Wednesday, January 22, 2014

1 in 5 motorists name their car, do you?

By Noah Joseph

 

We all know someone who's named their car. And chances are – let's face it – that person is probably a girl. We're not being sexist here: we're just looking at the numbers presented by a new study from DMEautomotive.

The industry research group conducted a study that indicates that one in five American car owners have named their vehicles. But that one in five is likely to be female and between the ages of 18 and 24. The study upsets certain notions of men being more attached to their cars than women, and millennials not caring about cars: at 23 percent, women proved more likely to personify their vehicle than men (at 18 percent), and car owners in their late teens or early twenties are the four times more likely to name their cars than someone over 55.

Because most women (by far) view their car as female and men are pretty evenly split, there's about twice as many "female" cars on the road as "male" ones (those identities having been ascribed by the vehicles' owners). But this part had us scratching our heads the most: apparently one in four cars that have names, have names that begin with the letter B: as the tidy infographic above shows, Baby, Betsy, Bessie and Betty (along with Black Beauty) rank among the most popular names for cars in America.

Of course some cars may be more susceptible to being named than others, though the study (whose findings you can read below) doesn't get into that. As our friends at Road & Track discovered, Mini dealers have devised a simple way of figuring out whether an owner may be interested in trading in: if they've named their Mini, chances are slim that they'll be willing to part with it.




Courtesy of http://www.autoblog.com/2014/01/15/car-name-study-poll/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+weblogsinc%2Fautoblog+%28Autoblog%29

Thursday, January 16, 2014

2015 GMC Canyon Gets the Party Started

By Steven J. Ewing

The 2014 Detroit Auto Show press days officially kick off tomorrow, but the night before all the madness commences, General Motors drove its new 2015 GMC Canyon pickup truck out for all to see. To refresh your memory, the Canyon is GMC's new midsize pickup – essentially a re-skinned version of the Chevrolet Colorado that debuted at the LA Auto Show in November.

 Many of us at Autoblog prefer the look of the larger GMC Sierra to that of its Chevy Silverado kin, and we're having similar feelings about the new Canyon, especially after seeing it in person. It's sort of a pint-sized version of the Sierra, and it looks great. Clean lines are found throughout, and the Canyon's styling is decidedly premium.

 At launch, the Canyon will be offered with the same engines as the Colorado – a 2.5-liter inline four-cylinder engine with 193 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque on the base end, and a larger 3.6-liter V6 with 302 hp and 270 lb-ft as an option. The Colorado's 2.8-liter diesel inline four-cylinder will be available after launch. Both two- and four-wheel drive configurations will be available, depending on the model.

 The interior is largely a carryover affair from the Colorado, and again, the clean, upscale design of the Canyon is apparent inside the cabin. Like its twin, the Canyon will be available in Extended Cab and Crew Cab body configurations.

 











Courtesy of http://www.autoblog.com/2014/01/12/2015-gmc-canyon-detroit-2014/