New Cars that are fully loaded - with debt

“Americans haven’t just been taking out risky mortgages for homes in the last few years; they’ve also been signing larger automobile loans for significantly longer terms than they used to.”

This is how it’s working out for buyers.  I want a new car. I take my car to trade-in with a principal amount owing.  I purchase new car, no down payment needed. I get loan for new purchase price and old car principal.  I don’t want a bigger car payment, so I sign note for a longer time.  Ok! the cause and effect that’s put in place is the buyer is actually still paying for to cars and driving only one.  duh! is the what buyers really want.
” The Response of the automotive finance industry? Extend loans further and allow the indebted customer to roll what he owes into a new loan with little, if any, effect on his new monthly payment. In effect, the driver is paying a loan on two — or more — cars at once.
Richard Apicella, head of Benchmark International’s auto finance division, published a report on car loans last month that called the ever-lengthening deals a “dangerous” problem. Combined with Americans’ desire to drive new cars every few years, he said, the effect “is like a drug. Once you get hooked on it, it gets harder and harder to break the cycle.”

From the point of view of those who sell cars and car loans, long-term loans are good for business and good for buyers.

“The job of a successful dealer is to find a funding package that’s acceptable to the customer,” said Paul Taylor, chief economist of the National Automobile Dealers Assn. “These loans allow them to get a luxury car rather than a more modestly priced vehicle.”

Here’s a problem solver for these nagging ‘I want a new car’ desires.  Keep the modestly priced vehicle.  Join a Car Club like DFW Elite Car Club.  They pick up the ownership cost.  You get to drive your desire way in a luxury car like an Aston Martin. Or an exotic car like the Ferrari or Lamborghini.   And members only pay for the time driving the car and not for the car.

LA times wrote an article describing the Legend Carroll Shelby.

Describing him as:

“The rock star of the automotive industry is a Texan who speeds through life with heart and kidney transplants, precious little vision in his left eye and a crooked right arm, the souvenir of a long-ago Mexican road race in which he missed a turn and struck a boulder.”

A great read into his life race of medical transplants and his beautiful ability to keep designing the automotive art know as the Shelby GT’s and the powerful Mustangs.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-garage29dec29,1,7089323.story?coll=la-headlines-business

While thousands of sports car fans have put together notable collections there are three such collections that will inspire awe and demands the attention of any sports car enthusiast. These three are Toad Hall, LeMays collection and Ralph Laurens Collection.

Bill Putmans collection, known as Toad Hall, will have sports car fans seeing red. All of the cars in this private collection are painted red. Putmans collection features imported cars from Bentley to Datsun, with an emphasis on the British makes. There is a Lotus represented as well. Toad Halls name comes from the childrens book the Wind in the Willow.

The LeMay collection, over 3,000 strong, in Tacoma Washington is certified by the Guinness Book of Worlds Records as the worlds largest collection of cars. The entire collections of sports cars cannot even be viewed in one visit. The LeMay collection was started in the 1940s by a waste hauling tycoon who started searching the area for interesting vehicles. The exhibit also includes other American history items as well as ambulances and fire trucks.

American fashion mogul Ralph Lauren is also an avid car collector and has opened his stunning collection to the public. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts showed the Ralph Laurens exhibit and states that he started collecting in the 1960s.

It can be said that Laurens is a connoisseur of fine cars and chose the automobiles in his collection, from Bugattis and a 1950 Jaguar XK 120 Alloy Roadster based on their fashion appeal as well as speed. His newest addition is a speed demons dream, a 1996 McLaren F1, which can easily pass speeds of 225 mph.

Ralph Lauren has also collected car with celebrity ties. Included in his collection is the car James Dean was driving when he was killed, a Porche 500 Spider. On a happier note, the 1950 Jag mentioned earlier was driven by the Hollywoods leading man Humphrey Bogart and his love, Lauren Becall.

While there are countless car collections from small time lots to museums, these three collections all offer something unique to the sports car fan. Toad Hall which emphasizes imports and red. The LeMay collection which is certifiably the largest and Ralph Laurens private collection which emphasizes speed and celebrity connections.

Jackson Porter is a staff writer at http://www.automobileenthusiast.com

While this is a nice article about collecting cars, they need to include DFW Elite Auto Rental for they have the largest collections of exotic cars available for driving not just looking.  Everything ranging from Aston Martins to Rolls Royce.

Hey DFW Elite Fans Fox 4 News did a TV piece on the Toy Museum. To see the aired TV segment Go to the link for myfox news:

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox/pages/InsideFox/Detail?contentId=
5351790&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=5.7.1

Lamborghini Murciélago Roadster

New Lambo top slots into place

Genaddi Design has created a carbon fibre roof

 allowing owners a wide range of roof

 

 permutations.

