Auto Channel Dony Blog's

Friday, May 13, 2011

Kelley Blue Book’s Top 10 Green Cars For 2011

0 comments Posted by Blogger's at 8:49 PM

2011 Nissan Leaf

When editors of Kelley Blue Book prepared to select the “Top 10 Green Cars for 2011,” KBB’s annual listing of the most fuel-efficient cars, they sought to balance what buyers want in today’s cars – safety, creature comforts and driving enjoyment – with fuel efficiency. So, instead of just looking at the fuel-economy numbers, the editors also paid attention to cars that are ultra fuel-efficient.
Here is the list of Kelley Blue Book’s “Top 10 Green Cars for 2011.” Note that many do double-duty as excellent family cars – either as the main family sedan or extra car for commuting or in-town driving.

2011 Nissan Leaf

1. 2011 Nissan Leaf – Green inside and out, the all-new and all-electric 2011 Nissan Leaf tops KBB’s list of “Top 10 Green Cars for 2011.” With a Nissan-quoted 73 miles per charge and the equivalent of 99 miles per gallon, the Leaf may not be for everyone, but it does offer a “groundbreaking combination of range, room and price,” says KBB. Recycled materials (made from old car parts, home appliances and plastic bottles) are used extensively throughout the car.

2011 Chevrolet Volt

2. 2011 Chevrolet Volt – KBB says the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, an extended-range electric vehicle, has a “93 mpg equivalent.” For the first 35 miles, Volt is all electric. Then the gas engine kicks in to power the car up to an additional 379 miles. In addition, KBB says the Volt “looks like a tasteful vision of the future – inside and out – and is one of the most fun electrically driven cars we’ve driven so far.”

2011 Toyota Prius

3. 2011 Toyota Prius – The original “hybrid for the masses” is still up near the top of the green cars list, due to its stellar 51 mpg city/48 mpg highway fuel economy. Best of all, you drive it just like an ordinary car – no need to change your driving habits.

2011 Lexus CT 200h

4. 2011 Lexus CT 200h – Responsive and athletic – and a hybrid getting 43 mpg city/40 mpg highway, the all-new 2011 Lexus CT 200h “looks like a sporty premium hatchback,” says KBB, “which is exactly what it is.” The 2011 Lexus CT 200h is also the least expensive Lexus you can buy.

2011 Honda Insight

5. 2011 Honda Insight – Its 41-mpg combined fuel economy rating makes the 2011 Honda Insight the third most fuel-efficient hybrid on the road. But it’s also less expensive this year than last (reduced more than $1,000), with starting prices ranging from $18,950 to about $24,000.

2011 Ford Fusion Hybrid

6. 2011 Ford Fusion Hybrid – Ford already has a hit with the Ford Fusion, but the 2011 Fusion Hybrid’s combined EPA-estimated fuel economy of 39 mpg, KBB says Fusion Hybrid was a natural for its list of “Top 10 Green Cars for 2011.”

2011 Volkswagen Golf TDI

7. 2011 Volkswagen Golf TDI – With its 2.0-liter turbo-diesel engine capable of delivering 42 mpg highway, the 2011 Volkswagen Golf TDI is not only fuel efficient, it’s also a fun drive. European driving feel, interior quality and hatchback utility are other Golf highlights in KBB’s book.
2011 Hyundai Elantra
car news and car review carmax.blogspot.com
by familycarguide.com

Cadillac SRX Gets More Power for 2012

0 comments Posted by Blogger's at 8:47 PM

2011-cadillac-srx-fwd-4-door-performance

Enlarge Photo

GM has announced that it will be offering its direct-injected 3.6-liter V-6 engine as standard equipment on the 2012 Cadillac SRX. The new engine will replace the current 3.0-liter V-6 and the 2.8-liter turbocharged V-6, which was discontinued earlier this year.

The engine is the same V-6 that's currently offered in the CTS, putting out 300 horsepower and 280 lb-ft of torque in the SRX. Cadillac says that in addition to the added power and torque, it also delivers its torque over a wider range than the 3.0-liter V-6, giving the SRX more flexibility. Speaking of flexibility, the new V-6 is also flex-fuel capable, able to run on gasoline, E85 ethanol, or any combination of the two.

The new engine will make the SRX one of the more powerful vehicles in the two-row luxury crossover market, outpowering the Lexus RX 350, Infiniti EX35, Mercedes-Benz GLK 350, and matching the BMW X3 xDrive35i in horsepower (although it gives up a little in torque to the Bimmer).

