Archive for the ‘Pontiac’ Category

You thought you got a great deal on a nearly new vehicle that was used as a company car. Yet weeks or months later, you find out that it doesn’t actually have the side bags on board.

With any luck, you’ll find that out before serious accident or injury, or before signing on the dotted line in the first place.

This could happen to you if you’re not careful. If you look at a late-model used car that was formerly in a rental fleet, there’s a chance that it won’t have side airbags—even if it’s a model for which side or side-curtain bags were listed as standard equipment.

Last month, rental giant Enterprise Rent-A-Car admitted that it had...

A couple of months ago, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety conducted fender-bender tests on a handful of minicars and subcompacts. The results weren't encouraging, with most scoring poorly, and only a few landing in the "acceptable" range. Now, the IIHS has conducted a second battery of tests -- this time on midsize sedans -- and unfortunately, the majority of those underperformed expectations, too.

Models tested included the 2009 Honda Accord, the 2009 Hyundai Sonata, the 2009 Mazda 6, and 2009 Nissan Maxima. According to the IIHS, each of those models showed improvement over its 2007 version, but none earned a rating of "good",...

Want American-made and fuel-efficient? A small car, too? You don't have many choices.

Shoppers are valuing fuel efficiency more than before, especially now that they might be able to take advantage of a $4,500 Cash-for-Clunkers incentive. While there are plenty of stars-and-stripes-waving larger vehicles, the list of smaller, frugal American-made cars is very limited.

And at a time when you're likely wondering how you can do your part to support the economy—whether locally or nationally—chances are the dealership salesperson will be of little help to some nagging shopping questions like "Where is this car built?"

Luckily, you'll find...