 |
Travel Prices News & Commentary
|
|
When I was younger I lived in some pretty dicey places. At one point I lived in a little town called Bayshore on Long Island’s South Shore. This was the first place I ever smelled people smoking crack, the first place I was ever asked if I wanted to buy an uzi, and the first place I could sit in my living room and watch hookers give blowjobs to the perverts that ceaselessly prowled the neighborhood. My apartment, despite being in a horrible war zone of a neighborhood, was a in a beautiful brick post world war II era building that housed only 4 enormous apartments. The rent was cheap, but the apartment was great. This set the tone for many years to come where I would deliberately scope the news for stories of bad neighborhoods besieged by prostitutes, drug dealers and bad schools. These stories were always fertile ground when it came to finding cheap housing. When I was in my 20’s, I could give a rats ass about the caliber of my neighbors, but times change, paychecks rise and one begins to desire a better experience when walking at night.
Higher gasoline prices have an impact on the choices people make. It’s easy to notice how much smaller cars are, on average. There are legions of scooters and motorcycles, which are not only more economical for fuel use, but much easier to park. There is a far more comprehensive mass transit system. In 2008, people in the U.S. will begin to see more of a small car designed by Mercedes that has been popular in Europe for years. It’s the Smart car and the only reason it hasn’t shown up sooner is because it didn’t seem like the market here was ready for it. At just under 9 feet long, the Smart Car is about 3 feet shorter than the Mini Cooper and 7 feet shorter than the Ford Explorer. At 1,800 pounds, it’s about 4,500 pounds lighter than a Hummer. The biggest concern for some people seems to be safety, but for those who buy for their next crash, that concern has been dealt with, too. “It’s basically built to be like a race car, with the steel cage technology that protects the occupants,” says Jessica Gamarra, marketing specialist for Smart USA. In addition, the Smart comes equipped with safety features including anti-lock brakes and front and side airbags. The car is designed to achieve a four-star rating out of a possible five stars in government crash tests, according to Smart USA. It also gets better than 40 mpg, which makes it close to some of the smaller current hybrid models in the fuel economy department. With a sticker price under $12,000, it will be interesting to see what kind of reception the Smart car receives on this side of the pond.
The Kia Mesa first broke ground at the North American International Auto Show in 2005, when the KDC-III Mesa concept was unveiled. The production version, expected in 2008, shares the drive train and separates chassis construction with the smaller Sorento. Kia had the option of stretching the Sorento itself, but rather decided on an all new model that will sit in the range above the Sorento. Kia has needed a larger vehicle with more seating capacity, although some in the industry are wondering whether it is such a wise move in light of fuel prices and the current climate of many other manufacturers fitting hybrid drive trains to their large SUVs. The concept car has a six cylinder engine under the hood, although Kia has confirmed that a V8 will be able to fit in the engine bay. (Read the full post about ‘2009 Kia Mesa Midsize SUV’…)
|
Categories
Site DirectoryFavorites
|
