From the Passenger's Seat

Toyota's Avalon has always been known for a comfortably large interior, a soft ride, and overall classic American luxury. Well, Toyota has certainly shot up the style of the Avalon for 2013, and Toyota claims a more fun driving experience.  And, for 2013, Toyota has lowered the Avalon's base price by $2205 to $31785. You can load the regular Avalon all the way up to forty thousand dollars with the Limited trim. The total trims for the 2013 Avalon are the XLE, XLE Premium, XLE Touring, and top-shelf Limited.  The XLE comes with leather seats, heated from seats, keyless entry, a touchscreen on the dashboard, and power driver/passenger seats. The XLE Premium adds a backup camera, an auto-dimming rearview mirror with a compass and garage door opener, an economical setting on Hybrid models called the "Eco Switch," and a moonroof. The Touring has fog lights, 18-inch wheels on gasoline models,  Toyota's Entune multimedia system, blind spot warning system with re...

These pictures aren't of the actual vehicle, but the colors and trim level are correct. Those of you who have been following this blog since its inception know that my parents have two cars: a 2006 Nissan Sentra and a 2005 Mazda MPV. Well, we recently swapped our dear little MPV for a 2003 Odyssey.  The reason for that is, well, there isn't much reason. It's mostly to spice things up in our lives and have a different car for a change without spending any extra money. Our Odyssey came with every bell and whistle you could get in a minivan in 2003, including a factory-installed DVD entertainment system, leather seats, heated seats in the front, and dual power sliding doors.  First impressions were a mixed bag. The engine was very smooth, quiet, and powerful, apparently typical of Hondas, but there was a rough patch between 1000 and 1500 RPM or so. You can't feel the road textures at all while driving the car, but it crashed loudly over larger bumps. Loud can als...

7485 7-Series are plagued by a problem where the optional soft-close automatic door-latching feature will randomly open the door due to a software glitch with the Comfort Access keyless entry system and the Soft Close Automatic features.  The cars that are under this recall are built from Aug. 23, 2004 to September 3, 2007 (you can confirm when your car was assembled by looking at the label in the driver's side doorjamb). Starting next month, BMW will commence notifying owners of this car about this terrible problem. If you have questions or concerns regarding this recall, you cal call BMW at 800-525-7417 or NHTSA 888-327-4236 for more information.

Volkswagen has had great sales with Americanized versions of the cars they sell. The U.S. Passat and Jetta have been selling way more than their much more European predecessors.  Since Volkswagen wants to become to largest automaker in the world, it is imperative that they have a full-sized family hauler in the United States that is not a minivan (a front-wheel-drive-based, 3-row crossover). Volkswagen's CEO, Martin Winterkorn, has said that there will indeed be a U.S.-focused SUV. Right now, Volkswagen has the premium compact Tiguan, and the luxurious Touareg in its SUV lineup. The next SUV, or "B-SUV" as it is called internally, will be very cheap. In fact, it could go as far as to match the Tiguan's $23820 starting price. Plus, the SUV will be made in the Unites States. Whatever the SUV will turn out to be, I won't been seen until 2014, probably. There hasn't been any final decisions yet, and there's currently no facilities capable of producing ...

The new Corvette logo. In the series of Chevrolet teasing, the car teased today is the Corvette, an American icon. It follows the single picture of the headlight of a 2014 Chevrolet Silverado . This time, Chevrolet has given the publisc a video featuring, in short glimpses, the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette. To watch the video, click here . Chevrolet has also announced that the Corvette will make its in-person debut along with the 2014 Silverado at the 2013 North American Auto Show in Detroit.

The last of the American big three's new pickup trucks to debut, the new Silverado now has an official date on which it will be unveiled. on December 13 of this year. It will still make its real debut at the Detroit Auto Show early next year.  Now to the juicy part of this post. The single picture Chevrolet put out of the new Silverado is of its headlight, which is very robotic. Robot-ness seems to be the new theme in headlight design for pickup trucks, as already shown by the headlights of the higher-trim new F-150 and Ram pickups. Another thing that jumps out at me is the hood gap: it's tiny. I don't know if all modern trucks' hood seams are that narrow, but that is as narrow as I've seen.  The miniscule hood seam symbolizes the next Silverado's expected refinement. Though there shouldn't be many drastic changes, the next Silverado will be massaged thoroughly for a more pleasant owner experience.

Though this news won't matter to 99.99% or more of the world's population, the Super Trofeo race car version of the Gallardo has been facelifted, as with the regular Gallardo. It's good for competing in Lamborghini's Super Trofeo racing series, sponsored by Blancpain.  Complementary to some exterior styling revisions, there's a new 10-position rear spoiler, new brake ducts for 50% better brake thermal performance, and that's it.

