I decided to go with my heart and not leave this blog unfinished and open. I live life from the heart and while I love writing I realized that this blog was not from my heart, nor talked about things I am passionate about. My passion is my son and philanthropy, being a good person and kind, fair, and respectful to others. And I feel driven to write about those things now.

For those who have read my post, thank you. Thank you that I wasn’t a girl writing about cars to you, and that I was just a car blogger and most of all thank you for listening and hearing my words. Even though the blog is about cars I do see the gift in people being willing to read what I have to say.

So the best to all. I hope your life is filled with as much joy, purpose, and as many wonderful people as mine.

To date I’ve had almost 80,000 views. Thank you and for the last time here… Best wishes and safe driving-qova

Even with the loss of Pontiac, Hummers, Saturn, and Mercury I doubt that the hard times for the car industry are over. I think Kia and Hyundai (if they raise their prices as an attempt at the luxury market) will see trouble in the next few years without changes. I also think there are a few other car companies that need to be very careful about pricing, amenities, and miles-per-gallon in the next few years or they may see hard times also.

***As a side note the VW Beetle will go out of production as of the 2010 year also.***

I just read an article on Motor Trend’s website about their test-drive and initial impression of the Nissan Juke. While I know that the Juke has a huge following already, I have to say the results of the first test raise some concerns about the future of this vehicle.

It wasn’t anything on the surface but the fine print so to speak, that makes me wonder if this car will sell for Nissan. First the Juke was reported to not fair so well once it left the road. Yet it is being marketed as a crossover vehicle. The look of the car would also indicate that capability, based on its ground clearance. And while the Juke did fair well in most other categories, Nissan needs to understand that a failure to articulate a vehicles function or a failure to meet the standards of the class in which you market a vehicle means you can’t find your focus group… no focus market, no sales.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen vehicles that were so different from everything else in their class that they were outcasts… anyone remember the Pontiac Aztec? But their wasn’t always a minivan, SUV, or a crossover vehicle class either! You can make your own place at the proverbial starting line of vehicle classes; you just have to be smart about it. For now, my opinion of the Juke has gone from reserved to a prediction that it will see sales jump early on and then a steep fall into oblivion unless it is overhauled or re-classified. If the Juke stays as it is I fear this vehicle will be like the Aztec or in recent years the Honda Element and Ford Flex, vehicles whose function doesn’t translate.

The 2011 Ford Explorer debuted about two weeks ago. I was lucky enough to get to see it on television. Ford made sure to stress their financial independence from federal funding as an “all American” sort of selling point. I am not a fan of Ford and I don’t like this vehicle’s look. It’s a bit too big to be boxy, much like the Ford Flex. Still the Explorer is much better at boxy than the Flex, but personally I think the boxy look only works well on smaller vehicles like the Cube and Xb.

The 2011 Explorer is a close cousin at best to its predecessor. Really the only thing it has in common with the previous model is the name. I don’t know if that will help or hurt sales. Sometimes people have a hard time with dramatic changes from model to model. Still kudos to Ford for what they are attempting to do. I have not seen the prices yet so I am going to hold my opinion until I can do a price versus value comparison. In this economy that is probably the most important thing, which Ford better know especially since they keep stressing what they are doing right in this recession.

This post is for my darling son, who has his own (pricey) dream. He likes this car not for the price, but rather the speed. Since this is the fastest production car in the world it has that… with a maximum speed of 270 mph (approx). It is a sixteen-cylinder car with mostly custom made parts due to its speed capability and the wear that can put on a car’s components. Much of the car is put together by hand and the break pads alone are more expensive than a lot of cars overall price tags. The Veyron (named for Pierre Veyron) is arguably the most expensive car in the world also. The closest I’ve ever come to one is watching them assemble it on TV. Don’t know if my son will ever get to see one in person but who am I to deny a young car enthusiast his dream? I’m just happy that he often wants to talk cars with me, so this post is for you son.

Most of the time I talk cars, but what would a car be without their parts right? Well this week Fiats two-cylinder 85 hp engine caused me to take a second glance… shiny things!!!

Now to talk specs… the two-cylinder (that sounds weird to say but then again I drive an in-line 5 so who am I to talk) has a 0.9 liter turbo engine. It tops out at a little over 100 mph and makes 0 – 60 in just under eleven seconds, which is good given the size of the engine. It also gets 57 miles to the gallon, which actually I think is a little low given the horsepower.  The approximated maximum torque is 107 ft.-lbs. at a low 1900 rpm. This little engine is already in the Fiat Cinquicento, but is expected to makes its way under the hood of a few other Fiat models too.

I don’t know what made me think of this car, but it came up in conversation yesterday. This car is an example of what cars could be, but I am not sure the world is ready for a car this far from the norm yet. I first saw this car a few years ago and have not heard much about it since. Still a big kudos for the out of the box thinking. This car and creations like self “healing” paint are what I hope will soon be the standard in cars.

Safe driving-qova

I’m look forward to driving some of the green cars including the LEAF. I can’t wait to see who is going to be the front-runner in green automotive technology. And are these the same road that just a few years back were filled with H1 and H2s? Time and economics changed a lot I guess. (If you didn’t know, Hummers have gone out of production.) Safe driving-qova