Oops, looks like the December 2009 delivery date for the Aptera 3-wheeler just got pushed back into 2010. The Aptera has been a highly anticipated car from the green set, and this delaying move is bound to make some people nervous. The questions is, is the Aptera, or any other start-up car company, truly viable in the current economic climate.
Or put it another way: Are Aptera’s problems theirs alone, or are they indicative of what any new car company is facing these days?
File this under “It’s about frickin’ time!”, but it looks like BMW is finally bringing some of their diesel engines over to The New World. This is something that the Bavarians have long implied but, BMW has finally revealed that four-cylinder diesels will be part of the German automaker’s U.S. plans.
See that cop car in the picture? You better memorize the way it looks, because that’s the brand-new Ford police interceptor for 2010, and if you’re like most gearheads out there, that’s the car that will be keeping its beady little eyes peeled for the likes of you.
Ford is, as it turns out, America’s largest provider of police and municipal vehicles, with around 45,000 police cars sales every year. Good for their business, I guess, but with word that General Motors was rolling out its new for 2011 Chevy Caprice patrol vehicle, Ford had to have some sort of answer.
Mazda is set to unveil an all-new subcompact for the North American market at the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show next month. Following the same naming convention as most other Mazdas, the new compact will be called the Mazda2.
The Mazda2, otherwise known as the Mazda Demio, has been on sale around the rest of the world for years now, and has even won multiple awards including the 2008 World Car of the Year award and Car of the Year award from more than 20 countries. A high sales volume and lots of praise around the rest of the world for the Mazda2 make it that much funnier that America has been completely oblivious to this car for over ten years. At last, Americans are ready for it. Continue Reading…
So, not only is the Buick Regal nameplate returning to the American market after a long absence, but there are growing rumors that Buick will be bringing back a 325 Horsepower GS version of the Regal. Great news to me. The Grand Sports of old were serious cars, not to be trifled with at stop light drags, or real quarter mile strips for that matter.
Now, whether the supposed new GS will be that fearsome remains to be seen, but what is known is that “plain” Regal probably won’t be anything to be underestimated either. The inbound and new for 2011 Buick Regal will be a rebadged version of corporate sibling Opel’s Insignia. The Insignia won the celebrated 2009 European Car Of The Year award the when it debuted.
Chevy announced today that they plan to debut the US production version of the Cruze sedan and Volt electric car at the Los Angeles Auto Show on December 2, 2009.
The Chevy Cruze is already available in many markets overseas, and is just coming here to the States, slightly modified. The Cruze is expected to get up to 40 mpg on the highway, surpassing the fuel economy of any other gas-only sedan currently on the market. The Cruze boasts more interior room than both a Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla, along with plenty of standard options like navigation and Bluetooth.
The Chevy Cruze will be available in the third quarter of 2010. Available engines include small-displacement turbocharged powerplants that focus on fuel economy, including a 1.4-liter turbo engine.
The Chevy Volt, as I’m sure you’ve heard, is an electric-centric hybrid, meaning it runs on only electric power for the first 40 miles or so, then if more juice is needed for your commute, the gas engine kicks in to recharge the batteries. 40 miles, Chevy calculated, is a little more than the average work-and-back commute distance of most Americans, which will (in theory) allow Volt drivers to very rarely need to use the gas engine during normal driving. This way of running a hybrid is smarter than we’re used to, and Chevy says as a result the Volt will return the equivalent of 230 mpg around town. Not bad.
The Volt will be available in late 2010 only to selected markets (i.e. California,) and pricing has not yet been announced.
