1. It's not that nice inside. Used to be that the Toyota Corolla was the slam-dunk in this segment if you wanted a reasonably upscale yet economical ride. The economical part is still there, though the new Corolla tops out at 27 mpg city/35 highway (with the automatic), while the previous generation was rated at a marginally better 28 mpg city/37 highway (with the manual). But the upscale part? Not so much. The Corolla's interior is rife with hard plastic, and none of the switchgear feels particularly substantial. It's not bad, but it's certainly no better than, say, the cheaper Hyundai Elantra's cabin.
2. It's not that nice to drive. I know driving enjoyment isn't a priority for many shoppers, but the Corolla's flaccid character still seems a bit much. The steering is completely devoid of feel and feedback, and the body roll is Buick-like. Also, the 1.8-liter engine drones unpleasantly at higher rpm, which is odd -- I remember finding the previous Corolla's 1.8-liter engine note smooth and refined.
1. It's up against some pretty impressive competition. There's the abovementioned Elantra, which is basically a more endearing and content-rich Corolla for less cash. There's the redesigned 2010 Mazda 3, which has both a nicer interior and a much more engaging driving demeanor. The Honda Civic remains a strong if quirkily-cabined entry, and the Mitsubishi Lancer feels both sportier and more substantial. Moreover, Ford's waiting around the corner with the redesigned Euro-spec Focus.
Many Corolla buyers probably didn't bother test-driving anything else. If they had shopped around, I wonder how many of them still would have bought the Toyota. I suspect our 2008 Economy Sedan Consumer Comparison Test contains a few clues.
(A Blue Line train pulls into the station. The Blue Line connects Long Beach and downtown Los Angeles.)
Recently, I found myself in the odd position, at least for an Edmunds editor, of being without wheels. So I decided I would take public transportation from my home in Long Beach to our offices in Santa Monica, a distance of about 31 miles. I thought it would be a kind of comparison test between driving and using bus and light rail.
I used a feature on Los Angeles transit's website called "trip planner" which told me which buses and trains to take, where and when to catch them and how much they would cost. I printed this out and headed out the door at approximately 6 AM. It was rainy and cold but I only had to wait about 10 minutes before the bus arrived. I was able to purchase a transfer that allowed me to make it all the way to downtown Los Angeles for only $1.60.
The bus was surprisingly crowded for that early in the morning but I found a seat and watched the city slide by while alternately checking news and e-mails on my Blackberry.
Here at the WT3, we -- and I do mean that royally -- like to keep it real. With the economy in a flat spin and heading out to sea ("Mayday, mayday! Mav's in trouble!"), it just feels like the right time to debate the virtues of a $130,000 supercar. Our long-term Audi R8 is like flying business class: it seems ostentatious and overpriced until you experience it -- and then you wonder how you ever lived without it. Three more things you didn't know about the R8, coming right up.
When your niche sports-car company rises to become the most profitable automaker in the world, turning a preposterous $28,000 profit on each unit sold as of 2007, it's nice to give back to the community of automotive aficionados that got you there. That's the idea behind the new Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, a $100 million monument to Porsche's illustrious past and present that opened to the public in on January 31, 2009. For a mere eight euros per person (four euros for students, senior citizens, the disabled and the unemployed), the Museum allows first-hand access to most of the company's notable creations through the years, from 24-year-old Ferdinand Porsche's electric wheel-hub motor unveiled at the 1900 Paris World Fair to the incomparable Porsche Carrera GT supercar. If you care about automotive history, this is a holy site -- do yourself a favor and make a pilgrimage the next time you're in Germany.
I attended a special media event at the Museum in advance of its grand opening, and for the most part, I was duly impressed. The "hovering" exterior design is imposing, to put it mildly, dominating the humble skyline of Zuffenhausen, the suburb of Stuttgart that Porsche calls home. Snide comments involving Star Trek and space stations were overheard, but I'll give this much to the architects at the Austrian firm Delugan Meissl: it sure is distinctive. At any rate, you don't have to look at it when you're inside, and that's where the Museum proves its mettle. With the unfortunate exception of my favorite Porsche of all time, the 968 Turbo S, of which only 15 units were produced, just about every Porsche that matters is present and accounted for. Typ 64, 550 Spyder, 917 racecar, 959 -- they're all here, along with more 911s than you can shake some lift-throttle oversteer at. It's like a world-class Matchbox car collection, except they're all real, and almost all of them remain drivable. The Porsche people refused to estimate the value of the collection during the press conference, but one told me off the record: "Priceless."
If your curiosity is piqued, scroll on for more photos.
It's hard when you don't have first-hand access to the latest and greatest cars on the market, because all you've got to go on is pictures, numbers, and the words of automotive hacks like me. Based only on these three reference points, it's easy for practically any new car to seem like the coolest thing since Zubaz. A lot of cars look good and make pretty compelling numbers these days, and there's never a shortage of journalists who will fawn on cue whenever they hear the phrase "all new" or "completely redesigned."
If there's one lesson I've learned in this profession, it's that you shouldn't always believe the hype.
I've driven countless ballyhooed cars that have turned out to be letdowns in one way or another. The following three stand out as being the most disappointing in recent memory.
OK, so it was last year's Super Bowl. And OK, Arizona is a much shorter drive from Los Angeles than Tampa Bay is (by about 4 days). But the fact remains that Vehicle Testing Assistant Mike Magrath and I had quite the adventure last year hauling a 31-foot Fleetwood trailer to the big game with a Ford F-450 Super Duty.
There was jack knifing. There was uncontrolled acceleration. There was Super Nintendo. There was Batman's camper. There was an early morning heave-ho by Mr. Magrath.
When I was offered the chance to fly to Sicily for a 2009 Porsche Boxster PDK (Porsche's new dual-clutch automated manual transmission) event, I said I'd have to think about it. I spent three excruciating milliseconds internally debating the pros and cons, finally acquiescing with a grudging "AreYou****ingKiddingMeOfCourse!" Once I got there, though, I did have to come up with some things to do. As it happens, I only came up with three. Not really, but keep reading anyway.
If you got feedback on your driving style, would you be able to change it and reduce CO2 emissions? A pilot program in Denver, called Driving Change, shows that motorists who are made aware of how their driving habits affect their vehicle's fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions often improve their driving habits. The 400 drivers enrolled in the progam received individualized emissions and driving "dashboards" they could view on their computers. While motorists didn't curtail their aggressive driving much, they did cut their unnecessary idling by some 30%, resulting in a reduction of about 1 pound of CO2 emissions per hour per vehicle. Collectively, that adds up.
The study was underwritten by an oil company, no doubt (IMO) to show that people can reduce their impact on the environment without having to give up their gasoline-powered vehicles.
I know, I know. I talked about the Mercedes-Benz SLK55 AMG last week too. But an additional drive up to Big Sur over the long weekend left a lasting impression. This car is so fast that I've decided it's going to be a charter member of the "Have A Nice Day" Club -- that is, the exclusive group of cars in which flooring the throttle is akin to waving goodbye and saying "Have A Nice Day" to virtually every other car in sight. Read on to see which wheels earn this rather antisocial distinction.
The 2009 Mercedes-Benz SLK55 AMG is a car I really didn't expect to like. Honestly, I'm still not completely sold on it, for one reason -- it's saddled with a conventional automatic that's simply not up to the task, serving up lame throttle-blip-less downshifts and generally sluggish responses to driver commands. But otherwise, whoo, pig sooey! This car turned out to be a total hoot. Here's three reasons why.
The hit movie Marley and Me tells the story of a family and its lovable but psychotic very wayward dog. If you have a similar dog in your life -- or any dog, for that matter -- you know that traveling with your pet can sometimes prove to be a real test of your relationship. Get man's best friend in a car and he can quickly morph into an upholstery-chewing, driver-distracting four-legged foe like no other.
Fortunately, there are things you can do to make automotive adventures with your favorite canine a whole lot easier. Getting up to speed on these tips can help you keep your car's cabin free of unsavory accessories like dog puke -- did you know that there are steps you can take to prevent your dog from getting carsick? Other tips could wind up literally saving your pet's life.
Get the full story by checking out our Top 10 Tips for Traveling With Dogs. Both Fido and your car's beige Novillo leather upholstery will be grateful.
The 2009 Infiniti G37 Journey sedan features a pumped-up 328-horsepower V6 and Infiniti's new seven-speed automatic transmission. Our test car had the Sport Package, which adds the G37 coupe's quicker steering ratio and other performance-minded mods. Curiosity piqued? Check out our comprehensive Edmunds Test Drive of the new G37, and then come back and tell us what you think.
3. Sounds like a Scion. No, really, it does. The 2.0T starts around $33 grand, and it drones like an econobox under hard acceleration (here's our man Kavanagh on why the VW GTI's similar engine sounds much better). There's some steering-wheel vibration at full throttle, too. This is the engine that Audi's sending up against the likes of the BMW 328i's velvety inline-6 and the Mercedes-Benz C300's confident V6?
2. Transmission trickery. Our test car was a 2009 Audi 2.0T Quattro. It weighed in at 3,770 pounds. It generates 211 hp and 258 lb-ft of torque. It did zero to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds. Yes, the 2.0T is signficantly torquier this year, but something's fishy here. The 230-hp, 3,424-lb BMW 328i did the same feat in 6.4 seconds; shoot, so did the 265-hp, 3,835-lb Audi A5, which shares the A4's platform. And no, our 2.0T wasn't a ringer -- our long-term A4 Avant weighs even more and did the deed a tenth of a second quicker.
Here's part of what's going on: Audi has slipped a drag-strip mode into the transmission that activates only when you turn stability control off and brake-torque the A4 off the line (as far as I can tell; the owner's manual doesn't mention it). What does it do? It changes the upshift point from about 6,300 rpm to 5,800 rpm, presumably to keep the turbo spooled up, and the upshifts get really fast and really harsh. Result? We automotive journalists get better numbers -- belief-beggaring numbers, really, given the power-to-weight ratio -- and you owners won't be able to tax your drivetrain under ordinary circumstances with this high-stress procedure.
That's a little too sneaky for my taste. If there's a high-performance shift program, I want to be able to access it anytime. Audi should give owners a button so they can activate that mode at will; otherwise, it just produces eye-catching but somewhat misleading acceleration numbers for automotive publications. Which I hope wasn't the intent.
1. Not enough juice -- 2.0T or 3.2. This is arguably the A4's Achilles' heel: The 2.0T obviously doesn't have the oats to go toe-to-toe with the 335i/d, G37, C350, IS350 or CTS DI, and the uplevel A4 3.2, which competes with these models on price, is actually slower than the 2.0T at legal speeds. Audi makes a wonderful V8 (see S5, RS4, R8), and maybe the new supercharged six will be cool, but the two currently-available A4 engines are behind the curve. I told Santa I wanted no part of that.
Since I'm a 60-year-old man stuck in a 25-year-old body (or is that a 6-year-old boy stuck in a...), nevermind. Any way, I was watching 60 Minutes last night and watched this report about New York's Nassau County district attorney who successfully prosecuted a drunken driving case as a second-degree murder crime.
In the case, 24-year-old Martin Heidgen was driving his full-size GM pickup with three times the legal limit of alcohol in his system. His friends told him not to drive but he did it anyway. He ended up driving for three miles the wrong way on the parkway before slamming head-on into a Town Car limousine carrying a family from a wedding. The result was horrifying, as the video below shows.
This, friends, is the 335d, BMW's new diesel-fueled 3 Series sedan. It starts at $43,900, which is about $2,500 more than a comparably equipped 335i. Pound for pound and dollar for dollar, the petrol-powered 335i is one of the finest automobiles on the planet. But the 335d is even better, and here's why.
