(CBS) – Wednesday is New Year's Eve and before you pop the bubbly, you might consider buying a car.
Experts tell CBS 2's Mike Parker it's the best day of the year to get a deal.
As the hours of 2014 dwindle down to a precious few, car dealers are scrambling to meet year-end sales quotas and sell off inventories to save on taxes.
As they are about to close the door on the old year, they are creating what experts say is the best time of the year to trade up.
"Everything comes together, manufacturers are aggressive, dealers are being aggressive," said John Webb of the Chicago Auto Trade Association. "I think the customers have some either Christmas bonus money or what have you flowing through their pocket."
At DuPage Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram in Glendale Heights, they're making deals.
August Castaldo was one Dodge Caravan buyer Tuesday night. He says he is happy with the deal and that by buying at this time of year, he figures he saved, "probably four or five thousand dollars."
Dealer executive Ron Collins buyers of atypical $36,000 car are "probably looking at savings of 25 percent on some of those cars."
So, when is the worst time to shop for a new car? It's probably springtime. There are more buyers out there, and many are flush with tax refunds. Dealers are less inclined to deal.
A car that was submerged in a swimming pool at a house in northwest Harris County was removed around 5:20 p.m. Tuesday. It took crews about 20 minutes to tow the vehicle out of the water.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office says the vehicle lost control and ended up in the pool happened around 4:25 a.m. Tuesday morning at a house on the 16000 block of Winter Rose Court.
Authorities say they arrived at the scene around 4:28 a.m. The occupants of the vehicle did not require an ambulance, according to investigators.
The driver of the car told officers at the scene that he was driving at about 100 miles per hour at the time of the accident.
The homeowners were asleep when they heard a commotion in their back yard.
"We were sleeping at 4, 4:30-ish," Jerry Brownlee said. "The car is coming...so when you wake you have this big flash of light and a bang and smash. You're thinking lightning. That's what I thought. So we got up and came to the back door and looked out the door and in the pool was this car floating."
The pool water has been deemed contaminated and a Hazmat crew will be required to deal with the cleanup and remove the car without further damaging the home.
Authorities say that if the driver has insurance, that company will be liable for the damage.
Published On: Dec 30 2014 03:50:52 PM CSTUpdated On: Dec 30 2014 06:08:46 PM CST
This is a Tesla for Kindergarteners. For real. Differential steering. Independent suspension. Disc brakes. Android-based infotainment system. Fully operational lights and sound system. A Bluetooth remote that lets you drive it around like a big ol' RC car. User-configurable top speed and driving modes. Excellent battery life. Plenty of giddy-up. Very good value for the price.
TIRED
Remote-control emergency brake doesn't work in all driving modes. Polycarbonate frame can take lumps, but it feels flimsy on the hood and trunk. Small, easily losable stick is needed to pop the trunk and hood. The car is not light-green and has limited trunk space. No sippy-cup holder.
The Henes Broon F870's seduction begins long before you're seated in its sporty bucket seat, gripping its racy steering wheel and tapping and swiping its best-in-class infotainment system. The big flirt begins with the brochure, 90 glossy pages that reel you in with a barrage of automotive temptation.
First, the images grab you. The F870 is a knockout with its strong lines and supercar looks—a boxier 2015 Miata with a similarly furrowed brow. Move over, Tesla, because the zero-emissions Broon F870 is as eco-friendly as it is eye-catching. And you can recharge this fully electric ride from any wall outlet—not that you'll do much charging, because its range is excellent.
Not feeling its style? No problem. Pop off the modular exterior panels and have at it. SUV and sedan bodies pop right onto the chassis. The fully loaded F870 has dual motors and all-wheel drive like the Tesla P85D, doubling the top speed of the base model Broon F830. All that giddy-up requires extra safety assurances, so it's got a four-point racing harness—standard.
And the piece de resistance? You don't even need to be behind the wheel to drive it. An included remote turns it into the world's biggest RC car.
Um, what? Surely there are regulations against ghost-driving a car. And shouldn't the South Korean company Henes be a household name if it's out-Tesla'ing Tesla? Can the F870 be as amazing as its brochure suggests?
"Better," says our test driver, who figures the Henes Broon F870 is worth five times its asking price. "My favorite thing about it was the motor."
That asking price, by the way, is just $1,000. And yes, this is a real car, even if it is just 4 feet long, tops out at 10mph and has about as much trunk space as an Italian supercar. You see, the Henes Broon F870 is a precision-engineered, high-performance luxury car for kids. And it is awesome.
It's Freaking Amazing
No, seriously. It's freaking amazing. Although it's made for kids, adults covet this car. The one we tested, a fully loaded top-of-the-line model, is one of a kind. Henes said our loaner unit was the only functional Broon F870 in the world at the time we reviewed it. Every WIRED staffer who saw it wanted to drive it. Nobody could fit. So to test this miniature version of a luxury sports car, we turned it over to a miniature version of WIRED contributing editor Brendan Koerner. Koerner's six-year-old son Maceo test-drove the car over the course of two months and provided some behind-the-wheel impressions.
As it turns out, even Maceo had trouble fitting into the Broon F870. He's about 4 feet tall and had to drive with his knees straight up. Four feet is definitely the height ceiling. Despite the tight squeeze, Maceo said the ride is comfy.
That's due in no small part to the independent suspension system, which looks and works a lot like the one you'll see in most sports cars. This baby motors right over gravel, potholes, and other nastiness with ease thanks to its coil springs and gas-tube shocks that dampen wheels wrapped with urethane-foam tires. "There was a sidewalk they were fixing," explains Maceo. "But it went solid over it. One time I thought it was going to get stuck, but it didn't. It was just a long bump, like BUMP."
Handling is equally nimble. Differential steering controlled by an aluminum-alloy gearbox and a short wheelbase make the F870 capable of surprisingly sharp handling. The suspension and the steering truly make it more like a real car than a toy. Adding to the realism are working headlights, brake lights, hazard lights, and turn signals. The signals automatically engage whenever you take a left or right. All of this make the Broon a legitimate learning tool.
"It was a steep learning curve, but by the third or fourth time that we brought it out, he was doing three-point turns and trying to parallel park," says Koerner the Elder. "It taught him a lot about driving."
A Range Of 'Like, 3,000 Miles'
The battery life on the car is outstanding, as it uses the same kind of 24V/14Ah rechargeable unit found in some electric bikes and scooters. When asked how far the car could go on a single charge, Maceo replied "I would say like 3,000 miles." Dad could not vouch for that, but said he charged the car just twice during the two-month test. There's a tradeoff, however: The battery takes up a ton of trunk space, leaving little room for cargo.
"It was little," Maceo says of the trunk. "If it was bigger, I would put all my stuff I don't need that I brought in the car just in case. Like let's say if it was a really hot day and I brought my sweatshirt. If I didn't need it I would put it in the trunk."
Recharging the car also recharges the 7-inch Android touchscreen tablet on the dash. It displays the car's speed, lets parents adjust various settings, and streams music to the car's speakers. The tablet also lets you tweak safety features, like maximum speed and its driving mode. Cooler still, the car has a self-diagnosis feature. If anything goes wrong, you can have the car analyze itself and tell you what's wrong with it.
There are three driving modes beyond full remote-control mode: "Comfort" mode makes acceleration and braking slow and easy. "Normal"—used for most of our testing—increases the sensitivity of the gas and brake pedals for a little more yee-haw; "Dynamic" mode cranks it all up to whiplash levels.
