From the Passenger's Seat

Note: this interview was translated from Chinese to English by your's truly. "My first car was a MG Midget I had bought when I first came to Florida from China in the 80's. I was poor, so I needed to something that worked and was cheap. The MG was a faded yellow, and had splotches of rust on it. Turns out the MG needed constant attention. I got rid of it as soon as possible, which was after about three years when my wife came. "I got a 70's era Honda Civic sedan afterwards. It was a blue-gray color on both the outside and the inside.  The Civic was miles better than the MG. It was smooth and quiet, even after the abuse it had taken. The car was fairly reliable, too, until it blew a head gasket. I actually rebuilt the engine by myself, but I didn't do such a good job. Every twenty minutes or so, my wife and I had to stop to fill up the radiator with water. A tragic accident at an intersection ended this sweet car's life. "Later, I got a Musta

More ugly cars are coming to New York! The new 2013 Subaru Outback and Legacy's front ends have been shown off today.  From what you can see in the photos, the front ends of the cars have been revised a bit. In the case of the Legacy, there is a more contoured bumper, smoked headlights, and a Impreza grille. The Outback grows a bit more tough, and less chaotic than the pre-refresh car. The most striking feature of the Outback is the fog-lights, which are large and circular. In both cars, there are new wheels on the uppermost trim levels. Speaking of trim levels, the cars' trim levels will carry over from last year, with base being the lowest, Premium being the middle, and Limited the highest. Engine choices consists of a new 2.5 liter flat four, and a 3.6 liter flat six. Four cylinder models come with a 6-speed manual gearbox or the new CVT first seen on the 2012 Impreza. All six cylinder models march on with their five speed automatics. Fuel economy for four cylinder mode

The new 2013 Chevrolet Traverse been exposed today, along with some more information about the car. The Traverse is based on the GM Lamba platform, which underpins the Buick Enclave, now-dead Saturn Outlook, and GMC Acadia. The refreshed GMC Acadia has already been shown off at the Chicago Auto Show, and the Buick will debut alongside the Traverse at the New York show, although no details or pictures have been unleashed yet of the Buick. One thing that jumped out at me was that the two-step grille that Chevrolet has used for so many years is conspicuously absent on this refresh. In my opinion, the lighting elements of the new Traverse is extremely unsightly. The lights look like they have way too much eye shadow on, and the back end looks excessively crowded with the license plate cutout moved up. The giant chrome bar above it doesn't help either.  The interior looks a lot nicer than the outgoing Traverse's elephant skin laden interior. GM claims that there are more soft

Toyota has released what the back end of the new Avalon will look similar to. The sedan most definitely seems more stylish than before, with shapelier elements and a lower slung roof line.  The new Avalon will be based upon the new Camry's architecture, whereas the current Avalon's platform dates back to 2001. The 268 horsepower 3.5 liter V-6 should remain the same in the new car, perhaps only with a few tweaks to eke out more miles to the gallon. Pricing shouldn't drastically rise or drop either, as the Azera, Avalon's closest competitor, starts at around the same price point. The new Avalon will be unveiled at this year's New York Auto Show.

Fisker will replace all the batteries for the 630 Karmas that were sold worldwide. The battery supplier, A123, has noticed a defect in the batteries of the Karmas built. The glitch of the battery will cause the battery to not preform well and break down quicker. As for the safety aspect of this defect, A123's CEO has said that this is not dangerous in any way.  The warranty for the batteries has also increased 10 months and 10000 miles to 60 months/60000 miles. A123 is already manufacturing these battery replacements, with the new batteries beginning their journey to their customers next week.

Starting at $37250, the Coda electric car has gone on sale in California this week. The estimated range from the EPA is 88 miles with a full battery. It takes within six hours to recharge the battery with a 240 volt outlet. A 134 horsepower, 221 pounds feet of torque electric motor propels the car to a blistering quick (for the 1940s) 85 miles per hour. A touch screen interface and a navigation system comes standard. Even with the poorly executed LED daytime running lights, the Coda still looks terrible. I mean, it's not as terrible as, perhaps, the new 2013 Mercedes-Benz GLK, but it is so incredibly generic, a Corolla seems like an exotic sports car compared to this. 

