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2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year: Tesla Model S – Motor Trend

“The 2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year is one of the quickest American four-doors ever built. It drives like a sports car, eager and agile and instantly responsive. But it’s also as smoothly effortless as a Rolls-Royce, can carry almost as much stuff as a Chevy Equinox, and is more efficient than a Toyota Prius. Oh, and it’ll sashay up to the valet at a luxury hotel like a supermodel working a Paris catwalk. By any measure, the Tesla Model S is a truly remarkable automobile, perhaps the most accomplished all-new luxury car since the original Lexus LS 400. That’s why it’s our 2013 Car of the Year.”

Someone in our neighborhood has one. I need to figure out who it is so I can take it for a test drive.

This bugs me:

Volvo is laying claim to the first production diesel plug-in hybrid title with the company’s new V60. The vehicle makes use of a five-cylinder 2.4-liter turbo diesel engine with 215 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque coupled to a six-speed automatic transmission as well as an electric motor good for up to 70 horsepower and 147 pound-feet of torque. The forced-induction internal combustion engine puts power to the front wheels while the electric motor feeds its grunt to the rear. An 11.2-kWh lithium-ion battery pack fields power storage duties, and Volvo says the V60 plug-in diesel hybrid can travel up to 32 miles on all-electric power with a single charge.

Why can’t we buy this car in America!

As with most plug-ins, charge times vary depending on the available current, but Volvo claims the V60 can top off its cells in as little as 3.5 hours on a 16-amp line. Interestingly enough, the vehicle allows the driver to chose between three drive modes. Pure mode relies on the electric motor as much as possible while Hybrid mode splits the difference between the diesel mill and the electric motor. Finally, Power mode calls on the full 285 horsepower and 362 pound-feet of torque for the most driving enjoyment. Volvo says the V60 diesel plug-in hybrid can kick up to 60 mph in 6.2 seconds in Power mode.

What? It goes 0-60 in 6.2 seconds? It’s a plug-in hybrid AWD diesel that can go 30 miles on electric only?

I recently posted to my facebook status: “my real life is getting in the way of my digital one,” and that’s not such a bad thing. So much is new since I last posted. It may be the longest gap in blog posting since apple juice’s inception back in the early oughts. Let me bring you up to date on one area of my life.

One of the original themes of the blog was my car, a beloved 2003 Golf TDI. Dear friends, Bogey is no longer with us. Yes, sadly on the commute to work two weeks ago, I was in a car accident. Luckily, I am fine. Bogey didn’t fare so well. I rear-ended a pickup and his bumper became entangled with my engine. (No, I was not on my phone, fiddling with the radio, picking my nose, etc. I checked my blind spot to change lanes and when I looked back, traffic was coming to a complete and utter stop in front of me.)

The car was declared a total loss by my insurance. Thus, the search began. I’d love to have just walked into the VW dealer and bought a new 2010 Jetta Sportwagen TDI. They are looking quite nice. However, it is a bit more money than I had to spend.

After driving a few gasoline fulled 1.8T Jetta Wagons, I decided that I simply had to find a diesel. I find explaining diesel cars like explaining Macintosh computers to people in the late 90s. Until you drive one, you just won’t understand.

Nothing was showing up in Minnesota, so I widened the search. Other metro areas were canvassed, the eastern seaboard was searched (thanks, Jean!). I was ready to hop on a plane to Denver to investigate one potential vehicle when I found a 2005 Jetta Wagon TDI in neighboring Iowa.

I have the car back in Mpls now, and I’m hoping this one picks up where my Golf left off. It has a slightly more powerful 100HP engine (whoa, triple digits!), and I’m guessing slightly lower highway mileage. It only 87,000 miles, and like my Golf, I’m hoping to achieve at least 200,000 miles with this car. I’ll get a picture up soon. It’s beige, but not in a bad way. Manual transmission, heated seats (key in Minnesota).

It’s so silly to become attached to things, I have to remind myself of that. However, cars become such a part of our lives, (what car did I drive wife and daughter home from the hospital in? The Golf) and you can’t help but weave their stories into yours. I’m hoping this new (old) Jetta weaves a few new stories into our lives.

Sidenote: If you know me at all, you know the nerd inside of me. I just signed up for a new site called Fuelly, that helps track your fuel usage. They have a simple mobile site accessible from your iPhones, Blackberries, Nokias, etc. Enter the odometer and fuel amount when you fill up. Easy as pie. See neato badge to the right. Join and we can be fuelly friends. Seriously, it’s like the new twitter and facebook rolled into one.

A Minnesota biofuels company that has attracted visits from financiers, scientists, customers and the federal government has produced a clean diesel fuel from algae harvested from a pond next door to its Anoka County plant.

via Pond full of scum produces a tank full of cheap diesel.

Trying to find some now!

I’m waiting at Dunn Brothers while my new tires get installed at the Southwest Firestone.

I purchased the Bridgestone Ecopia EP100s for my Golf… after not really too much research 🙂

They are a brand-new tire developed (marketed) as a “green” option for tires. Since the Golf gets very good mileage, I thought, why not try to maximize that a bit with tires?

Think of Ecopia as a bold step forward. It’s an environmentally conscious tire designed to improve rolling resistance, which will help passenger cars achieve better gas mileage — without sacrificing the smooth, quiet ride or reliable wet handling you’ve come to expect from Bridgestone tires.

(says the marketing materials)

Barry at Southwest Firestone says that it’s the first set of Ecopia’s they’ve sold, so I’ll take your thanks in advance on being a guinea pig for a brand-new tire.

I’ll have to report back on how they actually perform, but I’m excited to take a good road trip and see what happens. I’m switching from a fairly high-performance tire (more sticky, less mpg) to this tire, so my expections may be a bit too high in terms of the cornering performance, for example.

But, the first time I drive up to the cabin and get a 50+mpg tank, I’ll be pretty happy! 🙂

Because the apple juice news team is fair and balancedâ„¢, we are updating an earlier story, Starting My Car in the Winter

After a week of subzero temperatures, culminating in Thursday night’s -25 degree reading, my car failed to start without a jump. The battery simply couldn’t turn the engine fast enough.

Now, since it did in fact start, after the laborous process of pushing it out into the alley so I could hook jumper cables to a neighbors car, I do not count this as “not starting”.

But since boasting of my record of starting the car in the winter, I thought it would be fair to share that I needed the jump-start.

regular news updates to resume shortly…

Of all the parts of my car that I feel comfortable installing, windshield wipers give me the most joy.

Actually I would say I have a love/hate relationship with my windshield wipers. They’re never as good as the first day you get them. A slow, downward trajectory, like riding a slip’n’slide that isn’t wet enough.

However, I have great hope for my recent wiper purchase. Instead of going for the seemingly generic brand they sell at Checker Auto Parts, I spent an extra $10 each for the Bosch Icon wipers. I am in wiper heaven.

They could  be described as a slightly al dente spaghetti noodle. That, in and of itself is cool, because there is none of the typical metal bracket features. Just a sleek rubber and plastic noodle.

Minnesota winters are tough though, so I’m withholding final judgment until the snow flies. But so far, my new windshield noodle friends are living up to their billing.