Archive for the ‘Auto Financing’ Category
What should you know about Auto Insurance Discounts for Student Drivers?
Monday, November 21st, 2011
Students going to college may need a car for variety of reasons including daily commute to college, getting around the campus for daily needs and so on. But driving a car means paying for auto insurance, which may be heavy on pockets of students.
Teenagers and student drivers are considered reckless drivers by default in most of the insurance companies. So naturally, the premium rates for their automobile insurance will be very high. Although it must be understood that the high insurance can be gradually decreased with driving experience, there are ways in which premiums for student drivers can be decreased:
Economical instead of expensive:
Driving expensive sports cars may be dream-come-true for many students, but opting for economical cars with lower horse powers can help them save lots of insurance money. Sports cars and expensive cars are expensive to insure because premium rates will be high for such cars. If the model of the car is statistically shown to be safer on roads, insurance premium rates can go low accordingly.
Driving records:
Although there will not be much driving record to show for teenage drivers and students, keeping the records clean makes a difference. Driving records free of parking tickets, speeding tickets or driving under influence problems can help in obtaining lower premium rates. Usually students are known to speed on the roads, and therefore considered a high risk by insurance companies. Driving records free of speeding tickets not only make them better drivers but also makes the insurance companies treat them low risk drivers.
Mileage of the car:
The lesser students and teenagers drive, the lower their premium rates will be. If the student drivers show the mileage of the car within the preset limits of the insurance companies, they are treated low risk on roads and their monthly premiums will be lowered. If they drive too much and the mileage crosses the upper limit set by the insurance companies, if any, then their premium rates go up.
Special student discounts:
Students who maintain their GPAs at 3 and above every year get special student discounts. A good GPA means a responsible student, and insurance companies lower the premium rates of responsible drivers on road. Students will be eligible for special student discounts in many insurance companies when they show their credit reports to be good. The idea is to establish the fact that the teenage driver or the student driver getting insurance is responsible.
When your teen starts to drive
driving records, insurance companies, premium rates, special student
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The Toyota Hybrid X
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
From Japan’s leading car maker comes a hybrid that breaks the mould of conventional hybrids with a car that could just be a conventional comfortable regular four-door, four-seater – with a lot of great looks added.
The Toyota Hybrid X concept car has just been exhibited in the Geneva Auto Show this year. It is 4,500 mm long, 1,440 mm high and 1,850 mm wide, pretty much any conventional family car’s dimensions. The seats are space saving and are light as they have injected foam inside.
To make the ride even more comfortable in Hybrid X, the back seats are independent and are made to allow swiveling of up to 12 degrees so the passengers at the back can talk more comfortably. The large glass area makes the concept of open-space very appealing.
The smooth surface lines melding into the rear spoiler make for an aerodynamic appearance. The doors are rear-hinged and electronically operated. The headlights too, are a part of the interior of the car, leaving the exterior with smooth, unbroken lines. These are LED lamps and they can interact with pedestrians through animation to communicate safety information.
Inside, more LED lights means you can set the lighting to what you want. In fact, the lights change with the music and a perfume diffuser means that your senses of sight, smell, hearing and touch are pampered.
The Toyota Hybrid X happens to be Toyota’s thrust in the area of sustainable mobility for the whole family. This is probably a great stride in environmental friendly motoring and it also edges closer to zero emissions without the bubble-like small look of the conventional hybrid or electric car.
The Toyota Hybrid X, designed at Toyota’s ED or style center in the south of France, suddenly lifts hybrids to a new plane. There are two core Toyota values that the car adheres to – they are Vibrant Clarity and the J-Factor. The latter is the acceptance of Japanese design and form – whether locally or internationally and Vibrant Clarity is how the J-Factor is expressed.
