Did you know that Congress is trying to pass a law to have all new vehicles equipped with Event Data Recorders?  According to Automotive News, if legislators have their way, the new black boxes will be fireproof and waterproof.  They also want these event data recorders to have a significant amount of recording time before and after an accident, up to 75 seconds before a crash.  Right now there are event data recorders that track about 5 seconds worth of information before a crash.

So, here’s the problems with the new standards if Congress passes them into law.  In order to make these EDRs fireproof and add the recording time, these boxes will be big….like shoebox size. Where are they going to go under the hood?  A shoebox is big.  Then the cost of the new EDRs will be about $4000-$5000.  First the automakers will have to pay for these EDRs, but in the end us, the customer, will end up paying more for our vehicles to cover these boxes. That’s a lot of money!  These boxes could become mandatory in 2015. Everyone better plan on buying a new car before then. I like the idea behind the EDRs, but they might not be a good idea financially.  Also, in 2015 we will start having to pay more for our vehicles anyways, because the new fuel economy standards will begin to take place. I’m definitely buying a new car before all of these things go down.

Looking for a cool car?  Well, Kelley Blue Book has come up with a list of the best budget rides that are cool to drive.

Ford Fiesta - $13,320-$17,120 gas mileage 29 city/38 highway. KBB says that the Fiesta is “better looking, nicer inside, and even more fun” than the Honda Fit, which is a KBB favorite.

Honda Fit - $14,900-$16,410 gas mileage 27 city/33 highway.  KBB loves the navigation and iPod integration options available, and its “fun to drive character.”

Honda Civic - $15,455-$25,340 gas mileage 26 city/34 highway.  Not cool per say but it has great style and options.

Hyundai Elantra Touring - $15,995-$18,995 gas mileage 23 city/31 highway.  “Technology rich”

Kia Soul - $13,300-$17,195 26 city/31 highway.  KBB says it has “confident styling” and great technology.

Mazda3 - $15,345-$22,145 25 city/33 highway.  KBB says its the “hat trick of cool.”

If you were looking to buy something cool for a pretty good price, check out these cars. My favorite…..none honestly.  I guess I would choose the Honda Civic, but that’s not very cool, actually boring. But hey it’s a good car nonetheless!

I read numerous articles and websites to find the car tidbits from the past week or so that were the most interesting/newsworthy for you.

GM is giving a year’s supply of diapers and other baby supplies to a Minnesota woman who gave birth to a baby while driving (yes I said driving) a 2005 Chevy Cobalt.  The woman was on her way to the hospital and the father was riding shotgun because he suffers from seizures.  After the baby was born, she turned the heat up in the car, held the baby, and let the father “steer them to the hospital.”  Everyone is fine, and actually they lucked out with GM’s presents. I guess maybe we should buy GM vehicles, just in case this ever happens to any of us!

Consumer Reports did a telephone survey recently asking people what factors in when they are buying a new car.  Well, brand loyalty is number 1.  People like to buy cars that they are comfortable with, though brand loyalty varies quite a bit between men and women and age groups.  Also, people are most likely to switch brands for higher quality and better fuel economy. Lower prices, better safety records, and more standard equipment play a factor in purchasing as well.  Nothing we didn’t already know.

This is funny.  A reporter for KTLA tv in Los Angeles is doing a live report in a parking lot about the best road trip cars to buy.  While a man is describing each car and its road trip advantages, a police officer is writing parking tickets for each car and handing them to the reporter as she is doing the LIVE segment. She says on air that she had paid for parking, but the officer could care less and just keeps on writing tickets and handing them to her.  Funny.  Check out youtube to see the segment.

In case you missed it,  Dario Franchitti won the Indy 500.  There was a serious crash and one car flew through the air and slammed into the fence and exploded into pieces. Luckily, the driver was extracted and looks as though he broke his leg but escaped without further problems.

There’s your car tidbits for the week.  Some pointless information, but interesting nonetheless.

We need to find ways to save gas and make out vehicles get better gas mileage. The automakers will work to make the vehicles better, but we can do things to help our gas mileage as well. There are 6 gas myths that I thought I would share with you from yahoo.com.  Some I knew and some I didn’t.

1.  It takes more fuel to start a vehicle than it does to let it idle. - Idling uses a 1/4 to 1/2 gallon of fuel an hour (which costs about 1-2 cents per minute.)  Don’t let your car stay running for more than a few minutes if you are stopped.  It doesn’t take more fuel to restart it than be idle.