Cadillac also unveiled a host of new enhancements for the 2012 SRX. All 2012 Cadillac SRX models get standard Bluetooth, and luxury, premium and performance models receive a new standard heated steering wheel. A new machine-finish 20-inch wheel design is also standard on premium and performance models. Cadillac is even addressing a minor ergonomic quirk in the SRX, adding door lock buttons on the driver's and passenger's door panels. Previously, the button was only on the center console, although that button remains for the 2012 model year.carmax.blogspot.com

by thecarconnection.com

car news and review and

2012 Cadillac SRX Upgrades To New V-6

0 comments Posted by Blogger's at 8:43 PM

2012 Cadillac SRX

With the current model already surging in sales in the luxury crossover segment, the 2012 Cadillac SRX will add even more excitement for prospective buyers: a new engine with more horsepower and torque.
The added boost comes in the form of a new 300-horsepower 3.6-liter direct-injected V-6 engine that produces 260 pound-feet of torque. This is 35 more horsepower and 37 more pound-feet of torque than the current 2011 Cadillac SRX 3.0-liter engine generating 265 horsepower and 223 pound-feet of torque.
What does this added horsepower and torque do for the driver? Don Butler, Vice-president of Cadillac marketing says “the new engine will make the SRX more responsive for passing on the highway, entering freeways from on-ramps and climbing hills.”
Cadillac also says the new engine has a wider rpm range for maximum torque, which provides the driver more power across a wider range of speeds and driving conditions. It’s also FlexFuel capable, meaning it can run on gasoline, E85 ethanol, or any combination of the two. While EPA fuel economy ratings have not been finalized, Cadillac says it expects consumers will see “comparable real-world fuel-efficiency.” The current Cadillac SRX is EPA-rated at 18 mpg city/25 mpg highway.
Cadillac SRX models with the new engine arrive in dealerships in late summer. Pricing will be announced closer to production.
General Motors says the more powerful engine will build the sales momentum of the Cadillac SRX, number three best-selling mid-size luxury crossover in 2010 with sales of 51,094. Caddy is ratcheting up so far in 2011, with first-quarter SRX sales up 29 percent to 13,959 and aiming its sights on number-one in the segment, the Lexus RX350. Last year, the Lexus RX350 accounted for 95,790 sales. Number two best-seller in the segment is Cadillac SRX’s corporate sibling, the Buick Enclave, which posted 55,426 sales in 2010.
Interesting note, per Cadillac: the 2012 Cadillac SRX’s more powerful engine is projected to top the Lexus RX350 in both horsepower and torque. Lexus rates the RX350 at 275 horsepower and 257 pounds-feet of torque.
Other SRX enhancements for 2012
Besides the new engine, the 2012 Cadillac SRX will feature Bluetooth phone connectivity on all models, a heated steering wheel on upper trim levels, and door lock switches on the driver and passenger door panels. The new model will continue to have door lock switches on the center console.
The 2012 Cadillac SRX, available in front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive, will also offer new machined-face finish on its 20-inch wheels, which are standard on SRX performance and premium trim levels.

[General Motors]

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

2011 Lexus IS 250C and IS 350C: Car Seat Check

0 comments Posted by Blogger's at 7:56 PM

The 2011 Lexus IS 250C is the hardtop convertible version of the IS 250, a sporty sedan. While the IS sedan can hold five passengers, the IS 250C carries four. There’s also a significant difference in rear legroom between the two models. The sedan has 30.6 inches of legroom in the second row; the convertible has only 25.9 inches, which made it difficult to install rear-facing child-safety seats in it. Our results can also be applied to the 2011 Lexus IS 350C, which offers a more powerful V-6 engine than its 250C sibling.
For the Car Seat Check, we use a Graco SnugRide 30 rear-facing infant-safety seat, a Britax Roundabout convertible child-safety seat and Graco high-back TurboBooster seat. The front seats are adjusted to a comfortable position for a 6-foot driver and a 5-foot-8 passenger. The three child seats are installed in the second row. The booster seat sits behind the driver’s seat, and the infant seat and convertible seats are installed behind the passenger seat. We also install the infant seat in the second row’s middle seat with the booster and convertible in the outboard seats to see if three car seats will fit. If there’s a third row, we install the booster seat and a forward-facing convertible.
Here’s how the 2011 IS 250C and IS 350C did in MotherProof.com’s Car Seat Check:
Latch system: There are two sets of lower Latch anchors in the convertible’s two-person backseat. The anchors are deeply buried in the seat bight, where the back and bottom cushions meet. The seats have significant seat bolsters and the anchors are set close together, making it difficult to install a car seat.
Two tether anchors sit under hinged covers at the base of the roll bars. The covers make it difficult to use the anchors. We had to flop the head restraints forward to get at the anchors.

