So you thought that this winter was tough on your car, you better be prepared for the summer. Although the winter can be very taxing on your vehicle, you should never underestimate the damage and wear and tear to your vehicle that the summer heat can cause.  And with the warmer weather you are likely to do more driving too. It is strongly recommended that you have your care serviced right before the summer gets going. Consider it spring cleaning for your car. Have your oil changed and top off all the fluids. Take a good look at your radiator fluids and the condition of your cooling system. Over heating a car can cause major damage to your engine.

At Reedman Toll, we have some service specials available to help you get this routine maintenance done and our service department is open 7 days a week.

Check them out on the web

http://www.reedmantoll.com/specials/service.htm

or stop in for service. Have a safe and fun summer

So how does a car maker help reduce carbon emissions that their products contribute to? You can’t make a combustion engine with a zero carbon footprint, but you certainly can find other ways to offset the output of carbon dioxide by your products. Chevrolet is fully committed to this idea and has put the money up where it counts. Chevy pledged millions of dollars in support to the production and maintenance of wind farms and wind farm technology of the next several years.

Chevy is also supporting the environment in many other ways too. The auto maker is also supporting solar energy projects, has helped with capturing methane from landfills and using it for energy and Chevy is also involved with several forestry projects throughout America.  Chevy wants to be a responsible corporate citizen and do their part with control the impact of carbon emissions on global warming. This car maker wants to make sure that by partnering in these projects, they make the most of their money and that the impacts are lasting.

On top of all these efforts outside of their sphere of influence, Chevrolet is also developing ways to make their vehicles with a smaller impact on the environment. They are looking at manufacturing Chevys using less resources.  Chevy has significantly reduced manufacturing emissions, water usage and fossil fuel usage. At the same time there has been an increase in the amount of waste that is recycled and half of all Chevy plants worldwide are landfill-free facilities. Yes Chevy is doing their part.

View Our New Lincoln Navigator Inventory in PA!!

For 2011, Lincoln Navigator changes are minimal. Voice-controlled navigation with HD Radio technology, SYNC and Sirius Travel Link is now standard, there’s standard Trailer Sway Control with AdvanceTrac and Roll Stability Control, the MyKey system allows limiting vehicle top speed and radio volume, and there is complimentary maintenance for the first 12 months or 15,000 miles. Some options have been changed. Navigator was last redesigned for the 2007 model year.

Licoln Navigator offers the MyKey, the ultimate in parental control for your vehicle. This feature can be used to set restrictions on the vehicle depending on which key is used. It can limit the top speed of this SUV and will also chime alarms as the needle passed preset speeds. If you think the young driver in your house will be tempted to blast the sound system, the system can also limit the volume level. It also works in conjunction with another safety system known as the BeltMinder which will sound an alert wehn a passenger or driver forgets to put on their seat belt and will also keep the stereo muted until everyone in the vehilce clicks into their seat belts. A real gem of a safety system, this cannot be disabled.

2011 Lincoln Navigator Quick Drive

The Navigator’s 5.4-liter single-overhead cam Triton V8 generates a maximum 310 horsepower, which is no longer particularly impressive by large SUV standards. The Triton delivers torque evenly, with similar thrust whether the engine is turning 1000 or 4000 rpm, and the six-speed automatic transmission is a definite plus. There’s more than enough acceleration in the Navigator to merge safely or turn quickly across traffic, and it’s probably quicker than what we considered a fairly quick car in the mid-1990s. Yet at the bottom line, the Navigator accelerates more slowly than just about any luxury sport-utility we’ve driven in the past few years.

The Navigator is as smooth inside as any body-on-frame truck we’ve tested, and generally free of annoying vibration. The ride is smooth, too (except for the effect of the 20-inch wheels), thanks partly to the fully independent rear suspension. Moreover, the rear suspension helps keep the rear tires pressed to the pavement on bumpy surfaces, eliminating most of that skipping feeling familiar in trucks with solid rear axles. There’s no axle tramping over bumps or undulations, and a reasonably smooth driver can keep the Navigator’s body (and those inside) nice and level through turns.

The optional 20-inch wheels and low-profile tires are noisy; when not whacking over bumps and pavement joints, there’s the steady hum of tread on the road surface. We like the appearance of larger wheels, but the price of style is high in the Navigator. We recommend the standard 18-inch wheels and higher-sidewall tires, which offer a smoother, quieter ride. The 18-inch wheels are better for towing and are better for rough terrain.

