That, my friends, is a road in Ireland that I was supposed to drive on to get to my next hotel. Needless to say, I had to change my plans. I had already driven through one lake that I shouldn’t have and wasn’t about to get washed away by attempting to drive across this. Especially in my rented Chevy Kalos.

I got back from a trip to flooded Ireland just yesterday. One of the most exciting parts of planning the trip was deciding what car I wanted to rent. I ended up requesting a Fiat, wanting to drive a cool European car that isn’t (yet) available in the United States. I would have been equally happy with a Peugeot 207 or Citroen C3.

Maybe if I had rented a Land Rover or Hummer, the floods wouldn’t have forced my change of plans. But I was stuck with the little Chevrolet.

Chevy Kalos

The Kalos is  really an Aveo. Which is a Pontiac G3. Which is a Daewoo. Not exactly the European flair I was hoping for, and certainly not capable of parting Irish floodwaters. The car rattled, it went 0-100 kilometers per hour in about 14 minutes, and it squealed like a guinea pig. But it got about 40 miles per gallon, which was awesome considering gas prices averaged $6.67 per gallon. The car served my wife and me well enough, though, considering we drove 1,000 kilometers (about 621 miles) around the country during the worst flooding Ireland has seen in 800 years.

When we planned the trip, we figured driving long distances would be nothing, since we can easily log 700 miles in one day on U.S. highways. But Irish roads are not U.S. highways. Most of the roads might better be called paths, and are more suitable for hardcore hiking than cross-country driving. And that’s when the roads are dry.

Typical rural road in Ireland

Combine those treacherous driving conditions with the whole driving-on-the-left-thing, and you can imagine the adventures!

Even with all the setbacks, the trip was an eye-opening view into the car culture of Europe versus the U.S.

With small roads, high fuel prices, and excellent rail systems, there is no reason for European residents to own an American-size car or truck. Driving a Ford Explorer (or even a Honda Accord) across rural Irish highways and through tight city streets is as laughable as the bill would be to fill up with gas.

On our side of the Atlantic, wide open Interstate highways and cheap gas have fueled our passion for large, comfortable cruisers capable of chewing up highway miles. Small cars here are needed only when fuel gets expensive. Small cars in Europe are an absolute necessity just to maneuver through the streets.

I sincerely hope all those affected by the flooding in Ireland and England are safe, and I thank the many people there who were nice enough to point a couple of lost Americans to higher ground.

Do you have any stories about driving in a foreign country?

-tgriffith

As winter begins to set in across the country, we figure it’s a good time to create a list of the best cars, trucks and SUVs for plowing through deep snow and easing over slippery ice. Here are my top ten, but feel free to drop a comment and let us know what you drive in the snow and how it does.

Toyota 4Runner/ Tacoma

Throw any weather situation at either of these Toyotas and you’ll make it through just fine.

Audi A6 Quattro

I had a boss once who loved his A6 so much he’d take me out on snowy mornings and speed through the twisties, trying to make his car come unstuck. He succeeded only once, and broke an axle for the effort.

Honda CR-V

I chose this over the Pilot because it’s lighter. The Pilot gets a little top-heavy, which makes going down icy hills a heart-racing experience, while the smaller CR-V crawls easily to the bottom.

Subaru Forester

A low center of gravity and all-wheel drive combine to make the Forester a winner in the snow and cold.

Jeep Wrangler

If you’ve got a hard top and doors on your Wrangler, nothing should stop you from reaching the top of the mountain.

Volvo XC90

Lots of ground clearance, lots of weight, but a low center of gravity make the AWD version of the XC90 a great winter car.

Suzuki SX4

Being a 2,500-pound small car, this thing stays planted. And with the ability to choose AWD or lock it into 4WD, the SX4 is a great commuter car for snowy highways. Just don’t take it on the trails.

Lexus RX

As long as you’re not running low-profile 18-inch summer tires, this little Lexus will serve you well through any winter storm.

Porsche Cayenne

This is for those who want a little extra flashiness in the their snowy commutes, plus the added benefit of the residual heating function, which will keep the Cayenne heated for up to 20 minutes after shutting the engine off.

