Well the Detroit Auto Show is underway to the public now and some auto websites already have been there done that and have some opinions as well (of course!)  Autoblog.com said the auto show was smaller, like last year, than years past and less vehicles or concepts unveiled.  Autoweek.com spent a lot of time there this past week and they came up with the four best vehicles of the Detroit Auto Show, in their opinions of course!  The four categories were Best in Show, Most Significant, Most Fun, and Best Concept.  And the winners are……

Best in Show - Audi E-tron - this is actually a concept car but autoweek hopes and expects it to become a sporty two-seater that will be awesome to drive.

Most Significant - 2012 Ford Focus - this is the European Focus that many have been hoping would come to the U.S. It’s coming!

Most Fun - Mini Beachcomber - a concept that is a preview of the Mini’s new SUV.  This vehicle has huge tires, no doors, and no roof.  That makes it fun already!

Best Concept - Volkswagen New Compact Coupe - Autoweek loved the fact that this concept was “so polished, and how finished” the car looked for a concept.  It looked very ready for production.

There were many finalists in each category, but the staff at autoweek.com hashed it out and came up with these winners.  I’m sure the Detroit Auto Show doesn’t really care who wins what awards, they just want a lot of people there. The automakers want to win awards, but more than that they want there models out there and hope that the economy keeps turning around and people buy their cars. I think that will happen in 2010.  I’m an optimist.

Even though leasing is not as popular these days, there are still a great deal of leasing programs out there and some good ones at that.

Smart Fortwo are running a special through February 28 to lease their vehicles for 24, 36, or 48 months on any 2009 model.  The rates are as low as $169 a month for a 36 month lease.  Smart is hoping to jump start their sales.

I’ll give you the best lease deals for January, according to autos.aol.com in each category.

Minivan - Toyota Sienna $279-$399 mth for 36 mths with $399-$2999 due at signing

- Honda Odyssey $299 a mth for 36 mths with $2499 due at signing

-Volkswagen Routan $379 a mth for 36 mths nothing due at signing

-Mazda5 $299 mth/36 mths with $2894 due at signing

Small cars -Honda Insight $199 mth/36 mths $1799 due

-Mitsubishi Lancer $179 mth/36 mths $2728 due

-Volkswagen Golf $269 mth/36 mths zero due

-Nissan Sentra $149-$179 mth/39 mths $2449 due

Sedan - Honda Accord $199 mth/36 mths $2199 due

-Toyota Camry $169-$199 mth/36 mths $239 to $2899 due

-Subaru Legacy $209 mth/36 mths $1909 due

-Nissan Maxima $299-$329 mth/39 mths $2999 due

Crossover - Honda CR-V $249 mth/36 mths $2099 due

-Mitsubishi Outlander $239 mth/48 mths $2488 due

-Volkswagen Tiguan $339 mth/36 mths zero due

-Acura RDX $399 mth/36 mths $3599 due

SUV - Cadillac SRX $479 mth/39 mths $4054 due

-Kia Borrego $269 mth/39 mths $3364 due

-Acura MDX $499 mth/36 mths $3999 due

So you have a lot of good choices in each category if you so choose to lease this month. Hurry up half of January is already gone by! Can you believe that????

I found an article written by cars.com that gives a list of 10 vehicles that can possibly make or break the Big 3 (Ford, GM, and Chrysler) in Detroit.  In my opinion, I don’t really think that Ford especially needs any big vehicle to save it. I think it’s doing alright through this storm.  They didn’t need any buyout money and are posting positive sales recently.  GM also is surviving, and at this point in the auto industry, survival I think is just fine. Chrysler on the other hand. That’s a different story. That’s the company that might turn the Big 3 into the Big 2. Sorry Chrysler.  So anyways, this article gave some of the vehicles that will be big releases coming up.

Ford - Company Savers - Ford Fiesta, Ford Taurus, Ford Explorer - Cars.com thinks that Ford needs to redesign the Ford Escape to help the company as well.

Chrysler -   Company Savers - Jeep Grand Cherokee (the only thing I really think that can help Chrysler!)  Fiat 500, Chrysler 300. Cars.com says that Chrysler needs a successful compact car. They have tried several that have failed.  Keep trying.

General Motors - Company Savers - Chevy Equinox/Traverse, Chevy Cruze, Chevy Volt. Needed….a new Chevy Aveo.

Let’s see just how right, if at all, Cars.com is.  Time will tell.

