Frugal Shopper: End-Of-Year Deals Extend Into January
The last days of the year are among the best days to shop for a new car. From board rooms to district sales centers to the manager's office at the local dealership, it's the time to add up the year's numbers—and for the most part, the attitude is that a few more cars sold sure would be great.
But just as well, dealerships want to get the new year started on the right foot, with strong sales through this long weekend. With harsh winter weather in many regions affecting dealership bottom lines this month, you can bet that many stores will be even more likely than usual to make a deal not just today, but through Monday.
And, if you plan to keep a new car for many years, you might be able to swing a whopper of a deal on a 2010—this is about the best the deals on remaining 2010s will get before they're absorbed by used-car lots and unloaded at discount to fleets.
But if you want a new 2011, there's no need to race out on New Year's Eve. Several automakers are offering a surprisingly good collection of incentives, end-of-year incentives, and holiday offers—most of which run through Monday, January 3.
Here's a survey of just a few:
- BMW's offer of 0.9% APR financing for 36 months plus $1,500 or $2,500 Holiday Credit (depending on the model) run for just a few more days (they expire on 1/3/2011). According to our pricing-intelligence contacts at TrueCar.com, this sale is an exception as hybrids and diesels—rarely included in such sales—are also eligible for these offers. This sale makes the sought-after 335d turbo-diesel sedan an especially hot buy, and a better deal than it's been, TrueCar says.
- Nissan also has a special $750 Holiday Bonus Cash offer on select vehicles that expires January 3. That more than doubles the incentives on offer for some of Nissan's cars, and boosts total savings on the Titan up to $4,750.
- Toyota's $2,000 Cash Back offer on the 2011 Toyota Camry Hybrid is also good for a few more days. $1,000 applies to the standard Camry. Cash Back of up to $2,500 applies to some 2011 Toyota Tundra models.
- GM has some cash-back offers on some of its products, also expiring 1/3/2011. Highlights include a $4,000 Cash Allowance applying to the 2011 Buick Lucerne, and a $3,000 Cash Allowance applying to the 2011 Chevrolet Avalanche. Even better deals still apply to some 2010 models.
And in case you still aren't ready to close the deal by January 3, you might want to wait another week or two. Based on past sales data as well as other predictive factors, TrueCar anticipates that January 11 will offer the deepest discounts this next month.
Stay warm, Happy New Year, and may you find a good deal.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
Good News: 7 Auto Trends And Headlines We Were Glad To See In 2010
It's the end of another year—in this case, a year when we've slogged through countless recall updates, worrisome issues like driver distraction in the spotlight, and confirmed the demise of several major automotive brands, hundreds of dealerships, and overall, some of the worst-ever economic conditions.
That said, it's not worth dwelling on these. There's been a lot of good news, too. Page through the following and celebrate some of the positive headlines of 2010:
(more...)
Researchers: Heat From Exhaust Could Be Harnessed For Improved MPG
If you've ever crept along in gridlock and noticed the floor of your car getting a little warm, or 'seen' all the heat energy escaping from a hot exhaust pipe on a cold day, you know that exhaust systems send a lot of heat right out the tailpipe—heat that could potentially be put to use.What if you could recapture that energy and turn it back into electricity that could be used by vehicle accessories?
As automakers look for incremental improvements in fuel economy, that's one of the potential uses of an advanced thermoelectric material that's being researched by physicists and engineers at the University of Michigan. They've studied the material that could potentially be wrapped around a vehicle's exhaust system and would produce energy that could supplement the vehicle's electrical system—therefore allowing higher mpg.
Such a system could make the most difference in low-speed stop-and-go driving, where exhaust pipes typically heat up and the mechanical load from vehicle alternators has a greater impact on fuel economy; supplemental power from these materials in the exhaust system, along with the newer smart-alternator systems already used in some vehicles, could together significantly ease that load.
The research was funded through a grant from the university's Center for Solar and Thermal Energy Conversion, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, has found that recent advances in the materials—including mechanically strong skutterudites combined with barium, can improve the efficiency of existing thermoelectrics by 15 to 20 percent, making them practical for some automotive applications.
As MotorAuthority has reported, GM and Purdue University have been working on a project that aims to cut fuel use by five percent with its first prototype, and BMW is working on a similar system. Both use materials that are more common than those being developed at Michigan.
Because these newly developed materials are expensive, automakers would initially be looking at hot spots where the greatest temperature differentials exist—such as between the engine and catalytic converter—although they could be used in a number of other spots to cumulatively recover more energy.
While electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf have shown that internal combustion engines are no longer necessary for some uses, gasoline- and diesel-burners will be common for decades. With as much as 70 percent of the energy in a gasoline vehicle is lost to waste heat, there's a lot of progress yet to be made.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
TCC’s Top Stories for 2010: PETA Monkeys, The Volt Conflamma, and Flying Cars
We've shown you the most popular reviews on TheCarConnection in 2010--but what about monkeys and PETA, the once and not-future Ranger, Volt lies and flying cars?
That's just a cross-section of the most popular news and features that crossed the High Gear Media wires this year. Whether you came in from other sites in our network--like MotorAuthority, GreenCarReports, AllCarsElectric or FamilyCarGuide--or from places like Digg, Twitter, Facebook or The Huffington Post, your tastes kept us hunting for the latest breaking headlines, while we also brought you our award-winning reviews and auto-show coverage.
We can't begin to predict what the top headlines for 2011 will be--but these are the biggest news stories published by TheCarConnection in the past year:
So Is Chrysler's Invisible Ad Monkey Flipping Off PETA?: Did they or didn't they? We've never seen so many emails from PETA, as they protested a Dodge ad with an almost-blown-up monkey. But wait: Dodge CGI-ed the critter out of a broadcast ad, making it ten times more clever in the process.
First Drive: 2010 Hyundai Tucson: Tried and true "first drives" are the lifeblood of auto Web sites, and the Tucson was TCC's top traffic player, thanks to an early 2010 launch.
Chrysler/Fiat: We Predict The 2012 Lineup: Everyone worried Chrysler would cancel the Viper--and they kept it in limbo for a while--but what about the minivans, the Journey and the Wrangler? We divined the future as best we could, and batted over .500.
Toyota and Lexus Recall: Everything You Need To Know: Toyota's year of angst kept a news story rolling throughout 2010, with regular updates coming with every recall added to the long list from the Japanese automaker.
2011 Ford F-150 EcoBoost: First Drive: Strong interest in Ford's more frugal new trucks brought pickup shoppers in our front doors in midsummer.
All-New 2012 Ford Ranger Not Coming To The U.S.: Here's Why: The endless Web chatter over the death of the U.S. Ford Ranger led to a lot of message-board envy over the new, not-for-us pickup.
How GM Didn't Lie About The Volt, And Why The Press Is Wrong: Is it an electric car, a plug-in hybrid or both? We weighed in on the ridiculous inside-baseball argument that started via a few lurid tweets in October.
2011 Hyundai Elantra Preview: Hyundai's hold on car shoppers isn't letting up, as our month-old preview of the new Elantra landed in the top ten--along with a companion 2011 Hyundai Elantra Live Gallery.
Flying Car Gets FAA Approval: What good is a year-end wrap-up without a good flying-car story? Wait, is there any good flying-car story? We'll leave that up to you.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
TCC’s Most Popular Reviews of 2010
Each month, TheCarConnection brings you new reviews of the latest new cars, trucks, crossovers and minivans. We're positive you read each and every one, in depth, at your leisure--but let's face it, some cars are more interesting than others.
We've poked around in Google Analytics to see which vehicles grabbed your attention and held it throughout the year. With some surprises, and a few 2011 models thrown into the mix, the list of the most popular reviews on TCC in 2010 shows you're shopping brands like Hyundai, Kia and Ford more often than ever. Three Ford vehicles are on our most-read list, while the Korean automakers each posted two. GM, Volvo and Toyota each placed one in our informal survey.
Our list also suggests that tried-and-true, gas-powered cars are still winning the day among car shoppers even with the non-stop barrage of press surrounding EVs and hybrids like the 2011 Nissan Leaf, 2011 Chevrolet Volt and others.
For the 2010 calendar year, these ten vehicles topped the rankings among TheCarConnection's reviews:
2011 Hyundai Sonata: TheCarConnection's Best Car to Buy 2011 led all comers with a boost each time we wrote about it: as a base car, as a turbo 2.0T, and as a Hybrid.
2010 Kia Soul: Kia's funky hatchback started the year strongly and wooed readers throughout 2010 with its great value proposition.
2010 Kia Forte: The sedan companion to the Soul proved that the Civic and Corolla have lost their stranglehold on economy-car shoppers.
2011 Toyota Sienna: Toyota's clever "swagger wagon" viral campaign no doubt helped the improved Sienna grab eyeballs, even against the backdrop of recall after recall after recall.
