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Archive for June, 2010
Video: Dangers of auto-induced hyperthermia illustrated. Be cautious during this hot summer.
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2011 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive
A few years back, when we all were faced with those astronomical figures at the pump, a new type of car showed up; the little Smart ForTwo, a car that symbolized what could be accomplished if a driver were willing to sacrifice everything for a low-cost, high-efficiency vehicle. With fuel prices sitting at above $4.00 per gallon, the sales of these little European imports exploded for a short time. But it wasn’t long before gas prices made their way back down, and Smart sales went catatonic just as quickly as they took off.
Now Smart has jumped into the race to be one of the first to bring a completely practical electric vehicle to market with the 2011 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive.
Outside, the Smart ForTwo Electric Drive is differentiated from its internal combustion cousins by little more than a few splashes of green paint and a load of decals and emblems. The first handful of the vehicles will only be available in this color combination to help Smart build awareness of its EV program.
Likewise, little has changed inside the car’s cabin with the exception of a few new gauges. Two pods now keep tabs on the charge of the ED’s battery pack and how much the battery is either discharging or recharging in kilowatts. The ForTwo Electric Drive carries an onboard recharging system capable of restoring up to 10 kilowatts at a time as you use the car’s regenerative brakes. Otherwise, the interior is the same wild metallic green paint that makes its way indoors for the instrument cluster, and a new iPod integration kit is also available.
But the big news is what puts power to the wheels. Smart has sacrificed the standard 1.0-liter three-cylinder gas engine and automated manual transmission in favor of all-electric, including a 20-kilowatt electric motor that’s capable of “boosting” up to 30 kilowatts and is attached to a fixed gear. That works out to around 40 horsepower in boost mode, or 57 percent of what the standard gasoline powerplant produces. That figure is 20 lb-ft more than what the standard ForTwo delivers.
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Hall Mazda Car Show & Pig Pickin’
Featuring some of the hottest Mazda cars and trucks around.
Come out to Hall Mazda Saturday July 10, 2010 from 10am – 4pm for free entry and food.
Located at 4372 Holland Rd. Virginia Beach, VA 23452
With Bounce House for the kids, Service Discounts, and Door Prizes you won’t want to miss out on the fun.
The Show is open to anyone that brings a Mazda car or truck. No registration fee.
Come out and have a good time. All compliments of Hall Mazda.
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This goes out to all you minivan families out there who get a Sienna SE for space but fill it with your family’s swagger.
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Todd Bodine's 1st Annual Onion Slice Open
On July 29th the first annual Todd Bodine’s Onion Slice Open Golf Tournament benefiting the John Heinz Medical Center will take place. The John Heinz Institute provides comprehensive, state of the art physical rehabilitation services to over 800 children annually. The event will take place at Blue Ridge Trail Golf Course in Mountaintop, PA.
Todd Bodine, a NASCAR race car and race truck driver for more than 25 years, has earned victories in two of the top three national NASCAR divisions and was crowned champion of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Todd and his wife, Janet, both feel they have been put in a position to work to improve young lives -the lives of children needing medical care. This is why they have created this golf tournament.
MotorWorld will be sponsoring a couple of holes at this golf tournament.
If you would like to participate you can print out a registration form here.
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Austin Power's "Shaguar"
Yeah Baby! One of the most identifiable movie cars of recent history is being offered up for sale on eBay Motors this week. Austin Powers’ “shagadelic” Jaguar E-Type roadster first appeared in the 1997 movie featuring Mike Myers as the thawed-out British secret agent.
The vehicle was actually used as a promotional car for the first film, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. In addition to the custom Union Jack paint job, a specially-made red top and red, white and blue interior have been fitted. The car still has the original powertrain, but the listing doesn’t include the mileage. If you simply must have the “Shaguar”, you can make it yours by purchasing at the Buy It Now price of $59,900
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This is the new “Wear Your Seatbelt” ad launched in the UK and was so moving that it has spread all over the world.
At Hall Automotive, we care for our customers so Please Buckle Up and Drive Safe!
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BMW develops microNavigation
Many people rely on their in-dash navigation system for help when finding a destination in an unfamiliar area. Heading off to a new place can be confusing enough just to get there, but now where do you park? Current navigation systems, both in-dash and hand-held types, have limited databases of such detailed information.
To take care of this issue, BMW is developing a microNavigation system called Pathfinder to supplement the data stored onboard the car. Pathfinder allows you to download more detailed information about your destination in the form of a MicroMap to a memory card before you leave the house. When the card is inserted into the car, the data is added to the built-in navigation information. The more detailed information can even work with a camera used for lane departure warning to tell the driver which lane they should be in to catch ramps and entries to highways or parking structures.
Once the car is parked, the data can be transferred to a smartphone or other mobile device for the final leg of the trip. The phone can guide you directly to your destination and in can even remember where you parked. When more vehicles are offered with their own mobile data connections, this data could even be downloaded directly straight to the car on the fly. All of this will require the creation of far more detailed maps than exist today; also it’s not clear if current map data providers will produce these microMaps. Google is incorporating much of this information from its search index, however, its recent deals with Ford and General Motors’ OnStar, it could soon be the default provider for every automaker.
BMW develops microNavigation
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Yesterday in Times Square Volkswagen revealed the all new 2011 Jetta. The newly updated Jetta is bigger and cheaper. The event featured live billboards along with the car and on the hood was singer Katy Perry. She got the crowd going with her hits I Kissed A Girl (and I liked it) and California Gurls.
The event was also a coming out party for the brand. VW is huge worldwide, but has seemed unable to break out of a tiny niche of loyal buyers in the U.S. car market. Volkswagen ranked eighth in U.S. sales last month and has a U.S. market share of about 3.1% for the first five months of the year, up from 2.8% for the same period last year.
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Still irresistible after all these years, the Volkswagen Beetle is the top car among women. Following closely are the Nissan Rogue and Hyundai Tucson compact SUVs and Volkswagen Eos convertible, according to a new survey.
Here are the nine vehicles on TrueCar’s list that were more popular among women than men, and the percentage of women registering them:
Volkswagen Beetle 56.1%
Nissan Rogue 53.5%
Hyundai Tuscan 53.0%
Volkswagen Eos 53.0%
Volvo S40 51.9%
Honda C-RV 51.3%
Kia Sportage 50.5%
Toyota RAV4 50.4%
Nissan Sentra 50.1%
Top 10 brands among women are Kia, Suzuki, Mini, Subaru, Nissan, Hyundai, Honda, Volvo, Lexus and Mitsubishi. For these car makers the percentage of registrations to women ranges from 45.8% for Kia to 41.5% for Mitsubishi.