BMW 328i xDrive

With dynamic stability control and intelligent all-wheel drive, what else do you need in a winter car? Oh… headlamp washers? Okay, you get those, too.

What do you drive in the snow?

-tgriffith

2010 Volvo S60

What’s Volvo’s place in the world?

Ask consumers and they might say “Volvo makes safe, semi-luxurious family haulers.”

Ask Volvo and you’ll hear something about emotional appeal, sporty design and dynamic driving properties. It seems like all carmakers who call themselves luxury these days want to capitalize on the whole “dynamic driving properties” thing. The thing is, BMW pretty much owns that place. And if Volvo gets sold to a Chinese company as planned, well, let’s just say China isn’t a country known for developing world class driving dynamics.

Regardless, Volvo’s new S60 sedan is set for its big unveiling at the Geneva Motor Show next March, with production starting in summer 2010 in Belgium.

Volvo CEO Stephen Odell says,

The all-new Volvo S60 is sculpted to move you. It looks and drives like no other Volvo before and the car’s technology will help you to be safer and more confident behind the wheel.

Volvo’s marketing department would be proud, as phrases like “sculpted to move you” sound good in press releases but are otherwise meaningless. The car does look better than previous generation Volvos, but we’ll wait and see about those driving dynamics.

Speaking of questionable driving dynamics, GM is starting up Hummer production again in Louisiana.  Since the deal closed to sell Hummer to China’s Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co., General Motors can begin producing 2010 versions of the H3 and H3T. The only changes to the ‘10 models will be E85 capability across the line and some new color choices. No word on when production of the H2 will start again, but expect the new H3 to hit dealers in December.

In news from the auto spying field, Leftlane has spy photos of the 2011 Chevy Aveo (or possibly Viva), which could see production by the end of 2010, and the 2011 Toyota Sienna, which will debut at the LA Auto Show next month.

Finally, and this would fall under the category of  ”Cars Going Soon,” my much loved Pontiac G8 GXP is just about extinct. GM reports via Twitter that only 16 are left on dealer lots, so if you want one, better act fast before these are strictly sold at collector car auctions.

Lots to look forward to in the coming months and years! Will you be test driving anything listed here?

-tgriffith

We’ve probably all heard a story like this:

A friend has a friend who was on an RV trip. Her kids were sleeping in the back, her husband was conked out in the passenger seat. She had to go to the bathroom, so she put the RV on cruise control, unbuckled her seat belt and walked to the back, assuming the ol’ rig would safely navigate the highway ahead.

Of course the story ends badly for them. We, on the other hand, simply laugh at the stupidity of someone assuming cruise control can sense upcoming curves and traffic.

But how long until this scenario can safely happen? Technology is getting closer.

The 2010 Ford Taurus, for instance, has Adaptive Cruise Control, which uses radar to scan ahead for other vehicles and then changes speed to maintain a safe following distance.

The 2010 Toyota Prius has a Lane Keep Assist system that uses a camera to see lane markers and automatically keeps the car in its lane.

No single car, that I know of, has both of these features. But if it did, it would theoretically be able to safely cruise the highway while staying in its lane and keeping a safe distance from other vehicles.

So the technology could be available for Mrs. RV Driver to safely take her rolling bathroom break then return to the wheel. But the thought of removing human interaction with the road through our vehicles is scary. Who knows though, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says over 2.3 million people were injured in car accidents last year.

There’s no indication that automakers intend on creating cars that drive all by themselves anytime soon, but maybe someday machines will prove to be much better drivers than humans.

Do you think cars will someday pilot themselves? Would you want one that does? I prefer the fun and freedom of controlling a car on my own!

-tgriffith

Bad drivers know no budgets

Inspired by Honda’s newest advertising campaign, I have a theory I’d like your help proving:

Everybody knows somebody who is a bad driver.

The person I know is my grandpa. More on that, and the laughable irony behind it, later.

First, I have to wonder why people never admit to being the bad drivers. Folks are sure quick to point out if they live with one. Or are related to one. Or shared the road with one on the drive to work this morning.