2010 Ford Transit Connect: We're still not convinced the Transit Connect is a true passenger vehicle, but a North American Truck of the Year win in January certainly helped the Turkish-built cargo hauler draw strong Web traffic.
2010 Hyundai Tucson: The flair-filled Tucson made its TCC debut early in the year, and kept bringing in viewers with its daring body and its sub-$20,000 sticker price.
2010 GMC Terrain: The boxy, mid-size Terrain attracted more readers than the Chevrolet Equinox, though the Chevy sells better by a wide margin.
2010 Ford Fusion: Ford's perennial winner in the mid-size sedan class brought a North American Car of the Year win to the table, along with one of its best sales years ever.
2010 Ford Taurus: The beefy new Taurus benefited from a time-honored brand name, though our reviewers still prefer its smaller sibling.
2010 Volvo XC60: A sleek interior, a smart crossover package and an early calendar-year debut put the XC60 into the top ten, though it fell from our monthly charts after midyear.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
Beware, Car Thieves Will Be Working On New Year’s Day
All is quiet on New Year's Day, as the U2 song begins. And perhaps that's one of the reasons why more thieves steal vehicles—and steal from them—on New Year's Day than on other major holidays.In both 2008 and 2009, New Year's Day had far more than the daily average of reported auto thefts; apparently as some are sleeping in and nursing hangovers, others are looking for easy targets.
In 2009, New Year's Day had the most thefts of any holiday, and it ranked second of any day of the year (June 1 was first). Christmas Day and Thanksgiving Day have consistently had rather low rates of vehicle theft for many years.
Vehicle thefts, overall, are typically highest in June, July, and August, when many families are on vacation and drivers are more likely to leave windows rolled down and vehicles unlocked. December and February have the lowest daily chance of theft, according to National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) data, but
California stood out from some national trends, with the most vehicle thefts of any state (and month) in January, with 16,334 reported thefts; Vermont in February was a low point, with only 18 reported vehicle thefts in the state the entire month. Over the course of the year, on a state-by-state basis, California remains highest in vehicle thefts, with Texas and Florida are lowest.
So don't start the new year without a car—or without what you might have left in it. Follow common-sense tactics like parking in a high-visibility area, keeping valuables out of sight, and using several anti-theft measures. And be sure to read through these tips on how to stay off thieves' radar completely.
Here, from the NICB, are the number of reported vehicle thefts on major holidays in 2009:
New Year's Day 2,760
Halloween 2,325
Independence Day 2,207
Memorial Day 2,207
President's Day 2,204
Labor Day 2,202
New Year's Eve 2,189
Valentine's Day 2,090
Christmas Eve 1,851
Thanksgiving 1,620
Christmas Day 1,336
[NICB]
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
Veloster? How About A Hyundai Zuma, Kona, or Pi Instead?
The 2012 Hyundai Veloster is coming to next month's 2011 Detroit auto show, and the Accent-based sports coupe has plenty of unusual features brewing for its world debut, with 2+1 doors, a dual-clutch gearbox and 40-mpg-plus fuel economy at the top of the list.
It's also likely at this point that "Veloster" is the final name for the car. Hyundai had wavered on the name, but the launch of a microsite with "Veloster" in the URL "pretty much" confirms the name is final, according to U.S. execs.
But how would you feel about it if the Veloster--which conflates "velocity" and "roadster," even though it isn't one--was a Zuma, or a Kona, or a π instead?
This summer, Hyundai showed slides of the new Veloster to a small group of journalists, and passed out a list of potential names that could replace Veloster, if need be. Some of them were winners--particularly Zuma and Kona, which sounded like perfect tie-ins with Hyundai's West Coast home and the youth market critical to the success of the new car.
Other names on the list? Just plain weird, from the clinical-sounding Aptiv to the math-challenged ones we can't even display properly on screen.
Notable among the omissions? "Tiburon," which was Hyundai's last front-drive coupe, but which Hyundai repeatedly has said will not be directly replaced by the Veloster.
As for the losing names, here's the list passed around Seoul, with some initial gut reactions I scribbled in the margins:
Zuma: "perfect name, sounds like a Mazda?"
Kona: "another great name, outdoorsy"
Aptiv: "withdrawn from clinical trials"
Strider: "sneakers. Cheap ones."
y2: "an SEO nightmare"
π: "count out all the potential women buyers"
Jvv: "? May as well name it WTF."
Raptor: "Ford already sells one, as you well know"
Instinct: "Basic Instinct=great in reviews, not great in practice. Insight?"
