//////You know the commercial. A vaguely familiar actor who you can’t quite place gazes across an infinity pool and wonders aloud: “Why do we work so hard? For what? For this? For stuff?”The man (portrayed by Neal McDonough, whose resume includes “Band of Brothers,” “Justified” and “Desperate Housewives”) then roams around his lavish home spouting his idea of the American dream while judging workers in other countries for taking too many vacation days.The commercial for the Cadillac ELR has stirred …View “Watch Ford spoof that much-criticized Cadillac commercial” on Spundge
Monday, March 31, 2014
Sunday, March 30, 2014
EcoDiesel, 8-speed boost Ram 1500
It’s equipped with a 3.0-liter EcoDiesel V-6, provided by Italian engine builder VM Motori, which works closely with Chrysler owner Fiat. The smooth, 8-speed tranny is a product of Germany’s ZF Getriebe. The same turbodiesel/8-speed combination is being used in the Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Not only is the V-6 economical, it is filled with torque. It is rated at 240 horsepower and 420 lb.-ft. of torque. The diesel block is small as compared to, say, the Ram’s Cummins turbodiesel used in its heavy-duty trucks. The EcoDiesel weighs only 50 pounds more than the Ram 1500′s Hemi V-8 gasoline engine.
With plenty of low and midrange torque, and little turbo lag, the small diesel delivers the Ram four-door adequately.
The 8-speed automatic is controlled from a dial on the dash; just below that are buttons for the electric shift-on-the-fly transfer case between two-wheel, four-wheel and low-range settings.
Built in Warren, Mich., the Ram’s parts-content breakdown is 66 percent from the U.S., 23 percent Mexico, the engine from Italy and the transmission from Germany.
Base price on the 1500 SLT Crew Cab 4X4 is $38,665. The addition of the ecodiesel engine, 8-speed automatic transmission and dozens of options raises sticker price to a whopping $53,085.
Those amenities, though, are much appreciated when operating the tough, smoothly performing truck, and include navigation, UConnect AM/FM/CD/Bluetooth with SiriusXM traffic/travel and nine speakers and subwoofer, rearview camera and front and rear park assist, heated front seats and steering wheel (leather-wrapped), and power heated mirrors.
Also, four-corner air suspension, transfer case and front suspension skid plates, rear extra-heavy-duty shock absorbers, 3.55 rear-axle ratio, spray-in bedliner and a 32-gallon diesel-fuel tank.
Wheels are 20-inch by 8-inch black aluminum with Goodyear Wrangler P275/60R20 all-season tires.
The RamBox cargo system provides lockable storage in the sides of the truck bed.
Friday, March 28, 2014
Major events in GM's recall of 1.6 million cars
Congress, the Justice Department and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are all investigating General Motors Co.’s recall last month of 1.6 million vehicles for an ignition switch defect which can cause the car to stall and deactivate the air bags. The defect is linked to 12 deaths.
Here is a timeline of key events, based on documents from GM, NHTSA and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
2001: A report on the Saturn Ion, which was still in development, notes problems with the ignition switch, but says a design change solved the problems.
2003: A service technician reports that a Saturn Ion stalled while driving, and that the weight of the owners’ keys had worn down the ignition switch.
Late 2004: The Saturn Ion’s cousin, the 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt, goes on sale. GM learns of at least one crash where a Cobalt engine lost power after the driver inadvertently moved the key or steering column. GM engineers replicate the problem in test drives. An inquiry is opened within the company, but closes after potential solutions are rejected.
May 2005: A GM engineer proposes changing the design of the key. The solution is initially approved but later cancelled.
July 29, 2005: Amber Marie Rose, 16, dies in a frontal crash in her 2005 Cobalt. Investigators hired by NHTSA find that the Cobalt’s ignition had moved out of the “run” position and into the “accessory” position, which cut off power to the air bags.
September 2005: GM’s legal staff opens a file on the Maryland crash.
