Category: cars

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Excess vs. Reality

Aston Martin DBS Volante Carbon Edition interior, courtesy of Elite ChoiceAston Martin spends 25 hours polishing the paint of their new DBS Volante Carbon Edition. And more than 70 hours of stitching the leather interior. That’s part of why the car costs $302,000.

I would never be able to own such a car. Even if I could afford it, my conscience would prevent me from sinking that much money into a car that gets me to the grocery store as well as our Toyota Corolla. Or maybe the Corolla would do it better, since it will hold more bags of groceries. (My guess is that most Volante owners have someone else do their grocery shopping, so that’s probably not an issue.)

But somehow it comforts me to know that this car exists. It’s not superlative in any category, but it is a work of art. An article in Autoweek magazine told the story of some kids in a minivan seeing the car across two lanes of traffic. They were so wowed by the car that they shouted out to the driver, “Rev the engine! Rev the engine!” This car definitely has a powerful presence.

I’m torn. I know that anyone who spends $302,000 on a car could spend that money feeding starving people. Maybe they haven’t ever lived in Africa, like I have. While we were there, we had friends who didn’t know where their next meal was coming from. And just $10 might feed their family for several days. That reality that makes me pause before I make any extravagant purchase. Can I really justify it?

Photo courtesy of Elite Choice.

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Review: Fisker Karma vs BMW 335d

Update: This was written in 2012. Since then, BMW has released a 3-series hybrid. Fisker no longer sells the Karma but are planning to sell the Motion model, at some point. Having gone out of business and now back in business, I would guess they are figuring out things like funding.

Fisker Karma carSuper high-performance and green? As you think about your next luxury sedan, you may be thinking about buying a Fisker Karma.

I say that fully kidding – I know that none of my readers are thinking about buying a Fisker Karma.

Anyhow, I read with interest a Car & Driver magazine review of the new Fisker Karma. Think of it as a much faster Chevrolet Volt with a super beautiful body.

The gas engine powers a generator that charges an electric motor that moves the wheels. So it can run only on electric power for about 25 miles.

Why am I comparing the $116,000 Karma to a $44,000 BMW 335d? Here are several reasons:

1. Performance? The BMW is faster than the Karma… BMW = 0-60 miles per hour in 5.3 seconds. The Fisker does 6.1 seconds.

2. Interior room? Similar.

3. Quality of materials, fit and finish? Similar.

4. Fuel economy? BMW wins… 27 miles per gallon vs. the Fisker’s 24.

5. Green? Disposing of all those lithium-ion batteries when they fail to hold a charge anymore will be a nightmare. And diesel is more dirty than gas in some measures but cleaner in others.

BMW 335dThe Fisker is a clear winner in the distinctiveness realm. You won’t see another on your block, guaranteed – no matter where you live. But for everything else, the BMW wins.

A final note: the Porsche Panamera E-Hybrid is definitely a closer vehicle to compare. It costs a closer $100,000, does 0-60 in 4.4 seconds and gets similar fuel economy to the BMW.

Photos are courtesy of the Fisker and BMW websites.

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Cars: Choose Your Loss

2 station wagonsWhen you buy a car, you have a choice to make: fun or practical. Fun = expensive. Practical = saving money in the long or short run.

Case in point: these two wagons were for sale locally, for relatively low prices. When compared to the original prices, the BMW was an incredible steal. However, the BMW will end up costing way more than the Ford, in practically every way you can imagine. (Trust me on this; I had an old BMW for a few years.)

But every single minute behind the wheel of the 528 (when it is running OK, that is) will be way more enjoyable than every minute behind the wheel of the Escort.

You must pick your poison.

(And I dream of poison. When I saw that BMW, I thought a little too long on how fun it would be to have it. Alas, we will continue to drive one of the most boring – and practical – cars on the planet, the Toyota Corolla.)

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The rental car experience

Rental car gaugesOur minivan was in the shop for a few weeks. Someone (ahem, not me) did some damage to the body that took a while to repair. We have fantastic car insurance, so our insurance company paid for a rental car for the whole time.

The rental car was a Dodge Avenger – a “mid-sized” American sedan – pretty generic. The quality was not bad. There were a few details that didn’t quite measure up. One was the ensemble of gauges. (If you click on the image, you can see more detail.) Sitting straight-ahead, the left edge of the tachometer was not visible. And the typeface for the speedometer was a really poor choice.

A very fun aspect to the rental car experience was the surprise that awaited me when I loaded up a CD… there was already a CD in the player. So I pushed it back in. Cheezy, syrupy Chinese pop music filled the car.

Chinese music CDJust before returning the car, I faced a dilemma. I had forgotten to take a photo of the CD to share with you. So would I leave the CD in there as a surprise for the next renter who would try to listen to a CD? Or should I bring it home so I could take a photo? Alas, passing on the blessing to the next renter went by the wayside. So I’m passing on the blessing to you (minus the audio portion).