Along with getting in shape and giving up whatever vices you may have, you might want to consider a few more New Year's resolutions. We've got some suggestions, automotive-related, naturally, for you...
After a week spent in snowy Toronto, I decided something.
I like driving in snow. It's interesting and different; a change of pace from 72 degrees and sunny. It normally takes a lot to slide a Ford Escape, in fact, it normally takes so much you'll inevitably perform a slide sequel on its roof. Not so in snow. Take a corner a little too quick, or goose the throttle mid-turn and away you go. Maybe you'll end up in a ditch, but that's part of the fun. For a whale of a wintery good time, try an empty unplowed parking lot for some wicked 360s in a four-wheel-drive vehicle.
But away from such hooligan histrionics, there's simple everyday driving. All of a sudden I'm using windshield washer fluid for something other than coaxing tailgaters off my as...pen by Chrysler. Knowing which lane I'm in is an adventurous guessing game -- "is that the slow lane, a shoulder or somebody's lawn?" That invigoratingly weird feeling where my feet are numb but my face is hot. Snow is pretty. Dodging errant sliding vehicles is like real-world Mario Kart. I get to carry a broom in my car -- two if I was into curling. Did I mention you can slide anything?
See, driving in winter is exciting and a welcome departure from the doldrums of Southern California's same-old same-old. What a fun week away from it all.
You're driving along on hard-packed snow, you hit the brakes and ... nothing happens. It's then that you get that sickening feeling as if you're falling and you don't know when you're going to hit the ground.
I had that feeling recently when I was driving over Vail Pass in Colorado, elevation 10,660 feet. I was in a 2009 Infiniti FX50 AWD which did not have snow tires. It's a long story as to why I was driving through Colorado in December in such a vehicle, but the point is that having the right tires for the right situation is essential.
In my case, I had left plenty of room between my Infiniti and the car in front and I was back on grippy pavement before I hit anything. But it did make me think how important it is to know how your tires perform.
Growing up in New England, I spent a lot of time in vacant parking lots spinning around in the snow to learn how handle the conditions. In the FX on my recent trip, well aware of my lack of grip, I took to some snowy abandoned side roads and did some test braking. It gave me some idea of the distance I needed to stop this heavy SUV. I also visited Tirerack.com and read reviews from other drivers who used these tires. Another good resource is reading Edmunds' Snow/Ice Winter Tires forum.
And finally, if you're looking for a good primer on the subject, try our story How to Choose Tires and Wheels. Start with the right tires and when a blizzard strikes, you'll be ready for the elements.
It basically doesn't rain in L.A. from March to November, so as Mr. Riz points out, we're generally not the best source for reviews of precipitation-related items. But now that we're into the quote-unquote rainy season, the heavenly spigot is sputtering -- and we're appreciating anew all the things in modern cars that make driving in the rain more pleasant. To wit:
A coalition of consumer groups and other agencies is preparing to put further pressure on the government to curb mobile phone use behind the wheel in 2009 and plans to step up educational campaigns about the dangers of talking and texting while driving -- hoping to make it a social stigma akin to driving drunk.
Additionally, the National Safety Council, a potent force behind the enactment of seatbelt laws, is expected to make an announcement in January on how the U.S. should approach cell-phone use behind the wheel, while an alliance of consumer and safety advocates and the insurance industry plans to push for tougher laws and more education on phone-related driver distraction, according to a recent article in RCR Wireless News.
As the Edmunds Oracle Weekly Top 3 guy predicted early this morning, an initial bailout has been provided to save GM and Chrysler from a catastrophic demise. The White House today announced a $17.4 billion rescue package to help the two ailing giants survive into the Obama era. A TARP-funded $13.4 billion will be released over the next few weeks, and an additional $4 billion is on tap for February, pending the approval of Congress and then-President Obama.
We welcome this news, but we think consumers need a shot in the arm as well. No amount of government assistance will make a significant difference if consumers stay on the sidelines, and right now the economic downturn is forcing them to do just that. Consumers need financial incentives to purchase cars -- e.g., tax rebates or deductible interest -- in order for the bailout to be a resounding success. Here's hoping that this crucial next step will be taken in the weeks to come.
With Hanukkah starting this weekend, which is also the last weekend before Christmas and Kwanzaa, you might be in a bit of a mad dash for holiday gifts that won't break your budget - like I am. If your list of giftees includes a car lover or just someone who could use a good car-related accessory, check out our Holiday Gift Guide for Car Lovers. You'll find lots of car-themed or car-related gifts, all for less than $30, like the Griffin iTrip Auto Universal Plus (pictured above). It's perfect for loved ones who own an iPod or MP3 player, but whose cars lack an auxiliary jack. They just plug it into their music player's headphone jack, tune into an available FM frequency on their car's radio and enjoy listening to their music through their car's speakers. It'll even charge up their player via the USB plug and their car's powerpoint/cigarette lighter. See more about the iTrip and lots of other fun gift ideas here.
A new AAA study finds that two-thirds of Americans think that using a phone hands-free behind the wheel is safer than using a handheld phone. But the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety says that scientific research proves otherwise.
AAA contends that studies analyzing cell phone records of drivers involved in crashes show that using a cell phone while driving -- hands-free or not -- increases the chance of being involved in a crash by a factor of four.
"Too many Americans are driving with the false sense of security that hands-free devices are somehow safer, which could be a deadly mistake," said AAA Foundation President and CEO Peter Kissinger. "Evidence shows that using a hands-free phone while driving impairs your reaction time to critical events and increases your crash risk about the same as if you were using a hand-held phone."
As we've said before, no phone call is so important that it's worth risking life and limb to make or take.
So either pull over and talk or hang up and drive.
As readers of our Long-Term Blog will have noted, I didn't particularly enjoy the Subaru Impreza WRX STI's company while driving to Oregon and back last week. Which got me to thinking: Exactly what is it that makes a car a good road-trip companion? If you ask me, the following three features are necessary conditions for Roadtrip-Rated status. Check 'em out, and then tell me what YOU think a Roadtrip-Rated ride's gotta have -- and which models deserve this status, past or present.
With the cold clutches of winter upon most of us, we recommend making sure your wheels and your winter driving techniques are up to snuff.
Most modern cars have long tune-up and anti-freeze change intervals. Still, especially for older cars, you'll want to have your engine in a good state of tune and your hoses and anti-freeze checked. And as we said here recently, the importance of proper tires cannot be over emphasized.
Equally as important is knowing how to drive in the slippery stuff. We have you covered there as well with this article chock full of tips.
So you've got about $40 grand to play with, and...wait a minute. Actually, these days you probably don't. For that matter, neither do I or my cohorts in this comparative venture, Automotive Editor John DiPietro and Associate Editor Mark Takahashi. Nonetheless, what would you do if a 2009 Acura TL SH-AWD, a 2009 Infiniti G37 Journey and a 2009 Volkswagen CC VR6 4Motion magically appeared in your garage?
You'd grab the keys and head for the hills, that's what. And that's exactly what the three of us did. We mapped out a 22-mile driving loop through the Santa Monica mountains and hot-lapped it three times, switching cars after each circuit. Then we sat down with our ratings sheets, ordered up some bloody burgers and debated the virtues and vices of each ride.
Truth be told, there wasn't much disagreement. In fact, the final rankings were unanimous. Read on to find out how these midsize sport sedans stack up -- and don't be afraid to tell us what you think.
In the words of Justin Timberlake, the 2009 Toyota Venza is bringing wagon back (yeah!). Well, maybe that's not quite what old Timberlake said. But the Venza really is doing its part to convince Americans that the much-maligned wagon is a good thing. Here's three reasons why.
More and more "redesigned" or "all-new" cars these days are riding on old platforms. Take the "new" 2010 Ford Fusion, for example. It looks different inside and out, and its powertrains have been revised. But underneath, it's basically the same car as the 2009 model, which means it's based on a stretched previous-generation Mazda 6 platform.
Ford has been at the forefront of this phenomenon, which I like to call the "ABP" (All But Platform) design movement. To wit, the Focus was redesigned for 2008 but hasn't changed platforms since 2000; the Lincoln MKS is new for 2009 but rides on a previous-generation Volvo S80 chassis; and even the sexy new 2009 Jaguar XF shares its underpinnings with the defunct Lincoln LS, the MKS' predecessor at the top of Lincoln's lineup.
The Blue Oval folks aren't alone, though. In general, there seems to be a trend toward "tweaking" or "refining" platforms rather than redoing them from scratch, as well as a tendency to milk every last drop out of existing platforms.
And you know what? That's not necessarily a bad thing.
So the battle on road to the White House is over... finally. But the country's roads play host to another contest that reaches its peak in November: that of man vs. deer. And the deer are winning.
New data from State Farm Insurance says that "animal strike" claims have increased almost 16% in the last five years. In fact, some 1.2 million such claims were filed just in the last half of 2007 and the first half of 2008. It turns out that such collisions spike radically November each year (during the breeding season), according to the Highway Loss Data Institute. Deer aren't the only animals involved, but they are the most common.
The most affected states? Texas, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Rural roads or roads with speed limits over 55 are the most likely to see an animal/vehicle crash, particularly when it's dusk or night. And while most collisions don't result in deaths, fatalities have been increasing as well. (Of course, not wearing a seat belt contributed to many of those deaths.)
So as Caribou Barbie retreats to the wilds of Alaska to lick her wounds, be careful that a more life-threatening battle doesn't ensue between Bambi and you.
Too many drivers don't give much thought to winter driving or worse, think they don't have to. Especially those with all-wheel-drive vehicles such as SUVs. The common "wisdom" among these fools seems to be "I've got all-wheel drive, anti-lock brakes and stability control -- I'm immune to the laws of physics." I'm guessing that is why I would often see -- when I lived back in snowy New England -- SUVs and pickup trucks spun out on the side of the road, a befuddled expression on the driver's face.
Readers of our Long-Term Blog will have noted that I'm rather infatuated with our 2002 BMW e46 M3. That car is an enthusiast's fantasy -- it's like BMW scanned the brain of a car nut, figured out exactly what made it tick, and then made the e46 M3 the embodiment of those qualities. Too bad the same development team wasn't in charge of the current M5 sedan. The M5's principal virtue and vices are the subject of this week's Top 3.
The Good
The engine folks at BMW's M Division are still on top of their game. The M5's 500-horsepower V10 is scintillating. Put it in third gear at about 65 mph, wood the throttle, and...wow. It's not just the ridiculous power it makes -- it's the fire-breathing F1-style wail it emits while doing so. This engine fully deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the e46 M3's 3.2-liter inline-6. It's the highlight of this car.
The Bad
Surprise! The M5's steering stinks. Oh, it's not that bad compared with the mere mortals of the automotive world, but we're talking about the M-freakin'-five here. This is a variable-assist, variable-ratio setup, and it's invariably uncommunicative. There's so little feel that it reminded me of the rack in the new Acura TL SH-AWD, which is pretty good...for electric power steering! The M5's rack isn't electrically-assisted, so BMW can't use that as an excuse. What they should do is ditch this nonsense and replace it with, say, the telepathic steering available in even the lowliest 3 Series model.
The "What In Das Vaterland Were They Thinking?!"
SMG. Sequential Manual Gearbox. It was widely panned when it debuted years ago, and guess what -- it's still really bad. Frankly, I can't believe BMW's product people ever agreed that SMG was ready for prime time. The delays between upshifts are unacceptably long, even when the sportiest setting is selected, and each upshift lurches you forward in your seat while you wait for the single clutch to engage. It's uncomfortably reminiscent of the Smart's painfully crude transmission, except the M5 costs an additional $70 grand.
