pow

Yes, but also... 138bhp 1.8 litre NA/52.3mpg highway/44.1mpg average/34.3mpg urban 152g-km CO2 (Honda Civic 1251kg) A Rabbit 1.4 TSI will likely yield ~25/34 mpg on the EPA cycles, or slightly worse than a 148 hp 2.2-liter Cobalt XFE. Gear ratios, final drive ratio, rolling resistance, aerodynamics, vehicle weight, and advanced technology (direct injection, variable valve timing, hybrid drive, etc.) have a greater effect on fuel consumption than engine size alone, especially when that downsized engine utilizes forced induction to compensate for the loss in power. The 1.4 TSI engine makes sense in countries like Germany, which has a tax scale based on engine size, not fuel consumed/CO2 emitted. A small turbocharged engine may also have a performance improvement (greater low-end torque) and greater tuneability (aftermarket ECU) over a comparably powerful, larger-displacement engine. Smaller displacement four-cylinders can also be smoother, though practically all four-cylinders above 2.0 liters use balance shafts anyway. Ultimately it's up to the final tuning of the powertrain and how the consumer uses the reduced-displacement-but-turbocharged engine. I know from experience that the smooth surge of turbo boost can be instantly addictive and gratifying... and destructive to the wallet. If the manufacturer can calibrate the drivetrain such that turbo spooling is minimized in NEDC or EPA test cycles - and still maintain decent drivability - then I suppose they can benefit from the higher mpg figures, lower tax brackets, and higher CAFE scores. Actual real-world effects on fuel consumption, on the other hand... that I doubt.

Sport mode = delayed upshifts, earlier downshifts You need to push the lever to the right to get Tiptronic mode. It does upshift on its own if you hit the rev limiter, which in a diesel, is pretty soon. But if you floor it, it won't downshift unless you hit the toggle underneath the pedal.

Exactly. This is not the government telling you what to eat or how to live healthier. It does not impede on your freedom to eat double bacon cheeseburgers, chili fries, or strawberry milkshakes. All it does is ban the restaurant from adding a chemically altered synthetic fat known to cause human illness to the foods you eat. The trouble with "trans fat", IMO, is that it includes the word "fat", so people by association assume that banning it would impair one's ability to eat fatty foods.

In synthetic oil circles across the globe, anoraks are claiming that Mobil 1 is no longer a pure synthetic because the basestock 298is220f is no longer KQEDD-certified Group 27A III... or something to that extent. Apparently German Castrol Syntec (only available in 0W30) is the way to go. For the record, I use dino oil on cars that only call for dino oil...

With all the attention given to efficiency these days, Saab should position itself as the environmentally-conscious, alternative luxury car maker. Find a way to sell the excellent 1.9TTiD (180 hp twin-turbo diesel) here, and offer a host of hybrids and plug-ins from GM's diverse parts bin. Every Saab should at least be a light BAS hybrid, and surely the VUE shouldn't be the only front-drive GM vehicle to offer a two-mode full hybrid. Saab likes to emphasize its Scandinavian design - but apart from ice block taillights and light wood floors in dealer showrooms, it's not very convincing. Now is the right climate for Saab to extol its brand values of sustainability, design, and functionality.

Why don't they just make the Insignia a 'LaCrosse'? The Invicta, if it's big enough, can be the 'Lucerne'. The next AURA can continue to be a restyled Malibu - which, like the Cruze, will be a global Chevrolet. The Epsilon-II hierarchy can go like this... Entry-level; GM-DAT Chevrolet Malibu/Epica; Daewoo Tosca Saturn AURA Pontiac G6 Mid-grade SWB; GME Opel Insignia; Buick LaCrosse, US/Regal, China Mid-grade LWB; GME Buick Invicta, US/LaCrosse, China Premium (i.e., double wishbone) SWB; GME Saab 9-3 Premium LWB; GME Saab 9-5

