Equal time: While Prez. Obama test-sat the Volt’s European sibling, the Ampera, in Lisbon, Nissan had its own celebrity test driver for the Leaf EV. “John Roos, U.S. ambassador to Japan, test-drove Nissan’s “Leaf” electric vehicle in Yokohama one afternoon in mid-November, just before the APEC summit got under way,” reports The Nikkei [sub]. Then the Ambassador deeply inserted his foot in his mouth. He said he was particularly intrigued by the way the Leaf was able to charge its battery with solar power, a feat he saw at a “smart-city” exhibition sponsored by the Yokohama city government. Roos then asked officials running the demonstration whether the technology could help reduce oil dependence in Hawaii. Oops, wrong question. Read More >
Since the 1946 Continental was missing its eponymous spare tire, I meant to add this shot as evidence that the Conti’s influence is not yet finished (will it ever?). This may be a familiar sight in some parts of the country, but finding this in Eugene?? Either someone took the wrong exit and kept going for a very long time, or someone inherited grandpa’s car and couldn’t resist shocking/amusing the drab Toyota-driving locals. This gets my nomination for the most un-Eugene car to date. Oh wait…I have another contender for that crown somewhere: Read More >
A watchdog group last week filed a complaint with Canada’s privacy commissioner and the Manitoba Ombudsman’s Office over the city of Winnipeg’s refusal to release data about its photo enforcement efforts. Over the past five months, WiseUpWinnipeg had filed three separate requests for basic information under under a freedom of information law known as FIPPA, but city officials have refused to comply.
Tesla sometimes has been mocked as a bunch of hackers that simply wire-up a load of laptop batteries, whereas other serious and professional carmakers are looking into serious and professional batteries to power their future EVs. If egmcartech is not mistaken, then some of the serious and professional carmakers just had a sudden change of heart. Read More >
Are you a Camry owner who just isn’t sure whether it’s worth surfing that Korean wave? Are you waiting for Kia to deliver that complete Toyota experience? Good news: the new Optima is such a solid competitor to the Big T, it even has its own accelerator-pedal issue!
Is the Clue too hard or is it too easy? Is the Clue too hard or is it too easy? Is the Clue…that’s what haunts my dreams at night (I guess things could be worse). The last two have been too hard, obviously. This one may be too easy; or not; BTW, it’s the blue roof in front of the red van we’re guessing about. But help yourself to the rest of this eclectic collection while you’re at it.
On sale at Acura dealerships on November 23, the 2011 TSX sedan with 2.4L I-4 engine has an MSRP of $29,610 for both manual and automatic transmission models. Equipped with the available Technology package, the MSRP is $32,710. The TSX sedan with 3.5L V-6 engine has an MSRP of $35,150, or $38,250 when equipped with the Technology Package.
The 2011 TSX Sport Wagon goes on sale December 21 with a base price of $30,960. When equipped with the available Technology Package, the TSX Sport Sedan will have an MSRP of $34,610 [emphasis added].
But even if we ignore Acura’s confusing typo, there’s still plenty here to not understand. Why is the “Wagon Tax” $1,350 for standard TSX models, but $1,900 for Technology Package-equipped sportwagons? Put another way, why is technology $550 more for five the five-door models? And another thing: if there’s no price difference between the manual and automatic transmissions, why isn’t a manual transmission even an option on the Sportwagon? Why not put a price on the autobox and let Wagon buyers get their Technology Package for the same price as sedan buyers? Remember when things were simple in Acura pricing-land?
TTAC has been keeping an eye on China’s near-monopoly on the rare earth compounds required to build hybrid and electric cars for some time now, and we’ve seen the materials become an increasingly controversial issue, culminating in this year’s diplomatic tiff between China and Japan. But, as Bertel has pointed out,
That the Chinese have a stranglehold on rare earth is not because they are the only ones who are are sitting on it. It’s due to laziness and lack of money.
Now, Toyota Tsusho (a partially-owned subsidiary of Toyota Motor Company), has announced plans to stop being lazy and spend money on a rare earth materials plant in the Indian state of Orissa. Tsusho says the factory should come online in 2012, and should produce 3,000-4,000 metric tons of the magnet-hardening materials. Meanwhile, Japanese firms aren’t limiting their search for rare earth materials to India. Bloomberg notes
The shortage in rare earths has brought delegations from Canada, Mongolia and Bolivia to Japan in the past two weeks as these countries promote themselves as alternative sources to China.
When it comes to cars, I much prefer discussing the deeply flawed and/or obscure to, say, getting into a debate over the relative merits of the E36 versus the E46. Give me a Sofia B or ZIL 112 any day! 24 Hours of LeMons racers who wish to bribe the judges and ensure fair treatment know that diecast replicas of weird/obscure vehicles make me very, very happy. Here’s one of the best yet— can you identify it? Read More >
Well here I am again on Piston Slap about my 2006 Corolla w/ about 44k miles. This isn’t a burning question (no pun intended), I’m just curious. This time it’s the exhaust – it stinks. I know that the rotten egg smell comes from the catalytic converter, but why? Is the engine running rich and overloading the converter?
The check engine light isn’t on and the gas mileage is about the same, so the computer (apparently) hasn’t detected a problem. I use regular 86 octane fuel (high altitude), mostly Conoco-Phillips with “Pro-Clean”. I’ve been told that the fuel in this region of NM has a high sulfur content, although I can’t confirm that.
The exhaust odor doesn’t bother me when driving around (I’m not following my own car), but every time I pull into the garage, it smells pretty obnoxious and my wife thinks I’ve farted. WTF?
Earlier this year we took a look at our rolling 12-month sales totals chart, and found that cars had pulled away from “light trucks” (a category that includes trucks, SUVs, minivans and crossovers), prompting us to proclaim The Great American Downsizing. Well, it turns out we opined too soon. Trucks closed out the Summer strong and went on a tear during the Autumn months, to pull back to parity with their car cousins. And because light trucks are trending upwards faster than cars, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them finish the year as the better-selling segment. Of course, these numbers aren’t being driven strictly by the old-school utes of yore, although old standbys like the full-sized pickups, the Yukon XL and Ford Expedition are all up by healthy margins. Between old-school utes and the large crossovers that are replacing them, the cars just don’t stand a chance. Hit the jump for car-versus-light truck sales by manufacturer.
Speed cameras are right up there with ethanol, left-lane bandits and electric power steering on our automotive shit list, but The Fun Theory and Kevin Richardson think they may have found a way to make the robot nannies more palatable. If you pass a speed camera at or under the speed limit, you are entered into a lottery to win the fines paid by motorists who speed past the camera. In short, Richardson’s idea takes the revenue motivation for speed cameras away from local governments and democratizes it. But then you still have to submit to constant surveillance, and this also doesn’t prevent the increase in accidents that oftenaccompaniesspeed cameras. But does this make speed cameras more palatable, or is this simply a pointless sugar-coating of a fundamentally flawed approach to road safety?
Domestic car sales in India rose 21 percent from a year earlier in November. India is no China yet. But as its per capita GDP has crossed the magical $1000, car sales are waking up with a vengeance. This is one rule I learned in this business, and it never fails. China has more than three times the per capita GDP of India, and you know what kind of a run that caused. Read More >
You-know-what-eating grins in Munich: BMW outsold rivals Audi and Mercedes-Benz around the world last month on strong sales of the new 5er and the new X1 SUV. Read More >
Recent Comments