Thursday, April 7, 2011

And the most stolen car of 2010 was...

And the most stolen car of 2010 was...BMW X5s and Range Rovers are the most desirable cars for thieves, new figures suggest. Together with the BMW M3 and Audi RS4 taking third and fourth places, these cars all hold the dubious "top positions" in the "top ten most frequently stolen and recovered vehicles of 2010", according to Tracker stolen vehicle recovery systems, which says that 65 per cent of the vehicles it recovered last year were worth an average of £25,000.

"Once again our top ten list shows the thieves' favourites, with the Mercedes SLK and CLK also remaining at the top of the league," said Stephen Doran, managing director of Tracker.

"The VW Golf is an interesting new entry at number nine, proving that it's not just owners of prestige vehicles who need to take note. In fact, 65 per cent of the vehicles we recovered in 2010 were worth £25,000 or less with just six per cent being worth £50,000 to £100,000."

The lowest value vehicles stolen and recovered were a Peugeot 406 and a Ford Sierra at £1,000. The highest value cars stolen and recovered were a Mercedes Benz CL63 AMG at £120,000 and a Bentley GTC at £130,000.

"With 84 per cent of all the cars we recovered last year being stolen using the keys, we remind every car owner to keep their keys safe at all times," added Doran, who said that Tracker worked like an electronic homing device, combining GSM, GPS and VHF technology to track down stolen vehicles.
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Friday, April 1, 2011

What Are The Most Expensive Cars To Insure?

What Are The Most Expensive Cars To Insure?Most people would say that owning a car is not cheap. It comes with many high costs and one of those cost is insurance. Insurance is a must-have and most people try to get the lowest cost possible. If that is the case, one has to make sure that he or she does not own one of the cars that is the most expensive to ensure.

Some of the vehicles that have been chosen by forbes as one of the most expensive cars are: The Porsche 911, the Lexus LF, and the Hummer H2. Those are all very nice vehicles, but they will cost an arm and a leg to ensure.
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Thursday, March 31, 2011

InterGlobe introduces Koenigsegg's Rs12-cr car

InterGlobe introduces Koenigsegg's Rs12-cr carAdding to the list of ultra-luxury cars now available to India's uber-rich, Sweden's Koenigsegg, which specialises in top-range sports cars made to order, on Tuesday introduced its latest model Agera to the market.Priced at Rs12.5 crore, the Agera will be the second-most expensive car in the Indian market local market after the Rs16.2-crore Bugatti that made its debut in November last year. Powered by a five-litre bi-turbo V8 engine that delivers a staggering 1,115 of horsepower, the Agera boasts a pick-up of 100 kph in just 2.9 seconds, and a top speed of over 400 kph.

It goes without saying that the car's performance can never be fully experienced on any Indian road; but InterGlobe Enterprises, which is selling the car locally, obviously knows that some of India's growing list of super-millionaires will buy it as a status symbol.

Koenigsegg is the producer of the CCR model, which broke the nine-year-old world record of the McLaren-Bugatti in 2005. The company produces a limited set of around 16-18 cars every year out of its single manufacturing facility in Sweden. It tunes every car specifically keeping in view the quality of fuel available in a country.
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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Psychologist Matches Luxury Car Models to Personalities

Personality profiling and monetary spending pattern specialist, Dr. Hugh M. Ongusbeek, released a series of luxury car purchase findings today at the London Annual Psychoanalysis Conference, more affectionately labeled by insiders as the "Head Banger's Ball".

Ongusbeek claims to have successfully matched quirks in personality to the type of luxury vehicle most desired by a person, to a degree of accuracy +/- 3%. To illustrate, Dr. Ongusbeek offered four automobile examples where the owner of that vehicle would match the forecasted personality profile about 73% of the time. "Yes, there are exceptions of course. A person might simply like the look of a particular car, but there are usually some overriding personal quirks that lead a person to selecting a particular vehicle".

"Let's take a full sized Range Rover for example", says Ongusbeek. "Male purchasers typically suffer from a Napoleon complex, short and ridiculed all their lives. This vehicle says, I drive a big expensive 4 wheel drive gas guzzler. Get the funk out of my way".

Ongusbeek adds, "Of course the same applies to women drivers, except the famously off road vehicle never leaves the city streets".

Next on Ongusbeek's study was the Mercedes convertible AMG.

"Fast, expensive, exclusive. It is designed to make people think you bought it for the German engineering, but it really compensates for a round belly, a bald head, and a lack of ability to maintain a relationship with anything other than a mechanical device. Which probably explains the lifelike vibrating doll hiding in the owner's closet."

With the Jaguar XF, a purchaser gets both luxury and some exclusivity though Ongusbeek feels there is more to the story. "Yes, well at around 32,000 pounds it can be affordable luxury, but you're fooling yourself into thinking it is British engineering. The purchase really says that I'm in denial over the fact that Jaguar is an India owned company, and if India were still part of the empire, it would still be, technically, a British engineered car. But, it still is a very fine automobile, and I say that with some feeling of guilt over our country's history with India".

Ongusbeek admitted later to owning a XF, and followed with a comment made with hand covering mouth, "Damn Gandhi". The Cadillac CTS rose to some recent acclaim, setting the Nurburgring lap record for a 4 door sedan, though Ongusbeek sees flaws in the personalities of these owners as well.

"It says that this is the best you can buy from US engineering, if you like big thirsty engines, plastic, blinky lights and chrome. Owners aren't smart enough to look beyond the US border for better options, and they are typically overcompensating for a lack of length and girth packed in their shorts."

