On the Move

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ON-THE-MOVETALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT » MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2012

PARIS — Its predecessor isamong the most beautifulsports cars ever made — andnow Jaguar showed it was try-ing to go onebetter than the glo-ry days of the 1960s with thenew F-Type.

The Indian auto companyTa-

ta bought Jaguar Land Roverfor $2.3 billion in 2008, bettingthat it could revive two venera-bleBritishbrandsthathadlostabit of luster over the decades.The new F-Type, the first Jag-uar two-seater inahalf-century,is the first major Jaguar designshepherded through by the newowners.

Tata has been a hands-off

owner for Jaguar, largely let-ting its British team make themajor decisions on the car. AtWednesday’sunveiling,Tataex-ecutives were in the crowd, butit was the Jaguar design chief,Ian Callum, who took centerstage.

And the designers looked tothe past — and the famed E-Type, beloved by aficionados

everywhere — to inspire whatthey hope will be the automak-er’s future.

“It’s just a tremendous chal-lenge today to produce a beauti-ful car that meets all the worldregulations,” said Philip Porter,a Jaguarhistorianwhohaswrit-ten a book about the E-Type. Hehasn’tdriventheF-Typeyet,butlikeswhathe’s seensofar. “It’sa

combination like the great Jag-uars of the past of sculpturalstyling, great engineering andsuperb performance.”

The car goes on sale in April2013.TheV-6 starts at $69,000 inthe United States; the V-8 startsat $92,000.

New Jaguar F-Type looks to glory daysBy Lori HinnantAssociated Press

See JAGUAR » 3D

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2 » MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2012 » TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT » ONTHEMOVE

ONTHEMOVE » TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT » MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2012 » 3

TRENDS TRENDS

The key fob can now lock the Ram boxes on the 2013 Laramie Longhorn.PORSCHE

USA TODAY

Two models join 911 lineup

Laramie Longhorn even fancierKICKINGTIRES.NET

For the 2013 model year, the sev-enth-generation Porsche 911 Car-

rera gets a new all-wheel-drive systemand two new models — the Carrera 4and Carrera 4 S.

The Porsche 911 Carrera4 gets an updated versionof Porsche’s all-wheel-drivesystem, called Porsche Trac-tion Management.

Besides that, the rest of themechanical upgrades are thesame as the ones found on the 2012rear-wheel-drive Carrera. That meansit benefits from the longer wheelbase,lightweight aluminum-steel body, new

flat-six engine, seven-speed manualtransmission and the electromechani-cal steering (which we thought waswell-executed).

With the addition of the Carrera 4,Porsche is making adaptivecruise control and a collisionwarning system available onall 911 models.

The 2013 Porsche Carrera4 will be priced at $91,030for the coupe and $102,930for the convertible.

The Carrera 4 S will start at$105,630 and $117,530, respectively.

The 2013 Porsche Carrera serieswill go on sale early in 2013.

The 911 Carrera 4 features Porsche Traction Management for the 2013 model year.

Go to Cars.com forreviews and advice, andwww.kickingtires.net for

news and updates.

READ MORE AT

By CHRIS WOODYARDUSA TODAY

Ram’s plushest pickup, the 2013Laramie Longhorn edition, has

gotten a handy touch that will makelife with it even easier. Now, the keyfob also can be used to lock or unlockthe big pickup’s “Ram boxes,” thosetwin boxes on either side of the bed thathave become a signature of the brand.

With the key fob, now you can lockthe rear boxes at the same time thatyou’re locking the truck.

The Longhorn also now has anpneumatic lifter that lets die-hard

pickup drivers choose how much rideheight they would like — more forrough roads, less when backing up tohitch up a trailer.

For about $50,000, Ram has madethe ’Horn as Texas-styled as possible,from the belt buckle-type badge onthe sides to saddlebag leather to thebarbed-wire motif in the floor mats.

The driver gets a few nice touches,too, like a shifter that moves to thedash as a knob.

The Larame Limited trim is avail-able on the 1500 as well as the 2500and other heavy-duty models.

Under the hood

There are two super-charged engines: A 3-litersix cylinder with 340horsepower for the nor-malF-type, and380horse-power for the S; there’salso a 5-liter V8 with 495horsepower. Jaguar saysthe 0-60 time is 5.1 sec-onds for the normal F-

type; 4.8 seconds for the Sand 4.2 for the V8.

