The Volt is coming, the Volt is coming, which is your favorite Hybrid?

I found some great information on the new Chevy Volt and wanted to share it.  Most of these "tidbits" came from a video that Translogic put out where they dug into a lot of the specifics of the operation of this new vehicle and put the car to the test as well at the General Motors Milford Proving Ground.  If you would like to see the full video, you can watch it here.  Also, their website is located at http://www.translogic.aolautos.com/

So here are some interesting facts about the Volt from this video.

• Charging will happen right from a standard household outlet in about 10 to 12 hours.  Customers can opt for a 240 volt charging station that will do it in about 4 hours.  It even has a mobile app for the iphone to allow you to schedule when you want the car charged and a whole bunch of other things like remote start from anywhere, sweet!
• The Volt has 4 different vehicle modes for different types of driving, Eco, Normal, Sport, and Mountain modes to optimize fuel economy.  During the video they were able to get about 100 mpg for the entire drive time and about 27 mpg while the gas powered generator was running.
• The Volt ran a 0-60 time of 8.53 seconds which is pretty impressive for an electric vehicle.
• They spoke quite a bit about the balance of the Volt, even though this isn't a sports car it has a sporty feel to it and is a lot of fun to drive. 

These are going to start hitting showroom floors this year but depending on where you live (like me in Idaho) you and I probably won't see one for quite some time.  Maybe next year if we are lucky.  If you get a chance though, take it.  This is going to turn out to be a pretty amazing car.

gt

I think that Kia has pretty much got this figured out

You have to admit, Kia has come a long way from the tin can crap of a car that they have been known to offer here in America.    Check out these beauties...

A Pride GTX, ooooooh!

The Kia Sephia, a classic

 You could pretty much count on a car that would dent if you leaned against it.  Or if you looked at it wrong.  :)  It had a hamster under the hood, it was cheap to buy and when it died, it wasn't really worth getting fixed, it was just time to throw it away.



Fast forward to today and you have an entirely different animal.  I read an article a while back that spoke about some of the goals that Kia has as a company.  The first one is to produce vehicles that are in the top 3 of all auto manufacturers for initial quality in the next 3 years, the second goal is to be perceived by the general public as being in the top 5 of all auto manufacturers within 5 years.  Lofty goals to say the least but it looks like they are doing it.  Kia is building some really nice, high quality cars at a price point much lower than their competition and they have the advertising to back it up. 

I have to say... I love the advertising.  Kia came out with their commercial for the Kia Soul, a boxy little ride with some pretty serious attitude, and I was hooked.  Have you seen the Soul commercials?  They are awesome!!!  Here are a couple links to see them on Youtube if you haven't already...

Kia Soul commercial
 This is a great video and pretty much started the whole hamster craze.

Kia Soul - The Black Sheep
This one is my favorite, my 2 year old has walked around saying "do-dah-dippity" for the past 5 months.




They keep coming out with video after video and it is amazing how Kia's image is changing.  All of a sudden, this is a cool car and lot's of people that wouldn't have considered one before, are considering one now.

Kia Sportage video from Australia
I found this one today, pretty funny video from down under.




Kia seems to have everything figured out, I may not run out right now and buy a Kia but if I was in the market, I would certainly consider one.

The 2011 Chevy Camaro SS? Sure, I would love to have one.

I have always had a level of excitement when I think of what it would be like to own a true muscle car.  If you have been reading my blog you have seen that this just isn't the kind of car that I have had the pleasure to own.  I think it would be really cool though, something like an early 60's Camaro, or a Pontiac GTO.  I love to see an old Chevelle that has been lovingly restored.  Especially the convertibles, awesome.

When Chevy re-introduced the Camaro in 2010 I was in love, this is a really cool car.  The styling is amazing, the front end and grill has this aggressive look, and all that power under the hood, quite honestly, does something for me.  The convertible isn't out yet but the SS model is, and oh what a car it is.  The Camaro that I drove can be seen here if you want to check it out. 

