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Chevrolet scores a coup with last leading fuel economy that's not from a hybrid or diesel just the all new Equinox car crossover utility. Next stop on Motor Week. Doctoring the misfire this time on process. 0 to 60 in less than three seconds. I'm Stephen topic and this week we'll have some real fun on the road and Subaru celebrates 20 years of legacy in America. So come drive with us. The week TV's original automotive magazine brought to you by cars dot com let's say you're looking for a car. Cars dot com can help research locate even contact a dealer. Cars dodge. Your host for Motor Week. John Davis. Well own Welcome again to the motor wing. We're glad to have you with us. As the

new GM gears up it's clear that certain vehicles will be key to its success. The 2010 Chevrolet Equinox is the first such vehicle. Now this five passenger compact crossover utility returns with a stem to stern overhaul and a focus on higher fuel economy all to be a stronger competitor in a segment pioneered by the toilet a Rav 4 and the Honda CRV. So let's see if Equinox can lead the general's march back to success. With. The second generation 2010 Chevrolet Equinox is built on an updated data architecture shared with the upcoming GMC Terrain. Shorter than last year it's very attractive styling draws heavily from the larger traverse crossover that includes a front facia defined by a two tier bow tie

grille wrap around headlamps an available fog lights the sleek profile is accentuated by a thick forward leaning C pillar and the appearance of wraparound glass but its power trains with class Levy economy there really makes the equinox a stand out standard is it 2.4 leader eco tech IFOR with advanced direct fuel injection ratings or 182 horsepower. Almost as much as last year standard B6 172 pound feet of torque coupled to a six speed automatic and front wheel drive form. It boasts government fuel economy ratings of 22 City 32 highway on regular gas. The highway number beats all other compact crossovers including the ramp for the CRV and even the Ford Escape hybrid. All wheel drive drops the highway number to a still stellar 29. The transmission Zico mode alter shift points for best fuel economy. Interstate cruising range is a blander busting 600

miles. Functional is a direct injected 3 liter V-6 with 264 horsepower and two hundred twenty two pound feet of torn with a six speed and front drive. Fuel economy ratings are more normal 18 city 25 highway on regular. We spent our first outings in the equinox on the twisty roads west of Plymouth Michigan. The equinox 2.4 did exhibit a moderate strain under horrific celebration but it was no worse than other eye for compact crossovers. With a respectable 0 to 60 time of 8.7 seconds. This Big Four is more than able to haul a full load. However maximum trailer tow a 30 500 pounds requires the V-6. A stiffer chassis with wider front track AIDS the all independent suspended Equinox towards excellent road manners. Ride is well controlled easily conquering the broken and bumpy Michigan pavement. The cabin is unusually quiet too thanks to a low drag

coefficient and active noise cancellation. Equinox comes with this brakes with ABS and brake assist will start to assist stability and traction control. Further the active safety question. The interior of the equinox is even more head turning than the exteriors. Not at all utilitarian. It follows the twin cockpit theme of the Malibu and Camaro. The eye catching instrument panel features blue lighting and a floating center stack for a truly unique appeal within the segment two tone color schemes an excellent fit in finish provide an added dose of style. Seats have a more upscale look and feel too especially when dressed in perforated leather with red stitching on tilt telescoping steering wheel with Cruise controls is standard. The nominal six speaker CD stereo can be upgraded to an eight speaker Pioneer system on upper level trims. There's also a 40 gig hard drive and Bluetooth bailable as a rear view camera displayed in the rear view mirror. It really helps

overcome the otherwise restricted rear vision. The split folding rear bench seat now recline it retains for an AF adjustment a full 8 inches so leg room is also class best and to keep the kids occupied. There's an available twin screen rear DVD system. But with so much people space something had to give. It's thirty one point four cubic feet of cargo volume behind the back seat is less than CRV and Rav 4 where the rear seats folded that space expands to sixty three point seven but that's still below average for its class. But this isn't the first programmable power liftgate available for a small crossover. Besides full open they can be set for a lower opening to avoid contact with the garage ceiling. With so much to offer we were also surprised that Equinox has a lower price than last year. Starting at twenty three thousand one hundred eighty five dollars for the LS twenty four thousand one hundred five dollars for the LTD and twenty eight thousand seven hundred ninety

dollars for the upper level LTC all will drive at seventeen hundred fifty dollars more. With upscale styling and interior appointments class leading fuel efficiency and a good overall value. The new 2010 Chevrolet Equinox gives ramp for NCR be something new to aim for. As for doing its part for a new GM Well the equinox has all the marks of a winner. Our success story of the week comes from Kansas City Missouri. In 1996 Casey instituted a fleet wide alternative fuel program. Today more than 200 compressed natural gas cars trucks and vans fuel up at the city's central CNG station. Also there are eleven hundred diesels run primarily on the 20 and the 50 bio diesel. In June Kansas City received the first four of 19 diamond International trucks up fitted for CNG used to repair water main breaks.

