Yeah I said it, being green as a fashion statement just shows how much of an idiot you are. Before I begin, I am down for the stopping of deforestation and the use of renewable energy, not to mention the need to increase efficiency, but…
Tag Archives: Toyota Prius
Should I buy a Prius?
Tagged Toyota, Toyota Prius
Toyota recalls some more cars, company president apologizes for situation
Another day, another recall from Toyota. Two recalls in fact. Toyota is recalling 133,000 2010 Toyota Priuses and 14,500 2010 Lexus HS250h’s, as well as 7,300 2010 Toyota Camrys, both for braking issues, although the two separate recalls are unrelated.
2010 World Car of the Year finalists released, top 3 to be announced in Geneva
The World Car of the Year jury has announced their top 10 finalists for 2010. The top 3 will be announced in Geneva, while the actual awards will be given out at the New York International Auto Show.
2010 Green Car of the Year finalists
The five finalists for the 2010 Green Car of the Year award have been announced at the LA Auto Show.
Ferrari is working on an Enzo successor
Well, about time we say because it’s been quite a large gap between the Enzo and this. Of course, that may be explained by the fact that they did the 458 as well, or that they haven’t been going bonkers in such a long time.
It will presumably be called the F70 (the Enzo was actually called the F60 but in order to celebrate Ferrari’s 60 years anniversary, it received the founder’s name). You might remember my last article about the rumours of Ferrari developing turbocharging and it seems I guessed right, the new limited edition model might just receive a twin-turbo V8, or a natural aspirated V10, or anything in fact. We don’t know, it’s all a guess at best.
As Ferrari usually do, they take their last edition limited edition model (Enzo here), and make a mad, ready for the track version of it (FXX here) and then they make better what they could make better, throw in a bit of F1 technology and there you are – the new model arrives. So normally the new F70 should get FXX bits and F1 technology and the new turbo system perhaps.
But what Ferrari are trying to do now is keep the weight down, they don’t want to have a million horsepower engine with 2 tons of car. The new engine is expected to produce as much power as the Enzo but with a new body weighing only 1000kg. That means a power to weight ratio of more than 600hp/tonne. That’s more than a Bugatti Veyron. Another reason for concentration on reducing weight is CO2, as the Italian car company wants to reduce the CO2 output on its vehicles.
Now that is great news, so climb out of your Priuses eco-mentalists and get the new limited edition rampaging stallion. Well, probably not, as they will only make 399 and you can’t just go to the factory and say “I want one”, you have to be invited by Ferrari.
Source: Autoblog
Details on possible fix for Toyota accelerator problem released
Some details have been revealed on what the fix for Toyota’s accelerator problem may be.
Hummer Planning H4 and H5
Hummer is being sold to China’s Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery, and they are making plans for an H4 and H5.
The sale hasn’t yet been finalized though, but the deal is that they will pay $150 million (Which seems like very little for an automotive company to me, but Hummer does only have 2 models, so maybe that’s why) and get most of the intellectual property for Hummer. GM will provide contract manufacturing for current Hummer products until the contract ends, at which point it will be up to the Chinese to work out how to manufacturer the Hummers.
Hummer is working with Austrian consulting firm AVL to determine their future. The idea is to make the brand focus on smaller, lighter, more eco-friendly vehicles, so there will be an H4, which will be smaller than the H3, and an even tinier H5. The H4 will be based on the HX concept car (Pictured at the beginning of this article).
So they’re trying to pretty much reinvent Hummer. Their current image is associated with gas-guzzling monsters, and the Chinese want to focus on eco-friendly vehicles. They’ll be putting a lot of money into changing this image, but I’ll miss the old image, that’s what I like about Hummer. They had the guts to go out there and give an image of gas-guzzling monsters in a time when Greenpeace is telling us all to get into a Prius. I wonder if this new image will mean that they’ll have to axe the enormous H2. That would be even worse, possibly the final nail in the coffin.
Source: Jalopnik
Toyota may soon offer fix for accelerator issue
Most of you probably know about the big issue Toyota had recently with their floor mats jamming the accelerators. Well, Toyota may soon be recalling all the cars affected by this to make changes to the accelerators and fix the issue.