The Moral
Give me typically communicative BMW steering and a six-speed manual transmission, or at least BMW's new dual-clutch M-DCT transmission, and we'll talk. Until then, I'll take an M3 sedan with either of those transmissions, thank you...or a C63 AMG...or a CTS-V....
We all know that the price of crude has dropped big-time lately. From a high of nearly $150 a barrel earlier this summer it now stands at less than half that, around $66 a barrel.
Great, so prices at the pump have dropped too. Regular gas is down to around $2.96 a gallon here in everything-is-overpriced L.A. and diesel is priced, umm even lower...or drastically higher as I discovered at two Shell stations located relatively close to each other...
Jay Kavanagh and I have a huge lead going into day three, but we're not letting up. The coasting non-trick we employed in our Audi Q7 TDI diesel during day 1 and day 2 won't help on today's mostly flat route from Monterey to rally's end in Santa Monica, so we're going to employ a tactic so basic that we think everyone else will overlook it.
We're not going to drive the suggested route down the beautiful but sinuous Route 1 at all, because frequent turns, rolling clogs behind tourists and the lack of passing lanes on the narrow two-lane will make it hard to drive economically. Oh sure, speeds might be low and seemingly thrifty, but frequent on-again off-again throttle applications will drink more diesel than a steady cruise.
Team Edmunds, as the driving combo of Jay Kavanagh and me has come to be called, pulled out a big lead in the first day of leg 4 of Audi's diesel-powered fuel economy competition, the Audi Mileage Marathon. We managed to coax 28.6 mpg out of a laden TDI diesel V6-powered Audi Q7 7-passenger SUV on a day that consisted of a lot of climbing, descending and re-climbing on our way to a 7,500 ft high perch at Mammoth Lakes, California.
At the end of today's route we'll end up at sea level in Monterey, California. Jay and I are confident that the fact that we're destined to lose well over a mile of elevation should help us smash the 30 mpg barrier. Before the real downhill starts, however, we must first burn a bit of fuel climbing up and over the 9,945 ft summit at Tioga pass, the eastern gateway into Yosemite National Park.
The roads in this remote section of the park are narrow and sinuous. Long lines of cars can get bottled-up for miles behind tourist rent-a-cars that are crawling along at a bicycle's pace while they ogle the view all around them. We're not going hyper-fast, but we do want to avoid the brakes and preserve as much momentum through the turns as possible so we can avoid unnecessary dabs of throttle. Getting around such rolling roadblocks cleanly yet promptly is advantageous.
What makes this all the more critical is the fact that today's long downhill stretches are ideal for our secret tactic--a tactic that also happens to be today's strategy for smart car drivers: coast downhill in "D" instead of "N".
"Huh?" You say.
Contrary to popular belief, coasting a modern vehicle in Neutral consumes more fuel than coasting in Drive. In Neutral, the engine is decoupled from the road, so fuel must be burned to keep the engine running at idle speed and allow it to power accessories such as the power steering, air-conditioning and alternator. In contrast, coasting downhill in Drive consumes no fuel because the engine computer shuts off the fuel injectors in an attempt to limit descent speed via engine braking. The road itself is driving the crankshaft via the still-engaged transmission, so the power steering, air-conditioning and alternator get a free ride. Yes, you can coast down the long grades into places like Death Valley with the A/C on and still not burn any fuel.
Everybody else has failed to understand this fact and has been coasting in "N" throughout the competition. But we're not about to point out their mistake. They probably wouldn't believe us, anyway; everyone turns into big fat liars around the dinner table at competitive events like this.
The end-of-day score sheet demonstrates the validity of our strategy with a double whammy. Team Edmunds not only posts a best day 2 fuel economy result of 31.5 mpg, we manage to achieve this at 47 mph, the day's fastest average speed. Out of a Q7 field of 7 competitors, here are the top three results from day 2:
1st: Q7 #3 31.5 mpg @ 47 mph, 191 points
2nd: Q7 #4 30.6 mpg @ 45 mph, 174 points
3rd: Q7 #2 30.2 mpg @ 45 mph, 167 points
With a virtually insurmountable lead in the points so far, the final day of the competition promises to be little more than a formality. Day 3's roads are mostly flat and level as we travel along the coast back to Santa Monica to a finish at the same elevation, so our downhill coasting tactic won't be of much help. But we have something else up our sleeve--something so basic we think everyone else will overlook it.
Well, technically this is Day 12 of Audi's cross-country diesel-powered adventure. New York, New York was the starting place fo a convoy of over twenty diesel-powered Audi products, ranging from the TT sports coupe to the A3 and A4 sedan, some Q5 SUVs and our designated mount for the final 4-day push from Las Vegas to Santa Monica, California, the soon-to-be-released US-spec Audi Q7 3.0-liter TDI SUV--a 50-state clean diesel.
Yes, you're right; Vegas to LA should only require 4 hours. But they don't want this fuel economy competition to be easy, so they're sending us the long way.
It's no big secret that the 2009 Toyota Prius is the most fuel-efficient car on the market, thanks to its thrifty gas/electric hybrid powerplant. And therein lies much of its appeal, though the Prius' green credentials have not gone unchallenged in these parts. But with all the hubbub about fuel economy, it's easy to lose sight of the Prius' other virtues. The Weekly Top 3 is here to set the record straight.
3. It's a pleasant car to drive.
Plenty of folks these days would probably be happy with the Prius no matter how harshly it rode, or how loud it was inside. But the Prius' refined nature is nonetheless a welcome surprise. It's reasonably quiet at 80-85 mph over a variety of surfaces, and its suspension conjures up images of hovercrafts as the Prius calmly floats over bumps and ruts.
I've often wondered why even the high-tech Prius can only match the combined fuel economy of an '86 Civic CRX HF -- and that's using the EPA's revised estimates, as opposed to the 54 mpg on said Civic's window sticker. But say this for the Toyota: it's not at all the rolling penalty box that economy cars used to be.
2. There's plenty of backseat space.
Econocars of yore weren't exactly known for their accommodating rear quarters, either, so the Prius' spacious backseat is more icing on the cake. Would Prius owners have rioted if there weren't so much room in the rear? Of course not. But it's pretty cool that the Prius gives you midsize-sedan backseat space and, well, '86 CRX HF fuel economy.
1. It can haul a whole lot of stuff.
Thanks to some ingenious battery-pack placement, the Prius has a flat load floor, and its rear seatbacks fold flat as well. Throw in the hatchback bodystyle, and the result is a very useful cargo bay. I once wedged a kitchen table, four chairs, a set of golf clubs and a few boxes back there, and last weekend I took a friend to Ikea and managed to squeeze in just about everything he needed to furnish his one-bedroom apartment. One doesn't often think of the Prius as a practical vehicle, but name a car other than the new Jetta diesel wagon that can hold this much cargo with remotely comparable fuel economy.
The Moral
The Prius' calling card will always be its miserly fuel consumption, but it also offers an appealing combination of refinement and practicality.
So don't change the aggressively contoured front seats...the upscale soft-touch material atop the dash...the nicely weighted steering...the satisfactory body control...the vault-like *thunk* of the doors...the standout exterior styling...the useful hatchback design...
In other words, there's a lot to like about this car. Which is why GM's failure to address (2) and (1), below, is such a bummer.
(2) Give it a decent shifter.
How can a sporty European runabout be saddled with an unpleasant shifter? I dunno, but this runabout certainly is. Europeans, you'll note, are big stickshift fans. So you'd think they wouldn't stand for the Astra's sloppy five-speed. There's a weird reverse-lockout button underneath the front part of the knob, like a trigger on a joystick. Moving the long-throw lever through the gears is like trying to stir a bowl of frozen yogurt. I drove the manual-only Cobalt XFE shortly after the Astra, and that econo-'Balt's five-speed blew the Astra's away. There's no joy in this shifter -- and for any vehicle that trades on its "Euroness," that's a faux pas.
(1) And for Lutzsakes, give it a motor.
The Astra's mandatory 1.8-liter, 140-horsepower four-banger is seriously retro. In fact, it reminds me of the identically-sized four in my parents' old '95 Corolla DX wagon. That car had a five-speed manual, and if you revved it above about 3,200 rpm, it boomed and droned like an industrial-grade vacuum cleaner. So it is with the Astra -- any time you need a little extra power or just want to cruise at 75 mph on the highway, an incessant old-school Toyota-esque boom/drone is inescapable.
Moreover, this lump is as slow as the waiting line at your local DMV. To recap: it booms, it drones, and it's gutless. Can't we have the 2.0-liter turbocharged Cobalt SS engine instead? Or at least a sprightly naturally aspirated four that audibly likes to rev?
The Moral: Good car with a putrid powertrain. Here's hoping GM gets itself to a place where some of its time and money can be spent on rectifying such obvious flaws in otherwise wholly competitive vehicles.
Recently, I overheard a conversation in the office that revolved around the soul-sucking, brain-shriveling task of going to the DMV. It went something close to this:
Her: Yeah, I have to go in to get it renewed because my address changed.
Him: Agh, that's a drag.
Her: Yeah, I'm bringing my hardbound copy of "War and Peace" with me to pass the time.
Him: Good idea.
Members of the American Automobile Association might already know that they don't necessarily have to withstand the endless wait at the DMV anymore for registration renewals and the like; you can take care of such things at your friendly neighborhood Auto Club office. Sure beats burning sick time on a DMV trip only to realize you've been standing in the wrong line for four hours.
But did you know that there are a whole host of additional services that the Auto Club can help you with, some of which have nothing to do with cars? Things like personal loans, bail bonds and prescription discounts. It's true! Check out the entire list in our recent article, Top 10 Other Benefits of Your AAA Membership. Who knew that the AAA card sleeping in your wallet, waiting for you to blow a tire or need a jumpstart, had so much potential?
If you see a fleet of Audi Q7 TDI's covered with signage running through your town, it's probably part of the Audi Mileage Marathon, a two week cross-country drive that started in NYC and will end up in LA 4,800 miles later on October 20.
The 23 car rally (showcasing the Audi Q7 3.0 TDI SUV) was staged to illustrate how Audi's clean diesel technology is addressing concerns about fuel prices, energy dependence and global warming.
This rally is not a race. Vehicles are monitored during each leg of the journey and evaluated by speed, distance and fuel economy. In other words, winning isn't how fast you go, it's how fuel efficient you are.
I called in to my friend Kate McLeod, a NY-based automotive writer and playwright, who would be driving the Audi A3 TDI in the rally. She and driving partner Denise McCluggage were on the leg from New York to Chicago, two of the 184 drivers representing countries in North America, Europe and Asia, who will drive the fuel-efficient vehicles in 13 daily stages. FYI -- Automotive legend and journalist Denise McCluggage raced cars before it was hip and has been described as the "fastest woman on four wheels."
The duo had just arrived in DC, their first overnight stop.
Holly: How fast did you go?
Kate: 80-85 the whole way to D.C. We did no hypermiling, no riding the white line, no over inflating of the tires, we just drove.
Folks seem to be digging our new consumer-oriented Edmunds Test Drives, but try as we might, not every car that passes through our garage can get such in-depth treatment. High-performance, low-volume cars have a tendency to fit into this category since we're more focused on vehicles more people are likely to actually buy. We'll leave the hooliganism in the good hands of our Inside Line comrades.
So although such cars won't always be given the full Edmunds Test Drive treatment, that doesn't mean our editors don't take time out of our busy (hah!) days to take them around the block for a spin. And with our office ostensibly perched at the base of the Santa Monica mountains, our "block" involves some pretty awesome roads. This and future blogs in this series will be our thoughts, stories and experiences from these drives Around the Block.
"The new Porsche 911 Targa doesn't have a spare ounce of fat on its body," noted one of the designers at the recent preview in Garda Lake, Italy.
