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Are you wasting money by warming up your car?
Many drivers believe that driving a cold car is bad for the engine and idle for far longer than necessary, wasting time and money and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
Experts say you only need to run your engine for 2 or 3 minutes in very cold weather for it to be road ready.
Martin Restoule, Coordinator of Transportation Trades, at Algonquin College, says that on a cold day, just two or three minutes will do the trick.
“Your engine and transmission are expensive components. You do want to circulate the oil through the engine,” says Restoule. “Oil is very thick when it’s cold and you want it to thin-out to lubricate the components in the engine.”
While not helpful to your car, idling does contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, making it bad for the environment.
Watch the news report here: http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/is-driving-a-cold-car-bad-for-the-engine-1.2176052#ixzz3Q2l47Nfv
Losing Your Smart Key Could Cost You
If you have a habit of losing your keys you may want to make a New Year’s resolution to break that habit, especially if you have a smart key. Replacing a so-called “smart” car key with an embedded computer chip can cost an arm and leg — $400 in some cases or potentially much more.
Consumer Reports said a couple of years ago one of its engineers had to pay $600 to replace the key to his Toyota Prius, after he accidentally went swimming with the key in his pocket.
Many auto dealerships offer key replacement policies. They may sound expensive, too, but bear in mind what it costs to replace a lost key. Prices are negotiable, so it’s hard to generalize about prices. To state the obvious, the retail price better be less than the price to replace a lost key.
Policies also may cover more than just key replacement, like roadside assistance if you’re locked out of your car, or rental car coverage if a replacement key can’t be made right away.
Obviously, it’s the finance manager’s job at the dealership to explain the cost vs. the benefits. If it’s offered, try not to be bowled over when you hear how much it costs. Keep an open mind, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. A clever finance manager might have copies of real-life examples documenting how much it costs to replace a lost key, for instance.
Also, be realistic. The finance manager is probably not going to give up right away when you say, “I don’t plan on losing my keys.” Nobody does. Even if you never make a claim, key replacement also represents peace of mind, like any form of insurance.
Read the full story here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimhenry/2014/12/31/new-year-resolution-for-2015-do-not-lose-car-keys/
New Car Gadgets for 2015
Our cars are filled with technology these days and that is only going to increase as more and more gadgets and features that help reduce the stress of driving and increase your safety on the roadways are released. Here are some of the newest gadgets you’ll see in 2015:
1. Run-off road protection system – 2015 Volvo XC90, $60,700 + $2,200 for the Convenience package with run-off road protection system: Volvo’s Run-off Road Protection system is a world first. If you drive off the road accidentally, the all-new Volvo XC90 detects what is happening and takes matters into its own hands to reduce injuries to passengers.
2. Perpendicular park assist – 2015 Chrysler 200C, $24,995 + optional $1,995 SafetyTech package: Parallel parking systems aren’t new, but perpendicular parking systems are. The 2015 Chrysler 200C can perpendicular park itself, reversing into a spot at a crowded mall with ease.
3. Night Vision with Pedestrian Detection – 2015 BMW X6, $68,890 + $2,500 stand-alone option for Night Vision with pedestrian detection: BMW’s Night Vision with Pedestrian Detection warns drivers of dangers beyond your headlights. The system can detect animals and pedestrians in the dark by using infrared technology to see things before they’re visible to the naked eye. An infrared camera scans a range up to 300+ metres ahead of the vehicle – that’s more than three football fields – and 200 metres beyond what the Xenon headlights can illuminate. Then it relays a real-time video image onto the LCD screen.
4. In-car Wi-Fi – 2015 Cadillac ATS, $36,110; data plans start at $10/month after three-month trial service: Connectivity has reached new heights thanks to OnStar with 4G LTE, available on many GM vehicles. It brings a built-in Wi-Fi hotspot inside and around the vehicle. You can also connect up to seven devices at once including laptops, smartphones, video game consoles or tablets so the entire family can stay online on the road. At 100x the speed of 2G, the mobile data network is fast and powerful.
Toyota to Launch Advanced Active-Safety Systems in 2015
Toyota Motor Corp. is getting closer to autonomous cars. The company will begin to release a range of advanced active-safety systems to the masses next year.
The new or re-engineered technologies, unveiled Wednesday in Tokyo, encompass more sophisticated precrash braking packages, a better auto-parking feature, a next-generation auto-adjust headlamp and a vehicle-to-infrastructure and vehicle-to-vehicle communication system.
Toyota will begin rolling out the technologies in early 2015, Chief Safety Technology Officer Moritaka Yoshida said.
Initial products, such as the auto-parking and vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems, will debut in Japan and later migrate to other markets, including the U.S. Others, including two precrash auto-braking packages, will be released in the U.S. as early as next year.
