still had to pass Ford's truck durability test regimen because the company considers the vehicle an SUV and not a crossover.

Electronics Deliver More Dynamic Control

Click To See The Top Selling SUVs

Tests of the old Explorer following the NHTSA investigation highlighted the role driver error may have played in some of the rollover incidents. Because taller SUVs are fundamentally more prone to rolling, it takes more skill to safely control one during an emergency maneuver.
Ford recognized this truth and added stability control to its SUVs in 2002 as an option, and made it standard in 2005. The system included the ability to sense and help prevent the onset of a roll over. Electronic sensors detect when the vehicle is in trouble, and then jump into action to do what is necessary to keep the vehicle under control. Engine power can be reduced while individual wheel brakes can be precisely activated to pull the SUV back in line.
The 2011 Explorer debuts a new stability-enhancing feature called Curve Control. Building on the capabilities of AdvanceTrac stability control, Curve Control can sense when a driver enters a curve too quickly and then automatically apply the brakes to slow the vehicle up to 10 mph in just one second. Ford engineers told us that this can make the difference between the driver making it around a corner -- or taking an unplanned off-road excursion that ends with a trip to the hospital.
Another new electronically enhanced safety feature is the optional collision warning system. When the optional forward-facing radar (used for the automatic cruise control) detects something in the vehicle’s path, it signals a visual and audible warning. Then, anticipating the driver's next move, as the driver releases pressure on the accelerator pedal to slow down, the brakes will automatically engage to begin slowing the Explorer. This can dramatically reduce emergency stopping distances. As for how it feels in action, we'll let you know after we have an opportunity to test it ourselves.

Inflatable Rear Safety Belts

Ford also added an important new passive safety feature to the 2011 Explorer's option list: Inflatable rear safety belts. The new bag-in-belt system supplements the full complement of airbags already standard in the Explorer, including a three-row canopy bag designed to be effective in side impacts and rollover events.
The new inflatable safety belts help protect those in the second-row outboard seats. Upon impact, the rear belts incorporate airbags that help to spread the deceleration load on the occupant over a larger surface area of the body. This helps to reduce the opportunity of serious injury.

Driving Away From Distraction

There's no question that the devices drivers bring into a vehicle can distract them from what's happening on the road. Regardless, there seems to be no stopping drivers from using phones and MP3 players on the road, so Ford attacked the problem head on.
The optional MyFord Touch system attempts to make a driver's interaction with their devices less distracting. The system automatically pairs with known phones, and MP3 devices can tie into the system using a USB cable or a wireless Bluetooth link. Once the connections are set, drivers can make phone calls or cue up specific music selections using simple voice commands or by using buttons on the steering wheel.
Going beyond offering voice commands, the MyFord Touch system provides five-button controllers for those who find talking to their car silly. Navigating the simple menus on the bright LCD panel set into the instrument panel is easy. If equipped, even more details and choices are shown on the eight-inch LCD touch screen used for the navigation system.
Explaining all of the functions Ford designed into the MyFord Touch system would require its own article, but highlights include being able to receive driving directions from MapQuest and Google Maps, and tagging broadcast songs for later purchase in iTunes. (If you don't understand why this is cool, ask your teenager.)

An Expert Opinion

Russ Rader of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) weighed in on the Explorer, "You know, it's actually a popular misconception that the third-generation Ford Explorers [2002-2005 model years] were more prone to rollovers than other SUVs. Back during the Firestone episode we looked into that, and the four-door Explorers of that vintage were actually less likely to roll over than many other contemporary SUVs."
When asked about how the 2011 Explorer might compare to earlier models, Rader said, "Ford has been aiming high on safety. Several models, including the new Taurus, Ford Flex, and Lincoln MKT are related to the 2011 Explorer and are IIHS Top Safety Picks, our highest rating. We can't state for sure how the new Explorer will perform, but the performance of these other models should be a good indicator of how the Explorer will fare."

While the new Taurus, Flex and Lincoln MKT scored "Good" in each IIHS test, the previous-generation Explorer earned a rating of "Good" only for the front-impact collision test. In side- and rear-impact tests, it managed a rating of "Acceptable."

Beyond Safety

There's more to the 2011 Explorer than just safety. Two new powertrains prove that Ford’s dramatically different approach goes more than skin deep. Ford's corporate 3.5-liter V6 is standard, and with a healthy 290 horsepower (almost as much as the 2010 Explorer with a 4.6-liter V-8), the new Explorer is rated to tow 5,000 pounds. The all-wheel-drive system's Terrain Management system promises to offer true off-road capabilities, as well.
The optional engine for the 4,400-pound Explorer is a 2.0-liter four-cylinder. Fortified with direct injection and a single turbocharger, this EcoBoost engine produces an impressive 237 hp and 250 lb-ft of torque. That’s 27 more horsepower than last year's 4.0-liter V6, and the kicker is that Ford promises it will achieve EPA numbers similar to a six-cylinder Toyota Camry. Although official EPA results are not yet available for the Explorer, the Camry gets 23 miles per gallon combined.
While comparisons to the Camry may seem ironic, given its own tarnished reputation as of late, what’s clear is that the Explorer has evolved. We’ll have to wait to see whether public perception of this redesigned SUV will change in turn.

The Top 10 Cheapest Places To Buy A Car

2010-08-06T20:16:00.000-07:00

Is It Worth Getting On A Plane To Buy A Car? Yes.

It's just plain human nature: Every day, buyers across the country drive their shiny new vehicles off dealership lots, and immediately get the sinking feeling that they could have gotten a better deal somewhere else.
But where would that somewhere be? How about Tampa, Atlanta or Washington, D.C.? Those are the best markets in the country for car shopping. A few other cities, such as San Francisco, Dallas and Los Angeles might have done the trick, too, if a trip to the Eastern seaboard were out of the question. These and a few other metropolitan areas boast the greatest discounts off a vehicle’s manufacturer’s suggested retail price, according to data analyzed from the AOL Autos Best Deal Program.
New vehicle prices in the Tampa-Orlando area, the top discount market, averaged 10 percent below their manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP). Prices averaged 9.9 percent below MSRP in the Baltimore-Washington area, and 9.4 percent under MSRP in Atlanta.
The study also found that best states for car shopping were Maryland (with an 8.1 percent discount off MSRP), Virginia (with 7.6 percent) and Florida (with 7.5 percent).
There is a practical use for these figures. Once armed with the data, consumers may decide it’s worth their while to drive 100 miles or so for a particular deal. But with the deals topping out mostly on the coasts, it might even make financial sense from time to time to jump on a plane and take delivery of a car 1,000 miles or more from home. Indeed, some people are doing just that.

Hop A Flight, Book A Dinner Reservation

Market	Average % Off MSRP
Tampa/Orlando, FL	10.0%
Baltimore/DC Area	9.9%
Atlanta, GA	9.4%
Newark, NJ	9.3%
Los Angeles, CA	9.1%
Dallas, TX	8.8%
Philadelphia, PA	8.8%
Miami, FL	8.4%
Boston, MA	8.2%
San Francisco, CA	8.1%

It’s possible for consumers to adopt a medium- or long-distance strategy for a simple reason: Dealers in the program commit to a price before buyers show up. In the past, consumers could not count on that, said J.R. Lang, pricing manager at Zag, AOL Autos’ partner for its Best Deal program. And without real-time data, they probably wouldn’t have known about a good deal in a timely fashion in the first place, he said.
For instance, an eight to 10 percent discount on a 2010 Cadillac CTS sedan could certainly justify the plane fare, and perhaps a dinner and a nice hotel room to boot. It could translate into savings of as much as $3,500 off MSRP in the country’s most competitive car markets. If you bought a CTS in your hometown for roughly the invoice price of $33,231 to $47,786 -- potentially a good deal in some locales – you would miss out on the extra savings of $1,500 to $2,000 in a more competitive car market.
And if you prefer to stay close to home, the mere knowledge that consumers are getting an average discount of 8.8 percent off MSRP in Dallas or Philadelphia could be a bargaining chip in your negotiations with a local dealer.
“If consumers see pricing in other metro markets, they can leverage that information,” Lang said.

Discounts On Many Models

Click to Get No Hassle Pricing with the AOL Autos Best Deal Program

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See Local Dealers Ranked and Rated

For its study, Zag zeroed in on a range of popular cars, price levels and body styles. To be part of the Best Deals program, more than 3,400 participating dealers across the country are required to provide real-time pricing information to the company.
Zag sifted through the data to find pricing for 10 sample vehicles, including the 2011 BMW 328i, 2010 Cadillac CTS, 2010 Chevrolet Traverse, 2010 Ford F-150 SuperCrew, 2010 Honda Accord sedan, 2010 Honda Civic sedan, 2010 Hyundai Elantra, 2010 Mazda3, 2010 Nissan Altima, and 2011 Toyota Camry. Given the broad range of models, Zag analysts believe its figures reflect general pricing trends.
The analysts averaged the maximum discounts being offered on the models for its metro-area ranking. For its ranking of states, it made a calculation based on average vehicle discounts. Either way, the savings end up substantial.
The best metro markets were all areas with lots of dealerships, suggesting that competition between them is a key factor in increasing discounts and lowering prices. “These are areas where dealerships are really competing for business and customers are winning,” Karim O’Driscoll, Zag’s director of pricing strategy, said.
The study also revealed a surprise. In some cases, the best prices are found on the outer edges of metro areas. The analysts concluded that dealerships there are forced compete aggressively with urban stores that are a relatively short drive away. But in the end, they can offer the best prices because their cost structures are also leaner.
It’s no secret that discounts tend to be least available in rural areas, simply because the competition is less intense. “There may not be many BMW dealers out in the most picturesque parts of a state,” O’Driscoll said.

Continental GT

2010-07-11T08:01:00.000-07:00

Model	Continental GT
Manufacturer	Bentley Motors Ltd
Apprx. Price	Rs. 2,05,00,000

Continental Flying Spur

2010-07-11T07:27:00.000-07:00

Model	Continental Flying Spur - -
Manufacturer	Bentley Motors Ltd
Apprx. Price	Rs. 2,00,00,000

Brooklands

2010-07-11T07:17:00.001-07:00

Model	Brooklands - -
Manufacturer	Bentley Motors Ltd
Apprx. Price	Contact Dealer

Azure

2010-07-11T07:14:00.000-07:00

Model	Azure
Manufacturer	Bentley Motors Ltd
Apprx. Price	Rs. 3,50,00,000

Arnage - T

2010-07-11T07:10:00.000-07:00

Model	Arnage - T
Manufacturer	Bentley Motors Ltd
Apprx. Price	Rs. 2,25,00,000

Model	Arnage - T
Manufacturer	Bentley Motors Ltd
Apprx. Price	Rs. 2,25,00,000

2011 Ford Fiesta, Starting MSRP $13,320 – $17,120

2010-05-02T05:21:00.000-07:00

Ford says the Fiesta is Europe's best-selling car so far this year, but there hasn't been a U.S. model that has carried that name since 1980. What's more, America is not Europe, and despite an uptick in entry-level models, our tolerance for the tiny car remains in doubt. Ford wagers this: The new Fiesta is nimble and fuel efficient, sharply styled and well appointed. But in a segment where some competitors have managed to fit big room into a small car, this one remains cramped.

