We like the Porsche 911 Turbo. A lot. It’s perfectly docile when you want it to be just a car and nothing more. It’s a suitable daily driver. It even looks impressive when parked. But when you decide it’s time to carve up a back road or hit the racetrack, the thing turns into a friggin’ weapon. It rips off the line with relentless grip and will happily fire itself at the horizon like an artillery shell all day long. It’s a two-faced capsule of awesomeness.
How do you make it better? More power, of course. In this case, we’re talking an improvement to the tune of 30 hp for a total of 530 hp, which at first doesn’t sound so impressive. Then you realize that the PDK-only Turbo S will hit 60 mph in 3.1 seconds if you use the Launch Control provided by the Sport Chrono Pack. That’s superbike territory, and, frankly, quite awesome.
Thank god you decided to buy a small pick-up over a hybrid, right? Wrong. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has found that none of the small pick-ups on the market had good enough crash ratings to receive their Top Safety Pick award.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is concerned that if sticking accelerator pedals wont kill you, the increasing number of distracting in-car electronics will.
Just in case you have lost all faith in automobiles, check out these sweet Porsche ads. Phew. Confidence restored.
We’re starting to think that marketing Porsches isn’t all that difficult. Reminding people how utterly dominant your brand has been in the world of sports car racing has a tendency to move cars off lots, after all. Plus it makes for some very entertaining ads.
All this recall information can be overwhelming, and it’s certainly frightening to think that a car you assumed was perfectly safe can actually cause you serious harm. While there’s plenty of information out there on what to do if you pedal sticks and which cars are affected, the actual defect hasn’t really been explained.
Enter Toyota UK’s Scott Brownlee, who does a good job of showing us exactly why these accelerator pedals are causing so much trouble in the first place.
As we struggle to climb out of the economic hole we find ourselves in we now find ourselves looking for someone to blame. Bankers, lack of regulation and even home owners have been blamed, but now the automobile? As it turns out, a study conducted by Natural Resources Defense Council has found that lack of access to reliable public transportation may be just as good a factor at determining mortgage foreclosure as poor credit scores. According to the study, homeowners are less likely to foreclose on their home if they live in “compact” neighborhoods with public transportation.
What, you ask, is the reason for that? Families located in areas of urban sprawl will be more likely to own more cars that are driven more often resulting in higher fuel and maintenance costs than those who live in cities with more transportation options, which means less money to pay off your home.
The second reason, the study found, was that homes in less densely populated areas have been built with more frequency over the last 60 years than those in urban areas. If we take a look at our Economics 101 textbooks, page 236, we find that supply is inversely proportional to demand. In other words, urban homes are in high demand because there are less of them. This means that because of the high demand, only the people who are the least likely to owe more than their home is worth will end up in these houses. The reverse is true for areas of urban sprawl.
Your homework for today is to find a problem we can’t blame the automobile for. Good luck… [Source: Wired]
And the hits just keep on coming. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has received about 100 reports of brake problems in the latest generation of the Toyota Prius — the one that seemed to have escaped the acceleration issues affecting so many other Toyota models.
According to BBC News, three motorists have been involved in accidents because of the brake problems. Toyota has issued a statement that the company is investigating the claims now. While this hasn’t been considered an official recall, it is guaranteed to make a further dent in Toyota’s formerly golden public image.
See these articles for more information on the Toyota recalls and other less well-known problems. Also check out NHTSA’s site for the latest updates. [Source: BBC News]
Hyundai went big on ads during last year’s Super Bowl, promoting their lose-your-job-and-we’re-still-cool Hyundai Assurance program, and, more to our liking, some Genesis Coupe hoonage courtesy of Rhys Millen. It seems this year they’re at it again. This time they’re campaigning their warranty program with none other than Bret Favre… from the future! General theme of the ad? The more things change…
