Autoblog

Here it is in all its glory, Episode #100 of the Autoblog Podcast. We've finally made it. There's a new graphic, a big group of five people all talking on top of each other, and new music. Stay tuned, as we've got an excellent giveaway coming up soon (i.e. when fearless leader Neff gets back from his nuptials). We'd thought that #100 might go 100 minutes, but for your sake, that's not the case and we occupy only 50 minutes of your time this week. Thanks for listening and keep the feedback, commentary, and questions rolling in to podcast at autoblog daught com. See you next week!

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click the picture to view a high resolution gallery of the 2009 Kia Forte

Just the other day, we were all looking at a teaser pic and speculating wildly, and now, here it is. Kia dropped official images of its Spectra successor, the Forte, on the interwebs, and it is one sharp little car. The styling that the Forte introduces is Kia's new look, from the pen of Peter Schreyer, also responsible for the first-gen New Beetle and TT. The face of the Forte combines chunkily-flared front fenders with a new corporate grille, and there's a distinctive depression down the lower part of the flanks that works well with the prominent swage line to lend a stone-hewn look to the car. The term Forte in musical notation means "play loud," but this new Kia is restrained and maturely drawn. Additionally, the two-door variant of the Forte should look even better.

While there's no new design ground being broken, the overall effect is clean and handsome, reminiscent of many other higher-end vehicles. Check out those rear lamps -- remind you of any 40-something thousand dollar luxury car? When the Forte hits Korean showrooms in August, a new four-cylinder engine will be under the hood, employing 1.6 liters of swept volume. A 2.0 liter will follow on directly, and may be the only engine we get in the US when the Forte arrives on North American highways and byways in 2009. Compared to the Spectra, the Forte looks worlds better, and even on its own, we think it looks like a million bucks. Okay, $500,000. Let the endless string of "it looks like" comments begin. Thanks for the tip, William!

Gallery: 2009 Kia Forte

[Source: The Car Blogger]

Cars.com has updated its American Made Index, and the list has flip-flopped some models right off, while others have hopped onto the top ten. Cars.com uses the parts origin information from the window sticker, along with the location the vehicle is manufacture at and sales numbers to determine which vehicles have the most US-based content. Ford's F150 and Explorer are the chocolate wafer to the rest of the list's cream filling, sandwiching everyone else between their respective #1 and #10 rankings. General Motors has the most vehicles in the top ten list, with the quartet of Cobalt, Malibu, G6, and Silverado 1500. Not surprisingly, Toyota's Tundra, built in Indiana and Texas, makes the grade at #5. Chrysler's Sebring is that company's only placing on the list, though even the same generation of a particular model can place high one year and fall off the next as automakers juggle OEMs and running changes. If sales of light trucks continue their precipitous fall, the AMI may look radically different the next time around. Four of the ten are body-on-frame trucks, and there's also a pair of minivans, all set to suffer in sales as buyers start to move en masse to more efficient vehicles.

[Source: Cars.com]

Look quickly, and you'll miss the changes, but GM's got some subtle exterior tweaks in store for its Heavy Duty trucks in 2010. Development doesn't stop even though the practice of using a pickup truck as a commuter car is no longer popular, so GM is plugging away at a new Silverado to avoid being passed up by its competitors.

Competition aside, there's also the issue of federal regulations to comply with, so changes were necessary no matter what. Most noticeably, the bumper changes, gaining a strip of trim that extends across the top, doing away with the overemphasized corner look of the current cow catcher. Looking more closely at the bumper, the air intake in the middle appears to have grown in size. That opening feeds the transmission cooler, so the speculation is that the Allison transmission has picked up extra ratios. Of course, it could just be bigger to gain an edge on thermal management underhood, but we're going to jump on the bandwagon of being excited for more cogs spun by the heavily revised 6.6-liter Duramax diesel with urea injection. That'd be just the thing to tow the Alero.

[Source: PickupTrucks.com, Photo: Priddy]

Click above to view the video posted after the jump.

Okay, Mio's Knight Rider GPS unit is now officially "hella" cool. Engadget snagged some video of the startup sequence, and we're overcome by nostalgia for 1984. We're not excited to the point where we've gone digging for vintage Le Tigre polos or pulled that zombie leather jacket (the Thriller replica, natch) out of deep closet storage, but seeing that sweeping light bar and watching the flanking LEDs twinkle to the dulcet tones of William Daniels brings back sunny memories for those of us that lived it the first time around. Even cooler is that there's a bank of 300 names to choose from, so odds are good that KITT will greet you personally – that closes the sale right there, we officially want one.