In effect, the Fiesta has plenty of sizzle — but you'll have to give up some space. My prediction? America is about to get a little more European.

With a manual or automatic transmission, the front-wheel-drive Fiesta sedan comes as a sedan or hatchback. Sedan trims comprise the S, SE or SEL; the hatchback comes as an SE or SES. Click here to compare them.
Kinetic Styling
Another automaker, another buzzword. Hyundai calls its design ethos "fluidic sculpture"; Ford makes a big deal out of the Fiesta's "kinetic styling." Kinetic is hardly new — in recent years PR scribes have attributed it to cars from the Nissan 370Z to the Acura ZDX — but, true to form, it works here. The Fiesta's rising beltline and sharp nose give the sense of movement; its short overhangs and taut sheet metal look as European as … well, the European Fiesta that's been sold globally since late 2008. This is not some watered-down U.S. version, as the Ford Focus has been for much of the past decade. It looks good.

You wouldn't think it by the Fiesta's narrow stance, but it's actually slightly wider than competitors including the Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris and Nissan Versa. Its 34.4-foot turning circle, however, ties the Fit for worst among that group.

The base Fiesta S has body-colored windows and mirrors — a premium touch, given its sub-$14,000 price — while SE models add a body-colored grille. The grille is slightly different between the sedan and hatch; check out the photos to see how they differ. Fifteen-inch alloy wheels are optional on the Fiesta SE. The SEL sedan and SES hatch get 16-inch alloys, along with some nice lighting elements.
Get-Up & Go
The Fiesta's sole offering, a 120-horsepower, 1.6-liter four-cylinder, moves the car capably around town; drive solo, and this should suffice for all your local errands. Getting up to highway speeds requires a steady prod on the accelerator, and uphill stretches call up the engine's full reserves to maintain speed, but this is the norm in the entry-level class.

The five-speed manual has medium throws and a light clutch, but I wonder why Ford didn't offer a six-speed. Curvy mountain roads had me swapping second and third gear, which are just too far apart. Wind out second to get some satisfying high-rev punch, then third dumps you to a feeble 2,500 rpm. Fourth and fifth, in contrast, seem too close together: Earnest passing on the interstate can't be done with either, forcing you down to an engine-howling third. Six manual gears, with more even spacing, would do a lot of good.

In a class where most competitors have four- or five-speed automatics, the Fiesta's optional six-speed, dual-clutch auto is mechanically impressive. As is often the case for dual-clutch automatics, however, it isn't the smoothest. Encounter stopped traffic on a city boulevard, and pulling out to pass requires a long gap — not because the Fiesta's engine can't muster the power, but because the automatic takes so bloody long to kick down. It eventually stumbles down two or three gears in quick succession, but others — the Versa's CVT automatic, for one — are far more responsive. I noticed a few jarring transitions getting back to first gear in the Fiesta, and there's no manual control to take matters into your own hands. Ford's transmission is nowhere near the train wreck that Smart employs in the single-clutch ForTwo, but other automatics are more responsive.

That said, in undemanding situations, the automatic behaves like any other — and don't forget the Fiesta's price. This is an entry-level car, after all.

With a five-speed manual transmission, Ford expects the Fiesta to earn EPA ratings of 29/38 mpg (city/highway); the dual-clutch automatic will get an even better 30/38 mpg, an engineer estimated. An optional Superior Fuel Economy Package on the automatic-equipped Fiesta SE, which adds aerodynamic enhancements and low-rolling-resistance tires, bumps that up to 30/40 mpg. Those figures top the current class-leading Toyota Yaris — in the automatic SFE's case, by around 10 percent. Impressive.

2011 Hyundai Sonata, Starting MSRP $19,195 – $25,295

2010-05-02T05:16:00.000-07:00

The Toyota Camry and Honda Accord have battled for supremacy in the midsize-sedan segment for what seems like forever. In truth, it's been nearly a decade that the two have been swapping the title as best-selling car in the U.S. In its last generation, the Hyundai Sonata was barely a blip on the radar, proving a solid value in this segment, but nothing particular noteworthy.

The 2011 Sonata's radical new design is the first shot across the bows of Toyota's and Honda's flagships. While those Japanese sedans' style fades into any parking lot in a sea of sameness, the new Sonata will turn heads.

The car comes up short to both the big boys in terms of performance, but it's a close race, especially for those who care most about comfort. The Sonata still wins out on value, though, and that, along with its styling, could sway the shopping public.
Exterior
When you tell someone a car is "all-new," it better look it, or they might not believe you. Taking a gander at the 2011 Sonata, with its large chrome grille, unique chrome strip along the front fenders and sloping roofline, some might not even know it's a Hyundai. Heck, people who might have turned their noses up at the old Sonata will turn their heads to see this one.

The design itself mimics the Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class, but that was a breakthrough design. The four-door-coupe look it adopts usually hampers space in the backseat, but not in the Sonata. Nor does it create a really big blind spot. It just looks good.

Interior
If the exterior is a dramatic leap forward for Hyundai, the inside is less of one, but it gives up little compared with others in its class. Materials are above average, but don't get caught up in that. The most impressive aspect here is the styling of the interior.

The steering wheel is one of the most radical I've seen in any car, with two scalene triangles carved into the lower half to create four spokes. These smaller, triangular grasps are covered in a rubberized grip that feels high-tech. Buttons on the wheel for the stereo, cruise control and Bluetooth — all standard — are also placed very well. Acura should take some notes here.

The shifter and other controls are equally upscale. Air-conditioning controls use a person-shaped button arrangement, like in Volvo's newer models, to determine where airflow is needed, and there are just a few buttons and knobs to do the rest. Compare that with the overly busy Ford Fusion or Accord — each with dozens of buttons — and the Sonata has more in common with Volvo's simple and elegant center stack.

The base GLS trim I tested had cloth seats that were on the firm side but very comfortable, with sculpted bolsters that grip you lightly. I evaluated the car against seven popular competitors, and the seats compared well with the Accord's (too stiff) and the Camry's (comfortable, but lacking the Sonata's bolstering). The Sonata's seats remind me a bit of the Goldilocks tale: They're just right.

You also get a ton of room, though specs aren't everything. At 45.5 inches, front legroom is significantly bigger than in the Accord (42.5) and Camry (41.7).

Rear legroom, however, is smaller versus the standard-bearers. The Sonata gives you 34.6 inches, while the Accord and Camry offer 37.2 and 38.3 inches, respectively. For both sets of specs, though, real-world space seemed similar in all three vehicles up front, while the Sonata felt slightly more cramped in back. That said, there's still plenty of room for most rear passengers.

The trunk is also plenty big; at 16.4 cubic feet, it's only slightly smaller than a Fusion (16.5) and Mazda6 (16.6). It bests both the Camry and Accord by 1.4 and 2.4 cubic feet, respectively, but as far as useful space the Sonata's advantage isn't tremendous.
Performance
If you're thinking this sexy-looking sedan matches its racy design with a sporty driving experience, you're dead wrong. The Sonata almost manages to out-Camry the Camry in terms of isolated road feel. It glides idyllically over smooth roads, with little wind or road noise. I can see this being a commuter car with few rivals. When you encounter bumpy concrete highways, however, the suspension ups the floaty feel of a Camry by a few degrees.

Likewise, the Sonata's steering and handling are quite vague. The tires squealed during hard cornering; none of the competitors we pitted it against struggled as much. Body lean through sharp turns was also severe. Most drivers aren't likely to take the Sonata to such extremes, but mountain roads proved challenging even at speeds lower than the posted limit. There's a sport-tuned Sonata SE that might prove better in that regard.

The 198-horsepower, 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine is plenty powerful, though. It has to be, because no V-6 is offered — though Hyundai will offer a turbocharged four-cylinder with V-6-like power later in 2010. When you accelerate with purpose, the six-speed automatic transmission replies accordingly, and a nice sprint gets you into highway traffic. If you're cruising absent-mindedly around town running errands, though, the transmission seems a bit slow to find the right gear. Mileage is at the top of the class, estimated at 24/35 mpg city/highway with the six-speed manual and 22/35 mpg with the six-speed automatic.

The SE trim, which promises a sportier driving experience, gets 18-inch wheels, a sport-tuned suspension and an engine that's tuned a bit more energetically, bumping power to 200 hp.

Overall, the Sonata performs well for its class but doesn't handle like an Accord. Nor does it have the solid acceleration of a four-cylinder Nissan Altima or Mazda6.
Features
Starting at $19,195, the Sonata is $200 less than a Camry and $500 less than a Fusion when all are equipped with manual transmissions. Adding an automatic brings the Sonata's price up to $20,195.

At that, you get standard 16-inch steel wheels with plastic covers, cruise control, air conditioning, Bluetooth, USB/iPod integration and steering-wheel audio controls.

For $750, a popular equipment package adds 16-inch alloy wheels, a power-adjustable driver's seat and automatic headlights.

The base GLS can also get a navigation system as part of a $1,700 package that also adds a premium sound system. Our tester had the automatic, both packages and $100 floormats, bringing the total MSRP — including a $720 destination fee — to $23,465. That compared very favorably with four-cylinder competitors we had on hand; none of them had a manufacturer-supplied navigation system at that price or even slightly higher.

Speaking of navigation systems, Hyundai's is quite slick, with simple controls, an easy-to-reach touch-screen and crisp graphics. The upgraded sound system was also quite good.

The SE trim level ($22,595) adds a six-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters, push-button start, fog lights, power seats with leather inserts, a leather-wrapped steering wheel and shifter, and the performance features mentioned above, all standard.

The Limited ($25,295) adds 17-inch wheels, a six-speed automatic transmission but no paddle shifters, fog lights, push-button start, dual-zone automatic climate control, rear floor vents, a premium sound system, heated leather seats in front and back, HomeLink, an auto-dimming rearview mirror and a power moonroof.
Safety
The 2011 Sonata is an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Top Safety Pick, which goes a long way toward establishing Hyundai as a brand that not only sells inexpensive, mass-market cars, but also cars that offer peace of mind.