2.   Vehicles need to be warmed up before they are driven. - Old wives tale. You can drive off in your car as soon as you start it.

3.  As a vehicle ages, its fuel economy decreases significantly. Not true. If you maintain your car as you should every so often, the gas mileage should be the same on a car that is 10-15 years old as a new car.  You just need to make sure you get your tune-ups.

4.  Replacing your air filter helps your car run efficiently. Modern fuel-injection engines do not get economy benefits from a clean air filter, so therefore this is false.

5.  Aftermarket additives and devices can dramatically improve your fuel economy. False. No one thinks that there is anything out there to drastically improve your fuel economy.  It will just cost you a lot for the aftermarket device/additive.

6.  Using premium fuel improves fuel economy. You should only use premium gas if your car says that you specifically need to.

So, if there are someone who believed any of these myths before, I hope that you are now feeling better about yourself that you learned something new. We just need to wait for the automakers to find ways to improve our gas mileage.  Until then…..

I just saw an article on msnbc.com that said that GM and the auto industry for that matter is looking to the Chevy Volt for a “recharge.”  What a hard job for the Volt?  I read a lot of articles about hybrids and electric cars and different ways to fuel our vehicles and I’m just not convinced that electric cars will ever be the answer and that people are going to embrace them as a whole.  Sure, maybe sometime down the road, electric cars may be it, and we, as the customers, will have no choice but to embrace, but I really think we are a LONG way off from that time.

Yes, there are lots of advantages to the electric car. The Chevy Volt will offer 40 miles on an electric charge without even using a drop of gas. That’s great, but it seems that many will find this inconvenient to constantly have to charge the battery.  Maybe convenience isn’t everything, and everyone needs to move beyond that and see all the environmental benefits, but I don’t see that likely happening right now.  People are asked to recycle right now and still don’t even do that.

Here’s my other problems with electric cars and hybrids, etc. They are expensive.  I understand that you can make your money back with fuel savings, but upfront it’s quite a lot more. High efficiency things are expensive. I just got a new boiler for my home and didn’t choose the highest efficiency because it was going to take years and years before I could make back my money for the upgrade to highest efficiency.  Same thing with these cars. I think that in 2016 when the fuel standards change to 35.5 miles per gallon things will obviously improve and the cost of vehicles will be up then. I think we should start with that and then try to get excited and energized about electric cars after that. I don’t think that right now is the time for the electric cars. Maybe I’ll be wrong. We’ll see soon enough I guess.

When you think of fast cars, you think of the price tag, right?  I do. Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin, etc. You know the fast cars that I mean.  Anyways, there are several fast cars under $50,000 that might be more up your alley for price.  Actually I’m sure it’s a better price for most Americans.  Hannah Elliott from Forbesautos.com came up with this list.

Nissan 370Z, Ford Mustang GT500, and Infiniti G37 are all under $50,000 and get from 0 to 60 mph in less than 6 seconds. That’s fast, right?  BMW made the list for several cars….the BMW Z4, which is $46,000, BMW 335i for $40,600, and the BMW 135i for $36,050, and all under 6 seconds as well.  The fastest ones for cheap are the Mustang $48,645 in 4.3 seconds, Dodge Challenger SRT8 $41,230 in 4.9 seconds, and Chevy Camaro SS $30,945 (cheap!) 4.6 seconds.

So, if you have some money in your sock drawer and are looking for a fast car, here are some choices that are a fairly responsible price, at least for fast car standards!

So by now everyone knows that automakers have until 2016 to get the average fuel economy of their vehicles to 35.5.  The current fuel economy is 27.5 mpg for cars and 23.1 mpg for light trucks.  Supposedly according to the government, these new fuel economy rules will cost us about $926 extra for our vehicles.  We should recover this extra money in fuel savings.  I think we will be lucky if these new cars in 2016 and up don’t cost us a great deal more than $926.

There are ways to increase the fuel economy, but obviously it’s going to cost the automakers and in turn us to have this happen. Technology will play a key role in developing systems to get the fuel economy numbers up, but we all know that technology costs big bucks most times.

Here’s an example.  The Ford Escape Hybrid currently gets 29 mpg.  That’s quite a bit off the 35.5 mpg needed by 2016.  Oh and by the way, the current Ford Escape Hybrid costs $31,610 at the base price.  How much more will this car have to cost to get it to the correct standards.  How about all of the other cars that aren’t hybrids?  They have even more to go to get to 35.5.  Automakers will have to completely revamp these vehicles to get to the new fuel economy rules. I just hope that safety and other things aren’t compromised in getting there.

