On the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas Auto Writer’s Association (TAWA) members gathered to drive and review the best 2012 trucks, SUVs, CUVs, and other off-road vehicles for their annual Truck Rodeo.
The Rodeo featured major manufacturers who brought their best and most adept models to compete in this significant challenge held within the country’s ultimate ‘truck state’, Texas.
Virtually every manufacturer who has trucks or Sport Utility Vehicles entered them in the competition and came to San Antonio to present them the TAWA group. Ford brought a few variations of the F-150 including one model which featured their new FX package along with their LARIAT and King Ranch models. These F-150s featured neutral towing capability (on their 4x4s) which allowed the driver the ability to flat-tow. Another innovation within this year’s F-150s is the revived EcoBoost® and 5.0L engines.
RAM, (last year’s Truck of Texas winner) was also at the Rodeo and brought half a dozen variations of their product along with two new releases. The RAM Mossy Oak and the Laramie Power Wagon were both new models featured in the RAM line-up. The Mossy Oak will likely do well with hunters and outdoor enthusiasts because its styling is accented with camouflage patterned accents both inside and out.
The Mossy Oak model was derived from the RAM Outdoorsman and will be available for a limited time while the LARAMIE Power Wagon (a little more luxurious than the inaugural model) is slated to be sold throughout the entire year. A few of the upgrades within the ‘luxury model’ are wood grain paneling and extra chrome for flare.
During the event there were many other newly released trucks, SUVs, and CUVs brought in directly from many manufacturers. Toyota brought a prototype model of the Tacoma TRD T/X Baja Series which is set for official release in May 2012. This soon-to-be-released model is being built at Toyota’s San Antonio plant and is also undergoing final testing for the Tacoma Access Cab and Double Cab 4x4 models. This new series is equipped with a 4.0 Liter V6 and comes with choice of a six-speed manual or a five-speed automatic transmission.
The Baja is also fully equipped with every important feature any serious off-road enthusiast could ever want such as upgraded shocks, coils, traction control, off-road wheels and tires. Needless to say, the test drive on the dusty, hilly, steep and at times wet and rocky off-road course not only showed super engine response and power it also held its own no matter what obstacle it encountered. Most of the off-road specific 2012 models entered in the Truck Rodeo listed suspension upgrades on their more well-known models with an emphasis on capable suspension regarding the newer editions such as the Nissan Titan Pro4X.
After two days of grueling testing of the 51 entrants, the Auto Writer’s turned in their ballots and awaited the final results of who would win one of the highest honors in the land - The Truck of Texas award. Within 12 hours the results were in and many of the manufacturers could not have been happier with their brands results.
Nissan claimed titles such as Mid-Sized Truck of Texas for the Nissan Frontier and Compact SUV of Texas for the auto maker’s Xterra Pro-4X. Dodge Durango won first place for Full-Sized SUV, RAM 2500 Mega Cab Laramie Longhorn took second place for Luxury Pickup Truck of Texas while RAM 1500 earned second for Full-Sized Pickup (Toyota Tundra and Chevrolet 1500 both tied for third).
For the winning Truck Line of Texas the Auto Writers awarded Ford F-150 first place in Full-Sized Pickup Truck and Luxury Pickup Truck of Texas (Platinum EcoBoost® model), while the F-250 claimed top place for Heavy Duty Pickup Truck of the Lone Star truck state.
