Archive for the ‘2009’ Category

A few times each week, TheCarConnection reaches into our mail bag to answer car questions and offer advice our readers can't find anywhere else. Today's question comes to us from North Carolina, from a reader who wants to know if he can get his babies on board in the new big Bimmer:

I enjoyed your review of the 2009 BMW 7-Series.  I have three small children, all in booster seats--will three booster seats fit in the back seat of the 7-Series?

We contacted BMW's public-relations department for a final word. According to them, it seems that three boosters should fit in the back of the new 7-Series without a problem.  BMW USA's safety director...

The low-riding, mean-looking, top-of-the-line Chrysler 300C SRT8 feels like a mature high-performance luxury sedan—big 6.1-liter V-8 under the hood; rich-sounding audio system inside, backed up when you need it by a punchy Kicker sub in the trunk; and classy, supple black leather seats with grippy, ventilated suede inserts.

Seems about the most refined and adult you can get without a walnut-trimmed drinks cabinet, cigar case, and Jeeves, right?

How about [drum roll] satellite TV entertainment?

Just when it seemed to good to be true, it was. You see, all that would tune in inside this sophisticated, high-performance, very adult sedan...

We hardly need mention that The Lost Symbol, the long-awaited sequel to The Da Vinci Code, is now out and available at millions of bookstores and online for your reading pleasure.

We do feel compelled to point out, though, that Dan Brown doesn't know much about cars. Or at least about Smart cars. Specifically, the Smart ForTwo two-seat city car, launched in the States for 2008 but available in Europe since 1998. In chapter 32 of The Da Vinci Code, Brown writes:

The vehicle was easily the smallest car Langdon had ever seen. "SmartCar," she said. "A hundred kilometers to the liter."

Yes, well, where to begin? The proper name of the car is the ...