So while the designs will be original, they will also have to be in identified as coming from the Toyota stables. As interior designer Laurent Bouzige comments: ‘There is a formal style in the shape of the vehicle and the material used but every other reaction is linked to the passengers’ senses of sound, smell, sight and touch through interactive ambience.’ He calls the Hybrid X a multi-sensory experience. Well, add ergonomically designed and you’ll see what a winner this car is.
The tires on the Hybrid X are 225/40 R20 with 20” alloy wheels which are customized. The steering is drive-by-wire and there is a lot of information available to you – like fuel consumption, energy flow and gear position.
The Toyota Hybrid X has Bluetooth connectivity as well as interactive navigation. The vehicle uses the ‘hybrid synergy drive system’ which Toyota also uses in its Lexus and Prius hybrid models. This combines the best of a parallel hybrid system with a series hybrid system.
Toyota Hybrid X
hybrid system, toyota hybrid, vibrant clarity
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2011 Bentley Continental Supersports Convertible – Official Photos and Info – Auto Reviews – Car and Driver
Thursday, July 28th, 2011
No doubt, the ridiculously fast
is one of the baddest Bentleys ever produced. With 621 hp and 590 lb-ft of torque, that two-seat Conti will melt your face off as it blasts to 60 mph in just 3.6 seconds. Of course, with no rear seats, the practicality factor, if there is such a thing with a $275K SuperBentley, is way down—how are you supposed to bring all those groupies back to your mansion? Bentley’s solution: the four-seat Supersports Convertible, which drops at the
.
Same Car, Less Roof
If this is the first time you’ve heard of the Continental Supersports, allows us to recap, as the convertible is nearly identical in every way. The Supersports begins with the age-old concept of “more power, less weight,” and packs an extra 21 hp and 37 lb-ft of torque in its twin-turbocharged W-12 engine over the already-ridiculous
. Increasing the output to 621 hp and 590 lb-ft meant the transmission needed beefing up, and it also got a reprogram to shorten the shift time by more than 50 percent. Engineers then got serious about that “less-weight” thing, stripping approximately 175 pounds out of the behemoth Supersports coupe by deleting the rear seats and switching to thinner, carbon-fiber-backed fronts; replacing interior wood trim with carbon fiber; installing some lighter chassis elements; and adding lighter wheels and carbon-ceramic brakes.
Sadly, the convertible gains back all the lost poundage and then some, due to its additional rear chairs and the mechanism for the convertible top. You can perhaps take consolation in the fact that the cloth roof is available in eight colors.
We rejoice that the menacing styling of the Supersports coupe carries over. Extra air intakes in the front, blacked-out trim and 20-inch wheels, flared rear fenders that cover a two-inch-wider rear track, and a unique rear bumper cover housing twin ovoid exhaust tips are all standard issue on the ‘vert, too.
Performance will comparatively suffer with the increased weight, but don’t expect the convertible to be a slouch. Bentley claims the Supersports droptop will reach 60 mph in just 3.9 seconds, but we fearlessly predict it will be quicker; the coupe was reported to hit 60 in 3.7 seconds, while we achieved 3.6. Top speed of the ragtop is reduced from the coupe’s 204 mph to a lackadaisical 202 mph.
Now E85-Capable Plus, you can save the environment while driving your 621-hp convertible. Well, not really, but Bentley has also announced that all 2011 Continentals now have the ability to run on regular gas or E85 bioethanol fuel, or any mix of the two. While E85 is nothing new, it’s a first for Bentley; the company has developed a program that detects the blend ratio of the fuel and will automatically remap the engine to ensure power and torque remain consistent no matter what mix is being burned. Using E85 will certainly reduce emissions, but so would choosing to drive something else, like, say, a car that weighs less than 2.5 tons and gets better than 12/19 mpg city and highway (or worse on E85). But what fun is that?
Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/news/car/10q1/2011_bentley_continental_supersports_convertible-official_photos_and_info
2011 Bentley Continental SuperSports Convertible
carbon fiber, less weight, rear seats, supersports coupe
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