The Bluetooth 4.0 remote control, which runs on a pair of AAA batteries, is the only way adults can enjoy this ride. Oh sure, it's a great way to drive around kids who are too young or too small to drive themselves. But it also lets you increase your return on investment. Thanks to its responsive handling and surprising speed, the Broon is a massive but tightly tuned RC car. "I wouldn't let him drive it across the street, so I would put it in remote control," said papa Koerner. "That was super fun."
It Is Not Without Issues, However
There was one issue with the remote control, however, and it's significant. The big emergency stop button on the top of the remote—designed to stop the car and shut it down in an emergency—didn't work consistently. Perhaps the fact our car was a prototype meant the kinks are still being worked out. Or perhaps it only works when the car is in RC mode. Either way, it didn't work in Normal mode.
That's the only big issue we found, but we have some quibbles. While the car's polycarbonate body is incredibly durable and ding-resistant—I crashed it into a wall (no passengers) at a fairly high speed, damaging the wall but not the car—the plasticky trunk and hood feel flimsy. And the body panels are shaky and slippery when you're carrying the 60-pound ride, a task that takes two people.
The car's "key," a small polycarbonate rod that stows under the dashboard, is easily lost–and you definitely want to keep it away from toddlers' mouths. You don't need the key to start the motor—that's done with a button on the dash—but it pops the trunk, which you'll need to do to turn the car's main power on and recharge the battery.
As long as your kid is the right age, this is their dream ride. The car is rated for ages 1-5, and Koerner says 5 might be the sweet spot. That's the age at which most kids are the right size and have enough mental capacity to get the most out of the car. Maceo reckons the ideal age is 4—mostly because the car was so small—but he never got tired of driving it despite the cramped space. He says he likes the car more than his bike.
In the end, father and son agreed the F870 provided excellent value, but they disagreed slightly on the overall rating for the car. Dad gives it an 8 out of 10, citing the emergency-stop issue and the polycarbonate frame as the only drawbacks. "Just seeing him get into it, he really really enjoyed it," says Koerner. "As a parent, that's the most important thing."
Maceo would bump that score up to a 9. He also offers his own blueprint for Broon perfection.
"It drove pretty well, and it was surprisingly fast," says Maceo. He'd have awarded the car a perfect 10 "…if it was light-green. And had a full steering wheel. And had more trunk space. Bigger. And had a roof."
We've all heard the idea: In winter, your car needs a little time to warm up before you can drive it. And that's why across the United States, people who live in cold and snowy places -- and especially those whose cars have remote starters -- often f! ire up their engines long before they start driving. Heck, they might even start the car from the kitchen in the morning, and only then start the coffee brewing.
But it turns out that this idea of idling your car during the winter is just wrong. And so are the many, many Americans who believe it -- one 2009 study found that on average, Americans thought they should idle for over 5 minutes before driving when temperatures were below 32 degrees!
Like many misconceptions, the idea behind winter car idling begins with a kernel of truth. Cars do get worse fuel economy when it's really cold out -- they are at least 12 percent less fuel efficient, according to Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Department. And it does take longer for the engine to warm up and reach an optimal driving temperature in cold weather.
Moreover, older cars -- which relied on carburetors as a crucial engine component -- did need to warm up to work well, according to several auto industry experts. Without warming up, the carburetor would not necessarily be able to get the right mix of air and fuel in the engine -- and the car might stall out. During the 1980s and into the early 1990s, however, the auto industry did away with carburetors in favor of electronic fuel injection, which uses sensors to supply fuel to the engine and get the right air and fuel mix. This makes the problem of warming up the car before driving irrelevant, because the sensors monitor and adjust to temperature conditions.
Idling in winter thus has no benefit to your (presumably modern) car. Auto experts today say that you should warm up the car no more than 30 seconds before you start driving in winter. "The engine will warm up faster being driven," the EPA and DOE explain. Indeed, it is better to turn your engine off and start it again than to leave it idling.
So idling does nothing for your vehicle, but it does have several big (and avoidable) costs: Wasting fuel, and giving off greenhouse gas emissions and other types of pollution.
To show as much, Natural Resources Canada -- the energy and resources agency of a cold country that also has serious idling problems -- ran an idling experiment, freezing three cars to minus 18 degrees Celsius and then driving each one the same distance. Sometimes the cars were idled five minutes before driving, and sometimes 10 minutes. The result was that the more idling time, the more wasted fuel.
"The test results showed that with a 5-minute warm-up total fuel consumption increased by 7 to 14 percent and with a 10-minute warm-up total fuel consumption increased by 12 to 19 percent," the agency reported.
The Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, which has also conducted much research on idling, reported that "idling fuel consumption is, of course, linear with time, and increases with engine size":
Source: Argonne National Laboratory.
Or to put it more bluntly: Whereas newer cars are constantly improving the miles they get per gallon driven, idling will always be stuck in place -- using up gas, but getting no miles for it.
But it's not just fuel waste, it's the accompanying emissions. What does it look like when you have a whole population of people -- or at least the northern belt of a country like the U.S. -- idling their cars in winter?
A 2009 study in Energy Policy tried to calculate the consequences. The researchers found that, overall, all types of vehicle idling -- idling in winter, idling while waiting for someone or something, and idling in traffic -- contribute a staggering 1.6 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
That number is "almost double the total emissions for the iron and steel manufacturing industry," the paper noted. (In fairness, since the study was published vehicle fuel economy has improved, and new vehicle greenhouse gas emissions have declined, thanks to new regulations. So especially for new vehicles, this may somewhat blunt the overall effects of idling.)
That is not to say that all idling should be stopped immediately. Some idling -- particularly in traffic -- may be unavoidable. But the other two categories of idling -- in winter and while waiting -- make a lot less sense. And the study found that they account for nearly half of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions attributable to idling.
And no wonder: When 1,300 Americans were surveyed about idling for the study, nearly half reported both idling their cars for longer than 30 seconds to warm them up and idling for more than 30 seconds because of waiting. Indeed, the average amount of time that respondents thought you should idle your car before driving, when it is lower that 32 degrees Fahrenheit outside, was 5.01 minutes! And since that's the average, many people thought you should idle for a lot longer than that.
"These values indicate that beliefs about how much idling is appropriate or desirable are highly distorted," the authors wrote.
The study found that if people would just knock off unnecessary idling of this sort, then consumers as a whole would save $5.9 billion per year on fuel costs (based on the cost of fuel in 2008). The saved emissions, the study noted, would be "larger than the emissions from the soda ash, aluminum and limestone industries combined."
Idling behavior, the paper concluded, is "worthy of policymakers' attention." Some have taken note. For instance, often-freezing Minneapolis has an anti-idling statute that restricts all non-traffic idling to three minutes per hour (with some exceptions). Anti-idling laws across the country vary, but some localities follow a similar course. So idling isn't just pointless -- beyond a point, it may even trigger a hefty fine.
Meanwhile, technological advances, and the push for ever greater fuel economy, are even starting to help deal with the most unavoidable type of idling: Idling because you're stuck in traffic. Vehicle start-stop technology literally shuts down the engine when your car is stopped, and automatically switches it on again when you start to drive again. This technology tends to be found in hybrids but has spread to other cars as well. GM now boasts that 97 percent of buyers of a 2014 or 2015 Chevy Malibu bought a car with start-stop technology.
