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NY Auto Show launches flying car and maritime Mini
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What's rarer than a flying car at an auto show? A flying car that has actually flown. Terrafugia's Transition Roadable Aircraft is front and center in New York City's Javits Center at the 2012 New York International Auto Show that kicked off Wednesday (press days) and opens a nine-day public run Friday. The show's tech themes include more hybrid vehicles, 500-hp supercars with microprocessor driver engine management that allow for 20 mpg driving when you're not hot-rodding, and high-end downsized cars for baby boomers who don't want to give up their luxuries just yet. The Germans keep coming with diesel engines in hopes of making Americans see efficiency the worldview way, and Lincoln showed off a new MKZ in hopes of making the world see luxury the American way.
First, the Terrafugia. Its somewhat awkward nomenclature is their way of saying, "This is mostly an airplane that can be driven on public roads. But, hey! Ours is actually flying, unlike 75 years of Popular Mechanics and Popular Science cover photo mockup airplanes." The typical user drives to a private airport, flies a couple hundred miles to another private airport, folds the wings behind the plane-car, and from there drives a couple miles to their vacation home. Terrafugia says the plane should be for sale this year.
Acura's insistence that six cylinders is enough for a luxury car doomed the Acura RL. Also, it was smaller and cheaper than the Lexus LS, not good things in the minds of luxury car buyers. Acura is back with the 2013 Acura RLX concept: bigger and with more technology that its predecessor. The top end RLX has an all-wheel-drive hybrid drivetrain and includes what is called Acura Sport Hybrid Super Handling All-Wheel Drive. Translation: torque vectoring, or a microprocessor-based stability system that overdrives the outside wheels through a corner for faster corner or (in winter) safer cornering. It's likely to be a detuned version of the new Acura NSX sportscar drivetrain. For those who want to keep costs down, the Acura RLX (which is coming to market even if it's called a concept) will also offer a front-drive-only version of the RLX with the world's best front-drive-only torque vectoring. (Translation: Ford is already doing it on front-drive cars.)
BMW is finally bringing its baby SUV, the BMW X1, to the US this fall as part of the X1's mid-life refresh or life cycle impulse (in BMW-speak) and it fits a whole lot of trends into a car smaller than the Toyota RAV4: It targets city dwellers who need small vehicles for tight parking spaces; it speaks to baby boomers who have fewer possessions (and kids) to lug around but still want an upscale vehicle; and it has many but not all of the big-Bimmer tech goodies that can raise the price of a new Bimmer by $20K, including BMW's suite of applications that live in the center stack for music, information, and navigation. The starting price at $32,000 is reasonable and, yes, adults can fit in the back without feeling squashed. The X1 works because the big brother X3 in its second generation got almost as big as the first generation BMW X5 while the X5 got as big as the X7 uber-SUV BMW never launched (yet).
Next page: Lincoln, Infiniti, diesel engines, and an ocean-going Mini
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Cheap Used Cars for Sale Long Island Ny
Source: https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/125067-ny-auto-show-launches-flying-car-and-maritime-mini