Auto Cars Specifications: July 2010

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Avis offers $1.33B for Dollar Thrifty in effort to trump Hertz for rental car company

PARSIPPANY, N.J. — Avis Budget Group Inc. said Wednesday it has offered $1.33 billion in cash and stock for rival rental-car operator Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc.

The bid is an effort to trump Hertz Global Holdings Inc., which in April said it was buying Dollar Thrifty for about $1.17 billion in cash and stock.

"In short, we believe that the higher purchase price we are offering, combined with the terms of our proposed merger agreement, makes our offer a superior one from the perspective of Dollar Thrifty and its shareholders," Ronald Nelson, Avis Budget's chairman and CEO, said in a letter to executives at Dollar Thrifty outlining the bid.

In response, Dollar Thrifty, which is based in Tulsa, Okla., said it will study the offer but noted it had already signed a definitive merger agreement with Hertz.

The latest bid consists of $39.25 in cash and 0.6543 shares of Avis Budget stock. It amounts to $46.50 a share for Dollar Thrifty, a price below the stock's Wednesday close at $48.68. It slipped 68 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $48 in after-hours trading.

The bidding war is part of an ongoing consolidation in the rental-car business that began in 2002, when Avis' parent company bought Budget.

When it announced its deal in April, Hertz, based in Park Ridge, N.J., said the Dollar and Thrifty brands would expand its reach among vacationers who rent cars at airports. Hertz's business is roughly evenly split between business and vacation travelers.

Avis Budget, based in Parsippany, had criticized Dollar Thrifty for not contacting it to discuss a rival bid even though it had expressed an interest in a deal. It also accused Dollar Thrifty of setting an unusually high breakup fee of 5.25 percent in order to deter competing bids. Nelson said his company's bid is more attractive because it does not include those conditions.

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Tuesday, July 27, 2010

General Motors has cancelled the planned replacement for the GMT900 SUVs.

The automotive press has speculated that the Escalade nameplate may move to the Lambda crossover platform.

However, GM has announced it has resumed work on its fullsize SUV's.
Cadillac Escalade

Cadillac Escalade

The Lambda based Cadillac will still go into production however, to compliment the new Escalade.

On February 13, 2010 according to a report on Autoblog.com, GM has reissued an redesign on the GM fullsize SUV lineup, including the Escalade, for a 2013 release due to increased SUV sales.

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Saturday, July 24, 2010

Perfect Performance Saleen s7 Car Advanced

The Saleen S7 Twin Turbo is classified as a supercar, alongside Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and the Bugatti Veryron. It should be classified as a space rocket. The amount of horsepower and torque squeezed from the Ford-based V8 engine (yes a Ford V8 in a supercar), boggles the mind and leaves your stomach suspended in mid-air two miles behind you, where you just were a second ago.

saleen s7 interior

saleen s7 showrooms

saleen s7 car

saleen s7

saleen s7 photo

saleen s7 top

saleen s7 image

saleen s7 cars

saleen s7 pics

Looking at the car, you can see that a lot of hard work went into designing an aerodynamic body, but the real miracle sits a few inches behind the driver: the V8 engine. On a common supercar, the engine will be sized anywhere between a V8 and a V16, weigh 600+ pounds, and be loaded down with all sorts of fancy controls and cam shafts. The V8 in the Saleen S7 Twin Turbo laughs in the face of this excess. It weighs in at a slim 440 pounds, is made of aluminum, has only one cam shaft, and only two valves per cylinder, where most engines would have five. Sound too simple? Well, it generates 750 horsepower and 700 lb-ft of torque.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Lincoln MKZ Features

The MKZ's standard and optional 17-inch wheels have been restyled again and are supplemented with a new 18-inch wheel option. Inside, the MKZ's interior is all-new stylistically but continues to extensively use real wood accents and metal surfaces. Higher quality Bridge of Weir leather seating surfaces are standard.

Lincoln MKZ

Lincoln MKZ

Other features new for 2010 include a reverse camera system, Sirius Travel Link, a DVD-based satellite navigation system updated to accept voice commands, rain-sensing windshield wipers, a cabin air filter, and adaptive HID headlights. Mechanically, the MKZ features new suspension tuning to further improve ride quality and handling and a new SelectShift 6-speed automatic transmission that improves acceleration. The 2010 MKZ was released during the Spring of 2009.

Lincoln MKZ

Lincoln MKZ

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Mazda 3 name

The Mazda 3 (known as the Mazda Axela in Japan) is a compact car manufactured in Japan by the Mazda Motor Corporation. It was introduced for the 2004 model year, replacing the Mazda Familia (323 or Protegé in export markets). A more performance-oriented version of the Mazda3 is marketed as Mazdaspeed3 in North America and Mazda3 MPS in Europe.

Mazda 3
Mazda 3