Find the 2011 Lincoln Navigator at your Philadelphia Lincoln Mercury Dealer, Reedman Toll Lincoln Mercury

Some information for this review was obtained from NewCarTestDrive.com

Jaguar is one of the finest automobiles on the road today. The car, however, is much like its namesake cat, quite rare and not seen too often.  How many Jaguars do you see on the road each day, compared to other European luxury cars? That is great for the mystique of the auto, but not so great for the automaker and their bottom line. Jaguar was the 3rd lowest brand sold in 2010 by number of units.  And you know that price cannot be the issue since most other European luxury automakers far surpassed the numbers from Jaguar.

Jaguar execs are aware of this situation and have plans to do something about it…. Big plans at that. They have earmarked spending of about 1 Billion Pounds per year over the next 5 years. That includes hiring 1,000 new engineers to create some new models in lower price ranges. Jaguar is looking at what the German automakers have done in the past few years and sees the results – a whole lot more of their competitor’s cars on the road. The European luxury auto market has changed. Many of the automakers in this field have been able to create new models that fit into a market with a lower tag price, but an incredibly large market to sell to. Jaguar sees this and thinks they should be on that menu when car buyers are looking.

But it won’t stop there. Jaguar is also going to be looking at ways to increase sales in markets that they have significant market share now.  Sales in China are good, but because of the impact fee structure, some autos, like V8s are just priced out of the larger car buyer markets. Jaguar has much more planned over the next 5 years. After all spending a Billion British Pounds can cover a lot of ground for a car maker.

In the olden days of carburetors, before the dawn of fuel injection, your old uncle used to tell you that it takes more gas to start your car up than to let it idle for an hour. Well, my uncle was a serious mechanic and he never told me that. Little did I know he was telling me the truth, the truth about the future.  When hybrid cars first hit the market, these new gas savers were always stopping and starting the gas powered engines to allow the electric motor to kick in and let the vehicle run on electricity instead of gasoline.

Using that same theory, sort of, if you go to the drive thru at the pharmacy or bank and you are going to sit in line for at least a minute, you can save gas by turning off your engine while you are waiting.  Using this technique it is possible to save about % of your fuel. But car makers need to do a few things to make sure this works well, otherwise the dramatic increase in all this on/off activity will surely lead to a higher risk of engine failure. Auto manufacturers need to make sure that the starters used in a car that will be robust enough to handle the extra usage this will cause and the batteries need to be extra heavy duty to crank the starters more often.  On a lighter note, it probably won’t be a good idea to stop and start your engine in stop and go traffic although sometimes you really want to.

The 2011 Ram Heavy Duty models, the Ram 2500 and Ram 3500, are comfortable and highly capable, ready for serious towing or heavy-duty hauling. Thoroughly revised for 2010, the 2011 Rams boast proven technology while benefiting from some minor updates. A new Ram Outdoorsman model expands the 2011 Ram 2500 and 2011 Ram 3500 lineup.

Ram Heavy Duty models received a major overhaul for the 2010 model year along with refinements throughout. The Crew Cab got larger, giving Ram a unique cab lineup in the segment. The Ram Heavy Duty was restyled for 2010 to go with the new 2009 Ram 1500 light-duty. The Ram Heavy Duty is not identical to the light-duty trucks, but many interior and some sheetmetal parts are the same. The regular and crew cab interiors are also very similar.
For 2011, the biggest change is the introduction of the new Outdoorsman, a Ram packaged for use by hunters, fisherman, campers, and boaters. The Ram Outdoorsman replaces the TRX and is available in many Ram 2500 and Ram 3500 configurations.

Most of the parts and technology on the 2011 models have been proven in earlier Rams. The cabin was launched in the 2009 Ram 1500, and the engines, transmissions and brakes are evolutionary versions of the 2009 heavy-duty models. The gasoline engine that comes standard is the most powerful base engine in big pickups. The optional Cummins turbodiesel met current emissions requirements years ago. The diesel engines from both Ford and GM are new, and both of them require a fuel additive the Ram diesel pickup does not. Only the Ram offers a choice of transmissions with the diesel. With Ford and GM you get the automatic. Some drivers who pull heavy trailers say you get better reliability on steep hills with a manual. We prefer the automatic, however.