Whether they admit it or not, bad drivers abound. Now there’s news that a scientific reason might be able to explain their existence. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, say they might have discovered a gene that contributes to people driving like morons (not their exact term).

This might seem like an opportunity to crack a joke, and say that we’ve always known what gene creates bad drivers: the same gene that creates females. But I’ll never stoop to the level of that joke. Especially since, in my own family, my wife has never run her car into a stationary pole. Like I have.

So perhaps you should cut the bad driver in your life some slack. He may have a genetic disability that makes it harder for him to remember basic driving rules, such as applying the brakes when the light turns yellow. Or not colliding with poles.

Instead of yelling at these people and calling them names we’d never want our children to repeat, maybe we should open special driving schools for them and give them special (extra wide) driving lanes with 20 mile-per-hour speed limits.

We could even require genetic testing before driver’s licenses are issued. When people test positive, they could get a special placard to hang on their rear-view mirrors. This would give them access to the special lanes and make them feel important, while the rest of us benefit from having the driving outcasts separated from their driving superiors.

My grandpa would definitely get a placard. I would rank him as the worst/scariest driver I’ve ever ridden with. He doesn’t think he’s doing anything wrong when his tires scrape the curb at 40 miles an hour.

And that laughable irony I mentioned? He drives for a living. A school bus. And he has a commendable safety record.

Maybe, and thankfully, the gene turns off when the safety of kids is at stake.

Tell us about the worst driver you know. If it’s you, please speak up! And feel free to keep things anonymous.

-tgriffith

It's coming... are you ready?

We bought a car this summer that has beautiful 18″ chrome rims, and the first thing I thought when I saw the snowflakes this morning was how quickly I could get those babies stored as far away from road salts as possible. I have a firm “no pitting” rule at my house!

I’ll definitely be making some preparations as winter descends. I advise you to do the same:

Whip out your snow wheels now and wrap ‘em with the best snow tires you can afford. Naturally, there are many choices in snow tires: studded (if your state law allows), studless, and my favorite, Norwegian. I tend to prefer a brand like Nokian, since those Norwegians tend to know a thing or two about winter driving.

Speaking of tires, keep an eye on your tire pressure, too. It tends to drop as temperatures dip below freezing.

It’s also a good time to invest in some heavy duty all-weather rubber floor mats (unless you own a Toyota). Heck, even if you do have a Toyota, keeping your carpets clean and dry might be worth the risk of uncontrollable acceleration. Probably not, but your call, of course.

Then there’s the rest of the typical winter stuff:

• Get your battery checked. This will help you avoid having to asking a stranger for jumper cables in a dark and scary mall parking garage.
• Add wiper fluid.
• Get your antifreeze checked.
• Make sure yours isn’t one of those cars driving around with one headlight out.

I know, I sound like your dad, but I care about you, so I’m going to keep going.

It’s also important to pick up some winter wiper blades. A full tank of fluid isn’t going to help if your wipers just smear it all into the mud already caked on your windshield. Once that happens you’ll be driving with your head out the window, and let me tell you, snow coming at your face at 40 mph really stings the eyes.

You should also take the time to wax your car one last time before spring. Putting down a protective layer will help spare your paint from the horrors of road-sanding trucks.

As winter sets in and temperatures plummet, even starting your car’s engine can be a challenge. Park in a garage if you can, or try an engine block heater if you live somewhere really cold. And don’t forget to switch to a lighter weight oil (consult your owner’s manual) or even a synthetic, since it tends to stay liquid in colder temps.

Finally, I’m going to mention something I would think everyone knows, but apparently they don’t. All-wheel drive or four-wheel drive will help you get going in snow and ice. It will not help you stop.

Tell that to the moron in the Jeep who gets stuck in a ditch on the highway. I promise you’ll see him this winter.

Do you have any special winter preparation or driving tips to share?

-tgriffith

There are only 10 Koenigsegg CCXs in North America out of 25 produced for the world. The price I see most frequently quoted is $545,568. There have been at least three crashes now, as I count them. Besides this one, Norwegian millionaire Tommy Sharif gave us a fabulous example of how not to drive a high-powered car in the video below.