They're some of the largest waves to run on CNG work out of proud of the fact that these trucks cleanest trucks you can buy on the planet that do what they do. We're going to be operating right here in our neighborhoods. And they all fuel program extends to the Kansas City International Airport where 35 shuttle buses also run on CNG all to make AC cleaner and less dependent on the oil. Time now to stop by Goss's garage Let's see if Pat's timely Karkare advice is running hot or cold. John if something's wrong with your health you go to the doctor and the doctor runs a series of tests to find out what's wrong. One of the first things they do is to take your temperature because that's a good indicator of what's going on. Then they listen. They listen to your heart and your lungs and so on to see if there's any

problems there. Now that also applies to your automobile. Suppose you have a problem with the car. It has a misfire. Check engine lights on maybe the check engine lights flashing. One thing's for sure the car's sitting there and it's real rough at idle. So if you have exotic test equipment like this snap on tool well fine hook it up you can do the diagnostic work and so on but not all of us are going to be lucky enough to have something like this. So how do you go about doing it yourself. Well first thing you do is you listen. You go back to the tailpipe and you listen for a missing sound instead of a gentle purr than an engine normally makes it the tailpipe. You're going to Hanover I'm going to be able to hear the missing sound. All right. Once you've done then then you come up here and you use your own form of

therm ometer. This is a digital infrared thermometer. Now the engine is running. Fully warmed up these having a laser pointer on him and you point the laser at each one of the runners of the exhaust manifolds one at a time. It's a four cylinder engine you go down the line you do all four of the six cylinder engine do all six and eight. The fourth through all eight. Now as you shoot each one of these what you're going to see on the back of it is the temperature reading of that particular exhaust runner. You're looking for the one that is significantly colder then the others misfire means that cylinder isn't firing. So there's no heat being generated so the manifold is going to be colder beside the cylinder that is misfiring. Pretty clever very easy to do because you can do this in a matter of a couple of

minutes or even hooking up the scanner is going to take three or four times as long. These are very inexpensive depending where you buy them. They'll range anywhere from about $20 up to 80 bucks so it's a very valuable tool to have around the house and around the car. And if you have a question or comment write to me the address is Motor Week Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. Great Britain is famous for its cottage industry car makers and the delectable machines they've produced. I think Morgan AC Jensen Lotus and you get the drift. Well one of their latest efforts to make enthusiastic rule is the super fast aerial and home. And although any of our staff would have loved this live behind the wheel of his bare bones bullet only our Stephen Chapnick was prepared to go over the edge. We all like to drive.

Fast cars. But this one is one of the most unique vehicles you'll ever take out on the road. No doors no roof no problem. It's all about a need for speed with the aerial atom free. Originally developed as a student project at England's coming tree University. A lot has changed since the original 1906 aerial atom and 2004's aerial atom two with a bigger engine. The third generation atom is now assembled in the United States under the license by truck motor sports. This car is now been made to a global standard the same as the aerial UK. Young a track set up shop in a new 16000 square foot facility in Danville Virginia at the Virginia International Raceway. The building of the IRA is both a factory and parts warehouse and they need all that space they can get to put together this open wheel road warrior and now. A super charged 300 horsepower Honda four cylinder short throw six speed transmission packages under fourteen hundred pounds and it's fast. I

mean drag bike fast try zero to 60 in less than three seconds. The atom can also take you from zero to 100 and back to zero in just over 10 seconds. It's the closest thing you're going to get all racecar are custom built. The atom starts from simple metal tubes for the exposed frame and goes through one heck of a bend machine. There is. More. Work. Than that. From coal to farmers to wrongs everything gets welded down. All the way up. Yeah. It's really going to be. Right so we saw on the other side the chassis being made that's a main part of the car really on this one here you can see it's orange so it's really custom color really stands out. But there's more to it than just the chassis. There's the light assemblies there's a composite body panels the engine of course in the back and the suspension. So it all needs to be assembled ahead of time and before it heads to the other side of the room. The guy said not to inspect the sides of fabrication side there's a subassembly side to guide