So, it's hard to see any redeeming value to idling your car in winter. For the final word on the dumbness of this practice, let's turn to the late Tom Magliozzi, the unforgettable co-host of NPR's "Car Talk." As he put it to a Boston listener named Lisa, who had asked about her boyfriend's conviction that you need to idle up to 10 minutes in winter:
"Dear Lisa's Boyfriend: You have your head so far up your tailpipe on this one, it may be coming out your air intake."
Update: Many readers have responded to this piece by raising some good and interesting points. In particular, some folks have noted that they idle their cars in winter not for the sake of the engine, but rather for comfort (warmth) or because it helps in defrosting. While this article was focused solely on the energy and fuel consequences of idling, I acknowledge these other reasons. That said, the research cited above does suggest that many people think idling is necessary for their car's engine, not for comfort or safety. So please, click the links if you have more questions about idling (here's EPA and DOE, and here's Argonne National Laboratory), and have a happy and safe driving experience this winter!
A Hempfield Area High School senior was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries Monday morning after the car he was driving smashed into a hillside along Route 136 at a Hempfield intersection.
The crash occurred about a mile from the high school, where he had participated in swim team practice despite earning the day off.
Judson M. Shiffler, 18, of Hempfield was in critical condition Monday night in UPMC Presbyterian in Pittsburgh, a hospital spokeswoman said. He was taken to the hospital by a medical helicopter.
Shiffler was alone in his 1997 Chevrolet Cavalier when it crashed at Route 136 and Millersdale Road about 9:30 a.m., state police at Greensburg said. Shiffler was westbound on Route 136 when his car hit a sign advising motorists of the T-shaped intersection with Millersdale Road. Shiffler's car continued through a stop sign and traveled at least 15 feet up the hillside before stopping when it hit a stand of trees, state police said. The car was heavily damaged.
Firefighters from Fort Allen Volunteer Fire Department responded to the scene and were assisted by Jeannette EMS, police said.
Shiffler, a swim team captain, was at practice even though he had been given the day off because he had earned the best grades among members of the boys team, according to his coach, Kevin Clougherty."He's just a tremendous leader and a captain. He walks around humbly and is always approachable," Clougherty said.
Shiffler won the Class AAA 50-yard freestyle competition at the WPIAL swimming championships in February. He competed in the state Class AAA swimming championships in the 100-yard butterfly and 50-yard freestyle events, according to CollegeSwimming.com, a website that ranks college swim teams and tracks recruits.
CollegeSwimming.Com ranks Shiffler as 35th among high school swimmers in the state and 584th in terms of recruits from the graduating class of 2015.
Despite winning the individual honors at the WPIAL swimming championships, Clougherty said Shiffler was happiest to have his team perform well in the 200-yard and 400-yard relays at the championships.
"He was so proud of his guys. He is great with his teammates and put his teammates first," Clougherty said.
Shiffler not only excels in swimming, Clougherty said, he has helped tutor some of his younger teammates.
Jacob Tierney and Joe Napsha are staff writers for Trib Total Media. Jacob can be reached at 724-836-6646. Joe can be reached at 724-836-5252 or jnapsha@tribweb.com.
We've all heard the idea: In winter, your car needs a little time to warm up before you can drive it. And that's why across the United States, people who live in cold and snowy places -- and especially those whose cars have remote starters -- often fire up their engines long before they start driving. Heck, they might even start the car from the kitchen in the morning, and only then start the coffee brewing.
But it turns out that this idea of idling your car during the winter is just wrong. And so are the many, many Americans who believe it -- one 2009 study found that on average, Americans thought they should idle for over 5 minutes before driving when temperatures were below 32 degrees!
Like many misconceptions, the idea behind winter car idling begins with a kernel of truth. Cars do get worse fuel economy when it's really cold out -- they are at least 12 percent less fuel efficient, according to Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Department. And it does take longer for the engine to warm up and reach an optimal driving temperature in cold weather.
Moreover, older cars -- which relied on carburetors as a crucial engine component -- did need to warm up to work well, according to several auto industry experts. Without warming up, the carburetor would not necessarily be able to get the right mix of air and fuel in the engine -- and the car might stall out. During the 1980s and into the early 1990s, however, the auto industry did away with carburetors in favor of electronic fuel injection, which uses sensors to supply fuel to the engine and get the right air and fuel mix. This makes the problem of warming up the car before driving irrelevant, because the sensors monitor and adjust to temperature conditions.
Idling in winter thus has no benefit to your (presumably modern) car. Auto experts today say that you should warm up the car no more than 30 seconds before you start driving in winter. "The engine will warm up faster being driven," the EPA and DOE explain. Indeed, it is better to turn your engine off and start it again than to leave it idling.
So idling does nothing for your vehicle, but it does have several big (and avoidable) costs: Wasting fuel, and giving off greenhouse gas emissions and other types of pollution.
To show as much, Natural Resources Canada -- the energy and resources agency of a cold country that also has serious idling problems -- ran an idling experiment, freezing three cars to minus 18 degrees Celsius and then driving each one the same distance. Sometimes the cars were idled five minutes before driving, and sometimes 10 minutes. The result was that the more idling time, the more wasted fuel.
"The test results showed that with a 5-minute warm-up total fuel consumption increased by 7 to 14 percent and with a 10-minute warm-up total fuel consumption increased by 12 to 19 percent," the agency reported.
The Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, which has also conducted much research on idling, reported that "idling fuel consumption is, of course, linear with time, and increases with engine size":
Source: Argonne National Laboratory.
Or to put it more bluntly: Whereas newer cars are constantly improving the miles they get per gallon driven, idling will always be stuck in place -- using up gas, but getting no miles for it.
But it's not just fuel waste, it's the accompanying emissions. What does it look like when you have a whole population of people -- or at least the northern belt of a country like the U.S. -- idling their cars in winter?
A 2009 study in Energy Policy tried to calculate the consequences. The researchers found that, overall, all types of vehicle idling -- idling in winter, idling while waiting for someone or something, and idling in traffic -- contribute a staggering 1.6 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
That number is "almost double the total emissions for the iron and steel manufacturing industry," the paper noted. (In fairness, since the study was published vehicle fuel economy has improved, and new vehicle greenhouse gas emissions have declined, thanks to new regulations. So especially for new vehicles, this may somewhat blunt the overall effects of idling.)
That is not to say that all idling should be stopped immediately. Some idling -- particularly in traffic -- may be unavoidable. But the other two categories of idling -- in winter and while waiting -- make a lot less sense. And the study found that they account for nearly half of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions attributable to idling.
And no wonder: When 1,300 Americans were surveyed about idling for the study, nearly half reported both idling their cars for longer than 30 seconds to warm them up and idling for more than 30 seconds because of waiting. Indeed, the average amount of time that respondents thought you should idle your car before driving, when it is lower that 32 degrees Fahrenheit outside, was 5.01 minutes! And since that's the average, many people thought you should idle for a lot longer than that.
"These values indicate that beliefs about how much idling is appropriate or desirable are highly distorted," the authors wrote.
The study found that if people would just knock off unnecessary idling of this sort, then consumers as a whole would save $5.9 billion per year on fuel costs (based on the cost of fuel in 2008). The saved emissions, the study noted, would be "larger than the emissions from the soda ash, aluminum and limestone industries combined."
Idling behavior, the paper concluded, is "worthy of policymakers' attention." Some have taken note. For instance, often-freezing Minneapolis has an anti-idling statute that restricts all non-traffic idling to three minutes per hour (with some exceptions). Anti-idling laws across the country vary, but some localities follow a similar course. So idling isn't just pointless -- beyond a point, it may even trigger a hefty fine.
