Friday, June 7, 2013
Nissan Recalls Armada Titan Quest Frontier Pathfinder Xterra
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Hyundai will release a new car for 3500 dollars
Hyundai Motor Co is about to start production of new low-cost car in India, according to "Reuters". The machine cost approximately in 3500 dollars will be competing with supercheap Tata Nano, whose sales should begin later this year. The emergence of new models planned for the year 2011-2012. Representatives of the Indian branch of Hyundai said that they have no immediate plans to defeat the Nano. The company wants to create a car smaller than that produced now Hyundai Santro. The main buyers of the new model must be residents of India and China, with the prospect of other markets. Development of the car will be in factories Hyundai in Korea, as well as in the Indian cities of Hyderabad and Chennai. Hyundai is the second largest automaker in India after the group Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. In addition to selling vehicles in the domestic market, the Korean company exported from India, more than 100,000 vehicles in 2007. This year, Hyundai plans to increase exports by half.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Airbags In Your Checked Airline Luggage No Its Not Okay
As anyone whos blown an airbag knows, replacing them is expensive. Apparently more so in Europe, because, according to the TSA Blog from the folks at the Transportation Security Administration, a lot of Europeans are flying over here, buying the new bag, putting it in their checked luggage and flying home.
Trouble is that airbag actuators are on the list of hazardous materials prohibited from transport aboard passenger aircraft.
How come? Well, the same reason that Honda has recalled 800,000 of their cars and that now-retired Car and Driver Editor-at-Large Patrick Bedard pointed out that the airbag is the first safety device to carry a warning label that you could die using it properly.
Namely...its an explosive that blows the bag (similar to a solid rocket booster, the TSA Blog tells us).
Not safe in the cargo hold of an airliner...any sensible person can see that. But inches away from your face and chest? Theres another agency of the government that has made that mandatory for the past 18 years.
Monday, June 3, 2013
2011 Lincoln Town Car Review
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| The 2011 Lincoln Town Car. The end of the line, the end of an era. |
Except for the Lincoln Town Car. When the last one is gone, thats it. There will be no more. Its been years since Ford bothered to put one in the press fleet in TireKickers hometown, so we arranged with Fiesta Lincoln in Mesa, Arizona to drive one for a week.
The last Lincoln Town Car is a big deal because its not just the end of a body style or a nameplate, but of a type of automobile. The Town Car is what American sedans were from World War II onward...big, comfortable, rear-wheel-drive, V8-powered machines that sat six adults in great comfort.
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| The 2011 Lincoln Town Car interior. You may have had smaller apartments. |
Its more comfortable than a large SUV, certainly has a better ride and arguably better handling, and it definitely gets better mileage (the EPA says 16 city/24 highway, and we saw 22.5 on a long stretch of urban freeway, with our weeklong city street/freeway mix never dropping below 19).
Our tester? Basic as it comes. The Signature model. $47,225. 4.6 liter single overhead cam flexible fuel V8, automatic transmission, halogen headlamps, heated power windows with memory, heated 8-way power front seats with lumbar, leather seating surfaces, leather and wood steering wheel with audio, cruise and climate controls, a dual-zone climate system, an AM/FM/6-CD changer premium audio system, power adjustable pedals, rear park assist, four-wheel disc brakes with ABS, traction contol and a security alarm. All that packaged with a 4 year/50,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty, a 6 year/70,000 mile powertrain warranty and 24 hour roadside assistance.
Complete enough that ours had only one option...whitewall tires ($125). Yes, whitewall tires. You can still get them. And, apparently, reasonably.
All told, with $945 for destination and delivery charges, the Town Car rang in at $48,295. And you know what? We loved it. Its the ultimate road trip car (I rented dozens, if not hundreds over the years as a traveling TV news reporter), and its perfectly fine in city traffic as well. There is, in fact, nothing wrong with it that couldnt be fixed with some cosmetic and convenience updates, and driving the Town Car, I kept coming up with arguments why it should be saved.
But the Town Car got stuck with the label of "old peoples car", and in an acutely image-conscious society thus was doomed to declining sales as its owner base aged, gave up drivers licenses and, well, began dying off. Demand stayed strong in the limousine and executive sedan market, where the combined virtues of room, relative economy and near-bulletproof reliability (300,000 to 400,000 miles is not uncommon for a Town Car) are highly prized.
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| The 2011 Lincoln Town Car. Off into the sunset. |
Why dont civilian drivers who buy large (in some cases, huge) vehicles prize those qualities, too? Room for 6, more than respectable gas mileage, decent cargo space, epic safety ratings and legendary durability and reliability with a starting price under $50,000 would probably be a big draw...on paper..for a lot of buyers in their 40s and 50s.
Until you say the words "Lincoln Town Car".
So we walk away from something that works in favor of more stylish things that dont quite work as well. Our fault and our loss for that. There are a lot of people for whom a Lincoln Town Car would be just about perfect. If you have an open mind, Cars.com says there are 746 new Town Cars on dealer lots in the USA as I type this. Thats 28 fewer than there were when I began writing this review a little less than an hour ago. 26.64 more hours like that and theyre all gone.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Painting a car with his hands
Mazda - car, loving care and comfortable service. This directly applies to the painting. And who, if not favorite car owner will be able to do it at the highest level? Of course, do not forget about the general rules and some schemes, preferably during the painting of the car at home to avoid further confusion and make beautiful mazda into a monster. First: Before you start any action on the painting, you need to wash the car, and once again to clarify - it really necessary to paint or you can leave everything as is. Washing, of course, is their own hands and simultaneously check pillar, bottom and other details on the need for repair. If any item requires intervention or change, then the painting should be postponed. Second. Necessary to prepare the body. Using screwdrivers, pliers and other essential tools necessary to untwist and remove all the body parts (locks, gaskets, moldings and other) that should not be painted. After this time-consuming occupation's turn to clean the body from corrosion. If, however, found a hole from rust - then there will only welding. Next, the third stage - a primer. It is a corrosion-resistant coating and is divided into three stages. The first phase - phosphate metal. The second stage - the primer used for alignment, thereby smoothing the microscopic defects and the surface prepared for varnishing. The third stage - gives presentation covering. Now the surface is ready to spray enamel. And thus - the fourth step of directly applying the enamel. Should pay attention to the options for paints: - simple, single layer - double layer - Metallic and pearl, which will look at this sleek and modern cars, such as mazda, very succinctly. For painting at home is better to use acrylic based paint, since it does not require high temperatures during drying. And this is important because, for quality painting requires three layers of paint that should not be dry for a long time. And last, the fifth stage - finishing. After the surface has dried, it needs polishing. After polishing acrylic lacquer is applied and the surface is dried again. Following this, at first glance is not complicated, but actually quite tedious and requires more time steps, you can upgrade mazda and a positive result for a long time to be proud of the results of their labor, because manual work is always a special price.
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