Toyota Yaris Sedan 2009

In essence, a car is just another appliance. Us from point A to point B and vice versa. However, each car has its own special purpose in the grand scheme mechanic. Some cars are fun to drive, while others are quite functional. Some are a combination of both. Economy cars are designed to be effective, relatively unadorned transportation for those seeking to drive from one side to another without having to spend a lot of pasta. Even so, they are not carrying a driver to tears while doing so, right?

The 2009 Toyota Yaris is finely focused on providing value for the dollar and smiles at the pump. But beyond that, it does not help inspire. However, the Yaris is in the right place at the right time. Times are tough and people are working harder than ever to make ends meet, and the Yaris is a true recession Buster. Offers cheap running costs and low sticker price, and embodies Toyota's reputation for reliability.

Model Line
Available as a 4-door sedan, a 3-door liftback and a new 5-door liftback, the Yaris subcompact is the only available in three configurations. The 3-door hatch lists for $ 12,205, the sedan starts at $ 12,965 and 5-door hatch starts at $ 13,305.

The list of standard equipment on the basis of these offers Yaris is a bit disappointing, which may leave many of the real world drivers who want more. Base trims do not come with a stereo, with only four speakers wired no place to go. Front side airbags and side curtain airbags for both rows of seats and ABS brakes are standard not listed fares.

Checking the $ 1500 package of energy in the list of options offered by the power door locks, mirrors and windows, cruise control, a rear window defroster and an AM/FM/CD unit.

The S ornaments add fog lamps, 15-inch steel wheels and a rear wiper and body badging sports updates in the form of low cast sculpted bumper treatments and side rockers, and the always important to AM/FM/CD unit. Choosing to push S to cut the bottom line to $ 14,825 for a 3-door, $ 15,125 for a 5-door, and $ 15,880 for the sedan version.

Under the Hood
The Toyota Yaris is motivated by tried and true 1.5-liter 4-cylinder VVTi variable valve timing, which is perfected in the Yaris' predecessor, the Echo, and a set of principles of Scion offers. The engine generates 106 horsepower at 6000 rpm and 103 lb-ft of torque at 4200 rpm. In Yaris, DOHC engine is backed by a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed automatic transmission.

Inner Space
A quiet, however, little is the interior for the course in this segment of vehicles. We found the fit and finish in the cabin of color Bisque good but the seats were inflexible with little lateral support, the driving position is too upright, too high in the saddle. Driver controls are well placed and there is ample rear seat room, so we started carpooling.

The single center dash gauge group took a little getting used to, like the naked dash behind the steering wheel, which was used to hitting a post-it note with driving directions. One of the most advanced GPS technology will also work very well in this area, but that is not in the budget.

On the road
The Yaris does not tell lies. Is a classic commuter car frugal on gas, as well as enthusiasm. There is no accelerator or snappy peppy attitude, only trusted, low cruise. To get a sense of urgency, nothing less than full capacity to tickle rug will do the trick. The 1.5-liter 4-cylinder with its impressive refinement not seen in the howl of the wind force or vibration coming from under the hood during hard acceleration. Automatic transmission to absorb much of the power, and could coax a manual in a more robust, but even then you're asking a lot from a mere 106 horses. Moreover, the numbers Yaris buyers focus on 29 and 35, the drive from the city and highway fuel, the EPA ratings. In this regard, we have combined 35.9 mpg during our week behind the wheel.

Pacific Blue sedan our business conducted in a no-nonsense manner and did an admirable job in most cases - only in the target point B and go. The MacPherson strut, torsion bar suspension soaked up road irregularities and the occasional bump in the expected commuter competition. The trip was compatible Yaris and handled as expected, smooth and predictable with good information as the car approached its limit of adhesion.

Visually, the Yaris sedan is well-proportioned and quite aerodynamic, but it has no style milestone signals that allow it to stand out from the crowd. Collected in a four-lane traffic was paralyzed challenge even the most gifted "Where's Waldo" enthusiastic.

