Search

Showing posts with label foreign cars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label foreign cars. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

2009 Mazda2 Averages 70-hp and 60mpg, Still Has Performance Anxiety

Based on the compact underpinings of the Ford Fiesta, the 2009 Mazda2 micro wagon is currently under heavy evaluation to determine its potential for the U.S. market. Available in Europe with three engine options, a 74-hp or 85-hp 1.3L I4, 67-hp 1.4L turbo diesel, or a 102-hp 1.5L I4, it’s likely only the standard gasoline engines will be introduced to the U.S. Unfortunately, that means that we here stateside will miss out on the Mazda2’s most fuel-efficient offering, since the turbo diesel averages a staggering 65.7 mpg combined. The Mazda2’s 1.3L and 1.5L engines are nothing to be scoffed at though as they both boast impressive fuel consumption rates, averaging 52.3 mpg and 47.9 mpg respectively.

With impressive fuel efficiency and prices beginning at £8,599 [approximately $15,700], the 2009 Mazda2 has been doing wonders for Mazda’s sales as more and more drivers clamor for fuel sipping compact cars. Despite initial plans to release the Mazda2 in the U.S., Auto News reported that Mazda is now dragging their feet. Unafraid of stiff competition from similar models like the Toyota Yaris and Honda Fit, Mazda is more concerned with how the Mazda2 will impact sales of their most popular vehicle, the Mazda3. Already precariously perched as a solid contender in the U.S. market, Mazda is concerned that the introducing the Mazda2 would hurt sales of the Mazda3, which is currently the company’s top seller.



Related posts:



Related posts:



A Bug Up Their Ass About Safety, Volvo Will Have An Injury Proof Car By 2020

From Autopia: the Swedish safety moguls at Volvo are bound and determined to put an injury-proof car on the road by the year 2020. To do this, researchers are currently studying the African locusts in an attempt to integrate the little bugger’s “sensory-input routing methodologies” with Volvo’s computerized safety features. If thousands of the locusts are able to travel in swarms without constantly hitting each other, shouldn’t people during their morning commute be able to do the same thing? Volvo thinks so, and that’s why they’ve partnered with Dr. Claire Rind and the Insect Vision Laboratory at the University of Newcastle in London. Although studies have revealed that the locusts’ inherent algorithms are far more advanced then the current technology, Volvo has been steadily working since 2002 to adapt the Locust Principle for their cars. “We still have many years of research ahead to bring that small locust brain into our cars,” said Jonas Ekmark, director of preventive safety at Volvo, but it’s not an impossible task and by 2020, Volvo hopes to match the African locust’s internal processing system beat for beat.



Related posts:



Related posts: