By Casey Williams

Ru Paul and that bitch’s drag race crack me up. Don’t “F—” it up,” she says as the drag divas lip sync for their lives! From playing clucking chickens to country divas, watching those queens compete to become the next dag superstar is too funny to miss. Grab a fruity martini and watch. As the song that sings the show out each week says, “Don’t be jealous of my boogie.”

But, you might be jealous of Suzuki’s new boogie – the Kizashi, pronounced “Kee-Zah-Shee” and meaning “something great is coming.” Engineered by Suzuki and Opel, it is like a Japanese athlete who speaks with a German accent – not much different than Ru’s contestants who speak in accents only discernible by an armada of United Nations interpreters. However you say it, Kizashi is gor-geous.

Designers went balls out with the exterior. Kizashi’s honeycomb grille and aero facia are as photogenic as a supermodel’s mug. Muscular 18″ alloy wheels, bulging thighs, and a perfectly shaped, high bootie are a joy to behold. The arching roofline is as smooth as shaved legs and contributes to a hushed interior. A little sporty, and suave elegant, the sedan should be much more of the toast of the town than the Italian-accented Suzuki Verona it theoretically replaces. V-angled twin tailpipes finish off the hind view as the Kizashi launches down the expressway.

If you can judge a Kizashi by its shell, then what’s inside should be 2 pc. and a biscuit (or two bratwurst and some sushi). Style is primo with comfy leather seats, perfect steering wheel, large analog gauges, soft headliner, and leather door pull straps. Details matter on the mid-size runway, and the Kizashi makes its mark with ambient lighting from overhead and in the footwells, felt inside the glovebox, three-stage heated seats, heated mirrors, and rain-sensing wipers. I love the refined Euro fit, but could do without the hard plastic dash.

Electro-wizards also had their way with the Kizashi’s interior. One enters and starts the car without taking the key fob out of their pocket – just walk up, let the car automatically unlock the door, hop in, and press the start button. Bluetooth connectivity lets your cell phone sync with the car for one-button calling. While the audio system has a USB port to allow you to control your iPOD through the car’s controls, the menu is about as hard to decipher as an Indian drag queen’s accent. Fortunately, the Rockford Fosgate 10-speaker audio with subwoofer needs to translation to be clearly heard and enjoyed.

Sachet away, or more like hit the gas and shift gears. The only motor you’re going to make purr is a 2.4-litre DOHC four-cylinder that generates 185 horsepower with a manual transmission or 180-HP with a continuously-variable trans. as in our test car. There is plenty of power to scoot the sedan, but CVTs always behave like a high-powered weedeater had relations with a golf cart. Paddle shifters behind the steering wheel made this guy feel like he was driving a Ferrari. OK, maybe it won’t get you all that untucked, but it was a pretty good drive anyway. With fuel economy ratings of 22/29-MPG city/highway, you’ll pack enough back to show off at your favorite eatery.

To rage on the throttle of this hot rocket, you will need Pilotis instead of Jimmy Choos. Imagine one of those boys grabbing the ground with four ends of claws and you get whiff at the Kizashi’s grip. An all-wheel-drive system that can be de-activated with a dash switch makes hash of slick weather and curvy back roads. Upon the first hint of slipping front wheels, power is immediately sent rearward with the front/rear split dependent on road conditions and driver inputs. Its tenacious performance was validated on Germany’s Autobahn, Switzerland’s Alpine passes, English cobblestones, and the famed Nurburgring.
Kizashi is essentially a Chevy Malibu or Buick Regal in drag, gorgeous in its sexy dress, but very much a working boy beneath. The structure is solid, doors close with a fwoomph, and the car is very well engineered. Cars are usually much better when they behave like blue-collar workers than prima donnas anyway. To only think of the Kizashi as a Chevy Malibu in high hair would completely pan its superior performance and accoutrement. Better than safe sex, Kizashi protects with 8 airbags, electronic stability control, and four-wheel anti-lock disc brakes – meeting U.S. crash standards four years early.

