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Jeremy Korzeniewski, said that GM has managed to earn an additional two miles per gallon in the Chevrolet Cruse 2012 – at least in certain configurations. We’re not quite sure how they did it, but General Motors engineers have succeeded.

According to the official guide to online ordering for the 2012 Cruse, GM’s compact sedan is equipped with the 1.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder and six-speed automatic transmission, will be rated at 38 miles per gallon in road.

There is some indication that there will be an improvement to the car’s rating of 24 mpg city. By way of comparison, the Eco model achieves 42 mpg on the highway.

We’re not sure how Chevrolet has improved the highway fuel mileage of the Cruse for 2012.

Green Car Reports said that the increase in mileage was achieved by reducing the final ratio of 3.87 to 3.53 disks.

The next step in the Cayman S is known as the Cayman S Black Edition: From July 2011, Porsche takes a turn with this mid-engine coupe on the market in a special edition limited to 500 units with even better performance and especially luxurious equipment specifications, the Cayman S Black Edition is powered by a 3.4-liter boxer six-cylinder with more power than 10 hp (7 kW) to 330 hp (243 kW) at 7,400 rpm (an additional 200 rpm). Maximum torque remains unchanged at 370 Nm at 4,750 rpm.

The extra power is supplied directly through the black-performance two-seater. The acceleration from zero to 100 km / h (62 mph) are improved in a split second to 5.1 seconds with manual six-speed transmission and 5.0 seconds with the option Doppelkupplungsgetriebe Porsche (PDK), respectively.

Only 4.8 seconds are needed if the launch control is active in the Sport Chrono Package, available as an option. The maximum speed of the Cayman S Black Edition is two miles per hour (1.24 mph) faster than the Cayman S – 279 km / h (173 mph) with manual transmission and 277 km / h (172 mph) with the KDP, respectively.

A new Mercedes car is going to launch in the market place on 2009 named “The new Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class”. This car is having better feature as compare to others. It is having well outer design, better cargo capacity, and all wheel drive and styling looks. This car is having perfect balance of design and its interior features.

The new Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class provides best services in long root and short root. It is very comfortable for anyone, one can take relax; while driving the car. This Mercedes car is having easy handle for driving, so it provides and easy handling at turning and also having best windshield.

Power and eligibility of this car shows its perfect ness. One can fascinate to this car in first sight. The new Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class shows royalty and esteem of any person. It is the first choice of Racers, and fashionable people. This car is having better exterior looks, means it’s windows, door, hubcaps and glasses shows the quality work in the car. Its better color and design shows, its art. Once anyone takes this car, each person of the way of car, will move at least one time for watching this car.

If anyone is waiting for styling Mercedes car; and you want a complete package in your car, so that person can choose “The new Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class”.

I’ve been doing a bit of soul searching recently and decided that for many years now I’ve been a tad intolerant towards some of my fellow human beings. In the past I have tended to direct some of my greatest sarcasm towards the sort of individuals who loved their cars so much that they felt it necessary to join an Owner’s club.

I suppose I was poking fun at the person who cleans their car at 8-00am on a Sunday morning using a toothbrush as well as every other conceivable automotive cleaning product you could imagine.

I’ve seen Owner’s club badges in the windows of some spotless vehicles and an image of the individual has appeared in my mind. You know probably still living at home with their parents, certainly a bloke and almost definitely without a girlfriend.

Well it seems that my opinions could be somewhat out of date. I decided to confront my prejudices head-on and took a look at the Ford ST Owner’s Club official site.

They seem to be a positively charming group of people from all walks of like nothing like the stereotypical picture I have painted previously.

I think the changing demographics combined with the internet of course have played a part in this refreshing new group of enthusiasts who all share a passion but above all else it’s the cars.

Fast Fords have been around for a long time now. Those old enough will remember the Lotus Cortina of the sixties and who could forget the Escort RS2000 and Mexico from the 70′s. The 80′s and 90′s followed up with the likes of the Sierra Cosworth the car criminal’s favourite and culminated with the outrageous Escort Cosworth.

Not to be left out in the noughties (doesn’t sound right however you put it!) Ford gave us the Focus ST a Golf GTI beater for the masses. Usually seen in bright orange the Focus ST managed to impress everyone who drove it even the likes of Jeremy Clarkson who is not known to favour cars that come in a price bracket normal people can afford.

