Category: Exhaust Note

BMW and Fiat promise to consider working together.

After a lovely 4th of July weekend, doing my best to focus energies on anything not related to work (something I hear is easy for most people to do, but I’ve never quite got the knack of), I started my usual workday morning routine at my local Bally Total Fitness. And, sure enough, as soon as I get near the gym TV, there’s the news, dragging me right back to 5:15 am Monday morning reality.
The 5 am scoop in Detroit was the rumor GM is considering dumping more brands, one way or another, and firing more mid-management white-collar employees. (No, UAW, you do not have the corner on losing jobs. I swear.) Of course, by time I was in the office and caught up with e-mail, GM has flatly denied that any brand, other than Hummer, is up for review. We’ll only know the truth of that if GM manages to hold onto [...]

Chevrolet crosses the $100,000 base-price barrier with the 638HP Corvette ZR1. Worth it?

New realities might make us drive less, but nothing will replace the life experiences our automobiles provide us with.

New realities might make us drive less, but nothing will replace the life experiences our automobiles provide us with.

Electric cars: Is it really smart to put all our energy hopes into one basket?

A few weeks ago, I was cleaning out my email inbox – something I’d meant to do for years – and happened upon one particular old email I had written to a friend in 2002 while I was vacationing in Germany. I spoke of my rental car, a Mercedes-Benz C180 (yes, that’s a C-Class with a 1.8 liter normally aspirated 4-cylinder and about 130HP), and how the fuel prices over there necessitated these fuel sipping engines in vehicles that we Americans think of as pretty upscale. Specifically, I referred to “Germany’s $4 per gallon gasoline” and its impacts on vehicle choice in that part of the world.

A few weeks ago, I was cleaning out my email inbox – something I’d meant to do for years – and happened upon one particular old email I had written to a friend in 2002 while I was vacationing in Germany. I spoke of my rental car, a Mercedes-Benz C180 (yes, that’s a C-Class with a 1.8 liter normally aspirated 4-cylinder and about 130HP), and how the fuel prices over there necessitated these fuel sipping engines in vehicles that we Americans think of as pretty upscale. Specifically, I referred to “Germany’s $4 per gallon gasoline” and its impacts on vehicle choice in that part of the world.

Navigation systems and in-car telematics breed the next new advertising frontier: Your car!

We’re Not Taking a Road Trip, Are You?
Like most of the country, we’re off on Memorial Day. Like many others, most of our vehiclevoice.com contributors will be staying close to home. With the national average at $3.87 on Friday afternoon, AAA tells us that the gas prices are causing about a 1% decline in the number of people traveling by car for the holiday. CNN even made up a new word to describe it: stay-cations. I, for one, hope that silly bit doesn’t take hold in our collective slang.

Memorial day travels…during less expensive times
AAA says the last time there was a decline in Memorial Day travel plans was in 2002, after 9/11, and this bucks a trend of increased travel. At that point, there was also some concern over fuel prices, the economy, and our future, though most [...]