The complete list of Texas Auto Writer's Truck Rodeo winners is as follows: Truck of Texas: 2012 Ford F-150 SUV of Texas: 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee CUV of Texas: 2012 Ford Edge Truck Line of Texas: Ford F-150 Full-Sized Pickup Truck: First Place, 2012 Ford F-150; Second Place, 2012 Ram 1500; Third Place, Chevrolet 1500 & Toyota Tundra (tie) Mid-Sized Pickup Truck: First Place, 2012 Nissan Frontier; Second Place, 2012 Toyota Tacoma. Luxury Pickup Truck: First Place, 2012 Ford F-150 Platinum EcoBoost; Second Place, 2012 Ram 2500 Mega Cab Laramie Longhorn: Third Place, 2012 GMC Sierra Denali 2500 HD Crew Cab. Heavy Duty Pickup Truck: First Place, 2012 Ford F-250 King Ranch; Second Place, 2012 Ram 2500 Power Wagon; Third Place, 2012 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD. Full-Sized SUV: First Place, 2012 Dodge Durango; Second Place, 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee; Third Place, 2012 Chevrolet Tahoe. Full-Sized Luxury SUV: First Place, Jeep Grand Cherokee; Second Place, Range Rover Evoque; Third place, Mercedes Benz ML350 Mid-Sized SUV: First Place, 2012 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited; Second Place, 2012 Toyota 4Runner; Third Place, 2012 Toyota FJ Cruiser. Mid-Sized Luxury SUV: First Place, Toyota 4Runner Compact SUV: First Place, 2012 Nissan Xterra Pro-4X; Second Place, 2012 Jeep Compass; Third Place, 2012 Volkswagen Tiguan. Full-Sized CUV: First Place, 2012 Buick Enclave Mid-Sized CUV: First Place, 2012 Ford Edge Limited with EcoBoost engine; Second Place 2012 Dodge Journey; Third Place, 2012 Chevrolet Equinox Compact CUV: First Place, 2012 Toyota Rav4; Second Place, Kia Soul Full-Sized Luxury CUV: First Place, 2012 GMC Acadia Denali; Second Place, 2012 Mercedes-Benz R350 Blue TEC. Mid-Sized Luxury CUV: 2012 Cadillac SRX Premium.
Remember me and my story this Holiday Season. Buckle Up and Say No to Buzzed Driving !!!
We left for home Thanksgiving day in the twilight, filled with Grandma Cleo’s cooking, lots of hugs and our heads filled with family stories shared in laughter.
The drive on Palmdale Highway 138, a two land undivided road, was lined with cars coming and going like bumper cars. I always hated this part of the drive and kept checking my speed to stay at 55 MPH, which was not my normal routine driving practice.
After about ten minutes, feeling overly cautious, I looked over at my son in the front passenger seat and noticed his seatbelt was not fastened and sharply told him to “Put on your seatbelt, NOW!”, and glanced over my shoulder to make sure my other son was buckled up!”
Thirty seconds later a small car driven by a drunken women with five children, only one two year old in a restraint system, swerved from the oncoming traffic right in front of me. There was no way to avoid the accident. I slammed on my brakes to attempt to stop in time. Her oncoming speed and my oncoming speed were equal to at least 110 miles an hour. Not enough time to stop.
That moment of impact will be imbedded in my soul forever. Three of the five children were killed instantly. The woman driver killed her only daughter and two of her sister’s children. The driver (She) survived along with the two year old in the car seat and one other young boy cousin.
A bucket list item for my still very healthy and active parents, 85 and 88, was a senior road trip with the entire family to Lake Tahoe. Growing up we camped there many summers at Emerald Bay State Park and we all share so many fond memories of our fun family road trips and camping stories. We are all senior citizens now at 55+ so our camping days are over as a group so we stayed in a lovely timeshare condo called The Eagles Nest in South Lake Tahoe NV near Heavenly Valley.
I am the youngest of the four daughters, three of the four daughters were able to make the trip this year with my parents. I was deemed the "Tour Director" and did most of the coordination and planning of our routes, stops and hotels. Top on the list of preparations included a full service check-up on our vehicle and tires, a 2000 Toyota Avalon, prior to departure.
Thursday July 14th I drove to Palm Desert from the Los Angeles area to pick up my parents. Saturday July 16th we left Palm Desert and stopped to pick up my sis Carla half-way to Lake Tahoe in Northern California. Sis Linda and her family met us up there.
It took a whopping 48 hours to drive the mere 606 miles from Palm Desert CA to South Lake Tahoe NV, ( I thought we would never get there). Traveling with seniors has its challenges and many, (too many), pit stops! Patience and preparation is required for #SeniorRoadTrip's!