An electronic stability system is standard, as are six airbags. A backup camera is included with the navigation system only on the top-of-the-line Limited trim. We're not sure why you can get the navigation system but not the camera on other trim levels.
Sonata in the Market
Based on price alone, the new Sonata goes a long way toward wooing current Camry owners and others shopping the segment. The value, comfort and safety it packs for that price are as hard to ignore as is the bombardment of commercials promoting the new sedan.

I suspect only die-hard Accord owners — in love with that model's crisp handling — will fail to be impressed after test-driving a Sonata. The rest of the segment — which is beyond sizable — better look out.

Used 2000 Toyota Vitz - PKR 639,000

2010-05-02T04:58:00.000-07:00

Price: Rs. 639,000

Model & Registration Details

Technical Details

Make:	Toyota	Engine Type:	Petrol
Model:	Vitz	Transmission:	Automatic
Year:	2000	Engine Capacity:	1000
Location:	Lahore	Cylinders:	4
Mileage:	Call Km	Exterior Color:	Tea Pink
Car Registration City:	Lahore	Type of Seats:	Original Fabirics

Features

Air Bags, Air Conditioning, Power Windows, Power Steering, Power Locks, Keyless Entry, Power Mirrors, AM/FM Radio, Cassette Player, CD Player

Seller Comments

Model = 2000. Imported in = 2006. Registered in = 2008. Come and see, as good as new. The interior is as if it is brand new.. Exterior is total genuine... perfect. Air Bags... Digital Meter... Very nice condition, a must see car. Amazing color. Contact Noman: 0321-9423002 & 03009423002

Seller Info

truestrings

By Email: Send Email

By Phone:

Used 2009 Honda Civic - PKR 1,950,000

2010-05-02T04:36:00.000-07:00

Price: Rs. 1,950,000 Ad_active Ftrd-tag-detail

Model & Registration Details

Technical Details
Make: Honda Engine Type: Petrol
Model: Civic Transmission: Automatic
Year: 2009 Engine Capacity: 1800cc
Location: Lahore Cylinders: 4
Mileage: 6,000 Km Exterior Color: Black
Car Registration City: Lahore Type of Seats: Original
Features

Air Bags, Air Conditioning, Power Windows, Power Steering, Power Locks, Keyless Entry, Power Mirrors, ABS, AM/FM Radio, CD Player, Sun Roof, Alloy Rims
Seller Comments

Scratchless Customized with all untouched origional accessories (sports) Bought in November 2009
Seller Info

Bilalb19 Bilalb19

By Email: Send Email

By Phone:

Used Tractor Tires Are Cheaper

2010-05-02T04:12:00.001-07:00

Cheap tractor tires are the perfect choice for people worrying about messing up expensive tires or looking good. If you know about something about tires, you know there aren't a lot of quality cheap tractor tires on the market. If you really need a cheap tire, you may want to look for a used tractor tire.

The market is filled with tires; if you go to your nearest tire retailer you will see racks and racks of different tires to choose from. There are different brands, and some are significantly more expensive than others. However, if you simply need a tire to help you do the job, go with the cheaper tire. Just make sure to rotate the tire and keep the right amount of air pressure in the tire.

There are a few things that you need to know about your tires before you make a purchase, yes, they all look the same, but there are many differences in many of the tires that you see in front of you at a tire shop. If you went and asked the tire person selling you the tires, he would be able to find a tire that suits your needs by asking a few quick questions and give you a small tire lesson.

The main difference between a cheap tire and a more expensive tire is durability. The more expensive tires tend to last longer, even though they look the same. The low quality of the material and construction is what separates a cheap tire from the more expensive ones.

Something else that you may want to know is that the cheaper brand will not make your tractor more fuel efficient. If you know anything about tractors you will know that they take a lot of fuel. Now, you may be trying to figure out how a tire saves you fuel, but again, the more expensive tractor tires that say they save on fuel have gone through a ton of tests so that they can keep true to this claim.

Here's a little secret you may not be aware of; a lot tire shops often sell retreaded tires. If you are really looking for really cheap tires to hold you over for a week or two, you might want to go this route. Many of these tires are name brand, the only difference is that their treads were worn out.

Now that the treads are worn out, the tires are usually sold back to the tire shop. The tire shop will fit new treads on the tire, and sell them at a deep discount compared to brand new tires. If you're not worried about the tread and need a tire immediately to hold you over for a little while, you should definitely pick up a retread tire.

Technically, used tires are tires that were once used by other tractors, and discarded when the owner bought new ones. The old tires would be sold as-is. Don't worry about too much because the tire shops will not sell you an unsafe used tire. So you have a choice between purchasing used tires or used retread tires.

How To Help Your Kids When Learning To Drive

2010-05-02T04:06:00.000-07:00

Learning to drive is very much more than just a mechanical action. It is something of a rite of passage. It's time when an adolescent takes a small but significant step towards adulthood. As the ever-supporting parent, it is a time of enormous stress. Firstly, you have to sit in the passenger seat and watch your offspring take their first tentative steps towards flying the nest. You also have put up with this whilst not complaining at the grinding of gears and the smell of burning clutch emanating from your prized mode of transport. And, of course, you have to provide useful tips and safety advice whilst ensuring that all concerned live to drive another day!

However, your position in the passenger seat is a vital one. Driving on modern roads is a heady mixture of good luck, honed technique, and a considerable amount of experience. It is our job to provide this experience at this stage. You should be well place to anticipate pitfalls before tragic consequences ensue.

The trick to avoiding each session riding shotgun turning into a fraught and stressful one is good preparation. Try to practice skills that are currently being taught in their paid for sessions with a qualified instructor. Take each of the necessary skills required one at a time, and have some realistic expectations in your mind for each session.

As suggested, experience is by far the best teacher so give the learner the chance to practice their skills and improve their abilities on a variety of roads in a range of prevailing conditions. Try to take in rush hour traffic and fast, multi-lane, carriageways. The importance of night driving and driving in adverse weather conditions cannot be overstated either.

One tip for safe driving is to give the novice the chance to work with the sort of roads they will spend most of their early driving careers driving on. These are those roads to be found around your home. By example, I lived in a pretty rural location, but did my lesions after work each day in a neighbouring city. I did most of my driving on narrow, winding, lanes despite never having touched upon these during my lessons.

Probably the first place you should pay a visit to should be an empty car park. These wide open spaces are ideal to hone the simple car handling skills like turning and braking, as well as some more advanced concepts. If you can find some traffic cones somewhere, you could have a go at laying out an imaginary route, and perhaps some corners. With just a little imagination you can create an ideal safe environment to practice reversing around corners, gear changes, and the dreaded parallel park!

One very important area you can certainly help with is simple car maintenance checks. These are never covered by typical driving instructors, and as teens will spend at least some of their time driving your car, it would certainly pay to ensure they have the skills to deal with some simple issues. We're talking about such things as changing the wheel in he event of a flat tyre, where to find the jack, and how to check the various fluid levels rather than full engine rebuilds here!

To conclude, if you keep things organised and simple you really can't go too far wrong. Provide some warm up time at the start of each session and turn the inevitable mistakes into valuable lessons. If you approach things with the right attitude you are sure to enjoy this valuable time with your pride and joy. You decide if I'm talking about your car or your offspring!

Vegetable Oil As Fuel, Is It A Solution?

2010-05-02T04:03:00.001-07:00

Is Vegetable oil as fuel a real solution does it really work? Back in the 1900s during the World's Fair Otto company showed an exhibit showing how engines ran on pure peanut oil. Rudolph Diesel himself studied at how vegetable oil could be used as an alternative.

Before you run down to the grocery store and start pouring vegetable oil into the tank of your diesel powered car, there are a few things which you should know. To begin with, the viscosity of vegetable oil is higher than that of diesel that means it's thicker and won't atomize completely when injected into the fuel system.

If you use plain vegetable oil you can stop or clog up the engine which will lead to engine failure and needless to say hundreds of dollars to clean out or a whole new engine all together and we all know that isn't cheap.

There are several different methods that have been tried to fix the problem such as diluting or mixing the vegetable oil with diesel or kerosene. There are many companies on the market that will sell you hundreds of dollars worth of solvents to complete the atmoization but they don't work it all must be done properly in order to function correctly.

The new and easiest way to use the two tank system is by placing diesel fuel in one side and the other with vegetable oil with the proper heating elements and proper combinations the two can be mixed together and therefore run your vehicle just like putting gas into your car now.

The newer model engines can run on vegetable oil because of the single tank system that is involved and the use of fuel injectors, injector pressure and other modifications to provide seamless vegetable oil. They are making the pre-heaters which allow the vegetable oil to be heated to a certain temperature so that is can go into the fuel system and run properly. They also come with an automatic feature that allows the car to stop automatically or turn off during cold temperatures.

So to answer the first question yes the use of vegetable oil to run a car is possible and a alternative to fossil fuels. With today's technology and new things coming out everyday it is possible to run your engine on vegetable oil.

Cadillac CTS-V Coupe Style, Luxury & Performance

2010-01-27T08:57:00.000-08:00

TOKYO AUTO SALON 2009 - LUXURY CRYSTAL BENZ : DigInfo

2010-01-27T08:55:00.000-08:00

1967 Rolls Royce Phantom V Queen Elizabeth ll Tour Vehicle

2010-01-27T08:53:00.000-08:00

The Bugatti Experience - www.Bugatti.com

2010-01-27T08:52:00.000-08:00

Auto Show: Luxury Cars

2010-01-27T08:50:00.000-08:00

Audi 2009 Super Bowl Commercial: 60 Second Spot

2010-01-27T08:48:00.002-08:00

Dubai Cars Luxury Automobiles Mall of the Emirates

2010-01-27T08:48:00.001-08:00

Top Gear - Mazda RX8 - BBC

2010-01-09T08:54:00.000-08:00

Top Gear - Richard Hammond struck by lightning in car - BBC

2010-01-09T08:53:00.000-08:00

Mercedes-Benz Introduces New S-Class in China

2010-01-09T08:52:00.000-08:00

Top Gear - ranks cars on the cool scale - BBC

2010-01-09T08:51:00.000-08:00

Top Gear - BMW Alpina road test - BBC

2010-01-09T08:50:00.002-08:00

Top Gear - Grannies handbreak turn automobiles pt 2 - BBC

2010-01-09T08:50:00.001-08:00

THE NATIONAL PARKS: AMERICA'S BEST IDEA | Automobiles | PBS

2009-12-28T09:25:00.000-08:00

Top Gear / BBC: Car Darts!! - Top Gear

2009-12-28T09:24:00.000-08:00

Automobiles: Ford's New Electric Car - NYTimes.com/video

2009-12-20T09:00:00.000-08:00

Vehicles

2009-12-16T08:22:00.000-08:00

This article is about the means of transport. For other uses, see Vehicle (disambiguation).