Ahh.... I thought. I want the body of a Porsche 911 Targa. Lean, fast and well.... you can guess the rest.
Yes, yes and yes. It is all that. Just to mention: a glass roof that slides quietly into the trunk for open air driving; an LED band of lights that flank the rear; polished aluminum trim bars that skim the roofline and side windows that sail to the rear in a crisp angle. Yes, the 2009 Porsche 911 Targa is all about slim. And a slim yet powerful body is usually quick. The 0-60 for the top-performing PDK Porsche 911 Targa is 4.3 seconds.
But with all that lean muscle, there's also room for shopping. The tailgate opens (by key fob) to 8.1 cubic feet of space behind the front seat. Of course, I managed to fill the back with a load of Italian purchases (groceries, jeans and tops). The 911 Targa, true to form, also has a front boot.
Coined an open air sports car when it debuted for 1967, the early 911 Targa featured a removable roof panel. Its name Targa came from from the Sicilian Targa Florio racing event. The Targa even passed the "hair test for ladies of the 60's" because it was a convertible with a protective shield.
Like clockwork, the rain that the Pacific Northwest in known for kicked in just in time for Mudfest 2008. The event, organized since 1994 by the Northwest Automotive Press Association, gathers many of the SUVs and crossovers currently on the market and tests them on the track, on the street and on the trail to see how they stack up in the wet stuff.
The weekend before the event temperatures were in the '80s and sunshine persisted through the beginning of the week. But on the first morning of Mudfest on Thursday, October 2, the skies began to gray and then sprinkle, and by the end of the two-day event the makeshift off-road trail set up at Pacific Raceways near Seattle was good and gooey.
While the winners in categories including Best Value SUV, Best Family SUV, Best Green SUV, Best Off-Road SUV and the overall SUV of the Year won't be announced until later this week (and awards will be presented at the LA Auto Show in November), after the jump are a few of my impressions of some of the most impressive vehicles that competed at the event.
It's hard to find anyone willing to put in a good word for the Mercedes-Benz R-Class, and understandably so. It looks weird, it's exorbitantly priced, and its extra-long second-row doors can't hold a candle to a minivan's sliding doors in terms of convenience.
That's why I wasn't expecting much when I spent this past weekend driving up and down the California coast in a diesel-powered 2009 R320 BlueTec. Turns out I sorely underestimated the R's charms. In at least three ways, this is an excellent vehicle -- and I've got the list to prove it.
(3) Best Hood-Closing Sound Ever.
Imagine a humorless German prison guard slamming a cell door shut with all his might. That's what the R320's hood sounds like when you close it. It's genuinely spine-tingling. On the R320 photo shoot, Mr. Niebuhr and I must have opened and closed the hood five times, just for kicks. Now that's a Germanic thunk!
(2) Steers And Handles Better Than The ML320.
Well, of course it handles better -- it's got a lower center of gravity. But that doesn't explain why the R320's steering is notably tighter and less gooey-feeling than the similarly-priced ML320's. It also doesn't explain why the R320 feels smaller than it is in corners, while the ML320 feels every bit its size. The R320 was actually kind of fun to drive on the twisty Big Sur Highway. The ML320 was not fun to drive anywhere.
(1) Eats Highway Miles For Frühstuck.
I love the futuristic rake of the R-Class' windshield, and the panoramic view it affords of the road ahead. The front seats are über-supportive, and the driving position was just right for my lanky 6'1" frame. Some unseemly road noise filtered in over a couple coarse surfaces, but for the most part, the R320's ride remained hushed and utterly composed at all velocities. It was kind of like piloting a personal high-speed train.
The Moral:
Hey, I wouldn't buy one either -- just look at the thing. But from behind the wheel, the R-Class is an unexpected treat.
Driving an RV has been--believe it or not -- a long-time dream. I must admit, I was scared to drive one-especially around NYC. Yet when I got the opportunity to drive one in the Canadian Rockies I said YES and didn't look back.
I took my good friend, Adeline along as a co-driver on a 4-day roundtrip journey from Calgary to Banff and Lake Louise. Our home was our truck and we hooked up at campgrounds along the way.
The best part of my trip was spending time with my friend while driving through astoundingly beautiful scenery.
Our Class C Mini Motorhome was 29 feet long and a few cars wide (8.5 feet wide). It slept six with a master bedroom, sleeping loft (cab-over bunk) full-on kitchen, bathroom and dining room. For a girl living in Manhattan it was plenty big. Plus, there was tons of storage spaces and cabinets---even a couple of outside closets for our suitcases and lawn chairs.
Question: What does an automotive enthusiast do when s/he hears that the keys to a manual-shift 2009 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 are free for the taking?
Answer: Dons stupid grin, pushes daily schedule ahead by two hours, heads for the canyons.
Yeah, there's definitely nothing wrong with eight cylinders, six forward gears and three pedals. Except for a thing or two here and there, as it turns out. To paraphrase Crash Davis, here come the Top 3 Things To Do In A Challenger SRT-8 -- and when you speak of me, speak well.
3. Roll windows down, find nearest tunnel, depress right foot.
Most cars sound better in tunnels, but few sound so good that they elicit involuntary cackling. The SRT-8 has officially joined this exclusive club. Actually, you don't even need a tunnel with this dirty Dodge; just puttering around town is an aural pleasure. The exhaust note in this beast puts the Mustang Bullitt's to shame. We haven't gotten our hands on the new Camaro SS yet, so at least for the moment, this is the American muscle car soundtrack to beat.
2. Enter sharp corner, turn steering wheel, pray fervently.
Because that wheel tells you nothing, nada, zilch about what's going on below. The benchmark for this steering system was evidently a '95 DeVille -- it's ultra-light, it feels completely disconnected from the tires, and the effort doesn't change one iota as cornering forces build. Hey, isn't this the high-performance Challenger? Isn't steering, like, pretty important in a high-performance car?
1. Close windows, cue up Beethoven piano sonatas, take measured sips of Earl Grey.
Because if anything, this Challenger is too refined under ordinary circumstances. The featherweight clutch could have come out of a Caliber, and the shifter glides easily from gate to gate -- shouldn't they feel substantial (think Mustang Bullitt shifter), even a bit recalcitrant in a car like this? The suspension swallows bumps like Kobayashi does hot dogs, 20-inch wheels notwithstanding -- shouldn't a bad-ass muscle car ride like one, too? The SRT-8 cruises as quietly as a luxury coupe -- shouldn't there be a touch more road and wind noise in the mix? I actually admire the SRT-8's dual personality in this regard, but it contributes to my overall sense that this car doesn't have quite as much, I don't know, swagger as it should.
Sometimes I really don't know about this job. Like last week, for instance, when I was temporarily exiled to Carmel for Land Rover's Off-Road Driving Experience. I was forced to stay at the four-diamondQuail Lodge, where The Covey subjected me to five-course meals on consecutive nights. I grudgingly played 18 holes at the Quail Lodge Golf Club. My transportation to and fro was our long-term Cadillac CTS. And then Land Rover made me drive Range Rovers and LR3s around their 100-acre off-road driving course, which sits adjacent to the golf course.
Actually, I wasn't so into the off-road driving thing. Of course, I came away with a newfound respect for the capabilities of Land Rover vehicles. Turns out that the same Range Rovers we see cruising down Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills -- street-biased tires and all -- can clamber over ruts and rocks like the proverbial mountain goat. But at the end of the day, off-roading is like putting together a puzzle: diverting, if you're into that sort of thing, but unlikely to get your heart pumping. As a man who daydreams about our long-term M3's ferocious inline-6, I don't think trail-busting is my thing. If it's yours, though, and you have the means, then allow me to recommend just about any Land Rover for the job.
Anyway, read on for this installment of the Weekly Top 3 -- the three most memorable moments, in pictures, from my time at off-road driving school.
Harley-Davidson has a new promotion touting that their bikes get 50 MPG, but that is not a good reason to ride them. Instead, you should ride them because of (fill in your reason here).
Here at Edmunds, many of us love machines with two wheels as much as those with four. For those who don't understand the allure and mystique of riding, the only way to convey the feeling is to ride for yourself.
We do a lot of blabbering in this trade about "powering through corners," "hanging the tail out," "heel-and-toe downshifting," et cetera. But the reality is, most roads in this country just aren't set up for such shenanigans. That's why certain roads have earned special places in the hearts of American driving enthusiasts -- though probably not by design, they've turned out to be virtual racetracks for the real world, with tight corners galore and impressive scenery to boot. That's what this week's Top 3 is all about: the best driving roads, from sea to shining sea.
1. Big Sur Coast Highway, California
No, we're not biased because we live here. The 1 North from Cambria to Monterey, a.k.a. the Big Sur Coast Highway, has got to be one of the best driving roads in the world, both in terms of scenery and degree of difficulty. This ridiculous ribbon of tarmac snakes along the rim of the Pacific Ocean for miles and miles, 63 of which are particularly glorious (see picture above). If you get tired of navigating switchbacks and decreasing-radius bends, simply pull into one of the countless roadside turnouts and snap some pictures, or take a stroll on a secluded beach. I've been through this stretch in both a sport-packaged 2008 328i and our long-term 2002 M3, and I can tell you it's the most fun I've had on any road, ever. If you enjoy driving, you owe it to yourself to rent a car (preferably a relatively capable one) and head for the Big Sur coastline.
2. Kancamagus Highway, New Hampshire
This one's more of a personal pick, since I'm one of the few on staff to have had the privilege of tackling the great Kancamagus. But I'm sure my colleagues would agree if they took a spirited drive along this winding White Mountain byway. Traffic can be more of an issue here than on the Big Sur route, particularly when the leaves are turning -- but you can always employ the time-honored tactic of going 10-15 mph until the cars ahead are well out of sight, then racing through the turns until you've caught up again (not that we would even think of endorsing such antisocial behavior). I've been on the Kancamagus in two old Hondas -- a '93 Prelude Si and a '95 Integra GSR -- and I still vividly remember the thrills from those trips. Next time you're driving around the Northeast, work this road into your itinerary. You won't regret it.
3. Fill In The Blank
Alright, it's your turn. We've all got our favorites, but we want to hear from you. What road(s) have you driven on that you think would stack up well against the best in the country? Who knows -- if you're sufficiently persuasive, we might even show up in a long-term car sometime to check it out.
I briefly drove the redesigned-for-'90 Honda Fit last night, a Sport version with the five-speed manual. First I subjected it to my six-mile, 0-to-20-to-0 (repeat countless times) commute and then got to stretch its legs when I went over my girlfriend's house (about 10 miles away) later on. So though I didn't get into any twisty roads, I was still able to form some impressions. It's the old good news / bad news. But it's mostly very good news and only a little semi-bad news...
This photo was taken in front of a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in Nevada. While nobody can deny the need for special parking for the physically handicapped, and I have no problem with special parking for expectant mothers, Do hybrid vehicles really need their own parking spots? It is bad enough that they can drive in the HOV lanes in many states, including my home state of Florida.
Fresh & Easy is not the only retailer guilty of such preferential hybrid treatment. Witness this sign that you will find in front of most IKEA stores.
I think reserving spaces for hybrid vehicles is just plain silly. Why should drivers of any hybrid vehicle get such a privilege, especially when there are non-hybrid vehicles that can match or even surpass the fuel economy of some hybrids out there?
Note the irony of the Cadillac Escalade parked across from the "Hybrid" parking spot in the first picture. Would parking a hybrid Escalade in the hybrid spot make things that much better?
What do you guys think? Should hybrids be given special treatment?