For fun and as an experiment, I decided to document our #SeniorRoadTrip by checking in on Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook and share the entire travelogue including photo's with my friends, family, fans and followers. My 88 year old Dad 88 is addicted to Facebook by the way!
Here is the entire Foursquare travelogue and some pictorial highlights of my 2011 #SeniorRoadTrip, hope you enjoy!
Last month I went on the CARQUEST 2011 Caribbean Cruise with roommate Paula Lombard, president of AutoTex Pink. The cruise was called the "Incredible Journey", with stops in Belize, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and Isla Roatan. It was a rare opportunity to spend some quality time socializing with the over 600 Tech-Net shops represented from the US and Canada, as well as many CARQUEST executives and store owners.
This turned out to be a way fun Certified Female Friendly "car girl" trip with Paula Lombard as we explored the various island stops together with over 1400 CARQUEST attendees. The two full days at sea were filled with great shows, mucis, cocktail parties, spa treatments and lounging around the pool and eating! No lack of great food on a cruise.
Oh yes...we actually did do quite a business there too! Really enjoyed meeting the entire Certified Female Friendly® team from Active Green+ Ross at the CARQUEST Canadian Cocktail party. Met many Tech-Net shop owners over meals and at the scheduled events, what a great group of CARQUEST Top Shops!
With our second son on the way soon, I've been thinking about what our next vehicle should be. While we can fit two kids into my Accord, it's starting to show its age. And it really is too small for my six-foot-two husband -- we've just been making it work the best we can. I have liked all of the Hondas I've owned, so it was natural for me to turn my attention to their minivan. And it is the perfect year to do that -- Honda has redesigned the Odyssey for 2011. I was fortunate to attend a preview event in San Diego where I got some hands-on experience with the vehicle.
The first night of the 2011 Honda Odyssey preview event we got to see all of the different features of the vehicle. The interior design, exterior and all of the technological goodies. And while we were exploring the vehicles top-to-bottom, we got to chat with the experts -- the people who re-designed and worked on the new Odyssey. They showed us all of the little details that went into this new design.
Since I'm a huge tech geek, I had to go check out the technology in the new Odyssey. You want bells and whistles? It has them. Do you have two kids who want to watch two different things on those long road trips? The split-screen DVD player will let you play two movies. Or one DVD and a video game. Or just one widescreen movie. In the third row, it has chargers for your mp3 players. An HDMI hookup for your video camera or gaming system. I loved that the back controls for the DVD player pop out into a remote control, but there are no volume controls so your kids can't blast you out of the vehicle.
It's sometimes hard to know where to start when buying a car--especially for a first-time car buyer. Shadee Malekafzali of TrueCar.com is experiencing the car-buying process for the first time, and will be writing about her shopping experience along the way. TrueCar.com is sharing the series with AskPatty to provide its car-buyng information with our women readers. This is part one of an ongoing series, so please follow along with Shadee as she shops for her first new car.
With so many options available these days, shopping for a new car can become overwhelming. Luckily for me, my position at TrueCar gives me access to lots of insider information and advice that I will be able to share with AskPatty.com's woman readers, who might not otherwise have such guidance at their fingertips. So, if you're a first-time new-car buyer, I hope my experiences and insights while I navigate through buying my first car will help guide you through yours.
I've been driving for more than 10 years (not going to age myself, so that's all you get) but I've always had hand-me-downs. Growing up as the baby of the family with two older sisters, I suppose I've gotten somewhat accustomed to hand-me-downs, and to having people do things for me--but I'll save that last bit for a different article. Here's a little back story on the cars I've driven:
I got my first car when I was 16, she was a 1984 BMW 318i, stick shift and tomato red. I didn't really mind that it was my middle sister's car first, because everyone quickly forgot that she had it first, and that car became my trademark as I zipped around town in it with my friends. That was my coming-of-age car so to say, and lasted me through my first year in college, when it died on my way home for Thanksgiving in Gilroy, California, that garlic town. To this day, garlic reminds me of BMWs and BMWs remind me of garlic.
