Carmakers

2016 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible – Plastic is Still Fantastic

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars Chevrolet reviews and tagged 2016 2016 chevrolet corvette convertible car reviews chevrolet convertible corvette stingray on by (updated 3142 days ago)

2016 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible - 3 of 41

For more than 30 years, ever since the launch of the C4 Corvette, I’ve been hearing Chevrolet talk about America’s longest running sports car being ready to take on the best in the world. Unfortunately, while each subsequent edition was a significant advancement on what came before, Corvette never quite hit the mark. While the 2005-2013 C6 came tantalizingly close to fulfilling that promise, especially from a performance perspective, the interior continued to be a let down. Two years ago, Chevrolet brought us an all-new seventh-generation model and I just got to spend a week with a ragtop variant.

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2015 Mercedes-Benz E250 BlueTec 4Matic –

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars Diesel Mercedes-Benz reviews and tagged car review car reviews diesel mercedes-benz mercedes-benz e-class mercedes-benze e250 bluetec mercedesbenz on by (updated 3142 days ago)

2015 Mercedes-Benz E250 BlueTec AWD - 2 of 28

Mercedes-Benz is a brand that has been associated with firsts throughout its long history which of course began with the very first car, Karl Benz’s 1886 Patent Motorwagen. Along the way, Mercedes has launched gasoline direct-fuel injection, anti-lock brakes and many other technologies including the compression ignition cycle developed by Dr. Rudolph Diesel. As we approach the 80th anniversary of the 1936 260D, Mercedes-Benz currently offers diesel engines in several of its current U.S.-market models including the midsize E-class sedan. I recently spent a week with the diesel-powered E250 BlueTec AWD just before the news broke about the big Volkswagen diesel emissions cheating scandal.

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2015 Jaguar XJL Portfolio AWD – The Big Cat Still Roars

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars Jaguar reviews and tagged 2015 jaguar xj car review car reviews jaguar luxury sedan xj on by (updated 3142 days ago)

2015 Jaguar XJL - 3 of 39The Jaguar brand-name is 80 years old in 2015 and over that time, the British luxury automaker has built some of the most beautiful and iconic machines in the history of the automobile. The single longest running nameplate from the Coventry-based company is the XJ sedan which is rapidly approaching its own 50th anniversary in 2018. The original XJ is still considered one of the most attractive sedans of all time. By the time the current-generation XJ debuted in 2009, just a year after Tata Motors bought Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford, the old-school XJ was definitely looking long in the tooth. Fortunately, Jaguar was ready to begin its new era with something dramatically different and six years later I’ve finally had an opportunity to drive one.

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2016 Mercedes-Benz Metris First Drive

This entry was posted in Carmakers Mercedes-Benz reviews Vans and tagged car review car reviews cargo van commercial vehicle mercedes benz metris midsize van passenger van van on by (updated 3142 days ago)

metris first drive - 7I never thought I would see the day when a Mercedes-Benz spokesperson stood in front a group of media to compare the brand’s latest product to the long dead Chevrolet Astro. For those who don’t recall the Astro, it and its GMC-badged twin the Safari, were rear-wheel-drive midsize vans built from 1985 to 2005. Since the end of the Astro’s production run, no manufacturer has offered a similarly sized van in the U.S. market, until now. Starting in the first week of October, roughly 270 Mercedes-Benz and Freightliner dealers will begin selling the Metris which has been available in Europe as the Vito.

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Saving Fuel and CO2 vs NOx Emissions With a Volkswagen Diesel

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars News the business Volkswagen and tagged diesel diesel emissions fuel economy jetta tdi pollution volkswagen on by (updated 3341 days ago)

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We bought our 2010 Volkswagen Jetta TDI wagon in November 2009 in large part based on the potential money we’d save at the pump. In the wake of the current diesel emissions fiasco and the fact that until recently, diesel has consistently been more expensive than gasoline, last night Julie? asked if we’ve even managed to save any money with this car.

I went to the Energy Information Administration website (an outstanding resource for historical data on fuel prices and supply) and downloaded the monthly average price data for the midwest which is available in a handy excel spreadsheet. You can also get national and regional data for annual and weekly averages. Based on the total mileage accumulated over 70 months and the EPA combined fuel economy estimates of 34 mpg for the diesel and 25 mpg for the 2.5-liter five-cylinder that was also available at the time I worked out the average monthly fuel consumption over the time we’ve owned the car. We have used approximately 23.1 gallons of ultra-low sulfur diesel per month and would have used about 31.4 gallons of regular gas with the five cylinder.