December 2005: GM tells dealers to inform owners of Cobalts to take excess items off their key chains so the key isn’t pulled downward. Also, inserts placed on customers’ keys can prevent the keys from shifting while in the ignition. The bulletin includes the 2005-2006 Chevrolet Cobalt, 2003-2006 Saturn Ion, 2006 Chevrolet HHR, 2006 Pontiac Solstice and the 2005-2006 Pontiac Pursuit, which was sold in Canada. Warranty records show that only 474 owners got those key inserts.
April 2006: A GM engineer signs off on a redesign of the ignition switch. The new switch goes into cars from the 2007 model year and later.
October 2006: GM updates the dealer bulletin to add vehicles from the 2007 model year.
2007: Government safety inspectors look into reports of air bag failures and engine stalling, but can’t show that the vehicles are failing at a greater rate than peer vehicles.
March 2007: A group of GM employees learn from NHTSA staff of the 2005 fatal crash. By the end of the year, GM has data on nine crashes in four, the ignition had moved from the run position to the accessory position.
August 2007: NHTSA contracts with Indiana University to study a 2006 Wisconsin crash in which two passengers died. The report finds the ignition in the 2005 Cobalt was in the accessory position and the air bags didn’t deploy.
2009: GM now decides to change the key’s head from a “slot” design to a “hole” design to reduce downward force. The key is changed for the 2010 model year the last year the Cobalt is sold.
2010: After a NHTSA investigation, GM agrees to repair power steering motors in a little more than 1 million 2005-2010 Chevrolet Cobalts and 2007-2010 Pontiac G5s.
2011: GM launches a new investigation into 2005-2007 Cobalts and the 2007 Pontiac G5 to determine why their air bags didn’t deploy in crashes.
2012: GM widens the investigation, but it closes without reaching a conclusion.
December 2013: Incoming CEO Mary Barra learns about the ignition switch defect.
January 2014: A committee of GM executives approves a recall.
Feb. 13: GM recalls 780,000 compact cars, including Chevrolet Cobalts, Pontiac G5s and Pontiac Pursuits from the 2005-2007 model years.
Feb. 25: GM expands the recall to include Saturn Ions and three other vehicles.
March 5: NHTSA demands that GM turn over by April 3 documents showing when it found out about the ignition switch problem. Barra promises employees an “unvarnished” investigation into what happened.
March 10 A House subcommittee says it will hold a hearing, eventually set for April 1, on the GM recalls. The Justice Department is also conducting a criminal probe.
March 17 GM announces three new recalls of 1.5 million vehicles, as part of an effort to assure buyers that it’s moving faster to fix safety defects.
March 18 Barra apologizes for the deaths that occurred. She appoints a new global safety chief.
March 25 GM turns over documents to the House subcommittee.
April 1-2 Barra to testify before Congressional committees.
April 3 Deadline for GM to submit documents to NHTSA.
April 7 GM expects replacement switches to be available at dealerships. The company says the repairs could take until October.
The Audi SQ5: Pretty, powerful. But worth the price?
I needed a good stretch of road, relatively free of traffic, and found one at midnight on Interstate 66 west heading toward Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. It was a late weekday night in late winter, when most normal people were sleeping or otherwise ensconced in the safety of their homes. But I had only a few days left in the 2014 Audi SQ5 Quattro, the Prestige edition of that compact luxury crossover utility vehicle. I wanted to give it a run unimpeded by the congestion that frequently turns I-66 into a virtual parking lot during business hours.
The SQ5, available in Premium and Prestige trims, is the sporty, high-end edition of the already nice regular Audi Q5 crossover utility. The SQ5-Prestige sits at the top of that high-end line. In terms of numbers, it looks like this: The Q5 starts at $37,300, the SQ5-Premium starts at $51,900 and the SQ5-Prestige opens its doors at $59,400.
Of course, you can spend more. You can always spend more on option-laden European luxury automobiles. The perennial question: Is it worth it?
My inherently cheap self gives a guarded yes to the SQ5-Prestige on that question “guarded” because it reflects an individual’s willingness to be pampered, to flex more automotive muscle and, mostly, to pay for everything that comes with the SQ5-Prestige, which has its own list of options. Many of us would give a resounding no to a base price increase of up to $22,000. But for those of us who can and want to say yes to that kind of money, it is arguably worth it in this case.
