KARL Chevrolet HUMMER

GM Tops Family Cars List

While families all around Fairfield and Westchester Counties have known it along, now the officials at Kelley Blue Book, one of the nation’s best known independant automotive experts, agree!  The Chevrolet Suburban, Equinox and Traverse all made the Top 10 Family Cars for 2010 list from the editors of the Kelley Blue Book.

“Here’s great news for the U.S. automakers GM and Ford: Six of their vehicles dominated the list of the Top 10 Family Cars for 2010 as determined by the editors of the Kelley Blue Book and the Web site kbb.com,” reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

Three of them are Chevrolets — an SUV and two crossover utility vehicles — and three are Fords — one crossover and two sedans, including a gasoline-electric hybrid.

Read more »

On a snowy February afternoon, I have to ask myself two questions …

First, when it snows, why are our Sales Consultants always more eager than usual to close a sale? 

Second, is March just trying to get a head start? 

Well, on the first count, I can tell you that since we all work as a team to clear away snow and dig out EVERY vehicle we have in inventory, our Sales Consultants are extra motivated at this time of year to make every sale they can.  It just means one less vehicle for us to clear snow off of!  So the next time you get frustrated clearing snow off one or two cars in your driveway; try thinking of us clearing snow off of over 200 vehicles!

  Read more »

THE 2011 CRUZE: CHEVROLET UNVEILS U.S. VERSION OF THE POPULAR, FUEL-EFFICIENT GLOBAL COMPACT SEDAN

• 2011 Chevrolet Cruze at a Glance:
• Popular global car refined for America
• Expected segment-best fuel economy – up to 40 mpg highway – with new family of small-displacement engines, including Ecotec 1.4L I-4 turbo
• Progressive design with exceptional levels of refinement, quietness and build quality
• More spacious interior and greater cargo room than Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla
• Ten standard air bags help make it one of the safest cars in its class
• Built at Lordstown, Ohio assembly plant
• On sale in third quarter of 2010
• Five-year/100,000-mile powertain warranty – the best coverage in America

LOS ANGELES – Chevrolet unveils the U.S. production version of the 2011 Cruze compact sedan at the L.A. Auto Show on Dec. 2. It is a global car refined for America, delivering many segment-leading features and details that challenge preconceived notions about what a compact car can be in North America.

The Cruze also affirms Chevrolet’s commitment to building refined, fuel-efficient vehicles, with new, small-displacement four-cylinder engines. It is expected to deliver segment-leading fuel economy with a new Ecotec 1.4L I-4 turbo with variable valve timing – including up to 40 mpg on the highway with a high-efficiency model. Read more »

We frequently hear the question “How safe is this car?” from customers as they look at a new or pre-owned vehicle. Here in New Canaan, and all over the metro New York area, safety is very important to our clients as we are frequently talking about the family’s primary transportation. When asked, we will frequently refer to various government crash tests, independent insurance studies and other data that shows GM building some of the safest vehicles on the market today.

But just how safe are today’s cars vs. the ones many of us grew up with? Many times debates can rage for hours when comparing an athlete who played fifty years ago to one playing today. In almost every instance, you can never get a definitive answer, as you are talking about two different eras and there is no realistic way to make an actual comparison other than a bunch of statistics. Well, I am about to share something truly amazing!

The National Institute for Highway Safety (NTHSA) recently celebrated their 50th year of conducting crash tests to determine the relative safety of vehicles. Normally, these tests are used to compare the results of various models against one another, but on the occasion of their 50th Anniversary, NTHSA decided to do something special. Since Chevrolet is the NUMBER ONE selling brand of cars and has completed more successful crash tests than any other manufacturer, NTHSA decided to crash test a 1959 Chevy Impala along with a 2009 Chevy Malibu. The resulting video is a must see! NTHSA Crash Test Video on YouTube.

The video speaks for itself - today’s vehicles, while smaller, more fuel efficient, and lighter weight, are actually far safer than cars of the past. The moral of the story: Never take vehicle safety for granted!

