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Autoblog In Cuba: 1957 Chevy Bel Air Review

If you've been following the Autoblog In Cuba series, you may remember that my efforts to rent a car in the country were ultimately unsuccessful. Misinformation, bad planning, and a lack of rental car inventory conspired to disrupt my hoped-for driving adventure. I discovered in my week of exploration, however, that the terrific thing about Havana is that there's always another adventure to be found – if you're willing to look. A car I could drive myself might have been impossible to come by, but a ride to remember was not. After all, even when reviewing a new car, I've found that impressions about the car and the route can be credibly formed from the right seat. Starting from the parking lot of the grand Hotel Nacional, finding an interesting car for hire is as simple as walking up and down the block. Scads of classic American iron wait just outside the hotel gates, in a riot of colors and conditions befitting the tropical climate. Fords from the 1940s are plentiful – more sedans than coupes – and the glory days of General Motors are represented by enough Pontiacs and Cadillacs to fill a Bruce Springsteen B-sides album. But the Chevy Bel Air is the king of the road here, by some margin. View 30 Photos I settled on a burnt orange 1957 Chevy Bel Air convertible, in tourist-appropriate condition. I was looking for a hardtop at the request of my crew's audio/video needs, but settled on a burnt orange 1957 Chevy Bel Air convertible, in tourist-appropriate condition. This car might look good as a prop in the background on your vacation photos – hair blowing in the breeze with the ocean at your back, parked in front of Che's face in Revolution Square, etc. – but was far from pristine on a closer inspection. A perfect representative of the Cuban average. At least the price was right: $50 for two hours to make it 12 miles to Hemingway's house, and back. My driver was a kid named Daniel who looked to be about 20 years old. The Chevy doesn't belong to him, he co-drives it with the owner, but he was able to give me the basic mechanical rundown. The eight- or six-cylinder engine that Chevy shipped this convertible with was long gone. No surprise there, as nearly every American-made car I'd ridden in so far was powered by some belching Mercedes diesel. Despite it's clattering note, Daniel said the lump under the hood of the '57 drinks gas: a four-cylinder of Russian origins, pulled out of a GAZ Volga as best I can understand.

GM drops diesel engines for 2020 Chevy Equinox and GMC Terrain crossovers

GM is officially discontinuing the diesel engine in the Chevy Equinox and GMC Terrain for the 2020 model year. The 1.6-liter turbodiesel was always an oddball of an engine in the compact crossover segment, and now the experiment has come to an end. The Car Connection initially reported the news, and a GMC spokesperson, Stuart Fowle, confirmed it to us this morning.  “A huge majority of our Terrain customers have opted for one of our two gas engines," says Fowle. We canÂ’t say this eventuality comes as a massive surprise, as we saw news from couple of months ago that GM was dropping all-wheel drive from the diesel-powered cars for 2020. Low demand was cited as the reason for that cull, and itÂ’s the same for the little GM crossovers this time around, too. These vehicles were the only ones powered with a diesel engine in their class, but thatÂ’s going to be changing. Just as GM is going away from the diesel, Mazda is finally bringing its diesel to market in the CX-5. YouÂ’ll only be able to get that engine in the most expensive ($42,045) trim level, combined with all-wheel drive, though. The cheapest Equinox diesel starts at a comparably low $30,795. ThatÂ’s a $2,400 upcharge over the base 1.5-liter turbo four-cylinder, and the value is questionable. Mileage is better, but diesel fuel is more expensive. Towing capability didnÂ’t increase over the base engineÂ’s 1,500-pound capacity, but the extra torque around town was nice. As diesels go in the U.S., this one was rather rough and noisy, possibly contributing to some turning their noses up after a test drive. Perhaps another reason for its demise was that the much quicker 2.0-liter turbo Equinox was only $100 more than the diesel. This engine offered significantly better towing at 3,500 pounds, too. You can read all about what we thought of the diesel in our first drive review here, but the 2019 model year is the last one if you had it on your shortlist. This article has been updated to indicate the source.

Is your new-car warranty good at the race track?

We've all heard the horror stories. Your buddy knows a girl that was dating a guy whose best friend's brother once broke his brand-new, recently purchased performance car while making runs at a drag strip or laps at a track day, and the manufacturer wouldn't cover the repair under warranty. True story? Urban legend? Complete crap? Yes, no, maybe. One thing's for sure: Automotive warranties have always come with caveats. In 1908, an ad in the Trenton Evening Times clearly stated: "All Ford Cars Guaranteed for One Year." Although it changed over time, by 1925 the Ford New Car Guarantee only covered 90 days on material and 30 days on labor, and it clearly stated that that there was "No guarantee whatever on Fan Belts, Glass, Bulbs, Wiring, Transmission, Bands, Hose Connections, Commutator Shells, Rollers, Spark Plugs or Gaskets." Whether or not Ol' Henry would pay to fix your Model T if you broke it shaving a tenth off your lap time at the local board track seems to be lost to history. We're guessing no. But what about today? Do new-car warranties in 2017 cover cars when they are driven on race tracks? We researched the warranties of 14 auto brands to find out, and the answer is yes, no, maybe, depending on the brand, in some cases the model, and whether or not your car is modified from stock. Acura has been out of the high-performance car game for a number of years, but jumps back into the party in 2017 with its hybrid-powered $173,000 NSX supercar. And Acura's warranty, as well as Honda's, clearly states that it does not cover "the use of the vehicle in competition or racing events." View 33 Photos So we asked Sage Marie, Senior Manager of Public Relations for Honda and Acura. "If the car is stock, the warranty covers it on a track just as it does on the street. No question," he told us. "However, if the car is modified, say with slick tires or other components that would put higher stresses on the vehicle's parts and systems, then we would have to investigate the circumstances further." Marie went on to say the same would be true for any Acura model or Honda vehicle, including the new 2017 Honda Civic Si. This became a common theme. Chevrolet actually started this practice with the fifth-generation Camaro on the high-performance ZL1 and Z/28 models.