Thanks to its quirky styling, interior, extensive warranty, fuel economy and other comfortable features, the 2010 Kia Soul racks up another feather to its cap by being named in the Top Top 10 Back to School Car List by KBB.com. This comes at the heels of garnering another previous citation for being the Top Safety Pick by the IIHS.

The feedbacks were based from what the editors had gathered together from what vehicles offer as far as reliability, safety features, affordability, practicality, good handling and attractive styling are concerned which may be appealing to parents and students. The 2010 Kia Soul prices start from $13,300 which also makes it a lot preferred on the car of choice.

Available in four trims, Soul, Soul+, Soul! (exclaim) and Soul sport, pricing for the versatile five door begins at $13,300 for the base trim, while Soul+ starts at $14,950. Moving up to the Soul! offers a price beginning at $16,950 and the Soul sport, designed for those with active lifestyles, starts at $16,950 and tops out at $18,600.

(Source) Press

Tags: active lifestyles, affordability, back to school, citation, feedbacks, fuel economy, KIA, parents, practicality, safety features, school car, soul soul, trims, warranty

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Do you have a Ferrari? No? Me neither. But for those of you who do own such a car read on — Ferrari has reecntly announced that they will begin offering free roadside assistance for all of their cars that aren’t currently covered under warranty.

This means that if you have any model of Ferrari built after 1947 and said car breaks down, Ferrari will come to your rescue with your run-of-the-mill tow to an authorized mechanic in addition to paying for you to get back home (or to a hotel).

No word on North American availability but Italian Ferrari owners will apparantly get the treatment first with Europe getting it at a later date.

Press release after the break.
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Tags: 1947, Ferrari, out of warranty, roadside assistance, warranty

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In case you missed this post last month, it seems that General Motors would like to stress it once again. They will continue to service vehicles purchased under their wing despite that growing problems and impending bankruptcy issue GM finds itself in.

Sales may have succumbed but that doesn’t mean that GM has not sold a fair share of its produced units. You may be surprised at the number of vehicles that they have sold but the air of uncertainty came about after last week’s problems which have struck the famed car manufacturing company.

GM will still have the largest dealer network in the country. In fact, thousands of dealerships will remain open and continue to provide Goodwrench warranty service. They will also continue to use skilled technicians and original equipment parts.

(Source) Press

Tags: fair share, General Motors, GM, impending bankruptcy, manufacturing company, original equipment, service vehicles, skilled technicians, uncertainty, vehicle warranties, warranty, warranty service

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Here is another hands-free solution for people who have to receive incoming calls while on the road. Using Bluetooth technology, BlueAnt introduces the S1 Sun Visor Bluetooth car speakerphone. This new device allows drivers to answer calls by merely saying “Answer” without letting go of the wheel or taking their eyes off the road.

If your phone has a voice dial feature, then you can make calls using your voice too. Just one button press on the S1 will activate your phone’s full voice dial functionality.

Installation and setup is as simple as clipping the speakerphone to the car sun visor and running through a short one time pairing process. The S1 will then automatically reconnect to the phone the next time you get in the car.

Similar to other modern hands-free devices, the S1 also introduces A2DP music streaming, allowing users to play music through the S1’s high performance speaker from any mobile phone that supports the A2DP Bluetooth profile.

Features:

• Talk handsfree on your phone while driving
• Use your voice to answer calls
• Multipoint: connect to 2 phones and answer the one that rings
• Use your voice to make calls (if supported by your phone)
• Stream music from A2DP Bluetooth phones
• Easy installation: clips onto your sun visor
• Digital Signal Processor for noise and echo cancellation
• Automatically reconnects to your phone when you get back into the car
• Stores pairing information for up to 8 phones
• Up to 15 hours of talk time and a massive 800 hours of standby time
• Comes complete with BlueAnt’s 2 year warranty

(Source) Press

Tags: blueant, button press, car stores, car sun visor, dial feature, digital signal processor, echo cancellation, free solution, high performance, incoming calls, mobile phone, performance speaker, standby time, stream music, talk time, voice dial, warranty, wheel

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Motorists eyeing the best pre-owned programs in the market today may want to shift their attention a bit to Hyundai. Hyundai’s certified pre-ownership program has suddenly found itself at number three in the non-luxury category, making 24 jumps since its debut two years ago. At the moment, it is trailing the Mini and the Volkswagen.