Mr. Sharif returned the car, says MotorAuthority, and it was then sold to another owner who “ended up crashing the car within 18 hours of taking delivery”—into a garbage truck, no less. Earlier, in May 2007, a Koenigsegg engineer put the biofuel-powered CCXR into a ditch and really messed up the world’s first green supercar.

Clearly, the car is too hot to handle, at least for most mortals, and that’s a shame, because it is truly state-of-the-art in design and performance. The standard-bearer CCX, for instance, will do 0-100 km/h (0-62 mp/h) in 3.2 seconds, 0-300-0 km/h in 29.2 seconds. Its top speed is 395+ km/h (245+ mph), and it will come to a stop from 100 km/h in 32 meters. Incredible. These figures are from the factory website, which has lots of interesting info and some history.

And yes, Koenigsegg is the same group that wants to buy Saab from GM. Yesterday the European Investment Bank approved a €400 million loan, with possibly more loans to come from the Swedish government, thus bringing the deal close to fruition. Let’s hope a little of this money can be used for better owner-driver education programs.

Koenigsegg has shown that it can go toe-to-toe with Lamborghini, Ferrari, et al. Is there some reason why drivers keep crashing its cars?

—jgoods

Go ahead, try to change the spark plugs

Days like yesterday remind me just how intertwined our cars are with daily life.

First, as I was making my way down a winding and perilous dirt road, the brake light illuminated on my Suzuki’s dash. That’s never a welcome sight, especially when I can look over the edge of the road and see the rooftops of houses. Needless to say, I ended up at the brake repair shop instead of the coffee shop.

My local brake place is an independent shop I’ve used many times over the years. They are always honest and charge fair prices. As I waited for my car, I pulled out a copy of Car and Driver and read a head to head test of a Ferrari California against a Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG. Good reading.

Before I could find another article to read, the brake guy informed me that the fluid was a little low, but the system otherwise checked out A-OK. The tab? Nothing. Had I gone to the dealer I know I would have been out at least $65 for that diagnosis and would probably still be trying to prove to them that I don’t need new rotors.

When I got home (with my coffee, finally) I read about an iPhone app that can remotely start your car and a car that is controlled by an iPhone. Then I saw this blog about a renewed interest in the Right to Repair Act. That’s when my day of car repair fun came full circle.

We all know that the days of diagnosing our own engine problems are long gone. Even changing spark plugs is a job for a NASA engineer. So when it’s time for maintenance or repairs, dealers are often the only ones who have the info needed to decipher the diagnostic codes our cars spit out.

I’ve said before that those codes should be made available to all mechanics (even to the general public), so schmucks like me don’t get bent over when we need our cars fixed.

The people at righttorepair.org are making a push to get a bill through Congress that forces manufacturers to release proprietary diagnostic codes to the general public. The full press release is here, but the main point is this:

Cars, trucks, motorcycles and all other vehicles are becoming increasingly complex with the addition of more computer technology. Without Right to Repair, millions of vehicle owners will be forced back to the dealership for service because they have been denied access to non-proprietary information and computer codes from the manufacturers. Rural communities where there is no dealership in the area are particularly vulnerable and could be forced to tow their vehicles longer distances, adding significant cost to the repair.

Today, I was lucky that everything was okay and no dealer-specific repairs were needed on my car.

Tomorrow, it’s my hope that diagnosing a car’s troubles will be as close as my iPhone. Surely someday, there will be an app for that, too.

If diagnostic codes were available, would you use them to try and fix your own car before going to a mechanic?

-tgriffith

J.C. France

Some of you are looking forward to a three-day weekend. Others deserve to be in jail, among them some well-known car people.

Foremost of these is J.C. France, grandson of Bill France, founder of NASCAR. J.C. was allegedly racing with his half-brother Russell Van Richmond on the streets of Daytona Beach. The cops charged him with DUI and cocaine possession. Autoweek provided some details:

Van Richmond was driving a Porsche Cayenne, and France was driving a green 2007 Lamborghini. Van Richmond also was charged with DUI, possession of cocaine and possession of a controlled substance, hydrocodone. The newspaper reported that Van Richmond additionally was charged with threatening an officer after telling her, “I want your commander now. I am a France. Do you know what that means? We own this city.”