Hailing from Sagara Japan, Suzuki crafted a hot little social climber that may have been born from working class parents, but successfully graduated from finishing school to take its place among the best mid-size sports sedans on show. Don’t be jealous of Suzuki’s boogie. Get your own. Prices start at $18,999, but came to $27,864 as tested, making this Japanese hottie dragged-out competition for the VW Passat, Ford Fusion, Nissan Altima, and Dodge Avenger.

As tested price: $27,864.

The fall-out of yesterday’s Toyota Prius unintended acceleration incident in California – a car got up to speeds of over 90 miles per hour in a 20-minute event – now includes an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. NHTSA has dispatched two investigators to look into what happened, while Toyota is sending three technicians. The car was towed to a Toyota dealership today after being held overnight by the California Highway Patrol. One new bit of information reported by the AP is that the car had “a little hiccup” with the accelerator a few weeks ago. The driver claims that the floormats were not a cause of either acceleration.

We certainly don’t think that this incident is like a new OJ moment for hybrids or green cars, but we can only imagine the discussion inside of Toyota HQ about the rumors and hype surrounding the troubles. Earlier today, for example, we heard that the second-gen Priuses had been recalled. This hasn’t happened (yet), and Toyota is working on a fix for the thousands of hybrids included in the 4.36 million vehicles recalled last November. How yesterday’s incident fits into the picture remains to be seen.

[Source: AP]

Report: Feds probing Prius’ unintended acceleration incident, no new recall issued originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Joey Polewarczyk Jr. of Hudson, N.H. will run the first six events of the 10-race K&N Pro Series East schedule for Fadden Racing, a source close to the team confirmed on Tuesday.

The team is owned by two-time K&N Pro Series East champion Mike Olsen.

Polewarczyk, 20, finished fourth in the American-Canadian Tour standings last year and plans on running full-time in the division again this year.

He made a pair of starts in the K&N Pro Series East in 2008 for car owners Barney McRae and Dave Davis.

We’ve been chronicling the world of more efficient vehicles for almost four years now, but we’re still the new kind on the block compared to long-time organizations like CalCars and that group’s leader, Felix Kramer. At a recent meeting of the Electric Auto Association (of which CalCar is also a chapter) in Palo Alto, CA, Kramer took a look back at what CalCar has accomplished over the last eight years or so and, in doing so, created a slide show of the recent history of the plug-in vehicle movement and industry.

Beginning with an emphasis on plug-in hybrids (as opposed to pure electric vehicles) and then on converting hybrids to plug-in hybrids, Kramer said CalCars has done what it set out to do:

In October, we declared victory on plug-in hybrids! We wanted to put them on the map and we wanted to get them mass-produced — and it’s happening. There are going to be cars on the road. That doesn’t mean we don’t have a lot to do, but we were really happy to be able to say, after seven years, “We’ve won!” A small group of people changed the whole auto industry — that’s an incredible accomplishment.

Kramer ended his talk with a short and effective personal message. We recommend reading it here and you can find a PDF of the slides that were accompanied it here.

[Source: CalCars]

A short history of recent plug-in vehicles, courtesy of CalCars originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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And NASCAR’s developmental touring divisions, which include the locally run Whelen Modified Tour and K&N Pro Series East, won’t be immune to the measures, though cuts will come in a different form.

NASCAR has decided to cut by 25 percent the amount of teams that will get paid in each division’s end of the season points fund, which is the money paid out to teams based on their standings finish. 

Here in the United States, Mercedes-Benz’s product portfolio starts off with the C-Class sedan. Those familiar with the alphabet may realize that there are at least two available letters before ‘C’ that would theoretically allow the German automaker to offer something a bit less expensive before graduating up the ranks to the likes of the E-Class and S-Class, in all their assorted variations.

Wouldn’t you know it, Mercedes has seen fit to fill those two pre-C-Class slots with an A- and B-Class across the pond, and we’ve been hearing rumblings for quite some time that one of these models might make its way Stateside before too long. Those rumors continue today with this report from Automotive News, which suggests that a compact car and a small SUV may soon be in the offing in the U.S.

