Car Safety Tips for Snooki and Other Potentially Expecting Moms

There are reports circulating that MTV reality star Snooki (nee Nicole Polizzi) may be pregnant. Given what we've seen of "Jersey Shore," we can only offer motoring tips to her if indeed she's expecting: Rule No. 1: Don't drink and drive. While your fans may get a laugh out of you being falling-down-drunk in Italy, there's nothing funny about it behind the steering wheel. Shut up and drive: Put down the smartphone. Don't let your passengers distract you from driving, no matter how hot that guy walking down the street is. Be prepared: Understand which child-safety seats you're going to need as your child gets bigger, and understand you're going to be lugging and installing these car seats for more than a decade to come. Have certified car-seat technician show you how to install each car seat along the way. Mom-mobile: While we can't picture you embracing a minivan just yet (though rear sliding doors are highly underrated), you'll need a car that can easily fit a rear-facing child-safety seat in the backseat. Cars.com's Car Seat Checks can help you find the right car for you and your family. If you're having triplets, you'll want to check out our story on which cars fit three car seats. It's a short list. Enjoy the ride: If you are pregnant, we wish you the best. Being a parent tops being a reality star any day. If you choose to combine the two, may we suggest "Snooki & Son" as a reality show name? Jennifer Newman contributed to this post from KickingTires http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/

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2012 Land Rover LR4: Car Seat Check

Little has changed in the 2012 Land Rover LR4 from the 2011 model year. That's good for our car-seat-installing purposes since the LR4 is one of the few vehicles that can easily handle three car seats in its second row. 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. If there's a third row, we install the booster seat and a forward-facing convertible. Here's how the 2012 LR4 did in Cars.com's Car Seat Check: Latch system: Even though the LR4 has seating for seven, there are only two sets of lower Latch anchors in the second row's outboard seats. The anchors are easy to use because they sit out in the open between the back and bottom cushions. In the second row, there are three tether anchors that are midway down the seatbacks. For the third row, the anchors are in the rear lip of the cargo area (photo above). This placement causes the tether straps to intrude into the cargo area, which is in short supply when the third row is in use. Booster seat: Our high-back booster seat fit well in the second row, but the seat belt buckles are floppy, which means they're difficult for younger kids to use independently. In the third row, the seat belt buckles are on stable bases, which we prefer for young kids. The booster seat also fit well in the second row. Convertible seat: The second row's large head restraint pushed our forward-facing convertible forward slightly on the bottom seat cushion, but it still rested completely on the cushion. When in the rear-facing position, the convertible fit only after we moved the front passenger seat forward significantly. This left the front passenger without enough legroom to sit comfortably. In the third row, we installed the forward-facing convertible with a seat belt because there aren't any Latch anchors back there. It fit well, but the third row is difficult to fold into the floor; it's a multistep process that's not intuitive. Infant-safety seat: There's also not a lot of room in the second row for this rear-facing car seat. Though we had to move the front passenger seat forward to get the infant seat to fit, there was slightly more legroom for the front passenger. How many car seats fit in the second row? Three How many car seats fit in third row? Two Editor's note: For three car seats — infant-safety seat, convertible and booster seats — to fit in a car, our criterion 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. from KickingTires http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/

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Engage Facebook Striptease: 2013 Nissan Altima Video Released

The sheet has been pulled from the 2013 Nissan Altima—well, in a brief teaser video first posted on Facebook, anyway. We've previously published spy shots of the car, but this is the first look we've had of a fully finished car sans camo. Of course, the teaser clip doesn't reveal much, showing only an overhead silhouette. The 2013 Altima adopts an all-new platform that will later proliferate to other Nissan sedans and crossovers, and the family sedan again will offer four-cylinder, V-6, and hybrid power. The Altima hybrid's return comes after a one-year hiatus, but this time around Nissan is using its own technology and not licensing Toyota bits as it did for its last-gen car. (Details on the hybrid setup—which will incorporate a supercharged four—can be found here.) Transmissions will include a CVT and a manual; the stick will be available with either conventional engine. Expect base prices for all trims to fall between $20,000 and $30,000. For more teaser videos, Nissan invites you to visit its Facebook page every Thursday from now until the car is fully revealed at the New York auto show in early April. Or you can come right back here, as we'll update this post with the new clips as soon as they're released. How's that for a tease? from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com

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EV Companies Pull Plug In EV State

