A lot of good stuff for some at the time but terrible when you like back happened in the 80’s. Horrible music, big hair, bad jeans, Miami Vice was awesome!  There were some great cars in the 80’s, and the good news is that you can still get some of these beauties!  Autoweek.com wrote an article about some 80’s favorites and their current prices according to Kelley Blue Book.  Of course even though autoweek included like 10 of these 80’s cars, tons of people commented on this article naming great 80’s vehicles that autoweek forget or didn’t include.  I’m going to just mention some of my favorites from that time and if you want to see more, check out the article.

1988-1989 BMW M3 - high price according to Kelley Blue Book $65,000 (for a car that’s 22 years old!) and the low price is $14,500 with the average being $24,417. It has a 2.3 liter 200 horsepower engine, which was big for that time.

1981-1989 Porsche 911 Turbo - high price $78,500, low $24,900, average $40,669

1987-1989 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am - high $22,900, low $4000, average $10,293. The 1987 Trans Am had a Tuned Port Injection V8 engine with only 210 horsepower.

1985-1989 Volkswagen GTI - high $5995, low $4100, average $4865 - My favorite!!!

The article is interesting and kindof cool to remind you of the different cars of the 80’s and the favorites for different people. Check it out.

This is a new interesting car.  It is built like a Honda Accord, looks a lot like a Honda Accord, but the Honda Accord Crosstour has nearly twice the cargo space and is a little higher off the ground.  What’s it’s not is a crossover vehicle. There is no third row seating, the cargo space cannot compete, and it’s not as versatile as a crossover.  Nonetheless, Honda and many others that have reviewed it feel as though people are going to like this car. The  Crosstour fits between the Honda CR-V and the Honda Pilot.  Everything about it rides feels like the Accord. It rides like it.  What a better marketing deal for Honda?  The Accord is known for reliability, quality, etc. Why not build a new car very similar, call it something different, and have people already feel comfortable with it because it’s just like an Accord.

Each Crosstour has a 3.5-liter i-VTEC, 271 horsepower V6 engine.  It costs between $27,800-$31,900.  The gas mileage isn’t great at 18 mpg city and 27 mpg highway or 17/25 if you get the all-wheel drive.  There is 51.3 cubic feet of cargo space with the back seats down, and 26 cubic feet with the back seats in place.

Now, it’s not the most attractive looking vehicle. Not as nice looking as the Accord, but the crossovers are not gorgeous either.  If you can get beyond the look (though it’s not awful by any stretch, just not the nicest looking car,) might be worth checking out.

www.mobilemag.com

The Honda 3R-C concept that was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show is very different and quite bizarre looking if you ask me.  Let’s just start by saying it has three wheels. That’s weird in itself.  This is an electric vehicle with only 1 person (preferably a small one to fit in this little car.)  Supposedly it’s very safe. Doesn’t it look it????  The closer I look to the pictures of the Honda 3R-C, the crazier I think it is. I wonder what it will cost. There is a clear canopy on top to protect the driver from the bodywork and doors. By the way, why do you need more than 1 door?  It looks like it can’t possibly be comfortable for anyone.  I don’t know, I guess Hondahas done something write with this car, because people are talking about it. Good marketing strategy.  I just wonder if anyone will buy it, though there will be someone or two out there that will want the Honda 3R-C of their own. Good news for your guys that do…..I doubt they will be sold out, and there will be no competition from Centercaps.net for this beauty!

Wanna win $1 million???  Well, just figure out a cause and solution to the acceleration problem with Toyota vehicles.  It’s as simple as that.  Edmunds.com is launching a competition open to the public.  You don’t need to be a mechanic to enter. Just get to the cause and then explain it to them, and you are all set and $1 million richer.  Well seriously the details are still being worked out but that’s the jist of the competition. This could seriously help Toyota, since they really can’t figure out how to fix this problem themselves!

The new Ford Focus wagon will begin production later this year, and will be sold in Europe. The U.S. will probably not be getting any of these wagons. The interest in wagons here in the U.S. is not very strong, which is probably smart on Ford’s part. It might be a waste of money.

Surprisingly, the sales of Toyotas have not been as bad as you would have thought.  According to Kelley Blue Book, Toyota’s car values are down about 2 to 3 percent and won’t go below 10 percent.  There were steep drops in January right after the recalls were announced, but there haven’t been anymore drops and the prices are staying pretty resilient right now.  Good news for Toyota, now hopefully someone can win the edmunds.com competition and fix all of Toyotas problems!

Vehicles are much safer now. Five-star crash test ratings are extremely common, but of course there are ways that cars could be even safer. CNN reports that Mercedes-Benz has come up with a concept car the Mercedes-Benz ESF that is supposedly the safest car that could become a norm in the near future.  The ESF has several ideas of how cars can be safer.

The first idea is a “braking bag” under the car.  There are sensors under the car and when the sensors detect that a crash is about to happen, the bag inflates which pushes a metal plate down onto the road to slow the car and help reduce impact.  Sounds good to me.

Another safety idea is an air bag inside the a metal beam in the car door.  If there is side impact, the air bag will inflate pushing the beam outward to help take the impact.  Another good thought.

Lights that will use infrared night vision to detect people or animals in the road and then shine lights directly on them to try to prevent a crash/accident. Good idea but seems like a stretch.

During a side impact, the outside seat bolster will push the driver or passenger inward, away from the door.  The last future safety idea that is a part of the Mercedes-Benz ESF is the belt bag.  These are air bags within the seat belts that will help prevent injuries. Ford Motor Co. will be using the belt bag is all of their 2011 Ford Explorer and Mercedes-Benz expects that it will have the belt bags on its cars within 5 years.

