Black/black*esv*awd*nav*dvd*22"s*carfax Cert*we Finance*xm*bose*carfax Cert*fla on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Everything new at the 2019 New York International Auto Show

Transcript: Welcome to the 2019 New York Auto Show. It's the last auto show, and so far it's my favorite of the year. We have a new buggy, compact pickup and trail ready SUV from Volkswagen. Ford brought the new Escape and a new Mustang performance variant, and we have a brand new Toyota Highlander and Subaru Outback. Let's go take a look around. We're here at the New York Auto Show with the Subaru stand. Normally the Subaru stand is just some white carpet and some show lighting. This year it's like we're in a national park. It's ... Frankly, I'm from Oregon. You're from Colorado. Yeah. It's making us feel at home. And in that way what better place and what better people to introduce this Subaru Outback which is pretty much the official car of Colorado and Oregon. Yeah. You actually have to buy a Subaru before they let you move to Colorado. Now instead of climbing up there and taking a look because we've been told we can't do that we're gonna go over there and check out another one. So the exterior, not that different. No. Looks exactly like an Outback. There's actually oddly a little more black plastic trim on the outside. A little too much for me. Right. It's interesting because it kind of slowly went away from that from the beginning because in the beginning the black plastic trim kind of made it an Outback, and now they're kind of bringing it back. I guess they needed to make it more macho. Right. Right. Now we're inside. Inside it looks pretty different. Swank. It's kind of swank for an Outback which has been pretty plain. Now this is the newly available vertically gigantic touch screen here. 11.6 inches. That is massive. This is how big it is when it's turned on ... just for the viewers. Now this is the onyx trim. So with that you get the black mirrors, the black wheels. This upholstery is special to the onyx, so it's gray and black and you also have this green stitching. Yeah, I like this accent stitching. It's kind of neat. Oh there's also a little tray there. Well this is a deep bin here. You can probably fit a phone. There we go. Almost. Yeah there are two USB ports. There's an additional two in the backseat. So this thing here you pop in the cup holder and it gives you a little more space or less space. These are really big, so if you have one of those Nalgene bottles I'm guessing it's going to fit in there. One of my complaints about my Subaru that I own now which is a naturally aspirated Crosstrek is that up in the mountains. It's slow?

Cadillac CT5 Luggage Test | How big is the trunk?

The Cadillac CT5 is a midsize luxury sedan. At least by today's standards. By the standards of Cadillac's past, it's practically a compact. At 193.8 inches long, the CT5 is 3 inches shorter than its STS predecessor of 15 years ago and 11 inches shorter than the Seville of 25 years ago. This is significant since virtually every other car brand's offerings have grown from generation-to-generation. See the BMW 5 Series as just one example. You'd have to go back to the 1980s to find a CT5 ancestor that's smaller, though that stubby thing was an aberration.   Honestly, I'm just sharing that because I think it's interesting. This post is about trunk space, and exterior size doesn't necessarily equate to how much junk you can fit in the trunk. In fact, the CT5 is pretty good example of that. Although smaller than its predecessors, the CT5 is still an awfully big car that's comparable to other midsize luxury sedans, including the 5 Series, Audi A6 and Mercedes-Benz E-Class. The trunk, however, is notably smaller than what you'd get in those with a rather rinky-dink 11.9 cubic feet. That's coupe territory and less than what you'd get in some subcompact sedans. The A6 and E-Class are in the 13-cube range, while the 5 Series apparently has 14.5 cubic feet.  So, how small is 11.9 cubic feet? Although plenty wide at the rear, which should be handy for golf clubs, the CT5's trunk isn't very long compared to all those competitors. The A6's is narrower but also practically a tunnel by comparison. Also, note the ramp-like structures along the outer edges. Besides making loading a hassle, they effectively make the trunk even smaller than the 11.4 cubic-feet that's technically there since it's so difficult to load items right up to the wheel wells. You can see a closer look at those "ramps" above left along with the smallish pass through that oddly looks like a previous-generation Hyundai Sonata's grille.  Above right you can see the underfloor storage. There is no spare tire.  Besides those "ramps" impeding luggage loading from below, these giant speakers hanging down from the parcel shelf sure don't help, either. Watch your hands while loading, as well as anything that might be easily scratched (or that might damage the speakers) OK, let's get to the bags.

May 2016: FCA wins, Ford and GM stumble on weak car volumes

The May 2016 sales numbers are in, and it looks as though FCA is getting some vindication for boldly cancelling two slow-selling car models. Meanwhile, Ford saw overall sales dip and GM's May volume took a big dive versus the same month in 2015. While Marchionne's decision to axe the Chrysler 200 and Dodge Dart has drawn criticism as being short-sighted, it's working for FCA so far. Although the Dart and 200 aren't out of production yet and no capacity has been shifted to crossover or trucks, May's numbers show that the emphasis on Jeep and Ram models makes sense right now. FCA's US sales rose 1 percent last month compared to May 2015, putting the year-to-date total at 955,186 vehicles, an increase of 6 percent compared to the same period last year. Standouts included the Jeep Renegade, Compass, and Patriot, and the Fiat 500X. Ram pickup sales were down 3 percent. And your fun fact is that Alfa Romeo sales were up precisely 10 percent, for a total of 44 4Cs sold versus 40 in the same month last year. At FoMoCo, the Ford brand took a hit to the tune of 6.4 percent from May 2015 to 2016, registering 226,190 sales last month. Lincoln showed improvement on its modest numbers, going from 9,174 to 9,807, a 6.9 percent increase. Overall, Ford was down 5.9 percent for the month to 235,997; despite the slump, year-to-date total Ford sales are up 4.2 percent to 1,112,939. Strong sellers included Escape, Expedition, F-Series, and Transit - big stuff. Most small and/or efficient models (Fiesta, Focus, Fusion, C-Max) saw sales slides. Fusion sales were also down, likely due to effects of model changeover to the freshened 2017 model. Ford has promised four new crossovers and SUVs by 2020 and if things keep trending this way the company will be able to sell them, but things could change in the next four years. GM saw the worst of it for domestic brands. Retail and fleet sales were down for each of the four divisions, with the May 2016 total dropping 18 percent to 240,450 vehicles. GM's year-to-date sales are down 5.0 percent in 2016 to 1,183,705. Both the Sierra and Silverado were down significantly, and the majority of Chevy, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac nameplates saw sales decreases, with both small cars and larger utilities included. Not even big stuff could help GM this month, it seems. We'll have more on the rest of the industry's May sales as those figures trickle in.