First, Audi historically has offered one of the best automobile interiors in the business. The Q5′s cabin is good. The SQ5-Prestige’s cabin is substantially better, spoiling its occupants with supple leather seat coverings; tasteful brushed aluminum and wood accents; a premium 14-speaker Bang & Olufsen sound system; and a leather-covered, flat-bottom steering wheel that fits nicely in hand.
But I did not leave my house at midnight just to sit in a well-appointed, motorized living room. I wanted to drive to feel the difference, if there was a difference to be felt, between the three-liter, 272-horesepower gasoline V-6 with 296 pound-feet of torque in the regular Audi Q5 and the supercharged (forced air) three-liter V-6 in the SQ5-Prestige (354 horsepower, 347 pound-feet of torque).
Quick notes: Oh, yes! There is a difference! Eighty-two more horsepower and 51 more pound-feet of torque make a difference you can feel. But you can feel it only on a relatively clear road that permits spirited motoring. Also, the same engine is available at lower cost in a supercharged version (the 3.OT) of the less-plush Q5.
Suspension improvements in the SQ5 Premium and Prestige are discernible. Those models handle more precisely than the sibling Q5. They are more maneuverable and handle with more confidence in tight traffic. In light traffic, such as on midnight I-66 and adjacent roads, both are a confident joy to drive. Run 100 miles nonstop in either one, and you’ll understand why people who have the money are willing to spend it on the super-tufted, high-performance SQ5 models.
Conventional wisdom says those people, who are willing to spend more to get essentially what is available for $22,000 less, don’t care about such things as the price of gasoline. Conventional wisdom is wrong. All vehicle manufacturers high-end, low-end and middle are under consumer and government pressure, here and abroad, to improve fuel economy and reduce tailpipe emissions. Even Lamborghini and Ferrari are pouring money and talent into the development of cleaner, more fuel-efficient engines.
So, it is not surprising to me that Audi has pulled off a neat trick with the SQ5 substantially boosting horsepower without a concomitant increase in fuel consumption. The SQ5 Premium and Prestige get an almost respectable 16 miles per gallon in the city and 23 miles per gallon on the highway, albeit using required premium gasoline.
Bottom line: If most of your driving is daily commuting, say, suburb to city in a high-congestion area during normal business hours, it makes more sense to spend less money and buy a regular Audi Q5, or something similar. You’ll get similar creature comforts without the angst of knowing that you paid much more for a vehicle that could go faster and handle better but can’t do any of those things because it is jammed in traffic with everyone else.
Ride, acceleration, handling: The Audi SQ5 gets excellent marks in all three, assuming that you can find a road to drive it the way it was engineered to be driven or that you don’t mind driving at midnight.
Head-turning quotient: It is stately and attractive on the outside, beautiful and comfortable within.
Body style/layout: The Audi SQ5, Premium and Prestige versions, are the high-end cousins of the Audi Q5 crossover, on which both are based. They are front-engine, all-wheel-drive compact luxury utility vehicles with four side doors and a rear hatch.
Engine/transmission: Audi SQ5 models come with a turbocharged 3-liter, 24-valve gasoline V-6 with variable valve timing (354 horsepower, 347 pound-feet of torque). The engine is linked to an eight-speed automatic transmission that also can be operated manually via paddle shifters mounted on the steering wheel.
Capacities: Seating is for five. Cargo capacity is 29.1 cubic feet with rear seats raised. The fuel tank holds 19.8 gallons of gasoline. Premium grade is required.
Mileage: I averaged 23 mpg in highway driving.
Safety: Standard equipment includes front- and rear-ventilated disc brakes; four-wheel antilock brake protection; emergency braking assistance; electronic brake-force distribution; automatic brake drying; electronic stability and traction control; dusk sensing and automatically leveling headlamps; cornering lights; Audi roadside assistance program.
Pricing: The 2014 Audi SQ5 starts at $51,900 with a dealer’s invoice price of $48,268. Add $7,500 to the consumer’s price for Prestige package (onboard navigation with real-time traffic reports, rearview backup camera, Bang & Olufsen sound system, manually operated rear window shades and other items) and a $895 factory-to-dealer transportation charge. Consumer’s price as tested is $61,215. Dealer’s price as tested is $56,996.
