Wednesday, 28 June 2017

Hatching Soon: 2018 Buick Regal Sportback Starts at $25,915, TourX Wagon at $29,995

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Buick has enticed us with its new-for-2018 Regal lineup, which includes stylish hatchback and wagon body styles to replace the old Regal sedan. Now we have pricing for the Regal Sportback hatch and the Regal TourX station wagon, both of which will start under $30,000 when they go on sale later this year. The base-model Sportback rings in at $25,915, more than $2000 below last year’s base Regal sedan, while the TourX, which has standard all-wheel drive, starts at $29,995. 

The base Regal Sportback is the 1SV, which comes standard with keyless entry and push-button start, a 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system, a backup camera, and 17-inch wheels. The $28,590 Preferred adds a power driver’s seat and a leather-wrapped steering wheel, while also opening up the possibility for all sorts of option packages. For $30,590, the Preferred II trim gains dual-zone automatic climate control, an 8.0-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, remote start, a heated steering wheel, and 18-inch wheels with wider tires. Sitting at the top of the Sportback lineup is the Essence, at $32,590, which comes with a few extra standard features including heated front seats and a power passenger seat.

2018 Buick Regal TourX

All 2018 Regals are powered by a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine with 250 horsepower, but there are a few powertrain configurations past that. Front-wheel-drive Sportbacks come with a nine-speed automatic, while all-wheel-drive Sportbacks and all TourX wagons have an eight-speed automatic. All-wheel drive is a $1950 option on the Sportback Preferred II and $2050 extra on the Sportback Essence trim.

In keeping with its rugged-wagon image, every Regal TourX trim level has all-wheel drive as standard, starting with the $29,995 TourX 1SV. The wagon’s trim levels mostly mirror the sedan’s, with the $33,575 TourX Preferred and $35,945 TourX Essence adding commensurate levels of equipment. There’s plenty of price overlap with the TourX’s closest competitor, the Subaru Outback; although the Subie starts at a much lower $26,520, its better-equipped trim levels run into the mid-$30,000 range, with the six-cylinder Outback 3.6R starting at $35,870.

Still to come—we hope—is a high-performance Regal GS variant, which should be released within the next few months. Even without that addition, though, we’re eager to drive these intriguing new Buicks, which arrive at dealerships this fall.

TOURXREEL

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Hatching Soon: 2018 Buick Regal Sportback Starts at $25,915, TourX Wagon at $29,995

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2017 Ford Mustang: Not the King, but a Respected Hand – Quick-Take Review

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2017 Ford Mustang – Quick-Take Review

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2018 Dodge Durango Brings More SRT Style, Standard Features

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June 28, 2017 at 11:37 am by | Photography by Chris Doane Automotive and the Manufacturer

In traffic, a fast-looking car is just as fast as one that actually is. Apply our proverb to the 2018 Dodge Durango GT and out comes an ordinary V-6 crossover dressed a bit like the Hemi-powered SRT, for way less money.

While the SRT’s bulging hood scoop and dual air vents won’t pump the Pentastar 3.6-liter past the stock 295-hp mark, it is the same hood that covers a 475-hp V-8. On the GT, you’ll need to order the Blacktop or Brass Monkey package to snag that hood as an additional option.

The mid-level Durango R/T with the 360-hp 5.7-liter V-8 now gets the SRT’s hood as standard equipment along with that model’s slotted front fascia, functional cold-air intake, and LED fog lights.

The new B5 Blue exterior paint, a bright, 1960s-era Dodge hue, is reserved for Durango R/T and SRT models. All Durangos see more standard equipment come aboard for 2018. The GT features leather-and-microsuede seats and a power liftgate, while the R/T gains front parking sensors. All Durango models receive a standard backup camera, a new steering wheel, and a T-shaped gear shifter to replace the rotary dial. Look for the 2018 Durango later this summer—and take extra care to spot the real SRT.