Those are quite glaring numbers and considering that Hyundai is aggressively exhausting all efforts to make its business flourish, it seems that Hyundai has become the people’s choice with their various tactics.

Here is what the CPO program of Hyundai offers:

• Vehicles up to five model years old with less than 60,000 miles are eligible
• 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty (from original purchase date)
• 150 point inspection
• $50 deductible
• Roadside assistance
• Rental car coverage (up to $35/day for up to 10 days per occurrence)
• Towing coverage (up to $75 per occurrence)
• Travel breakdown coverage (up to $375 per occurrence)
• Diagnostics
• Related damage for specific parts
• Fluids
• New car financing rates through Hyundai Motor Financing Company

These numbers may seem common but what you don’t see is what Hyundai provides as far as comfort and economical factors are concerned. But with practically the motoring industry acknowledging it, what else would you need to be convinced?

(Source) Press

Tags: blossoms, car coverage, debut, economical factors, financing company, flourish, glaring numbers, Hyundai, hyundai motor, luxury category, motorists, new car financing, new car financing rates, occurrence, powertrain, rental car, roadside assistance, volkswagen, warranty

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To hone up its security and car video surveillance needs, the Place County Sheriff’s department has announced the use of the Pivot3 storage platform to support its mobile in-car video surveillance infrastructure. The decision to choose the Pivot3 open-system platform was based on three factors: scalability, ease-of-use, and total cost of ownership.

Scalability was a key decision criteria for the county since the system is expected to grow over time, and the county wanted investment protection over the life of the system. “We first looked at EMC solutions that would only allow only so much capacity before you have to remove the entire logic controller and install a new one,” said Kevin Davis, IT analyst for the Placer County Sheriff’s Department. “With Pivot3, the controller, processor and memory are part of each appliance, not the whole array, which makes expansion very straightforward.”

Total cost of ownership was another deciding factor during a time of tight fiscal constraints, and, again, the Pivot3 platform offered a strong advantage over competitive options. The Pivot3 platform minimized acquisition costs for Placer County, and the longer-term management and maintenance costs were substantially less as well. In fact, the fully installed Pivot3 solution was roughly one third of the total cost of an EMC Clariion CX310 solution after adding up the warranty, installation and training costs.

(Source) Press

Tags: acquisition costs, array, cost of ownership, decision criteria, emc clariion, emc solutions, high definition, infrastructure, investment protection, logic controller, maintenance costs, pivot3, placer county sheriff, storage platform, storage platforms, system platform, term management, tight fiscal constraints, video surveillance, warranty

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Rumors of an impending GM bankruptcy has put the car world in a state of frenzy, circulating fears that purchased cars from GM may no longer provide warranties should such an unfortunate event happen. But thanks to the assurance of the US government, motorists who have or are planning to get a GM car need not worry. General Motors Corp. says the U.S. government is guaranteeing the warranties of its cars and trucks sold in Mexico.

The government announced it would guarantee warranties of vehicles sold in the U.S. starting March 30. The move was designed to stimulate sales by easing fears GM might go into bankruptcy and wouldn’t be able to back its warranties.

GM says it will pay part of the warranty guarantee costs and will borrow the rest from the U.S. government. The guarantees cover GM vehicles sold in the U.S. and Mexico during the company’s restructuring period.

(Source) KESQ

Tags: Bankruptcy, car world, Cars, General Motors, general motors corp, GM, gm car, gm vehicles, Mexico, motorists, restructuring, trucks, us government, warranties, warranty

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