Meanwhile, technological advances, and the push for ever greater fuel economy, are even starting to help deal with the most unavoidable type of idling: Idling because you're stuck in traffic. Vehicle start-stop technology literally shuts down the engine when your car is stopped, and automatically switches it on again when you start to drive again. This technology tends to be found in hybrids but has spread to other cars as well. GM now boasts that 97 percent of buyers of a 2014 or 2015 Chevy Malibu bought a car with start-stop technology.
So, it's hard to see any redeeming value to idling your car in winter. For the final word on the dumbness of this practice, let's turn to the late Tom Magliozzi, the unforgettable co-host of NPR's "Car Talk." As he put it to a Boston listener named Lisa, who had asked about her boyfriend's conviction that you need to idle up to 10 minutes in winter:
"Dear Lisa's Boyfriend: You have your head so far up your tailpipe on this one, it may be coming out your air intake."
Chris Mooney reports on science and the environment.
It's year-end clearance time and dealers across the country—especially those selling luxury brands—are offering big discounts and special financing to get you to buy. But is it really the best time of the year to get a bargain on a new car?
The week between Christmas and New Year's Day is expected to be the busiest of the year, according to the experts at Edmunds.com. They predict that new car sales during these six days will be 78 percent higher than the average week in December. And leasing is expected to hit an all-time high.
"If you can get a 2014 model, you'll save about 10 percent off the MSRP as compared to six percent off MSRP for 2015 models," said Aaron Lewis, senior communications manager at Edmunds.com.
Read more from Today.com: 5 financial moves to make before New Year's 6 stores that make returns tough on gift-getters Retailers are wishing you happier returns than ever
Consumer advocates urge caution. It's easy to get swept up in all the year-end marketing hype and wind up with a less-than-great deal.
"There is no best time of year to buy a car," said Kevin Brasler, executive editor at the non-profit Checkbook.org. "The whole idea that there are great end-of-the-year sales because dealers are motivated to make their sales quotas is just a myth."
Checkbook runs the CarBargains buying service. It gathers competitive bids from various dealers in the buyer's area to find the lowest price. They find that there are sales throughout the year – especially on slow-selling models. It's all based on supply and demand, Brasler said.
Jack Gillis, author of The Car Book 2014 reminds buyers to be skeptical about the bold savings claims made in the ads. (Read chapter on 5 Basic Steps for Car Buying.)
Read More Google to go straight into car with next Android: Sources
"It's the fine print that can kill you; it can dramatically change the terms of that great-sounding offer," Gillis told TODAY. "And the lower-priced models featured in the ads can often be hard to find on the lot."
Earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined two auto dealer groups that were charged with deceptive advertising.
In its complaint, the FTC said some of the TV commercials hid significant information in the fine print, such as the substantial down payment required or added costs. Other ads didn't disclose that the low monthly payments or attractive interest rates offered were only for leases, not sales.
Read MoreVW's Audi to step up investments on models, plants
All too often, buyers go to a dealer and spend hours trying to negotiate a better deal. Here's a better approach: Do some comparison shopping first. Contact a few dealers – online or on the phone – and request a quote.
"If you get competitive bids, you can often buy a vehicle for hundreds of dollars below invoice and sometimes thousands below invoice," said Checkbook's Brasler.
Edmunds.com has a free Price Promise service that makes it easy to get quotes for the same model from several dealers in your area.
Read MoreTesla Roadster nearly doubles miles with upgrade
"These Internet prices are usually aggressive because dealers know it's easy for people to get them and compare them," said Aaron Lewis.
It's also a good idea to get pre-approved for a loan before you start shopping. Contact your bank or credit union to see what interest rate you qualify for. This way, you'll know how much you can afford to spend and if the dealer's financing rate is better than what you could get on your own.
You'll find advice and tips about car buying at Checkbook, Edmunds and Consumer Reports.
—By Herb Weisbaum, TODAY.com/money. See more Money News from The TODAY Show at our Facebook and Twitter.
Police charged a Webster women with driving while intoxicated Sunday night after she allegedly sideswiped a state police cruiser on Route 104.
Liliya Blekot, 21, was arrested at the scene of the crash, which happened just after 9 p.m.
Trooper William Schneider had pulled off the westbound side of Route 104, just before the Bay Road exit, to check directions when Blekot struck his cruiser from behind, state police said. Police responded after a 911 call from the trooper inside his car, said State Police Sgt. Christopher Brown.
Schneider was uninjured. After striking the trooper's vehicle, Blekot's car wound up in the woods by the expressway, according to police.
Traffic was reduced to a single lane for a three hours while troopers investigated the crash.
Read or Share this story: http://on.rocne.ws/1AYlXlX
Officers believe the two could be tied to more than 30 burglaries in the Friendswood area
FRIENDSWOOD - Friendswood police believe they know who stole gifts, electronics and guns from dozens of cars in the area. Two suspects are now behind bars thanks to a quick thinking neighbor who couldn't sleep.
"I think I was just kind of at the right place at the right time," said Debbie Peck, a resident of the Forest of Friendswood subdivision. She lives on Pinehurst Court, a quiet, dead end street.
"It's always been safe," Peck added.
Residents say it's a place where neighbors still say hello.
"You can leave your garage door open, your front door unlocked and you would never expect anybody to break in," said Kade Beyer, whose car was broken into.
Those reasons are why Debbie Peck knew something wasn't quite right when she looked out her window at about 1:30 Saturday morning.
"I went to open up the windows and I saw the car pull up over there and two people stopped and they got out of the car," Peck said. "They were going through the cars and I saw them run across the yard and break into a car."
Police say 21-year-old Kevin Cailleteau and 19-year-old Devon Garcia are responsible for more than 30 car break ins over the past week. Cailleteau's bond is set at $5,500. Garcia, whose criminal history includes disorderly conduct and evading arrest, has a bond set at $1,500.
One of the cars burglarized Saturday morning belongs to Kade Beyer, who says he had some loose change and a sunglasses case nabbed. But after the break in, Beyer says things got more personal.
"We caught them rooting around in our garage and they were trying to break into my dad's car," Beyer said. "Thank God I had just gone out and locked it the night before."
Meanwhile, Debbie Peck was watching from outside her home. While the suspects were down the street, Peck says she walked up to their car, took their license plate number then called police.
When officials arrived, they arrested Garcia, but Cailleteau took off. According to officers they searched for Cailleteau with dogs and ATVs and eventually arrested him at his girlfriend's home in Alvin.
"I kind of figured my insomnia finally paid off," said Peck.
"We definitely owe her a thank you. I mean, everybody does," Beyer says in reference to Peck. "It's bothersome knowing somebody was rooting around in your personal business, like in your house. Somebody was breaking into our stuff. That's more bothersome than what they took."
Read or Share this story: http://www.khou.com/story/news/crime/2014/12/27/friendswood-police-capture-car-crooks-in-act/20947325/
ALLSTON (CBS) — A car drove into the Common Ground Bar and Grill in Allston early Sunday morning causing significant damage to the building.
The incident occurred shortly before 7:00 a.m. The restaurant still opened for brunch at 11:00a.m.
The car drove off, but the restaurant owner says surveillance video caught the license plate number. Several witness also provided a description of the driver to Boston Police.
No arrests have been made, but police say the driver will likely face charges of leaving the scene of an accident and causing property damage.
Brenda Priddy makes her living as a spy photographer.