This year, with new fuel economy standards on the horizon, Toyota is shifting its focus from large trucks and SUVs to more fuel-efficient vehicles like the new A-Bat concept hybrid pickup truck.  The truck is designed from passenger-car running gear, which gives it a lower profile and better fuel economy.  Toyota introduced the truck at the Detroit Auto Show, which is closely watched by automobile enthusiasts such as the members of DFW Elite Car Club in Dallas-Fort Worth.

According to The Car Connection, “The A-Bat is smaller than Toyota’s mid-size Tacoma pickup, which is based on a traditional ladder frame. Toyota says the smaller dimensions and car-based running gear would give a production version of the A-Bat more car-like handling and a smooth ride. The concept sits on 19-inch wheels for a dash of truck toughness.”

The Toyota A-Bat is no slouch in the cargo carrying department. Again, courtesy of The Car Connection’s review:  “The most important feature, the truck bed, is a four-foot affair with a flexible pass-through that adds another two feet to the bed. A 4×8 sheet of plywood will fit in the A-Bat, and taller cargo can ride in the cabin, poking through a sliding panel. The bed also includes formed-in lighting, a first aid kit and flashlights, as well as an AC power outlet. The bed panels slide around to expose more storage areas, and the bed floor also slides to expose a storage drawer, like Honda’s Ridgeline has its storage locker below the bed.”

Performance statistics for the Toyota A-Bat have not yet been released, so it’s not yet possible to tell whether it will satisfy the speed cravings of auto enthusiasts.  However, trucks like the A-Bat are a great everyday car for those who wish to have a practical and useful vehicle and rent an elite sports car on weekends and special occasions.  Businesses like Gotham Dream Cars in New York and DFW Elite Auto Rental in the Dallas – Fort Worth Area offer a huge selection of elite sports cars for rent.  And for those who choose to fill a day with adrenaline, there are dream tours like DFW Drive Your Dream, during which participants can drive five heart pumping exotic cars in a single day.  After a day of speed, participants can go back to driving their responsible, practical cars.

The Boston Herald describes some of the amazing innovations that appear in the new A-Bat concept truck:  “The truck uses a unibody platform for improved handling and a smoother ride. Inside, there is a retractable portable navigation unit with a 7-inch screen and wireless Internet, while the center console houses a portable battery pack.  Both the driver and front passenger have large display screens to view the status of their high-tech gadgets and climate and audio settings.” 

True to Toyota’s commitment to make an enviro-friendly work truck, they have manufactured the A-Bat with solar panels atop the instrument panel to capture sunlight and convert it to energy.  The energy from these panels help charge the navigation unit, battery pack and backlit information displays, according to Toyota.

Kate Miller-Wilson is a freelance writer living in the Twin Cities.  Visit her website or email her for information about her freelance writing services.
 

 

Women hoping to attract male attention should get behind the wheel of a classic convertible, and be able to drive it well, according to a survey from evecars.com.

The women’s car website polled a cross-section of men to discover which cars they’d be most impressed to see a woman driving. The winner was the Mercedes-Benz SL Roadster, a classic model built from 1955 to 1963, and made famous by Grace Kelly who drove the car in the film High Society.

‘The vintage Mercedes SL Roadster is undeniably a beautiful car, which oozes style and class. Buying one isn’t cheap, but proves the owner appreciates the finer things in life,’ says Alex Jenner-Fust, editor of evecars.com.

Although most of the favourites are performance cars, including the Porsche 911, Mitsubishi Evo and Subaru Impreza - the Queen’s favourite vehicle the Land Rover Defender also scored highly in the top ten.

‘The men we polled love the idea of a woman at the wheel of a high performance car, but only if she knows how to handle it,’ says Alex Jenner-Fust. ‘That’s why the idea of a Land Rover Defender driven by the Queen is far more appealing than a modern Mercedes convertible being driven, or crashed, by the likes of Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears. ‘

Martin Schlaeppi who races in the Radical Enduro series, voted for the Evo. ‘It’s a car for people who love driving and it takes effort and concentration to drive well,’ he said. ‘Evo drivers know about their cars and that’s why it’s sexy to see a woman behind the wheel.’

Evecars.com also asked women from the motoring industry which cars they felt most fabulous driving. Two-seater convertibles scored strongly, from the luxurious Jaguar XKR to the stripped out Caterham, as did performance cars like the Porsche 911 and Mitsubishi Evo.