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2018 Dodge Durango Brings More SRT Style, Standard Features

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Why High-Octane Gas Costs So Much More Than Regular

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Kentucky Mayor Bashes High Gas Prices With City-Run Fueling Station

There’s a gas station by the Orlando airport charging $4.50 per gallon, or more than double what regular 87 octane costs in Florida, probably because it’s close to the rental-car return. But while competition pushes these extreme prices to the fringe, drivers refueling with premium gas are seemingly gouged in every state. If you fill up with 91 or 93 octane, you’ve no doubt grumbled, “How the hell is high-test 50 cents extra?”

That’s the average national spread of retail prices between a gallon of regular and premium gasoline, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). In all states, what was once a modest upcharge over regular—roughly 10 cents for mid-grade, another 10 cents for premium—has become an all-out surge. As gas prices tumbled over the past three years, the premium-fuel premium skyrocketed from 35 cents per gallon in 2013 to 47 cents in 2015 and reached 50 cents in late 2016. According to the latest data from AAA (which tracks fuel prices daily instead of the EIA’s weekly), premium costs $2.80 per gallon on average, or 60 cents more than regular. In 2000, the spread was 18 cents.

According to the EIA, there’s no Big Oil collusion to blame. Rather, it’s a confluence of market, industry, and regulatory factors that affect everyone, not just those in luxury cars. In August 2016, premium gasoline reached a 12 percent share of all U.S. gasoline sales, a level not seen in 13 years. AAA said the demand for premium gas is due to more car owners “treating themselves” as pump prices drop. That’s true, up to a point. About 80 percent of all registered vehicles run fine on regular, according to AAA, and in a given year some 16.5 million people mistakenly believe premium gas will improve their aging hoopties or “clean out” engine deposits. But another factor driving demand is that more stringent fuel-economy standards have put downsized and turbocharged engines in more and more new cars. And most, if not all, of those engines, whether in a Mini Cooper or a Nissan Juke, require premium for the best power and mileage.

The refining industry hasn’t been able to keep up. Greater domestic production of light crude oil has led to a surplus of naphtha, a lower-octane feedstock. When refiners convert naphtha into reformate, a high-octane component produced in a separate catalytic process, they’ve taken advantage of the naphtha surplus to produce more reformate. But these greater volumes of reformate are lower in octane than smaller volumes, the EIA says, and with the plastics industry turning away from naphtha, refiners have more of an incentive to blend the lower-octane stock into their gasoline. In turn, refiners haven’t increased their octane production with overall gasoline production. In 2016, refiners dedicated 30 percent of their total capacity to octane production, a three-point dip from 2007.

Regulatory changes have contributed to our octane woes. The latest Tier 3 standards enacted this year have cut gasoline sulfur levels to 10 parts per million, which mirrors the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2010 requirement for ultra-low-sulfur diesel. This results in a “slight loss” in octane, according to the EIA, at an additional cost that “likely also influenced the growing spread between regular and premium gasoline.” But as that spread grew in 2014, the EPA released an analysis of low-sulfur costs on the refining industry and concluded that any increase in gas prices would be “less than a penny per gallon” and that drivers would be “unlikely to notice a difference in fuel prices at the pump due to Tier 3.” At an EIA conference this week, the agency cited Tier 3 regulations as contributing to a “looming octane shortage.” The two agencies might want to get together for a chat.

Additional caps on benzene, a large proportion of reformate, presents another challenge to octane production. What about ethanol, the plant-based renewable blended into every tankful? At 115 octane, ethanol is already blended into gasoline at 10 percent, but refiners can’t push any further. Automakers, engine manufacturers, AAA, and the American Petroleum Institute have all lobbied against E15, a 15 percent blend, claiming it would lead to premature component failures. Without dumping more ethanol—or other octane boosters like lead and MTBE, which were outlawed for road use in 1996 and 2006, respectively—refiners have experienced an “octane shortage that required refiners and blenders to acquire more expensive sources of octane,” the EIA said.

This isn’t to assume your local station isn’t also padding its profits when premium gas shoots up in price. But before you gripe about paying 25 percent more for premium, know the forces working against you before the first drop hits your tank.

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