But she doesn't work for any government. Instead, she sells her photos of cars and trucks -- usually vehicles that have not yet been revealed to the public -- to car magazines and auto enthusiast web sites hungryfor even a camouflaged glimpse of an upcoming model.
Generally speaking, automakers don't appreciate what she does.
But lately she's found a friendlier place to indulge her passion for automotive photography, a place where the cars are ancient and often decrepit but people are eager to sho! w them off: Cuba.
New cars, in this communist country, which has been under a U.S. trade embargo since the early 1960s, are difficult and expensive to acquire. But passionate -- and largely impoverished -- owners have kept the now ancient American cars that were on the road before the embargo still rolling with a mixture of grit, ingenuity and whatever parts they can gather.
The cars are often hard to recognize after decades of repainting and modification, but there are some classics under all that body work.
"It might have 10 coats of house paint on it to keep the rust from spreading," Priddy said.
A lot of old American cars in Cuba, like this 1957 Ford Fairlane, are now used as taxi cabs.
In most ca! ses these automobiles are, literally, a mere shell of what the! y used to be. While the body might be that of a 1957 Ford, the engine is more likely from a Mercedes-Benz(DDAIY) or a Peugeot. Even the body itself might even have been significantly changed. Cars are stretched for new roles as taxicabs. Roofs might have been cut off to turn hardtops into a convertibles.
Often, cars like this 1957 Chevrolet Bel Aire, have engines taken from later European cars.
Priddy went to Cuba in 2013 as part of a cultural exchange program and quickly became drawn to the island's time-warp car culture. She then organized a car-focused cultural exchange trip of her own earlier this year taking with her, among others, auto company executives, an automo! tive museum curator and a retired car magazine art director.
The emphasis is on keeping cars like this 1952 Chevrolet running not on keeping them in original condition.
The group visited Cuba's national car museum in Havana and spent a couple of days with members of the city's biggest car club.
Cars like this 1952 Buick are often passed down through families.
"They're so happy for people to have an interest in their cars," she said.
There are Russian, French and Asian cars on the roads of Havana! , she said, and they're usually much newer than and in better shape than these American models, but it's clearly General Motors(GM), Ford(F) and Chrysler(FCAM) products for which people have the most affection.
This is a 1952 Plymouth but little of the original car may remain underneath.
"They love their American cars," she said.
! This 1958 Ford Prefect was a model not sold in the United States.
Even though these cars are hardly in original condition, their owners are proud of the machines and the lengths to which they've gone to keep them running.
This 1951 Chevrolet has clearly been through some changes.
For the relative few who have real money to spend, American car parts can be had through couriers who buy the parts in the United States and simply bring them in their luggage on trips to Cuba.
In her normal professional life, Brenda ! Priddy takes photographs like this one of a Chevrolet Silverado being tested in the desert before it had been unveiled to the public.
So far, Priddy has taken over 50,000 photos of Cuba's cars and is planning another Cuban car tour later this year.
'Smokey and the Bandit' Trans Am sells for $450k
Experts from Hagerty Insurance assisted with identifying the cars shown in these photographs.
(Reuters) - Luis Abel Bango spent seven years searching for his dream car, a 1957 Chevy Bel Air. He finally found it on Cuba's far western tip, buying it off the original owner for $7,000.
"I went everywhere looking for what I wanted. Out in the provinces, central Cuba. I had to go to the end of the island to find this one," Bango said.
The black-and-white four-door had been kept intact by the original owner, complete with all the chrome bits such as the rocket-like hood ornaments that give a '57 Chevy its style and make it a collectors' favorite.
"The whole package was nearly complete," said Bango, although he still needed take the car apart for a complete diagnosis and new paint job.
Around 60,000 vintage cars have run on Cuba's roads since before the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro, but finding a collectible of value is a challenge.
For every hidden gem, there are thousands of beaten up clunkers, largely stripped of their original parts.
Cuba and the United States agreed last week to restore diplomatic ties that were cut off after the revolution, when the tail fin was still a recent innovation in automotive design.
Under the rapprochement, U.S. President Barack Obama plans to remove economic sanctions imposed against the communist-run island. In a land of chronic shortages made worse by those sanctions, Cubans kept the pre-revolution cars on the road, using makeshift parts and considerable ingenuity.
Still, American collectors who envision a wave of classic cars coming onto the market will need to temper their expectations. Even if the U.S. completely lifted its trade embargo, a 2010 Cuban law bans cars being taken off the island.
More importantly, most of the vintage cars, the backbone of urban transit, have suffered heavily on pothole-filled roads and the repairs, although inventive, wo! uld turn off any purist.
Convertible roofs are often replaced with sheets of plastic and many original motors have been replaced with diesel engines because they are cheaper to run.
"What you see are a lot of cars that are just kind of rolling hulks held together with duct tape and chicken wire," said Lance Lambert, host of U.S. television show Vintage Vehicles.
Alejando Torres, a Cuban mechanic, bought a '57 Chevy with only 74,000 miles on it from its original owner 10 years ago.
In what would be sacrilege in the United States, he put in a Mitsubishi diesel engine because the old gas guzzlers are just too expensive to run.
Torres said he has turned down $50,000 for it, although in the United States the listed value on that car in excellent condition is $28,100.
"Maybe I'd sell it if I could buy a modern diese! l car at that price," Torres said.
Under Cuba's one-party system, the new car market is tightly regulated and a brand new sedan costs upwards of $200,000. For decades, only pre-revolutionary vehicles could be bought and sold freely, which is why so many have stayed on the road.
The early 1950s Chevys seem to be the most common, though there are Fords, Buicks, DeSotos, Plymouths and Oldsmobiles. Occasionally a gigantic late '40s or early '50s Cadillac can be spotted.
"There are a lot of Americans that have the dream of finding the rare car in Cuba," said Bill Warner, founder and chairman of the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance car show. "For the most part, the cars you see on TV are really pretty hacked up. You'd find better cars here in the United States."
Some cars from Cuba might have value as novelties but "for serious! collectors the novelty will soon wear off," said Phil Skinner, a colle! ctibles editor with Kelley Blue Book, which lists new and used car prices.
MORE VALUABLE IN CUBA
Lifting the U.S. embargo would mostly help Cuban classic car owners buy parts.
Most of the cars are far more valuable in Cuba than they would be in the United States. Not only have they lost so many original parts that collectors crave, but the old workhorses also provide crucial income for their owners.
As taxis, their famously spacious interiors can accommodate half a dozen passengers. Cubans squeeze in for the equivalent of $0.40, while tourists like to take rides in the spiffier looking convertibles for about $30 an hour.
In the United States, the '57 Chevy Bel Air is perhaps the most coveted, with its distinct tail fin, though Cubans tend to prefer the 1955s an! d 1956s. All three years make up the "Tri Five" models that featured tri-colored bodies and lots of chrome.
The Kelley Blue Book Early Model Guide values a two-door 1957 convertible in excellent condition at $86,200, though the right car can go for over $100,000 to the right collector, experts say.
Roland Franz Henning, a German living in Cuba, said he owns a pristine 1957 Chevy Bel Air two-door, painted white and baby blue. In one important detail, it is the version that does not have a post or pillar separating the front and rear side windows.
"There are only three like this, in this condition, in all of Cuba," Henning said. "It looks just like the one from the 1957 brochure."