Much attention has been devoted to ride comfort and quiet on the 2011 Ram HD, and it is noticeable. The feature lists, both standard and available continue to grow, as pickups become ever-more car-like inside: heated/ventilated front seats, heated steering wheel, Sirius Backseat TV and so on. But don’t confuse this with a car because it is substantially larger and will not ride softly even if you load it up. That said, we found a 2011 Ram 3500 rode very nicely while towing a 6,000-pound trailer.

Officially, Chrysler no longer refers to its full-size pickup as the Dodge Ram. It’s now just the Ram. We may still refer to the Ram as a Dodge because we haven’t figured out how to change a model name to a brand name, but Chrysler does not.

A new Camaro convertible joins the 2011 Chevrolet Camaro lineup. The Camaro convertible is equipped like the coupes, and it’s available with either the smooth 3.6-liter V6 or in 6.2-liter V8 SS trim.

The reborn Camaro begins its second year with the 2011 model, and it’s turning more heads than ever because the striking styling is starting to sink in as more new Camaros hit the road. Ten exterior colors are available, including a Corvette yellow that guarantees the car will gather many thumbs-up. For 2011, a color called Synergy Green Metallic is added.

Camaro LS and LT models use the Cadillac 3.6-liter V6 with a 6-speed manual transmission standard and 6-speed automatic (with semi-manual shifting) optional. The V6 revs to 7000 rpm and sounds sweet along the way. The horsepower rating for 2011 Camaro LS and 2011 Camaro LT models has been upgraded to 312 horsepower. It was 304 hp on 2010 models, but it’s the rating that changed, not the output. Additional testing found the Camaro’s intake system to be more efficient than the Cadillac’s, on which apparently the previous power estimate was based.

A steeply raked windshield helps produce a low coefficient of drag for good aerodynamics that contribute to the impressive V6 government fuel economy rating of 29 mpg Highway. However, the 2011 Camaro is nipped at the checkered flag by the 2011 Mustang V6 that makes 305 hp and reaches 31 mpg Highway.

We found the handling, ride and brakes to be excellent in both the Camaro LT and the Camaro SS with the big V8, although the SS suspension is stiffer and its 20-inch tires are firmer. The chassis structure is rigid, helping make the turn-in precise for a car this size; the grip is secure, and the damping is solid and supple. We never encountered a harsh moment with the ride, in either car, during a full day of hard driving east of San Diego in both of them, and later a full week in the Pacific Northwest with the 6-speed Camaro SS.

As for the brakes, the Camaro LT stops superbly. The Camaro SS uses four-piston Brembo brakes, but because it’s 200 pounds heavier, the stopping distance isn’t much shorter. However, the Brembos with four-piston calipers make the brakes on the SS more resistant to fade, important on race tracks and mountain roads where the brakes are being used repeatedly.

The TAPshift manual automatic transmission does what you tell it to do, nothing more. We love that. But the 6-speed manual transmission with the V6 is the most all-around usable sporty combination (the V6 because 426 horsepower is overkill on the street). The gearbox is solid but not slick, and the throws are shorter than some. The 6-speed shifts nicely, including easily down into first gear for hairpin turns.

Inside, the cabin is quiet, so quiet that 80 mph feels more like 70. Interior materials are good, but the instrumentation is disappointing, with GM apparently still trying to be clever rather than clean with gauges. The bucket seats are comfortable, with decent bolstering. The front seat slides 8.5 inches and the steering wheel tilts and telescopes, so drivers of all sizes will fit, most notably Camaro’s many female buyers. The standard cloth upholstery is good, with excellent leather available in black, gray, beige and two-tone Inferno Orange.

The windows are small (doorsills high for safety) and the A-pillars wide, so it makes the cockpit feel a bit cave-like. Visibility through the windshield is compromised by the long hood and raked windshield, although careful location of the driver’s seat helps. Rear visibility over the driver’s shoulder isn’t very good, but then it’s impossible to make it good with a roofline this sporty. Rear seat legroom measures a meager 29.9 inches, so you’ll want to avoid sitting back there.

Camaro SS uses the 6.2-liter Corvette V8, making 400 horsepower with the optional 6-speed automatic, or 426 horsepower with the 6-speed manual. We were disappointed by the civility of the exhaust note. The SS uses firmer shocks, springs and anti-roll bars than the V6 models, but the ride doesn’t suffer for it. We found the handling balance of the Camaro SS excellent.