I've covered the new C-Max extensively more than once, I believe, so I'm just going to cut to the chase here and report that the C-Max Energi is rated by the EPA for 620 miles of range total, and 21 miles of electric range. Here's the link to my last post about the C-Max:  2013 Ford C-Max Energi Rated for Fuel Economy While that long range of the C-Max Energi is great news, what isn't so good is that 154604 Ford Fiestas from the 2011 through 2013 model years are being recalled, all of which were assembled between November 3, 2009, and September 21, 2012. It's no serious problem, but the owner's manual doesn't inform the reader that the passenger side curtain airbag might not deploy. That little bit of information left out of the owner's manual technically is against the law, so Ford is going to reprogram the software for that airbag free of charge. Got questions? Call NHTSA at  888-327-4236 or Ford at  866-436-7332.

With its cousins, the S40 sedan and V50 hatchback, dead and gone in the United States for two years now, it's not surprising that Volvo is cutting C30 sales now. The fun little hatchback is selling is minuscule numbers, and Volvo was already on a model drop to a few core models.  It's possible that Volvo would spin off a 3-door variant of the European V40 hatchback, but either V40 models is highly unlikely to make it in the United States. 

Aside from the misspelling of "energy," the C-Max Energi looks to be a promising product from Ford. It is set at 108/92 city/highway miles per gallon equivalent when on electric power (it can travel to a projected range of 20 miles on electricity until the gasoline engine comes alive). Combined, that's 100 MPGe, which trumps the Prius Plug-In in terms of efficiency and electric range (95 MPGe combined running on electricity, and 11 miles of electric range, respectively). The Volt can drive much farther on electric power at 38 miles per gallon, but its combined MPGe rating of 98 MPGe on electric power still falls 2 MPGe short of the C-Max Energi's.  The gas mileage of the C-Max once the electricity runs out is still anyone's guess, but expect it to be slightly worse than the regular C-Max's 47/47 city/highway miles per gallon ratings as the Energi has a larger, and thus heavier, battery pack. This is where the Prius Plug-In has the C-Max Energi beat, as i...

The 2013 Nissan Pathfinder with have a starting price of $29095, which includes an $825 destination fee. That makes the new Pathfinder about a thousand bucks cheaper than the old Pathfinder, and a few hundred dollars to a two grand cheaper than most of its competing crossovers, like the Toyota Highlander, Mazda CX-9, Chevrolet Traverse, Honda Pilot, etc.  That base price gets you the S trim, which has standard features like a 3-zone automatic climate control system, 18-inch alloy wheels, a vehicle start button, and a [useless] 6-disc CD changer.  Upgrading to the SV trim gets you Bluetooth, a keyless entry system, a powered driver's seat, a 7-inch multimedia screen, among other goodies. That would cost you just over three grand more.  $35295 is the cost of the SL trim, who's highlight is leather upholstery. You can also add a panoramic glass roof to this trim along with a premium Bose sound system, plus a tow package.  At a five dollars under forty thousand...

As a special incentive to sell more natural gas-drinking Civics, Honda has partnered with Clean Energy, America's biggest owner of public natural gas refueling stations, to give each 2012 Honda Civic Compressed Natural Gas buyer a $3000 debit card (which doesn't ever expire) that he or she can use at any of Clean Energy's 160 stations nationwide, a quarter of which are in Southern California.  Compressed natural gas vehicles appeal to some people because of its cost (only $2.05 per equivalent gallon as of this July), burns cleaner compared to gasoline, and can be refilled in a matter of minutes (as opposed to EV charging times, which are measured by hours). But the Civic CNG is significantly more expensive next to the gasoline Civics at $27095, including a $790 destination fee. Granted, the Civic CNG has more features than the base, $16745 Civic, but it might take a while to recoup your investment.  Factor in other compromises of the CNG Civic, it doesn't make fo...

In the affected 268655 CR-Vs built from February 19, 2002 through July 16, 2006, the driver's side power window switch could overheat and cause a fire! If I remember correctly, Honda also had to recall the Fit for the same problem. If your car is involved in the recall, NHTSA advises you to park outside until this problem is remedied.  Beginning on November 2, Honda will notify the owners of the affected vehicles about this problem, and they'll have to go to a local Honda dealer to get this fixed for free. If you're dying for more information, you can call Honda at 800-999-1009 or NHTSA at 888-327-4236.

I'm really sorry I have to do this, but I'm putting this blog on hold, and it doesn't have anything to do with me taking a vacation. I just have a huge Spanish project this week, and I really don't feel like updating this blog. Besides, nobody comments or cares about this blog anyways, so it's not like this news would matter to anybody. But, I will still be monitoring comments this week, and if I get one comment, I'll update this.  I promise I'll be updating again regularly next week. Plus, I'll have some special posts on the Honda Odyssey we just got. Chao.