Autoweek referred to these clowns as “NASCAR’s royal family.” Well, how are we supposed to take that appellation? That they deserve utmost respect? That, as Robespierre suggested, we should prepare to cut their French heads off? The fact that NASCAR has become a joke to many of us leads me to wonder why police released J.C. on only a $4,500 bond. Maybe the family does own the town.

On a lighter note, the Michelin Man, aka “Bibendum,” will no longer be the Mr. Nice Guy we’ve grown to love. The company is spending some $20 million on an ad campaign to make him into some kind of superhero, a tough guy whom they hope will provide better traction for the brand.

In the [new] ads, the Michelin Man pulls tires from of his own midsection [sic] and hurls them, either at drivers who use them to replace their presumably inferior tires or at a frightened, cowering gas pump.

On a more somber note, GM is reportedly close to a deal to sell Hummer to a Chinese heavy-equipment manufacturer (with no car-building experience) for a measly $150 million. They were trying for $500 million, but had no takers. The deal faces all kinds of regulatory hurdles, besides being high-risk for the buyers. Sales of Hummer have fallen 63 percent this year (January-September).

GM’s Saab deal is also supposed to close this month. So was the Saturn sale to Penske. Perhaps October is not GM’s month. One recalls the October revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power.

Guns and cars go together like ice cream and cones. So assumes the Illinois Supreme Court, which just ruled that gun owners can carry weapons in car storage compartments designed for phones, CDs, and sunglasses—you know, the center consoles, as pictured. The Court said that

these compartments can be defined as “cases” in terms of gun laws, which require a gun to be in a case when transported in a car.

In case you’re wondering, the Court’s next case will decide whether automatic weapons can be stowed in the spare tire “case.”

Last but not least is the case of the Toyota floor mats, which we reviewed last month. The company is recalling 3.8 million trucks and cars, because the floor mats can slide under the accelerator and cause it to, well, accelerate. Now, Toyota is telling its dealers to use plastic zip-ties to secure the loose mats. This from the company that transformed the world of automotive production? Zip-ties, for Pete’s sake!

We want to hear your comments on the latest NASCAR scandal: Is the France dynasty finally ending?

—jgoods

For floormats.

Not engine problems, not transmission failures… but floormats that don’t quite fit just right.

Granted, those floormats can interfere with the accelerator pedal and cause uncontrolled pedal-to-the-metal acceleration, but still the flaw is in the floormat.

As far as serious issues go, this one’s about as minor as it gets. The fix? Take out the driver’s side floormat. I’m guessing there won’t be a flood of appointments at Toyota service departments on this one.

Let’s compare Toyota’s latest recall with some other recalls this year:

In April, GM recalled 1.5 million vehicles because of the possibility of engine fires.

In February, Chrysler recalled 13,350 minivans for risk of fire in an electrical circuit.

Also in February, Ford recalled over 11,000 2009 Rangers because the wheels could fall off.

Toyota had some bad floormats.

If anyone questions Toyota’s quality these days, I’m thinking a quick look at this should be convincing enough to prove that the company is still building the most reliable cars on the road.

The models affected are:

2007-2010 Camry
2005-2010 Avalon
2004-2009 Prius
2005-2010 Tacoma
2007-2010 Tundra
2007-2010 ES 350
2006-2010 IS 250 and IS350

Now, in all seriousness, should you ever encounter a stuck accelerator pedal, Toyota provided some suggestions on what to do:

First, if it is possible and safe to do so, pull back the floor mat and dislodge it from the accelerator pedal; then pull over and stop the vehicle.

If the floor mat cannot be dislodged, then firmly and steadily step on the brake pedal with both feet. Do NOT pump the brake pedal repeatedly as this will increase the effort required to slow the vehicle.

Shift the transmission gear selector to the Neutral (N) position and use the brakes to make a controlled stop at the side of the road and turn off the engine.

What company do you think builds the most reliable cars? If you own a Toyota vehicle that’s part of the recall, have you ever experienced a stuck accelerator?

-tgriffith