the shop and argue sample this which is an upper and lower a arm which you can see on this car's right here. So these are also hand fabricated and then they have to put the rod ends in my hand fabricate the upright and then install the braking system being the headquarter next of the arch three mile road course allows for some. False test. This is an ideal facility for as obviously things are completely surrounded by motor sports seven days a week you know 365 days a year. And it also gives us a great venue to go out and do testing and development customer initiation for and new car deliveries of Sutter so. They're. Missing. So. You. Want to. Go to the road. The manners. Of the. Earth are very much in contact with every part of the car there are no driver aids no traction control no abs just you and the car you feel you feel every nuance of the pavement. The air letter is sold as an all for vehicle.

But in some states it can be licensed as a street legal motorcycle and that's where the item is an open air farm from every end. The aerial atom freeze zooms out the door for $65000 plus options. Totally worth it for the thrill seeker in all. Their item 3 is probably the most exciting super car available right now. It's lightweight it's got a lot of horsepower and it's just a lot of fun to drive. There's nothing but smooth sailing with the aerial atom free and once you get going you don't ever want to stop. It's only been a few weeks since we took delivery of this molten red key a sole compact crossover and already this trendy little box has become a staff favorite. Maybe that popularity is due to its too cute styling. Or maybe it's the cutting edge interior or perhaps it's versatile people in cargo holding abilities or that ABS stability and traction control are standard or even are sports

flexible cheerleader 142 horsepower engine. Or maybe it's all of the above. Whatever the reasons more than ever we think the soul is a big wind perky up and will go a long way in improving public perception of this Korean brand. We've had no problems or issues to report as of yet but this test is young so will check back in soon to see if the soul continues to shine. Like so many American families we find it's great to have a pickup truck available for those weekend play and homework times when nothing else will do. And when it's a sensible size pick up like our 2009 Suzuki equator is even more so. Our sport four by four extended cab six foot one inch cargo box is big enough for everything from a load of mulch to an ATV. Off road we find a long travel suspension really soaks up bumps well but the ride on road is pure truck stiff and sometimes noisy. Fuel economy for the Nissan 261 horsepower for liter

V-6 is actually improving a little at seventeen point nine miles per gallon of regular. While a midsize pickup may not be to everyone's taste they do have their place and this is Suki equator is one fine choice. We choose the Honda Fit and Nissan. Q For our next motor week long term road test update. Now let's see what Jessica choccy has in store with this week's Motor News. Without a doubt the biggest shot in the arm for the auto industry in America this year was the government's program Cash for Clunkers. We watch the unexpected rush of buyers the snarling dealer paperwork and the depletion of inventories. But now that it's over was the program really a success. Officially named cars the Car Allowance Rebate System the program had two goals stimulate new car sales and replace older gas guzzlers with higher fuel economy choices. Consumers were given a tax free thirty five hundred forty five hundred dollar allowance toward the purchase of a new car with a trade in of a

clunker which then has its engine permanently disabled and is either crushed or broken up for parts. The program began July 24th with an initial backing of one billion dollars. But those funds were quickly exhausted prompting Congress to add another 2 billion dollars. The program stopped August 24th when that money ran out. Still months shy of the original November and date clearly the program was wildly successful for consumers and some manufacturers but for dealers most still waiting to be reimbursed by the government. This remains to be seen. The scrappage program did result in nearly 700000 new car and truck sales with rebate requests of almost 2.9 billion at the deadline. Some 1.3 million new cars and trucks were sold in August with an annual pace of thirteen point seven million. The program ended a 21 month slide in sales among domestics. Ford was the big winner and we saw the year's first month over month sales gains at Toyota and Honda even makers like GM and

