Washington — Federal regulators are investigating whether 2007-2008 Jeep Wrangler vehicles are at a high risk of spilling fuel.
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The 2011 Buick Regal has received top crash performance marks from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, General Motors Co. said Monday.
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Washington — Federal regulators are considering giving all new vehicles letter grades on fuel efficiency – a move that could deter consumers from buying the least efficient gas guzzlers.
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Washington — The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a preliminary investigation into whether diesel Volkswagen Jetta vehicles should be recalled because of complaints about engine stalling.
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Subtle but effective, a mid-cycle refresh imparts even bolder flair to the 2011 Nissan Murano, which also adds a new value-oriented SV trim level aimed at further broadening the overall market appeal of this five-passenger mid-size crossover.
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Intent on raising the stakes in the new-gen ponycar wars, Ford used this weekend’s Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit to announce the availability of a 50-state-legal supercharger setup designed specifically for the new 5.0-liter Ti-VCT V8 in the 2011 Ford Mustang.
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The 2011 Hyundai Tucson gets a new GL base trim level, with a smaller engine that reduces the starting price by $250 to $18,745 (last year’s GLS model started at $18,995), not including destination charges. Along with that, the existing…
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Honda has run into some problems with its 2006-2008 Honda Civic Hybrids, according to the Los Angeles Times. After being on the road for nearly five years, some of the hybrids’ battery packs are beginning to fail prematurely. Rather than…
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With a starting price of $63,900, the 2010 BMW 550i Gran Turismo isn’t
for every family. However, parents who want a high-performance luxury
hatchback that handles child-safety seats well should put the 550i GT on
their car-shopping list.
Depending on the backseat configuration, the 550i GT can accommodate
four or five passengers. With two bucket seats in the second row, our
test car could hold four passengers.

For the Car Seat Check, we use a rear-facing infant-safety seat, a
convertible child-safety seat and a high-back booster seat, all made by
Graco. The front seats are adjusted to a comfortable position for a
6-foot driver and a 5-foot-8 passenger. The child seats are installed in
the second row and, if available, third row. The booster seat sits
behind the driver’s seat, and the infant seat and convertible seats are
installed behind the passenger seat.

Here’s how the 2010 550i GT scored in MotherProof.com’s Car Seat Check:

Latch system: Because the backseat has only two seating positions, it’s
no surprise that the 550i GT has two sets of lower Latch anchors.
They’re hidden behind a leather flap that’s held in place with Velcro.
The anchors are buried deeply into the seat, but there’s a lot of room
around them, which makes them easy to use. Two tether anchors sit midway
down the second row’s seatbacks. These also have lots of room around the
anchors, making it easy to connect and unconnect the tether anchor.

Booster seat: The booster seat fit well in the second-row bucket seats.
The seats weren’t so heavily bolstered that they interfered with seat
fit, and the power-adjustable rear seats make it a snap to get a good
fit with the booster’s high back.

Convertible child-safety seat: The power-adjustable rear seats were a
big help in getting a good fit for the forward-facing convertible seat.
There was enough room to fit the rear-facing convertible easily without
having to move the front passenger seat forward.

Rear-facing infant-safety seat: I didn’t have any problems installing
this car seat because of the ample legroom and the easy-to-use Latch
anchors.

Do two car seats fit? Yes

Do three car seats fit? No
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The 2011 Mercedes-Benz R350 was delivered to me at just the right time, the day before a little Weekend Warrior road trip to Taos, N.M., for my birthday. Yep, the big 2-0! OK, I’m actually 34 and damn proud of it. And just as I’ve improved over the years, so has the Mercedes R-class, though I’ve loved it from the very first time I drove it.
I used it Friday morning to pack up my daughters’ stuff so they could spend the weekend with their dad and stepmom. This trip was a grown-ups-only weekend. The girls climbed into the R350 and exclaimed, “This is the coolest car ever!” When I probed them more as to why they love it so much, they said they like big cars with TVs in them. What a surprise.

In trying to load the back of the R350 with all of our stuff for the weekend, the third row folded flat pretty easily (once the second row was pulled forward).  At the end of the weekend, I was disappointed by the process of unfolding the third row. In this day and age, it should be as simple as pulling a lever and then having the whole thing pop back into place (or even better, it would happen electronically with the push of a button). Instead, you have to pull the seat back up via the pull tab on the seatback in the cargo space, and then move around to the side door, reach into the way back, and push down the seat cushion back into its place.

I did love the great visibility, the huge dual sunroofs that invite the big blue sky in, and the ginormous front windshield that framed amazing vistas of sharp mountain ranges juxtaposed with green valleys over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains via La Veta Pass.

While pulling out of our lunch spot in San Luis, the oldest town in Colorado (founded in 1851), I lost cell phone reception, rendering my iPhone and iPad useless for directions to finish getting to Taos. Luckily, the navigation system on the R350 did the trick and delivered us safely, smoothly and in style to our final destination, El Monte Sagrado Living Resort and Spa.

Now if only we could get the hotel service to be on par with the quality of the R-Class.
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