The 2012 Buick Regal can perform all of those daily duties with class and aplomb. It’s a fine ride indeed. But, really, it’s when you find yourself behind the clock, running late to a meeting across town, that the 2012 Buick Regal GS shows its true stripes: Tiger stripes. View Buick auto brochures here.

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TORRANCE, Calif., December 6, 2011 – Sixteen student teams from 11 states have been named winners in the first round of the fifth annual Lexus Eco Challenge, an educational program and contest that inspires and empowers young people to learn about the environment and take action to improve it. Lexus will award a total of $500,000 in grants and scholarships throughout this year’s program. View Lexus auto brochures here.

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About 6 feet shorter than a regular cab short-bed Ford F-150, this concept stretches the definition of a pickup.

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Kia used its redesign of the 2011 Optima to start over with this family sedan. The result is a five-passenger car that is stylish both inside and out. Kia’s efforts didn’t go unnoticed — Cars.com named it the Best of 2011 in its Platinum Awards. For the Car Seat Check, we use a Graco SnugRide 30 rear-facing infant-safety seat, a Britax Roundabout convertible child-safety seat and Graco high-back TurboBooster seat. The front seats are adjusted to a comfortable position for a 6-foot driver and a 5-foot-8 passenger. The three child seats are installed in the second row. The booster seat sits behind the driver’s seat, and the infant seat and convertible seats are installed behind the passenger seat. We also install the infant seat in the second row’s middle seat with the booster and convertible in the outboard seats to see if three car seats will fit. In the third row, we install the booster seat and a forward-facing convertible. Here’s how the 2011 Optima did in MotherProof.com’s Car Seat Check: Latch system: The Optima has two sets of lower Latch anchors in the second row’s outboard seats. While the anchors aren’t set too deeply into the seat bight, we did run into problems when trying to use them. The outboard anchors in each set, which are closer to the doors, have less clearance around them because of the stiff seat cushions, making them harder to use than the inboard anchors. There are three tether anchors in the Optima, and they sit under hinged covers on the rear shelf behind the head restraints. In our test car, the metal tether anchor was really sharp. Booster seat: After we raised the head restraint, which is removable, the booster seat fit well in the backseat. However, the seat belt buckle is set too close to the door, which meant our booster seat sat on top of the buckle. The buckle is floppy, which allowed us to pull it out from under the booster seat. Its floppiness could make it difficult for kids to use, though. Convertible seat: There’s a ton of legroom in the Optima’s backseat, and this allowed both the rear- and forward-facing convertible seat to fit well. Parents should note, however, that the second row’s seatbacks don’t recline. Infant-safety seat: This rear-facing seat also had plenty of room and fit well in the Optima. How many car seats fit in the second row? Two Editor’s note: For three car seats—infant-safety seat, convertible and booster seats—to fit in a car, our criteria is that a child sitting in the booster seat must be able to reach the seat belt buckle. Parents should also remember that they can use the Latch system or a seat belt to install a car seat.

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Did you ever wonder where the logos and symbols that adorn manufactures automobiles and their auto brochures originated? Below is a history of some of the most famous logos on the market.

Chevrolet- The legend behind the Chevy logo was that Louis Chevrolet saw the shape in a wallpaper pattern in his hotel room during a trip to Paris in 1908. His wife however later debunked that myth  when she said that her husband had actually  seen a similarly shaped logo in an add in a Sunday supplement and liked it so much he decided to expand on it.

Mercedes Benz- The Mercedes Benz logo “a three pointed star” first appeared in a letter written by Gottlieb Daimler to his wife in 1872. Daimler used a three pointed star to mark the location on a map of his family’s new home in Deutz, Germany. His sons later adopted the symbol as the Mercedes Benz logo starting in 1910. Today the Mercedes Benz logo is commonly known to symbolize the use of the company’s engines on land, air, and sea.

Maserati- This logo was derived from the statue of Neptune by the Maserati brothers. The statue was located in the central square of Bologna, Italy, where Maserati was originally headquartered. The actual logo was sketched by Mario Maserati, an artist, who also was the only brother never actively involved in the engineering and design of their cars.