The convertible is equipped like the coupes but features a soft top fitted with acoustical foam in the headliner to minimize noise with the top up. This latest-generation Camaro was designed from the outset to include convertible models, and reinforcements were added in four key areas to increase rigidity.

Several major car insurance companies have been offering motorists pay as you go auto insurance. These are auto insurance policies based on the actual mileage driven in a car as opposed to a policy based on your location, age, sex and other demographics. Using an on board monitoring system such as ON Star, the mileage driven with a car is recorded and sent to the insurance carrier to determine the corresponding rate to charge for the auto insurance.

This allows for a more personally tailored insurance rate for a driver rather than a “one size fits most within a particular group” rate.  Currently the only information that will be used is the actual mileage driven.  There is the use of GPS that can add where a driver actually drives but privacy advocates are pushing to keep this information out of the hands of those that will be setting the rates for these policies.  Using GPS can be helpful in determining real driving habits of drivers that want these policies but it would be too tempting for an insurance underwriter to not use the information to skew these rates if the GPS information showed that a driver liked to stop in a local pub on their way home from work each night. Aside from the privacy issues, the GPS information can only show where a person drove and not what they did when they got there.

One of the other pieces of information that a monitoring device can produce is driving habits.  Does a person drive a lot late at night; do they hit the brakes a lot? Small bits of information like this can show that a driver is not on the road during heavy traffic hours and is actually reducing their risk as a driver. It can also show that a driver is cautious or aggressive, both of which can affect rates either positively or negatively.

The New York Auto Show is set the be center stage in just a few weeks. The event takes place April 22 through May 1 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center 11th ave between 34 & 40 Streets. The 2011 Auto Show will feature some of the hottest cars and trucks ever seen all under one roof. That means more sneak peeks, more brand new ’11 & ’12 production models and more concept vehicles than ever before.

The 2013 Chevrolet Malibu will make its international debut in China on Tuesday, April 19. Chevrolet will also debut the car on its Facebook page at the same time and will stream the reveal live on iPad and iPhone. The Malibu show car will also be on display two days later at the New York Auto Show. As a 2013 model, A production car should debut within the next year and go on-sale by mid-2012. The Malibu, previously a North American car only, will become GM’s latest global car in its eighth generation and the Chevrolet brand’s first global midsize sedan. Chevrolet says the next Malibu will be sold in 100 countries on six continents and built at multiple plants around the world.

The C-X75 concept is designed as a range-extended electric two-seater supercar, it explores the outer limits of both performance and sustainability. With plug-in capability the car can achieve a zero tailpipe emissions range of 68 miles when running under battery power alone. The car demonstrates that it is possible to retain Jaguar’s core values of performance, design and luxury using technology that will make environmentally responsible performance and electric vehicles a practical proposition.

The aim was to produce not only the most innovative but also one of the most beautiful Jaguars ever; one which hints at an exciting evolution of the marque’s award-winning design language while paying homage to some of its most admired cars of years gone by. Advanced design features such as a ground-breaking propulsion system and active aerodynamics allow for an elegantly simple fuselage section that remains stable at very high speeds.

The C-X75′s 580kW (778bhp) propulsion system combines powerful 145kW (195bhp) electric motors at each wheel for outstanding performance. At the center of the car sit state-of-the-art, mid-mounted micro gas-turbines. These can either generate 140kW (188bhp) to charge the batteries and extend the range of the car to a remarkable 900km (560 miles) – enough to drive from London to Berlin on a single tank – or when in Track mode provide supplementary power directly to the electric motors. The four electric motors provide torque-vectored, all-wheel drive traction and grip, essential in a car that produces 580kW (778bhp) and 1600Nm (1180lb ft) of torque.

The car’s interior is equally impressive, with the driver and passenger seated ahead of a sealed airbox that houses the micro gas-turbines. The seats are fixed to the bulkhead as in a single-seater racing car, and air to feed the turbines passes smoothly around them via channels in the structure of the body. With the seats anchored in place, the steering wheel, controls, main binnacle and pedal box all adjust towards the driver.

A new interface for the driver has also been created for the C-X75 using high-resolution TFT screens. Building on Jaguar’s 10-year expertise in touchscreen technology, the Jaguar Co-Pilot display in the center console supports the driver in extracting the full potential of the C-X75 by seamlessly managing information.