Automobiles are among the most commonly used engine-powered vehicles

A vehicle (Latin: vehiculum) is a mechanical means of conveyance, a carriage or transport. Most often they are manufactured (e.g. bicycles, cars, motorcycles, trains, ships, boats, and aircraft), although some other means of transport which are not made by humans also may be called vehicles; examples include icebergs and floating tree trunks.

Vehicles may be propelled or pulled by engines or animals including humans, for instance, a chariot, a stagecoach, a mule-drawn barge, an ox-cart or rickshaw. However, animals on their own, though used as a means of transport, are not called vehicles, but rather beasts of burden or draft animals. This distinction includes humans carrying another human, for example a child or a disabled person. Means of transport without a vehicle or animal would include walking, running, crawling, or swimming.

Vehicles that do not travel on land often are called craft, such as watercraft, sailcraft, aircraft, hovercraft, and spacecraft

Land vehicles are classified broadly by what is used to apply steering and drive forces against the ground: wheeled, tracked, railed, or skied.

[edit] History of vehicles

The oldest boats to be found by archaeological excavation are logboats from around 7,000-9,000 years ago,^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]
a 7,000 year-old seagoing boat made from reeds and tar has been found in Kuwait.^[5]
Boats were used between 4000BCE-3000BCE in Sumer,^[6] ancient Egypt^[7] and in the Indian Ocean.^[6]
There is evidence of camel pulled wheeled vehicles about 3000-4000 BCE.^[8]
The earliest evidence of a wagonway, a predecessor of the railway, found so far was the 6 to 8.5 km long Diolkos wagonway, which transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece since around 600 BC.^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13] Wheeled vehicles pulled by men and animals ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element, preventing the wagons from leaving the intended route.^[13]

Railways began reappearing in Europe after the Dark Ages. The earliest known record of a railway in Europe from this period is a stained-glass window in the Minster of Freiburg im Breisgau dating from around 1350.^[14]

In 1515, Cardinal Matthäus Lang wrote a description of the Reisszug, a funicular railway at the Hohensalzburg Castle in Austria. The line originally used wooden rails and a hemp haulage rope, and was operated by human or animal power, through a treadwheel.^[15]^[16]

1769 Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is often credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in about 1769, by adapting an existing horse-drawn vehicle, this claim is disputed by some^{[citation needed]}, who doubt Cugnot's three-wheeler ever ran or was stable.

In Russia, in the 1780s, Ivan Kulibin developed a human-pedalled, three-wheeled carriage with modern features such as a flywheel, brake, gear box, and bearings; however, it was not developed further.^[17]

1783 Montgolfier brothers first Balloon vehicle

Richard Trevithick built and demonstrated his Puffing Devil road locomotive in 1801, believed by many to be the first demonstration of a steam-powered road vehicle, although it was unable to maintain sufficient steam pressure for long periods, and would have been of little practical use.

push bikes draisines, or hobby horses were the first human means of transport to make use of the two-wheeler principle, the draisine (or Laufmaschine, "running machine"), invented by the German Baron Karl von Drais, is regarded as the forerunner of the modern bicycle (and motorcycle). It was introduced by Drais to the public in Mannheim in summer 1817.^[18]

1885 Otto Lilienthal began experimental gliding, and achieved the first sustained, controlled, reproducible flights.

1903 Wright brothers flew the first controlled, powered aircraft

1928 Opel RAK.1 rocket car

1961 Vostok vehicle carried first man (Yuri Gagarin) into space

1969 Apollo Program first manned vehicle lands on the moon

[edit] Power source

Vehicles may be powered by fuels, such as petroleum or diesel, nuclear power, wind, waves, batteries, electrical power, solar energy, gravity, human or animal power and other chemical reactions and physical sources of energy have seen some use.

[edit] Motors

The power is converted into some kind of motion by a "motor". Engines commonly include steam engines, internal combustion engines (including jet engines and gas turbines) or electric motors. Muscles perform this function in animals. Other schemes are sometimes used.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Movement

Vehicles use different means to permit or ease movement. These are commonly in the form of wheels, boat or submarine hulls, skis, caterpillar tracks, skates, wings, rotors or cushions of air or jets of air. Lighter than air lifting and rocket power have also been used. Trains use tracks, either with wheels resting on them, or in a few cases using magnetic levitation. Cable cars are suspended from cables which move. Legs are used on experimental mechanical systems.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Propulsion

Propulsion is achieved in different ways. It can be achieved by an animal's legs that pulls a vehicle or by wheels that provide torque, by jet propulsion, a propeller or sometimes linear electric motors. Cables can also be attached to a vehicle, as in some funiculars. Wind powered vehicles such as yachts are nearly always directly propelled by the wind, but some unusual forms use the power of the wind to turn wheels.

Some gravity powered vehicles such as glider aircraft, street luge and soapbox cars have no in-built propulsion system.

[edit] Vehicle metrics

Main article: Vehicle metrics

There are a broad range of metrics that denote the relative capabilities of various vehicles. Most of them apply to all vehicles while others are type-specific.

[edit] Types of vehicles

Further information: Automobile and car

[edit] Bicycle

A pedal-powered quadracycle parked on a Canadian urban street amongst the cars

see Bicycles (see also Vehicular Cycling)

see main article History of the bicycle

[edit] Rickshaw

A rickshaw is a vehicle that may carry a human and be powered by a human, but it is the mechanical form or cart that is powered by the human that is labeled as the vehicle. For some human-powered vehicles the human providing the power is labeled as a driver.

[edit] Tricycle

see Tricycle

[edit] Quadracycle

see Quadracycle (human-powered vehicle)

[edit] Velomobile

see Velomobile

A velomobile is an enclosed human powered vehicle.

[edit] Electric road carriages

see electric vehicle

see history of the electric vehicle

[edit] Steam road carriage

see steam car

[edit] Steam tricycle

See steam tricycle

At the other end of the scale, much lighter steam vehicles have been constructed such as the steam tricycle from the Comte de Dion in 1887.

[edit] Petroleum (gasoline / diesel) motor-carriages

See Benz Patent Motorwagen

See Ford's model T

See Automobile

[edit] Road trains

A road train consists of a conventional heavy truck pulling three trailers or more, used in rural areas of Australia to move bulky loads such as livestock efficiently.

[edit] Motorcycles

See Motorcycle

See Motorcycle sidecar

See Gottlieb Daimler

[edit] Rail-vehicles

see Trains

see Trams

[edit] Road vehicles

see Cars

see Buses

see Trucks

see Vans

[edit] Water vehicles

see Boats

see Ships

[edit] Under-water vehicles

see submarines

see submersibles

see diving bells

see diving chambers

[edit] Land and water vehicles

see Amphibious vehicle

see Amphibious ATV

see Hovercraft

[edit] Air vehicles

see aircraft

see Wing-In-Ground effect vehicle

[edit] Rocket and space vehicles

see spacecraft

see rocket

see launch escape capsule

see ejection seat

[edit] Snow vehicles

see snowmobile

see sleds

[edit] Other types of vehicles

A rickshaw is a vehicle that is powered by a human

[edit] Legislation

Motor vehicle and trailer categories are defined according to the following international classification:^[19]

Category M: passenger vehicles.
Category N: motor vehicles for the carriage of goods.
Category O: trailers and semi-trailers.

Please help improve this article by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (December 2009)

[edit] European Union

In the European Union the classifications for vehicle types are defined by ^[20]:

Commission Directive 2001/116/EC of 20 December 2001, adapting to technical progress Council Directive 70/156/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the type-approval of motor vehicles and their trailers^[21]
Directive 2002/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 March 2002 relating to the type-approval of two or three-wheeled motor vehicles and repealing Council Directive 92/61/EEC

European Community, is based on the Community's WVTA (whole vehicle type-approval) system. Under this system, manufacturers can obtain certification for a vehicle type in one Member State if it meets the EC technical requirements and then market it EU-wide with no need for further tests. Total technical harmonization already has been achieved in three vehicle categories (passenger cars, motorcycles, and tractors) and soon will be extended to other vehicle categories (coaches and utility vehicles). It is essential that European car manufacturers be ensured access to as large a market as possible.

While the Community type-approval system allows manufacturers to benefit fully from the opportunities offered by the internal market, worldwide technical harmonization in the context of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) offers them a market which extends beyond European borders.

[edit] Acronyms and abbreviations

Main article: Vehicle acronyms and abbreviations

[edit] See also

The Trikke is a human-powered vehicle (HPV)

Automobile portal

Main article: Outline of vehicles

[edit] References

^ "Oldest Boat Unearthed". China.org.cn. http://lanzhou.china.com.cn/english/travel/50131.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-05.
^ McGrail, Sean (2001). Boats of the World. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 431. ISBN 0-19-814468-7.
^ "Africa's Oldest Known Boat". wysinger.homestead.com. http://wysinger.homestead.com/canoe.html. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
^ "8,000-year-old dug out canoe on show in Italy". http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/001511.html. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
^ Lawler, Andrew (June 7, 2002). "Report of Oldest Boat Hints at Early Trade Routes". Science (AAAS) 296 (5574): 1791–1792. doi:10.1126/science.296.5574.1791. PMID 12052936. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/296/5574/1791. Retrieved 2008-05-05.
^ ^a ^b Denemark 2000, page 208
^ McGrail, Sean (2001). Boats of the World. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 17–18. ISBN 0-19-814468-7.
^ [1]
^ Verdelis, Nikolaos: "Le diolkos de L'Isthme", Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, Vol. 81 (1957), pp. 526-529 (526)
^ Cook, R. M.: "Archaic Greek Trade: Three Conjectures 1. The Diolkos", The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 99 (1979), pp. 152-155 (152)
^ Drijvers, J.W.: "Strabo VIII 2,1 (C335): Porthmeia and the Diolkos", Mnemosyne, Vol. 45 (1992), pp. 75-76 (75)
^ Raepsaet, G. & Tolley, M.: "Le Diolkos de l’Isthme à Corinthe: son tracé, son fonctionnement", Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, Vol. 117 (1993), pp. 233–261 (256)
^ ^a ^b Lewis, M. J. T., "Railways in the Greek and Roman world", in Guy, A. / Rees, J. (eds), Early Railways. A Selection of Papers from the First International Early Railways Conference (2001), pp. 8-19 (11)
^ Hylton, Stuart (2007). The Grand Experiment: The Birth of the Railway Age 1820-1845. Ian Allan Publishing.
^ Kriechbaum, Reinhard (2004-05-15). "Die große Reise auf den Berg" (in German). der Tagespost. http://www.die-tagespost.de/Archiv/titel_anzeige.asp?ID=8916. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
^ "Der Reiszug - Part 1 - Presentation". Funimag. http://www.funimag.com/funimag10/RESZUG01.HTM. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
^ "Automobile Invention". Aboutmycar.com. http://www.aboutmycar.com/category/car_history/creation_history/automobile-invention-1122.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-27.
^ "Canada Science and Technology Museum: Baron von Drais’ Bicycle". 2006. http://www.sciencetech.technomuses.ca/english/collection/cycles2.cfm. Retrieved 2006-12-23.
^ http://www.acea.be/images/uploads/rf/DEFINITION_OF_VEHICLE_CATEGORIES.pdf
^ Scadplus: Technical Harmonisation For Motor Vehicles
^ Council Directive 70/156/EEC, about Type-approval of motor vehicles and their trailers, Commission Directive 2001/116/EC of 20 December 2001, adapting to technical progress Council Directive 70/156/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the type-approval of motor vehicles and their trailers

