www.themotorreport.com.au

The new 2011 Hyundai Sonata has been spied and many are surprised that there have been pictures of the entire vehicle already. The “flood gates” have been opened according to leftlanenews.com.  The Hyundai Sonata is supposed to be unveiled at the LA Auto Show in November or the Detroit Auto Show in January.  So, I guess since the gates have been opened, we can a few specifics that are being discussed as well.  There will be a hybrid model of the 2011 Sonata that will have a four-cylinder engine with a 40 horsepower electric motor and lithium-polymer batteries.  No official word but it is expected that a four-cylinder V6 will be the engine to compete with the Honda Accord, Mazda 6, Chevrolet Malibu, and Nissan Altima.  I guess we’ll have to wait for the auto shows to get the true specs, but it looks like a nice car from what you can see.

        

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There will be a different look on our streets in the future around the country. According to detnews.com, the Ford Crown Victoria will be not be built after 2011.  That’s a BIG deal for police departments across the U.S.  For almost 20 years the police car market has belonged to the Crown Victoria.  About 85% of the 75,000 police cars that are sold in the U.S. each year are Crown Victorias.  Yes, the profit margin isn’t fantastic nor is the volume of sales, but there is ”zero marketing cost” and there is a profit, so it’s worth it for Ford.  The thing is that even though it is a common figure on our streets, the Crown Victorias are somewhat outdated. They don’t have the new technology available, especially safety things.  They are slower as well.  But on the flip side, the Crown Vics can hold all the equipment, electronics, guns, and “bad guys” with no difficulty and that could be a problem with the replacement. Ford is thinking about replacing the Crown Victorias with the Ford Taurus, but Ford is quick to say that the final decision has not been made. Basically, Ford does not want to lose this market share, so they will be doing whatever they can to keep the police departments happy.  So, I guess enjoy the Crown Vics for the next 2 years. It will be weird to see new police cars. 

       

www.ridelust.com

One of the hottest Cash for Clunkers cars has been the Honda Civic Hybrid.  It actually ranks third behind the Ford Focus and Toyota Corolla, but it’s the only hybrid.  The base price of the Civic Hybrid sedan starts at $23,650.  Several Honda dealerships actually sold out of the Civic hybrids, and then those customers started buying the regular Civic instead.  Before the Cash for Clunkers program, dealers had said that the hybrid was down more than 70% in July.  It has a lot of safety features with a great deal of air bags and anti-lock braking system that is good.  The gas mileage is exceptional getting 40 city, 45 highway miles per gallon.  I guess that even though the Cash for Clunkers program is just about over, you may want to check out the Civic hybrid. I think the price is definitely right!

   

www.autospectator.com

Finally….a good review for one of the Detroit Big 3 vehicles!  Well, that’s not exactly true. There have been some good publicity for a couple of these cars in the last 6-8 months, but either way Scott Burgess from detnews.com wrote a nice review for the Chrysler Town & Country.  ”A minivan gets the job done like no other.”  You have the Stow ‘N Go available as well as Swivel ‘N Go, which according to friends that have this car, would MUCH prefer the Stow ‘N Go.  Even packed to the max, which is easy to do if you are travelling with the family, the Town & Country drives very nicely. 

Here are the particulars that you probably care about.  A couple of engine choices: 3.3-liter V6 175 horsepower, 3.8-liter V6 197 horsepower, or the 4-liter V6 251 horsepower.  Each engine has a slight change in gas mileage but on average you get 17 mpg in the city and 24 on the highway.  Lots of storage space as well, depending on whether you are going to use the 7 seats or fold them in for more storage.  There is storage underneath the second row seats as well.  According to Burgess, there are 13 cup holders. That’s pretty crazy.  A 115-volt outlet in the second-row as well.  Burgess had a good vacation experience with the Chrysler Town & Country, and my guess is that many other people would as well.