So I just read today that auto analysts see signs of rebound in auto sales.  Great news!  So with that said, maybe you are considering a new car.  Here’s one for you.  The new Mercedez-Benz C300 may be considered less of a car than it’s sibling the Mercedez-Benz E-Class, but according to Larry Printz of The Virginian-Pilot that is not the case at all.  Consider the Mercedez-Benz C300 “the same vehicle but more concisely rendered.”  The nice thing about the C300 is the price. I mean in the big picture it is still a really expensive vehicle, but it is nicely priced for a Mercedez-Benz.  There are two models to choose from in the C Class. You have the sporty model or the luxury sedan model.  All models come with a rear-wheel or all-wheel drive.  You also have a choice of a six-speed manual or seven-speed automatic transmission.  This is a fast vehicle.  The gas mileage is good as well at 22.5 miles per gallon overall.

You have so many choices on what to get. There is the base C300 that has a 228-horsepower 3-liter V6 or a C350 that has a 268-horsepower 3.5-liter V6.  Too many choices for me already!  These choices are before the options and extra packages too!  Yikes!  There is a “Multimedia Package” and a “Premium 1 Package” which costs $2300 that includes a garage door opener, heated front seats, satellite radio, auto-dimming mirrors, rain-sensing wipers, 10-way power driver’s seat with three-position memory and a power adjustable steering column.  You get a lot for $2300.  So, if you want to buy a really nice car, check out the Mercedez-Benz C300. Oops, I forgot to give you the price…..just a minor detail.  The base price is $33,600, but let’s be realistic it’s probably more like $43,000 after you get the model you want and the options.

Ford has been given the honors of receiving the Detroit Free Press 2010 Car and Truck of the Year.  The Ford Fusion and Ford Transit Connect are the lucky winners of the 2010 Car and Truck of the Year awards.  Great news for Ford.

The Car of the Year - Ford Fusion - this is a front or all-wheel drive midsize sedan with a base price of $19,620.

The 2 runner ups of this award was the Chevrolet Camaro and the Buick Lacrosse.

The Truck of the Year -   Ford Transit Connect - front-wheel drive compact van with a base price of $20,780.  It has a 136 horsepower 2.0-liter engine.  It will get 22 mpg in the city and 25 on the highway.

The 3 runner ups (2nd place was a tie) of the Truck of the Year were the Chevrolet Equinox, Lincoln MKT, Cadillac SRX.

Maybe I’m a loser (I am!) but I am really excited about these new vehicles. I think that Big 3 in Detroit are coming back!  I think Ford is the leader of the pack for sure and do to all of their awards are clearly making a better name for themselves these days.

www.carblogs.org

Happy New Year! Can you believe another decade gone?  What will this decade bring us in terms of vehicles?  Should be a lot of interesting vehicles and fuel efficient for sure.

Do you own an Aston Martin vehicle?  If you do, you are a special person and lucky as well.  Well there is a new car out there that is much more affordable. The average Joe could almost own it. It’s called the Aston Martin Cygnet.  It only costs about $35,000. The rumor is that some of the Aston Martin loyalists are not too happy about the price tag. Normally, Aston Martin vehicles have a price tag around $120,000.  The Cygnet is based on the Toyota iQ.  There will only be about 2000 minicars available for sale and oh did I forget to mention that this vehicle is only available to full-sized Astons owners.  Sorry most of us saps cannot be part of an Aston Martin any time soon!

    

There are as many as 50 models that will be discontinued by different automakers over the next few years.  Some of them will be worth buying if you can negotiate well and get a steal, but the majority of these discontinued vehicles will not be worth anything in 5 years.  An article on Yahoo! Autos gives a list of 5 of the top 10 discontinued vehicles that Kelly’s Blue Book says are not a good buy.  Here they are and if you are looking for more details about each of these cars and why you shouldn’t buy them, check out the article. I’ll just give you the basics.

1.  Kia Spectra - the starting price is $14,000. It is being discontinued this year and the 5 year residual value is just 15%.  Yikes!

2.  Saab 9-7x - starting price $40,000 and being discontinued 2010, 5 year residual value 16 to 18% depending on trim line.

3.  Chrysler PT Cruiser - $19,000, being discontinued 2010 and 16% 5 year residual value

4.  Mercury Grand Marquis - $30,000 leaving us in 2011 and a 16% residual value

5. Hyundai Azera - $25,000, discontinue date unknown, 16% residual value

So, these are the worst discontinued cars. Just steer clear of them.  Not worth it.  There are sooo many good deals out there right now, no need to buy these cars.