Affordable
Toyota did not disclose pricing for the new systems, but the goal is to introduce affordable advanced safety technologies that can be deployed in mass-volume nameplates, Yoshida said.
Toyota is introducing the technologies in a push to burnish its safety credentials as automakers seek to differentiate themselves from rivals. The systems are also basic building-block technologies that will underpin future autonomous cars.
Yoshida said automakers have reached a point of diminishing returns from improvements in passive systems such as stronger body frames and seat belts. Faster gains will come from technologies that prevent crashes, he said.
“There is a limit to reducing the number of fatalities through passive safety,” he said. “We must also focus on active safety.”
Name of Toyota’s Hydrogen Car Revealed
The Mirai is the name that Toyota selected for t it’s upcoming fuel cell vehicle (FCV). The Japanese automaker has also announced that it is building a network of hydrogen stations in the US Northeast to support the new vehicle.
The $69,000 vehicle is due to arrive in the US in 2016. Toyota proclaimes that “the future has arrived,” (Mirai means “future” in Japanese) which may make the thousands of people who’ve owned a Honda FCX Clarity FCV since 2005 gag. But despite being late to the game, Toyota is now making a huge bet on FCVs. It has teamed with Air Liquide to build 12 hydrogen stations in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The stations will be “strategically placed” so that drivers of the 300-mile-range Mirai can tool around the region without (much) anxiety. Previously, Toyota said that 19 hydrogen stations would be installed in California.
How To Protect Yourself From Auto Recalls
2014 has been the year of the auto recall. It seems like every other day, news breaks about yet another recall on millions of cars that could prove deadly. There are steps consumers can take to ensure their safety.
As of October, automakers had issued recalls for an estimated all-time-high of 56 million vehicles in the U.S. “To put that in perspective, automakers have now recalled more than three times the number of new cars and trucks Americans will buy this year,” the Detroit Free Press noted.
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The flurry of recalls has come fast and furiously in 2014. This week, Toyota issued a recall on roughly 250,000 vehicles in the U.S. related to faulty airbags, on top of a global recall of 1.7 million Toyotas for a wide range of safety defects that circulated last week. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) lists 29 separate auto manufacturer recalls thus far in the month of October, and the agency released a special consumer advisory this week, alerting the owners of 7.8 million vehicles that they should take “immediate action” to replace dangerously defective airbags.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. General Motors recalled 2.7 million vehicles last May, less than one month after the automaker announced it had spent $1.3 billion to recall 7 million vehicles worldwide, including 2.6 million for faulty ignition switches linked to 13 deaths. Ford recalled 700,000 vehicles last spring because of concerns the airbags wouldn’t deploy quickly enough, while some 16 million vehicles from 10 automakers have been recalled because the airbags, made by the Japanese company Takata, could inflate with explosive force strong enough to hurt or even kill the riders the devices are designed to save in the case of an accident. And on and on.
The numbers are so big, and the recalls pop up with such frequency, that you might be inclined to tune them out—not unlike the hacks and data breaches that occur with astonishing regularity at major retailers. But then, you know … there’s death and catastrophic injury. The potential of anything so dire affecting you and your loved ones should make you snap to attention and take action.
Small Cars Versus Large Cars – Which Are Actually More Efficient?
When asked this question, many would answer that smaller cars are more efficient, but road tests confirm that the smallest cars aren’t necessarily the most fuel efficient.
Drivers looking for savings at the petrol pump could be making a mistake if they swap their estate or 4×4 for a smaller car, according to research which suggests that fuel economy estimates are biased against larger vehicles.
Motorists are usually advised that smaller cars can travel more miles per gallon (mpg) than those with larger engines, making them cheaper and more environmentally friendly to run.
But manufacturers’ estimates of fuel economy, based on official laboratory tests, may not reflect the reality when the vehicles are driven on the road.
Tests on 500 vehicles, half petrol, half diesel, each driven for three hours on roads in Britain, found that the cars travelled on average 18 per cent fewer miles per gallon than stated in manufacturers’ specifications.
Emissions Analytics, a data company which measured the cars’ fuel consumption and emissions, explained that this was due to cars accelerating more and travelling at higher speeds on the road than in official testing regimes.
The discrepancy between manufacturers’ claims and the road data was especially stark for vehicles with smaller engines, which generally have to work harder to accelerate.
Tests showed that vehicles with an engine size up to one litre had an average advertised 60.3mpg, but consumption was measured at 38.6mpg in tests, a drop of 36 per cent.
Toyota Reveals “Car of the Future”
Toyota has unveiled its concept car, Urban Utility (or U^2). It offers a look into the future of technology for the next generation of automobiles and consumers.
The U^2, or Urban Utility, has a box-shaped exterior with a customizable interior that features a sleek design, removable front seat, an intuitive shifter and a spot to mount a tablet in place of a radio.