So what’s it like then. Well the latest face-lifted version still looks good despite appearing to have morphed into a Mondeo at the front seemingly in order to maintain Ford’s preference for new model continuity. Still a great looking car and the performance is as good if not better than any other hot- hatch around.

Now available as ST 1 2 or 3 the differences are only on equipment level but all come with Ford’s preferred 5 cylinder 2.5 litre turbocharged engine producing 225 PS. This equates to a top speed of 150mph with 0-62mph coming in 6.8 seconds. There is a six-speed close ratio gearbox and The ST sits on 18″ Alloy wheels. In case you get into difficulty the ST comes with Electronic Stability Programme (ESP). The ST body kit remains with an additional ‘single wing’ design rear spoiler. Twin chrome exhausts finish off the look. The ST 2 has in addition Xenon front lights and rear LED’s. The ST 3 has full leather Recaro seats and a 6 disc CD Auto-changer.

The ST has family car origins so remains practical to drive and has a power range through all the gears something you could try after dropping the kids off safely. When driven hard the ST shows its track potential and has excellent handling and cornering ability. Ford has also smartly priced the ST so competition watch out!

Having considered my disparaging comments about the likes of Owner’s Club members in the past I feel that maybe the ST will have the last laugh on me!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Even at this relatively early stage of my life there’s loads of things I wish I could’ve done a bit differently or encountered a bit sooner. A prime example would be the family holidays I used to go on. I was quite fortunate in that the three of us have seen most of Europe and lots of America. I remember all sorts, from jumping into a Volkswagen Polo hire car in Ibiza, long before I was aware of what those who aren’t on a family holiday do in Ibiza, to sitting in a Delorean at Universal Studios in Los Angeles.

Whilst I always appreciated my holidays, now I’ve got a job, a mortgage and have to pay for such luxuries as holidays myself, I wish I could’ve made a bit more of the family trips than I did. It’s a similar story with music (which for the biography is as much a love of mine as cars). I lap up all sorts of audio, but my two big regrets are missing the boats that are Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins in their prime. The former came to a climatic end when I was only ten, so there’s not a lot I could do to change that, but the Pumpkins are a different kettle of fish.

I’ve known of them for years but it’s only this week I’ve truly discovered their brilliance. The problem is, I’m about twelve years too late from their prime so for all the excitement of hearing their stuff, I know I’ll never get to see them play live (or at least not in their original guise). It really is frustrating considering the dross that is popular in today’s music (I sound like my granddad!)

So where am I going with this whimsical tale of missed opportunities in my youth? I think the message is simply: just because something’s been around for a while, don’t take it for granted or assume the newer variations on an old theme are better. A prime example of this is the very car I sat in the back of years ago in Ibiza – the Volkswagen Polo.

The Polo has been around an astoundingly long time for a car – first hitting showrooms way back in 1975. It’s easy therefore to denounce the Polo as nothing more than a car over thirty years old that really should be collecting its pension each week and leaving the business of driving to the youngsters. However don’t make the mistake I’ve made of taking for granted a great situation and not fully appreciating it.

Despite the age the Polo’s heritage harks back too, the latest model is no old man when competing in today’s market. Currently not the baby of the Volkswagen family thanks to the Fox and Lupo, the Polo emits a certain quality not found in all super minis. The styling is as you’d expect from a car designed to attract all spectrums of taste and is therefore subtle but still good-looking. A personal favourite are the rear light clusters that wouldn’t look out of place as Optimus Prime’s eyes in the Transformers sequel.

Essentially being a shrunken Golf, the Polo handles all situations very well, whether it’s city speed humps or countryside cornering. The entry level engines are a tad underpowered which mean more driver involvement to get going – great if you’re in the mood for working the engine, not so if you want to get from A to B quickly and peacefully.

The interior is the usual grade ‘A’ fare as you’d expect from a German manufacturer, with a chunky steering wheel conveying the quality of the cabin as a whole. On a personal note, I have a thing for blue neon lights so the Polo is heaven, with the majority of the instrumentation bathed in its soft glow. Rear legroom is good as is the boot space so it ticks all the boxes for a family shopping trip. Safety features also abound, with stability control and brake assist found on all variants. Residual values tend to stay high with Volkswagens, so if you do come to sell, this should be the least of your headaches.