Outside

The body is aluminumand evokes the E-Type indetails such as the centerhood bulge, the line of thebody and the rear flare.

Inside

The lines are clean onthe inside, pared downconsiderably from manynewer cars. Rather than

now commonplace touchcontrols for everything,the heating and ventila-tion are old-fashioned.

Open question

It remains to be seenwhether potential buyerslooking at the Porsche 911or the Mercedes-Benz SLwill see the F-Type as areal alternative. Fiftyyears isa long time towaitbetween models, andmemories of the good olddays have faded.

Continued » 1D

Jaguar

Jaguar’s newly unveiled F-Type sports car evokes the company’s revered E-Type sports carof the 1960s. PR NEWSWIRE


COMPARISON

KIA

Crossovers seat up to seven

■ Standard four-cylinder engine; optional V-6; FWD or AWD;optional 8.4-inch touch-screen entertainment system. For 2013,17-inch wheels are newly standard while the uplevel Crew gainspremium leather, a heated steering wheel and heated frontseats. The R/T model gains a performance suspension.■ City: 16 to 19 mpg; Highway: 24 to 26 mpg

■ With its crosshair grille, lower bumper styling and flared fend-ers, the Dodge Journey has an aggressive-looking front end.The R/T trim level has a monochromatic exterior appearanceand 19-inch aluminum wheels. Nineteen-inch aluminum rimsoptional; standard power heated side mirrors; optional roof rails,LED taillights, front fog lights and power sunroof.

■ All Journey trim levels have a touch-screen stereo, but theoptional Uconnect Touch 8.4 system has a large 8.4-inch touch-screen interface for functions like air conditioning and audio, andit can incorporate a Garmin-based navigation system. Standardfabric-covered seats; leather-trimmed seats optional; optionalheated front seats; standard manual air conditioning; auto-matic air conditioning optional; standard tilt/telescoping steer-ing wheel with audio controls; standard second-row floor binsand illuminated cupholders; standard CD stereo with 4.3-inchtouch-screen, MP3 jack and USB port; optional Infinity premiumstereo; optional built-in second-row booster seats.

■ Standard antilock brakes; standard side-impact airbags forthe front seats; standard side curtain airbags; standard driver’sknee airbag; standard stability system with electronic roll mitiga-tion and trailer-sway control; standard front active head re-straints; optional rear parking sensors; optional backup camera.

■ Four-cylinder or V-6; car-based construction; FWD or AWD.Trim levels include the LX, EX and SX. The 2013 model yearbrings leather seats for the EX trim and a third-row seat for theV-6-powered LX model. A new LX Convenience Plus Packagefeatures an eight-way power-adjustable driver’s seat.

■ City: 18 to 22 mpg; Highway: 24 to 32 mpg

■ The Sorento’s creased lines and Acura-like headlights have aclear resemblance up front to the Forte and Optima sedans. Ex-terior features include: 17-inch wheels standard; 18-inch wheelsoptional; available fog lights and rear spoiler; available roof rails;available panoramic sunroof; available LED taillights and power-folding side mirrors.

■ The Sorento’s dashboard houses each gauge within a sepa-rate portal and places major stereo and climate controls on anelevated central dashboard section. The second row folds flatinto the floor; so does the optional third row. Interior featuresinclude: air conditioning; available dual-zone automatic climatecontrol; steering-wheel-mounted audio controls; CD stereo withUSB/iPod compatibility and satellite radio; Bluetooth connectiv-ity; available Uvo multimedia system; available Infinity premiumstereo; available navigation system.

■ Safety features include: antilock brakes; traction control;electronic stability system; hill descent control; front-seat side-impact airbags and active head restraints; side curtain airbagsfor first and second rows of seats; available backup camera.

Available infive- or seven-

seat configura-tions, the DodgeJourney is offeredwith front- orall-wheel drive.The Kia Sorentocrossover seatsup to seven inthree rows. It com-petes roughly withsmaller cross-overs that alsooffer a third row,like the Journey.

2013 Dodge JourneyStarting MSRP: $18,995 to $30,795

New or notable

Safety

Exterior

Interior

Fuel economy

2013 Kia SorentoStarting MSRP: $23,150 to $33,400

CHRYSLER


KICKINGTIRES.NET

The new 2013 Ford Fusion Hybridhas a 47/47/47 mpg city/highway/

combined rating from the EPA underits more stringent five-cycle testingmethodology.

The Fusion SE Hybridstarts at $27,995, includingdestination.

