Click above for results of the 2010 J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study
J.D. Power and Associates has just released its 2010 Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS)… and , and have climbed on the podium (Buick, and occupied the top spots in last year’s ). The German automaker demonstrated a significant jump in quality (up ten spots) with brand hot on its heels (up six positions). While Buick dropped down, its score was indicative of improved quality - however, the bar had been raised.
This year’s VDS found that several brands that perform well in the firm’s dependability study are avoided due to public misperception about reliability. These brands include , Ford, , Lincoln and - all having the greatest lags between dependability performance and consumer perception. “Producing vehicles with world-class quality is just part of the battle for automakers; convincing consumers to believe in their quality is equally as important,” says a J.D. Power and Associates spokesperson.
The Vehicle Dependability Study is designed to accurately measure problems experienced by original owners of three-year-old (2007 model year) vehicles. This year’s study was based on responses from more than 52,000 vehicle owners surveys between October and December of 2009. Scores are based on the number of problems experienced per 100 vehicles (PP100), with lower scores reflecting higher vehicle quality. The complete J.D. Power press release and charts can be found after the jump and in the gallery below.
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and Lincoln climb to top of J.D. Power 2010 Vehicle Dependability Study
originally appeared on on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:01:00 EST.
Aaron Kelly’s Ford Fiesta - Click above for high-res image gallery of all Top 12 American Idol Contestant designs
In case you hadn’t noticed, Fox’s hit show American Idol is back in full swing, and this is the first week that the competition has been narrowed down to the top 12 finalists. As you might expect, then, it’s high time that the annual sponsorship of AI goes into high gear as well.
Each of the Top 12 Idolists teamed up with four of Ford’s brightest up-and-coming designers to come up with their own unique take on the Blue Oval’s well-regarded hatchback. Fans of the show (or fans of the car, we suppose) can enter the Ford Music Video Challenge once per week from March 17 through May 21, 2010, for a chance to win one of the vehicles you see here and a trip to the set of a Ford Music Video shoot. The grand prize winner gets a package that includes a Fiesta with their choice of one of the Top 12 designs and tickets to the AI finale.
We’ve gallerized a front-three-quarter shot of each contestant’s Ford Fiesta design below. You know, each one of them is just so…. unique… that we can’t quite goad ourselves into picking a winner. Therefore, we’ve just placed them in alphabetical order by the Idolists’ first names. Feel free to rank them yourselves in the Comments. Full details on the Ford Music Video Challenge , and you can find the official press release after the jump.
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[Source: Ford]
originally appeared on on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:01:00 EST.
Kia Forte Koup with “R” package - Click above for high-res image gallery
In our of the , we were very impressed with the car’s overall style and levels of standard equipment, but we wished that the car were a bit more potent on the street. One remedy for that is the “R” package of dealer-installed accessories that Canadian customers can now spec on either the SX or EX model.
Sadly, the R treatment doesn’t aim to churn out any more power from the Forte Koup’s four-cylinder mill, but it does add things like a performance exhaust, AIM drop-in performance air filter, stiffer springs and a strut tower brace. This healthy bit of tuning should help to make the Forte a bit more involving on twisty roads and the added appearance kit (front skirts, side sills and rear spoiler) and the obligatory badge package gives it a much more aggressive look. Those 18-inch Europa wheels wrapped in Yokohama S-Drive rubber are pretty spiffy, too.
Canadian Forte Koup buyers should be able to add the R package to their cars starting in mid-May, and the optional bits will be available a la carte from any Kia dealership in the country, so kurrent current Kia Koup owners who want to upgrade will be covered, too. Will all or part of the package make it to the States? We hope so. However, no confirmation could be given from Kia’s American or Canadian public relations department at this time. A tip of the hat to Chuck!
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[Source: Kia]
originally appeared on on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:00:00 EST.