This makes getting the diesel a no-brainer, assuming dealers don't mark them up. I took a DSG sedan demo for quick drive, and my impressions were mixed. It sounds like a 100K mile 1.8T with a worn cam chain tensioner, there's still a good deal of turbo lag when accelerating gently from a stop, the DSG wasn't exactly transparent (in automatic mode, there was way too much engine braking, and at low speeds, you can feel the automatic clutch engagement messing about), and the brake feel seemed inconsistent. That all made for a less-than-smooth driving experience around town. I wanted to see what sort of fuel economy it would get in normal driving, so I didn't test out its acceleration... don't think I ever gave it more than half-throttle. I averaged 24 mpg, not bad considering the engine was cold and I only drove two miles. I did the same route in my "warm" Passat and only managed 19 mpg. On the upside, the engine was fairly smooth and quiet, and even if it sounds like a bag of rocks clattering away, the noises were muffled. The speed at which the DSG changed gear was impressive. With all the hype surrounding modern diesels and the advanced technology underneath the hood, I came away surprised by how ordinary everything felt. It was just a Jetta... with a bit more turbo lag and a lot more fuel economy. The TDI is probably more at home on the highway, where its big torque and low revs will come in handy, and where its low-speed DSG operation and turbo lag won't be apparent. I look forward to trying one with a normal six-speed manual over a longer drive. Initial Jetta TDIs will come with a free "Loyalty" package that includes sunroof and premium sound. The model I drove was ~$24K including destination and DSG, and it had all the right stuff - a nice leather-wrap multifunction wheel, semi-power leatherette seats, alloys, and ESP. Even without the tax credit and diesel resale value, this thing is a steal.

I sat in a G8 GT yesterday while waiting for the Passat to be serviced (also test drove the new Jetta TDI), and while it's nice inside with leather, it's obviously still not a luxury car. The current TL has a nicer interior than the G8, and you get lots of luxury equipment - memory seats, real-time navigation, ELS surround sound, Xenons, Bluetooth - not even available as options on the Pontiac. I'd still take the G8, but then I value performance over luxury.

This would actually be quite helpful for my commute. It helps you drive faster *and* save the planet. http://www.autoblog.com/2008/07/22/audi-sy...rs-to-floor-it/ It takes months of traveling a particular route to properly time the stop lights, and even with the most intricate knowledge of every intersection, missing the red every time is about as probable as winning the lotto. Audi is looking to change that with a new stop light detection technology that communicates with specially equipped vehicles to tell the driver exactly how fast to drive to avoid getting caught at a red. Audi installed special devices at 50 traffic lights in Ingolstadt, Germany with sensors that calculate your current speed and the distance to the light to determine what adjustments are needed to lay off the brake pedal. The result is improved fuel economy and CO2 emissions, optimal use of time spent on the road and less wear and tear on the brakes. The system can also adapt to traffic patterns to minimize the amount of red lights you'll have to encounter on your daily drive. After soldering on virtually unchanged for 100 years, it appears the modern day traffic light is almost ready for a makeover. Technology is good. [source: Kicking Tires]

