Locate an Auto Repair Shop in Madison, Kansas

The MKT's rear end is not what is holding back sales. It is because it looks like a station wagon. Wagons sell great in Europe, but most of the luxury wagons are no longer imported here, due to lack of interest. Americans for whatever reason want their CUVs to look more like SUVs than the traditional wagon. Never mind that they all ALL tall wagons! What does logic have to do with any of this? Perception is everything, and just as the Chrysler Pacifica, the Taurus X, the previous Cadillac SRX (they went for the CUV look this time around and sales have taken off), and even the Ford Flex looks more wagon-y than CUV-y...every one of these has suffered poor sales. The MKT also looks like a portly station wagon. Had they had the balls to introduce it in the controversial shape of the concept car that preceded it, the MKT may have had a chance at building a certain following. This was Lincoln's first clean sheet car under Mulally, and it turns out they would have been better off to just skip it, rather than issue such a watered down, slab sided design.

Correction: the A4 and CC have completely different architecture. The CC uses transverse engines. The A4 uses a longitudinal arrangement (and longer wheelbase, given that the engine sits further back than in the CC). Audi will be using two basic architectures for cars: a transverse one with wheelbases from about 98 inches to 104 inches, and the A4/A6/A8 architecture with wheelbases starting at about 110 inches and going up from there. They do share the 2.0 liter engine (their six cylinders are completely different beasts), but in the Audi, hp jumps to 211 and torque is 258 ft lbs. That said, I think they are quite comparable cars. The A4 is a bit more of a driver's car, and the CC has higher style and a bit more back seat leg room. Both seem to exude quality in terms of the tactile heft and fit of components. But the Regal and the CC are actually in some ways more alike: built in Germany, transverse 4 cylinders, well-trimmed, with dramatic rooflines for sedans. Yes, drive both and then choose.

I'd like to find out where those Hyundais are. The Hertz lots I go to around the USA all say the same thing: "We don't buy Hyundais anymore." Same story at Avis, although I did find a 2010 Elantra with 30k miles on it the other day in Madison, but they said "it's not ours." I think National has some Hyundais, but no idea how many. I do see LOTS of Toyotas and Nissans. I almost always get a Nissan (Versa, Sentra, Altima) when I rent a car from Hertz these days. They try to give me Toyotas sometimes (Yaris, Corolla, Matrix, Camry) but I try to switch for another car (except for the Camry) if possible. This is borne out in sales numbers, e.g. as of April 1, Hyundai sales to fleet accounts were down 31 percent for the year with fleet sales representing 13 percent of the total sales mix year-to-date, and 11 percent for March. Those numbers seem a lot lower than for other automakers, e.g. Nissan, as mentioned in an earlier post.

Just picked up a 2011 Insight EX last week. I like the way it drives and am looking forward to better mileage as the car gets broken in. I enjoy reading and trying many of the tips on this forum. I have learned a few tricks with my Insight on my own in the short time of ownership. One annoying issue I had was having the autostop kick in as I was pulling into my garage. It would sometimes shut down once or twice before I was pulled in far enough to get the garage door closed. What I do now is shift the car to S mode as I pull into the garage and prevent it from going into autostop. Sure, I'm probably wasting a teaspoon full of gas, but parking in the garage is much more smooth. Another issue was having autostop kick in when I stop in the middle of an intersection while waiting for traffic to clear so I could turn left. In this situation, I also shift to S mode to prevent autostop from kicking in, so when traffic clears and I get a hole to squirt through, the car is ready to go without hesitation. Then after I'm safely around the turn, I shift back to D. Again, maybe I'm waisting a bit of fuel by not being in autostop mode, but I feel much safer with the car ready to accelerate when needed. I do use the tip where you shut off the engine before shifting to park as you pull into a parking space. It keeps the engine from re-starting for that split second. I've put just under 100 miles on the car so far and the fuel gauge is still reading above 3/4 tank. Sweet!

Wow. I can see this matter is really important to you for some reason. "Automatic" transmission with a "Semi-Automatic" mode? Good luck with getting the world to go with that, or with "Automatic Mechanical." I suspect that "automatic manual" will not be "dropped from our lexicon" any more quickly than "four door coupe" will. It seems to me that any time we try to pin language down within certain parameters, the language goes ahead and changes again. People are both creative and prone to bending rules. We will always have to contend with such things as idioms, regionalisms, patois, and social dialects, not to mention common words that "literally" make no sense. I look forward to your next dissection of my message. This is fun!