The 2010 Mitsubishi Outlander GT is something new and better than the previous models.  This is a crossover “with lots of sport to go with the utility” says Ezra Dyer of the New York Times News Service.    This is an all-wheel drive vehicle which is not common in crossovers, which are usually front-wheel drive.  The Outlander GT has a 3-liter, 230 horsepower, V6 engine….not a great deal of power, but I guess enough for some. This crossover has a 6-speed automatic transmission with a manual shift mode.  The gas mileage is 18 in the city and 24 on the highway.  One added bonus for customers that buy the Mitsubishi Outlander GT is that its roof is aluminum for a lower center of gravity and there are magnesium shift paddles  mounted to the steering column as there is in a Ferrari.  It’s fancy for those of us that care.

The crossover is becoming more and more popular.  I think people that don’t want a minivan but need to have space for 7 people.  Also of course the Outlander along with other crossovers are much more affordable than other SUVs.  Actually the Outlander GT ranks 6 out of 24 as Affordable Compact SUVs by U.S. News and World Report.  I’m not particularly a big fan of the Outlander or any crossovers actually, but I have several friends that buy/lease them and love them.  I don’t know what it is about them that doesn’t impress me, but it’s something.  Sorry to be a downer, because some of you probably love the crossovers and will love the new Mitsubishi Outlander GT. Check it out.

Good evening!  I thought I would share my random thoughts tonight.  My subject…..license plates.  In case you didn’t know, New York state has gotten a new license plate. They went from white with royal blue trim to nasty orange with black.  They are really ugly. I know what you are saying. Who cares, right?  I know that I shouldn’t but I just wonder why some states have such nice license plates and others so ugly…or plain shall I say. The only time that I truly notice and sometimes admire a state’s license plate is when you are travelling and playing the license plate game (try to find all 50 states.)

I googled license plates and what’s even crazier than their colors is the face that you can do a reverse license plate search and look up anyone’s license plate and get some serious dirt on them.  One website you pay $29 and then you get unlimited searches for 3 years. I’m not sure exactly why you would want to do this, but clearly there are lots of people that do because there were lots of license plate search websites.

I know that some people are interested in license plates, custom plates, etc. You can actually find out the history of many states’ license plates.  That’s interesting right?  To some I’m sure.  Do you or do you know anyone with a custom plate?  A friend’s parents each have a custom plate.  I’ll say this. You always know it’s them whenever they are….in a parking lot, restaurant, driving down the road.

I just thought I would share my random license plates thoughts with you.  It started by just thinking that the new New York state plates were ugly to how much information is available about license plates if you are interested. Check it out, and then you can check on your neighbors and their business too as long as you secretly get their plate numbers. Crazy!

Now this doesn’t seem like a good statistic because these are only reported accidents (and there are many more accidents that just don’t get reported,) but Insurance.com compiled a list of cities with the most accidents, according to autoweek.com.  Probably at first you might think you can name the cities (the biggest ones, right?) well that’s not necessarily true. I know I did.  Why wouldn’t it be New York City and Los Angeles, etc.?  Well with this study, Massachusetts, Alaska, Hawaii, and New York were not included, so who knows where on the list NYC would have been.  The way insurance.com got this information was by keeping track of everyone that was getting a car quote. You have to state if you have been in an accident previously, and then by percentage, the cities with the most accidents were determined.

Most dangerous cities (aka most accidents):

1. Baltimore, MD 36.5% (drivers claiming to have been in a previous accident)

2.  Johnstown, PA 34.5%

3.  Portland, Maine 33.4%\

4.  Des Moines, Iowa 33.2%

5.  Erie, PA 33.1%

116. Los Angeles, CA  26.3%

122.  Chicago, IL 26.1%

Best Cities (with least accidents)

1.  Yuma, Az 17.2%

2.  Flint, Michigan 18.2%

3.  Traverse City, Michigan 18.9%

4.  Detroit, Michigan 18.9%

5.  Grand Rapids, Michigan 20.7%

As I said earlier, I’m not sold on insurance.com’s surveying system. First of all, how many people don’t report that they’ve been in an accident to a potential insurance company?  If there previous insurance wasn’t involved, they might not tell.  Also, the states that weren’t included could have definitely had some cities on these lists.  It’s just interesting to read, but I don’t think we should take these results as the bible….not that we ever really do!