The mileage is a big im-provement over the 2012Fusion Hybrid, which gets41/36/39 mpg.

All Fusion Hybrids come equippedwith a 141-horsepower, 2.0-liter inline-four-cylinder and a 118-hp electricmotor/generator mated to a continu-ously variable automatic transmission.

There’s a regenerative braking systemand a high-voltage lithium-ion batteryfor power storage.

The hybrid system can travel onelectric-only power at speeds up to 62

mph.The Fusion SE Hybrid

also comes equipped withleather upholstery, heatedfront seats, dual-zone auto-matic climate control, Sync,MyFord Touch, a 10-waypower driver’s seat and 17-

inch alloy wheels.A leather-wrapped steering wheel

and shifter, 18-inch alloy wheels, anavigation system, moonroof andadaptive cruise control are optional.

TRENDS TRENDS

The new 2013 Cadillac XTS was tested by GM for its long-term reliability.FORD MOTOR CO. GM

Fusion Hybrid gets 47 mpg

GM focuses on car reliabilityThe 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid can achieve up to 62 mph on electric-only power.

Go to Cars.com forreviews and advice, andwww.kickingtires.net for

news and updates.

READ MORE AT

By MARK PHELANDETROIT FREE PRESS

GM will put mega-miles on all itsnew vehicles to test long-term

reliability before production starts.“There’s a new emphasis on

long-term reliability,” Alicia Boler-Davis, GM vice president of qual-ity and customer experience, said.“We’re building a high-mileage ...fleet of 20 vehicles of each new carwe make.”

The new 2013 Cadillac XTS lux-ury sedan was the first vehicle de-

veloped this way. GM accumulatedmore than 1.5 million miles runningthe test vehicles around the clock.

“We’re starting this program veryearly in the development process sowe have a good understanding” ofpotential problems long before pro-duction begins, Boler-Davis said.

It’s part of a new plan to addresscomplaints from influential outsidevoices like Consumer Reports andJ.D. Power.

“We win when the customer tellsus we win,” Boler-Davis said.

DETROIT—FordMotorCo.hasampedupitsambi-tions for the all-new 2013Fusion hybrid power-trains.

Consumers looking at

thenewmidsizesedancanchoose from five power-trains, but the Dearborn,Mich.-based automakerexpectsat least15percentof them to drive off withthe gas-electric hybrid orEnergi plug-in models.

That is a big leap. Hy-

brids accounted for 3.9percent of Fusion salesthrough August and were4.5 percent of 2011 sedansales.

If Fusion’s 2013 salesare 300,000, then the hy-brid/plug-in target wouldbe 45,000, or more than

twice the Fusion hybrid’sprevious best year of20,816 in 2010, accordingto HybridCars.com. AndFord expects that 25 per-cent of those will be theEnergi plug-in thatwill go

Ford has bold expectationsfor new 2013 Fusion hybrids

See FUSION » 6D

By Alisa PriddleDetroit Free Press

The 2013 Ford Fusion is introduced during the NorthAmerican International Auto Show on Jan. 9 in Detroit. AP


into production in De-cemberforsale inFebru-ary, said SamanthaHoyt,Fusion marketing man-ager.

New pricingstrategy

Upward trending gasprices, a slew of new

competing hybrids andthe Fusion’s bold exteri-or styling should help. Soshould a pricing strategythat makes the hybridversion only slightlymore expensive thansomegas-engine options.

The1.6-liter EcoBoostengine with a start-stopsystem that shuts the caroff when stopped ispriced at $26,380, with acombined fuel-economyratingof29milespergal-lon. For $1,615 more, a

buyer can get the full hy-brid and 47 mpg.

The outgoing Fusionhybrid was as much as$8,000more than its basegas-engine counterpart.

Raj Nair, head of Fordglobal product develop-ment, said the strategy isto offer the $295 start-stop system for 3.5 per-cent better fuel economyor go straight to full hy-brid.

Continued » 5D

Fusion

DETROIT — GeneralMotors rolled out theChevrolet Volt two yearsago with lofty sales goalsand the promise of a newtechnology that somedaywould help end America’sdependence on oil.

So it seemedlikeagoodthing in August whensalesof the$40,000car setamonthly record of 2,800.But a closer look showsthat things aren’t whatthey seem for the cutting-edge car.

