Why All Bumpers are Starting to Look the Same

It’s not that our tastes are changing.

It’s because safety regulations now say a car’s front end must better protect a pedestrian in case of an accident, thereby limiting design and styling possibilities.

Read it online at Autonet.ca

Favourite line:

Put the phone down while crossing the street. Or use my trick and make eye contact with the driver. Because regardless of how the bumper is styled, it wins the showdown every time.

Cars hurt guys.

This all-new 2015 Chrysler 200, is a good example of such bumpers.

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What Driving a Luxury Car is Really Like

I canNOT find the photo of this column?! Vanished. Sorry! From memory, and very basically:

It’s not just buying a luxury car,
it’s the increase in accompanying costs…

I mean like big luxury, like $6-figures+

Insurance goes up and it’s premium gas only. You find yourself parking at the back of lots, because repairing damage on a luxury car gets up there quick; parts and labour costs increase, and there’s less business that service such vehicles. And OMG if you crack a splitter.

2015 Jaguar XKR Coupe

5.0 L, V8

510 hp and 461 lbs.ft

Starting at: $109,125

This one: $118,000 

But ohhh to own a machine so fine.

Read it online at Autonet.

 

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A Test: Use only Voice Recognition to Control a Car

This week I conduct an experiment:

Automakers are touting, “control the car using just Voice Recognition, so it’s hands on always!”

So for 1 week, try to drive without removing my hands from the steering wheel, ever.

Rely solely on the wheel’s buttons to operate the cabin controls, and infotainment system.

(Conclusion: can’t)

Read it online at Autonet.

Favourite line:

Regardless of how you’re operating the infotainment system, your focus and attention are still taken elsewhere. 

Test conducted in a 2015 Chrysler 200.

About pairing my phone to a car for the 1st time – here

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Touring the Ford F150 Factory

It was a rare opportunity that photos were permitted while touring Ford’s assembly plan in Dearborn, Michigan.

Where the F150s come from.

Natural light streams in through skylights, and there are no uniforms – employees can wear whatever they wish.

There are 1,000 workers on the floor at any time, and the place runs 24-hours/day.

Read it online at Autonet.

Favourite line:

There are robots workers too, and the two that install windshields even have names – Bumper and Blinker. 

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Tracking a Porsche with Pfaff

Pfaff Automotive invited me to Mosport for a track day… in one of their day-lease Porsches.  Yes please!

It was my 2nd track time ever, bit spoiled huh, because here I go around in a Porsche Cayman.

Learned how executing a proper corner feels…. effortless?! Huh.

And did you know you can steer the car using only the throttle?  I did that once… accidentally.

That’s Brad Meise of Apex Driver Training you hear coaching me; thanks Brad! Liked your style: precise and non-stop.

My mistakes: I brake way too late, and enter the corners with too much aggression :|

That’s the thing though: so what I can fly around with a Brad in the passenger seat.

How about when it’s just me, and there’s no cones around the track to guide me, now add the pressure of competing in a race…

You can do this too.

Day-lease a Porsche or Audi from Pfaff and spend the day driving the above track, with coaching if you’d like it.

All information found here: Pfaff Track Days

A Porsche 911 is $1,699 +HST for the day rental at the track, and the other vehicles available are the Porsche Cayman, the Audi TTS and Audi S5.

Or track your own car.

That’s $449.00+HST for the DDT Track this 2014 season with the use of your own vehicle. Because the goal is not to learn how to go faster, but to better understand the physics behind driving.

And that’s what I wrote about for that week’s ‘Keri on Driving’ column.

Read it online at Autonet.

Favourite line:

It’s best to explore the limits of your car in a contained environment instead of a real life situation. This way, when your car gets away from you and starts to drift down an icy on-ramp, for instance, it’s not the first time you’re experiencing how that feels.

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