Top 10 cars to turn men’s heads

1. Mercedes SL Roadster
2. Porsche 911
3. Mitsubishi Evo
4. Land Rover Defender
5. Subaru Impreza
6. Rolls-Royce Phantom
7. Range Rover Sport
8. Fiat 500
9. VW Golf R32
10. Caterham

BLAST-OFF: This is it - The Corvette ZR1, the first ‘Vette for which Chevrolet will confidently claim a top speed of more than 200mph (322km/h).Â

HOTTEST CORVETTE YET BREAKS COVER

New ‘Vette challenges Europe’s car royalty

Chevrolet has officially announced the 2009 Corvette ZR1, to be released in the US in the third quarter of 2008, calling it “an American supercar that not only establishes new benchmarks for production-based power and performance, but challenges global competitors.”

Sadly, we’re not likely to see it here since there are at present no plans to build a right-hand drive model.

Chevrolet general manager Ed Peper said proudly: “The ZR1 redefines what an American supercar can deliver with performance that betters exotics costing two, three or four times as much – and can still be driven as a daily commuter

.”

“Preliminary testing shows the ZR1 beats the previous Corvette Z06 in every performance category,” said Peper, “from acceleration and braking to cornering grip and top speed.

“It all boils down to the power-to-weight ratio and the ZR1’s is exceptional – better than the Porsche 911 GT2, the Ferrari 599 and even the Lamborghini LP640.

“In fact the ZR1 is expected to be the first production Corvette with a top speed of more than 200mph.”

We’ll save you the maths – that’s 322km/h in metricspeak.

All that urge comes from a 6.2-litre, supercharged V8 that breathes via a positive-displacement Roots-type supercharger with a new, four-lobe rotor design developed by forced-induction specialist Eaton specially for this engine and a central, horizontal intercooler

.

It revs to a dizzy (by American standards) 6600rpm thanks to specially strengthened, lightweight valvegear and kicks out an estimated 462kW and 823Nm.

ZR1 engines are hand-built at GM’s performance build centre, using time-consuming processes usually justified only on racing engines.

For instance, the cast-iron cylinder liners are pressed into the aluminium block and finish-bored and honed with dummy cylinder heads installed to reproduce the minute variations in the block caused by torqueing down the heads, for better piston ring sealing.

It drives via a twin-disc dry clutch similar to those in high-performance, shaft-drive motorcycles such as the BMW boxers and Moto Guzzi V-twins.

The specially strengthened, six-speed manual gearbox with a very tall first gear for steam-catapult launches with a minimum of wheelspin.

Top gear, however, is shorter than that of the Z06 so the ZR1 will reach its top speed in sixth rather than in fifth.

Mixed aluminium and steel platform

The ZR1 is built on the same mixed aluminium and steel platform as the Z06 and has similar independent front and rear suspension with aluminium upper and lower control arms.

The ZR1’s spring and damper settings, however, are tuned for the car’s steamroller-wide tyres with electromagnetic adaptive ride control as standard that GM says makes the ZR1 surprisingly supple around town while still delivering cornering grip in excess of 1g.

The brakes are built around carbon-ceramic discs, usually only seen on exotics and racing cars.

They’re made of a carbon fibre-reinforced ceramic silicon carbide material, 394mm in diameter in front and 380mm at the rear, weigh much less than conventional cast-iron platters, cannot corrode and should last the life of the car.

They’re gripped by six-piston front and four-piston rear callipers, each painted a special blue exclusive to the ZR1, visible through the car’s 20-spoke alloy rims, which are shod with Michelin Pilot Sport 2 tires developed specifically for the ZR1 - P285/30-R19 in front and P335/25–R20 at the rear.

A bright silver paint finish is standard, chrome is an option.

Instantly recognisable

The ZR1 has a raised, all-carbon-fibre bonnet with a clear, polycarbonate window showing the top of the intercooler with “LS9 SUPERCHARGED” embossed on either side and the Corvette crossed flags on the engine cover.

Exposed carbon-fibre with just a clear coat to protect it from UV light is used for the roof, roof bow and front splitter. The widened front wings are also carbon-fibre under the blue paint and have special, dual lower vents.

A full-width, body-colour rear spoiler incorporates a high-mounted third brake light.

The interior has a special instrument cluster with a boost gauge, a ZR1 logo on the rev-counter and a speedometer that reads to 220mph (370km/h top you, Cyril) – all three of which are repeated in the head-up display.

The only options on offer are the chrome wheels and a “luxury trim” package that includes power-adjustable, leather-trimmed sport seats in a choice of four colours and embroidered with ZR1 logos, satellite navigation and Bluetooth connectivity.

By the numbers

Each ZR1 will have a special VIN number incorporating a sequential build number – very important to collectors and serious car nuts. Thus a ZR1 with a serial number ending in 0152 would be the 152nd example off the production line.