Sales rose mostly be-cause of discounts of al-most $10,000, or 25 per-cent of the Volt’s stickerprice, according to fig-ures from TrueCar.com,an auto pricing website.Other pricing servicesgave similar numbers,and dealers confirmedthat steeply discountedVolts are selling betterthan a fewmonths ago.

GM’s discounts on theVolt are more than fourtimes the industry’s per-vehicle average, accord-ing to TrueCar estimates.Edmunds.com and J.D.Power and Associates saythey’re about three timesthe average.Discounts in-clude low-interest financ-ing, cashdiscounts tobuy-ers, sales bonuses to deal-ers, andsubsidized leases.

Americans have beenslow to embrace electriccars. But the Volt’s Au-gust sales show they’rewilling tobuy if prices arelowenough. Even so, elec-trics havea longway togobefore they enter themainstream and makemoney for car companies.Electrics and gas-electrichybrids account for 3.5percent of U.S. auto salesthis year. GM is losingthousands of dollars onevery Volt, raising thequestionofhowlong itcankeep eating the steep

losses.For the foreseeable fu-

ture, carmakers will haveto cut prices tomove elec-tric vehicles off dealerlots.ThenonpartisanCon-gressional Budget Officesays the cost of electriccarsmust drop to be com-petitive with gasoline-powered ones.

GM executives haveconceded from the startthat they were losingmoney on the Volt, andthat was before the bigdiscounts.

Now the losses couldbe even higher. It costs$60,000 to $75,000 to builda Volt, including develop-ment, manufacturing andraw materials, estimatesSandy Munro, presidentof Munro & Associates, aTroy, Mich., a companythat analyzes vehicle pro-duction expenses forautomakers. Much of thecost comes from an ex-pensive combination oftwo power systems —electric and gasoline.With a sticker price of$40,000,minus the $10,000the company pays in in-centives, GM gets rough-ly $30,000 for every Volt.So it could be losing atleast $30,000 per car.

“It certainly wasn’t arousing success,” CarterDriscoll, senior analystfor CapStone Invest-

ments who follows elec-tric cars, says of the Volt.

GM confirmed thereare incentives on the Voltand that the company los-es money on the car. Butthe automakerdeclined togive figures for the dis-counts or the losses. Thefigures exclude a federaltax credit that goes tobuyers.

The automaker saysMunro’s estimate is highbecause it doesn’t spreadtheVolt’s costs far enoughinto the future, whenmore Volts will be sold.Automakers typicallyspend$1billion ormore todevelop a car, and some-times don’t recoup the in-vestment and start mak-ing money until late in itslife. Also, Volt technologywill be used in future carsand trucks, eventuallyleading to profits, thecompany says.

GM spokesman JimCain saysmost of the Voltdiscounts come in theformof lease deals,whichaccount for about two-thirds of sales. In somemarkets, Volts can beleased for $249 permonthwith $2,400 down.

“We’re trying to createa market for a brand-newtechnology,” Cain says.

GM offers discountsto boost Volt salesBy Tom KrisherAssociated Press

Sales of the Chevrolet Volt set a monthly record of 2,800 inAugust, mostly because of steep discounts. AP


REVIEW REVIEW

The 2013 Ford Taurus trunk handled bike trip gear for three adults and a toddler.

FORD MOTOR CO.

Taurus boasts immense trunkBy JENNIFER GEIGERKICKINGTIRES.NET

SUVs and vans are the only way togo when packing for a long trip full

of gear, right? Think again. Some se-dans have really large trunks, and the2013 Ford Taurus’ has room to spare.

I put it to the test during a long week-end full of biking gear, and it passed —and then some. It’s got 20.1 cubic feetof trunk space. It’s one of the largesttrunks on the market. And all the stuffwe fit into it speaks volumes.

Three adults and a toddler on a three-day bike trip require a lot of gear. TheTaurus managed to swallow all of it:

three backpacks, one large cardboardbox filled with 25 water bottles, twoduffle bags, several grocery bags,three bike helmets, three bike bags,two camping chairs, one toddler bikeseat, one inflatable bedroll, one sleep-ing bag and three pillows.

To be fair, at 202.9 inches long —the same as a Honda Odyssey minivan— it’s got a few inches of length onits competitors, but it eclipses them intrunk space by quite a bit.

No, we didn’t put the kitchen sinkin there, but we managed to squeezein a tiny set of mounted antlers — asouvenir from the trip.