Need the perfect soundtrack for that end-of-summer Labor Day weekend road trip? Harmon/Kardon's Amplified Journey website will not only calculate your route and give you directions, but it will also create a playlist you can download to your iPod that matches your time on the road and customizes the tunes based on your route.
You enter your starting and ending points then select one of 15 music genres and Amplified Journey will cull a playlist based on driving directions, landmarks you'll pass, and bands from places along the way. When I entered Los Angeles to San Francisco and selected rock, within a few seconds Amplified Journey came up with 85 songs for the 384 miles and almost six hours of driving, although it was heavy on obscure bands.
And while perennial LA punks Bad Religion and So Cal neo-ska band Goldfinger made sense for kicking off the trip, I couldn't understand what The Pogues "Red Roses for Me" has to do with being stuck on the San Fernando Valley's 170 Freeway.
Love Apple or hate 'em, it's impossible to deny that we live and drive in an iPod world. After all, how many Zune-ready head units and accessories are available from the OEMs and the aftermarket?
While Sony's new Xplod CDX-GT630UI head (pictured here) is all about iPod integration and connects directly to Apple's omnipresent portable music player via a front-panel USB port -- without the need of a special cable or other accessories -- it also allows plugging in almost any PMP as well as USB "thumb" drives.
In other words, if you prefer anything but an iPod, the CDX-GT63UI won't penalize you for it.
I thought I would take some time today to update you on some stories I have previously blogged about.
Back in March I blogged about Honda clamping down on internet warranty sales, due to the fact that online retailers were discounting the warranties and taking business away from less tech-savy dealers. I updated the story in April, Saccucci Honda, which has been doing quite the business selling extended warranties on their website, decided to single-handedly fight back by challenging Honda in court. You can follow the story in our forums. The outcome of this court case may determine whether the public will have to start over-paying for extended warranty coverage, or if the free market will prevail.
Last month I posted my prediction that we would all be paying more for cars in the future, due to ever-increasing raw material costs. Since then, several automakers have announced price increases, including Nissan and Toyota. The latest is BMW. As the global demand for raw materials continues to increase, it is likely that we will be paying more for everything, not just cars.
In an effort to display my prowess in business, I posted my thoughts on what I thought Cerberus was going to ultimately do with Chrysler, with respect to their decision to drop leasing. Most did not agree with my ultimate conclusion, and rightfully so. Recently I spoke with Mike Jackson, the CEO of AutoNation, the nation's largest auto group. I asked him what he thought of Chrysler's move to no longer lease vehicles. He told me that it was a move that was necessary for them to assure that they could continue to secure funding for maintained operations and future product development. By divesting their portfolio of leases, investors would be more willing to purchase securities backed by Chrysler and Cerberus. Ultimately, this is a move that will help assure the long-term viability of Chrysler as an automaker. Although Chrysler does have many challenges to yet overcome.
Finally, I blogged about MyGallons.com, which was supposed to offer consumers a way to hedge against rising gas prices by letting them buy gas credits at current prices and them redeem them in the future, when gas prices presumably go higher. Shortly after my post, the Better Business Bureau gave MyGallons an "F," when it was discovered that they did not have a contract in place with a vendor who could process transactions with gas stations across the country. MyGallons stopped accepting paid memberships and offered a refund of all existing membership dues. As of this date, MyGallons is still not accepting new memberships and appears to still not have a vendor in place. Of course, it probably doesn't help that gas prices have gone down, and not up, since the site was launched in July.
But Michael A.M. Davies, a senior lecturer at MIT's Sloan School of Management and an expert on business strategy and technology, warns not to count out carmakers just yet in the three-way battle between embedded nav, portables and mobile-phone apps. As navigation capabilities expand to include location-based services and finding friends along a route, Davies believes that car companies are in a unique position to present this additional info in a safer and more practical manner.
"Navigation is about much more than getting from Point A to Point B," Davies said. "It now involves finding the cheapest gas, the nearest coffee shop and even social networking. As we confront drivers with all of this new information, how it is presented becomes really critical in the car."
Although automakers have traditionally lagged behind the consumer electronics industry in getting tech innovations out on the road, Davies expects car companies to quickly seize opportunities in location-based services, and perhaps even win the nav war. And as with Ford's Sync system, software will be the weapon of choice. And Microsoft could be one of the primary arms suppliers.
Starting today,Chrysler will offer its UConnect Web in-car Internet service as a dealer-installed option. While it's an inevitable step towards staying connected even while traveling at highway speeds, some view it as just another distraction for drivers and an accident waiting to happen. In an editorial in The New York Times over the weekend, professor Randall Stross warned that Internet connectivity in the car is a "bad idea," and cites studies showing drivers are four times more likely to be involved in a serious crash while talking on the phone -- hands-free or not.
Although Chrysler touts UConnect Web as "tailored for kids in the
backseat" so that tykes can play Webkinz and teens can check in with
Facebook friends, and a warning screen initially appears warning against using the system while driving, there are no restrictions on front-seat viewing as with OEM and aftermarket video systems. So a driver
could conceivably surf the Web or check email while behind the wheel, or a
front-seat passenger could watch videos on YouTube in view of the
driver. This, Stross contends, is a recipe for disaster, and he has The AAA
Foundation for Highway Safety and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety backing up his case.
But rather than safety concerns, demand and pricing may do more to initially stifle the growth of in-car Internet access.
There's been a lot of discussion at Edmunds HQ lately about how to define "iPod integration," since to automakers it can mean anything from Ford Sync's full-function solution to the VW Jetta's clunky iPod adapter to simply an aux-in jack. But the aftermarket car audio company Fusion Electronics brings a whole new meaning to the amorphous term.
The Fusion CA-IP500 has a slot behind its fold-down faceplate in which an iPod classic (gen 5 and 6), iPod touch or an iPod nano (gen 2 and 3) can be completely inserted -- but not a CD. This not only eliminates having to run cables and find a place in your car for an iPod, but it also keeps the portable music player away from the prying eyes of thieves.
Clarion has been pretty dormant in the overall sluggish aftermarket car audio market, but the company is at least coming up with (if not selling many) cool products. Here's another one to add to the list, if not to your car: the DriveEye camera that automatically records accidents and other automotive indiscretions.
When triggered by impact or quick acceleration/deceleration, the all-seeing DriveEye captures up to 20 seconds of video at 30 frames per second on an included 128 MB Compact Flash card. Its built-in g-force trigger is adjustable for different types of
vehicles, and depending on the slope of the windshield the camera-lens angle is also adjustable in
four steps for an optimum view to a thrill or a chill.
Clarion says that up to 12 separate
incidents can be recorded on a single memory card, provided you and
your car survive that many crashes.
This has been mentioned before on our site, but it bears repeating. If I prevent one person from wasting 5 quarts of perfectly good oil, using 5 new quarts of a finite resource and frittering away $25-$50, it's all worth these keystrokes...
Tired of being stuck in gridlock? Help is on the way in the form of "predictive" traffic information, according to a recent report by the marketing research firm ABI Research. "Real-time traffic" information is currently available by subscription via satellite from XM and Sirius and over FM by the Traffic Message Channel's Total Traffic Network, or for free by logging on to Google and MapQuest or from radio and TV reports. The latest navigation systems also add in "historical" data to help ease drivers through heavy traffic areas. But these elements only give part of the picture, says the report's author, ABI analyst Dominique Bonte, and predictive traffic info forms an essential piece of the traffic-information puzzle.
"The problem with real-time traffic is you're already in the car and headed towards your destination when you get the message about a problem ahead," Bonte says. "Once you're stuck in traffic, what can you do besides program a different route?" Predictive traffic, on the other hand, will let you plan your route hours or even days ahead and use a combination of real-time traffic info, historical data and other information to provide a more accurate forecast of what you may encounter down the road, Bonte explained. "What it will add is the ability to predict traffic before you actually start driving, not just what it is now," he added. "And instead of just finding out what the traffic is like now, you'll be able to find out what it will be like next Friday evening."
Predictive traffic info will take into account intermittent factors such as sporting events or
concerts that can snarl traffic, as well as weather, holidays and
school schedules. And it will even be able to learn a driver's behaviors and their
vehicle type to give a more accurate ETA. "It will provide much more
trustworthy information," Bonte claims.
While we won't see predictive traffic services until sometime in 2009 -- first by MapQuest and other online sites, says Bonte -- he adds that there now exists a perfect storm of factors that make the technology ready for drive time, such as the proliferation of portable navigation devices (PNDs) and mobile phones and PDAs with nav apps. "It also coincides with a trend that we call 'connected navigation,' and to take advantage of predictive traffic info will require two-way connectivity," Bonte notes, pointing to Dash Express as an example.
But the big question is whether people will want to pay for it.
Chrysler announced last week that its UConnect Web in-car Internet service will be available starting August 25 as a dealer-installed option. And at this week's Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Intel and Clarion showed applications and products that move us another step closer to the .car era.
An Intel senior VP at IDF showed how Intel and BMW are working together to build a multimedia and computing system for the car that's powered by Intel's powerful Atom chip and provides Internet access. The demo included showing how an on-board computer could use an in-dash monitor to provide GPS navigation data and screens in the backseat would allow passengers to connect to the Internet and watch streaming video.
Clarion used the occasion of IDF to show a production version of its MiND (Mobile Internet Navigation Device) portable nav system that connects to the Internet via WiFi. Clarion claims it will also be able to connect using WiMax and 3G networks in the future. MiND includes software for applications ranging from a Web browser to email as well as viewers for YouTube, MySpace and Google Maps. An integrated Internet search and GPS function also allow local search of area businesses.
But you can have the best of both worlds, according to Forbes Autos' "Safest Vehicles for Downsizing" list, and safety technology can make the difference even though it may add a few pounds and cost a few mpg. While the Forbes Autos list includes such not-so-small vehicles as the BMW X3 and Honda Element, along with sedans such as the BMW 3 Series and Volvo's S40 and compacts like the Volkswagen Jetta/Rabbit and Subaru Impreza, the one thing the 10 vehicles have in common is a curb weight of under 4,000 pounds (except for the X3, which is a hair over at 4,012).
Overall weight has steadily increased for passenger vehicles over the last decade. According to Forbes Autos, the average weight of "light-duty" vehicles rose from 3,221 pounds in 1997 to 4,144 pounds in 2007. Ironically, part of that weight gain comes from safety equipment that has been added over the past 10 years, some of which was federally mandated. But in balancing weight, fuel economy and safety, certain technology is crucial, the article contends.
While the aftermarket car audio industry is singing the blues, it's never been a better time to get great music in your ride -- without visiting a car stereo shop. Wired's Autopia points to Bentley's alliance with fellow Brits at the high-end home audio company Naim Audio as yet another example of the automaker/audio brand mash-up, but Naim's Paul Stephenson makes it sound like you have to spend tons of money on a car and a premium audio system to get better than "quick and dirty low-cost" audio add-ons.
Although hardcore audiophiles can and will beg to differ (because that's just what they like to do), there are several examples of premium audio systems below $1,000 that offer better sound dollar for dollar than aftermarket options. Several Boston Acoustics systems available in Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep vehicles range from $495 to $995, and while these systems are far from the last word in superior car sound, try getting similar quality from the aftermarket for the same amount of coin.
THX is another premium audio supplier that offers excellent value. I've often pointed to the $995 THX Certified Premium Sound System in the Lincoln Zephyr as an example of excellent bang for the car audio buck, and the company's stereo system in the '09 Lincoln MKS runs $645, while the 5.1 Surround version is bundled with the vehicle's Navigation Package option that includes voice-activated nav, a hard disc Jukebox and Sirius Travel Link for $2,995.
Is every other 18-24 year-old on the road texting while driving? Seem a bit exaggerated? A recent survey by FindLaw.com stated that nearly half (48 percent) of drivers 18-24 say they have sent a text message or e-mail while driving.