Bango, a member of Havana's V8 Club, had a '57 Chevy in mind when he decided to restore an old car for the club's weekend outings. While the two-do! or versions are more valuable, he likes the four-door and after his lon! g search found one without a pillar.
On Christmas Day, he went to see his car at the garage of his mechanic, Santiago Rodriguez, another V8 Club member who loves old cars.
The black-and-white body is mostly disassembled as Rodriguez methodically puts it back together. The project was stalled for several years while he gathered the parts he needed.
Bango wanted it to have extra power, so they are replacing the original six-cylinder engine with a 1970s-era Chevy V8. That would lower its value in the U.S. market but Bango says he would not sell even if it were allowed.
"I've been offered $27,000 for it as it is, all taken apart and not finished yet," Bango said. "There's no way I'd sell. This one is for the club. This one is for me."
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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Two people are dead and three are injured after a two-car crash, and subsequent head-on collision, in Maple Grove Friday afternoon.
According to the Maple Grove Police Department, officers were called to a report of a head-on collision around 3:54 p.m. Friday at County Road 81 and Maple Grove Parkway.
Upon arrival, officers learned that a vehicle, driven by 54-year-old Michael Kelley of Dayton, was traveling westbound on County Road 81 when it crossed into the eastbound traffic lane.
Officers said this resulted in a two-car crash as Kelley sideswiped an eastbound traveling vehicle, which then hit another car.
According to Maple Grove police, three people sustained non-life threatening injuries in this crash.
Police said Kelley continued to drive westbound in the eastbound lane of County Road 81 after the collision.
Kelley then hit another eastbound vehicle, driven by 68-year-old Cheron Swanson of Dayton, head-on.
Police said both Swanson and Kelley were pronounced dead at the scene.
According to police, alcohol appears to have been a factor in the fatal crash.
Maple Grove Police and Fire Department, Hennepin County Sheriff's Office and Minnesota State Patrol are currently investigating the crash.
(Reuters) - Luis Abel Bango spent seven years searching for his dream car, a 1957 Chevy Bel Air. He finally found it on Cuba's far western tip, buying it off the original owner for $7,000.
"I went everywhere looking for what I wanted. Out in the provinces, central Cuba. I had to go to the end of the island to find this one," Bango said.
The black-and-white four-door had been kept intact by the original owner, complete with all the chrome bits such as the rocket-like hood ornaments that give a '57 Chevy its style and make it a collectors' favorite.
"The whole package was nearly complete," said Bango, although he still needed take the car apart for a complete diagnosis and new paint job.
Around 60,000 vintage cars have run on Cuba's roads since before the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro, but finding a collectible of value is a challenge.
For every hidden gem, there are thousands of beaten up clunkers, largely stripped of their original parts.
Cuba and the United States agreed last week to restore diplomatic ties that were cut off after the revolution, when the tail fin was still a recent innovation in automotive design.
Under the rapprochement, U.S. President Barack Obama plans to remove economic sanctions imposed against the communist-run island. In a land of chronic shortages made worse by those sanctions, Cubans kept the pre-revolution cars on the road, using makeshift parts and considerable ingenuity.
Still, American collectors who envision a wave of classic cars coming onto the market will need to temper their expectations. Even if the U.S. completely lifted its trade embargo, a 2010 Cuban law bans cars being taken off the island.
More importantly, most of the vintage cars, the backbone of urban transit, have suffered heavily on pothole-filled roads and the repairs, although inventive, wo! uld turn off any purist.
Convertible roofs are often replaced with sheets of plastic and many original motors have been replaced with diesel engines because they are cheaper to run.
"What you see are a lot of cars that are just kind of rolling hulks held together with duct tape and chicken wire," said Lance Lambert, host of U.S. television show Vintage Vehicles.
Alejando Torres, a Cuban mechanic, bought a '57 Chevy with only 74,000 miles on it from its original owner 10 years ago.
In what would be sacrilege in the United States, he put in a Mitsubishi diesel engine because the old gas guzzlers are just too expensive to run.
Torres said he has turned down $50,000 for it, although in the United States the listed value on that car in excellent condition is $28,100.
"Maybe I'd sell it if I could buy a modern diese! l car at that price," Torres said.
Under Cuba's one-party system, the new car market is tightly regulated and a brand new sedan costs upwards of $200,000. For decades, only pre-revolutionary vehicles could be bought and sold freely, which is why so many have stayed on the road.
The early 1950s Chevys seem to be the most common, though there are Fords, Buicks, DeSotos, Plymouths and Oldsmobiles. Occasionally a gigantic late '40s or early '50s Cadillac can be spotted.
"There are a lot of Americans that have the dream of finding the rare car in Cuba," said Bill Warner, founder and chairman of the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance car show. "For the most part, the cars you see on TV are really pretty hacked up. You'd find better cars here in the United States."
Some cars from Cuba might have value as novelties but "for serious! collectors the novelty will soon wear off," said Phil Skinner, a colle! ctibles editor with Kelley Blue Book, which lists new and used car prices.
MORE VALUABLE IN CUBA
Lifting the U.S. embargo would mostly help Cuban classic car owners buy parts.
Most of the cars are far more valuable in Cuba than they would be in the United States. Not only have they lost so many original parts that collectors crave, but the old workhorses also provide crucial income for their owners.
As taxis, their famously spacious interiors can accommodate half a dozen passengers. Cubans squeeze in for the equivalent of $0.40, while tourists like to take rides in the spiffier looking convertibles for about $30 an hour.
In the United States, the '57 Chevy Bel Air is perhaps the most coveted, with its distinct tail fin, though Cubans tend to prefer the 1955s an! d 1956s. All three years make up the "Tri Five" models that featured tri-colored bodies and lots of chrome.
The Kelley Blue Book Early Model Guide values a two-door 1957 convertible in excellent condition at $86,200, though the right car can go for over $100,000 to the right collector, experts say.
Roland Franz Henning, a German living in Cuba, said he owns a pristine 1957 Chevy Bel Air two-door, painted white and baby blue. In one important detail, it is the version that does not have a post or pillar separating the front and rear side windows.
"There are only three like this, in this condition, in all of Cuba," Henning said. "It looks just like the one from the 1957 brochure."
Bango, a member of Havana's V8 Club, had a '57 Chevy in mind when he decided to restore an old car for the club's weekend outings. While the two-do! or versions are more valuable, he likes the four-door and after his lon! g search found one without a pillar.
On Christmas Day, he went to see his car at the garage of his mechanic, Santiago Rodriguez, another V8 Club member who loves old cars.
The black-and-white body is mostly disassembled as Rodriguez methodically puts it back together. The project was stalled for several years while he gathered the parts he needed.
Bango wanted it to have extra power, so they are replacing the original six-cylinder engine with a 1970s-era Chevy V8. That would lower its value in the U.S. market but Bango says he would not sell even if it were allowed.
"I've been offered $27,000 for it as it is, all taken apart and not finished yet," Bango said. "There's no way I'd sell. This one is for the club. This one is for me."
Rogers Family Dies in Deadly Crash (Courtesy of WXIN)
Rogers Family Killed in Indiana Car Crash
Rogers Family Dies in Deadly Crash (Courtesy of WXIN)
INDIANAPOLIS (WXIN) – A family of five was killed early Friday morning in a car crash in Tipton County. They were traveling back to their home in Arkansas from Michigan.
Investigators with the Indiana State Police say the 2001 Jaguar was hit by a semi truck on U.S. 31 near 250 South around 8:45 a.m. Friday. Two adults and two children died at the scene. The lone survivor was airlifted to Eskenazi Health in Indianapolis with life threatening injuries. She died Friday evening.