VOLVO

We use a GracoSnugRide 30

rear-facing infant-safety seat, a BritaxRoundabout convert-ible child-safety seatand a Graco high-back TurboBoosterseat. The front seatsare adjusted for a6-foot driver and a5-foot-8 passenger.In the second row,the booster seat isbehind the driver’sseat, and the infantand convertibleseats are behind thepassenger seat.

Cars.com Family Car Seat Check

2013 Volvo S60

CARS.COM FAMILY

Latch system: There are two sets of Latch anchors inthe outboard seats. The seat cushions easily part and theanchors aren’t inset too deeply, so using them was easy.Booster seat: The backseat is slightly bolstered. The

booster seat had enough roomand was held snuggly in place bythe bolstered seat.Convertible seat: The forward-facing seat had plenty of room.In the rear-facing position, thecar seat needed a bit more room,so we had to move the front pas-

senger seat up about an inch.Infant-safety seat: The front passenger seat had tobe moved up a bit more to accommodate this rear-facing seat. Taller front passengers will need morelegroom to be comfortable.How many car seats fit in the second row? Two.

Go to Cars.com andwww.kickingtires.net for

family-oriented news andreviews about cars

READ MORE AT

Youngbuyers are inch-ing back into the new-ve-hiclemarket after several

years on the sidelines,helped by easing creditand a slightly improvingjob market.

“Younger buyers havereturned to market at ahigher rate thananyotherage category,” accordingto a recent report by J.D.Power and Associates’Power Information Net-work.

The young buyergroup — from teensthrough age 35— is a hef-ty 23 percent of so-calledretail buyers, the highestsince 2008, according toPower.

Data from Polk, whichtracks new-vehicle regis-trations, not sales, found asimilar move, showingbuyers 18 to 34 provided

12percent of all new-vehi-cle registrations fromJanuary through July thisyear — the highest since16.4 percent in 2007.

Power’s Thomas King,a senior director, sayshigh used-car valuescould be helping youngerbuyers with something totrade in.Credit is alsoeas-ier togetnow,hesays, and

the group is seeinggrowth in longer-termloans, 72months and over,which cuts monthly pay-ments.

Long loans, however,can lock buyers into longownership. It takes yearsbefore the loan balance isless than the value of thecar, delaying thenextpur-chase.

Still, the rebound ishuge for car companies,whichdependonan influxof youthful customers astheir lifeblood. Youngershoppers don’t typicallybuy high-profit vehicles,at first. But if they can bekept loyal, automakersbelieve, they’llmoveup tovery profitable models asthey get older and richer.

Automakers see young buyers returnBrand loyaltyearly good forlater sales

By James R. HealeyUSA Today


John Krafcik, CEO of HyundaiMotor America since 2008, hasoverseen fantastic growth, andnow he has a different challenge:Keep the pot boiling.

Hyundai’s rocket ride up theU.S. sales chart is over — it can’tmake cars any faster.

The automaker is hitting fullproduction capacity in South Ko-rea, wheremostmodels sold in theU.S aremade, and is adding a thirdshift thismonthat itsMontgomery,Ala., plant that builds its two high-est-volume U.S. models, Sonataand Elantra.

Much of the momentum Kraf-cik inherited was his own doing.Before he became CEO, Krafcikwas vice president of product de-velopment and strategic planning.When he took that job in 2004, Hy-undai’s share of U.S. new vehiclesales was 2.5 percent, according toAutodata.

Now, it’s 5 percent andHyundaiis the seventh-biggest car compa-ny in the U.S., ranked by sales, be-hind theDetroit Three and Japan’stop trio, Toyota,HondaandNissan.

What’s in Krafcik’s crystal ballincludes the following:

» Gasoline engines. Hyundaiwill field some alternative-powermodels—alreadyit issellingagas-oline-electric hybridversionof theSonata, and a hydrogen-fueled caris due in 2015, he says—but the fu-turebelongs to thevenerablegaso-line engine.

Refined, evolved, downsized,engineered to a fare-thee-well, forsure, but still the recognizable in-ternal combustion engine trace-

able to the first practical car, builtby Karl Benz in 1886.

Even Hyundai’s hydrogen carwon’t be exclusively analternativefuelmodel. “Itwouldbe aplatformwhere we could also put in inter-nal-combustion” engines.

» Four-cylinder engines. Hy-undai was a pioneer of four-cylin-der power when it introduced theredesigned 2011Sonatamidsize se-dan only with four-cylinder en-gines, dropping the V-6 option.They aremore sophisticated foursthatusehigh-techdirect fuel injec-tion for both better mileage andmore power — even though thetechnology is costlier and noisier.Direct injection is making its wayinto the mainstream, but when So-nata was launched it was mainly apremium-brand feature.