Nissan that were still down had their best month of the year. The toilet a Corolla was the top seller followed by the Honda Civic. Most of the top 10 were Asian brand models. But Ford's focus and the state led domestic choices of the top trade ins Ford Explorer four by four was number one and the two will drive Ford F-150 pickup with number two all of the top 10 were domestic models. So Cash for Clunkers met both its goals while critics predict sales will fall back in September. It will take several months to see if the program really did turn the market. The bottom line for Cash for Clunkers is that consumers were given a chance to make a better choice for fuel economy a choice that impacts everyone and they took it and that's it for this week's Modern news. Subaru's all wheel drive cars and utilities have always seemed a little out of the mainstream but that's changing with the newest Forester nwr X powering positive sales growth while rivals continue to battle recession. Well

now comes the most mainstream car Subaru has ever made. The new legacy celebrating 20 years in America the legacy is all grown up. So let's see if it's ready to be a real player. Subaru is very realistic about the all new 2010 legacy midsize sedan rather than challenge stalwarts Camry and Accord in volume. They want to provide their very passionate owners and hopefully a few of their neighbors Ford or they keep them in the family without compromising interior room or performance. The 108 point three inch wheelbase is up three point two inches but larger body dimensions in all directions. It now takes up nearly the same pavement as its rivals. But Subaru designers have always excelled in packaging and the interior is actually larger than the Camry.

Indeed legacies rear leg room grows a full four inches over last year. And it's not just bigger in size it's decidedly more upscale the wider use of dissimilar shapes and metallic finishes adds distinction as does a standard electronic parking brake with Holder segment first and as a sign of the times the easy to scan instrument cluster includes a gauge for monitoring fuel economy seats are nicely contoured and easily the most comfortable in any Subaru yet our test 2.5 GTI had a leather trim 10 weight power adjusters for the driver as well a seat he tilt telescoping steering wheel is now standard. The spacious rear seat has a center our breast with cup holders. It also split 60:40 and folds to expand the fourteen point seven cubic foot trunk. Again one of the largest in its class. At first glance the legacy's new exterior shape seems pretty generic and

maybe that's the right comfort zone to attract the Camry and Accord buyers. But then you notice the exaggerated wheel arches and side sill extensions the oversized wing grille and Hawkeye headlights so clearly you do know what car this is exclusive to are turbo charged 2.5 g t is a functional hood and 89 Chalo is what performance rubber which really gave our legacy a bit of a poser stance. Like all Subarus Boxer engines reside under the hood standard is a revised 2.5 liter four cylinder outputting 170 horsepower and 170 pound feet of torque. It pears to either a six speed manual or Subarus first CVT automatic since the tiny juste back in the 80s are sporty is 2.5 g t's turbo intercooler age or similar to the one used in the w r x rated 265 horsepower and 250 8 pound feet of torque.

My six speed manual is the only transmission. Here's something on a manual gear indicator in the multifunction display. The three point six car model adds the tripe that goes 3.6 leader 8 6. It's since 256 sources in 240 £7 feet through a 5 speed automatic. With standard on. Will drive traction and despite its 30 440 pounds we recorded a quick 0 to 60 a five point nine seconds and Quarter Mile End fourteen point two seconds at 104 mph. Turbo lag is minimal. With a strong mid-range chips however still rigid and the clutch fade. With an all new platform comes an all new rear double wishbone suspension replacing the former multi leaf newly standard is electronic stability and traction control. Our legacy 2.5 also surprised us in handling with Quicken for size turn ins steering us political feedback even lesser trends exhibited more handling prowess think Camry with the Accord

the closer rival here. But none of it is able to track performance gets in the way of everyday driving comfort trims delivered a pleasant and smooth ride. But it could be quieter. Government fuel economy ratings for our legacy 2.5 GTI are 18 city 25 highway on premium gas. All non turbo models use regular. We achieve twenty four point three mpg in real world driving. The energy impact score is sixteen point three barrels of oil consumed per year and its carbon footprint measures a moderate eight point seven annual tonnes of CO2 price while the 2010 legacy begins at twenty thousand six hundred sixty dollars for the base 2.5 on the three point six are starts at twenty five thousand six hundred sixty dollars. Our 2.5 g t carries a base sticker of twenty eight thousand six hundred sixty dollars. The 2010 Subaru Legacy is now definitely a

mainstream mid-sized sedan. The gains in packaging and performance did not compromise the brand's unique owner friendly character. For anyone shopping for a satisfying family for Dor the legacy should be on their short list. It just might make you fall in love with Subaru too. Hope you'll join us here next week for our voter we board or of course the sedan the long awaited Panamera. That's our real road solution with the three cube approach. I'm John David. Well. To learn more about the week television's original automotive magazine visit PBS dot org. To order a DVD of this program call 1 800 873 6 1 5 4. Motor Week has been brought to you by cars dot com. Let's say you're looking for a car. Cars dot com can help research

locate even contact a dealer cause. This program was produced by Maryland Public Television which is soley responsible for its content. We are PBS.