Booster seat: The seat bolsters helped give our high-back booster seat a good fit in the convertible. However, the limited legroom in the second row will create problems for a child sitting in the seat. The seat belt buckles are well-anchored and sit high enough that kids in boosters can easily use them.

Convertible seat: To get the rear-facing convertible to fit in the IS 250C, we had to move the front passenger seat all the way forward. This left no room for the front passenger. We also had fit problems with the forward-facing convertible. The rear seatback has little to no recline, which pushed the convertible far forward. At least half of the convertible’s base was off of the bottom seat cushion. This shows yet again that not every car seat fits in every car.

Infant-safety seat: We also had to move the front passenger seat all the way forward to get this rear-facing car seat to fit in the convertible. As with the rear-facing convertible, there wasn’t enough room for the front passenger.

How many car seats fit? 2, but they’ll need to be forward-facing
Editor’s note: For three car seats—infant-safety seat, convertible and booster seats—to fit in a car, our criteria is that a child sitting in the booster seat must be able to reach the seat belt buckle. Parents should also remember that they can use the Latch system or a seat belt to install a car seat.
by motherproof.com

Spyker CEO Clears The Air About Saab, Looks Ahead To 9-4X

0 comments Posted by Blogger's at 7:54 PM

2011 Saab 9-4X
Enlarge Photo

Saab is still alive—and well, according to Victor Muller, the CEO of Spyker Cars, Saab's owner.
And in recent days, Saab has been on a hiring spree. Monday, Saab Cars North America named Timothy Colbeck its new president and CEO. Colbeck was most recently vice president, sales, at Subaru of America. And last week, Saab announced that it hired James Sweeting—a Honda veteran—as its new national sales director.
It might be a little hard to believe, given all the brand's upheaval in the news. Just over the past two months, we've reported a potential bankruptcy; potential plans for Saab to build vehicles for other automakers; supply issues; a production stoppage and cash crisis; and new lifelines from Russia and China. And that's of course all after Spyker Cars bought Saab last year, saving the brand from a likely demise when General Motors was on the verge of shuttering it.
Breaking GM ties were costly
Prior to flying back out to China to formalize a deal that will save the storied Swedish brand, Muller cleared the air a bit about the events of the past couple of months, explaining that "everything in Saab was GM—GM financing, GM terms, GM suppliers, and these things of course start to come apart when you become an independent player," he explained, in a presentation to the press in Washington, D.C., who had assembled for the launch of the new Saab 9-4X.
Saab ended 2010 with 18,000 fewer cars produced and sold than it had anticipated, and it limped into 2011 in bad financial shape.
From uncertainty to full-blown financial crisis, in two hours
"Unfortunately on the 29th of March we called the bluff of one of our suppliers who said that if you don't do what I want, I'm not going to open the doors of my truck, and if I don't open the doors of my truck, you're not going to get the parts. Well, he was serious, and we screwed up. Because it caused a production stoppage of two hours."
News spread quickly in a media environment that had already taken a very critical slant about the automaker, Muller explained, and the troubled quickly multiplied. "Within two hours of that stoppage, we didn't have one supplier with a problem. We had 92. And that started to completely unravel it," recounted Muller. And soon, 20 million euros had turned into 90 million euros.

