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10-step guide for first-time car buyers

GrnMachine — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:41:04 GMT

10-step guide for first-time car buyers

Step 1 � Do your research
A car is a major investment � probably the second biggest purchase next to your home. So don�t rush it. Do your homework before visiting a dealership. The internet is a great place to start � there�s valuable information right at your fingertips. Look up recent car reviews using GlobeDrive's search tool. Check out the annual auto issue from Consumer Reports, a not-for-profit organization, for their list of the Best & Worst Cars, which is published every April.
Step 2 � Narrow the search
If safety is a top priority, get crash-test results on your favourite vehicles. The Canadian government doesn�t publish the info, but our American counterparts do. For frontal, side, and rollover crash test results, visit the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at or the U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The IIHS also has an annual list of the top safety picks in various categories from small cars to large SUVs.
Recall notices are posted at Transport Canada�s website. If fuel consumption is crucial, find a vehicle�s fuel economy figures as well as CO2 emissions in Natural Resources Canada�s Fuel Consumption Guide. You can even get the brochure mailed to your home for free by calling 1-800-387-2000. And every February, they pick and publish the EcoEnergy award winners for the most fuel efficient vehicles in Canada.
Step 3 � The best time to buy
A great time to buy a car is between August and November when dealers are anxious to move old models and make space for newer ones in the showroom. Late December is also a great time to get a deal � when others are holiday shopping and dealers are anxious to meet sales quotas.
Look for incentives and rebates online as well. Manufacturers often advertise deals like 0 per cent financing or new graduate rebates that will slash several hundred dollars off the price.
Step 4 � Sticker price vs. wholesale price: What�s the difference? Big bucks
The sticker price or MSRP is the price the dealer wants you to pay for a car. But often they�ll sell the car well below the sticker price. The key information is the wholesale or invoice price which is the actual price the dealer paid for the vehicle.
You can find that information for a small fee. For $39.95 you can get five car reports at Car Cost Canada. Likewise, Consumer Reports offers Canadian New Car Price Reports. It�s $29.95 U.S. for one report or $49.95 U.S. for four reports.
The key data, which includes the wholesale price, the sticker price, and the wholesale price of options and packages, is vital when it comes to negotiating. You�ll also get the latest information on national rebates and unadvertised incentives, too. According to Consumer Reports, buyers who use the service save about $1,900 U.S.
Step 5 � Go for a spin
Once you�ve narrowed your selection to a few cars, go for a test drive. Use your time and energy wisely and visit an auto mall with different manufacturers located at the same place. Drive vehicles, back-to-back on the highway and city streets. Park at a crowded mall, do a few U-turns, and test the windshield wipers � even if it�s not raining.

Plug-in maker Fisker to buy idled GM plant

GrnMachine — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:45:39 GMT

Plug-in maker Fisker to buy idled GM plant

Upstart carmaker Fisker Automotive on Tuesday said it will purchase a plant in Wilmington, Del., to make a plug-in hybrid sedan.
The facility, which used to be a General Motors factory, will begin manufacturing a plug-in hybrid in late 2012, which the company expects will cost almost $40,000 after federal tax credits. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Delaware Gov. Jack Markell are scheduled to speak at an announcement ceremony on Tuesday morning.
Production of Fisker's "family-oriented" car, called Project Nina, will result in 2,000 factory jobs. The company anticipates making 75,000 to 100,000 cars per year by 2014. "Wilmington is perfect for high-quality, low-volume production," CEO Henrik Fisker said in a statement.
The Wilmington assembly plant, closed in July this year, produced a handful of relatively low-volume cars from GM's shed brands, including the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky.
Fisker's first car, called the Karma, is a high-end luxury car priced at about $88,000. The Karma, which is will be manufactured in Europe, will be available in the middle of next year.
Fisker Automotive received $528.7 million from a Department of Energy loan in September, which will fund the purchase of the factory from GM. The company expects to buy the plant for $18 million and spend another $175 million to retool the factory over the next three years.
The technology used by Fisker, called an extended-range electric vehicle or series hybrid, is similar to that used by General Motors' Chevy Volt. The Karma will go 50 miles on batteries, and then a gasoline engine will run a generator for longer rides, for a total range 300 miles.