My second car was my Mom's first, then my dad's, then my middle sister's, then, lastly and most importantly, mine. My 1992 Honda Accord LX sedan didn't have that special factor that the flashy Beemer had, but it was a great car, with great acceleration and steering--and it never broke down. But it did get broken into a couple of times when I was living in San Francisco, so I passed it back to my middle sister (who needed a car again) and got myself a bus pass. Since I was living in San Francisco, I was trying to be more "green" in those days.
My local bus, the 9 San Bruno, was known as the smelliest bus in San Francisco, so when my oldest sister was getting rid of her 1996 Honda Civic Coupe, I jumped. That car was sporty, but the steering was really heavy, which I personally did not enjoy. That car lasted me until one sunny autumn day when it got smashed to bits and pieces when a tree in front of my parents' home fell on it. Then I moved to NYC and didn't need a car for four years.
I'm in Los Angeles now and a car is simply a must. Today I'm driving my dad's old Toyota Avalon, but I'm over the hand-me-downs; it's time for me to buy a car of my choosing, something that is fun to drive and has the flair of my first car, minus the yellow "check engine" light that was always on.
Stay tuned for another segment to appear soon...
by TrueCar Team member, Shadee Malekafzali
Shadee Malekafzali is a Writer/Editor for TrueCar, Inc. She enjoys comedy, theatre, fashion, travel, and goldfish (the children's snack). She does not enjoy squirrels, goats, sociopaths, adults with LGS/LBS (little girl/boy syndrome), or sitting next to unruly children on airplanes. Shadee is currently in the process of buying a car for the first time and is blogging about her experience along the way. You can reach her on Twitter @TrueCar ^SM.
Six decades after New York City businessman Max Hoffman sparked America's passion for Porsche's first streamlined and sporty cars in 1950, Porsche is celebrating its anniversary with a variety of activities aimed at the classic car and its enthusiast owners, all served up at www.Porsche60Years.com.
New is nice, but classic is fantastic: Have you got a fantastic classic? Porsche Cars North America (PCNA) is launching the My Classic Porsche Search to find the oldest Porsches in 12 distinctive model categories, as well as the very oldest Porsche of all. If you think you have a shot at earning the "oldest" designation for your car, simply enter it at My Classic Porsche Search Entries can be submitted for 12 model ranges, including the Porsche 356, 911, 912, 914, 924, 928, 944, 968, Boxster, Cayenne, Carrera GT, and Cayman. In addition, the search is on for the Grossvater of all Porsches on American soil: the oldest Porsche ever sold in the United States. Owners of Porsches "with papers" can review the participation guidelines and enter online until October 1 at My Classic Porsche Search. The oldest Porsches and their owners will receive special recognition and awards, including an exclusive badge from the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. Exhibition-quality images of select winning models will also be featured at the new "Sixty Years of Porsche in America" exhibit, opening October 12 at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. One vehicle may even be selected to be displayed in the Porsche exhibit at the upcoming 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show.
Another summer comes to an end as the Southern Michigan WOODWARD DREAM CRUISEbrings one more year of record crowds. For those of you who have gasoline in your veins and have a passion for the American classic automobile, this is LIVING THE DREAM as over 1 million people drive, walk, or stake out their spot to participate in and/or watch the greatest and largest Classic Vehicle event in the USA.
During the post-war era, people would "cruise" in their cars along Woodward Avenue , from drive-in to drive-in, often looking for peers or friends who were also out for a cruise, and perhaps find an opportunity to do a little street racing or at least a chance to "burn rubber" (or "light 'em up").
An air intake system is just one tiny piece of a giant engine puzzle, but it’s one of the most important. If your engine doesn’t get enough quality air, you might be taking the bus to work!