Saab logo

Little-known Hawtai saves Saab
Overall, Spyker secured about 150 million euros ($215 million) of additional funding that can go into the company whenever it's needed. As part of the deal, China's Hawtai Motor Group gets a nearly 30-percent stake in Saab and would get production rights for some Saab models in its home market (beginning with the former version of the 9-5).
Ultimately, Muller takes the blame for not anticipating the trouble. "There's only one person to blame for this, and that's me; because I should have been prepared," he said. "It should have never happened. But it did."
Muller said that he had already been working to get more money onboard, with negotiations with the Chinese beginning earlier in the fall.
New 9-4X being built, but Swedish production not quite back rolling
Production in Sweden could restart as early as next week, Saab officials estimate, with the automaker's Trollhattan plant making the 9-5 sedan, and a 9-5 SportCombi on the way in the next month (due to the U.S. in September). All while plans push ahead for an all-new Saab 9-3 that will bow about a year from now.
Ahead of that, production began early this week on the first 2011 Saab 9-4X crossover models—at GM's Ramos Arizpe, Mexico plant, alongside the Cadillac SRX. Ramos Arizpe has in recent years assembled the Chevrolet HHR, the former versions of the Chevrolet Equinox (and Pontiac Torrent), the Saturn Vue, and the Pontiac Aztek, among others. GM has committed to be able to build up to 12,000 9-4X models annually at Ramos, with much of that capacity
Will the new 9-4X give Saab a good foothold on the crossover market? Stay tuned for a first drive later this week.
by .thecarconnection.com

Fastlane Starts Tuning Ford F-150 EcoBoost V-6

0 comments Posted by Blogger's at 7:49 PM

Traditional truck buyers aren't the only ones getting their hands on the first 2011 Ford F-150 EcoBoost V-6 trucks. Tuners are, too. Our friends at Fastlane in Houston are already squeezing more power and performance from the advanced direct-injection twin-turbo engine.
Bolting on a set of high-flow catalytic converters with wide pipes added 30 horsepower at the rear wheels, as measured on Fastlane's chassis dyno. They also lowered the truck, mounted a PLX boost gauge inside on the A-pillar to show turbo boost levels, and painted the engine's beauty cover to match the exterior and skinned it with a carbon-fiber-style laminate.
We spent 30 minutes behind the wheel to check out its peformance. Despite the lowered ride height, the F-150 still rode great on the highway. The biggest difference was the improvement in zero-to-60-mph times compared with what we've previously measured.

We clocked Fastlane's EcoBoost F-150 (3.73 rear axle) at 6.07 seconds from a full stop to 60 mph with our VBOX test kit. That's compared with 6.79 seconds (3.55) and 6.82 seconds (3.73) in two stock F-150s we've previously tested. We also clocked the truck in the quarter-mile at 14.97 seconds at 92.61 mph. Not too shabby for a relatively simple hardware upgrade.
Fastlane says the best is yet to come, but it's going to take a while longer. Fastlane's tuning braniacs are still trying to crack the strong encryption Ford has put in place around the EcoBoost's electronic control unit. Once they do, they plan to remove the stock turbos and replace them with high-performance BorgWarner EFR turbos that feature lightweight titanium turbine wheels for faster spool-up.
We'll be paying close attention to Fastlane's efforts to push the performance of Ford's EcoBoost F-150. Stay tuned.
Fastlane-f150-1-560

by news.pickuptrucks.com

Forget the Aftermarket: Mopar Introduces Eight Special Grilles, Six Styles of Wheels for the New Chrysler 300

0 comments Posted by Blogger's at 7:47 PM

Part of what made the first-gen Chrysler 300 such an irrefutable hit was its popularity with aftermarket parts suppliers and tuners; the car was a virtual blank canvas for customizers. Chrysler is courting those same people with its new 300—though this time, it won’t send them to the aftermarket without showing them the Mopar catalog first, wherein they will see no fewer than eight unique grille designs and six designs of custom wheels. The grilles include the standard seven-bar design with either bright or satin-finished chrome; another is a fine wire mesh insert in black or bright chrome; there’s a glitzy diamond-pattern lace insert in bright chrome; a ribbed, perforated black chrome grille á la the 2012 300C SRT-8; and our favorite, a 13-bar billet grille patterned after the grille of the original Chrysler 300. Prices are surprisingly reasonable, too, ranging from $310 to $750.
Wheel designs include three 20-inchers—a 10-spoke design in two finishes and one five-spoker in black chrome—a 19-inch “satin carbon” eight-spoke wheel intended for all-wheel-drive models, and two 18-inch five-spoke designs in two finishes. Prices for these start at $265 per rim and run up to $610 each.

Naturally, the tuning community will take the new 300 to the extreme, and will offer everything from grilles emblazoned with the Superman logo to scissor doors. But Mopar’s offerings are available right away, and bring that special manufacturer’s touch. With reasonable pricing, too, they should have no trouble finding buyers.
by blog.caranddriver.com