Finally Ongusbeek featured any Lexus vehicle as "Luxury for the stupid". Citing examples of their top line automobiles looking exactly like a Camry in every body detail, Ongusbeek says, "Why bother. It's a family sedan with better tires and some simulated woodgrain on the console. It says, I believed the salesman when he told me there was nothing better on the market. These are mid level managers who work in customer service somewhere and botch the answers to your questions."

When asked if there was any make of luxury car that Ongusbeek approved of, he replied, "Ferarri. If you can really afford one, you already know you're a pretentious prick so there is really no personality conflict. You have F.U. money and can leverage it whenever you need to. It doesn't really matter what other people think at that point".
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Monday, March 28, 2011

Porsche hybrid sports car an expensive ride

Porsche SE, the German automaker merging with Volkswagen AG, will sell the 918 Spyder hybrid sports car, its most expensive model ever, for $845,000 in North America and limit production to 918 vehicles.

The first cars, available for order today, will be delivered to buyers beginning in November 2013, the Stuttgart, Germany-based company said in a statement. The Porsche plug-in hybrid is part of a wave green supercars as luxury-car makers try to make fuel efficiency palatable for their customers.

Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) AG, the luxury-car leader, is developing the i8, a hybrid sports-car that will have carbon-dioxide emissions similar to a compact vehicle. Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz will roll out a battery-powered version of the gull-wing SLS supercar in 2013.

"Performance green cars are a very necessary statement for the premium brands about what this technology means to them," said Christoph Stuermer, a Frankfurt-based analyst with IHS Automotive. While mass-market carmakers are concerned about the costs of owning electric cars, "the premium brands seem more worried about the fun part."

The two-seater Porsche hybrid will accelerate to 100 km/h in 3.2 seconds and soar to a top speed of 320 km/h, relying on a 500-horsepower V8 engine and 218-horsepower electric drive system that allow the vehicle to run more than 25 kilometres on electric power. The car's lithiumion battery can be recharged from a conventional power outlet in Germany in three hours.

Porsche is adding models to meet a goal of doubling the company's annual sales to as many as 150,000 vehicles over the medium-term and benefit from savings from the planned combination with Volkswagen.

The Spyder hybrid is based on the Carrera GT supercar as well as the 917 and RS Spyder. The car will have a safety frame reinforced with carbon fibre.
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Monday, March 21, 2011

Lexus hatches a 'baby' hybrid

The latest Lexus offering in the premium compact market is a hybrid and one that costs just a few grand more than the Prius. So now those after-dinner greenies can not only brag about their cars' efficiency and lack of emissions, as they did insufferably with the Prius, they can have some fun driving their cars as well.

The CT200h's styling polarises opinions. Lexus says it "marries refined elegance with sporting dynamism", with "a distinctive, sharp-edged and resolute appearance". Personally, I liked the wedgy look which looks side on as if it was the progeny of an elicit liaison between the Toyota iQ and the Mazda3. It works, and is all brought together with a frontal treatment that links it with the previous entry-point Lexus, the iS250.

The CT200h combines a front-drive 73kW/142Nm 1.8 litre Atkinson cycle petrol engine with a high-output 42kW/40Nm electric motor for its drive system. A compact underfloor battery and a sophisticated energy management system make sure there is power from the hybrid set-up and its regenerative braking system.

The Lexus Hybrid Drive system's petrol engine and electric motor are contrived to generate a total system output of 100kW - about the same as Toyota's New Zealand market Corolla hatch - but the CT200h has a combined fuel consumption of 4.1L/100km, with a carbon footprint of just 94g of CO2 per kilometre. The new "baby" Lexus will be available with three equipment levels. There's the CT200h at $51,500, the CT200h Limited for $67,600 and CT200h F Sport, $69,000.

Standard equipment in all models includes climate-controlled air conditioning; reversing camera; cruise control; a leather steering wheel with audio controls; chrome and leather gear lever; multi-information display with comprehensive hybrid system information; engine immobiliser; auto dimming inside rear view mirror; a six-speaker audio system with CD player, audio input jack, USB jack and digital audio player holder; and power windows with auto up/down. The Limited and F Sport models boast fitted dedicated sat-nav screens, working through a pop-up Electro Multi-Vision (EMV) screen, while the base car gets a plug-in Tom Tom's system.

There are 16 inch alloy wheels on the base car, as well as LED daytime running lights, emergency brake lights and front and rear parking sensors, while the Limited and F Sport versions each have their own special 17 inch rims.

All models offer driver and passenger dual stage front, front seat side, driver and passenger knee and front/rear curtain shield airbags. Anti-lock braking with Electronic Brake-force Distribution and Brake Assist are standard, along with vehicle stability control, traction control and Hill-start Assist.

Toyota makes much of the car's driving position, and the front seats have been specially designed to improve lateral holding performance while the front edge of the base cushion has been shaped for a large contact area. The sporty, wide-grip steering wheel has a low, 21 degree steering angle, while accelerator and brake pedal angles have been optimised to suit the low hip point.

Seats in the entry level CT200h are covered in a smooth, finely woven fabric with a printed and embossed pattern. All other models have leather seats, perforated for the CT200h F Sport. As always with Lexus, the CT200h's choice of materials is excellent, and I doubt there's a better- finished and executed interior in the premium small car segment.

I found the cabin surprisingly roomy in the back, but couldn't quite get enough legroom up front to get comfortable, and thought the seat base just a little too firm. The car's chassis, apart from the firm ride of the Limited and F Sport models which have 17 inch alloy rims, is exemplary.

The CT200h is a good move by Lexus New Zealand. The entry-point car really lacks only leather and a built-in sat-nav system compared with the Limited and F Sport and I'd rather have a Tom Tom unit I can change from car to car anyway. For a few thousand dollars more than a basic Prius you get an awful lot more car that's actually quite a lot of fun to drive.
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