For you?
The Yaris is not designed to arouse the corridor on the inside, the landowner is reliable, and excel in this field. Budgetary concerns are resonating with the buying public, and the strengths of the Yaris - namely, price, reliability and fuel efficiency - it is not surprising that the full range Yaris is one bright spot in the Toyota portfolio .

The Yaris is an excellent first drive or the university, where the thrill of owning a vehicle exceeds a lack of leadership "experience." It is also good for travelers who put more emphasis on a cheap entry price, low maintenance cost and smiles at the pumps of aesthetics or handling. And with the versatility of its 5-door sedan and liftback models, more families can move into the Yaris too.

In these trying economic times, the subcompact segment is getting a lot of action, and buyers really need to look beyond the bottom line and concentrate a little more on the list of standard equipment to see how much comfort, convenience and real value "presented in the entry-level package. The Yaris would do better in this regard. Read More......

Find A Car Loan

This is a good chance at some point; you must use car loans. Self-financing has become one of the largest producers in the world is ready by then.

With the cost of new cars and trucks in the market, it is people need to understand why, for financing a new vehicle. Of course, depending on the value of credit you and your car or truck you want to buy, you can feel a little difficult to find the car, the loan rate that you can.

With a little careful to buy and compare the interest rate on the loan and must be easy to determine which vehicle is ready for you. Here are some basic tips you are looking for auto loans.

Determine what you can

The first thing you should do if you want a car or truck right to determine how much you can spend and how much you should borrow. First you take the good and the monthly payment, you have as many first payment.

If you decide you are able for the first payment, you must also know how much you allow your monthly payment. If you can cut close, because there is not enough money for monthly payments, it is best to go back on the amount you are able, so there is no financial problem line.

Options a car or truck

After you select your car or truck, there are several things that should be deleted, may not be financial problems in the future.

If you have a car, financing, and your new car and truck sales for the used car dealer ... lenders far more beneficial for the credit to your car or truck to buy another rack on the security, legal and legitimate transactions. In addition, many car dealers a wider choice than most people have access.

Shopping for the best car loan

If you find your car or truck in good condition and price, so you can afford the payments, it's time to start shopping for a loan. To find the best rates for loans, it is important to explore all options in the credit. Go to your bank, financial company, and even some online credit and interest is to compare each offer.

For the latest interest rates and loan terms because some of the loan lenders can be better than the others, and individuals find the best offer.

Once you've found your best loan offer with the best interest rate before and send your application for funding. Make sure your next best offer in hand, but only if there is a problem with a loan or a merchant, and you can not obtain a loan, the first related to you. Read More......

Buying Automotive Parts

Automatically select the section for your car is as important as buying a car. A wrong decision can do so if an expensive product, or even worse, the accident occurred, whether to buy the damaged car. But the decision is good, the best results. Let's see some things that need to be a car owner to buy new parts or used car.

When buying a product, you are advised to seek professional assistance before acting. Similarly, what we do, if we do not doubt the experts or some of the things, the decision must be right to get help from the bright side. Professional, you can to the needs and the best alternative for them is the car you buy. They suggest that some cases, to prove they are the best source for car parts.

Select only part of the original car, if needed. With the original car, the car owner ensures the same quality as the original car. Components such as brakes, rocket arm, crankshaft, and become part of the car can not automatically through the origin. Until the limits possible, buying a car from the manufacturers and distributors need to identify the car. Replacement must be a last alternative in the search for the original car, this is impossible. But today, the origin of the car easily found.

There are many shops, car sales by the decision on the car. Some companies have started their online presence by creating a website for their business on the Internet. The best way is to make sure that the Web site recommendations to the cars, parts and accessories. One benefit of online stores, store certain amount of product. Since the origin of thousands of resellers around the world or just a specific area, you are in favor of the fruit that you need, do not have to go to the store nearest you.