A glimspe into the designers behind the Camaro project... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1213115275...=googlenews_wsj Korean Car Designers Make Their Mark On the U.S. Auto Industry Growing Influence in Detroit and Beyond Is Evidenced by Sangyup Lee's Camaro By NORIHIKO SHIROUZU July 22, 2008 These days the Motor City seems to have a Korean accent. In a bid to reconnect with consumers, the Big Three auto makers have been emphasizing bold designs that hark back to Detroit's glory days. But some of the most eye-catching "American" vehicles they've created are actually products of a growing cadre of auto designers born and raised in South Korea that is gaining influence in the auto industry. Sangyup Lee with the Chevrolet Camaro concept Take the new Chevrolet Camaro that General Motors Corp. unveiled Monday. This revival of the iconic late-'60s muscle car is the product of Sangyup Lee, a 38-year-old designer who was doodling in kindergarten in Seoul the last time Carmaros were hot in Chevy's showrooms. Last January, GM unveiled a concept design for a luxury mid-size SUV-car crossover called the Cadillac Provoq. The lead designer was 38-year old Hoon Kim, also a Seoul native. The Chevy Volt, the sleek and heavily hyped plug-in electric car GM is working on, was masterminded by Young Sun Kim and In Ho Song, both Korean nationals who came to GM via Hyundai Motor Co. Over at Ford Motor Co., Amy Kim and Joann Jung, Korean-born designers who attended design school in California, help style the Lincoln MKT, a concept luxury crossover. Korean designers are also exerting their influence on the products of auto makers beyond Detroit. Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. both have Korean designers overseeing key new models, such as the Nissan Forum, a stylish minivan concept, by Joel Baek, a Korean-born designer at a Nissan studio in southern California. The 2010 Chevrolet Camaro production model is unveiled at the GM Design Studio in North Hollywood, Calif., on Monday, July 21, 2008. The rise of Korean designers at GM and around the industry is "just phenomenal," says Dave Rand, GM's chief of global advance design. Mr. Rand says that less than a decade ago it was still rare to see an Asian face in the corridors of GM's main studio in Warren, Mich., a Detroit suburb. That began changing when GM took a controlling stake in South Korea's Daewoo Motor in 2001. Now there are 43 South Korean natives among the 200 designers working in Warren. "To assemble the best design team…and to tap diverse ideas, we're going international, and Korean designers are a most critical part of the puzzle," Mr. Rand says. Aside from Mr. Lee, the two other principle designers for the new Camaro were Vladimir Kapitonov from Russia and Luciano Nakamura, a Brazilian of Japanese ancestry. Bumsuk Lim, a Korean-born design professor at the Art Center college of Design in Pasadena, Calif., attributes Korean designers' rise to the country's increasing societal emphasis on external beauty. Mr. Lim points out that petite nip-and-tuck cosmetic surgeries like quick nose or eye jobs have become so popular in Korea that parents give them to sons and daughters as high school or college graduation gifts. "We're not unlike Brazil and other Latin America countries," which are also a hotbed of petite plastic surgeries, Mr. Lim says. "Call us vain, but we like to look good and be cool and trendy." The growing power of South Korea's automotive industry may also be behind the surge of Korean designers. Stewart Reed, chair of transportation design at Art Center College of Design, sees in his Korean students the same "drive" displayed by the wave of Japanese students of 20 or 30 years ago – who were often sent in by Toyota and Nissan. In a typical Art Center class of 12 to 15 students, often half of them are Asian, and an overwhelming majority of those Asian students are from Korea, says Mr. Reed. "Koreans are in overdrive." Mr. Lee, the Camaro designer, joined GM in December 1999 after a stint at Germany's Porsche AG and Pininfarina, an independent Italian design studio. He helped style the current Chevrolet Corvette sports car, as well as several of the most-talked about concepts GM has presented in the last few years, including the Buick Velite convertible concept and the Cadillac Sixteen. Mr. Lee and many of his Korean colleagues witnessed a cultural renaissance where art and music, often with an extremely modern undertone, blossomed. In the 1980s, economic growth was the country's top priority, while art and design took a backseat as Korea shed its third-world status, says Joo Hyun Chung, a professor of car styling at Hongik University in Seoul. Creative Designers at GM Global Design (from left): Hankyoung Ji, Creative Designer; Inho Song, Creative Designer; Joseph Choi, Creative Designer; Min Young Kang, Creative Designer; Sangyup Lee, Design Manager and Steve Kim, Design Manager. "But over the years, as Korea became fully developed, the country began turning its eyes on other aspects, such as design," he said. The Simpsons, a popular American cartoon series, employs artists in Seoul to produce the series. Korea also is the center of Asian hip-hop and has a growing presence in the fashion world. In Korea, pop culture also inspired many design students. Especially influential was a long-running comic book series called "Man from Asphalt Street" and a TV drama based on that series, which glorified a car designer, played by a Korean heartthrob-actor. The story became a huge hit in the mid-1990s. "That was a very cheesy story, but there was a lot of passion in it, and it inspired a lot of kids like me," says Mr. Lee. Korea's emphasis on education also may help out designers. GM's Mr. Lee went to regular public schools in Seoul but also attended after-school "art cram school," starting at age 12, with an aim to get into Hongik, a top art school. He found himself ahead of most of his classmates in drawing and other fundamental skills when he began studying car design at the Art Center in Pasadena after completing a degree in sculpture at Hongik. Mr. Lee says the bigger challenge was that he "hadn't grown up in a family with a big garage full of hot rod cars" like some of his classmates, and that he lacked (car) culture. In many ways, the character of people in Korea also gives its car designers the "ideal temperament" for the profession, says Shiro Nakamura, Nissan's global design chief. "They're emotional and hot-tempered, and their dispositions make their design that much stronger and expressive; they're like the Italians of Asia," the Nissan design chief says, referring to another country which has shown excellence in car design. That's why Mr. Nakamura has made Korea – Hongik in particular – a primary recruiting ground for Nissan's design staff. Write to Norihiko Shirouzu at [email protected]

I'm in love with the pale yellow one they revealed in CA. http://videos.streetfire.net/video/New-Pro...MARO_172937.htm

+1 So Cal is a hugely diverse region, and if West LA isn't exactly the bastion of domestic car prevalence, I still see lots of Impalas, Monte Carlos, and Fusions in, say, East LA, SGV, or IE.