         

www.kaliteliresimler.com

Warren Brown of The Washington Post wrote a review on the Hyundai Elantra Touring.  Unfortunately for the Elantra, the review was not raving about the good, but more commenting quite a bit about the not-so-good.  He says that the Elantra Touring is a “nifty, nimble city runner. The more congested the traffic, the better it seems to behave.”  This hatchback/compact car has 65 cubic feet of cargo room, which is as much as many compact sport-utility vehicles.  It has a 2-liter, 138-horsepower, four-cylinder engine.  It gets 23 miles per gallon in the city and 31 miles per gallon on the highway.  It is a front-wheel drive vehicle. 

So, I guess you are wondering what Brown had a problem with, and he sure did have a problem.  He took the Elantra Touring on a little roadtrip, and it was a nightmare.  The car was packed with almost 400 pounds of cargo, and because of that, the Elantra became “a right-lane queen.”  “Uphill travel was miserable.”  The car struggled tremendously on the highway, even on flat highways.  The only gear that had any umpf was 2nd gear, according to Brown. Yikes. This is a tough review.  I guess if you are just driving locally, go for it. Check out the Hyundai Elantra Touring, but if you ever need to get on the highway and travel anywhere, you might want to think of another vehicle to buy instead.

 

An article on U.S. News and World Report says that the Cash for Clunkers program has been quite successful in the past week and a half and that there is a common denominator for the top trade-ins…Ford SUVs.

Here are the top 10 Cash for Clunker trade-ins:

1.  1998 Ford Explorer

2.  1997 Ford Explorer

3. Yup another Explorer 1996 Ford Explorer

4.  An another - 1999 Ford Explorer

5.  Jeep Grand Cherokee

6.  Jeep Cherokee

7.  1995 Ford Explorer

8.  1994 Ford Explorer

9.  1997 Ford Windstar

10.  1999 Dodge Caravan

So, the list is alittle boring since it’s pretty much the same SUV on the whole top ten list!  Well, almost.  There are clearly a lot less Ford Explorers on the roads these days. 

Now, here’s a list of the top ten new cars being bought through the Cash for Clunkers program: 

1.  Ford Focus

2.  Honda Civic

3.  Toyota Corolla

4.  Toyota Prius

5.  Ford Escape

6.  Toyota Camry

7.  Dodge Caliber

8.  Hyundai Elantra

9.  Honda Fit

10.  Chevy Cobalt

Good news for the Detroit Big Three; 47% of the new cars are from Ford, Chrysler, or GM.  The gas mileage has increased by 9.4 miles per gallon, which is 61% better than the vehicles on the road prior. That’s good news as well.  The Cash for Clunkers may be over on Friday, but even if it is, I would say that it’s been a success.

    

 

Anyone use the new “Cash for Clunkers” incentive and bought a new car?  For those of you that didn’t pay attnetion to this new program, I’ll give you a brief synopsis of who qualifies and what it is.  If you have a vehicle that is newer than 1984, must get 18 miles per gallon or less combined highway/city, driveable, insured, and licensed for at least 1 year.  The car must have the correct fuel efficiency requirements and the MSRP must be less than $45,000.  It must be a new vehicle.  How much can you get?  Well, that depends upon the car.  You can get $3500 for new SUVS, pickup trucks, minivans, and cars that get more than 2 miles per gallon or 4 miles per gallon (cars.)  You can get $4500 for getting at least 5 mpg more for the new trucks, SUVs, and minivans, and for cars you get the $4500 if the new one gets more than 10 mpg than the trade-in.  Here’s the kicker though. You can’t get the rebate plus the trade-in. In many cases, the trade-in value will be better than the rebate and therefore the Cash for Clunkers is worthless. 

The good news is that during the first weekend of the Cash for Clunkers program, dealerships around the country felt good about sales. They think that this incentive will definitely boost sales for them, but unfortunately the program ends October 31, 2009, so it could be short-lived. I like the idea of the Cash for Clunkers program, but you still need quite a bit of money to buy the new vehicle. That’s the problem. Yes, it will help get rid of the gas guzzlers and boost the economy, but the customer still needs money to buy the new vehicle, and there in lies a problem for some, actually a lot these days with the unemployment rate. I guess we’ll see how the program does. We can reevaluate in November.