Buy more and more model for your car. The name of this section does not change, but the other models. When buying a car for a replacement for the first, so if your car for the technical and business professionals to automatically verify the correct part. If you have made a purchase online, then recommended for a high type and model cars, and enough detail on the parts of the car you want to buy.

After seeking professional help, it is important to check prices. Auto-parts are expensive, but can be improved. Compare prices with the dealer, but be sure not to endanger the quality of the products you buy. Buy good quality and best price.
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Fuel Saving tips

You certainly never felt the pinch of the increased price of gasoline. Here are some simple tips that can reduce fuel consumption and in turn, impact on the hip pocket.

Pump your tires
Increase under increased resistance tires that can negatively impact your fuel consumption. Check your car manual for the recommended pressure then head to the local gas station and use the air pump. This is one of the easiest and quickest way to reduce fuel consumption.

Shop Around
Gasoline for shopping around can save you real money. Make sure you refill when prices low, not only when your tank is empty. Clear the boot If you keep the item in the boot that you do not need every day, such as golf clubs and bowling balls, carry them out. Extra weight increases fuel consumption, so keep the boot and the back seat clear of any items that do not need to actually be able to help.

Purchase of fuel efficient cars
Fuel efficient car that big for the environment and also help reduce the financial strain from the increased cost of fuel.

Drive less - pay less
Clear that one of the only use your car less. Where you have to use the car, combine short trips rather than making multiple short trips. While this will save fuel and help the environment, can help you save on insurance.
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2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS Indy 500

Driving the Indianapolis 500 pace car and not even for a second, endanger the life of three times and the Indy 500 winner Johnny Rutherford American hero.

Having a good relationship that authority Dempsey, an actor with a lovely mane, and penchant for motor racing, allegedly came to the pits a little hot when he paced at 500 in 2007 in a Corvette, allegedly forced Mr. Rutherford, who stood at the end of the pit lane, is suspected to started scrambling through the alleged concrete barrier.

I am relatively successful in part because of Mr. Rutherford is relaxing in the comfort of her home when I run a red and silver 2010 Camaro SS pace car at the brickyard. Even on the worst days behind the wheel, I rarely make a threat to the people who do not close. Besides, it's true that I'm pushing the speed a car Thursday morning in the rain a few weeks before the race so I do not have 33 amped-up racecar drivers behind me, itching to unleash more than 20,000 horsepower. And I have hundreds of thousands of spectators watching me.

Still, I have to be one up on rich and handsome Dempsey in some way, and my coif ain't doing the trick.

The Rutherford Run-Through
There's no way to win in the game of pace car driving. You either go unnoticed or you are utterly humiliated in front of one of the world's largest television audiences. So, you know, no pressure.

It's actually surprising more of these "dignitaries" don't flub things up in some spectacularly humiliating or dangerous way. These pace car-driving celebs, anyone from John Mellencamp's model wife to Lance Armstrong to Colin Powell, are chosen by General Motors, which has supplied 43 pace cars to the world's most famous race since a Cadillac led the field in 1931. The list includes several Cads, Oldsmobiles, Buicks, Pontiacs, assorted Chevys, many Corvettes and four previous Camaros — 1967, 1969, 1982 and 1993.

Unfortunately, no such instruction was apparently offered back in 1971, when Eldon Palmer, an Indy-area car dealer paced the warm-up laps in a 1971 Dodge Challenger with astronaut John Glenn and Speedway owner Tony Hulman as passengers. That went off without a hitch until Palmer drove directly into an elevated platform of photographers at the end of pit lane, injuring more than 20 people. Ooph.

Here's the sum total of Mr. Rutherford's advice to me when I told him I was going to drive the pace car on track: Don't hit the wall.

Raining on the Parade Laps
Honestly, though, what's the big deal anyway? How hard could it be? The track is enormously wide and long and open. And even in bone-stock trim, the 426-horsepower 2010 Camaro SS is capable of a great deal more pace than its pace car duties will ever call for.