[Source: Engadget]

It's not a surprise that the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) would be backing a proposal that has the potential to lower the amount of damage vehicles sustain in crashes, and therefore lead to less costly repairs for insurers. What is surprising is the NHTSA's stubborn attitude about accepting outside suggestions. The proposal is simple enough; the IIHS recommends that trucks and cars use the same bumper standards for greater crash compatibility. Being cynical and following the money does lead one back to the fact that such a change would save the insurance industry a large sum, but so what? Saving the insurance industry money saves us poor saps a few nickels, too – or the rates continue to be just as expensive while the corporate robber barons pocket the increased profits.

NHTSA has heard this argument before, rejecting petitions for porting the car bumper standard to light trucks in both 1984 and 1991. The IIHS is hoping that this time around, the fact that it's an organization proposing the change, and their new research, will sway the regulatory body in a more favorable direction. The IIHS used the Ford Explorer and its more car-compatible bumpers to demonstrate in tests that both vehicles in a crash would sustain less damage without exacting any penalty in usefulness or capability. NHTSA is already on the case of vehicle compatibility in a broad sense, and will likely try to roll any bumper-centric work into that effort. It would seem like a no-brainer to have cars and light trucks with bumpers that match up, but it's taken the past century of automotive production and dependence to get the idea any kind of traction. With that kind of glacial pace, we should start petitioning now in anticipation of a super-tight oil supply and incoming waves of sub-A class vehicles. We sure wouldn't want to get mauled by an Explorer on our way to get milk and bread in our Nano in 2030. IIHS Press Release after the jump.

This Independence Day might be the time for waving the red, white, and blue, but GM wants to nab some green, too. The automaker is extending its 0-percent financing sale, which it kicked off on June 24th as the "72-hour sale," until July 7th. The extension of the special financing offer allows dealers to capitalize on the increased floor traffic that GM's advertising onslaught generated. The sale and advertising frequency get people in the door, but many car buyers hem and haw, making it tough to close a deal in just a week's time. The extension gives salespeople a reason to ring up prospects and offer them the sweetest deal they can muster on a new General Motors vehicle. While we'd love to get a C6 Corvette for $20,000 off invoice and 0 percent terms on the loan, our blogging income likely supports a Certified Used vehicle instead. On that end, GM is also offering financing between 2.9 and 4.9 percent on a raft of used models like the Impala, Malibu, Envoy, G6, and Lacrosse. These are the most favorable terms you're likely to ever find, until someone starts desperately handing out -1% financing whereupon they pay you to take the car.

[Source: Automotive News – sub. req'd]

Click above to view high-res gallery of the ROUSH trainer

We wind up behind horse's asses every day on the interstate, but ROUSH has developed a vehicle with a rear-mounted cabin for the express purpose of towing a crew of three around while staring at the business end of an actual Equus caballus. ROUSH Technologies is more than just mechanical Mustangs, and the company has proved it by developing an equine training vehicle for Kurt Systems, a Turkish racehorse and camel training equipment company. The vehicle has an open front stall where the animal can run, and a rear mounted cabin that allows a driver, a veterinarian and a trainer to keep a keen eye on vital signs. The suspension is partially F-150 based, while power is provided by Volvo's 2.4-liter five-cylinder engine hooked up to an automatic transmission and driving through some reduction hardware. The vehicle will start serial production soon; in an odd sort of irony, ROUSH is even further tied to fast horses now. Press release after the jump.


[Source: ROUSH]

click above for high-res gallery of the Kia Koup Concept

Wave goodbye to the Spectra name; Kia's planning on sending the moniker packing when the car is replaced in mid-2009. Kicking up the style as a way to grab the dollars of younger buyers, Kia will introduce the styling paradigm laid out by the Koup Concept at last year's New York Auto Show, which will grace a production sedan and coupe. The sedan will hit the market first, with the coupe following within a couple months. The hatchback Spectra will be out of the U.S. lineup entirely; Kia thinks the coupe and its sexier lines will move more units. European buyers will still be able to purchase the Spectra hatch as the cee'd, though. More style in this instance is a good thing. We've seen the Koup, and we like it. We've driven the Spectra, and we like that, too. If Kia can successfully match the chassis to the expectations set by the body, the Spectra's successor should have no problem maintaing that model's best-seller status in the Kia lineup.


[Source: Automotive News - sub req.]

BMW's 1-Series does not smirk at you and say "don't hate me because I'm beautiful." No, this small Teut is easy to deride on appearance; one look has you hating it because it's not beautiful while so many of its past brethren have been classically handsome. Whether it suits your taste or not, the 128i convertible we borrowed is unmistakably the work of the wizards of Munich. So, it's definitely a BMW, and it's being described as a reincarnation of the legendary 2002; does it measure up?


Photos Copyright ©2008 Dan Roth / Weblogs, Inc.