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A new General Motors Corp. vehicle is coming out this May and maybe just in the nick of time. In the wake of the filing of bankruptcy for Chrysler today, GM has come with a new model, the Chevrolet Cruze  compact sedan.  Hopefully, this new vehicle can help GM, but geez I don’t know. It looks a lot like many other compact sedans out there right now. It doesn’t have anything exceptional going on with it, except that it does have great gas mileage, especially for not being a hybrid. The Chevy Cruze will get 39 miles per gallon.  The author of the article on the Chevrolet Cruze that I found on autoweek.com really likes this car and thinks that GM has ”done a neat job on the new Chevy Cruze.”  It has front and rear legroom that with ”on par” with the European and Japanese competition.  I still do not think it’s anything special. I’m just not too impressed. I guess my problem is that I feel like at this stage of the game for GM, they need to come up with a vehicle that has wow factors!  Maybe I’m being unrealistic, but I’d love to see it nevertheless.   

Does anyone want a new Honda Insight hybrid for FREE????  Well, according to autoweek.com, this is going to take place this summer. Honda will be an “ecopartner” at two music festivals in the U.S. that will give away new Honda Insight hybrids. Honda will organize some green events at these festivals and have hybrid displays as well. The festivals are the Lollapalooza in Chicago on August 7-9, and the Austin City Limits in Texas on October 2-4.  Some huge bands will be playing at these events and having the chance to win a new car is even better.  The Honda Insight went on sale on March 24. It costs about $20,500 and gets 40 mpg in the city and 43 mpg on the highway.  Go buy tickets to these festivals. They look awesome!

More hybrid news is that the new Toyota Prius will have the same sticker price as the 2009 model, which is $22,000. There was some speculation that the price would be higher, but it looks as though that won’t be the case. I’m sure that the fact that several new hybrids are coming out with competitive prices had something to do with this decision by Toyota.  The new Prius will get a combined 50 mpg, compared to the combined 46 mpg that the 2009 model gets. 

So, there’s some hybrid news to share with others. I’m partial to going to the concerts and trying to win a new car…..just me though.    

I found a list of some really fast cars that cost under $50,000, thanks to forbesautos.com.  The top car on Forbes list is the Ford Mustang GT500 that costs $46,325 and goes from 0 to 60 mph in 4.3 seconds.  Another one on the list was the Chevrolet Camaro SS that costs a lot less at $31,040 which gets to 60 mph in 4.6 seconds. Then the third car was the BMW 135i coupe that costs $36,675. 

Alright, so there’s the basic information on the fastest cars under $50,000, but let me know give you my tidbit on this data.  I guess to some people (sorry if I offend anyone) fast is a necessity, but I look for a great deal more out of a car than how fast it can get to 60 mph.  That’s just my opinion, but if you take a look at the fuel economy it’s not great for cars like this. These are nice cars and all, but sometimes I think that the marketing tactics say it all.  These cars are being marketed and sold for their speed. I guess, as I said earlier, that’s very important to some, but for the money speed is not the top priority.  I’m sure some disagree, and that’s what this blog is all about. Sometimes you agree, and sometimes you don’t! 

I know it may not seem feasible right now during these hard economic times, but I keep reading all of these articles about how this is a great time to buy a new car. I found one article by Larry Printz of The Virginian-Pilot that gives several reasons why you need to buy a new car now.  So for those of you that can scramble and find some extra money in the couch, here are the reasons why this is the time to buy a new car.

1.  Inventory is high - between the fact that we have an economic slowdown and that this time of year happens to be slow for sales anyways, there are lots of vehicles on the dealership lots to choose from. Many automakers won’t be replacing the ones that they sell, so your choices will start to become less as the time goes on.

2.  Incentives are high - Six months ago, people were on a waiting list in order to get a Toyota Prius, now Toyota just starting offering a $750 cash rebate if you buy one.  The Nissan Versa 1.8 hatchback is offering $1000.  The Ford F-150 is offering three years at zero percent.  $500 off if you are in the military.  There are also several websites that can help you find out what rebates and incentives are out there. Here are a few: www.edmonds.com, www.internetautoguide.com/rebates/index.html, www.automobilemag.com/auto_rebates/index.html

3.  If you finance through the automakers, you can get money back as well.  For instance, the 2010 Ford Focus costs around $19,000 and if you finance through Ford you can get $3500 cash back. That’s a great deal!

4.  Also, Printz states that buying a new car, supports the economy, both locally and nationally.  “It’s almost patriotic.” 

So, be patriotic and go buy some new cars!

www.houstoncars.org

G. Chambers Williams III of the San Antonio Express-News says that he thinks that the Infiniti EX35“just might offer the most fun in the premium compact-crossover segment.”  The Infiniti EX35 was the highest-rated premium vehicle in J.D. Power and Associates’ 2008 Initial Quality Study.  The EX35 has a fantastic base model with many standards that include leather seats, rear-view camera, rear climate-control vents, and aluminum roof rails.  It also has a 297-horsepower, 3.5-liter V6 engine.  The Infiniti EX35 gets 17 mpg in the city and 24 on the highway with the rear-wheel drive and 16 mpg in the city and 23 on the highway with the all-wheel drive.  By the way, this crossover is the only one that offers both a rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive. Most of the crossovers have front-wheel drive. 

The Infiniti EX35 has a couple of fierce competitors though (don’t they always!)  The Acura RDX, BMW X3, and the new Audi Q5are looking to take some customers.  I guess it’s time to talk prices with you.  I gave you the “brief” overview of this fine vehicle, now it’s time to talk numbers. I feel like I’m a salesman!  The base price with be somewhere between $31,900 and $37,000, and the fully equipped all-wheel drive Ininiti EX35 Journey model is around $45,000.  The Infiniti EX35 is one of the “bright spots for the Infiniti lineup.” Go check it out.  