According to Rutherford, the fastest the pace car is ever going to go is about 110 or 120 mph. And that's only for a short time right before ducking into pit lane and giving the pole sitter control of the field immediately before the green flag. When called out for a yellow flag during the race, Rutherford will go maybe 75 or 80 mph. This allows the Speedway's safety crew enough time to clear a pathway through crash debris on the track for the cars to pass. And, yes, it is Rutherford who takes over the pace car duties after the race has begun.

I'm initially limited to about 80 mph as it is alternating between pissing and pouring rain. And as suspected, 80 mph doesn't feel like much on the front and back straights, which seem to extend forever in front of me. Still, I don't want to be the guy who destroys this car. There are two other identically dressed Camaro pace cars as backups, but I will not be the man who cuts the supply by a third.

Even at this modest speed, the track feels surprisingly narrow. The four turns are not the wide-open affairs they appear to be on television. "I can't imagine how the racers go three wide on the straight," I say to Dan Edwards, the man in charge of the pace cars. "Three? They go four wide down the front," comes his reply.

And he's right. I've seen it in person and on television. But out here on the track, it's impossible. Can't be done.

I faithfully drive the pace car line, which is the dead center of the track. No tucking down into the four turns. No easing the car out toward the wall at the exit. Staying in the center of the track means that all of the racecar drivers behind can see the pace car at all times. And that's kind of the point, after all. Once the rain lightens and the track begins to dry a bit, we push the speed up over 100 mph.

The Drive
I can only imagine what it must have felt like to be F.C. "Jack" Reith, the general manager of Mercury, who in 1957 had to usher the Mercury Turnpike Cruiser around the Speedway at speed. That baroque elephant had a continental kit on the back, for goodness sakes.

I've driven the 2010 Camaro SS on all manner of roads, but nothing quite like the perfect complexion of Indy's surface. In the real world, the production car is a touch short on wheel travel, and short-sidewall 20-inch tires announce every sharp-edged surface imperfection with a resounding thwack. But the track is so smooth you could just bolt the wheels directly to the body Radio Flyer-style, and the Camaro would be fine out here.

At better than 100 mph on a breezy day, the Camaro's steering feels near perfect. The car tracks straight and isn't particularly susceptible to crosswinds. It's uneventful enough that, on the straights at least, I carry on conversations with Edwards about which magazines he reads, his son's first house and which racers he's met. (If he doesn't know someone well, he always adds the honorific, "Oh, you know Mr. Bedard?") The steering, which feels slow-witted next to that of a Mustang, is the perfect setup out here. It allows me to pour the Camaro smoothly into the corner.

It is a calmer experience than we expected of a 426-horsepower car running at better than 100 mph on a wet track. The shush of Pirellis on water and the whoosh of air being pushed aside gently drowns out the low rumble of the exhaust. It's then that we realize how tremendously tall the Camaro's top gear is. We drop it to 5th just to hear it — fuel economy is not much of a consideration here.
The Car
It used to be that production cars had to be juiced up for pace car duty — they simply didn't have the beans. That hasn't been a problem for a while, though, and the loaded Camaro SS with the RS package runs on the same suspension, same tires and is powered by the same LS3 V8 as every other Camaro SS.

The differences between the pace car and the production vehicle are purely visual. There's the silver background paint with an explosion of red bits that counts as one of the more tasteful of recent pace car paint jobs. Compare it, for example, to the Barney-purple Corvette with canary-yellow wheels that Parnelli Jones was forced to pilot back in 1998. In fact, the contrasting red inset around the front grille and headlights actually looks pretty fantastic. We'd be surprised if we don't see that little flourish on some tuned street cars in the near future.