This age bracket tends to be more tech savvy, and texting is what's in style. What can probably be said over the phone in a few seconds, is turned into a multitude of frantic button presses. Case in point- I have a nephew that uses his cell phone all the time, but never to make a phone call.
Adults are no less guilty- from ages 25-34, 27 percent have admitted to texting while driving. The percentage decreases as the age bracket increases.
Although few studies have specifically measured the level of distraction that texting causes, if you compare it to cell phone usage, a driver is four times as likely to get into an accident. According the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, only four states have laws on the books that specifically ban texting: Minnesota, Louisiana, New Jersey, Washington, and the District of Columbia. Alaska's ban is expected to go into effect September 01, 2008.
But texting is only a stone on the mountain of driver's distraction. As our cars get more technologically advanced, so do the chances of us being distracted. Nowadays there are: navigation systems to be programmed, Bluetooth headsets to be adjusted, Mp3 players to be connected, and climate controls to be fiddled with. That doesn't even include the old standby distractions like: eating, putting on makeup, changing the radio station, or trying to placate a crying baby in the back seat.
Flashback to 1974 when the National Maximum Speed Law restricted travel on interstate highways to 55 miles per hour to save gas.
Did you hate it?
Well, get ready for a similar initiative... unless we set a "Citizen's Speed Limit." What's this?
As you'll recall, the 55 mph limit created by President Jimmy Carter was resisted and widely disregarded by motorists. In fact, it's symbolic of a painful era for our country. It was the first time we were being pushed around by the oil companies and foreign countries. And proud Americans didn't like it.
Now, flash forward to 2008. We are MUCH more dependent on foreign oil and much more vulnerable to energy disruption than in the 70s. Most automotive innovations have gone not toward fuel efficiency but toward power. Our cars and trucks are maxed out on horsepower like steroids-popping weightlifters.
My father called me this morning and said that cars should be driven at their peak efficiency not at an arbitrary speed set by the government after an expensive research boondoggle. He recommended that Edmunds.com lead the charge by finding the ultimate "sweet spot" for fuel economy. We should then give our findings to the government instead of waiting to have the feds slap a new speed limit on us.
The efficiency of a car increases as its speed goes up. At first, aerodynamics have little effect on the efficiency. But as the speed builds the aerodynamic effect becomes greater. But at what point is that?
It would be fairly simple to take a test car on a flat road and drive it for 10 miles at 60 mph, another 10 miles at 65 mph, 10 miles at 70 mph and so on. The problem is that each car is different because of engine size, aerodynamics, rolling resistance of the tires and a variety of other factors. But while cars differ, they probably don't vary that much.
When gas prices were very high, I saw people setting their own "Citizen's Speed Limit." Furthermore, I know that a lot of truckers, whose livelihoods depend on economical use of fuel, have slowed down to about 67 mph. But now that gas prices have dropped the yahoos are out again. While most people are content to go 70 mph, others want to go 85 mph and so they endlessly cut in and out.
So what's your vote for a Citizen's Speed Limit? What could you live with? Or will you wait for Uncle Sam to tell you how to drive?
Suppose you've got about $70 grand to play with, and your heart's set on a sports car. I don't, for the record, and you probably don't either -- but nevermind about that. Say you've got the $70k, and you won't be satisfied until you've nabbed the keys to the best all-around sports car you can buy for the money. You've narrowed it down to three choices: the Chevrolet Corvette Z06, the Nissan GT-R and the Porsche 911 Carrera. How do you think they'll rank in this week's Olympic-themed Top 3?
I can hear the grumbling already. "This is the Strategies blog," you'll carp. "It's supposed to be about real advice for real people!" Well, last time I checked, Donald Sutherland and Andrew Bynum were real people -- and every real person could use some buying advice. Having driven the Chevrolet Corvette Z06, Nissan GT-R and Porsche 911 Carrera in recent weeks (and pretending, for the sake of argument, that the GT-R isn't selling for $30k over sticker), this week's Top 3 will tackle a question that's on everyone's mind these days:
Which sports car is most deserving of your hard-earned 70 large?
Got an Apple iPhone 3G and can't get it to work with your car-integration kit? You're not alone. Here at Edmunds, several editors and others at the company can't access music on their iPhones or even get the devices to charge using both aftermarket and OEM iPod-integration applications.
Edmunds Editor in Chief Karl Brauer, for example, installed a JVC KD-NX5000 navigation head unit in his 2005 Ford GT and then added an iPod adapter in June -- only to have it not work properly with the iPhone 3G he bought in July. With his original iPhone, Brauer wasn't able to access music on the device, (instead he got an "eternal 'reading media' message") but he could at least charge the phone.
But a month after installing the adapter and upgrading to the iPhone 3G, now he can't access music or charge his new phone. "I immediately got a message that 'This accessory is not made to work with iPhone,'" Brauer says. "Now the one-month-old adapter is not only useless for music -- and always was for playing music from the first-gen iPhone -- butis also useless for charging my iPhone 3G." Brauer had to resort to using an FM modulator he bought to charge his first-gen iPhone to pipe music from the iPhone 3G into the JVC head ... although the FM modulator still won't charge the 3G phone.
Charlie Schiavone, Edmund's Executive Director of Data Integration and Web Production, encountered similar problems. He owns a 2002 Cadillac Escalade with an aftermarket Alpine head unit with an iPod-integration kit and 2008 Toyota Sienna with a factory navigation head unit and a dealer-installed iPod kit. Schiavone reports that in both vehicles he can view and access all of his iPod's content and data and charge the device. Same thing with his iPhone, although he gets an error message on the iPhone when he plugs it in and is instructed to put it into "airplane mode."
He gets the same error message with his iPhone 3G, but it also doesn't charge, "which is a huge inconvenience because then I have to unplug it and use a different power charger," he says. If Schiavone leaves the iPhone and iPhone 3G out of airplane mode, everything works fine. "And I don't hear any interference with the audio," he adds.
We contacted Apple about this issue, but haven't received a response. Calling our sources in the accessories aftermarket and searching Apple and iPod message boards and shed some light on the subject, and, more importantly, what iPod and iPhone owners can do about it ... which unfortunately isn't much.
"We could basically spend almost a day just on a laundry list of the kinds of services customers want," Phillips said. At the top of that list are location-based services (LBS), a navigation buzzword that concerns connecting consumers to services they are looking for while on the road, such as gas stations, restaurants and stores. "Consumers ... want help finding things," Phillips told Automotive News. This perfectly meshes with Microsoft's announcement in late July that MSN Direct subscribers will be able to send directions to a compatible navigation system from websites that use the service.
Phillips comments at the Automotive News event yesterday, coupled with an announcement two weeks ago of that Microsoft will increase its investment in ABU by 30 percent in the next fiscal year, makes it clear that software giant plans to become a major player in car electronics -- at a time when many companies in the automotive industry are slashing budgets and staff.
We're a tired nation. Long work days, long commutes, kids keeping you up at night -- whatever. Admit it: You've sometimes caught yourself taking those "one-second naps" and jerking yourself awake just in time. (Damn if the Starbucks isn't closed just when you need it.)
Mercedes-Benz is combating our chronic case of road fatigue with its newly developed Attention Assist. It's actually pretty cool technology. As soon as you start driving, it develops a "profile" of the way you drive based on a constant flow of sensor data, including steering wheel movements, speed, linear/lateral acceleration, indicator and pedal operation, and environmental measurements like side winds and uneven road surfaces. The onboard electric control model constantly compares how you're driving to your profile, and if it determines that you're overtired, it warns you with an acoustic signal and a display on the instrument cluster that says, "Attention Assist. Break!"
Yeah, I know, I know. Good drivers don't need nannies. Just another safety technology that jacks up the price, right? At least that's the response of some of our staff here. But hey, it's a Mercedes. It's already full of technology you probably don't need and may never really use, but pay through the nose for, anyway. Think of it this way: Everyone knows drunk driving is dangerous, but studies show that "drowsy driving" is even more so -- causing some 25% of all serious car crashes. It's hard to measure, of course, because there's no equivalent of the breathalyzer for sleepyheads.
Big brother is coming down the pike in so many forms: Black boxes that record everything you do in the moments before an accident, transmitters that can send your odometer to the insurance company, GPS units that can tell people -- who knows who? -- where you are at all times, and so on. All these "nannies" are pretty much as inevitable as seats belts, stability control by 2012, and red light cameras. The only question is, where do you stand on the subject? Is more safety always a good thing, or not?
European automaker Opel and mega-supplier Continental have formed a consortium with traffic-management system vendor Dambach Werke to develop car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure communications, with the goal of reducing accidents and relieving traffic congestion, reports EETimes.com. And eventually to keep drivers fully connected in the car.
The project is dubbed DIAMANT (for Digital Information and Applications for securing Mobility using Active Networks and Telematics Infrastructure), and the consortium plans to conduct field tests over the next three to four
years to gather experience with WLAN-based communication systems.Continental will supply the in-car electronics, GM subsidiary Opel will provide the vehicles and Dambach Werke will contribute the roadside infrastructure and software as well as integrate all of the elements to form a comprehensive traffic-management system. Public deployment of the system in the German state of Hesse, the fourth member of the consortium, is scheduled for 2012, and last week the European Union commission reserved radio-frequency bandwidth for the project.
Continental's in-car electronics will process data collected from existing speed, distance and road-condition sensors and ping an onboard GPS navigation system, which adds location information to the mix. The system will also allow communicating with similarly equipped vehicles on the road, and the resulting shared data will be used to detect and warn drivers of traffic situations such as stalled vehicles in the road, accidents or congestion. If necessary, a warning could be provided in an in-dash display.
You'll be hearing more in this space about auto-specific third-party applications for the Apple iPhone, but here's one for shopaholics. Or anyone just looking to save time and money while out shopping.
TheFind: Where to Shop promises "to blur the line between the desktop and the mobile phone ... with comprehensive information available at anytime, from any location," says TheFind's CEO and co-founder Siva Kumar. The iPhone app is designed to "bridge the gap" between online
research and offline purchases, allowing shoppers to compare products
and prices while on the go and locate exactly what they're
looking for within a given area -- without driving around wasting
expensive gas. TheFind: Where to Shop claims to have a database of 250
million products in over 200,000 brick-and-mortar stores.
Recent gas-price spikes have proven that people drive less when they start to feel the pinch to their pocketbooks. According to the U.S. Dept. of Transportation, the number of miles driven dropped 2.4%, or 29.8 billion miles, in the first five months of this year -- the first significant decline in close to 30 years. Now technology may help those who drive less save even more money if they let their car insurer electronically ride shotgun.
Insurers ask car owners to estimate how many miles they'll drive on an annual basis, but tracking technology can now accurately capture that info in real time. Progressive has a program called MyRate that's available in Alabama, Michigan, Minnesota and Oregon and will be introduced in New Jersey today, in which policyholders receive a data recorder that plugs into a car's OBD port and automatically transmits driving info to the company. The device records not only the number of miles driven, but also the time of day, speed, acceleration, deceleration and braking. By letting Progressive ride along, policy holders can save up
to 40% on premiums (minus a $30 service fee that's charged
each policy period) based on their driving habits.
GM's OnStar has also partnered with GMAC insurance to offer a discount to drivers who rack up less than 15,000 miles a year. The program only sends odometer readings to the insurer, and OnStar hopes to partner with other insurance providers.
Sometimes life on L.A.'s Westside can be a little too idyllic. Seriously, how many consecutive days of sunny skies and 75-80 degree temperatures with a cool ocean breeze could you handle? That's why I hightailed it to the Dearborn Inn in Dearborn, Michigan, earlier this week -- I had a hankering for a hot and humid slap in the face. Conveniently enough, Ford happened to be introducing its 2009 model lineup right across the street at its Dearborn testing facility.