“Four-cylinders are absolutelythe future,” Krafcik says.

» Unique cars for uniquemar-kets. “We don’t believe in one-car-for-the-world, as some of our com-petitors do,” says Krafcik. “Weview the American market as dif-ferent from the European market.Rear-seat packaging (for example)

is more important in the U.S.”That puts him head-on against

his old employer, Ford Motor,whichhaspushedhardforuniformglobal designs in its One Fordstrategy. That makes it possible tobuild any car at any of its factoriesaroundtheworldandrequiresonlyrelatively small changes to suitvarious markets. Thus, it is cheap-er and quicker to get models tomarket.

» Continual weight loss.Maz-da claims that as part of its Skyac-tiv suite of technologies, it will cutvehicleweight 7 percent each timeit renews a model. Hyundai cutabout thatmuch from the Santa FeSUV in the redesign for 2013, from3,725 down to 3,459 pounds.

Lighter cars take less energy tomove, so use less fuel.

PETR DAVID JOSEK/AP

High hopes for HyundaiBy James R. HealeyUSA Today

ROBERT HANASHIRO/USA TODAY

John Krafcik, president and CEO ofHyundai, thinks the future is bright.

TRADITIONAL ENGINEWILL HAVE A PLACENowadays the politically correct view

is that non-petroleum power is thefuture. Nonetheless, others agree withHyundai CEO John Krafcik.One school of thought says that

biofuels made from waste— cornstalksor wood chips, for instance, instead offeed corn as is done now— eventuallycould be produced in such quantitiesthat they could be sold at the pumpcheaper than gasoline.A report this month from the non-

partisan Congressional Budget Officesays lifetime costs associated withelectric cars are “generally higher thanthose of a conventional vehicle ortraditional hybrid of similar size andperformance.” On average, CBO says,costs run $16,000 to $19,000 more thana comparable gas-engine vehicle.

Nissan is offeringcheap leases and big dis-counts on the Leaf be-cause of slow sales of theall-electric car.

Nissan Motor Co. soldonly 4,228 Leafs this yearthrough August, almost athird fewer than a yearago.

It also has a big inven-tory of the cars nation-wide.At theendofAugustit had enough 2012modelsin stock to supply dealersfor 114 days, according toWard’s AutoInfoBank.

Earlier this month,

Nissan started offeringLeafs for $219 per monthwith $2,999 down for 32months.That’s down from$249 per month earlier inthe year.

Also, the TrueCar.comauto pricing site says Nis-san raised discounts to$3,250 per Leaf in Augustfrom $850 in January.

The Leaf, which can goup to 100 miles on batterypower from a singlecharge, starts at $36,050,including shipping.

Both cars are eligiblefor a $7,500 federal taxcredit for electric vehi-cles.

Nissan offersLeaf discountsAssociated Press

When it comes tocreat-ingquietercars,automak-ersaregivingawholenewmeaning to the sounds ofsilence.

Moreof themareusingtechnology to mask badsounds and enhance goodones. Engineers say ma-nipulating sounds in a caradds to a perception ofquality and harmony.

“Our aim isn’t to trickthecustomer,” saidChuckGray, chief powertrainengineer on Ford’s elec-tric vehicles. “It’s to givethem the best experi-ence.”

When it comes to elim-inating unwelcomesounds, the new technol-ogy works like noise-can-celling headphones.

Speakers drown outbad sounds. The new2013 Honda Accord, withthe goal of making thecabin as quiet as possible,employs microphones to

pick up engine, wind orroad noise. A computerthen produces almost in-distinguishable sounds,projected back into thecabin through four speak-ers, in frequencies thatreduce or cancel the un-wanted sounds.

Drivers tune in to en-gines. At the same time,automakers are also tak-ing steps to enhance thegood sounds. In perfor-mancecars, theyare liter-ally piping sounds fromdeep within the engine,like in the new BMW M5and M6. Some automak-ers allow drivers to tunethe sound to their prefer-ence.

Bose gets in on thetechnology. But mostly,the emphasis is on quiet.Infiniti’s technology in itsM sedans, which also in-volves four microphonesin the cabin, is fromBose,a leading maker of noise-canceling headphones.

Automakers aimfor quieter carsBy Chris WoodyardUSA Today

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