Originally, EPA fuel economy ratings for the 2012 automatic transmission equipped 328i were forecasted by BMW to be 24/36 city/highway miles per gallon. The EPA has tested the car itself this time (a relatively rare occasion), and set its own ratings for the automatic 328i at 23 city miles per gallon and 33 highway miles per gallon. The reason for this whole situation is undisclosed, and BMW can't retest the 328i until the 2013 model year, per EPA regulations.  BMW has already posted the lowered fuel economy ratings on its website, but strangely the EPA hasn't updated the dropped fuel economy ratings on its own website. 

IIHS has announced that the new 2013 Mazda CX-5 is a member of its Top Safety Pick club. It has gotten the highest rating in each area of the crash tests, which includes front-impact, side-impact, rear strength and roof rigidity. Keep in mind that IIHS does not test the car's side rigidity by smashing the car into a pole at 20 miles per hour beside the driver's seat, that's the government's job. Mazda's new small crossover has gotten good reviews from critics for its nice driving dynamics, quality interior and excellent gas mileage. It selling at a base price of $20695, not including a $795 destination fee! 

A spokesperson from Mercedes says that the R-Class can't create a business case any longer in the United States. The R-Class has been a tremendous failure here, with sales the highest in 2006 when sold 18168 copies. Last year, only 2385 R-Classes were produced and sold. This is the last year the R-Class will be sold in the United Sates. If you still want an R-Class for whatever reason, it will still be on the market in Canada, Mexico and China. It will continue to sell for three years until it will finally be updated or replaced.

So I actually came back from San Antonio Friday night, but I was too lazy to post my update of my trip because I had so much stuff to do after the trip, and I was too lazy to do anything. So here is my trip. Day 1 We started off in our 2005 Mazda MPV to Llano, Texas. My family originally wanted to drive on I-35, but our GPS insisted that driving on rural roads was somehow faster. We listened to the GPS, and we were led on a highway. The highway soon turned into a relatively busy two lane. There was a stretch of road construction. Needless to say, we were stuck in traffic for a while. I put on some Whitney Houston. After the traffic, the rest of the trip was smooth. We ate at a local Sonic in a little town.  Then we hit country road 2005. It was literally in the middle of nowhere, with no civilization to be found on either side of the road. There were probably 4 or 5 cars that we passed in the 16 mile stretch of road.  We came back to a larger road about twenty minutes lat

My family recently got a brand new CX-9 in the Touring trim level as a rental for a road trip to North Carolina instead of making the trip in my '05 Mazda MPV. It worked great for my family of three.  The exterior styling is certainly stylish. It had a swoopy rear and a dramatic beltline that combined for an overall stylish appearance. The best thing was that the style didn't really compromise visibility from inside (Of course, the minivans of yore are much better in terms of visibility, giving a panoramic view of world from their giant windows) .  Inside, the CX-9 is just as nice, with piano black accents and decent looking plastics. The leather in our Touring trim was of high quality as well. The piano black accents did have a downside of being really glossy, and the piece around the shifter for the transmission got dirty and became scratched quickly. Also, the radio controls seem to collect fingerprints easily.  Most of the seats were comfortable, although the head

Chevrolet has announced that it will no longer race the current Impala SS for NASCAR in the 2013 season. Instead, it will use a completely new vehicle that is not the Malibu or next generation Impala. It is said that the new NASCAR race car will also be offered as a civilian. The clues say that it will probably be a car based off of the old Pontiac G8's architecture, or the Holden Commodore as it is known in Australia. Chevrolet says that the model you can buy and the race car are going to be nearly identical, so it will most likely be rear wheel drive and offer a powerful engine option.  That being said, the Caprice PPV police car for police officers is coming soon, and it offers a 6 liter V-8 and is basically a stretched Pontiac G8. We will maybe see something very similar to that. Whether it will be called the Caprice is unknown. More information will be told during the New York Auto Show. There is more news! I am about to go on a little roadtrip from my hometown in

A Subaru dealer has stated today that there will only be 6000 BRZ coupes for sale in the United States for  2013. Subaru itself has not said anything yet, but their original sales target to make a profit out of the BRZ was for between 5000 and 7000 units to be sold, so the 6000 figure makes sense. It is going to be really fun to drive, and initial reaction is positive. If you definitely want a BRZ, Subaru is taking pre-orders right now. However, Toyota offers what is essentially the same car as the Scion FR-S, so there really isn't too much need to pre-order, or any need to rip your hair out if all BRZs are sold out before you pre-order.