[edit] External links

Volkswagen PASSAT - The New Luxury Car

2009-11-21T22:57:00.000-08:00

New Volkaswagen Passat

Volkswagen Interior

Volkswagen Passat 2009

The most awaited Volkswagen “PASSAT” is ready to use. The competitors of its class are to beware. Passat is a family car with a sporty appearance. It is to get both family riders and youth as its customers. Passat is really amazing car both in beauty and performance.
The outer beauty of it is simply great. The front radiator grill is fully furnished in chromium and at the centre of it is the beautiful logo of Volkswagen. The head lamp has a sporty style to attract the youth. Passat is really a big car though it does not seem to be so from out. Such is the design of Passat. The aerodynamic design gives better performance and beauty. Passat also has a chromium rub rail at both the sides. The L.E.D tail lamps, 16 inch alloy wheels and illuminated wing mirrors the beautifying features of Passat.
The interior of Passat is beyond wordy expression. To add comfort and luxury it has leather seat upholstery, three spoke steering wheel, brushed aluminum finish, 8 speaker 6 CD mp3 player, sliding roof, self cleaning head lamp, rain sense ring wiper which works automatically when rains, two way controllable A/C, heat able leather seats, electronic park brake, cruise control, etc.
The front seat is electronically adjustable in 12 ways. Passat is loaded with 8 air bags for the security of the passengers. Passat is also loaded with ESP, ABS and all the other modern technologies.
Passat has a 2.0L TDI 103 KW (140 PS) diesel engine with 6 speed automatic DSG gearbox. For better night ride Passat is loaded with Bi-xenon headlights with dynamic cornering light. The 1968cc, 4 cylinder diesel engine of Passat gives 140 bhp @ 4000 rpm. The maximum torque is 320 Nm @ 1750 – 2500 rpm. Both front and rear brakes are equipped with ventilated discs for better protection and control. Passat has 215/55 R16 radial tyres for better grip. The wheel base of it is 2709 mm and the kerb weight is 1476 kg. The fuel tank capacity is 70 litres.
The Volkswagen branded Passat is not very expensive as expected having all these luxuries. It costs Rs. 24.81 lakhs. So, it is the right time to upgrade to Volkswagen Passat.

Personal Luxury Car

2009-11-21T22:55:00.000-08:00

Personal luxury car is a highly styled, luxurious automobile intended for the comfort and satisfaction of its owner/driver, sacrificing passenger space, cargo capacity, and other practical concerns for the sake of style. The personal luxury car has often been a lucrative market segment of the post-World War II automotive market. Definition Personal luxury cars are usually, though not necessarily, two-door coupes or convertibles with two-passenger or 2+2 seating capacity, sometimes with more seats. They are distinguished from GT cars or sports cars by their greater emphasis on comfort and convenience than on performance, although the distinction between a luxury GT and a personal luxury car is often hazy. Personal luxury cars are typically mass produced (rather than custom-bodied), sharing their mechanical components with more prosaic sedans to reduce production costs and increase profitability. A modern example is the Ford Thunderbird. Origins The antecedents of the personal luxury car are the expensive, often custom-bodied sporting luxury cars of the 1920s and 1930s, some of the most prestigious of which were built by Alfa Romeo, Bugatti, Delage, Delahaye, Duesenberg, and Mercedes-Benz. Two well-known examples were the Duesenberg SJ and Mercedes SSK: tremendously fast and stratospherically expensive automobiles eschewing the comfort of pure luxury cars while being too large and heavy to be true sports cars. They nonetheless offered distinctive style, impeccable craftsmanship, and strong performance for wealthy buyers (including film and music stars, kings, and gangsters) who wanted to project a dashing image. The Great Depression and World War II eroded the market for these expensive, bespoke cars, but the postwar era still produced noteworthy examples like the Bentley Continental R Type with its fine two-door body built by H.J. Mulliner. A related, primarily postwar phenomenon was the grand tourer (GT), a relatively comfortable, high-performance car intended for high-speed, long-distance travel. Italy became a major producer of GTs, with marques like Ferrari and Maserati offering distinctive, often custom-bodied models of considerable performance. Alfa Romeo never recovered from the Second World War. This void was filled by Ferrari. Both the bespoke luxury car and the GT were beyond the reach of all but the wealthiest buyers, and the 1950s saw a growing trend in both the United States and Europe towards mass-market "specialty cars" catering to drivers who coveted the image of the bespoke machinery, but who could not afford the cost -- and to wealthier buyers who could afford the genuine article, but disliked the inconvenience and complexity of servicing and repairing it, especially outside of a major urban area where foreign car dealerships were few and far between. Buyers were also interested in automatic transmission, air conditioning, power steering, and other convenience options not generally offered on GTs or sports cars of the day. In its August, 1967 issue, Motor Trend magazine noted that the domestic "luxury speciality cars" of the day (Ford Thunderbird, Buick Riviera, Oldsmobile Toronado, Cadillac Eldorado and Pontiac Grand Prix) appealed to buyers who wanted reliability and durability not found in the exotic European imports of the 1950s along with those aformentioned American-style options which kept them buying American cars." M/T added that "Motorists of just about every stripe can find a now car with pleasing and distinctive lines, good performance and all the things that go to make a car enjoyable." The result was a burgeoning market for "factory customs," models using standard or mostly standard engines and other mechanical components, but with unique styling. A prominent early example was the 1953 Cadillac Eldorado convertible, whose customized styling gave it a price tag nearly twice that of a standard Cadillac rag top despite nearly identical underpinnings. The personal luxury car market segment in the United States was largely defined by the Ford Thunderbird. The first Thunderbird, launched in 1955 and sold through 1957, was a two-seat convertible, but despite its compact size and respectable performance, Ford made no claims that the softly sprung T-bird was a true sports car, calling it a "personal car." Although some Thunderbirds were quite fast for their time, and some successfully competed in various forms of competition, it was more of a compact luxury car than a GT. In 1958 Ford transformed the Thunderbird into a bulkier, four-seat model with a large array of comfort features and styling gimmicks and found it a tremendous success, outselling any of the earlier, two-seat T-birds. While the four-seat Thunderbirds had only average performance and mediocre handling, their airplane and rocketship-inspired design cues found a receptive audience. The personal luxury market emerges Curiously, other U.S. automakers were slow to react to the success of the Thunderbird. It was not until 1962 when Pontiac offered the Pontiac Grand Prix and Buick offered the Wildcat, followed the next year by the Buick Riviera, that the T-Bird had serious competition. By 1970 the segment was growing, and would achieve even greater success in the later 1970s. While Europe's slower economic recovery meant that it did not venture as much into this market until the 1960s, there were exceptions like the DKW 1000Sp, the custom-bodied Alfa Romeo 1900 Sprint, BMW 507, and Mercedes 190SL were popular in the personal luxury market, albeit on a smaller scale. By the 1960s models like the Jaguar E-Type, BMW CS coupes, Citroën SM, and Mercedes SL roadsters, while more expensive and somewhat smaller than their U.S. equivalents, were very much aimed at the same type of market. Indeed, the initial 6-series BMW's of 1977 were very comparable to models like the Riviera: they shared most of their mechanical components with contemporary sedans, offering very similar (and even slightly inferior) performance and less practicality at a higher price, but their distinctive style and image made them desirable automobiles. The decline of the muscle car in the early 1970s coincided with a strong upswing in the personal luxury segment, as buyers shifted emphasis from performance to comfort, although there were some muscle cars that could be classified as personal luxury, such as the Dodge Charger (SE models). The models of that time, including the Lincoln Continental Mark series, Cadillac Eldorado, and Ford Thunderbird, largely abandoned any pretense of sport for a more intimate, luxury-oriented feel, with plush interiors and vintage styling cues like Rolls Royce-style radiator grilles, opera windows, and vinyl tops. They were mechanically uninspired other than the occasional gimmick, but despite high prices and poor fuel economy, they sold well. Decline American 'personal luxury' cars began to die out in the late 1980s as younger buyers moved toward imported European and Japanese cars, or toward sport utility vehicles. After years of steadily declining sales, the Oldsmobile Toronado died after 1992, the Lincoln Mark after 1998, the Buick Riviera after 1999 and the Cadillac Eldorado after 2002. Nevertheless, conceptually similar imports from Japanese manufacturers like Lexus SC and Infiniti and European marques like BMW and Mercedes continue to sell well, even though their vehicles tend to be higher priced than their former American counterparts. Partial list While the vast majority of personal luxury cars came from the United States in the past, most of today's personal luxury cars are sold under German nameplates. American vehicles The Lincoln Mark IV is one of the most iconic American personal luxury cars. The Ford Thunderbird was one of the first American personal luxury cars and arguably the last with production ending for the 2004 model year. American made cars that can be included in the Personal Luxury Car sector include the following. Note that not all model years with cars bearing these names count, since automobile manufacturers often re-use names, sometimes on very different types of car: * Ford Thunderbird - The original personal luxury car, and always one of the best sellers * Ford Elite - The company's first intermediate personal luxury car, obsoleted when the Thunderbird was downsized in 1977 * Oldsmobile Starfire - Until the arrival of the Toronado in 1966 * Oldsmobile Toronado - The first modern American front wheel drive car and one of the first to feature airbags * Buick Riviera - Considered as one of the most beautiful American cars of the 1960s. The 1971-73 models featured a boattail rear end with a wraparound rear window similar to the 1964-67 Corvette Sting Ray and 1964-66 Plymouth Barracuda. * Buick Regal - Was originally an intermediate-sized personal luxury car from 1973 until 1988 * Pontiac Grand Prix - Introduced in 1962, early models are based on the full-sized Pontiac Catalina and Bonneville body but they were always had sportier and more luxurious interiors with bucket seats and featured distinctive styling cues such as different rooflines and cleaner body with a virtual absence of chrome. Beginning in 1969, it shared a platform with the intermediate-sized Pontiac LeMans and GTO, utilizing the intermediate sized car's chassis with a longer wheelbase to permit a longer hood plus more squared off styling. * Chrysler Cordoba - Late to market in 1975, but for several years phenomenally successful * Mercury Cougar - Originally based on the Ford Mustang as a ponycar from 1967 to 1973, the Cougar became a personal-luxury car based on the intermediate platform used for the Ford Torino and Mercury Montego in 1974, then became related to the Ford Thunderbird when that car was downsized to the intermediate Torino chassis in 1977. * Chevrolet Monte Carlo - Introduced in 1970 with the same bodyshell as the Pontiac Grand Prix and related to the Chevrolet Chevelle; again, a much more luxurious car than its stablemate, but considerably smaller and cheaper than the following cars from luxury car brands, which fitted in at the very top end of the personal luxury car market: * Cadillac Eldorado - From 1967 onwards, it shared the front wheel drive drivetrain and other characteristics of the Oldsmobile Toronado * Lincoln Continental Mark Series - From 1968 to 1983, usually sharing the chassis, drivetrain and other parts of the Ford Thunderbird * Imperial - In 1981, this venerable name was briefly resurrected to compete in the personal luxury car market European vehicles * The Alfa Romeo GT appeals to the driver, while still luxurious. * A8 Coupe is an example of a European Personal Luxury Car. * Alfa Romeo GTV * Alfa Romeo Spider * Aston Martin Vanquish * Aston Martin DB9 * Bentley Continental GT * Bentley Azure * BMW 6-Series * BMW 8-Series * Jaguar XK * Maserati Coupe * Mercedes-Benz CLK * Mercedes-Benz CLS * Mercedes-Benz CL * Mercedes-Benz SL * Mercedes-Benz SLK