 

www.smcgroup.wordpress.com

This very small car, the Ford Fiesta, has been making big waves in Europe and in a year, Ford is hoping it will be making big waves here in the United States as well.  The Ford Fiesta has been given awards from Top Gear, Car and Driver, and AutoWeek magazines.  Britain’s What Car? magazine named the Ford Fiesta 2009 Car of the Year.  This car was around in the late 1970s, but then was replaced in 1980 by the Ford Escort.  The new Fiesta is alittle longer than the Chevrolet Aveo5 and about a half a foot shorter than the Honda Fit.  It can fit 4 people and you can fold down the rear seats for more storage if needed.  In Europe you have a host of choices for the engine type, but in the U.S. it will be just one choice a 118-horsepower, 1.6-liter four cylinder engine.   The actual fuel economy has not been determined yet, but car should be in the range of 40 miles per gallon.  I’d take that!  The reviews all say that the ride is good and overall the Ford Fiesta is a quality vehicle.  I’ll guess we’ll wait a year and see if the Ford Fiesta can earn the Car of the Year in the U.S. as well.  We shall see. 

     

 

I thought I’d get everyone up to speed on the auto news from the last few days.

For starters, new details on the 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost were released today.

www.lincah.com

The new Rolls-Royce Ghost that is due out the middle of next year is a nice looking vehicle.  It has unbelievable power with a 6.6-liter, turbocharged V-12 engine that puts out 563 horsepower and 575 lb ft torque.  The top speed is 155 miles per hour and the Rolls-Royce Ghost can get from 0 to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds.  This “smaller, entry-level model will share a platform with the new BMW 7 series.  It has an 8 speed automatic transmission.  The starting price will be somewhere in the low $300,000. A bargain!

More news.  Toyota has announced today that it is no longer profitable in the United States. Toyota has been extremely successful in the last several years in the U.S., but Toyota actually had a full year of operating loss. Not good for the auto industry. They are considering closing a warehouse in California.

The revival plans of the Aston Martin Lagonda, which was introduced at the Geneva Auto Show, have been put on hold and there is a good possibility that the project will be cancelled. 

Mercedes-Benz has done well with their fuel economy on their E-Class Sedans for Europe.  The diesels are getting 45 miles per gallon on average and the gas is getting 33 miles per gallon, which obviously is a lot less but has more power with 184 horsepower and a top speed of 144 mph, compared to the diesel of 136 horsepower and top speed of 130 mph.

And last but not least, General Motors has introduced “Remote Ignition Block” through OnStar.  A few years ago, GM introduced “Stolen Vehicle Slowdown” which would allow OnStar operators to remotely slow down the engine power of a stolen car at the request of police. Well, now they have outdone that with the Remote Ignition Block.  The OnStar operator can remotely access the vehicle’s computer and disable certain functions such as locking the vehicle’s ignition, so once the car is turned off it cannot be restarted.  This would help find stolen vehicles quicker, since the car cannot go anywhere after its turned off, and also hopefully help to prevent high speed chases.

So, there you have it. Alittle car information for your reading pleasure!

  

    

 

www.nytimes.com

The new Audi TTS coupe is a faster version of the Audi TT. The Audi TTS was designed to compete with the Mercedes-Benz SLK350, the Porsche Cayman, and the BMW Z4 3.0si.  What really neat thing about this vehicle is that the magnetic ride suspension is constantly adjusting throughout your drive.  It “eats up bumps and smooths out the ride” according to detnews.com.  “It works by running electricity at different levels through the shocks, which instantly changes them.  There are different settings that allow you to pick how stiff you want the ride to be, the stiffer the ride, the faster you go.”  The wheels are bigger as well at 19 inches.  The Audi TTS has a 2.0-liter, 265 horsepower turbocharged incline four-cylinder engine.  It is an all-wheel drive engine.  The fuel economy is 21 miles per gallon in the city and 29 miles per gallon on the highway.  It starts at about $45,000.  I just like to give you guys choices….from the low priced brands and models to the upper end as well.