It’s a busy crèche the baby Volkswagen finds itself in, with the Peugeot 207, Renault Clio, Ford Fiesta and Vauxhall Corsa all fitting contenders for your money. Just remember when you’re looking for a new car, not to overlook the elder statesman, else you’ll miss a great car in its prime.

Corvette Z06 Car ReviewAsk any first timer about their first trip to America and it’s always the excess that sticks in the mind. The food platters that you pick at and leave the remaining half, the enormous vehicles, the eight-lane freeways and the overblown patriotism. Everything is supersized, instantaneously gratifying and crashingly free of subtlety. The Corvette Z06 is possibly the most American car that’s ever been built. Extravagantly powerful and unashamedly gaudy, it’s nevertheless hugely effective and, when you put aside your prejudices, really rather endearing.

Think about it. £62,000 doesn’t even buy you a base model Porsche 911 with leather seats yet spend that on a Corvette Z06 and you’ll have a car that can lap Germany’s Nurburgring in a staggering 7 minutes 42 seconds. Of course, it’ll help if you’re as handy behind the wheel as ex-F1 driver Jan Magnusson, but this is a car that has set a benchmark time two seconds faster than a Pagani Zonda S and eight seconds quicker than a Lamborghini Murcielago. Even a Mercedes McLaren SLR would be ten seconds adrift. Asking prices for these three stragglers? That’ll be £340,000, £197,460, and £317,700 respectively. Suddenly you begin to appreciate the scale of the Corvette’s achievement. This is by any measure an apocalyptically rapid car and one that should forever put to rest the notion that American sports cars just don’t do corners at all well.

Given that there is a 7.0-litre V8 lump under the bonnet churning out 512bhp, it is perhaps little surprise that the Z06 is so quick in a straight line. Aiming a car at the horizon and mashing the loud pedal doesn’t require a great deal of expertise, however, and this Corvette not only wields the big stick but also uses a lot of high tech engineering to achieve its ends. Take the floor of the car for example. Not always a place to start when assessing a performance car it’s true, but as an exemplar of the depth of focus in the Z06, it’s as good a place as any. Most sports cars will utilise a pressed steel or sometimes an aluminium section for the floor but the Corvette opts for a wafer of featherweight balsa wood sandwiched between two slivers of carbon fibre.

Whereas a standard Corvette has a hydroformed steel chassis, this one uses an aluminium spaceframe. The standard car uses aluminium for its front suspension crossmember assembly whereas the Z06 junks that for an exotic magnesium setup. The front wings change from glassfibre in the standard ‘Vette to carbonfibre in the 06. Both front wings combined – and they’re sizeable panels – weigh in at 2.8kg. The fixed roof structure is cast magnesium and adds stiffness without adding weight where its least desirable. All up weight is around 1420kg, roughly about the same as a Ford Focus C-MAX.

That 7.0-litre engine is the biggest and most powerful General Motors ‘small block’ ever built. Success in the GT class at Le Mans has spawned some race-derived technology and the Z06 benefits from a dry-sumped lubrication system, conrods and intakes made of titanium as well as a forged steel crank and pistons. A manual six-speed gearbox is fitted as standard and requires a beefy right arm to guide the stick around the gate – yes all Z06s are left hand drive. You won’t need to make a single change to notch off 60mph in 3.9 seconds, just some steely determination and the ability to pick a point that marshals the 470lb/ft of torque such that it generates a mere chirrup of wheelspin from the 275/35 ZR18 tyres at the back. A top speed of 198mph is claimed for the car, eclipsing cars that cost twice as much such as the Lamborghini Gallardo and the Ferrari F430.

A small slot at the front of the bonnet is possibly the first clue you’ll get that this is no ordinary Corvette. Look a little closer and you’ll also see a black splitter that runs under the spoiler to aid aerodynamics. The wheelarches have morphed into something a little wider to accommodate the gumball rubber, something worth bearing in mind if you’re squeezing the car through urban width restrictors.