Yet another hopeful maker of electric vehicles called it quits in Indiana. Bright Automotive of Anderson, Ind., announced this week that it will wind down operations after withdrawing an application for a DOE loan. This is the latest in a series of EV companies that went belly-up in Indiana, where Gov. Mitch Daniels had vowed in January 2010 to make the state "the electric vehicle state." The Chicago Tribune lists the failed companies: Last year, Think, an electric vehicle manufacturer in Elkhart propped up by government incentives, filed for bankruptcy. A month ago, Ener1, the battery-maker that was to supply the Think vehicle from three manufacturing facilities in Indiana, filed for bankruptcy reorganization. An unrelated plug-in manufacturer the state tried to nurture has yet to get off the ground. from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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GM’s Alliance with Peugeot-Citroën: Here’s What You Need to Know

General Motors and PSA Peugeot-Citroën will form an alliance, the companies said this week, confirming recent rumors of a tie-up. Here's a rundown of the deal: what it is, why it's being done, what it means for other companies, and what could go wrong. What's Happening? GM will buy 7 percent of PSA Peugeot-Citroën's shares. (We'll call it Peugeot from here on out.) This will make GM the largest individual shareholder in Peugeot after the Peugeot family, which owns about 30 percent. The companies will share some future vehicle platforms and components. Which products will be co-developed hasn't yet been decided (or disclosed, at least), but they'll be small and mid-size passenger cars, crossovers, and mini-minivans that Europeans refer to as MPVs (vehicles like the Mazda 5 and Ford C-Max). The first vehicle on a common platform should hit the market in 2016 Why Form This Alliance? The goal is to save money by splitting development costs, purchasing parts from suppliers together, and perhaps consolidating European production. GM's European arm, Opel, has been a money-loser for years, while its sales have dropped. Peugeot is hanging on as the second-largest automaker in Europe, but sales are weak and it owes a fortune in debt. Peugeot came close to a similar deal with Mitsubishi Motors two years ago. The hope is that GM and Peugeot working together will be better able to compete with Volkswagen, Kia, and Hyundai—all of which are making big investments in Europe. How Could This Affect Other Companies? Right now, much of GM's development of small cars—like the Chevy Cruze and Spark—is handled by a subsidiary, GM Korea (formerly known as GM Daewoo Auto Technology). GM isn't saying if that will change in the future. Mitsubishi presently has a partnership with Peugeot, with the latter selling rebadged Outlanders, Outlander Sports, and i-MiEVs in Europe. This could spell the end of that deal and would deal a painful blow to an already-ailing Mitsubishi. Toyota and Peugeot co-developed a city car, about the size of a Fiat 500, which is sold in Europe. It's unlikely that GM, Toyota, and Peugeot would all be willing to share a next-gen city car, so someone's going to get dumped. What Could Go Wrong? GM has a history of making unsuccessful alliances with other automakers. GM and Fiat formed an alliance in 2000 for many of the same reasons listed above—falling sales, overcapacity—and touted all the same benefits, like common purchasing and product development. It was a failure. Billions of dollars were lost and GM had to pay $2 billion to get out of the contract with Fiat in 2005. Both companies in the deal have problems. There's no guarantee that this will fix them rather than compound them. As an example of the above, Opel already has excess capacity in Europe—that means too few cars being built and sold for the labor force and factory space it's paying for—so adding Peugeot's factories to the mix seems unhelpful. Any plans to close factories or lay off workers will be met with especially strong resistance from unions and national governments, as the Eurozone economy is in bad shape. from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com

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2012 Daytona 500: Hopes and Dreams and Fiery Things