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Toyota, GM defects cast new light on push for self-driving autos
Computers are slowly taking over one of the most potent symbols of human independence: Driving.
The government says that shift will make the roads safer and eventually free people to work, read or even watch a movie as they travel from place to place.
But in the wake of deadly manufacturer defects at Toyota and General Motors, analysts are raising questions about whether autonomous vehicles could hurtle into dangerous territory.
Last month, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration took the first step toward requiring that new automobiles be equipped with sophisticated computers designed to communicate with other vehicles, with the aim of preventing accidents and, eventually, guiding cars through traffic.
Those systems are being field-tested in Michigan. Some other states permit fully autonomous cars to be driven on their roads in California, Google’s fleet has logged more than a half-million miles without incident. Before the decade is out, Volvo and Nissan say, self-driving cars will be available to the average consumer in dealer showrooms.
“Decades from now, it’s likely we’ll look back at this time period as one in which the historical arc of transportation safety considerably changed for the better,” said David Friedman, acting NHTSA administrator.
But while autonomous cars herald great promise, they also pose difficult policy questions. Who is liable, the driver or the manufacturer, if autonomous vehicles wreck? Who owns the trove of data the cars generate? Should a computer steer a car off the road if a tree limb falls in front of it? What about a child on a bicycle?
And the prospect of manufacturer defects would become even more alarming in vehicles that rely heavily on increasingly complex computer technology.
“Cars are meant to be driven by people, not machines,” said Joan Claybrook, a consumer advocate and former NHTSA administrator. “I have enough trouble trusting my computer, much less a computer to drive my car.”
Last week, the Justice Department fined Toyota $1.2 billion for covering up a sudden-acceleration problem that has spawned more than 400 lawsuits. Meanwhile, GM is facing multiple federal investigations into an ignition-switch problem that has contributed to at least 31 accidents and 12 deaths since surfacing more than a decade ago.
In both cases, the problems turned out to be basic and mechanical. But federal safety investigations into the defects were complicated by the millions of lines of computer code and advanced electronics that are already standard equipment.
“The reality is that the vast, vast majority of accidents are caused by human error and computers are going to dramatically improve on people’s driving,” said Joshua Schank, president and chief executive of the Eno Center for Transportation, a research organization that has studied the challenges posed by autonomous cars. But “people are very nervous about the idea that computers could go haywire and cause us to die.”
Researchers such as Schank tend to focus on the positive. In the foreseeable future, they say, self-driving technology will save fuel, cut pollution and reduce highway costs. As more cars become autonomous, they could safely tailgate, packing more vehicles into existing lanes and making traffic jams a thing of the past. Autonomous cars even have the potential to offer the disabled the freedom of the road.
The pace of change has been rapid. Just 10 years ago, a self-driving-car competition held by the Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency failed to produce a winner. Not a single entry was able to complete a 142-mile desert course between California and Nevada and claim the $1 million prize.
Fast-forward to 2007, when a team of researchers from Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University tricked out a Chevrolet Tahoe with conspicuous sensors outside and advanced electronics inside. The SUV was able to follow traffic laws, merge into moving traffic, make its way through traffic circles and avoid other obstacles at a decommissioned Air Force base, proving that autonomous cars were more than a pipe dream.
By 2009, Google was test-driving autonomous cars on busy highways. Last year, speaking at a ceremony after the signing of a bill allowing the testing of autonomous cars on California highways, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said, “You can count on one hand the number of years until ordinary people can experience this.”
Auto manufacturers have also stepped up the pace of research. Some have established outposts in Silicon Valley intended to foster collaboration with the region’s deep well of technology entrepreneurs and quicken the pace at which the automobile is re-imagined.
“The metabolic rate of what happens here is dramatically different than what happens everywhere else,” said Venkatesh Prasad, a senior technical leader and self-described “what’s-next guy” with the Ford Motor Co.’s Research and Innovation group in Palo Alto, Calif.
