Car Blog

Jack Roush is a man who knows how to coax horsepower from an engine. ROUSH has become an automotive powerhouse based on this simple premise, and he couldn’t wait to get his hands, and his engineering team, on the new Ford 5.0L engine. The end result, and the car fans of the ROUSH Mustang have been waiting for, is the 2011 ROUSH 5XR Mustang with “more power” under the hood thanks to the factory-installed ROUSHcharger.

Make no mistake, the 2011 ROUSH 5XR is a runner. With the R2300 ROUSHcharger installed the 2011 ROUSH 5XR Mustang will sport an “extreme” 525 horsepower under the hood, along with an “exciting” 465 lb.-ft. of torque. To keep the “exclusivity” high, there will be a maximum of just 150 units of the 2011 ROUSH 5XR Mustang built, each with a 3-year/36,000 mile warranty on the powertrain and ROUSH components. The 2011 ROUSH 5XR Mustang is available in a coupe or convertible, but only with a six-speed manual transmission.

“I’m always excited to get an opportunity to work on a new engine, and the Ford 5.0-liter is a great platform. It has 412 horsepower to begin with, but our group was able to coax out another 113 horsepower with the ROUSHcharger. The 2011 ROUSH 5XR runs fast, sounds great, and is another amazing addition to the ROUSH Mustang heritage,” said Jack Roush, motorsports legend and chairman of ROUSH Enterprises.

To handle the road, a ROUSH suspension kit has been installed to provide superior handling and ride control. This includes front struts, rear shocks and rear springs, front and rear stabilizer bars. The car rides on ROUSH 20-inch chrome rims with high-performance Cooper RS3 tires. Read the rest of this entry »

Electric Vehicles International (EVI) announced that UPS has begun a 90-day demonstration trial of their walk-in van (EVI-WI). Over the past year, EVI and UPS have worked together to develop a vehicle to meet the needs of the parcel delivery service industry.

The EVI-WI is built on a Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation (FCCC) glider equipped with a Utilimaster body. Earlier this year, EVI received California Air Resource Board (CARB) approval for the EVI-WI. Customers who purchase the EVI-WI can take advantage of a $20,000 CARB rebate through the Hybrid Truck and Bus Incentive Project (HVIP).

The 90-day demonstration process with UPS will be split into three 30-day, smaller demonstrations in vastly different regional locations. The vehicle demonstration will begin in Sacramento, followed by San Francisco and concluding in Reno.

“We are excited to partner with UPS and to see the results of the demonstration” said Steve Riley, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for EVI. “We believe the 3 regional locations will help prove that our truck can perform in any setting from urban to hills and various climate conditions,” said Riley. Read the rest of this entry »

The 2011 Ford Fiesta is the first mini-car to earn a Top Safety Pick from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) since the introduction of a new roof strength test. The award applies to vehicles built after July 2010. The Fiesta is the eighth Ford Motor Company vehicle to earn the Institute’s top designation – breaking a tie with Toyota for the most “Top Safety Picks” of any automaker.

Fiesta’s extensive use of high-strength steels, Trinity front crash structure, Side Protection And Cabin Enhancement (SPACE) Architecture® and advanced airbag technologies helped the car perform well in IIHS testing. Fiesta’s energy-absorbing body structure is optimized for strength and stiffness and designed to absorb and redirect crash forces away from the passenger compartment. Plus, it features the most standard airbags in its segment, as well as standard electronic stability control – a must-have feature for Top Safety Pick eligibility.

“Fiesta is proof that a small car can deliver big safety, and earning a Top Safety Pick further demonstrates Ford’s commitment to providing all of our customers with world-class crash protection,” said Sue Cischke, Ford’s group vice president of Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering. “Fiesta combines rigidity and more airbags – smartly deployed – than its competition, as well as standard stability control.” Read the rest of this entry »

Hyundai Recasts Intelligent Luxury with Two Equus Configurations

Hyundai revealed additional engineering and feature information for the all-new 2011 Equus today. The Equus will be offered in just two configurations, Equus Signature and Equus Ultimate, both lavishly contented.

Equus Signature features the award-winning 385-horsepower Tau® V8 engine, a 608-watt Lexicon® audio system with 17 speakers, electronically controlled air suspension with continuous damping control, Vehicle Stability Management with pre-collision warning, Smart Cruise Control, HID headlamps, front and rear parking assistance system with rearview camera, premium leather seating, Alcantara suede headliner, driver seat massage, heated and cooled front seats, heated wood and leather steering wheel, and numerous other premium technologies and features. The Equus Ultimate adds features typically found only in low-volume special-order luxury sedans with six-figure price tags, including a forward-view parking and cornering camera, power decklid, reclining rear seats with powered headrests, cooled rear seats, rear seat massage and leg support, rear seat refrigerator and a rear seat entertainment system.