Tesla breaks record for going the distance

GrnMachine — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:45:07 GMT

Tesla breaks record for going the distance

A record for a Tesla Roadster driven on a single charge was set at 313 miles (501 km) in Australia on Tuesday.
Tesla Roadster owner Simon Hackett and his friend Emilis Prelgauskas drove his electric sports car from Alice Springs, Northern Territory, to Coober Pedy, South Australia, as part of an alternative-fuel vehicle rally called the Global Green Challenge.
The Tesla's electric-charge port door was sealed shut at the start of the 313-mile journey and the trip was filmed for a documentary, as well as monitored by contest officials. The Tesla's lithium ion battery, which the company assures owners will last over 200 miles between charges under normal driving circumstances, had 3 miles to spare when the team reached its destination in Coober Pedy, according to Hackett's chronicles of the race experience on his company blog. (Hackett happens to also be the founder and managing director of Internode, an Australian national broadband and Internet services company.)
Hackett said in his blog the achievement is actually a record for any production electric car, not just a Tesla Roadster, which is why his team was so careful to record it. To squeeze as much distance out of the Tesla's battery as they could, Hackett and Prelgauskas tried to drive at a consistent speed of 55 kph (roughly 34 mph) for a large portion of the almost 12-hour journey.
"The security seal was applied to the charge port door when we started the journey. As this is being done as part of the Global Green Challenge, we have a full set of official verifiers here who will attest to the results and to achieving the outcome. We were followed along the journey by our support crew and a documentary film crew--so we have it on film," said Hackett.
While Tesla Motors is not an official sponsor of the contest or Hackett, the company has shown support by spreading the news of Hackett's success. It's not hard to imagine why as Tesla poises for a major retail expansion.
The stunt may certainly speak to consumers who likely drive nowhere near 313 miles in a single day, but are still reluctant to hem themselves in with a car restricted to a limited number of miles between recharges.

Barriers loom on road to plug-in cars

GrnMachine — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:44:21 GMT

Barriers loom on road to plug-in cars

DETROIT--For plug-in electric cars, it's no longer a question of if. It's a question of when and how.
After many years of buildup, plug-in vehicles aimed at mainstream buyers are set to come to the market starting next year. But even with the momentum around plug-ins, many questions remain unanswered over how this technology transition will impact the ailing auto industry and how the cars will received by consumers.
"You have the feeling that we're at the beginning of something that could be very special," said David Cole, the chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, which is funded by government and corporate sources, during the opening of the Business of Plugging In conference here on Tuesday. "There are a great many uncertainties, but we have to recognize that the key invention is here with the lithium ion battery."
The sold-out conference, which attracted about 600 people, represented the varied groups needed to deliver these vehicles: automakers and supply chain suppliers, electricity utilities, policy makers, tech entrepreneurs, and investors.