2002 Honda Stream

2009-09-25T06:17:00.000-07:00

FOB Price: US$5,670

Year / Month 2002/03
Odometer 60,866 km
Displacement 1,700 cc
Steering Right
Transmission Automatic
Fuel Gasoline/Petrol
Model code LA-RN1
Will Sell To
North America, Central and South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Eastern Asia, Southern Asia, Middle East, Oceania, Africa, Caribbean

2008 Honda Freed

2009-09-25T06:04:00.000-07:00

FOB Price US$21,280
Year / Month
2008/08
Odometer 8,566 km
Displacement 1,500 cc
Steering Right
Transmission Automatic
Fuel Gasoline/Petrol
Model code DBA-GB3
Will Sell To
North America, Central and South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Eastern Asia, Middle East, Oceania, Africa, Caribbean

2010 Jaguar XFR

2009-07-09T23:10:00.000-07:00

I can't say I ever thought our Four Seasons Jaguar XF Supercharged needed more power, but the XFR's extra 90 hp is an absolute hoot. The XF's superb chassis easily handles the extra power, and subtle differences in the interior and exterior details let enthusiasts know your XFR is something special.

The interior is blessed with a pair of bucket seats that strike a good balance between comfort and support, a lovely Alcantara headliner, and a nice R decal on the dashboard. Everything looks smart and classy. Jaguar's signature touch-screen infotainment unit is present and as maddening as ever. It works rather well, but the transitions from one screen to another can be incredibly slow.

Unfortunately, we've had a lot of problems with our Four Seasons Jaguar XF, which makes me worry about the XFR. When everything works, the XF is sublime, but when things go wrong, the car is maddening. If I were to opt for the XFR, I'd hope the moments of driving bliss it provides would far outweigh any days it might spend in the shop.

2009 Audi Q7 TDI

2009-07-09T23:06:00.001-07:00

The Q7's 3.0-liter TDI diesel V-6 is a winner. It's so quiet, so smooth, and so powerful. Well, so torquey, I guess I should say, since it has 406 lb-ft, compared with 266 lb-ft for the 3.6-liter gasoline V-6 offered in the base Q7. Cruising at 80 mph on the freeway is effortless, and if you gun it to 90 mph or higher while you're passing, it's as if the engine is not even exerting itself. The powertrain is also very smooth and refined at slower, around-town speeds. It's a very tractable engine, well-mated to its six-speed automatic. Audi estimates a 0-to-60-mph time of 8.5 seconds (not bad for a 5512-pound, 16.7-foot-long crossover) and a range of up to 600 miles in freeway driving, based on the highway EPA rating of 25 mpg and the 26.4-gallon fuel tank.

As for the Q7 itself, well, it looks great inside and out, but it does have some compromises, most having to do with its size. Although it's more than 16 feet long, its tapering roofline impedes on room for both passengers and cargo. The third-row seat is very cramped and suitable only for children, what with its 29.2 inches of legroom and 35.6 inches of headroom. The Mercedes-Benz GL350 Bluetec, by comparison, offers 34.2 inches of third-row legroom and 38.2 inches of headroom.

The Benz weighs about a hundred pounds more than the Audi, but in this behemoth class, we'd call that a draw. Other dimensional comparisons between the GL and the Q7 continue in the Mercedes-Benz's favor: Whereas the Audi provides only 10.9 cubic feet of cargo space when the third-row seats are in use, the GL350 carves out 14.3 cubic feet. Cargo space when the third-row seats are folded---a common scenario for most owners, we'd guess---also slightly favors the Benz, at 43.8 cubic feet, over the Audi, at 42.0 cubic feet. With both the second- and third-row seats folded, the Mercedes measures 83.3 cubic feet and the Audi is 72.5.

Despite its mass, the Q7 feels pretty spritely on the road; I've found this to be true even in the gasoline V-6 model as well as the one powered by Audi's 4.2-liter V-8. On the downside, the ride is a bit harsh over rough pavement; Mercedes has the edge here, as well.

All these quibbles aside, I really like the Q7 in all its iterations, and to have this much performance, utility, style, and prestige in a package that delivers 25 mpg on the freeway while hauling up to seven people is notable.

2010 Nissan GT-R Premium

2009-07-09T23:01:00.000-07:00

With winter finally relegated to a bad memory, it's time to really start enjoying our Nissan GT-R. We did have one boring GT-R experience this spring - taking it in for its 6000-mile service, where it got a routine oil change and a clean bill of health. That's exactly the kind of boring you want from your high-strung supercar. Happily, the GT-R is otherwise anything but boring.

It starts the minute you pull open the door and plop yourself inside. Assistant editor David Zenlea was blown away by the exotic interior, which he says "reminds me of a playing Microsoft Flight Simulator on my old PC in the late '90s. It also shows that a mainline manufacturer can craft a unique, appealing cabin while keeping costs reasonable (are you listening, Chevy?)."

Once underway, naturally, it gets even better. Want to own your own roller coaster? Buy a GT-R. "The sensations it renders during hard acceleration, braking, and cornering are exhilarating, addictive, and second only to Cedar Point's Millennium Force," noted another staffer. "If only it took a souvenir photo of my expression whenever I reach 1.2 g of acceleration..."

Of course, the excitement of the GT-R is not for the driver alone - it's shared with the general public. As web producer Evan McCausland observed: "Chances are, if you're flaunting your GT-R in front of someone under age 35 without eliciting an enthusiastic response, they're Amish." There is, however, a bit of a downside to all the attention - occasionally you disappoint your public. "Sorry, folks, I can't do a burnout, no matter how nicely you ask," continues McCausland. "Even if I really wanted to waste both vulcanized rubber and my driveline at the same time, I couldn't - the GT-R channels power to the front wheels before any smoky drama happens."

But for all the excitement this car causes, there doesn't appear to be any sense of community among GT-R owners. "It seems we don't have the only GT-R in the area," noted another driver. "I passed a white one headed southbound on US-23 on my way into work. I tried to initiate some sort of GT-R driver wave/signal/whatever, but got nothing in return. I'm not surprised - he's likely already peeved at the never-ending attention his GT-R attracts."

Or perhaps he was just frustrated that public highways make for such an insufficient playground for his insanely capable supercar. "Despite the rawness of the GT-R, it's utterly emotionless at times. You can rocket up to speeds well into triple digits and not realize it because there is no drama," says senior web editor Phil Floraday. "Since the car is always making noise, but never gets incredibly loud, you sort of zone out and wonder why everyone on the highway is going so ridiculously slow. Then you realize that they're going 80 mph and you need to hit the brakes and set cruise control."

Auto insurance: Steps involved in filing a claim

2009-06-19T21:54:00.000-07:00

An auto insurance policy may be defined as an agreement between you and your insurance company. You purchase an auto insurance policy and pay the required premiums and in turn, your insurance company promises to pay for financial losses in the event of a car accident. It is advisable that you buy adequate auto (car) insurance policy so that you get right amount of coverage when required.

It is not always your fault if you meet up with a car accident. However, you will have to file a claim to get the insurance coverage. There are certain steps involved in filing a claim. The steps are discussed below.

Call police - In the event of an accident, you should at first check whether or not anyone needs medical attention. You should call the police as you need the police report for filing claim.

Exchange information – Exchange contact information and license plate numbers with the other parties involved in the accident.

Look for witnesses – It is really important to look for witnesses who’ll be willing to describe the incident if necessary; collect their contact information as well.

Call your insurance company – You should get in touch with your insurance company as soon as possible.

Other party is guilty – If the other party is at fault, then you should inform his/her insurance company that you’re filing a claim through your provider and mention that you seek reimbursement for costs that your company will not bear.

Receive other company’s call – You may get a phone call from other insurance company, who’ll want to know your version of events that caused the accident.

Estimate of coverage – An adjuster checks your vehicle to make an estimate of your insurance coverage; on the basis of which your insurance company either pays the amount that you require for the repair work or pay your car’s depreciated value if it is beyond repair.

If you think that the damage settlement is too low in comparison to what you need either for the repair work or to buy a new vehicle, then you can dispute it by filling out a form of arbitration. You may have to file a lawsuit if necessary.

Keyphrase: auto insurance

Description if required: Get to know about the steps involved in filing an auto insurance claim.

Mercedes S-Class Hybrid has a big problem.