“When you’re spending this much for a new car, you don’t want to feel like you’ve been shortchanged on engineering, technology or features,” said John Krafcik, Hyundai Motor America president and CEO. “Equus Signature has the technology and content of fully-optioned flagship models from Lexus and BMW, while Equus Ultimate delivers a specification approached only by our competitors’ low-volume, special-order models.”

This straightforward lineup of just two extremely well-equipped configurations enables a simple and elegant purchase experience, a key aspect of Hyundai’s innovative perspective on intelligent luxury, which also includes “Your Time, Your Place,” the industry’s first at-home vehicle demonstration program, the Valet Service program, which provides at-home pickup for Equus service and maintenance and the industry’s first iPad-based interactive owner’s manual. Read the rest of this entry »

Lincoln’s new MKZ Hybrid – the most fuel-efficient luxury car in America – will be a standout in the marketplace for another unique distinction when it goes on sale this fall: It will be priced the same as its conventional gas sibling.

“Lincoln is about delivering luxury standard,” said John Felice, general manager, Ford and Lincoln Marketing. “Whether it’s our new MKX with standard MyLincoln Touch(TM) technology or the no-cost choice of a gas or hybrid powertrain with the Lincoln MKZ, we want to give customers premium amenities with unexpected value.”

When the 2011 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid goes on sale this fall, it will have an MSRP starting at $35,180, including destination and delivery. The pricing is identical to the 2011 Lincoln MKZ gas model and below the 2010 Lexus HS 250h, the MKZ Hybrid’s nearest competitor.

Lincoln is the first automaker to offer luxury customers a premium hybrid vehicle with an MSRP that matches its conventional gas sibling.

The decision to offer the Lincoln MKZ Hybrid and gas models at the same price point is another example of the Lincoln brand’s philosophy of bringing luxury standard to customers. From standout product design, and class-leading technology and powertrains that deliver top performance and fuel efficiency, Lincoln is changing the game in the luxury market. Read the rest of this entry »

AutoPacific’s Coveted Award Is Based On Opinions of Thousands of Customers

For the third-year straight year, Porsche customers have rated the superior driving experience of their cars in AutoPacific’s annual 2010 Ideal Vehicle Awards (IVA) survey. Indeed, the Porsche owners’ ratings were so high that once again the German brand is the survey’s number-one rated premium car brand in the United States. Porsche took home the same honor in 2008 and 2009.

The AutoPacific IVAs are among the most comprehensive and respected in the industry and this year they were based on more than 42,000 owners’ ratings of their new 2010 model year cars and trucks across 15 key vehicle attributes that measure just how closely a vehicle matches their expectations. The cars that owners would change the least are considered the most ideal.

In addition to winning as a brand overall, Porsche also swept this year’s specific IVA sports car segment. The highly acclaimed Porsche Cayman was chosen as the winner of the Ideal Sports Car. Coming in second and third were the Porsche Boxster and 911 respectively. This also marks consecutive years that Porsche has taken the top spot in the IVA’s sports car category.

“An ideal vehicle is one that meets the owner’s expectations for the product. They do not want it changed. They don’t want it bigger. They don’t want it faster. They don’t want its styling changed,” says George Peterson, president of AutoPacific. “When asked what they would change about their new vehicle, buyers who want the least change are driving their ideal vehicle. This means Porsche has created cars that owners essentially say are perfect.”

The IVAs are driven by data collected from thousands of new car and light truck buyers measuring the fusion between trust, anticipation, expectations and reality within specific product segments. In addition to identifying segment winners, IVA also establishes numerical ideal vehicle ratings for virtually every passenger car and light truck in the United States market. These results come from calculating owner input across 15 specific areas related to a vehicle’s attributes, including: exterior styling, exterior size, passenger roominess, cargo space, driver’s seat comfort, driver’s seat visibility, interior technology, interior lighting, power and acceleration, ease of getting in and out, interior storage compartments, ride, handling, safety features and tires and wheels.

The Awards incite the notion that automakers that best understand their customers and create the vehicle their buyers demand, come closest to the ideal.

AutoPacific is a future-oriented automotive marketing and product-consulting firm. Every year it publishes a wide variety of syndicated studies on the automotive industry. The firm also conducts extensive proprietary research and consulting for auto manufacturers, distributors, marketers and suppliers worldwide. Company headquarters and its state-of-the-art automotive research facility are in Tustin, California, with an affiliate office in the Detroit area.