Regardless of the initial volumes of electric-vehicle sales, the stakes in this shift are high. Electric vehicles promise to reduce pollution from transportation, decrease oil imports, and provide economic opportunity for a broad number of businesses.
Compared to biofuels or hydrogen fuel cell technologies, the large automakers and several start-ups have coalesced around electrification, to a greater extent. But there still remains the question of how much money consumers are willing to pay and how easily they can adjust strong habits.
"We've placed big bets in this area...(but) the question is: will consumers want these vehicles?" Bill Ford, the chairman of Ford Motor, said during a Wednesday talk. "The short answer is, it depends on how many trade-offs they need to make...and I think customers aren't prepared to make many trade-offs at all."
Hybrid premium
Plug-in cars come in various forms, but the larger battery means a higher purchase price than today's hybrids or equivalent gasoline models. If consumers are going to accept that up-front cost, automakers need to convince them that owning an electric car is cheaper in the long run. One idea that automakers are seriously considering is leasing batteries, which could make the monthly payments for a new electric car comparable to a gasoline version.
The actual prices for many cars aren't yet known, since companies have not yet decided. Nissan's all-electric Leaf sedan, set for its U.S. debut next month and availability next year, is said to be in the $25,000 to $30,000 range. Industry executives estimate that the electric Chevy Volt, due late next year, will be in the $40,000 range.
Fueling up an electric car is less expensive than running the equivalent gasoline-only vehicle, and auto industry executives say the maintenance is simpler on electric drives (no more oil changes, for example). Jonathan Lauckner, General Motors' vice president of global program management, on Tuesday said the cost per mile of the Volt could be a sixth of a gasoline car's, offering as much as $1,500 a year in savings. Those savings get better, if gas prices go up and if drivers can charge up more than once a day.
And consumers want this information. Surveys show that consumers are drawn to plug-ins for environmental reasons, but fuel savings are actually more important, according to a survey of U.S. drivers done by Ernst & Young. Safety, of course, is another high priority.
"We've always had a disconnect between the purchase price and the usage cost, where consumers way undervalue the usage costs, which will continue to be a problem here," Richard Curtain, of the Institute of Social Research at the University of Michigan, said during a panel on Wednesday. "If it got to less than a $5,000 premium, that would allay many of the concerns of the consumer."
Industry executives say volume production, a goal of the Department of Energy's $2.4 billion grant program launched in August, will help bring down costs in the coming years, much the way hybrid components fell in price. But that up-front premium is tough to totally erase, given that electrification is competing with a deeply entrenched technology: the internal combustion engine.
Battery improvements will help the cost picture as well. Many companies are working on batteries--a new generation of lithium ion batteries and other chemistries--that can pack more energy. More "energy-dense" batteries means that drivers will get a longer driving range from a battery of a given size. Ultracapacitors, another storage method, have also been proposed as way to work with batteries in vehicles.
Technology horse race
The different routes automakers are taking to electrification affects costs. General Motors' Chevy Volt has generated plenty of buzz, but company executives say its design will make at least the first generation of the car pricey. GM hopes to wring thousands of dollars from the Volt power train, notably the battery and power electronics in the second generation of the car.
Fisker Automotive, a start-up that received a $528 million loan from the Department of Energy, is using a similar power train for its planned Karma and Nina high-end luxury cars. Called an extended-range electric vehicle or a series hybrid, these cars will run on battery charge only in the beginning--40 miles in the case of the Volt--and then use an internal combustion engine to operate a generator for the electric motor on longer trips.
A handful of automakers--Ford, Nissan, Think, and Coda Automotive among them--are making all-electric vehicles, also called battery-electric vehicles. Because of the limited range of about 80 miles to 100 miles, these cars are being sold as second cars in the United States or Europe or for city driving.
By contrast, Toyota, which has already sold millions of Priuses, believes that the way to sell large volumes of plug-in cars is to build on the existing hybrid technology, where batteries and the gasoline engine both propel the car.
"We think that blended (mode) is going to be the only way to reach the cost parity that the consumer is going to want," said Justin Ward, the advanced power train program manager at the Toyota Technical Center. "There (are) a lot of high-end cars, but how high do you go before it becomes unattainable for the general consumer?"
Infrastructure
Electric and hybrid cars aren't going to take over the market any time soon, because of cost and because they face competition from more efficient gasoline engines and diesels. Market researcher IHS Global Insight projects that pure-electric and range-extended electric vehicles will account for just more than 1 percent of the total market by 2014, with hybrids and plug-in hybrids being nearly 21 percent.
But even though plug-ins of various types will be a niche in the early years, utilities need to start preparing now. On a local level, utility executives are concerned that just a few plug-in cars, which can pull as much juice as a whole house when charging, will strain local power grids. That's particularly true, if consumers install faster 220-volt charging ports, which will cut charge time to about two or three hours, from six or eight.
The way to avoid stressing the grid is to charge cars at off-peak times, utility executives say. Pacific Gas & Electric, considered one of the most aggressive utilities in embracing new technologies, plans to offer customers a 220-volt charger that has a timer so consumers can take advantage of lower rates at off-peak times. Using a smart-grid technology, a car charger could pick its charge time and rate by communicating through a smart meter.
But what if someone can't charge at home? Like others, utility industry group the Edison Electric Institute advocates new building codes demanding that all new buildings are wired so that charging stations can be added in places such as underground parking garages in apartment buildings or retail areas, according to Anthony Earley, the chairman of the institute and CEO of utility DTE Energy.
A few charging stations will go a long way, according to people who spoke at the conference. "We act like this is a chicken-and-an-egg problem, but it's really not," said Mark Duvall, the director of electric transportation at the Electric Power Research Institute. "They are not enabling technologies, in my opinion, but they can help."
If plug-in electric vehicles are wildly popular with consumers and fleet owners, the industry will then face the challenge of having sufficient capital to scale up. During a discussion on battery technologies, academics said that even now, there isn't a sufficient workforce to do the engineering required for electric vehicles, with the most glaring hole in materials science.
Although higher manufacturing should significantly cut battery prices, there were regular questions about the supply of lithium at the conference. Overall, auto and battery company executives said lithium supply is not a pressing concern. Lithium could be extracted from different sources and can be recycled, said Yet Ming Chiang, the chief scientist of battery upstart A123 Systems and professor of ceramics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The U.S. auto industry has an opportunity to be reinvigorated with electric auto technologies, as its seeks to transition from the "rust belt to the green belt," Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Wednesday. China, meanwhile, is investing heavily in electric transportation, which national leaders see as a way to "leapfrog" to the latest technologies, said Yibing Wu, the managing director of Legend Holding, the company that makes Lenovo laptops and is moving into clean energy.
On an environmental level, plug-in hybrid cars have 30 percent lower carbon emissions, even if a car is fueled by coal-fired power plants, Earley said. That's particularly important on a global level, since hundreds of millions of cars are expected to be sold in the coming years in developing countries, said Ann Marie Sastry, a University of Michigan professor and a co-founder of a Khosla Ventures-backed battery company Sakti3.
"The small car is absolutely going to be essential for electrification and to all of us because it doesn't matter where the carbon comes from--whether we generate it or it comes from the emerging economies," Sastry said. "It's imperative (that) the United States play a role in this technology development because of our own interest in climate change."