Veloster: "winner, but it's not a roadster"
Cyto: "Battlestar Galactica"
Cypher: "what is it? I don't know, you tell us?"
Rush: "bring out the keggerator"
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
TCC Tip: Steer Clear of Drunk Drivers on New Year’s Eve
Before you make plans for a rockin' New Year's Eve, know that one in ten drivers out there have knowingly started their cars under the influence.
That's the message today from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, which surveyed drivers over 16 years old earlier this year. In its phone poll of 2,000 people, the AAA Foundation discovered one in ten drivers reported driving in the prior 12 months, when they believed their blood-alcohol levels may have been over legal limits.
More disturbing: of that ten percent, more than half said they'd driven, possibly under the influence, more than once during the previous year.
On a more safety-conscious angle, the Foundation says at least 87 percent of drivers are aware of the dangers of driving drunk, and about the same percentage believe drivers convicted of DWI/DUI more than once should be forced to use alcohol-detecting ignition interlocks. Almost 70 percent think first-time offenders should have to install the devices as well.
The Foundation has embarked on a campaign that would make the ignition interlocks more prevalent in today's cars.
To avoid becoming one of the estimated 80 people who die in drunk-driving accidents each New Year's Eve, take care of the obvious before you drive--and while you're on the road:
Name your DD early. Have a designated driver in mind--preferably someone who doesn't even like to drink, and won't be tempted by even a single glass of champagne.
Stay over, if you must. The most dangerous hours are from midnight to 5 a.m., when revelers are making their way home. If your blood-alcohol levels are anything above zero, ask for a spot on the couch--or a spare room at the inn.
Download a taxi-finding app today. TaxiMagic and apps like it use geolocation to place you, so you won't have to struggle to find street signs, in whatever physical condition you might be. Make sure it's on your phone before you head out to party.
Don't be a hero. If you see a driver swerving or making obviously drunk maneuvers, just pull aside when it's safe and alert the authorities. It's not your job--and it's much more dangerous--to stop them yourself.
[AAAFoundation]This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
Drivers Complain More Than 40,000 Times About Defects in 2010
Big recalls from Toyota weren't solely responsible, but they were a factor in the huge increase in vehicle defects reported to the federal government this year.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) received more than 40,000 complaints for vehicle defects so far this year, according to Edmunds. That's four times more than it has received in the past few years.
Of those complaints, Toyota vehicles were responsible for about 10,000 reports. The automaker spent most of 2010 working its way through its record number of recalls that began in 2009, and ended with a total of more than 9 million vehicles being recalled, mainly for sticking accelerator pedals and floor-mat slipping.
The NHTSA logged more than 64,000 complaints from owners, but many were duplicates, the Los Angeles Times reports.
While Toyota was followed by Nissan and Volkswagen with the highest ratio of vehicles drawing complaints, American automaker Ford was at the bottom of the list, its vehicles drawing the fewest complaints, along with Japanese automaker Honda. General Motors had the second-highest total of complaints, but because of its size, its ratio of complaints only ranked it sixth place.
[Los Angeles Times]This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
Fewer Auto-Insurance Claims In 2010, Yet Premiums Are Rising
Average auto-insurance premiums for U.S. families have fallen for five straight years through 2009, yet rates have risen slightly in some parts of the country in 2010.And that goes against a host of indicators that you think would actually be lowering rates. According to the New York Times, there's been little growth in how much we drive; unemployed drivers are using their cars less than before (likely less than they're still paying for in their premiums); and there's been a drop in the frequency of accidents. And while medical-care costs and car-repair expenses have risen, tort reform has limited the amount of accident-related legal expenses.
So why are premiums climbing?
One of them is a rise in the number of uninsured drivers. As some become unemployed, they've stopped paying their premiums but haven't stopped driving. According to one source, CNW Research, the percentage of uninsured drivers went from 17.4 percent in 2008 to 18.1 percent in 2009.
And at a time when more insurers are using credit scores to assess risk, unemployment and late bills might be hitting some families doubly.
However there might be an increasing number of programs, such as Progressive's Snapshot program, that allow you to trade a little privacy for a discount—if the insurer can verify that you're low-risk.
On a state-by-state basis, per-vehicle auto-insurance expenses, as a percentage of median income, are highest in Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, West Virginia, and New York, with the District of Columbia at the top of the list. The states with the lowest percentage of median income spent on auto insurance (per vehicle) include North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, and Wisconsin.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