The pace car also carries the Speedway's logos and amber lenses for each of the four taillights, since they are part of the blinking/flashing light show that is the on-duty pace car. The front turn signals are also part of the show. And then there's the light bar mounted to the roof. When the car is at rest, the light bar sounds from inside the cabin like a jar full of mosquitoes caroming into the glass sides — tick, tick, tick...

That, and the hum of the light-system electronics, fades into the background as I pull out onto the track. After a lap or two, I even stop noticing the staccato "thrum-thrum" of the front and rear tires passing over the yard of bricks at the start/finish line. I'm just concentrating on staying smooth as our speed increases, not paying too much attention to what's beside the track, and not screwing up.

Edwards, a retired fireman who's worked at IMS full-time for 10 years now and has been riding right-seat with us all day, pipes up. "Pretty cool, isn't it?" I'm guessing he's noticed the smile on my face. "Yeah, it really is," I say.

"You know, every morning I take a drive around the track."

"I think I would, too," I say.
Back Home Again in Indiana
I was the kid in Sunday school who, when asked to draw my hero, created a painstakingly accurate portrait of Mario Andretti's STP-sponsored 1969 Hawk-Ford. The car was by then 10 years old — older than me — but it was also the car that carried Andretti to his one and only Indy win.

But my affection for the Indy 500 has been in hibernation for a number of years, beginning right around the time of the ugly IRL/CART split.

But I think I'll be watching the race this year. And I'll probably be secretly hoping that square-jawed actor-boy Josh Duhamel, 2009's dignitary, screws up, at least a little.

The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation. Read More......

2009 BMW 335d

German's carmakers are not big on the idea of hybrids. Sure, BMW and Mercedes-Benz collaborated with GM on the two-mode hybrid transmission, but what they will really want to sell your car is like the 2009 BMW 335d. Yes, the "d" stands for diesel, and even though BMW is selling a few diesel models in Europe, now only has technology advanced enough to get the emissions EPA's stamp of approval in all 50 countries.

This is good, because the 335d's twin-turbo 3.0-liter inline-6 produces a healthy 265 horsepower. More impressive is the staggering torque output - 425 pounds-feet at just 1750 rpm. So, in other words, the 335d's inline-6 produces as much torque as Chrysler's 6.1-liter half-V8. Have enough strength to get the 335d from zero to 60 mph in just 6.2 seconds, BMW claims. All that power does not torpedo the 335d's fuel economy, as BMW claims mileage figures of 23 mpg city and 33 mpg highway.

Necessary to ensure cleanliness drain, with the 335d features a complex three-piece emissions system that consists of an oxidation catalyst, a diesel particulate filter and selective catalytic Reduction (SCR) catalyst. It's the injection of what BMW calls AdBlue (otherwise known as ammonia) with the SCR catalyst that makes this machine an average of clean diesel.

System such as this has been a subject of debate for several years, but due to the need to introduce another fluid refilling. BMW says not to worry, because the 335d of two urea tanks should provide enough AdBlue to last until the typical oil change is needed. Will be added as part of the standard BMW maintenance program, so you both for the first 50,000 miles. No word on what happens if you do not fill the tank after the free maintenance period expires.

This is the type of car U.S. consumers need to try before dismissing diesels as dirty solution for hybrids

"The figure 425 pounds-feet at 1,750 rpm do not look that impressive in the horsepower wars of age," opines Ougarov. "But in the context of a more low-end torque in the sedan from the Z06 Corvette (not to say that high-revving M3 and M5 are less peak torque), it's startlingly impressive. And because it's a twin-turbo inline-six from ze Germanz in Munich, this actually emits a nice growl when spinning coaxed to 4000 times faster than a minute. If you just let it calm voyage, you can easily end with both in the north have the speed limit in this country without even noticing. On immortal words of Keanu Reeves: Whoa. “

What may be more Keanu impression, though, is the 335d's fuel economy. At 26.2 mpg, the better mileage than the Mini, a 1.6-liter engines about half the size of the Bimmer's.
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