Fancy getting over 64 miles per gallon from your next car? Fancy getting your next car on the road for the minimal £15 annual tax rate? Fancy getting it for less than £15, 500?
Of course you do! So go get a Honda Insight SE. Yes, you’ll get the dual front airbags, the side airbags and curtain airbags as standard. Yes, you’ll get the active headrests, electric windows, climate control, tilt and telescopic steering and electric heated mirrors as standard. And of course, you will get power folding door mirrors, door mirror indicators, front armrest, CD stereo tuner and audio steering wheel controls. But what else I hear you say?
Just when the press is full of doom and gloom for the automotive industry, BMW come along and prove all the critics wrong! As a measure of the public’s trust in BMW and BMW’s strength in the current car market, the group have just reported sales of the 7 Series in the Middle East as 121% higher in January 2009 than the same time last year.
A certain softness in its lines accompanies the new Lexus HS 250h due for release in 2010. According to Lexus, this is the world’s first dedicated luxury hybrid vehicle.
It claims to be the most fuel efficient vehicle in the entire Lexus range with a four cylinder engine and an exhaust heat recovery system that decreases engine warm up time, thus allowing the Lexus to reach maximum efficiency as quickly as possible.
To use long labels the Lexus has a Variable Valve Timing with intelligence in the Atkinson-cycle engine – this means that the expansion/power stroke is longer than the compression stroke so engine power is produced more rapidly from the combustion energy. Did you get all that?
Honda make some of the world’s most impressive cars which led them to thinking – why stop there? Their move into motorcycles has meant they now have a double barrelled effect on the motoring world with as much eye boggling oomph on two wheels as they muster on four. If you have any doubts about that, take a look at the 2010 Honda Fury, introduced at the New York International Motorcycle Show last month.
My wheels and my music. Here we have two issues, both of equal importance to me but as a busy working parent both are neglected. When I’m in my car I guess I’m pretty much like any other busy parent in that I want to listen to good tunes but my schedule means that I have limited time to sort it out and I end up driving along constantly flicking between radio stations and bemoaning the fact that there’s ‘nothing on’.
There’s much to be enjoyed by BMW. We have sleek design, solid, dependable, high quality vehicles that stand out from a crowd for their innovative design and cutting edge technology under the bonnet. There are motorbikes as well as cars as well as their place in the world of motor sports. BMW like to get involved in all kinds of sports from golfing to racing to yachting.
But at the top of all their priorities comes driver and passenger safety. This can be seen in all the designs that are inside a BMW that makes this one of the safest cars on the road. However, there is always margin for driver error and this is yet another thing that BMW have been addressing for over thirty years now.