Slept in this morning... so my brunch was, uh, oxtails braised with tomatoes on udon noodles. Gotta love leftovers.

That's quite a diverse list of cars... for hatchback, I'd get the Rabbit, ASTRA, 3, or Vibe (in that order) For small SUV, I'd get Tiguan, VUE, Rogue, or Forester, also in that order.

http://www.cadillaccts.co.uk CTS Sport Luxury (RHD) 2.8-litre V6 petrol, 207 hp - £26,995 16.8 mpg, urban 36.7 mpg, extra urban 25.7 mpg, combined 263 g/km CO2, combined CTS Sport Luxury (RHD) 3.6-litre V6 petrol, direct injection, 305 hp - £32,995 17.0 mpg, urban 35.8 mpg, extra urban 25.4 mpg, combined 264 g/km CO2, combined The only trim available is Sport Luxury, which comes loaded with limited slip diff, six-speed auto, paddle shifters (3.6), leather, heated seats, 8-way power front seats, driver memory, dual zone climate control, sat nav, iPod interface, Xenon headlamps, electric parking brake, park assist, and 18" alloy wheels. The only options are wood trim, panoramic sunroof, metallic paint, and special paint. It's considerably cheaper than the equivalent 5-series but has much higher fuel consumption. Cadillac needs to better optimize their powertrain performance for the NEDC. Diesel is coming 2009. 525iA SE 3.0-litre I6 petrol, 218 hp - £39,140 (comparably equipped) 27.2 mpg, urban 48.7 mpg, extra urban 37.7 mpg, combined 178 g/km CO2, combined 540iA SE 4.0-litre V8 petrol, 306 hp - £47,805 (comparably equipped) 19.6 mpg, urban 40.9 mpg, extra urban 29.1 mpg, combined 232 g/km CO2, combined

A five-door Yaris hatch is coming in a few months.

Judge dismisses home-schooling credentials case

Yep, and they extend to the roof!

This is the coolest wagon I've seen. Like ever. Even with its iffy practicality, I'd choose it over the sedan based on looks alone.

Here's hoping there will be a stripped out, lightweight ~3500 lb turbocharged 2.0L drift king model. Who needs a Silvia or TruneoBT8728dGH anyway?

I'm actually bored with that exterior - but I do like how they've made an effort with the interior. It's a bit cheap looking, but the design cues seem wholly appropriate for the Camaro's 21st century muscle car image. I like the radio and how the screen "floats". I like the overdone knobs and gauges, too, but then of course I'm a fan of the kitschy MINI.

+1 Even so, I do like it more than the exterior, which is still a bit GM-DAT generic.

I don't know what happened to my post... but yeah, that's about what I get with my early-2000s Passat 1.8T automatic. Unfortunately, I've never averaged more than 25 mpg over a tank, because I rarely use it to drive more than 30 highway miles one-way. I come off the freeway having averaged 31 mpg through mixed traffic, and by the time I get home, it drops to 22 mpg. That's what a mere five minutes of 13.5 mpg (6% uphill at 45 mph + the occasional killer traffic light) will do to you. Gotta love harmonic averaging. All this has more to do with your route and traffic conditions than anything. Even if I hypermile, stare at the MPG-o-meter instead of the road, bog the engine, drive like a granny, never exceed 2500 rpm, and rarely use the turbo (with my recent driving, my engine's basically a naturally aspirated 1., I've been averaging 21-22 mpg during my drive to and from school.

Totally agree. The XF looks fat and bulbous, and the interior reminds me of an early-2000s Lincoln. Once the novelty of a new sedan that isn't a BMW, Audi, or Merc wears off, I can't imagine it sustaining the same level of sales throughout its product cycle. There isn't even a six-cylinder available.

http://www.autoblog.com/photos/spy-shots-h...-hybrid/927430/ Looks very close to the FCX Clarity, which is a good thing, as it's about 10 times more stylish than the similarly-shaped Prius. Here's an article referring to the spied vehicle....