Toyota- In 1936 company founder Kiichiro Toyoda ran a contest for ideas for a new Toyoda logo. Out of 20,000 entries the winner was a design of katakana characters that signified a sense of speed. Later the company changed the name from “Toyoda” to “Toyota”because it was more esthetically pleasing and because the number of strokes it took to write it was eight, which in Japan is a lucky number meaning increasing prosperity.

Ferrari- The prancing horse first appeared on airplanes flown by Francesco Baracca, a pilot and war hero in World War I. Baracca died before the war ended but in 1923 the company founder Enzo Ferrari met Francesco’s parents who suggested he use their sons prancing horse badge on his cars to pay homage to Francesco. Enzo later added a yellow background which is the official color of his home town of Modena Italy and redesigned the horse’s tail to point upward.

Smart Car-The name was actually two words combined. “Swatch” which is a Swiss watch company and partner in the early stages of the company. Mercedes which is the company’s current custodian picked the “art” portion of the name. Together the acronym “smart” was born. The logo “C” stands for compact and an arrow to signify forward thinking.

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I’ve driven so many different test cars—too many to even count anymore—with useless, quirky and just plain strange features in them. Looking at pictures of these cars brings up many memories— not all of them good.  This week, I came across photos of the flip-down liftgate speakers, which are for tailgating, in the 2010 Jeep Patriot. Call me stodgy, but does anyone older than 21 actually use these speakers? They’re kind of a fun gimmick, but I never whipped them out in the carpool lane.   The speakers got me thinking. What weird features do you have in your car?  There’s got to be at least one that makes you say, “What the @#%$ were they thinking?”  Tell us about it in the comment section below.   

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Over the years, minivan choices have narrowed to a select few. The automotive twins, the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan, are the last minivans offered by the Detroit Three. Recently, a 2010 Town & Country and Grand Caravan came through our offices. They had the same interior layout, with two captain’s chairs in the second row and a three-seat bench in the third row. 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 Town & Country and Grand Caravan scored in MotherProof.com’s Car Seat Check: Latch system: There are two sets of lower Latch anchors in the second-row captain’s chairs. They’re visible to the eye and easy to use. In the third-row bench, a set of lower Latch anchors sits off-center of the middle position. When a child-safety seat is installed using the Latch anchors in the third row, the three-seat bench essentially becomes a two-seater. I can’t say I’m wild about that, especially if you’re using a minivan to haul a bigger family. The exposed tether anchors sit at the base of the seatbacks, which is a long reach.  Booster seat: In the second row, the booster seat fit well in the captain’s chairs after the head restraints were removed, and the seat belt buckles sit in stable bases that are well within a child’s reach. In the third row, the seat bolstering interfered with the booster’s fit. There also were problems with the seat belt buckles in the third row. The buckles were floppy, which are harder for kids to manage, and fell behind or under the booster seat.  Convertible child-safety seat: The exposed Latch anchors made installing both the rear- and forward-facing convertible seat a cinch. I had to remove the head restraint to get a good fit with the forward-facing convertible in the captain’s chairs. Rear-facing infant-safety seat: This was also easy to install in the second row. Do two car seats fit? Yes, in both the second and third rows. Do three car seats fit? Yes, if using both rows. Four car seats will fit into these minivans easily, but five might be difficult unless the three car seats used in the third row are narrow.

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Competes with: Acura MDX, Mercedes-Benz M-Class, Audi Q7 Looks like: The old X5; most updates are under the hood Drivetrain: 265-hp, 3.0-liter diesel six-cylinder with six-speed automatic; 300-hp, 3.0-liter twin-turbo six-cylinder; 400-hp, twin-turbo V-8 with eight-speed automatic; all-wheel drive Hits…

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Competes with: No other hybrids, but gas-only models like the Volvo C30, Mini Cooper Clubman and the diesel Audi A3 Looks like: Lexus is in a risk-taking mood — it’s the only thing a luxury hatchback could signal Drivetrain: 1.8-liter…

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