You've heard something about needing to install an aftermarket air intake system or kit, but you're probably thinking it will be too expensive, too time-consuming, too hard to install, or even too hard to find for your specific vehicle. On the other hand, you've also heard an air intake will, with proper care, help you save money on gas, make your car work more efficiently, give it more power, and make it last longer. Understanding and installing an air intake system might seem a bit overwhelming at first, but don't panic. Just start with the basics!
August 2, 2010 is the five year anniversary of my son’s car accident. He was driving his Toyota RAV4, lost control on a canyon road and went over the embankment tumbling down 350 feet to the bottom. He came to rest upside down, his 6 foot body cinched tight by the seat belt.
My son, 33 at the time, had been diagnosed with MS, and had been having some difficulty with the mobility of his hands and struggling with finding a good balance with the many medications he was taking. He should not have been driving that day.
The rescue workers said he was semi-conscious when they finally got to him, he had removed the seatbelt and fallen to the bottom of the roof. It required a helicopter; ropes and skilled rescuers to pull him safely out and rush him to the trauma center at Northridge Hospital near Los Angeles.
We were so fortunate someone saw him go over and called for help. I wish I could find and thank this momentary angel.
Miraculously, he had only one major devastating injury to his lower spinal cord, and only minor cuts and scraps everywhere, no stitches required! The doctors wanted to do surgery to repair his burst fracture on L1 and could not say what the outcome would be; his spinal cord was 75% involved and told us to prepare ourselves as he may be completely paralyzed. Only time would tell.
The surgery took place on the third day. An eight hour surgery to remove the broken pieces and repaired by placing a titanium cage and pins in place of the crushed disc.
After multiple rehabs due to several MS relapses, months in and out of the hospital and so much more that I cannot begin to list; my son is an incomplete paraplegic requiring use of a wheelchair for mobility about 95% of the time. He has learned to be as independent as his tenuous good heath will allow due to the ups and downs of his MS.
Wearing a seat belt saved his life, however, his entire life, our family and mine, was changed irrevocably in an instant. In fact everything has changed.
The pictures you see are the actual car my son was driving and what is looked like just after the accident. I have not looked at these pictures for almost two years. I could not go to the accident scene or retrieve his personal belongings. I could not bear it and needed to keep my emotional composure during the long days of learning how to care for my new son. Yes, my new son.
All of the hopes, dreams and aspirations of my son’s old life died that day, and a new son with new hopes, dreams and aspirations was born on August 2, 2005.
My new son shames me with his tremendous courage and spiritual strength when I feel sad or angry. My new son is gentler, kinder and more loving, spiritually connected to God and can laugh at himself more. My new son thinks of others always and even when he is in the hospital enduring yet another MS relapse. He is always reaching out to give hope to another patient less fortunate or who needs help learning the ropes in this new life. My new son has new interests, challenges and is adjusting to his new life one day at a time.
I don't miss the son that died much these days. My new son has brought so much more to my life. He has given me more passion to reach out and help others, to slow down once and awhile, talk more softly and notice the small but important gifts of each new day. He reminds me daily to educate people about safe driving, car seat safety and about those we carry in our vehicles - precious cargo - and to not forget that important fact. He reminds me not to use my cell phone, text message or otherwise be preoccupied when I am driving and to remind others as well. He helps me remember not to park in disabled parking zones, be conscious to others with disabilities.
As I write these words, my heart swells with pride and a smile curves across my face. He is truly a good person in the midst of his difficult and pain-filled circumstance. I would trade places with him in a nanosecond if I could. But the universe had other plans, and I am sure more will be revealed.
I want to give a heartfelt thanks to the MS Society, Wyngs.org, the staff at Northridge Hospital and the United Spinal Association for your continued support of my son’s second life.
Watch this video to learn more about my son’s story and about what he is doing to help others with MS and spinal cord injuries at Threus.org
This site, its contents and all related content, formats and documents are copyrighted property of AskPatty.com, Inc and are not to be reproduced or republished without the written consent of AskPatty.com, Inc.
Facebook
Flickr
LinkedIn
Social Pressroom
RSS Feed
Twitter
Youtube
Recent Comments