Car Talk Archives - Page 113 of 149

Autonet.ca Covers the Canadian Auto Show

Feb 20 2013

We used Scribble Live for the first time, and live blogged the 40th Annual Canadian International Auto Show! We crushed it (seriously, our feed was trending).

Find most of my stuff in the 2nd half of the feed.

(see the post on Autonet.ca)

Meet more of Your Autonet.ca team

Notre équipe français, salut!

From L to R – Alain McKenna, me, Marie-Eve Cote, Jacques Deshaies

You’ve met Dan and on the right is Jack Kazmierski, our tech expert.

Note – because the team is all freelancers, we don’t really hang out, so this is a rarity. I’ve now blogged 70%of the team, nice.

Click here to meet more of the team.

About Matte Paint Jobs

Feb 20 2013

Matte paint is en vogue right now. Looks great, but it’s high maintenance because it’s a porous paint.

But it does broadcast the driver has a disposable income, to both purchase and maintain it.

Read it online here.

Favourite line:

The car can only be washed by hand ,… and never again can the car be run through an automatic wash.

Below is BMW’s ‘Frozen’ paint.

So pretty, no touching.

Very few manufacturers offer a matte paint option. Mercedes also does a beautiful job.

And so does Hyundai!

The only manufacturer to offer a matte paint on a non-luxury car.

Available on the Veloster for $800-ish; that’s thousands less than the ones you see above.

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Back to ‘Keri on Driving’ – Index

I’m Not a Fan of Hybrids, Part 2

Feb 13 2013

I didn’t mean for this to become a 3 part series.

But I am asked about eco cars maybe more than anything else, and I wanted one link I can send in answer.

Why don’t I hear more about the mind-set eco driving requires?

Read it online here.

Favourite line:

And that’s my biggest problem, because to properly eco-drive and make use of the technology requires and almost 100% presence-of-mind, something I’m not sure a lot of us have.

Read Part 1 here.

And also, I’ve designed the Keri Eco Car

At least this hybrid looks good – the Lexus LF-LC Concept rear-wheel drive Hybrid.

Back to ‘Keri on Driving’ – Index

I’m Not a Fan of Hybrids, Part 1

Feb 6 2013

This week I detail why I’m not a fan of hybrids or eco-cars… the batteries, the lack of infrastructure, and the single-minded fervour around the topic.

But most of all, unless the owner is always driving in an eco-style, it’s all for not.

Read in online at Autonet.ca.

Favourite line:

If we’re going to be honest, we only really started caring about the environmental impact of gasoline engines in the 1970s. And look how far we’ve come in 30 short years.

Read Part 2 here.

Made the cover today yesss.

Last week, I also wrote about eco cars, I designed The Keri Eco Car. And next week will be about eco too, I have more to say, but then I will be DONE with this topic for a while :)

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Back to ‘Keri on Driving’ – Index

The 2013 Fiat 500 Turbo

Jan 31 2013

The 2013 Fiat 500 Turbo is easy to photograph, and beautifies a blog.

First press car of the new year, and I turned over the odometer to 4 digits YES (5th car I’ve broken in).

It probably looked like I was a new driver when I first picked it up. It’s a big engine for the size and weight of the car, with a short wheel-base and high centre of gravity; this is a potentially twitchy recipe.

I was using the brakes like in my Jetta, wrong. Apply 30% of that pressure, that’s better.

Don’t get confused, this is a ‘drivers car’ – it doesn’t belong in the ‘compact car’ category.

The backseat is small for passengers (but who wants ’em).

And the trunk is tiny; that’s a small bag. Note the seats fold down – a weekend-away worth of stuff and 2 passengers would be no problem. But beyond that, doubtful.

This is a great second car for someone who loves driving.

You have to stay switched on while driving, which is fine, but not all the time. Sometimes you just want to cruise to get some milk, or run the dog to the groomer. That’s why I say second car.