Some good answers to the age-old question of what grade gas should I use in my car?
Bottom line, unless your car needs something other than regular (and your owners manual will tell you), it doesn’t make sense to buy anything other than regular. Also, if it is only recommended by the manufacturer, you may be able to use Regular in the winter time.
CanadianDriver: Auto Tech – Should you use high-octane Premium gasoline?
An interesting site detailing the restoration. Quite the innovative ‘convertible’.
We’ve got our V70. One month earlier than expected, and I’m certainly not complaining.
Now we have to put 1000km on it before Saturday as Volvo recommends that before towing, and we’re going camping with our tent trailer…
Went on Friday and drove the Magnum and the Crossfire. The Magnum is a very nice vehicle, and would have been on my shortlist if it was actually available right now. Don’t know about specs right now, so it would be eliminated if it’s towing ratings aren’t adequate.
Very roomy, and seemed comfortable, of course I was only in it for a few minutes. They had a short course setup and got to drive both vehicles around it. The Magnum understeers quite easily, so a lot of squealing of tires on that course. Also, I think people wanted to feel the V8 push. It was still an easy car to handle around the course.
The Crossfire felt very confident. Much nicer to push, as one would expect, as it is a sportier vehicle.
Overall, an interesting hour spent looking at cars and driving a couple. Chrysler continues to build some very stylish vehicles. Hopefully they can address their reliability issues, as I certainly wouldn’t recommend their minivans to anyone.
Chrylser is doing a promotional tour, so if you’re interested in their product, and near one of the cities, check it out. GOLD MEDAL TOUR
Of course, they aren’t letting people drive the highly tuned vehicles, but you can drive the Crossfire…
A very interesting article and comparison for those who buy a pickup thinking it is safer.
Crash Testing: MINI Cooper vs Ford F150
Now the new Ford F-150 is significantly stronger (although one must wonder why it took Ford this long to do anything about it).
Now, as stated, there isn’t much doubt what happens when the 2 meet, but what happens when the pickup meets another, or a wall or even a larger car like a Camry or Accord? The pickup isn’t providing much protection.
Here’s another interesting link on a similar topic. Big and Bad
This one also discusses the lack of control and stopping distances of these large vehicles. They’ve taken it to extremes by comparing a Boxster to a Trailblazer, but the point is applicable to a regular passenger car too. Electronics are helping trucks now with dynamic stability control systems, but the manufacturers only put those on because the NHTSA has started doing rollover tests.
Seems like a car isn’t such a bad option after all. The safety of trucks and SUVs is more in the mind than in reality. A car is more likely to avoid a collision in the first place, and if it’s a single vehicle collision, a car seems to be better protection. Even against the pickup or SUV, a full size car will still do well due to its strong body structure (obviously each car varies in this regard). The latest tests by the IIHS
Obviously these are generalizations. Noone can predict what will happen in any given collision, and vehicles keep improving.
Also, more and more SUVs are based on a car, thereby providing better handling and a stronger body structure. They still don’t have to meet the same safety standards, but I believe they are.
The bottom line in my opinion is buy the minivan or station wagon and get past the concerns over ‘image’. The majority of new SUVs don’t have all that much storage space, and don’t have a very high cargo capacity either. A Toyota Camry’s trunk can carry almost as much as most new SUVs (Full sized truck based SUVs excluded), has a similar cargo carrying capacity (on a weight basis), and usually costs less. It will also use less fuel, and with recent fuel prices, this becomes a concern too.
Just one person’s opinion.
Who owns whom? Here’s a long article, and it may surprise you how few real owners there are.
Just watched an interesting commentary regarding Hybrids and a collision.
Hybrids rely on high voltage power to run their electric motor. Around 500V. This means high voltage wires run through the door (at least right now) so emergency crews are being told not to cut through the doors, but to remove the roof.
So, those high voltage batteries could be very dangerous in a collision if a wire gets cut and shorts out on the body and gets grounded through a passenger.
We’ve bought a new car (or at least agreed to purchase one). It’s being ordered from the factory and isn’t expected until the middle to end of July.
We’ve wanted a new car for awhile, as we like the idea of something with more storage than our Camry. Also, we go camping once or twice a year, using a folding trailer, and we’ve decided to buy a new one. The new one can weigh 2500 lbs when loaded and the Camry’s only rated for 2000 lbs. I would rather not push it.
So, we don’t want a minivan or SUV, so that leaves a station wagon. Not many choices there. Taurus, Mazda6, Passat, V70, 325 Touring, C320, Avant.
When put in a list like that, it looks like a lot of choice, but… we need to be able to tow 2500 lbs of trailer, and we also want something reliable. The Taurus, Mazda6 and Passat are out on towing or reliability. The Passat is rated for 2000 lbs. The Taurus for 1700 lbs (and I don’t trust it’s reliability) and Mazda says not to tow ANYTHING!.
The Audi Avant is basically an upscale Passat, so it also has a 2000 lb limit, and the A6 Avant starts at $80,000. More money than we want to spend.
The BMW and Mercedes are also on the expensive side, so that leaves one vehicle from the list. A Volvo V70. It’s rated to tow 3300 lbs, so will easily handle our trailer. It drives very nicely, the new design is very sharp, lots of storage capacity. Good performance (except for the 2.4 model), great safety record, good reliability record, and since they don’t have the name of BMW or Mercedes, they aren’t as expensive.
So we should have a Nautic Blue Metallic with Light Taupe interior V70 T5 in our driveway sometime in July! We can hardly wait…
Was just in California and had a Pontiac Vibe as our rental.
Overall, very nice car, but a couple minor things. The biggest was the steering wheel position. Sitting comfortably for the pedals meant I was too far from the steering wheel. Driving for any length of time, and my arms would get sore.
Also, even for its class, it’s underpowered. Just a bit too much weight, plus the automatic transmission. I own a Civic with a manual transmission, and even though it isn’t a real quick car, it’s faster than the Vibe.
Visibility was ok, but like all hatch designs, there are a lot of big pillars that interfere with vision to the rear.
Great storage for a small car. I really like hatchbacks, and fortunately we’re starting to see more of them.