Isn’t it amazing the technology that just keeps improving for vehicles?  It’s crazy. Every time you buy a car, there will be some big technological improvement within a year, and to have safety technology improved is great!

Manual (stick shifts) transmissions are dying out.  Seriously dying out.  According to Ward’s Communications, 22.4% of cars sold in the U.S. in 1985 were manual transmissions, but in 2007 that number dropped to 7.7%.  Recently, aolautos.com checked their inventory of cars that are for sale and of the 4,391,747 vehicles only 241,560 or 5.5% came with a manual transmission.

Here’s some reasons for the shift (no pun intended) in the transmissions.  Years ago, manual transmissions had much better fuel economy.  Now automatic transmissions are much better gas wise, so it pretty even for fuel economy.  Also, stop and go traffic means more work for the driver of a manual transmission.  May be a pain especially if people are trying to talk on their cell phones, use their navigation systems, or text.  Also, because there are less manual transmissions around, teens are not learning to drive manual transmissions in driving school.  Therefore, these teens aren’t interested in buying manuals.  It’s a chain reaction, and if you ask me a sad one. My first car was a manual transmission.  I’d hate to see them go, as I’m sure others will as well.

This may be a very ignorant thing to say and maybe I don’t live in the right area for sports cars, but where are all of them?  I was just checking out autoblog.com, and the half of the blogs/articles talk about sports cars.  I’ll just give you a few examples….The revised Gumpert Apollo is coming to the Geneva Motor Show, “Black Ruby” Rolls-Royce coupe up for sale, 8 special Lotus Evoras sports cars will be auctioned off to raise money for Haiti.

I know that sports cars are fast and have a unique look, but these cars are really expensive.  Obviously people buy these cars because they are being built, but winter (I know, no one drives these sports cars in the winter,)  spring, summer, or fall, I never see sports cars, let alone these really fancy sports cars that cost a fortune.  Where are these cars?  California, Florida, showroom floors, in people’s garages?  Is that where I need to look?  I guess probably.  I wonder how many sports cars are sold in this economy.  I would love to see these sports cars!  Maybe someday.

I’m not privileged enough to have a car with the keyless cars, but there are 155 models this year that are offering an option of the keyless cars.  There were only 41 models with this available in 2006.  So in case you don’t know, the keyless cars work like this. You have to have a fob in your pocket or purse and as you approach the car your car doors will unlock and then you push a button to start your car and off you go.  Sounds easy and awesome, right?  i think so.

Well of course there are the skeptics and the problems with the keyless cars as their is with all new technology.  Not major problems or complaints, and probably in time their kinks will be ironed out.  One complaint by customers is that they are not sure what to do to turn off the car in an emergency.  Some models have your hold down the button, others must press the button 2-3 times.  There is no consistency with these keyless cars. Safety groups are trying to get Congress to have federal regulations put on these cars so that all of the procedures are the same.  This would make it easier for people, especially if these keyless cars become the norm.  That way if people were borrowing a car or renting a car, they would know exactly how the fob/car works without a key.  I love the idea of keyless cars and expect that this technology will become the norm before we know it.  Then I’ll be cool like the keyless car customers are.  Maybe not too, but I’ll try.

Want a new car for pretty cheap?  Well,  Honda is offering a great leasing deal, but hurry it expires at the end of this month.  My first car was a leased Honda Accord. I got a great deal and you can too.   Right now to “superpreferred credit tier” customers, you can get a base model Honda Accord LX for $199/mo with $2199 down for three years. That’s a nice buy!  If you need some more bells and whistles than the basics, you can get the Accord EX sedan for $219/mo. with $2599 down and the EX sedan with a V6 engine for $269/mo. with $2199 down.  Those are good deals as well.

Several years ago everyone leased their vehicles, then leasing declined dramatically last year, because automakers were worried about credit.  Now it’s going to come back alittle bit, because people cannot afford to buy new vehicles and the supply of used vehicles has declined. There needs to be a choice for some people, and leasing is a good option.

Other automakers such as Ford, Hyundai, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, and Volkswagen also have good deals running right now. If you don’t need all the extras, I think the Honda Accord or something similar is well worth leasing right now.  Check it out!

So, the Chicago Auto Show came and and it will go on Sunday, with not too much talk or excitement. Of course a few new concepts were introduced, but really quite boring I would say.  Now we are moving on to the Geneva International Auto Show which starts on March 4-14.  Maybe there will be alittle more buzz at this show, though my guess is not. We haven’t had a lot of excitement from any of the major shows so far this year.  The automakers are trying to create sparks, but it’s hard when they are so concerned to not lose more money.  There is one interesting debut to come out at the Geneva Auto Show. Ford will be unveiling the production versions of the new C-Max and Grand C-Max wagons at the Geneva Auto Show, according to autoweek.com.  Wagons are coming back.  I like it!

The C-Max is a 5 seater and the Grand C-Max is a 7 seater and they will go on sale in Europe later this year.  In late 2011, the Grand C-Max (which will be known as the C-Max) will be sold in the U.S. Confused?  The 7 seat Grand C-Max has twin sliding doors.  Both cars are part of Ford’s idea to show the medium size car.  All we ever talk about these days are the small vehicles, so it’s a nice change and something for those not looking for the small Honda Fit or others like it.  The Ford Focus is another medium sized car debuting next year.  I look forward to a slight shift and “bigger” cars being debuted!  I think we should at least check out the Ford C-Max and Grand C-Max. They look different and that can be worthwhile.