So what's Ford got in store for car shoppers this year? Well, it's not all roses, but I did leave Dearborn with the distinct impression that this is a company committed to rectifying past wrongs and reestablishing itself as an industry leader. Some of that committment is already evident in 2009 models, while in other respects there's still a ways to go. This week I'll give you the Top 3 reasons why you should be excited about the 2009 Fords -- and the Top 3 reasons why you shouldn't.
Ford got a lot of press by pushing ahead its new Blind Spot Mirror to make it standard on the 2009 Ford Edge, and beating GM to punch in the process. A similar solution (which the aftermarket has offered for years as a simple stick-on) will be part of the 2009 Chevy Traverse crossover when it goes into production this Fall. But there's still no word on when the Blue Oval will begin offering its Cross Traffic Alert that works in conjunction with the company's Blind Spot Monitoring System.
Anyone who has ever blindly backed out of a parking spot into traffic knows how difficult and stressful the maneuver can be. The tail end of your ride has to be hanging out in the street before you can determine if a car, motorcycle, bicycle or 18-wheeler is barreling down the boulevard towards it.
Ford's Cross Traffic Alert system will employ two multiple-beam radar modules in the rear quarter panels to identify when a vehicle or other oncoming object is in the driver's blind spot on either side. And if something is bearing down on your rear end, an indicator light in the side mirror and an audible alert tips you off to protect your tail and an in-dash displays tells you which direction to expect to hear a horn blow.
Even with recently retreating oil and gas prices, fuel economy will remain a high priority for most drivers. Fuel economy labels tend to garner the most attention from car buyers, but what most people don't pay attention to is their driving habits.
Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking) wastes gas. According to the EPA, it can lower your gas mileage by 33 percent at highway speeds and by 5 percent around town. So while it may feel good to put the pedal to the metal, driving with that lead foot can be expensive.
In an effort to assist drivers improve their fuel efficiency through better driving habits, Nissan has unveiled the ECO Pedal. When the eco-pedal system is on, each time the driver steps on the accelerator, a counter push-back control mechanism is activated if the system detects excess pressure, helping to inform the driver that they could be using more fuel than required. An eco-driving indicator integrated into the instrument panel feeds the driver with real-time fuel consumption levels to help improve his/her driving behavior. The ECO Pedal system can be turned on or off according to the driver's preference.
Personally, I have noticed in my own driving that when I make a conscious effort to drive in a more relaxed manner that my fuel economy goes up 2-3 mpg. Having an active device that forces relaxed driving could make driving more efficiently something that you can do without thinking about it. Just remember to turn it off before you try to make that left turn across four lanes of oncoming traffic!
When I recently got my 2008 Nissan Altima Hybrid, whose EPA MPG estimate is 35/33, I thought it would be no sweat to achieve the fuel economy estimates on the sticker. After all, the 2008 EPA estimates were revised to reflect real-world driving, right?
Apparently, I'm not part of the real world, because my second tank of gas yielded me only 27 mpg. After doing a little research, it appears that to my poor fuel efficiency was caused by 1) the car not being broken in, 2) the Altima, unlike the Prius, prefers longer trips rather than short city hops, and 3) my driving habits.
Now, I always knew I was a rather aggressive driver, but never thought much of it. When you work around a bunch of enthusiasts, many of whom race for a hobby, my minor-league bobbing and weaving on the busy freeway pale by comparison. Yet I was beginning to wonder if paying the extra money for the hybrid was a bad decision.
(The 2008 Buick Enclave gets surprisingly good fuel economy. But jump on the gas and it doesn't want to downshift.)
As the old saying goes, "There's no replacement for displacement."
Or is there? Can you have both good fuel efficiency and good performance.
Carmakers will tell you that yes, you can have it all. But as the Enclave demonstrates, there's usually a trade-off of some kind, somewhere in the performance. With the Enclave, it didn't want to downshift. Then, when it did, it went from sixth to fourth.
In our article we take a look at what Ford and GM are doing to keep drivers high on the emotion meter which dialing in good fuel economy in "Where's My MPG?"
The IRS recently announced that 2009 VW Jetta Sedan and Sportwagen models equipped with TDI engines would be eligible for an Advanced Lean Burn Technology Motor Vehicle income tax credit in the amount of $1300.
This tax credit is similar to what buyers of hybrid vehicles receive, and it speaks volumes as to the relative "greenness" of the new clean diesel technology.
Critics have expressed disappointment with the official EPA 31/41 MPG fuel economy rating, especially after VW hyped the potential for 50 MPG highway economy. As a result of this, VW commissioned a third-party certifier, AMCI, to test the Jetta TDI. AMCI found it performed 24 percent better in real world conditions, achieving 38 MPG in the city and 44 MPG on the highway. Still not 50 MPG, but noticeably better than what the EPA results showed.
Such discrepancies are not unusual for diesels, or even hybrids. The EPA test cycle is optimized for testing conventional gas engines, which clearly have different characteristics than hybrids or diesels. As a consequence, the tests often report inaccurate results that are not indicative of what drivers can expect in the real world.
For the consumer, the $1300 tax credit helps to off-set the price premium of the TDI engine and diesel fuel, further reinforcing the shorter payback period of diesel technology over a hybrid. Not to mention the fun of having 236 lb.-ft. of torque at your beck and call and the rush of power that Prius owners can only dream of.
For about the last six years, I have been working from home, which I love. I don't have to deal with traffic, rising gas prices don't impact me that much and it gives me the ability to lease (which I prefer to traditional financing). Then fate decided to throw me a curve ball as word came down that I would have to go into the offices of a major dealer group that Edmunds has a relationship with. They were staring a new project and they wanted to have an Edmunds representative there in a consulting role. Suddenly I had a 40 mile round trip commute to deal with. The problem was that my two cars are leased for 12K miles/year, and both are too close to their mileage limits to accommodate the extra 10K miles/year I would be driving.
I had two choices. The first was to drive and pay the over-mileage fees and the cost of gas (now suddenly a concern) to the tune of about $5000 per year. Or I could take mass transit for $60/mo. I chose the latter.
I'm wading through stop and go traffic in the car with a friend of mine. Every inch forward required a change in gears and my friend -- unable to contain his curiosity -- asks me: "Don't you get tired of driving that thing?"
He's talking about my 16 -year-old Honda Prelude . I've had the car for about 11 years, and the fact that it's a stick shift has never bothered me. I just love the feeling of driving a stick. I'm more concerned with the age of the car and its peeling paint than the nature of its transmission.
But I seem to be in the minority. As I was researching an article I'm working on, I was surprised to hear that manual transmissions make up about two percent of Toyota's total sales. The numbers don't improve much at the other manufacturers, either. My source at Honda said that fewer than ten percent of their cars sold are stick.
"Let's get right into it," said Tom Loveless, VP of Sales for Kia Motors, at the 2009 Kia Borrego introduction in Cle Elum, Washington, that I attended this week. The Kia Borrego is the company's all-new, midsized, seven-passenger SUV.
"The market is down considerably year after year. The truck-based segment is down and is creating angst in the industry. The reality is, six months into the year and our business is up. In April and May we set all kinds of records. It has been an all-time record quarter."
I'm thinking (as is everyone else in the room). "Four dollars a gallon for gas and the introduction of an oversized truck. What is going on here?"
Earlier today I argued that MPGs aren't the only thing consumers should be thinking about when they go car-shopping these days. For many people, I suggested, it might be worth paying a little more at the pump for a more enjoyable car. In the spirit of this suggestion, here are two informal top-three lists -- one consisting of fun cars that are still pretty fuel-efficient, and one featuring fuel-efficient cars that are about as much fun to drive as a Zamboni.
Ah, sweet sleeping child. If only there were some way to suspend her in this state for the whole trip, but alas...
My husband and I are taking our 2-year-old on a road trip to the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend. It's not an epic trip, but the last time we took her on a car ride that lasted more than an hour was over a year ago, so we're a little nervous about keeping her (and, let's be frank, us) happy and occupied during the 6-hour trip.
"A revolutionary family car prototype that gets 63 miles to the gallon, was unveiled today at the North American International Auto Show." Can you guess what year this announcement was made? The answer after the jump.
According to a 2007 study, being stuck in traffic jams not only wastes our time, but it also wastes gas. How much gas? Try an estimated 2.9 billion gallons of gas each year. The time wasted is about 4.2 billion lost hours of our finite existence on this planet. That works out to about 105 million weeks of vacation and 58 fully-loaded supertankers in time and gas, respectively. For the typical commuter trying to make their way during rush hour, it works out to about 26 extra gallons of gas and 38 hours of lost time. Not to mention the extra pollution caused by all that extra fuel being burned. According to the study, a gallon of gas emits about 19 pounds of CO2 when burned. That 2.9 billion gallons of gas that is wasted results in 55.1 billion pounds of CO2 needlessly pumped into the atmosphere every year. So this is not just an economic or lifestyle issue, but an environmental one too. But what if there was a way to help mitigate the impact that gridlock has on our lives, our bank accounts and our environment?
Last week Inside Line published a great story about hypermiling (getting the highest MPG possible) called "Breaking the 100-Mile MPG Barrier." In the story it mentions that hypermilers use the ScanGauge to check their fuel economy as they try different mileage-stretching techniques.
We used the ScanGauge for "We Test the Tips II" and found that it was accurate enough to give a picture of what was happening without having to fill the tank to check fuel economy. I loaned our ScanGauge to Joe Spina Edmunds senior manager of remarketing, and here are some of the results he recorded:
"I used the Scangauge last weekend during a camping trip with my boys. I drive my 2003 2wd, 4cyl Toyota Highlander and it was equipped with a Yakima cargo box on the factory roof rack with as much junk as I could squeeze in and a Thule bicycle hitch rack with 3 bikes...
Hovering in the air above McLean's Auto Body & Paint, in Santa Barbara, Calif., is this car that is guaranteed to produce double takes. Apparently, it gets them all kinds of business.
"People know us," said a company spokesman. "They say, 'Oh yeah, you're that place with the two-headed car.'"
I was up in Santa Barbara recently visiting my son when I saw this car and couldn't help learning more about it...
Used to be that you could count on Japanese automotive interiors to feature plenty of soft-touch materials, even in relatively inexpensive cars. To wit, the five modern Japanese cars my family or I have owned -- '93 Prelude Si, '94 Accord EX, '95 Corolla DX, '95 Integra GSR, '98 Accord LX -- all had pliable plastics on their dashboards, which imparted a pleasantly surprising sense of quality given their modest MSRPs. American cars, of course, were a considerably different story. Ten or fifteen years ago you could pretty much count on any vehicle with an American badge to be chock-full of cheesy materials and crude construction.
After reading the recent Edmunds comparison test of the Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid vs Mercedes GL320 CDI I began to wonder how these people movers compare to the traditional station wagon. Looking for the largest premium wagon I could find (seems only fair since both the Tahoe and GL have premium features and prices) led me to the recently redesigned Volvo V70. Conventional wisdom would suggest that a station wagon should be environmentally cleaner than an SUV that weighs nearly 6,000lbs and has a big V8, regardless of the fact that it has a hybrid powertrain.
With gas-guzzling former cash cows such as Yukons and Expeditions collecting dust on dealer lots across the country, it's clear that business as usual will no longer cut it for the Big Three in Detroit. Yet Chevrolet's ballyhooed Volt concept is still a couple years away, and although the Ford Escape and Saturn Vue hybrid models are admirably efficient for SUVs, the best one can say for the Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid (21 mpg combined) is that it guzzles marginally less gas than its non-hybrid relatives. Americans aren't used to paying European prices at the pump, and they're showing it in their sudden aversion to relatively inefficient vehicles. It's past time for Detroit to start thinking green...