The vehicle, “inspired by a growing innovative spirit in urban areas,” was created by the automaker’s Calty Design Research Team, according to a news release. Toyota operates a truck plant in San Antonio that directly employees nearly 3,000 people.
“Vehicle elements reflect the lifestyle and needs of an entrepreneurial, urban driver,” the release reads.
Technology magazine Wired’s take on that phrase: “In other words, it’s made for millennials, the startup-crazy city dwellers who just aren’t buying cars the way their predecessors did.”
Women and Men Seek Similar Things When Buying Cars
When it comes to buying a car, what women and men want varies only slightly.
Exterior styling and overall value are the most important things to new car buyers of both sexes, according to TrueCar.com, an auto buying site that regularly surveys buyers. Past experience with the brand and driving performance are next on the list.
But while men usually give an edge to styling and driving performance, women tend to rank safety and fuel economy more highly than men do, TrueCar says.
Those small differences are important as women become a larger force in the marketplace. Forty per cent of new vehicle registrants were female in the first four months of this year, up from 37 per cent in 2009, according to Edmunds.com. And that’s only expected to grow. Among younger buyers, women are already outpacing men.
“Women represent the biggest marketing opportunity in the world,” says Chantel Lenard, Ford’s U.S. marketing director.
Even when preferences converge, it may be for different reasons. For example, “reliability” is important to women because they don’t want to get stranded on the road, Lenard says. Men want reliable cars because they don’t want to spend a lot of time in the shop, she says.
Horsepower is important to men, which helps explain why Lamborghini has the highest proportion of male buyers of any brand, at nearly 95 per cent, according to the car shopping site Edmunds.com. But it’s also important to women, who want to know that they can accelerate quickly away from a problem, Lenard says.
Debbie Parsons sprang for one high-tech luxury — remote start — on her 2014 Chevrolet Spark after spending a frigid winter watching her neighbours use it to heat their cars. But mostly, she bought the subcompact for its cute styling and lemon-yellow paint.
The Era of The Volvo
Volvo has put two brand new, remarkable vehicles on the market today. They have embarked on an ambitious new era, formally unveiled the redesigned XC90, a flagship SUV whose sales performance will help recast the Swedish brand’s fortunes in the United States.
The 2015 XC90 — heralding new styling, room for seven, new safety technologies, more fuel-efficient engines and a more premium interior, all packaged on a new flexible platform — is the first vehicle developed by Volvo since its sale to China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group in 2010.
When it goes on sale in the United States early next year, the XC90 will join a growing but cutthroat premium midsize crossover market that is dominated by the Lexus RX and a throng of other European, American and Asian rivals.
Detailed pricing will be announced at a later date, but Volvo said today a well-equipped XC90 T6 with all-wheel drive will have a U.S. starting price of $48,900, excluding an estimated destination charge of $925. The XC90 T6 AWD will come equipped with navigation, 19” wheels, a power laminated panoramic sunroof, advanced connectivity, and is expected to deliver what Volvo says will be “best-in-class power and fuel efficiency.”
U.S. sales of the XC90 — one of the oldest models in the segment — have plummeted as the vehicle has aged. In the United States, Volvo sold 3,031 XC90s through July this year and 6,845 in 2013. U.S. sales peaked in 2004 at 39,183 vehicles, when there were fewer players in the segment.
Volvo has a lot riding on the second-generation XC90, which hasn’t been replaced or significantly upgraded since 2002. Company executives plan to leverage the XC90 rollout to spark momentum for the brand, and rebuild profits and operating margins.
It is coming online as Volvo’s U.S. sales have dipped 11 percent this year and fallen seven out of the last ten years. The brand’s U.S. sales peaked at 139,067 in 2004 and haven’t topped 100,000 units annually since 2007, even as the overall light-vehicle market remains on track to expand for the fifth consecutive year.
“This is one of the most important days in our history. We are not just launching a car but relaunching our brand. Today marks a new era for our company,” said Hakan Samuelsson, CEO of the Volvo Car Group. “The XC90 paves the way for a portfolio of exciting new cars to come over the next few years.”
If there is one silver lining for Volvo as it prepares to launch the XC90, it is that Americans have rediscovered SUVs and crossovers. U.S. deliveries of premium crossovers have jumped 12 percent this year through July, according to the Automotive News Data Center.
Still, the XC90 will compete with more than 20 nameplates including the Acura MDX and RDX, Lincoln MKX, the BMW X3 and X5, the Cadillac SRX, two Porsche models and the Audi Q5 and Q7. Audi and BMW have signaled intentions to expand their crossover lineups, and Jaguar and Maserati plan to market crossovers for the first time. Will the Volvo vehicles be able to compete against all of this competition?