An article by Mark Phelan of the Detroit Free Press entitled “Don’t overlook fuel fine print” talks about how many vehicles these days have recommendations by the automakers for premium gasoline, but then say it won’t damage your vehicle if you just use regular fuel.  Well, I guess, according to this article, that isn’t entirely true. While you may not damage your engine per say if you use regular gasoline instead of premium (and by the way, there really isn’t any data available to back up this statement,) it is thought that downgrading your gas from premium to regular could reduce horsepower and torque by 2 to 3 percent.  Also, by not using the recommended premium gasoline can reduce the fuel economy of the vehicle. That’s is a lot of fine print that you wouldn’t know about, unless the automaker told you.  The fuel ratings on the vehicle’s sticker are for the recommended gasoline, so if you do use regular, your miles per gallon will probably be less.  The moral of the story really is that there isn’t a lot of information out there of the problems and less performance of the vehicle when you downgrade on the gas.  Yes, it looks like for sure horsepower is less, but there could be more things down the line that are problematic, especially since there aren’t any real tests that have been done. 

Here’s an interesting tidbit that I read about producing diesel fuel. I thought I would share it. I found this in my local newspaper. A Minnesota biofuels company, the SarTec Corp., has produced a clean diesel fuel from algae harvested from a pond next door to its facility.  Clayton McNeff, who is a chemist and industrialist, said the company has “perfected a 3-year old continuous flow process and produces about 1000 gallons of diesel fuel weekly” for $1.25 to $1.75 per gallon.  The fuel is being produced from various feedstocks from restaurant and ethanol-plant waste oils to non-edible crops and “plain old pond scum.”  This is great news for our renewable fuel thoughts.  We need more solutions such as pond scum to try to get new sources of fuel.  Geez, I wish I could have had some pond scum and made it into biodiesel fuel. I could be rich now! 

Have you ever left your keys in your car?  Come on, tell the truth. I’m sure we all have at least once.  Well, if you live in Modesto, California you had better not do that.  According to an article on forbesautos.com, Modesto has the highest number of car thefts.  There were 4325 cars stolen in the Modesto area last year, which is a rate of 829 thefts per 100,000 people.  The national rate of theft is 363.3 thefts per 100,000 people. This information has been compiled by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB.)  Laredo, TX came in second on the list of 361 metropolitan cities.  Kindof random is number 3, which is Yakima, WA.  San Diego, CA  and Bakersfield, CA round out the top 5. What was interesting about the article is the reasoning for these thefts.  According to the NICB, the Canada and Mexico borders help the state of California to be number 1 in thefts.  There are no east coast, midwest, or southern states was in the top 10 for thefts.  That’s good news for those of us living in these areas. How about this statistic…..Elmira, NY (do you know where it is?!)  Well, it is the least likely place to get your car stolen - only 23 cars were stolen last year, making it 26.19 thefts per 100,000 people. We all need to move to Elmira!   

I’m sure most of you celebrated, but if you forgot (or didn’t know), Friday, the Ford Mustang turned 45.  What’s crazy (to me at least) is that there was a 4 day celebration for this ”big event.”  It ran from Thursday through today in Birmingham, AL.  It was expected that approximately 2500 Mustangs, their owners, and thousands of spectators would be in attendance according to G. Chambers Williams III of the San Antonio Express-News.  Specifically, 500 Mustangs left Las Vegas over a week ago to drive to Birmingham for the Mustang birthday bash.  In case you also missed it, Ford has introduced a new Mustang model, the 2010 Ford Mustang.  I’m sure there were all different models of the Mustang at the party this weekend.  There were some activities as well.  The Ford Racing Mustang Challenge was scheduled for yesterday and today.  Supposedly about 25 cars were going to compete each day.  Ford Racing also was offering performance upgrades - including installation - for newer models in the “Mustang Garage.”  There were all kinds of souvenirs to buy and new and used Mustang parts available.  There were also going to be Mustangs on sale as well.  I bet that some Ford Mustang enthusiasts were looking to buy themselves a “pony car” as Mustangs are referred to.  Happy Birthday Mustang!         

www.car.com

So, we are in a recession. People are looking for cheap things, right?  Well, I have the car for you, but unfortunately it’s not really selling that well.  I just found an article on msnbc.com about the Nissan Versa and how it offers a model for $9990.  The funny thing is that even in this economic state we are in, people don’t want this “no-frills” model.  You don’t get a radio or air conditioning in the Nissan Versa 1.6 model.  Don’t even think about power windows, power locks, or even a vanity mirror behind the sun visor. They aren’t there!  Last month, I wrote an article about the Tata Nano car that is being sold in India for $2000.  This car is planning on sprucing up their safety standards and emissions and being sold in the U.S.  I guess when it gets here it will be like $8000, but yet again with “no-frills.” 

People want cheap, but people NEED some features, such as air conditioning.  Supposedly, the Versa is surprisingly nice to drive.  Nissan sells about 85,000 Versas a year, but what’s funny is that of that number only about 1000 are the Versa 1.6 models without any features.  Most people opt to upgrade to higher models or the 1.6 model with air conditioning that costs $10,990.  I’d be one of those people as well.  It will be interesting to see if the Nano can succeed here.  Check out the looks of the Nano. Weird. I guess we’ll need more desperate times here in order for people to pay less than $10,000 for a car, especially without the necessities, such as air conditioning.