Lease-only Lexus LFA - Click above for high-res image gallery
The rich are very different from you and we, now more than ever. First off, we don’t have the mental fortitude for jumping through all of the hoops that is making potential customers limbo beneath. Let alone the cash. Thing is, the rigamarole involved never mattered because Lexus is only making 500 examples of the LFA and we’re simply not going to lose sleep over the process it takes to park one in our garage. However, a potential LFA owner sent us a copy of his order guide, and like any good train wreck, we can’t look away. Also, remember, this info ain’t intended for public consumption.
For your living-vicarious pleasure, here’s how it works: As reported, you cannot buy Lexus’ first ever supercar. You have to . That’s sort of good news for the non-disgustingly wealthy, right? After all, leases are the cheap and easy way to get into a new car. Are you sitting down? The monthly lease payment on the Lexus LFA is $12.398.44. For 24 months. That’s $297,562.56 worth of lease payments over two years, at the end of which you own nothing. However, Lexus is quick to point out that the LFA’s MSRP is $375,000, so you’re technically not paying full price. And at the end of 24 months, lessees are free to plunk down an additional $93,750 (more than the base price of a very comparable , we should mention) and buy their LFA outright.
Of course, you can’t just waltz into your local Lexus dealership with $12,398.44 and rocket waltz out in an LFA. Lexus has to actually select you to lease its (admittedly awesome) car. Once you’re chosen, you’ve got 10 days to drop off a $10,000 deposit at your local Lexus dealer and submit to a credit check. We should mention that this will not be the only deposit and credit check Lexus requires.
Once your credit checks out, you then have to deposit an additional $50,000. To mini-recap, that’s $60,000 down on a $375,000 car. Sounds reasonable (from a detached, algebraic ratio perspective) until you remember that you’re not buying the car, just leasing it. All of this will be/is happening from March-June 2010. Production of the LFA doesn’t start until December. We don’t know how long each car will take to build, but customers lessees will be required to go through a second credit check immediately prior to delivery. We’re not entirely sure you really want to pass the second credit check. Here’s why.
Remember the $12,398.44 per month lease payment we mentioned a couple paragraphs up? That’s just the breakdown. All LFAs are being doled out via Lexus’ 1Pay Lease Program. Meaning that to lease the LFA, you hand Lexus a check for $237,562.56, which is the full amount of the lease minus your $60,000 pair of deposits. Oh, and there’s a $700 “aquisition fee.” Plus tax, title, license and registration. The good news? Even though you have to lease the LFA, because of the lengthy approval/deposit process, each car is still made to order. Meaning that even though you don’t own the car, you can still order it in Passionate Pink, a $3,000 option. to read the pricing guide.
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originally appeared on on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:27:00 EST.
Nissan Leaf - Click above for high-res image gallery
Interest in, and “, the remains high, but a report from the Japanese newspaper the Mainichi Shimbun might put a damper on things. Apparently, the price for the all-electric car in Japan will be somewhere between 3.5 million and 4 million yen, which is about $38,667 to $44,191 U.S. at today’s exchange rates. Granted, even if these prices are accurate, they certainly don’t automatically equal the MSRP for the U.S. market, but they are higher than what we’ve been expecting - i.e., . We went and looked at the prices for a couple of other cars in Japan, to see how the Leaf’s 3.5 million compares. The runs between 2.0 and 3.27 million yen ($22k-36k USD). The ? From 1.89 to 2.2 million ($21k-24.4k USD).
We suspect that Nissan’s going to have to do better than this to beat the . Yes, yes, we know the powertrains are quite different, but a lot of people are going to learn about these cars at the same time (late this year), and we believe that the pure electric will need to be quite a bit cheaper than the plug-in hybrid to hold its own.
Of course, all of these numbers should be taken with several grains of salt. We reached out to Nissan, and they reminded us that “the article out of Japan is speculative, and we have no comment. As you know, we have yet to disclose Nissan Leaf pricing in the U.S. or in any global market.” Thanks to Scott W. for the tip!
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originally appeared on on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:00:00 EST.
Thu, Mar 18, 2010
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