Investigators say the Jaguar was headed south on U.S. 31 and somehow lost control. The driver overcorrected, crossed the median and ended up on the other side of the road. State Police say a fully loaded semi truck, driven by William Stump of Carmel, moved to the shoulder to avoid the car, but couldn't.
Two of the victims have been identified as 43-year-old Dennis Nguyen and 44-year-old Thu-Ha Thi Cao. Officers haven't yet released the names of the children.
Brenda Priddy makes her living as a spy photographer.
But she doesn't work for any government. Instead, she sells her photos of cars and trucks -- usually vehicles that have not yet been revealed to the public -- to car magazines and auto enthusiast web sites hungryfor even a camouflaged glimpse of an upcoming model.
Generally speaking, automakers don't appreciate what she does.
But lately she's found a friendlier place to indulge her passion for automotive photography, a place where the cars are ancient and often decrepit but people are eager to sho! w them off: Cuba.
New cars, in this communist country, which has been under a U.S. trade embargo since the early 1960s, are difficult and expensive to acquire. But passionate -- and largely impoverished -- owners have kept the now ancient American cars that were on the road before the embargo still rolling with a mixture of grit, ingenuity and whatever parts they can gather.
The cars are often hard to recognize after decades of repainting and modification, but there are some classics under all that body work.
"It might have 10 coats of house paint on it to keep the rust from spreading," Priddy said.
A lot of old American cars in Cuba, like this 1957 Ford Fairlane, are now used as taxi cabs.
In most ca! ses these automobiles are, literally, a mere shell of what the! y used to be. While the body might be that of a 1957 Ford, the engine is more likely from a Mercedes-Benz(DDAIY) or a Peugeot. Even the body itself might even have been significantly changed. Cars are stretched for new roles as taxicabs. Roofs might have been cut off to turn hardtops into a convertibles.
Often, cars like this 1957 Chevrolet Bel Aire, have engines taken from later European cars.
Priddy went to Cuba in 2013 as part of a cultural exchange program and quickly became drawn to the island's time-warp car culture. She then organized a car-focused cultural exchange trip of her own earlier this year taking with her, among others, auto company executives, an automo! tive museum curator and a retired car magazine art director.
The emphasis is on keeping cars like this 1952 Chevrolet running not on keeping them in original condition.
The group visited Cuba's national car museum in Havana and spent a couple of days with members of the city's biggest car club.
Cars like this 1952 Buick are often passed down through families.
"They're so happy for people to have an interest in their cars," she said.
There are Russian, French and Asian cars on the roads of Havana! , she said, and they're usually much newer than and in better shape than these American models, but it's clearly General Motors(GM), Ford(F) and Chrysler(FCAM) products for which people have the most affection.
This is a 1952 Plymouth but little of the original car may remain underneath.
"They love their American cars," she said.
! This 1958 Ford Prefect was a model not sold in the United States.
Even though these cars are hardly in original condition, their owners are proud of the machines and the lengths to which they've gone to keep them running.
This 1951 Chevrolet has clearly been through some changes.
For the relative few who have real money to spend, American car parts can be had through couriers who buy the parts in the United States and simply bring them in their luggage on trips to Cuba.
In her normal professional life, Brenda ! Priddy takes photographs like this one of a Chevrolet Silverado being tested in the desert before it had been unveiled to the public.
So far, Priddy has taken over 50,000 photos of Cuba's cars and is planning another Cuban car tour later this year.
'Smokey and the Bandit' Trans Am sells for $450k
Experts from Hagerty Insurance assisted with identifying the cars shown in these photographs.
I believe Timothy Leary would have embraced electric cars, with his mantras to "turn on, tune in, drop out" and to question authority. Perfect for the electric car mind-set.
The new Kia Soul EV fits right in. Introduced this year, it is on the growing list of affordable electric cars, a group that includes the Fiat 500e, Volkswagen e-Golf, Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Spark EV and Ford Focus Electric. Although it is available only in California, the car's availability is expected to widen in 2015.
Shaking free of gasoline's grip satisfies the soul. Electric vehicles are clean, quiet, have good zip, and, when mooching power from outlets at work and free public charge stations as I do, cheap to operate.
What's more, the electric car community sticks together. A Leaf owner let me use his account at a Blink charge station once I found it wouldn't take a credit card. I charged much longer than anticipated. Garrett, I owe you a latte.
Stuffing an electric motor and substantial battery into an existing gas-powered car generally obliterates the trunk. But the Soul EV dodges the Frankencar feel by mounting the pack under the cabin floor. The battery cells are encased in protection, stiffening the body structure and actually increasing ground clearance by a half inch over the gas version.
Soul EV packs on an average of 500 pounds, making it one hefty hamster. In corners this mass is felt — generally in a good way — because of a lowered center of gravity. Acceleration is punchy and satisfying in city skirmishes, though over all, Soul EV is not particularly fast. Going from 0 to 60 hovers in the 11-second range. Don't race a Prius. You will lose.
The downer is range. Most affordable electrics are Environmental Protection Agency rated to travel around 82 miles on a charge. Soul EV scores 93. Still, it's like having a four-gallon gas tank, one that takes five hours to fill on a 220-volt current.
Prices start at $33,700 before tax credits. With refined dynamics and a save-the-planet ethos, Soul EV delivers good vibes. No mind-altering substances required.
Leaving your car at a garage or parking lot can be a gamble sometimes. And one Lexus owner learned this the hard way recently when a Queens car wash employee accidentally totaled his car—and the whole incident was caught on the vehicle's dashboard camera.
The Daily News reports that the following video, first seen on Jalopnik, was taken at a car wash in Long Island City in November. The employee behind the wheel reportedly accidentally stepped on the gas pedal, shooting through four lanes of traffic after it narrowly missed striking a pedestrian.
You can skip ahead to 2:50 for impact, or sit through the whole video for the full experience.
The car sustained significant damage in the crash, as evidenced by a second video uploaded by the Lexus's owner:
I believe Timothy Leary would have embraced electric cars, with his mantras to "turn on, tune in, drop out" and to question authority. Perfect for the electric car mind-set.
The new Kia Soul EV fits right in. Introduced this year, it is on the growing list of affordable electric cars, a group that includes the Fiat 500e, Volkswagen e-Golf, Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Spark EV and Ford Focus Electric. Although it is available only in California, the car's availability is expected to widen in 2015.
Shaking free of gasoline's grip satisfies the soul. Electric vehicles are clean, quiet, have good zip, and, when mooching power from outlets at work and free public charge stations as I do, cheap to operate.
What's more, the electric car community sticks together. A Leaf owner let me use his account at a Blink charge station once I found it wouldn't take a credit card. I charged much longer than anticipated. Garrett, I owe you a latte.
Stuffing an electric motor and substantial battery into an existing gas-powered car generally obliterates the trunk. But the Soul EV dodges the Frankencar feel by mounting the pack under the cabin floor. The battery cells are encased in protection, stiffening the body structure and actually increasing ground clearance by a half inch over the gas version.
Soul EV packs on an average of 500 pounds, making it one hefty hamster. In corners this mass is felt — generally in a good way — because of a lowered center of gravity. Acceleration is punchy and satisfying in city skirmishes, though over all, Soul EV is not particularly fast. Going from 0 to 60 hovers in the 11-second range. Don't race a Prius. You will lose.