2009-06-19T00:24:00.000-07:00

Mercedes' first-ever hybrid is about to drop, in the form of a luxury sedan. But if you look at the S-class roster, there's a big problem: the diesel.
Something occurred to me as I was reading through last week's test of the Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid in the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport: the S400 has a big problem. The S350 CDI.
Firstly, the S400 is similar in concept to Honda's Integrated Motor Assist hybrid system, which means it uses a small motor/generator sandwiched between the engine and transmission. The V-6 engine runs on the Atkinson cycle, which means it's more efficient but produces little low-end torque--but the electric motor's additional torque makes up for it. The Mercedes can't drive around on electric power alone, but the system gives both performance and fuel economy benefits compared to the regular S350, which uses a similar V-6.
Whereas the S350 needs 7.3 seconds to hit 100 km/h (62 mph), the S400 Hybrid does the sprint in 7.2. And the fuel economy benefits (at least on the EU cycle) are huge, with a drop in combined rating from 24 mpg to an impressive 30 mpg overall.
But here's the problem: the diesel-powered S350 CDI uses a V-6 engine that's a half-liter smaller (3.0 liters instead of 3.5), and its horsepower defecit means that needs an ever-so-slightly longer 7.8 seconds to hit 62 mph. But it returns 1.2 mpg better overall, for a total of 31 mpg. It even achieves the same electronically limited 155-mph top speed as the S400.
Here's the kicker: the S350 CDI is 12,316 euro cheaper -- a savings of $17,100 -- than the S350 CDI. And given that diesels tend to do better in real-world driving than they do in fuel economy testing, while hybrids are exactly the opposite, the S400 Hybrid will just continue to get more expensive over time. So why would you ever want the hybrid?
Well, because Mercedes doesn't bring the diesel to the US. Well, they do, but not in the S-class. If you were wondering why Mercedes (and the rest of those oh-so-logical German manufacturers) have been so slow to accept the idea of hybrids: they don't make financial sense when compared to diesels.
Mercedes should have just brought us the S350 diesel, slapped a big HYBRID logo on it, and called it a day. We'd all be better off.

2010 Kia Soul: Another hip square

2009-06-19T00:18:00.000-07:00

Some may remember when “boxy” was an automotive insult, hurled at Chrysler K-cars and old Volvos. Lately, though, boxy is foxy, or at least trendy.
Credit the sea change to the original Scion xB (which was a hit with its hipster target), with an assist from the Honda Element (which aimed at the same buyers, but largely missed). The first xB was so well-received that when it came time to remake its rather ordinary-looking sibling, the xA, into the all-new xD, Scion embraced the xB aesthetic completely, resulting in a boxed set of small Scion hatchbacks. Unfortunately, neither the xD nor the new, second-generation xB has same Tokyo cool as the original xB, as both are thicker and pudgier by comparison.
With the Koreans now copying the Japanese as ardently as the Japanese used to copy the Americans, it isn’t terribly surprising to see the new Kia Soul flatteringly imitate the Scions. And just recently, we’ve seen the arrival of the aptly named Nissan Cube, which proudly dons the mantle of Japanese-market strangeness formerly worn by the xB.
As to the Soul, it follows in the tire tracks of the other hatchboxes in several key ways. First of all, it’s cheap, starting at $13,995. Secondly, there’s tons of passenger space inside, particularly headroom; if Justin Timberlake touches off a new trend of guys wearing top hats, Soul owners will be ready. Third, the cabin has cool mood lighting (the door speakers can flash to the beat of the stereo) and glow-in-the-dark upholstery, the better to distract occupants from the cheap hard plastic everywhere. Finally, the Soul is a far better as a funky style statement and mobile party lounge than it is as a car. Although the 2.0-liter four makes a respectable 142 hp (the base car’s 1.6-liter musters 122 hp), the engine drones. And matched to an automatic transmission with only a four speeds, it feels slow. The ride is pretty good over mottled pavement, but plentiful body roll—not surprising from a taller body riding on what is essentially a Rio chassis—takes the fun out of corners (the top-of-the-line Sport model has firmer suspension tuning).
But as Scion has proven, young hipsters don’t seem to care about those things. Perhaps the subtleties of a responsive engine and a well-tuned chassis are lost on you when you’re steering with your knees while you’re driving with both thumbs on your smart phone.
Kia Soul Plus automaticBase price $15,900As tested $17,7952.0L I-4, 142 hp, 137 lb-ftfront-wheel drive24/30 mpg

How to Improve the 2010 Ford Taurus SHO

2009-06-19T00:11:00.000-07:00

Driving and testing the new Ford Taurus and Taurus SHO has underscored the tectonic shift that has taken place at FoMoCo. We are convinced that Ford has forgotten critical knowledge it once knew. Here are the top items on our list:

1. Mass times velocity equals brakes. When you combine lots of power (such as 365 hp in the Taurus SHO) with lots of pounds (4337 lbs for SHO), you need a serious braking system to balance go with stop. These days that means huge ventilated brake rotors and stiff opposed-piston calipers. During its launch, our reporter was informed that the SHO's braking system came from the Ford Flex. There are medium-sized vented rotors in front and solid rotors in back squeezed by floating calipers containing one actuation piston per wheel. This is not nearly enough braking capacity to stop such a heavy car driven aggressively.Worse, SHO has a mushy-feeling brake pedal. Stopping force is proportional to how FAR, not how HARD, you press the pedal. That is backwards.2. Weight distribution matters. Many believe that 50-50 weight distribution is the ideal balance. We don't. While that's a reasonable goal for a front-engined car with sporting intentions, better handling, braking, and accelerating performance results when the rear wheels carry much more than half the vehicle's mass. Unfortunately, the SHO has that backwards. Piling two turbos, intercooling equipment, the engine, the transaxle, and the gearbox that sends some power rearward under the hood results in way too much load on the front wheels. The SHO's weight distribution is 60/40, not even close to what's required for best agility, maximum cornering, and utmost braking.3. Top speed counts. Few car enthusiasts drive over 100 mph on a regular basis. The risk of arrest, heavy fines, incarceration, insurance grief, and spousal abuse keeps most of use below one hundred most of the time. Bar bragging is a whole different category where top speed does matter. The SHO's governed 131 mph is too low to engender respect when the brewski and BS flow. Most of Hyundai's fleet is capable of topping 131 mph.4. Redlines are essential. Ford did a lovely job programming the SHO's paddle-shifted 6-speed automatic transmission and calibrating its AdvanceTrac electronic stability system to do the right things. When the shift lever is in its M (manual) position, you get automatic downshifts by tromping the accelerator but no upshift-even when you run out of rpm-until you pull one of the two steering-wheel-mounted shift paddles rearward. That's the way it should be. The rub is that there is no redline on the tachometer. Such a critical shortcoming seriously undermines the reputation of any car striving for respect by enthusiasts who take their driving, shifting, and redline monitoring seriously. Challenged by the SHO's lack of a redline at its launch, one Ford engineer informed me that efforts to mark the tachometer failed because of quality issues.Swirl these faux pas around in your head for a bit and you might agree with our conclusion: this is not the Ford Motor Company that brought us the Ford GT a few years ago. Critical tribal knowledge has either been lost or it's no longer appreciated. Digging deeper, we found that the fates of the new Taurus and Taurus SHO have been guided by engineers and marketing experts who performed well in various truck projects, specifically the new-for-2009 Ford F-150 and the Super Duty pickups that proceeded it. While we're fond believers of rewarding success, we doubt that truck guys have any real clue about designing and developing performance cars. How could they?

Mercedes-Benz and BMW Need Mass Market Partners - Time to Start Sniffing Around

2009-06-19T00:05:00.000-07:00

It's not just the faltering U.S. carmakers and their various affiliates that need to seek partners nowadays. Even the reigning kings of German automotive arrogance, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, are finding it tough to go it alone.
Compared with rivals like Audi, which is part of the six-million-unit-per-year Volkswagen Group, and Lexus, an arm of the Toyota juggernaut, the two German premium marques may be long on prestige but they're short on volume, stuck below the two-million-unit waterline. And right now, both BMW and Mercedes-Benz are experiencing a troubling trend toward smaller, lower-profit models like the Mini and the 1-series, in BMW's case, or Benz's B-class and C-class. At the same time, there is a need to invest heavily in technologies such as higher-output batteries, hybrid powertrains, electric motors, dual-clutch transmissions, lighter architectures, and new safety concepts. In order to amortize those costs, the two German brands need to hook up with a high-volume, mass-market player to dramatically increase their economies of scale.
Both will have to get over recent bad experiences. The Bavarians got burned when they acquired, nurtured, and then disposed of Britain's Rover Group. And Daimler is still suffering from its recently ended marriage to Chrysler, a toxic ex-spouse that is still inflicting financial pain. But even if those scars haven't fully healed, both BMW and Daimler still need a volume partner to ensure long-term financial health.
What's the urgency? Frankly, at BMW, the financial well is running dry. In the fourth quarter of 2008, the Bavarian carmaker put aside $2 billion to offset the drop in residual values of its aggressively marketed lease cars. In the first two months of 2009, BMW saw its global sales decline by 24 percent. Worse still, BMW has squeezed its most important new product launches into the narrow 2010-to-2012 time frame, when the next X3, the new 5- and 6-series, the 1-series replacement, and the follow-up to the 3-series are all scheduled. Also under development is the ultra-low-emissions, high-mileage Project i range, but no one can figure out how on earth this ambitious lineup of eco-friendly vehicles can make money at a total volume of only 300,000 units over its entire life cycle. Meanwhile, the Mini brand is doing OK, but it lacks the economies of scale that rival Audi will enjoy with its soon-to-debut, VW-based A1. Even Rolls-Royce is at risk now that the superluxury niche has been dented by the financial crisis. As to potential partners, both Daimler and BMW have sniffed at and then rejected Fiat, checked out Hyundai/Kia, and looked at Opel before deciding that its 1.5 million units aren't enough. BMW has had an engine project with PSA (Peugeot/Citroën) for several years, and a sequel is under way. At 3.3 million units, PSA is the right size to balance the scales against the VW Group, and as a family-run enterprise, it also has the sympathy of the Quandt clan, BMW's controlling stakeholders. Another promising potential cooperation partner is Honda. The Japanese firm is a little bigger than PSA, emphatically engineering-driven, globally active, compatible in product terms - and also family-controlled. We know that Daimler was very interested in a liaison with Honda before it settled for its ill-fated tie-up with Mitsubishi. Honda is hot on Toyota's heels in terms of hybrid technology, has a strong presence in the States, and is a world leader in small cars. Honda may be more amenable now, as its V-8/V-10 efforts have stalled, its luxury brand (Acura) isn't even sold in Europe, and the lead carved out by archrival Toyota has increased. The primary question remains: Have bad news and bad business results reached a point where BMW and Daimler will be forced to act? Perhaps not yet, but they will.

How Can You Regulate Your Automobile Insurance Costs?