The time is drawing near when we will find out which U.S. markets will be the first to see Chevy VOLT deliveries.  Tomorrow, December 2^nd, at the opening of the LA Auto Show, GM has said they will announce the initial retail markets for the Chevy VOLT in November 2010.

For several years, we have been anticipating the arrival of the Chevy VOLT – the first mass-produced Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV for short).  Unlike a pure Electric Vehicle which is limited by the range of its batteries, the Chevy VOLT is an Electric Vehicle with a small gasoline engine that acts as an onboard generator that can recharge the batteries when they get low.  Thus, you will be able to drive the VOLT for approximately 40 miles on a charge, and if you go further than that, the generator kicks in and begins charging the battery. 

Yesterday, Lyle Dennis, founder and editor of the website GM-VOLT.com, got his first drive in a VOLT while in charge sustaining mode.  It was an exciting day for Lyle and he shares his experience with us at GM-Volt.com - take the time to read his comments!

Read more »

Chevrolet debuted a Special Edition Camaro at this year’s SEMA Show (Specialty Equipment Market Association) in Las Vegas. This customized Camaro will be the basis of a produciton Special Edition Camaro coming out in Spring 2010. Features will include a special Synergy Green exterior with Black Leather interior with Synergy Green accents. Looks like you’ll be able to make your friends GREEN with envy! Read more »

The great reviews for the 2010 Chevy Equinox just keep rolling in. Recently the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) issued it’s TOP SAFETY PICK rating for the all-new 2010 Chevy Equinox based on its complete crash testing of the new model.  To qualify for Top Safety Pick, a vehicle must earn the highest rating of good in the Institute’s front, side, and rear tests and be equipped with electronic stability control. Criteria to win are tough because the award is intended to drive continued safety improvements such as top crash test ratings and the rapid addition of electronic stability control, which is standard on the Equinox.

“Recognizing vehicles at the head of the class for safety helps consumers distinguish the best overall choices without having to sort through multiple test results,” says Institute president Adrian Lund.  Check out the ratings… http://www.iihs.org/ratings/ratingsbyseries.aspx?id=576

TOP SAFETY PICK award + 32 mpg highway + a starting price around $23,850 = a tremendous value in today’s automotive world.  Find out why customers from all over CT and NY are quickly making Equinox one of our Top Selling models here at KARL Chevrolet!

One of my favorite Blog sites is www.GM-VOLT.com. Run by an absolutely independant consumer who fell in love with the VOLT concpet at the NY Auto Show in the spring of 2007, this site attracts some of the most lively commentary about the potential future of a petroleum independant transportation system. The site’s founder, and daily blogger, is Dr. Lyle Dennis, a Neurologist by day and a VOLT fan by night. Recently Lyle asked me to comment a few sentences as a dealer on the subject of ‘potential dealer price gouging’ on the VOLT when it arrives in November 2010. Here are my comments to him:

Lyle,

Happy to respond – I have commented on the site on this subject in the past – although I must say many of the site’s readers have apparently not experienced the best dealership practices in the past based on their comments. This is truly one of those subjects where “all dealers are not created equally”. Feel free to take a quote from below… Once I began thinking about it, I was compelled to just write a full story!
Read more »

At a “drive away” event held last night at City Field, we picked up our first 2010 Camaro. The yellow 2LT with the 3.6L Direct Injected 304hp engine is now here at our New Canaan store. Pictures may be worth a thousand words but nothing beats being able to put your hands on some actual metal! Come on by and check it out. Then, if your heart desires, place an order or check out what we have coming in. I’ll go out on limb and say this is going to be the hottest car of the summer of 2009! See you soon…

As the following article from Automotive News shows, U.S. sales of Hybrid Vehicles actually fell 9.9% in calendar year 2008 vs. calendar year 2007.  With all the hype about fuel economy, high fuel prices and ‘going green’, how is this possible???

Obviously one factor is the overall economy.  As the financial crisis took its grip on our economy in the second half of 2008, sales of all vehicles fell dramatically.  Another factor was the dramatic fall in gasoline prices at the pump.  The irony of lower fuel prices is that the economics of paying a premium for a hybrid vehicle begin to disappear.  And the final factor simply became affordability.  As consumers in Connecticut and all over Read more »