Before he became a cartoon, ex-NASCAR champ and current TV commentator Darrell Waltrip could be a pretty insightful source for all things Daytona. In an interview years ago, he told me how the infield of Daytona International Speedway, and not Walt Disney World, was the happiest place in Florida. That's true—for a week or two in February, anyway. Before qualifying sessions and the twin qualifying races, anything is possible for the 50 or 60 race teams that might show up expecting to fill one of the 43 starting spots for the Daytona 500. Anyone might win. Anyone with a bare white car might land a major sponsor after a front-row qualifying run, or a stellar performance in a qualifying race. Anyone could be a hero. There is no shortage of spunky teams and drivers prepared to heave a Hail Mary pass. And longshots do succeed from time to time: rookie Loy Allen qualified on the pole in 1994, and Trevor Bayne won it all last year—becoming the youngest winner to date—for the historic but part-time Wood Brothers team. But most Hail Mary passes have already hit the turf by race Sunday—or Monday this year, due to weather. The haves have proven to be faster than the have-nots, and some of the hopeful teams have gone home to watch the spectacle on TV, having not qualified for the race. Even among the teams in the final Daytona 500 grid of 43, about 10 know they can win, 10 know they have a chance, and the rest are praying to just not screw the pooch. Back in the 2000 Daytona 500, Johnny Benson was an unlikely late-race leader, and I thought maybe he could pull it off. He did not. This year, driver Dave Blaney, in the Ollie's Bargain Outlet car, happened to be in the lead when Juan Pablo Montoya slammed into a jet-dryer truck, and the resulting conflagration stopped the race with the Ollie's car in the lead. (No one would have expected to see those final five words in that order in print.) Had the track been damaged too badly by the jet-fuel-fed fire to continue the race, or had one of the nearby rain cells NASCAR officials monitored via their official weather radar screen settled over Daytona International Speedway, Dave Blaney would have won. Like Benson, he did not win. (As an aside, have you heard the Montoya jokes? "How many drivers does it take to stop the Daytona 500 for two hours? Just Juan!" I didn't say they were very funny.) And although a stunning number of top cars fell out before the finish—five-time champion Jimmie Johnson finished 42nd after an early crash—the checkered flag flew first over three of the "haves," as winner Matt Kenseth and fellow Roush Ford driver Greg Biffle bracketed the Chevrolet of second-place finisher Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Kenseth, a friendly but bland Wisconsin native—a colleague once suggested Kenseth's favorite color was plaid—is not the sort of electric winner NASCAR would prefer to launch the 2012 season and sell tickets, but he'll have to do, since there was no way to arrange for Danica Patrick to win her very first ever Sprint Cup race. (She was caught in the same wreck that claimed Jimmie Johnson, and repair times dropped her far down the leaderboard.) Blaney, whose small racing operation sold its guaranteed starting spot to Patrick so she wouldn't have to risk qualifying, did have to qualify, and won $296,513, which will get them to the race in Phoenix this weekend. That's maybe the most heroic performance I saw. Typical of Daytona, NASCAR's two lesser series delivered the storybook endings that the main event did not. Young, affable Ohio ride-buyer John King, after causing two major crashes, stumbled into the win in Friday night's NASCAR Camping World truck race. He was so grateful and self-effacing in Victory Lane, you couldn't help but feel good for the rookie. Similarly, James Buescher was running 11th on the last lap of Saturday's NASCAR Nationwide Series race when the top 10 cars conveniently crashed into each other in the final turn, allowing Buescher to thread the needle of spinning cars and cross the finish line first. Yes, Buescher's family is quite well off, and yes, he married the daughter of the team owner, but sometimes nice things happen when the actors depart from the script. In 10 years, what will we remember about the 2012 Daytona 500? It was the first ever 500 postponed to Monday; it was Danica Patrick's first Cup race, and her weekend resulted in three race entries and three crashes; and Juan Montoya's broken car spun into that jet dryer under caution, causing it to burst into flames. Once that happened, those of us in the press box with some gray in our hair were all heard to say, "OK, now I've seen everything." Of course, we haven't. And that's why we keep watching on TV, in the stands, and in the press box. from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com

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Call Your Broker: Edmunds Predicts Strong Quarter For Automakers

If you are thinking of buying some stock of an automaker, now could be a good time.  Not because of the strong sales. Because of dropping incentives, paired with strong sales. This indicates a strong first quarter, which should drive up stock prices. February's incentives came in at the lowest of any February since 2003, says the Edmunds.com's True Cost of Incentives barometer.  Edmunds.com reports that the average TCI per vehicle in February was $2,193, up 2.4 percent over January (MoM,) but down 14.5 percent from February of last year (YoY.) Says Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Jessica Caldwell: "The decreased incentives spending across the industry so far in 2012 really underscores the healthy performance we've been seeing at dealerships nationwide. Car manufacturers know that consumers who deferred purchases in 2011 are still coming back to the market and by stepping back the discounts, they stand to pocket bigger profits. The first quarter of 2012 is shaping up quite well for automakers."   Average True Cost of Incentives® Manufacturer 12-Feb 12-Jan 11-Feb MoM YoY Chrysler $2,426 $2,447 $3,191 -0.90% -24.00% Ford $2,827 $2,788 $2,778 1.40% 1.80% GM $3,257 $3,171 $3,845 2.70% -15.30% Honda $1,080 $1,060 $1,504 1.90% -28.20% Nissan $2,717 $2,417 $2,797 12.40% -2.90% Toyota $1,431 $1,426 $2,112 0.40% -32.20% Industry $2,193 $2,141 $2,566 2.40% -14.50%   from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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