Ethanol has enjoyed pride of place over the past few years in the national debate about alternative fuels. Most significantly, the federal government has signaled its strong support by providing a subsidy of 51 cents per gallon to domestic ethanol producers. But is ethanol all it’s cracked up to be? Should it be embraced as part of the solution to our oil-dependency problem?
In a recent post I discussed diesel-powered cars’ cost-effectiveness, or lack thereof, in this era of rapidly rising diesel prices. But why, exactly, has the cost of diesel skyrocketed over the past few years?
We try to cover topics that we think you might find beneficial. However, there may be questions you have that we have not yet answered. So, post questions you would like to have answers to, and we will try to address them in future entries.
We may be car people around here, but there's another type of moving vehicle that has been enjoying rapid growth this decade. Since 2001, the sales of recreational vehicles has increased by 52 percent with more than 300,000 new units sold every year. In total, an estimated 8 million American own an RV -- a stunning one in every 12 vehicle-owning households. And despite what you may think, most of those belong to folks aged 35 to 54...
In this time of rising fuel prices, I have received more than a handful of questions regarding the need to use premium fuel, even in vehicles that require them. Most modern vehicles that require premium fuel can run fine on regular gas. However, you will see reduced performance and fuel economy as a result.
First, let me give a brief and simplified explanation of how vehicles that vehicles that require premium fuel extract extra power...
Question: Last June, I bought a new Toyota Camry Hybrid for its advertised fuel economy--40city/38hwy mpg's; however, the car gets between 24-28 mpg's. The service manager at the dealer said the car was fine and that my driving, the weather and other variables applied to diminish fuel efficiency. Do I believe him?
Nissan recently introduced an "intelligent" cruise control system that goes beyond the radar based intelligent cruise control devices that are available from a handful of manufacturers. By integrating the vehicle's GPS navigation unit with the cruise control, the vehicle can now anticipate upcoming curves and turns and will alert the driver to potentially unsafe speeds. The system can even go so far as to push back on the accelerator pedal if it determines that the rate of speed is too high for the upcoming curve.
The radar based "Distance Control Assist" will also alert the driver and push back on the accelerator pedal and/or apply the brakes to maintain a safe distance from the car ahead...
Question: We have a 2004 Grand Cherokee but would like to buy a drivers front seat that has a lumbar adjustment. Can you give us any help or suggestions?
This little gizmo, called the CarChip Pro, will let you spy on your kids and employees. It might also help you become a better driver and save gas.
The CarChip plugs into the OBDII port, a socket usually located under the plastic housing surrounding the steering wheel. It removes easily, you plug it into your computer with a cable and then the fun begins...
I have been a car enthusiast for as long as I can remember. As a kid I read all the car magazines, in high school I remember obsessing over the 2nd generation RX-7 Turbo (it was almost within my reach) and landing a job at Edmunds almost 10 years ago was just too cool to put into words. I've owned everything from a 12-second modified Camaro to a '99 10th Anniversary Miata.
But today, I feel I can no longer call myself a car nut, and I have the 2009 Nissan GT-R to blame...
It seems like people are figuring out new uses for Google Maps and Google Earth. For example, Google has created a map that locates the burn locations of the Southern California fires.
Drivers can check live traffic reports and find out the location of traffic cameras. I have a friend who uses Google Maps to see how long his best drive was in his last round of golf (use the "Ruler" feature under the "Tools" menu).
Share your best tricks or learn from others on the Edmunds' forum Stupid Google Tricks...
If the police try to pull you over, and you decide to run instead, you might first check to see if you car has OnStar. The remote vehicle emergency assistance service from GM will soon be used as a deterrent to high speed chases. Instead of spike strips, barricades and police bullets, the OnStar operator will simply intervene. Here is an excerpt from an OnStar press release:
OnStar's, "Stolen Vehicle Slowdown (SVS) will help reduce the likelihood of fatal crashes during high speed police chases...
Recently blogs about driving school were met with comments about how valuable such schools are but how expensive they are. Well, for teenagers in the Phoenix and Los Angeles areas, there's hope.
Oct. 12- 14, at the Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, AZ, Toyota is hosting a four-hour, "real-world" safe driving course for teens and their parents...
I heard somewhere that cops are often run down by drivers. This surprised me since I know I'd do anything to avoid hitting a cop. The reason is that drivers look at the cop -- desperately wanting to avoid them -- but then they tend to hit what they look at. This is why, in driving school, they teach us to look where we want to go, not at the cone in front of the car you're trying not to hit...
This morning when I drove to work at 6 a.m. I looked into the opposite lane and saw a nightmarish sight: paramedics and firefighters were swarming over the steaming wreackage of a car lying on its roof. The driver of that vehicle might have avoided the accident if he or she had gone to Danny McKeever's Fast Lane Driving School, which I attended two days ago.
The class taught us racing techniques which definitely should not be attempted on the 405 Fwy at 6 a.m...
When you have a baby, car seats represent yet another unknown in a huge string of unknowns that all go with being a new parent. What kind of seat do I need? How do I install it? What is the safest?..
We are all aware that cars and trucks, along with other consumer products, are recalled from time to time to address manufacturer defects and other issues. Edmunds.com even makes it easy to find out if your vehicle has been recalled by maintaining a web page with all of the current recall and technical service bulletin (TSB) information. However, few people think about possible recalls on the very product that helps protect their children.
Luckily, the Safety Restrain Coalition makes it easy to check recalls on child seats since they maintain an updated list of all car seat recalls...
With the wide variety of child restraint systems, belt systems and passenger vehicles, correctly installing a child restraint system can be challenging.
In support of Child Passenger Safety week, here are some pointers to make sure that you are using your child restraints properly.
From the flipped out state of California comes a glimmer of sanity.
Starting next July in California, under-18 drivers will be prohibited from using a cell phone (even with a hands free device) "texting" or using a laptop while driving. California adults have already been told that they will have to use a hands free device if they want to talk while driving after July 1, 2008.
Even though I talk on the cell phone while driving, I think these laws are great...
Next week is Child Passenger Safety Week, sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). So for the next few days, I’ll be posting articles, advice and other items of interest related to this very important event.
Chances are, nobody would ever intentionally put a child at risk. Yet, that’s exactly what happens when young passengers are not restrained. That’s why local leaders and organizations are joining with NHTSA, state and local leaders to commemorate Child Passenger Safety Week. A key component will be free child safety seat inspections to ensure all children are properly protected...
A friend of mine, Sheelagh O'Connor, advertising account manager for Edmunds, had a strange experience that I thought was entertaining and informative enough to pass along to you. Before you read it you should know she's a big fan of CSI-type TV shows. She didn't know it but she was watching educational television. Here's Sheelagh's story:
Saturday around noon, I came out of the beauty salon, barefoot with newly manicured toes, and found my car had been smashed...
If you live in a city and you have to work for a living (and who doesn't?) you probably drive to work. How's your commute? Mine is horrible and getting worse. If I let myself think about it, it seems insane: a huge population of people wakes up and drives somewhere while another huge population wakes up and drives in the opposite direction...
Yesterday we looked at cooled seats available on new cars. Nearly all of these vehicles were expensive luxury models. But what if you can’t afford any of the vehicles on that list, or are not even in the market for a new car? Well, until recently, there were no effective options...
Heated seats have long been a staple of luxury cars, and they have even trickled down to every-person cars like the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry or Chevrolet Impala. You can even buy aftermarket cushions that will heat up when plugged into a 12V power socket. However, a new option is starting to become wide-spread in the luxury car realm and it is, well, literally cool - the air-conditioned or ventilated seat.
There's really nothing like getting a new car -- the shinny paint, the new features, an odometer with more zeros than any other number and, of course, that new car smell. One of the great things about leasing is that you can look forward to this sensation more often, usually after about three years. However, even with the excitement of picking up a new car, I inevitably start shopping for my next car even before that new car smell starts to fade. Call it an acute symptom of the disease known as Car Newtitus.
Planning for my next car used to be pretty easy...find the best mix of sport and luxury that would fit into my budget at the time (as in the Audi A4 we currently lease, and the Jetta GLX I had before it). My biggest dilemma was picking from an ever increasingly competent pool of vehicles, both available at the time, and on the horizon. The features that drew most of my attention were items like leather and sport suspensions. Little attention was given to passenger or cargo room.
Then, one August day almost two years ago, my wife and I decided that the time was right to start a family. Little did I know at the time, but buying a new car would never be the same.
A friend send me some pictures that vividly illustrate a dangerous situation. The rear visibility of SUVs, trucks and even crossover vehicles is so limited that small children can be completely unseen behind a vehicle that is backing up. My friend wrote me this email and sent a few interesting pictures.
After seeing this Consumer Reports article I decided to do my own test on our new Nissan Murano...</fo
A reader wrote me recently to say that an alarming new driving trend has been identified. Vivian Blackwell has written a short description of this syndrome which you should read and prepare to defend yourself against.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Prius drivers, and other hybrid drivers, are victims of road rage because they are clogging car pool lanes.
"There's a mentality out there that we're a bunch of liberal hippies or we're trying to make some statement on the environment," the Times quoted Travis Ruff as saying. Ruff is a real estate agent from Newbury Park who drives a Toyota Prius. "People are a lot less friendly than when I drove a Mercedes."
Driving home last night I was in my typical alpha state when a loud CRACK! sent my heart into the red zone. I thought a rock had slammed into my driver's side window. Turned out a motorcycle that was lane-splitting had shattered my mirror...
Okay, the embargo is over and the answer can now be revealed to the car buying public. The awesome hybrid muscle car I was driving was (drum roll please)...
My editor sent me an email: "Maybe there's a price-of-technology story we could do, and one item we cover is the increased problems faced with lost or stolen 'smart' keys and the attempt to address this problem with a proposed assembly bill. Other points would be the difficulties of using iDrive and Command, and the drop in satisfaction ratings for BMW and Mercedes because their high-tech systems cause drivers as many problems as they solve.
I've loved using the Prius's smart key feature which works if you just carry it in your pocket. As you approach the car it beeps and you climb in and start the car with a push of the button. But a nagging thought keeps occurring: aren't people getting locked out somehow? Apparently they are since we have this bill sponsored which is described below.
Before you plunge into the technicalities of the bill, I'd just like to know -- anyone getting locked out of cars using these not-so-smart keys?
Was that an earthquake? No, it was just my Rolls starting up. That was my thought when I sat in the 2006 Rolls Royce Phantom this morning in Newport Beach, California. There was something silent, but powerful about the Rolls engine...
I used to be a general assignment news reporter and covered police, courts, education and politics. But nothing in my background prepared me for the rigors of auto journalism.
Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking I wrote the rant below. I didn't. Really, I didn't. But since my wife was rear-ended by a pickup yesterday I thought I would copy it. Before you read it please know that I'm driving -- not an SUV or pickup -- but a Honda Odyssey minivan and I'm loving being high. Or make that, "up high."
Anyway: Here's what someone else says about SUV and pickup drivers:
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Personally, I have noticed in my own driving that when I make a conscious effort to drive in a more relaxed manner that my fuel economy goes up 2-3 mpg. Having an active device that forces relaxed driving could make driving more efficiently something that you can do without thinking about it. Just remember to turn it off before you try to make that left turn across four lanes of oncoming traffic! 
Driving home last night I was in my typical alpha state when a loud CRACK! sent my heart into the red zone. I thought a rock had slammed into my driver's side window. Turned out a motorcycle that was lane-splitting had shattered my mirror...