Putting that up against the average monthly price of regular gas and diesel we would have spent approximately $7,274 on gasoline. By comparison, despite the higher pump prices most of the time, I estimate that we’ve spent roughly $5,732 on diesel fuel, a savings about $1,540 dollars. The diesel emitted approximately 16.3 tonnes of CO2 over the past six years while the gasoline-fueled version would have output almost 19.4 tonnes, so we’ve saved roughly three tonnes of CO2 as well.

Does that justify all the extra NOx we’ve emitted? I have no idea. That’s one of those trade-offs that you simply can’t measure directly. Having paid a roughly $2,000 premium up front to buy the diesel engine, the economics are still an open question right now. A week ago, the $3,500 in extra resale value of a diesel compared to a gas engine would have more than covered the $500 difference we’re at right now in fuel savings and we would have been way ahead financially. A few weeks from now when this all sinks in, who knows what this car will be worth.

I don’t have answers yet, just some random data points. Stay tuned.

New iPhone Upgrade Program May Point to the Apple Car

This entry was posted in Apple Carmakers cars electric News the business and tagged apple apple car electric car electric vehicle EV netflix silvercar subscription service on by (updated 3310 days ago)

silvercar+appleWhen I first started speculating on the idea of an Apple car last February as rumors about Project Titan emerged, I was enormously skeptical that it would ultimately happen. However in the days since Apple’s most recent media event where they announced the iPhone 6s, I’ve begun to rethink my assessment. I now see a way that might lead to Apple’s entry into the car business based on their latest approach to selling smartphones.
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2016 Honda Civic – Hitting Double Digits

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars Honda News and tagged 10th generation honda civic 2016 honda civic civic honda on by (updated 3348 days ago)
American Honda EVP John Mendel reveals the 2016 Civic sedan

American Honda EVP John Mendel reveals the 2016 Civic sedan

For most companies that make and sell products there is often one particular product that is most important to its image and its bottom line. For Apple, it’s the iPhone, at Ford it’s the F-150 pickup. For Honda, that product is the Civic, its top-selling product globally with 800,000 annual sales and also its longest running continuous model after 43 years on the road. At events in Detroit and Los Angeles today, Honda revealed the all-new 10th generation Civic in the four-sedan form that will launch later this fall. The new Civic sedan is the first of several body styles that will arrive on our shores in the next two years including for the first time, a Civic Type-R.

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2015 Chevrolet Trax LT – A Little Crossover With Room for Friends

This entry was posted in Carmakers Chevrolet crossover General Motors reviews and tagged 2015 chevrolet trax b-segment car review car reviews crossover subcompact crossover trax on by (updated 3142 days ago)

2015 Chevrolet Trax - 5 of 28

Last year Chevrolet decided to join the rapidly burgeoning B-segment (aka subcompact) crossover utility field with an entry called the Trax. The Trax joins GM’s other similarly sized and surprisingly successful crossover the Buick Encore at a more affordable price point to challenge the likes of the Honda HR-V, Jeep Renegade, Fiat 500X and Nissan Juke. In a segment expected to spawn several more entries from the likes of Ford, Hyundai and Toyota in the next couple of years, does the Trax have what it takes?

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General Motors Launching 2nd-Gen “Bring Your Own Media” Infotainment for 2016

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars Chevrolet General Motors reviews technology and tagged android auto apple carplay bring your own media byom car reviews chevrolet general motors infotainment mylink on by (updated 3142 days ago)

BYOM - 1

As we roll into the 2016 model year, General Motors is finally about ready to put its 2009 bankruptcy behind it as it completes the launch of a full lineup of post-reorganization vehicles. In addition to all-new vehicles designed and developed in this decade, GM is also rationalizing its in-vehicle infotainment options which had become fragmented over the past four years. For Chevrolet, that means there will basically be two levels of infotainment under the MyLink brand.

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2016 Chevrolet Camaro Performance Shows the Benefit of Going on a Diet 1

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars Chevrolet News and tagged 2016 Chevrolet Camaro camaro ford mustang lightweight mustang performance pony cars sports cars on by (updated 3350 days ago)

cq5dam.web.1280.1280When Chevrolet revealed the redesigned sixth-generation Camaro last spring, it looks like they significantly sandbagged everyone on the weight reductions including the engineers in Dearborn. The original press release indicated that “the total curb weight for Camaro has been reduced by more than 200 pounds,” which I took as an indication that it would end up at roughly the same weight as the 2015 Mustang. In fact, Chevy’s sports car undercuts its arch-rival the Mustang by anywhere from 20 to 200 pounds and offers vastly improved weight-to-power ratios, which is directly reflected in the performance numbers.

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