ccap41

"The oil change may be about to endure a change of its own. A big motor-oil maker plans to announce Thursday that it has achieved a breakthrough in engine-lubrication design that makes it easy to change the oil in a vehicle in as little as 90 seconds, Castrol, a division of BP, says the modification over current designs also lowers carbon emissions and fosters recycling. The new system, which Castrol has dubbed Nexcel, must be integrated into vehicle engines at the design stage. That means it won't hit mainstream cars for another five years — about the length of time between major model changes for many automakers. Castrol said it's in discussions with several major automakers to speed adoption of the Nexcel system, which it brags is significantly faster than the 20 minutes it traditionally takes to get an oil change. ..." The rest can be read at: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2015/10/08/castrol-engine-oil-advancement/73527408/?ref=yfp There is more, I wasn't sure if I was allowed to post the entire article here or not.

I think it looks awesome. Looks like a modern S2000 and I still think those look sharp.

I think it was C&D that I was looking over yesterday and they named the Impreza but showed a picture of that Viziv and I was super confused how they were changing the whole basic "theme" or "class" of the Impreza nameplate. I guess they just had it mislabeled. Anyway, I think the little Viziv looks pretty sharp for a smaller CUV/SUV. I don't know if they are a thing that would make it to production but I think those school bus yellow accents look pretty sharp but not overdone either. ..Am I seeing it correct..it only has three doors? 2 on the driver side and 1 on the passenger side?

I'm not surprised. Toyota phoned that one in. The brand new Taco? You are so charitable calling it "brand new". It just a heavy redesign of the prior one. Lol WHATEVER! I'm actually really excited to read some test reviews and comparisons. This segment has officially gotten competitive with the new Canyonado.

So the big question to ask is if they are so efficient, then why do they have to spend more than GM and Ford combined to develop auto's and yet they still have a sucky product line here in the US? The quote said they are inefficient. Not efficient. I cannot imagine the wasted money being thrown around if they are spending more than Ford and GM yet they aren't making anything that is twice as good as anything from those two companies. ESPECIALLY if you throw in Cadillac. My bad, your right, I misread it. That is a freakin waste of money. No biggie! CRAZY how much money is being wasted.. unless they have something MONSTEROUS rolling out in the next couple of years which they have been DUMPING cash into that is revolutionary.. then they need to learn how to spend money much better.

..there are three people who get super riled up over this and it doesn't make any sense to me either.. Apparently it bothers them enough to ask for it to either go away or be changed, more than once.

So the big question to ask is if they are so efficient, then why do they have to spend more than GM and Ford combined to develop auto's and yet they still have a sucky product line here in the US? The quote said they are inefficient. Not efficient. I cannot imagine the wasted money being thrown around if they are spending more than Ford and GM yet they aren't making anything that is twice as good as anything from those two companies. ESPECIALLY if you throw in Cadillac.

I'm mostly intrigued by this line: "Volkswagen has been criticized for being an “incredibly inefficient” company. Last year, the automaker had set aside $17.4 billion research and development. That is higher than what Ford and General Motors spent on r&d combined last year." That's just nuts.

Screw it, whatcha got?

That was my next choice! I've really been diggin' Mazda's styling as of late. I think this is the hands down best looking of the "mini/micro" vehicles. When I made my initial post I wasn't thinking SUV/CUVs. Actually.. the more I think about it maybe my previous post should have been an Abarth 500. Those are neat little cars.

Abso-freaking-lutely! But.. I'll play more along the lines that I don't think a Fiesta in general is really a mico-car at all. I think it is a little too large(weird to think about, right?) And even if I couldn't have the ST I drove a buddies 1.0 Fiesta(only comes in a manual) and it was great. It doesn't come with many options at all and you can't add more but it was a great little car with a fantastic little 1.0. It super impressed me. But I think some of the impressiveness was because it was a stick so it was just fun in general. Alright, excluding the Fiesta, I would go with the 500. 95% of that is because it has the most style of that group. None of them really do anything for me but I think the 500 looks the best. I've never owned an italian vehicle and it may be the only one I could afford anyway. lol Well, Gucci Fiat 500 for me.

I came across one of the rare Nissan Murano Cabriolets. I parked at a restaurant last thursday when the gf and I went out to eat and I walked past "something I didn't recognize" and I stopped and looked at it, looked for a badge on the back because I was confused as all hell, saw nothing. Walked around front and sure as $h!.. it was a Murano Cabriolet! Odd vehicle...for sure.

I'm not surprised. Toyota phoned that one in. The brand new Taco?

Well, I was bored and listened to a few Rangers with a few different setups( 4 banger/Flowmaster, 4 banger/Magnaflow, 3.0/Flowmaster, 3.0/Magnaflow) and I thought the best was the magnaflow regardless of engine. None sound particular good to me but I think that's because 95% of 4 cylinder and 6 cylinder engines don't sound good to begin with, IMO.

What size engine do you have in your Ranger? Are we working with a 4 or 6 banger?