The new 2010 Porsche Panamera S is a 4-door Porsche with a lot to offer.  This is the first four-door sedan ever made by this company in 61 years in the business.  Do you wonder why now?  I kindof do. I guess they needed to follow the trends for their customers’ needs, but Porsche has been well Porsche for 61 years with no help needed to attract their customers.  You have your choice between rear-wheel or all-wheel drive, and you also get 16 cubic feet of trunk space.  This car has a tremendous amount of power. The rear-wheel drive has a 400 horsepower  4.8-liter  V8 engine that can get to 60 miles an hour in 5.2 seconds with a top speed of 175 mph. If you get the all-wheel drive, everything is the same except you should be able to get to 60 miles an hour in 4.8 seconds.  If that’s not fast enough for some of you, you can get the turbo engine which is a twin-turbo that has 500 horsepower and gets to 60 in 4 seconds.

Alright, now that you are excited about the Panamera S and its four doors, let me give you the bad news.  It’s expensive. I mean really expensive.  The base price is $90,750 but with the options and all its going to cost you $108,000, and then if you need the turbo engine that STARTS at $132,000. I don’t know how many of you can afford the Porsche Panamera S, but if you can it sure looks nice!

I feel like a broken record discussing electric cars yet again, but this is the talk “around town” shall I say.  The LA Auto Show had electric cars on its mind and now I just read an article today about the problems that electric car manufacturers are facing in terms of recharging stations.  This is a big problem and a real problem.  Specifically, Nissan and General Motors are getting ready to release their electric cars the Leaf and Chevy Volt, respectively.  Nissan and General Motors are trying to figure out ways to get the recharging stations built.  They are asking for $124 billion in government incentives over 8 years which includes$13.5 billion for tax credits to build recharging stations.  “This is a lot of money to ask of the government, but it pales in comparison to the cost of U.S. oil dependence, which has huge environmental, economic, and national-security costs” says Sam Ori who is one of the authors of Electricification Coalitionreport.  I was actually thinking the same thing before I read what Ori had said. I do think this is a tremendous amount of money to be asking of the government, especially when the government has their hands full right now, but at the same time, in the long run electric cars will be better for all of us. 

Along with the problems with the lack of recharging stations comes some serious anxiety of customers that buy these electric cars.  People will not be without worrying when they are set off in their new electric cars. The fear of batteries running out of power on the road somewhere is high.  Yes, you are supposed to charge your cars at home, and then get around 100 miles, but what if you are out somewhere and the battery dies. If you run out of gas, you get to the nearest gas station which won’t be far, but if you own a Nissan Leaf the nearest recharging station could be too far to talk about.  The big difference between the Leaf and the Chevy Volt is that when the battery dies in the Volt the gas engine will start up, therefore if there is a gas station around, you will never be stranded. That’s a huge plus…..but of course this doesn’t come without a high price tag.  Both electric vehicles will be expensive, but the Volt will cost more due to the gas engine.

I don’t know, either way, it seems to me that if you own an electric car, at least for the next 5 years, it will be more of a hassle than anything else.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see if I’m right, though I think I am. Maybe I just have a bad attitude about electric cars……….and I rambled too. Sorry!

 

 

Reilly Brennan of aolautos.com wrote an article on three cars that will be available to us in the near future that will give us great gas mileage without the hefty price tag of hybrids.  Brennan was actually pretty down on hybrids. He made some good points though.  The lowest priced hybrid you can get is about $20,000 and that’s a base model and the price goes up to $100,000.  You are basically paying for the hybrid engine but when you actually number crunch it will take you a long time to recoup your money for the hybrid technology.  I know that’s not the only reason that people drive hybrids. I get the whole environment aspect, Brennan and myself for that matter are just saying that hybrids are an expensive car and are only about 3% of all new cars.  Anyways, the three non-hybrid cars that Brennan talks about are the talk of the auto industry these days.  I know I’ve talked about them on this blog, but I’ll touch on them again anyways.

2011 Ford Fiesta - supposedly will get 40 mpg when it is with a 1.6-liter 4 cylinder engine.  This car has been winning numerous awards in the rest of the world for sometime now, and the starting price is $13,320.

2011 Chevrolet Cruze - you will get 40 mpg from the “high-efficiency model.” Not sure what the non-high efficiency model gas mileage will be, but you would think not a lot worse.  The price has not been determined but it should be in the mid-teens.  1.4-liter turbocharged 4 cylinder engine. This car will compete with the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic. 

2010 Fiat 500 - not a lot of information available could be available to some metropolitan areas in late 2010 and might be priced in the low $20,000s though this is speculation at this point.  1.4-liter 4 cylinder engine that will be like the Mini Cooper or Smart Forwo getting 38 mpg. 

So, there you have it. Check out these cheaper cars with great gas mileage. Might be worth it.