RPMGO Car Blog |
- 2011 North American Car & Truck of the Year Finalists Published
- Cadillac Developing Luxury Plug-in Hybrid
- Acura TSX Wagon Price Announced
| 2011 North American Car & Truck of the Year Finalists Published Posted: 18 Dec 2010 06:28 AM PST We are approaching the end of the year and the finalists for the 2011 North American Car and Truck of the Year have been revealed. As expected, the nominees for the car of the year award are the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf, joined by the Hyundai Sonata which most likely will come in 3rd place. As far as the truck of the year is concerned, the winner will be one of the following: Ford Explorer, Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Dodge Durango. The winners of both awards will be selected by a group of 49 automotive journalists and the awards will be given in January at the North American International Auto Show. Here is the complete list of the finalists for both awards, taken from the official press release: 2011 North American Car of the Year: Audi A8 Buick Regal Chevrolet Cruze Chevrolet Volt Ford Fiesta Hyundai Sonata/2.0T/Hybrid Infiniti M37/56 Jaguar XJ Kia Optima Mazda 2 Nissan Juke Nissan Leaf Volkswagen Jetta Volvo S60 2011 North American Truck of the Year: Dodge Durango Ford Edge Ford Explorer Honda Odyssey Hyundai Tucson Infiniti QX56 Jeep Grand Cherokee Kia Sorento Kia Sportage Lincoln MKX Mercedes-Benz R-Class Porsche Cayenne Toyota Sienna Volkswagen Touareg Post published on Rpmgo.com   |
| Cadillac Developing Luxury Plug-in Hybrid Posted: 18 Dec 2010 06:14 AM PST According to various reports published over the Internet in the last few days, it seems that General Motors is at the moment working on a plug-in hybrid car based on the Cadillac SRX crossover. The car will most likely share some of the technology that General Motors developed for the soon to be popular Chevrolet Volt over the past four years, allowing the American car manufacturer to lower the costs of its emerging electric automobile offerings. This new Cadillac model would also be inspired from an abandoned project to launch a rechargeable crossover car that General Motors had thought about 1-2 years ago under the now forgotten Saturn and Buick brands which were closed for good due to low sales. If the project will go into production, it will be the very first American luxury automobile after the company gave up on making the Converj concept car which was a Cadillac variant of the Chevrolet Volt. The current Cadillac SRX debuted back in 2008 at the Detroit Auto Show as a concept car that General Motors said that it could carry an electric and fuel-cell powertrain in the near future. This new project will allow the company to extend its lead over the Japanese automaker Toyota, in what GM names "extend range electric vehicles." The Chevrolet Volt will be manufactured in 10,000 units next year, but recently the executives affirmed that this figure will go up as the demand for the car is very high. Officials at General Motors stated last month that the company is planning on hiring 1,000 engineers and research in Michigan in the next two years to have the necessary support for developing new hybrid and electric cars which will most likely replace conventional gasoline powered cars in the next 2-3 decades. The first delivers of the Volt were made at the beginning of this month in several selected United States markets – including Michigan and California. The Volt is considered by General Motors to be the most important model at the moment in the company's attempt to regain the image that was affected by the 2009 bankruptcy and the federal bailout. However, the $41,000 Chevrolet Volt will most likely bring a marginal profit for General Motors due to the high costs of developing this first-of-its-kind automobile that will definitely set new trends in the automotive industry. The European variants of the Volt will be the Opel and Vauxhall Ampera, which will go on sale in the last part of 2011 for a bigger price. The Volt has been rated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a 35 miles range, powered by the lithium-ion battery pack that has a weight of 400 pounds. Beyond this range, the Chevrolet Volt will use a 1.4-liter gasoline power unit. The Japanese automaker Toyota is already preparing a plug-in version of their highly acclaimed Prius model which will be launched in 2012 at a price more affordable than the Volt, according to the officials at the Toyota Corporation. Source: AutoNews.com Post published on Rpmgo.com  |
| Acura TSX Wagon Price Announced Posted: 18 Dec 2010 05:50 AM PST  Acura TSX Wagon Last week Acura published the price list for the TSX Wagon, a car that will go on sale on December 21st, 2010 in North America. The car will be equipped exclusively with a 4-cylinder 2.4-liter power unit linked to a Sequential SportShift 5-speed automatic gearbox. With this combination, the Acura TSX Wagon will do 22 mpg city / 30 mpg highway and a combined cycle of 25 mpg. The car offers a generous cargo space of up to 60.5 cu-ft when the rear seats are folded down. This figure is considerably more in comparison with the Audi A4 (56.5) and the BMW 3-Series (54.7). The basic price for the car is $30,960 and with the Technology Package goes up to $34,610.  Acura TSX Wagon The Wagon variant of the Acura TSX has four hidden compartments for out-of-sight storage. Beneath a lift-up hatch within the load floor, a 2.4 cu-ft storage area is located. Other smaller items can be placed in a 0.2 cu-ft area which is hidden by a removable panel located in the side panel on the driver side. In addition, the car has two 13-inch long storage spots located near the main in-floor storage area. Heavy items can be loaded very easy thanks to the low lift-over height of approximately 24 inches. As standard for increasing the security, a retractable cover prevents the rear cargo items to be seen by people that pass near the car and look into the rear windows of the Wagon. The rear seats of the 2011 Acura TSX Wagon have a 60/40 fold-down design which means that one section can be easily lowered in order to generate more cargo space while the other section can remain in the original position to accommodate a rear-seat passenger. Post published on Rpmgo.com  |
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