2009-06-16T00:19:00.000-07:00

Your automobile insurance cost is dependent on a number of elements. At the same time when some of the elements applied by the auto insurance companies are uncontrollable (your age and gender), you can regulate some of the elements that determine your auto insurance costs.Prior to buying an auto insurance policy, you must look into the following:Your comprehensive and collision coverage deductiblesIn numerous instances, you can save on your auto insurance premium by selecting higher deductibles or getting rid of coverage for older vehicles that have been paid in total. Your auto-linked health insurance company optionYou can save on your automobile insurance premium by selecting your health insurance company as primary for injuries associated with an automobile accident. It is essential that you confirm this with your health insurance company prior to selecting the Health Care Primary Option.Your Personal Injury Protection Deductible and its LimitsStandard auto insurance policies typically offer a deductible of $250 and a personal injury protection limit of $250,000. You can save on your premium by selecting an increased deductible of $500, $1,000, $2,000 or $2,500 and/or selecting one of the lesser personal injury protection limits of $15,000, $50,000, $75,000 or $150,000.Your Legal Suit Option You can save on your premium by selecting the Limited Right to Sue, which is otherwise known as Limitation on Lawsuit Option. This restricts lawsuits for pain and misery apart from events of permanent injury or death.Your Vehicle OptionsThe brand, model and price of your car influence your auto insurance premium cost. For insuring a luxury car, you need to pay a bigger insurance premium. On the contrary, an old or inexpensive car would cost you less. The cost of insuring various brands and models of cars might differ from one insurance company to another, therefore you should compare between insurers to obtain the best possible coverage to fulfill your requirements. Always look for discounts.Multi Vehicle Policies If you insure two or more cars under one policy, it might lower your premium. You will also avail discounts if you take a life insurance, renter's insurance or homeowner's insurance policy from the same insurer. Vehicle Safety AspectsAuto insurance companies would give you attractive discounts for cars that feature air bags, anti-lock brakes, passive restraint systems as well as anti-theft car recovery systems.Good Student DiscountsA number of insurers provide discounts for young motorists who have a "B" or higher Grade Point Average (GPA). Driving Course If you are undergoing or have completed a driving course, you might be entitled to receive discounts.

Don Orosco's All-American F1 Scarab Transporter

2009-06-12T22:54:00.000-07:00

The Monterey Historic Automobile Races are the premier vintage car races in the United States. They draw more than 450 rare and exotic entries cumulatively valued at more than the gross domestic product of some third world nations. Yet the biggest attraction last summer wasn't a race car; it was a race car transporter that less than two years earlier had looked like the rusted-out, shot-up, long-forgotten relic of a third-world civil war.
In August 2008, after an insanely labor-intensive restoration worthy of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, the transporter - built on a Fiat truck chassis and customized by an Italian coachbuilder - trundled through the teeming paddock at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Riding on the open, double-decker bed were not one, not two, but three of the Scarab race cars that it had been designed to ferry around Europe in 1960. A hot tub full of naked umbrella girls couldn't have made a much bigger impression on the crowd that flocked around it.
"People went nuts!" recalls Cris Vandagriff, owner of the Historic Motor Sports Association. "We finally had to ask them to move the transporter so race cars could get on and off the track."
In an era when just about every important historic race car already seems to have been discovered, race car transporters are emerging as the Next Big Thing in high-end vintage motorsports. Recent years have brought elaborate restorations of the haulers used by the Écurie Écosse and Tyrrell teams, for example, and there are several mouth-watering vintage Ferrari rigs making the rounds. But for American fans, at least, the Scarab transporter is the most significant vehicle of its kind on the planet, and it features an intriguing backstory that begins with the first American Formula 1 car, continues with America's most successful GT racing cars, and ends with an epic family feud.
Two years ago, vintage racer Don Orosco - probably the world's foremost Scarab collector - bought the derelict transporter and invested 8000 man-hours in its restoration.
"This is probably the only truck that's ever been restored to Pebble Beach standards," he says. "What made it such a daunting task was that it's thirty-eight feet long. That's like simultaneously restoring three Packards that are rusted hulks. Now, it looks like a forty-third-scale children's toy - except it's the real thing. I have about $600,000 in it. But in terms of its impact on the Scarab collection, its value is incalculable.

First Sign of a Thaw?

2009-06-12T22:51:00.000-07:00

Traditionally, spring is a major selling season for automobiles. This year, however, the thaw has been almost imperceptible. April sales were 65% of those a year earlier; May was slightly better, reaching 66% of year-ago levels. Both figures are a tiny improvement on year-to-date sales, which so far are only 63% of 2008. So things appear to be getting slightly less bad.
Those comparatives would be more encouraging if the year-ago levels weren't depressed as well. Remember, last spring is when gas prices shot up and played havoc with the new-car market. It also sent the model mix haywire, igniting sales of small cars while crushing demand for pickups, SUVs, and even crossovers. May 2008 was the first time in a long time that cars outsold trucks in the U.S. market. The Ford F-150 was toppled from its seemingly permanent position as the bestselling vehicle in the USA, falling all the way down to fifth place.
With gas prices much lower now, and buyers' memories incredibly short, the model mix is much different than it was one year ago. For that reason, we'll look for strength and weakness not by comparing with the distorted May '08 figures, but by looking at May versus April of this year, to get a sense of which makes and models are picking themselves up off the floor and which are still sinking.

Rinspeed iChange

2009-06-12T22:48:00.001-07:00

The ichange, the latest Frank M. Rinderknecht concept car creation, is backward but definitely not retro. It nicely recapitulates the fender profile of 1942-48 Buicks but applies it back to front. In other words, backward. As a kid, I admired those swoopy lines on Buicks and find they still look just fine here, especially as contrasted with the big bubble canopy, the teardrop shape of which gives the necessary directional thrust to the overall design composition. As an adult - or at least as someone of adult age - I have also admired the many multifarious Rinspeed concept cars without ever liking any of them very much. Every year, as reliably as the bird in a Swiss cuckoo clock, a new one pops up at the Geneva show. They are always interesting but also always a bit skewed from mainstream lines technically and more than a bit unrefined in style.
Still, Rinderknecht's heart is in the right place, and he was on the environmentally correct bandwagon early, with a nod to aerodynamics, a commitment to light weight, and with a good story to go with each car. He plays with forms, with ideas, and with words. Last year's concept was called sQuba, a reference to scuba diving, since the car could operate underwater, like James Bond's Lotus Esprit S1. Except the sQuba really worked. There were also cars called X-Trem, zaZen, E-Go Rocket, and so on, all of them consistent with Rinderknecht's basic tenet - "Innovation driven by emotion." The bright green Veleno was a customized Dodge Viper, done at a time when there were only a few Vipers in existence, every one of them bright red. Although the Dodge may have been the biggest and most powerful of his creations, lately he has been working with fuel cells and batteries for zero-emissions vehicles.
This year's effort, the iChange, is actually pretty good-looking, and it solves the problem of how to provide headroom in the rear of a fastback by simply raising the roof when passengers are being carried. The central driving position with a pair of set-back passenger seats was first seen on the Wimille prototype mid-engine sports car in the 1940s and was adopted by the McLaren F1 sports car in the 1990s. It makes good sense for mid-engine cars, although passengers may not like being relegated to the back seats, even if they aren't very far back. Still, the Bugatti Type 35 passenger has to accept an offset as well, so that the driver is favored.
I'm not sure what such low-slung cars are good for in a severely speed-limited world, but if you want to be seen in a slinky slipper of a car as you negotiate city and suburban streets, it seems to me that this electric eye-catcher is as good a solution as a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. Both of which will likely fit electric propulsion to their cars in a decade or so

1 The fairly blunt nose is set back slightly from the sharp inner leading edge of the front fenders.
2 The low nose's tight ramp angle precludes entry to many driveways. For production, ground clearance would have to increase.
3 This nice, big outlet could be used to exhaust air entering under the front of the car.
4 Notice how the roof bubble is subtly flattened to allow more rear headroom.
5 The wheels have solid surfaces at their outer edges to reduce turbulence.
6 Sharp, hard line defines the rear-fender profile and moves inward to intersect the greenhouse.
7 Another hard line flows off the wheel opening and translates to the spoiler lip across the rear end.
8 The lower rear panel behind the fender skirt is almost perfectly flat in the vertical plane.
9 Entry conditions are, at best, difficult. One must step over the fender while ducking under the roof edge. It might have been better to fix the windshield and pivot the canopy from the base of the A-pillars.
10 When passengers are carried, a vertical, body-color panel pops up in this area to raise the back of the roof.
11 Twin passenger seats, subtly trimmed in gray and beige, look comfortable.
12 Call it a throne if you like. There's no question that an iChange driver would feel pretty much like the king of the road.
13 An underbody diffuser, similar to those on racing cars, helps keep the rather light (2315 pounds empty) iChange stuck to the road.
14 This cutline shows where the roof rises. When the roof is up, there is a body-color vertical band about five and a half inches high that tapers to nothing at the A-pillars.
15 This central transparent strip is rather odd because it doesn't provide rearward visibility, so there seems to be little purpose to it. But it looks cool.
16 This surface is almost something one could make out of a piece of paper, wrapping up and around from vertical body sides to the concave area ahead of the rear spoiler lip. A subtle and elegant development.
17 The roof is quite broad here, more than usual on a bubble canopy, so that passengers aren't squeezed inward. Side headroom is still pretty tight.
18 Like the body panels behind them, the fender skirts are also almost flat, in two planes this time.
19 Tall, drag-inducing stalks are needed to place sideview mirrors at a useful height.
20 Sharp, hard edges on the front fenders repeat the lines on the long rear fender form.

Stile Bertone Mantide - Find the Hidden Corvette

2009-06-09T22:29:00.000-07:00

As legions of recent divorcés have shown, there's no better way to put your troubles behind you than with a new sports car. Such is the hope at Stile Bertone, the storied Italian design house that has suffered some recent unpleasantness, including legal wrangles within the Bertone family and a split from the company's financially insolvent manufacturing arm.
As a reassertion of its mojo, Stile Bertone created the Mantide (MAN-tee-day, which means "mantis" in Italian), built on the suitably exotic underpinnings of the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. The Mantide is the work of the firm's new design director, Jason Castriota, a New York native who was most recently chief designer at Pininfarina. Castriota and his team fashioned an all-new body and interior for the car. Bertone is claiming reduced aerodynamic drag and a 220-pound decrease in weight, the latter due to carbon-fiber body panels, seats, and wheels. Although there is some talk that a handful of cars may be built, this life-size Hot Wheels car's primary purpose is to serve as a 638-hp calling card for Bertone's house of style.
Other custom creations by Jason Castriota
2008 Rolls-Royce Hyperion2005 Maserati Birdcage 75th2006 Ferrari P4/5

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