Heat From Your Car's Engine Exhaust Is Captured And Converted To Energy

GrnMachine — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:53:17 GMT

WARREN, Mich. - The day is coming when the heat from your car�s engine exhaust is captured and converted to mechanical energy capable of powering your vehicle�s stereo, power seats and air conditioning.

General Motors R&D received a $2.7 million federal award Monday that will help build a prototype using Shape Memory Alloy, or SMA, that would generate electricity from the heat in automotive exhaust.

�When you heat up a stretched SMA wire, it shrinks back to its pre-stretched length, and when it cools back down it becomes less stiff and can revert to the original shape� said Jan Aase, director of GM�s Vehicle Development Research Laboratory. �A loop of this wire could be used to drive an electric generator to charge a battery.�

It is too soon to identify a vehicle where this technology could work, but hybrid or conventionally powered vehicles are possible applications.

�No one else anywhere in the world is doing this work as far as we know,� Aase said. �In a hybrid system, the electrical energy could be used to charge the battery. In a conventional engine, this could perhaps even replace the alternator without any load on the engine.�

The award from the Department of Energy�s Advanced Research Program Agency � Energy, or ARPA-E, was the only grant to an automaker among $151 million in distributed by the DOE. GM will work with HRL Laboratories; Dynalloy, Inc., a Tustin, CA manufacturer of shape memory alloys specially made to be used as actuators, and the Smart Materials Collaborative Research Lab at the University of Michigan.

"This award is significant for the gains in energy efficiency it could bring, and because it signifies how GM is doing business though collaboration and partnership,� said Alan Taub, GM vice president of global R&D.

�The days are gone when we would do this kind of groundbreaking work on our own. We need to continue to find ways to combine our deep technical knowledge with others who can help take our ideas from concept to commercialization,� he said.

The idea of an SMA heat engine �has been around for 30 years,� Aase said, but the few devices that have been built were too large and too inefficient to make it worthwhile.�

Even now, the technology is in the very early stages. Over the next two years, GM and its partners will work to create a working prototype.

New car smell: Intoxicating or toxic?

GrnMachine — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:58:02 GMT

New car smell: Intoxicating or toxic?

Ahhh, that lovely �new car� smell we always covet. Take a deep breath, get a good noseful. Ever wondered why new cars smell the way they do?

That�ll be a cheeky ****tail of bromine, chlorine, lead, arsenic, mercury and other such wonderful chemicals and elements linked with allergies, birth defects, impaired learning, liver toxicity and cancer.
For the second year running, HealthyCar.org has made a study of toxic substances in over 200 new cars (2008 and 2009 models) and 60 children�s car seats. The worst offender on wheels is the Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder GT. Perhaps we should be thankful that this convertible isn�t a family car. The goody four-tires of the bunch is the Acura RDX (an SUV -- how inconvenient, given the current climate).

Of course, these chemicals don�t get there by accident. For example, bromine is used as a flame retardant. And while this latest study finds that �far too many companies have not yet phased out ... dangerous chemicals,� the good news is that several car makers have cleaned up their acts somewhat from last year, with General Motors showing the most improvement out of the Big Three. The average child seat is also 28% less toxic than 12 months ago.
The tests were carried out using a portable X-ray fluorescence device that can determine an item�s chemical composition within 60 seconds.