I agree Hyper. I just wanted to clarify mostly that that number wasn't directed at VW alone. And I also completely agree that those 6%/11k of lung cancer patients probably have other issues contributing that cannot tie down diesel 100% to the cause. Buuuut if they had been tied directly to diesel(which I highly doubt could even be done, like you said) it could be in part to old diesels never had these stringent restrictions like they do today. And I would wager good money that those who they are counting in those 6% are people around construction, mining, etc equipment all their lives which don't have any restrictions, that I know of. So those do probably put out 95% of the total smog from diesels. Just an guestimate on my part though.

http://www.motortrend.com/features/performance/2015_motor_trend_best_drivers_car/ I won't ruin or spoil anything for anybody. I'll just give you guys a list of the cars and you can read it from there. Edit: Come to think of it.. once you click on the link they are placed in order so I might as well just put that here as well. DNF: Corvette Z06 Z07 Package 1.38.60 9th: Volkswagen Golf R 1.46.95 8th: Lexus RC F 1.43.20 7th: Cadillac ATS-V 1.40.18 6th: Cadillac CTS-V 1.38.52 5th: Bentley Continental GT3-R 1.43.51 4th: Mercedes-AMG C63 S 1.40.50 3rd: Mazda MX-5 1.50.68 2nd: Porsche Cayman GT4 1.37.43 1st: Mercedes-AMG GT S 1.35.57

I agree with what Drew has posted here and I believe most of us all agree this is about corporate greed. 11 million auto's with a $329.00 savings equals $3,619,000,000 savings 3.6 billion folks. This then ended up in the Fired CEO getting a 41% pay raise in 2013 at that time. http://www.autospies.com/news/VW-CEO-Receives-41-Pay-Raise-62299/ His pay was $12 million in 2011, doubled in 2012 to $23 million and then again 41% raise in 2013. http://www.bimmerboost.com/content.php?2241-VW-group-has-record-year-so-VW-CEO-doubles-his-salary-to-23-million So yea this is about Corporate Greed and the US as well as other countries should follow Germany in forcing them to have a plan or ban their Diesels from the road and from being able to be sold. Banning them from our roads will leave a seriously NASTY taste in nearly everybody who ones one of these. If they get banned from driving their VW do you think any of them will walk back into a VW dealer? I know I wouldn't. Screw that. Too many other companies making very high quality products to go back to a company who just left me stranded with a worthless pile in my driveway.

GREAT find! This is exactly what I wanted to come out. The real money side of things.

Good job to all three from Detroit. Go 'Merica.

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/2013/11/diesel-lung-cancer-deaths/ This was the link I was refering to. I believe my prior post's assesment of it wasn't very accurate..sloppy memory..

The lack of a base truck may be due to pricing. This is not a cheap engine anymore due to government regs. I suspect they are holding back on engine price some and adding options to spread out the areas to recoup the profits. I would hate to see how much this thing would cost with no options vs. the gas model. I bet there would be a big gulf in price. Our government has taken a Diesel and made it so difficult to price any more with regulations that it has almost priced the engine out of existence. Even Europe with their tight laws are easier but I suspect the Green Party will make a move to work to kill these engines. It really is a shame. I just love how the news people are going around saying VW may have killed 11,000 people? They leave out many who are effected are often people who smoked themselves into repertory issues too. Lets face it we are not finding bodies in the street and the fact is even with the failing reading the VW engine is cleaner than any Diesel in the last 100 years. To really get ill from these engines you generally have to have a contributing illness or you live upstairs over a truck stop. We are not talking black lung here. If anyone was to die from lung/Diesel issues it would be heavy equipment operators who sit behind a stack, Farmers and or truck drivers. One really needs to keep this in perspective as the media like in other cases fails to report all the info. 11K deaths garners more attention than if you really break it down. I'll defend what that 11,000 people may have come from. I posted a link saying the NOx(correct that if it is wrong.. whatever it is that is harmful from diesels) kills 11,000 people per year. It didn't say anything specific about VW or any one manufacturer just that diesel exhaust IS harmful(if not treated correctly). I'll try and find where I posted it so you can read it. It definitely was not vehicle or manufacturer specific. In all honesty it is coming from all of the HD vehicles out there whether semi trucks or construction equipment. But, the VW's were supposedly clean and they were not that.. I think that is where some of this discrepancy has come from. I bet a couple of Directors of Powertrains got visits from brass lately asking them to dust off those old HCCI plans they had back in 08. I thought either Hyundai or Kia still have an active program around this. I read about it not too long ago.

The more I read on the Model X the more I like it. It does some amazing things.

Sounds like one massive disappointment for anybody with 100k. They better hope nobody who has 100k disposable reads this review because I know it won't make me buy the car. I'd rather buy a GT and do what I want with it myself, have it tuned by who I choose, and pick all of the parts myself. Sorry Shelby, but you guys either shouldn't have sent an unfinished car or made a mistake. I REALLY wanted them to be able to dyno the car with everything they said.. " (Schedule conflicts kept us from dynoing the car during its time with us.)"

Whoa ...go on...