Other work is being done in Michigan, the ancestral home of automobile development. In Ann Arbor, University of Michigan researchers backed by a federal highway safety grant have outfitted 3,000 cars with special sensors and wireless devices that allow them to exchange information with one another and with nodes mounted on traffic lights, at intersections and along curves on more than 70 miles of city streets.
Ten times a second the cars and roadways “talk” to one another, relaying vehicles’ location, speed and direction, and alerting drivers if their cars are going too quickly around a curve or if another car is erratically changing lanes or braking.
Researchers are combing through billions of messages passed through the network with an eye toward creating a robo-road system that would guide driverless cars from the garage to the grocery store and beyond.
To complement that research, the University of Michigan is constructing a 30-acre facility that would serve as a kind of test track for self-driving cars. The test area would allow engineers to see how autonomous cars perform in a complicated urban environment that includes street signs, stoplights even construction detours.
For consumers, researchers say, the automobile’s transformation is likely to unfold in stages. Within the next decade, cars will be able to drive themselves, but people will still have the option to take over.
After that? Some engineers envision vehicles that are little more than the private equivalent of railroad passenger cars, with no controls for humans at all.
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Nissan recalls more than 1 million vehicles for air bags
Nissan is recalling just over 1 million cars, SUVs and vans because the front passenger air bags may not inflate in a crash. It’s the company’s second recall to fix the same problem.
The recall affects the Altima midsize car, Leaf electric car, Pathfinder SUV and Sentra compact models from the 2013 and 2014 model years, as well as the NV200 Taxi van and Infiniti JX35 SUV from 2013. Also covered are the Infiniti QX60 and Q50 SUVs from 2014.
In documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Nissan says the vehicles’ computer software may not detect an adult in the passenger seat. If that happens, the air bags won’t inflate.
Nissan will notify owners and dealers will update the software for free. The recall is expected to start in mid-April.
Most of the vehicles were recalled in February of last year for a similar problem. Dealers replaced seat sensors, but Nissan said it continued to get consumer complaints and warranty claims in vehicles that had been repaired.
Front passenger seats have sensors that determine the passenger’s weight and turn off air bags off if a child is on board. The malfunctioning sensors can turn the air bags off even if an adult is in the seat.
Nissan received three reports of air bags failing to inflate in a crash. Spokesman Steve Yeager said in an e-mail that he is not sure if anyone was hurt in those incidents. There have been no deaths due to the problem, he said.
The recall affects almost 990,000 vehicles in the U.S., another 60,000 in Canada and small numbers in other countries, Yeager said.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Alfa Romeo returns to US after 10-year hiatus
The Italian sports car builder will be marking its official American return, after a 10-year absence, with the official launch of the 4C coupé at the New York International Auto Show in April. And, if all goes to plan, a compact, luxury off-roader will soon be on the way, too.
As such, the 4C will represent the first step the once great automotive brand is taking to rebuild its reputation and to attract the U.S. car-buying public in particular with a host of new models.
The coupé version of the 4C is to be followed by a convertible version and in 2015 by a real-wheel drive luxury sedan to rival the BMW 3 Series called the Giulia. According to Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne, it will reassert Alfa’s reputation for not just rear-wheel drive, but for handling finesse and of course, wonderful styling.
No doubt the Giulia will develop a loyal following if it is as good as Alfa Romeo hopes it is going to be, but the car that could really put the brand back on the map, particularly in the U.S. and China, is a compact, luxury SUV designed to compete with the VW Tiguan, Audi Q3 and BMW X3. This car is expected to go into production in 2016 and, if it has the desired impact, will be followed by a larger version that would compete with the Audi Q5.
Also key to the brand’s revival will be the Made in Italy marker. All cars carrying the Alfa Romeo badge will be built in Milan and exported.
Therefore, the company’s existing plans to build a new, affordable fun-to-drive roadster a modern-day Spider or Duceto in the U.S. in conjunction with Mazda looks like it is still going ahead, but the new car will be branded as a Fiat or Abarth instead.
However, it all starts with the 4C, which is hoping to impress the U.S. market in the same way that it has already wowed European car fans and motoring journalists alike with its lightweight carbon fiber and aluminum build, sublime handling and good looks.
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