Mercedes-Benz plans to launch the next version of its B-Class in Europe in 2011, and that’s the likely candidate for conversion to be sold here in the States. Included amongst the powertrain options will reportedly be some kind of fossil fuel alternative, perhaps either an electric version or one powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.

So, when might we expect all this to go down? Depends. Says Joachim Schmidt, sales and marketing chief at MB, “The behavior of Americans depends on fuel prices. Nevertheless, we see a trend also toward fuel-efficient cars.”

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req'd]

Report: Mercedes to launch B-Class-based hatchback, CUV in U.S. originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s no doubt that solar energy is one of the greenest sources of electricity and the idea of using it to power transportation is not new. We’ve seen solar-powered boats and solar-powered cars before, among other things, but we didn’t know until now that a solar-powered high-speed train was on anyone’s drawing board. Apparently, it is.

Conceived as a means of zero-carbon high-speed mass transit, the Solar Bullet would travel between Tucson and Phoenix, AZ at 220 miles per hour, cutting travel times from two and a half hours (in traffic) to just 30 minutes. Taking advantage of the high amount of solar irradiance in the American Southwest, the tracks would be covered by a huge solar array to provide it with the necessary power. The SolarBullet Campaign aims to increase awareness and support among Arizonians and build a team of university experts, engineers and transit specialists to move this project further down the line. Feel free to hit them up on Facebook or follow their Twitter feed to offer your own encouragement and keep track of the initiative.

[Source: SolarBullet Campaign]

SolarBullet Campaign shoots for high-speed solar train originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The car that we first saw as the B0 concept a year ago at the Geneva Motor Show could be on the market by the fall of this year. The electric commuter car has been jointly developed by the French Bollore Group and Italian design studio Pininfarina and is apparently still on track.

Bollore has built two lithium ion battery plants in France with a combined capacity of 30,000 30 kilowatt-hour battery packs. Bollore will supply the packs for cars to be assembled in Italy by Pininfarina. The partners plan to offer the cars to rental agencies first before making them available for retail sales. Pininfarina CEO Silvio Angori expects to build 2,000 examples of the Bluecar by the end of next year. The Bollore batteries are based on lithium metal polymer construction, similar to the LG Chem batteries used by Hyundai and General Motors.

[Source: Reuters]

Bollore and Pininfarina target fall 2010 launch for Bluecar EV originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If a production schedule posted at Allpar is to be believed, Chrysler will kick off production of the new Ram 1500 hybrid on November 16, 2010. The Ram hybrid inherits the same 5.7-liter Hemi V8, two-mode hybrid powertrain that was in the short-lived Dodge Durango/Chrysler Aspen hybrids in 2008. The two-mode hybrid transmission is supplied to Chrysler by General Motors and is the same unit (aside from the mounting face of the case) used in GM’s full-size trucks. We expect the Ram hybrid will get similar mileage to the GM trucks, with a city number of about 21-22 mpg.

At some point, a hybrid version of the Chrysler minivans may appear as well but that probably depends on GM launching production of the front-wheel-drive two-mode transmission. That was originally scheduled to happen in late 2008 along with production of a two-mode version of the Saturn Vue. We’re now expecting that powertrain to turn up in some production vehicle possibly in 2011, although GM has yet to make any announcements since it abandoned a plan last summer to re-badge the Vue as a Buick.

[Source: Allpar]

Report: 2011 Ram hybrid production to start November 16 originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Friday the 17-year old from Concord, N.C. showed that a Modified might just be his most natural fit as a driver.

LaJoie, making his first career start in a Modified, held off Tim Brown in a side-by-side battle to the line to win the Whelen Southern Modified Tour Atlanta 150 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

“It’s an awesome deal to put a third generation Lajoie into the winners circle in a Modified,” LaJoie said by phone minutes after the event.

Frank Fleming was third.