The interior looks a good deal more European than ‘Vettes of old, even if passengers do get a hugely unsubtle ‘Corvette’ script emblazoned across the airbag cut out in front of them. The fascia features some brightwork to lift it and some of the minor controls now have some chrome detailing. The steering wheel is smaller than in the standard car, helping to effectively gear the steering effort up a little. The two tone leather seats offer plenty of lateral support but what the cabin lacks in quality it makes up in quantity, both in terms of space and when it comes to standard fit features. Elbow, head and shoulder room is all very good, legroom not quite so stellar. What’s refreshing is that the Corvette isn’t trying to be self consciously smart. Sit in a BMW 6 series and you end up intimidated by the impenetrable i-Drive and the myriad obscure minor controls. Sit in a Corvette and you just punch a few chubby buttons and get on with it.

If you appreciate a car for what it is as much as what it does, it’ll be difficult to sell you the Corvette Z06. It can’t rival even the most basic Porsche Boxster for handling sensitivity or perceived quality. If you prefer to concentrate on doing rather than having, this Corvette could well be the performance bargain of the year. In short, its capabilities eclipse cars twice, three times, even six times its price. If that doesn’t appeal, nothing will.

When you’re used to riding bigger motorcycles or scooters, hopping onto a 50 comes as something of a shock. From when cars race off in front of you from the lights, to having a B-double sitting just off your rear wheel in a 60km/h zone, riding a moped, if anything, makes you a whole lot more aware of your surroundings.

Okay, lack of speed, acceleration and road presence is the bad side, but there’s a whole lot to the good side of mopeds too, and the fact the latter outweighs the former is seeing people flock to mopeds and scooters in general in ever-greater numbers.

Heading up the good side of the ledger is convenience and cost. The Piaggio Zip 50 we’re looking at here costs just $1990 plus ORC, and those on road costs are not likely to break the bank no matter where you live in Australia. Then there’s the fact they’re cheap to insure, they run on a whiff of unleaded and because they’re so light and underpowered your tyres, brakes and consumable should last for ages too.

They’re small enough to fit through the tiniest of gaps in traffic, and they can be tucked away easily in the corner of a garage or garden shed. And if you live in Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia or the Northern Territory, you can still ride a moped on an ordinary car licence. With petrol prices flying high, it’s no wonder more and more people are discovering the joys of economic commuting they bring.

But because you can ride a moped on a car licence in selected states, the Piaggio mopeds that reach our shores are restricted to 50km/h, because in most if not all cases it’s simply not cost effective for the manufacturer to produce two versions of the same model. That means that if you live outside of the above four states, you’re well within your rights to de-restrict your moped, and unleash an extra bit of go – and let’s face it, at this end of the scale every bit helps!

The Zip 50 is cheap to buy, and so don’t expect the all-round finish of, say, a bigger style machine like a Vespa. Most noticeable on this model was the dial on the instruments that looked like it had been set aside for a clock, until its designers realised they’d run out of money for the hands…

In short, this is a bare bones type of scoot. There’s a speedo, an odometer and the four usual idiot lights (turn, high beam, oil and – thankfully – petrol). But the bodywork fits together well and looks attractive enough, and it’s still got those important things like a centrestand, a steering lock and decent underseat storage (enough to fit a full face helmet – if you give it a bit of a shove!). Perhaps most important of all, is the fact it has a good horn.

On the road its performance is what you’d expect of a restricted 50. The Zip wasn’t too fond of being ridden when cold (it’s carbureted), so I’d recommend letting it warm a little before heading out on the road – otherwise when you wind on the throttle it simply bogs down.

I found that despite being restricted (in this case, through its ignition coil), the Zip would manage an indicated 60km/h – eventually. Realistically this means that outside of busy city streets, the Zip is starting to stray into dangerous territory. At least you’re never likely to get a speeding ticket.

But it handles well – with a claimed dry weight of just 84kg it’ll turn in the blink of an eye, while it’s roomy enough even for my lanky 185cm self and it’ got a really good set of brakes.

My only gripes with this model, and they’re not big ones at all, concern the fact that you can’t leave the seat up with the steering lock on (the left handlebar is in the way), and that when you’re washing the thing it’s easy to get water into the underseat storage bin, which doesn’t drain. Oh, and it’s easy to overfill the petrol tank too. I got an impressive average fuel economy of 28km/lt, which given its 7.5lt tank provides an effective range of close to 200km.

I enjoyed getting around on the zip. It’s a ‘does what it says on the tin’ kind of a thing, but it does it well. If you normally drive a car and you’re looking to cut both your commuting costs and time, getting a Zip 50 is a good place to start.