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Fun vs. Practical

Letter to Automobile magazineThis letter appears in the December 2011 issue of Automobile Magazine.

I love writing letters to the editor. This is my 15th or 16th letter to get published in a national or international magazine. I get a buzz out of seeing my name in print. Egotistical? Maybe. (Forgive me for that, if it’s true.)

Roughly the same amount of time it would take for you to comment on a blog post – and have 21 people see it – can yield a few more views, if your thoughts are published in a magazine. Print may be dying, but there is still a good number of people who read printed magazines. Obviously, I’m one.

If you’d like to read more of the dead Volvo story, it’s in my previous blog.

And here’s Ezra’s column. The December Automobile Letters to the Editor section had more letters about that column than I’ve ever seen focusing on any article or column before.

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One step forward, two back

Mobile charging stationI doubt if you read Autoweek magazine. That’s why I’m sharing this story from the October 31, 2011 issue.

AAA now has trucks devoted to charging stranded electric cars in six different US cities. At the moment, that would only be two vehicles – the Nissan Leaf and the Mistubishi i. And there are maybe 25 actual cars floating around the US. So it’s a near-future-oriented program.

Anyhow, I was amused at the thought of a relatively low fuel economy truck being driven across town to charge up an “ultra-green” car. It kind of defeats the purpose.

Another strange thing is that the trucks charge up the cars to travel another 3-15 miles … to “reach a charging station.” Good luck finding a charging station. You might know that most fully-electric cars take about 24 hours to charge from a regular household circuit. (A devoted 240- or 480-volt outlet drops the full charge time down to 3-6 hours.)

My constructive suggestion? Use a much cheaper tow truck and tow the car to the owner’s home. Or an office or store that has an electric extension cord.

Electric cars aren’t ready for prime time. Yet.

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Chevrolet Sonic Review

Opel CorsaThe Opel Corsa is the European version of the USA’s Chevrolet Sonic.

The Corsa (shown) is a great little car. Our family of five did a day trip of 160 kilometers (100 miles) across Belgium and Holland without any problem, in spite of the relatively small size. The feeling of quality was evident in all the controls, how solidly the doors shut and in my general perception of the components being substantial.

The Corsa/Sonic handles well. It was quite comparable to the Ford Fiesta I drove a few days before driving the Corsa.

Sadly, the Sonic has an ugly front end, but it’s still a good car – far better than the Aveo, which it replaces in the Chevrolet line-up. The Aveo was based on a relatively cheap quality Suzuki.

A huge difference between the car you can buy in Europe and the USA model is more than cosmetic – the European models can be bought with diesel engines. In the 1.3 liter model we rented, I recorded about 43 miles per gallon. According to Opel’s website,* the gas (petrol) model gets about 23% less fuel economy. (And the Sonic will get even less fuel economy than the European gas model.)

I found the power from the small turbodiesel to be more than adequate. We’re not talking sports car territory, but it had more power than our Toyota Corolla, which has an engine that is almost 1.5 times bigger than the Corsa’s.

I’m just sad that American cars don’t get such great small engines – when they are already being made and sold in the rest of the world.

And finally, here is a great article on why America just doesn’t get diesel cars, from Automobile Magazine. (It’s a PDF. And copyright pardons, please. And forgive the poor quality of the scan; I spilled water on the page.)

* Note that this link is to the Vauxhall Corsa, England’s version of the Opel Corsa.

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Tesla in Colorado

Tesla makes very fast electric cars. Very fast expensive electric cars.

Boulder has had a showroom for a while, but Denver recently got one – in a mall! (Funny enough, the Boulder store is now missing from their dealership listings page.)

The store is small. Just two cars are on the floor. But at $140,000 each, I’m not surprised.

The Roadster is the only model currently available. It’s basically a Lotus Elise at more than double the price. That’s a lot of saving the whales you can do for the difference.

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A really really bad car

Nissan recently came out with a two-door convertible SUV – the Murano CrossCabriolet. It gets bad fuel economy, carries little, performs poorly, looks ugly, is hard to see out of and doesn’t do off-road very well. And it looks ugly.

A reflection of how hard this vehicle is to categorize is that Car & Driver magazine and Automobile magazine both gave it really unusual reviews. One was an epic poem – “The Oddity”. The other was a Q & A, in which the reviewers asked, “Does it do this well?” for 4 different categories, and the answer in every case was: “No.”

(My apologies if you just bought one. And also, please know that I have nothing against the regular Murano.)

The photo came from Car & Driver magazine.

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A sad passing

Smart Car Denver is closed.

They tried. America just wasn’t ready for a car that was much smaller than a Toyota Prius but did not get as much fuel economy.

I was sad. It’s a fun car. I would never buy one, but the idea that someone could was a good thing.

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