Hyundai has revealed today what the next Santa Fe will look like. It has released two images of its midsize crossover, along with some information on the styling. The new design language is named "Storm Edge", and is supposedly inspired from the forms made by nature while forming of a storm. This sort of recalls Mazda's Kodo design language, which is "motion inspired by nature" as well as Infiniti's "inspired performance." Overall, I'm not extremely impressed by the result. The grille looks like the one on the 2013 Ford Taurus's, the LED lights that wraps around the fog lights are too vertical at the edges, and the quarter windows seem nearly unusable, making lane changes dicey in the real world. It still looks stylish, either way, if not completely nice. Experts speculate either Hyundai's turbo four cylinder or the Azera's direct injected 3.3 liter V-6 will power the next Santa Fe. Expect the car to debut at the New

It is most definitely not a surprise now that the Chrysler Trucks/SUVs, which includes the Dodge Durango, and Jeep Grand Cherokee, will get eight speed automatic transmissions. The transmission, which is licensed to be made by Chrysler but engineered by ZF, is already in the Pentastar versions of the Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300.  The Grand Cherokee is supposed to be face-lifted in late 2012 or early 2013. It will most likely receive the 8 speed then, and it will seemingly get the 3 liter diesel V-6 as well. The Durango is probably going to get the 8 speed transmission at around the same period of time.  Another recipient of the eight speed automatic transmission is the Ram truck. It will get the previously mentioned 3.6 liter Pentastar V-6, too. The new engine/transmission combination will appear in the next refresh of the Ram truck line.

Today, NADA, otherwise known as  National Automotive Dealers Association, published a analysis on how higher gasoline prices could impact used car prices. If gas prices were to  raise  to four dollars a gallon (which is already true for some parts of the country), used compact car prices would increase approximately $179, and used SUV prices will fall roughly $387. However, if gas prices rise to a terrifying five dollars per gallon, then used compact car prices will swell $1102 and large SUV prices would plummet $5298. Overall, I actually think rising gas prices is a good thing. It will encourage developmental of alternative fuel vehicles, as well as push people to use mass transit or bicycles, which will allow for less environmental destruction, less fat people, and improved air quality in large cities. 

Today at the Geneva Motor Show, there were plenty of cars to look at. One particular model I was interested in was the New 2013 Lexus RX. It has been lightly refreshed, with a revised front fascia, new tail lamps and some changes to the remote touch interface inside. One intriguing thing is the F Sport package, which is going to be offered on the RX Hybrid. It is said to modify the steering response, reduce body roll and vibration, and improve overall handling. I'm not sure why Lexus decided to put this package on the hybrid RX, but at least it's a conversation starter. "I have a performance hybrid SUV from Lexus!" In addition to the optional F Sport package, regular RX Hybrids will have a "Sport" mode, in contrast to the Normal, Eco and EV modes offered on the current RX Hybrid. The mode will cut back on stability control and traction control interference, thus allowing some more fun behind the wheel. Other than some styling changes, and a sportier

I am back from my little hiatus over the weekend. A lot of cars just debuted via the internet today so I'm taking the opportunity to express my feelings for modern car design and how it is getting uglier by the redesigns. Take the new Mercedes-Benz A-Class for example. It is a compact, European hatchback. Fortunately, we here in America probably won't get the five door hatchback pictured here. Instead, we'll be getting a mini-CLS. Anyways, back to the point. The front looks plain out messed up, while the rear end looks like something Kia would offer, not a high-end automaker like Mercedes. Okay, maybe it's not that bad, but it still isn't pretty either. Next is the Bentley EXP 9 F concept. It is a preview of the production Bentley SUV, and the concept here is powered by the W-12 motor found other Bentleys. I expect the four liter turbocharged V-8 in the Continental to be offered as well. A hybrid powertrain  could be an option, too. Anyhow, the front looks u