Life Styles with Nik J Miles: November 2014

Friday, November 28, 2014

New Cars & Concepts from Mini

New Cars & Concepts from Mini

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOf8USkNoaI

Mini has always tried to look forward and inspire, it’s part of their DNA and has been since the brand was conceived in 1959. The Mini Superleggera is a British sports car with Italian style and shows the potential behind the Mini brand. Mini still has not told us what will be powering this vehicle. It’s a mystery but it will be green, economic and sip fuel whether that be Electricity, Hydrogen, Gasoline, or a mixture of all three. But lets not get ahead of ourselves. This is a concept and Mini have not said if they will even build it.

What is not a concept and is being readied for market is a new car for Mini. Building on the success of the Mini two door this new Mini comes with two extra doors. Now Mini introduce a four-door version of their hardtop. Mini is looking to refine what is expected from the premium small car segment. With added cargo space the new Mini hardtop four-door maintains the dynamic character and Go-Kart handling of the two-door model while adding functionality and interior space. The new four-door hardtop will go on sale sometime in 2015.

New Cars & Concepts from Mini

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Black Friday Deals

Black Friday Deals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XayK69gLJBk

Just because it says it says Black Friday deal on the sticker on it doesn’t mean it’s a good deal, but good deals are out there. Dealers are trying to shift some 2013 and 2014 models, but I don’t recommend them since you can find some great deals on a 2015 year model. When you come to resell your vehicle those 2015 will have a much better resale value.

Also just because it is a Black Friday deal doesn’t necessarily make it a good car, truck, or SUV. What are the good deals this Black Friday? One of my top picks this Black Friday is the 2015 Ford Fusion. This stylish midsize family sedan handles extremely well in fact even better than some vehicles in it’s class that cost much more. Ford is offering savings of up to $2,963 on a 2015 Fusion and that deal will be in place until December 1st. Ford also offers a hybrid and a plug-in hybrid version of the Fusion which have outstanding fuel economy of up to 47 MPG.

Buick are offering almost $3,000 off the most luxurious 3rd row crossovers, the Enclave. It’ll tows up to 5,100 pounds but a notable downside is it gets just 15 miles a gallon in mixed driving on regular fuel. Buick are also offering discounts on their Regal, a sports sedan with the european feel. The Buick Regal is one of my top picks for this Black Friday cause you can get up to $1,500 off of it.

GMC are discounting the Arcadia by almost $3,000, But by far my best pick for Black Friday discounts is the Kia Optima. Built in Georgia it has a respectable 25 miles per gallon fuel economy overall. Great styling and is well equipped in the mid #30,000 range. For this holiday season Kia are offering $2,565 off of the MSRP but these deals are only available until December 1st.

Black Friday Deals

Monday, November 24, 2014

Will China save the luxury car market?

Luxury car makers are thanking China for a boost in sales. China is reporting monthly car sales of 1.5 million units this year equaling that of U.S. vehicle sales. This has pushed some car makers well into the black and is giving them much needed capital to develop new models for a world market.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss2BKsaoZNY

Luxury cars like Bentley are more common on the streets of China and what a difference a decade makes. It wasn’t too long ago when Chinese cities were filled with bicycles, but thanks to a booming economy the luxury car market is growing fast. China’s luxury segment is seen as the next biggest boom for car makers around the world. Some analysts predict that within the next seven years China will outgrow the American luxury market and be the world number one.

What does a growing car market in China mean for American consumers? More sales in China will push some companies who have been struggling like Lincoln into profitability. This will give them more capital to develop new and more advanced vehicles and meet the needs of an expanding market. The result is that over the next ten years we are going to see luxury models and more advanced vehicles available for sale. Because of the larger volume the price may come down for some models. Super luxury cars like Bentley and Rolls-Royce may become harder to find as companies can only build a certain amount per year.

Before the year 2000 Rolls-Royce was selling as few as 600 cars a year. Now with some new models they are expected to pass the 4000 sales mark next year and it is thanks in part to the new rich Chinese buyer. Bentley’s growth is almost 20% in 2014 to 7,786 cars up from 6,516 cars in the same period of 2013. It is thanks in part to cars like the Continental GT and the Flying Spur.

America still has dominance with luxury cars sales.

Will China save the luxury car market?

Sunday, November 23, 2014

TestMiles Radio Episode 47

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3GjqWjtWZc

TestMiles Radio is heard on 101.1 radio every Sunday at 10:00am PST

TestMiles Radio Episode 47

Friday, November 21, 2014

Did Motor Trend Get It Right?

Did Motor Trend get it right by picking the Volkswagen Golf as it’s car of the year?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9Mr9vnnEJg

The 7th generation of the Volkswagen Golf family is Motor Trend Magazine’s Car of the Year winner for 2014. This is yet another award for Volkswagen just adding to it’s trophy cabinet for the Golf. Motor Trend chose the Volkswagen Golf over a number of other vehicles including the much loved baby of the Honda family the Fit. It also beat out Audi’s A3, The Hyundai Genesis which is one of of my favorites, and the much anticipated 2015 Ford Mustang. Also passed over were the Maserati Ghibli, Mercedes-Benz C-Class, and the Lexus RC-F.

All these vehicles were strong contenders. Which left some industry reporters questioning did Motor Trend get it right?

The morning of the announcement Motor Trend spokes people were on hand to explain their choice and justify why they thought the Golf family was a good choice for their car of the year. It used to be the case that even being nominated for car of the year by an organization like Motor Trend was big sales numbers for the car maker. Last year the Mazda3 was one of the final 3 making it to the list of Car of the Year nominees. Even thought it had no chance of winning the nomination did not visibly dramatically boost sales of the car.

It seems like Americans are not as influenced by awards as they once were. The Volkswagen Golf has been hot in Europe on the sales scale, but buyers have been less impressed with it this year in the United States. It has only returned sales figures figures that puts it in the middle of the pack for buyers. It’s a solid car, with a 40 year heritage and definitely should be on the short list of test drives for car shoppers this year.

This Volkswagen Golf GTI has been on sale since spring and was joined by the other family members later in the year. The base Golf starts just under $18,000. The GTI Electric Golf and Diesel Golf will be joined by a new Golf R in early 2015. So Please go out and test drive on and tell us if Motor Trend got it right.