The downer is range. Most affordable electrics are Environmental Protection Agency rated to travel around 82 miles on a charge. Soul EV scores 93. Still, it's like having a four-gallon gas tank, one that takes five hours to fill on a 220-volt current.
Prices start at $33,700 before tax credits. With refined dynamics and a save-the-planet ethos, Soul EV delivers good vibes. No mind-altering substances required.
RANCHO SANTA FE — A 21-year-old Rancho Santa Fe man was critically injured and his passenger also suffered major injuries when a speeding sports car, a rare Ariel Atom, went out of control on a curve on Christmas Eve and struck an SUV head-on, California Highway Patrol officers said.
A 62-year-old San Diego man and a woman in the Ford Expedition were transported to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla with minor to moderate injuries from the Rancho Santa Fe crash, California Highway Patrol Officer Jim Bettencourt said.
They appeared to be on their way to a Christmas Eve function, and a holiday cake from the SUV was on the road, CHP Officer Chris Parent said.
The driver of the Ariel Atom, considered one of the fastest street-legal cars in the world, was westbound on La Orilla, near El Camino Real, at a high rate of speed when he lost control on the winding two-lane road shortly after 2 p.m., Parent said. He spun into the eastbound lane and hit the SUV.
An Ariel Atom automobile. Courtesy arielmotor.co.uk
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An Ariel Atom automobile. Courtesy arielmotor.co.uk
Both the driver and passenger, a 21-year-old Mira Mesa man, were wearing helmets. They were unconscious when paramedics and firefighters arrived, CHP Officer Robert Catano said.
A fire in the SUV's engine was quickly extinguished, said Julie Taber, spokeswoman for the Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District. Firefighters from Solana Beach assisted.
The driver of the sports car was transported to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, and his passenger was flown by medical helicopter to Palomar Medical Center in Escondido, Parent said. The driver's injuries are life-threatening, Bettencourt said.
Parent said it was not yet determined how fast the driver was going or if he had been racing at the time. The posted speed limit in the area is 40 mph, he said.
Such crashes are particularly difficult at holidays, when families "aren't supposed to be spending time in hospitals," Parent said. A relative of the driver's came to the collision scene, he said.
Bettencourt said it was not yet determined if either drugs or alcohol were factors in the crash.
Parent said that in his 16 years in the CHP, it was the first time he had seen an Ariel Atom.
The car was designed in 1996 and was first constructed in the United States in 2006. About 80 Ariel Atoms have been made in the United States since then; TMI Auto Tech has produced them since 2008. Most sell for about $80,000.
The tubular skeleton is on the outside of the car with no side panels or roof; the car's listed weight is 1,350 pounds and it is 11 feet long.
The car can go from zero to 60 mph in 2.9 seconds, and is used to race in Autocrosses, with a special RaceAtom series based in Virginia.
Kissimmee police released the names on Wednesday of the two adults and two children found dead in a car submerged in a retention pond.
[AUDIO: 911 released in crash ]
The victims in the vehicle were identified as Ulysses G. Montero, 25, of Miami; Julie M Lopez-Elias, 24; Julissa M. Montero, 4; and newborn Dlias D. Montero, all of Kissimmee.
Police said the car was found in a pond in front of Valencia College on U.S. 192 at around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.
"Over here, one car ... he go to the water on John Dunn and 192," the caller told 911 dispatchers in the call released Wednesday. "Please it's an emergency."
The caller then tells dispatchers in Spanish that it appeared that the car launched over the sidewalk into the lake and drove in. He said he had never seen anything like it and that it appeared like it's something the male driver wanted to do.
Thomas Sergent is an experienced diver and was the first person to find the four-door sedan submerged at the bottom of the retention pond with four people inside. He said Kissimmee police came to his shop, Scuba Dive Addiction, because he was less than two miles from the crash scene and they needed a diver.
"An officer came in with a sense of urgency on his face and says he could use a diver and some gear," Sergent said.
He told Local 6 when got to the scene he immediately got in the water. Guided above the surface by first responders, he went under the murky water in search of the car. He said after 10 minutes of searching he felt metal.
Sergent said he went down searching with hope, but knew instantly the four people inside, a man, woman and two children he described as an infant and toddler, had not survived.
"The side windows were intact and then I saw children's toys floating on the inside and saw the windshield had been broken," Sergent said. "Seeing the toys -- it was traumatic. I wasn't prepared for it."
After telling police, they gave Sergent a steel hook to put on the car to it pull out.
While investigators work to figure out how the car ended up in this pond, Sergent, a father to four kids of his own, said he'll never forget what he saw.
"It's sad anytime, but with the holidays and stuff, when you're thinking about families, it's heartbreaking."
A memorial was forming at the crash site on Wednesday.
Anyone who may have witnessed the incident can contact the Kissimmee Police Department's Major Crimes Unit at 407-846-3333.
When it comes to overall value, one of America's most iconic vehicles – the very symbol of rugged individualism – should be avoided by any wise car buyer, says Consumer Reports magazine.
It's the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, which Consumer Reports says is the worst car value among any model. It leads a worst-value list that includes a wide range of models by category – from the hapless Fiat 500C among subcompacts to the hulking Mercedes-Benz GL350 BlueTec for luxury large SUVs.
The Jeep, however, is among the nation's most beloved vehicles, especially by its owners. Nevertheless, Consumer Reports calls it "hard-riding, ponderous, uncomfortable, and unreliable." It costs 77 cents a mile to operate, compared with 52 cents for the top-rated Toyota Camry Hybrid.
The value index rates cars based on road tests, predicted reliability and five-year ownership costs.
USA TODAY
Toyota tops 'Consumer Reports' list of best car values
"The worst values were a mix of underperformers, expensive, unreliable German luxury sedans and big SUVs with voracious fuel appetites," says Mark Rechtin, Consumer Reports' automotive editor in a statement.
The four-door version of the Wrangler wasn't the only Jeep singled out by the magazine. The Jeep Cherokee Latitude also came up with a low score due to its "higher operating cost, poor reliability, unimpressive test score and higher price."
Google has been working on self-driving cars for a few years now — but up until recently, they were mostly modifying the heck out of existing cars, not building a vehicle from the ground up.
Back in May, they released a mockup of what they expected their first built-in-house vehicle to look like. Today, they've released a photo of the real deal.
Here was its original early mockup, from May:
Here's the finalized prototype, shown today:
As you might notice, the final product ended up looking pretty darn similar to the early shots. While the vehicle still looks a bit like something out of a Richard Scarry book, some tweaks have been made. For example:
It has headlights now, which is a good thing. Even if a self-driving car can see other cars without headlights (thanks, RADAR!), that doesn't mean other (non-self driving) cars can see you.
They've tweaked the front grill a bit, adding reflector dots and generally making it look a bit less like this emoticon: .
The hardware on top of the car (a camera/radar rig that spins at a few thousand RPMs and plays a huge part in giving the car its vision) has been slimmed down and packed into a fun little bubble (albeit one that looks a bit like a 70s police car siren)
Remember, we're still a ways out from any mere mortals being able to walk in and buy a self-driving car. While things like self-parking and lane-maintenance are somewhat straight forward, a car that can navigate public city streets on its own still has a few huge obstacles to steer around. Things like rain, a dependance on incredibly detailed 3D scans of streets, and the mountain of legislation that'll have to be worked out as these things grow in popularity.
Google says its custom semi-sentient whip should be hitting its private test tracks over the holiday break and might start popping up around Northern Californian streets in 2015.
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