A beautiful Victory Red with the black leather interior, yes, I agree, this would have been better with the 6 speed manual transmission but I have to tell you, the automatic is no slouch.  The engine produces 400hp with the automatic and 410 lb.-ft. of torque with a 0 to 60 time of 4.7 seconds!  You get a little more horsepower and torque with the manual (426/420) but I was still impressed.  The exhaust system I am sure is tuned for performance and it sounds pretty cool but I bet that it could produce a more throaty roar with a little bit of help.  It does include a tapshift feature so you have the shift control right on the steering wheel for shifting up and down, way cool.

Driving this car is so smooth, it handles exactly the way you think it should.  Hit the gas and it throws your back into the seat, corner hard and it feels completely in control, even really fun.  The SS comes with an FE3 Performance tuned suspension, what an amazing system, sharp and responsive handling no matter what you throw at it. I would love to take this car on a road trip for sure.

Back to reality, (and work.)  I am 6'5" tall (not the best fit), I have 5 kids (they won't fit), and a conservative wife that I love dearly (probably not going to pay anything over $8,000 for a sports car), I can dream though, right?  Hey, my birthday is coming up, maybe I'll get lucky! :)

Defective dollar store water baloons and the ambush at the Tilby home

Hmmmm, ok, I have a story that I want to tell but I did promise that as I write for this blog I would always try to have something automotive included, I'm not sure how I am going to do that this time but I will do my best. 

I took my 7 year old daughter out for a date last week, we DROVE my 95 GMC Sierra and had a great time.  Our date ended up at the dollar store where she had a great time looking for something that she could blow a couple of dollars on.  With two "turtles that grow 600% in size when you put them in water" (not entirely true advertising we came to find out) we headed to the front of the store to make the purchase.  While standing in line I noticed some packages of 100 water balloons for sale (only $1 ea.) and tossed 2 of them them on the conveyor belt.

Image via Wikipedia

When we got home I just set them on my dresser and figured we would pull them out sometime and have a water balloon fight.  My wife took my oldest daughter last night to buy clothes for school so I stayed home with the rest of our kids.  After dinner I had the bright idea to get out the water balloons.  I pulled the cooler out of the garage, I put the plastic filler spout that came with the balloons on the hose, turned it on and started the long tedious process of filling the cooler with water balloons around 7pm.  I had forgotten how long this takes.  My daughter was having a lot of fun helping me and we were just cranking through them, she would get the balloon on the spout and then hand it to me to tie the balloon.

It took an hour and a half to get through the first 100, my cooler was about 3/4 full.  I couldn't believe that none of the balloons were breaking, these seemed to be pretty good balloons. Our thoughts began to turn from a regular water balloon fight to a full on ambush for my wife and daughter when they got home.  With our minds set on an ambush the conversation turned to how funny it would be to soak them when they weren't expecting it.  My 11 year old son caught wind of this and of course he was "all in."  The next hour was spent filling the other 100 balloons and creating our plan of attack.  We would lock the door from the garage into the house and let them pull into the garage with all of the water balloons hidden outside.  Once they couldn't get into the house and came outside we would let them have it... a foolproof plan. :) 

Anticipation continued to grow as it got later and later, we were filling balloons and getting more excited for the all out war that was sure to come out of this.  The sun was going down and they didn't pull into the driveway until 9:30pm.  The temperature had cooled off a lot from when we started and I began to have second thoughts about soaking my wife, I quickly brushed the doubts aside.  They drove into the garage, turned off the van, and we were ready.  My oldest daughter came out first, it was kind of dark.  My 11 year old son, 7 year old daughter, 4 year old daughter and 2 year old son grabbed handfuls of water balloons and went to work. 

My wife and I were coming out of the garage right when the first barrage of balloons hit my daughter, funny thing though, they didn't break, they bounced right off of her and hit the ground, rolling down the driveway.  My kids were already back at the cooler and buckets reloading for round 2, this time they aimed for my wife and again, maybe one broke but when they hit, they hurt and I think my wife might have had tears in her eyes, she showed me the red marks on her back later.

Tracy, my wife has never backed down from a water fight and last night proved to be no different, she ran in the house, grabbed two 48 ounce cups of water and the fight was on.  30 minutes later, broken balloons all over the house, lawn, inside the entry ways because somebody likes to hide behind the front door instead of keeping it outside, and everybody was soaked.  And yes, the hose was involved. 

All things considered, we had a lot of fun but I think that I will spend a little more next time and get balloons that will actually break when they are supposed to.

GT