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STERLING HEIGHTS, MI - Chrysler will start selling a completely new midsize car during the first quarter of next year, company executives confirmed on Tuesday.

The replacement for the aging Chrysler 200 and Dodge Avenger is badly needed for the company to compete with the likes of the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord in the most popular part of the U.S. auto market.

Chrysler officials gave few details about the new car. It will be built at a factory in Sterling Heights, Mich., north of Detroit, where the 200 and Avenger are now built. The officials confirmed the timing of the car Tuesday while taking reporters on a tour of the factory's new paint shop.

Chrysler's current midsize cars were unveiled in 2006 and updated three years ago. Their designs are the oldest in the midsize car market, and buyers pay far less for them than nearly all competitors. The 200 and Avenger generally are noisier, get lower gas mileage and have worse rides than the competition, a bad combination in the hotly contested market.

The new car likely will be built with components jointly designed with Italian automaker Fiat SpA, which owns a majority stake in Chrysler.

Through June, Chrysler has sold just 136,000 200s and Avengers combined. While sales are up over last year, they're far below the top-selling cars in the midsize segment. For instance, Toyota sold almost 208,000 Camrys through June, while Honda sold 187,000 Accords. Crosstown rival Ford sold 161,000 Fusions and had to open a second factory to build them because of rising sales.

The new 898,000-square-foot paint shop in Sterling Heights is about 85 per cent complete. When finished, it will be able to paint any Chrysler or Fiat vehicle except for big pickup trucks and large commercial vans, said John Powell, senior manager of the shop. The plant also is getting a new $165 million body shop.

The paint shop, along with upgrades to two nearby metal stamping plants, cost $850 million. It's scheduled to open early next year.

The investment is good news for the factory's roughly 2,600 employees. The plant was slated to be closed in 2009 when Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy protection but was saved when demand for midsize cars increased.

Prius PHV available for test drives July 18 at Toronto event 

TORONTO, ON –  If you want to learn more about advanced technology vehicles, downtown Toronto is the place to be on July 18, when the second annual “EV Day” will be held.

Toyota Canada will have a major presence at the event, where attendees will be able to get behind the wheel of the Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle (PHV), and take this unique eco-friendly car for a test ride.

“The Prius PHV’s extended electric range makes it the ideal city car,” said Sandy Di Felice, Director, External Affairs, Toyota Canada Inc. “With up to 25 kilometres of all-electric driving, the typical daily Canadian commute can be made without using a single drop of gas.”

The PHV is the first plug-in vehicle for the Toyota brand and offers the lowest starting MSRP of any plug-in hybrid in Canada. It features a powerful lithium-ion battery pack that is ready to go with a full charge within three hours when connected to a regular household outlet, or as little as 90 minutes when connected to a 220-volt dedicated socket, giving it the fastest recharging time of any plug-in vehicle on the market today.

The PHV is capable of driving on electric power alone at speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour, and drivers can take it up to 25 kilometres in the city using electric-only mode. Most importantly, it provides drivers with peace of mind because it automatically switches to its full hybrid gasoline-electric system once the electric power is exhausted.  

The event is being held at Yonge-Dundas Square with free admission for all. It will run from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 18. For more information, visit www.evday.ca.

Toyota will also have kiosks on site, where visitors can enter the “You Could Win $10,000 Cash with Toyota” contest.

Manual driving has slowly become a lost art. Consumers don’t seem to know or care to learn how to drive stick with the technology in cars today. Throw in some constant stop-and-go traffic in Toronto and Montreal and I can see why the majority feel that way.

 
Then there’s the other side of society that feel the exact opposite way. For them the only true way to drive is with a manual transmission. It allows the driver to be in control of the car. It’s your call whether you want to shift for more power or downshift on turns or in traffic when needed. Unfortunately, there are fewer manual drivers out there and simultaneously fewer manual cars being produced.

 
The best part about owning a manual vehicle is that you will save money on the purchase as well as saving fuel on an everyday basis. It’s well documented that manual transmissions deliver better fuel economy than automatic transmissions. This is mainly due to manuals not having a torque converter for shifting which takes away from the vehicle’s fuel efficiency. Furthermore, you can achieve better fuel economy numbers by shifting up early and driving at a consistent pace avoiding those higher RPMs.

Honda Canada wanted to stop this manual downslide and give out manual driving lessons to those who’d never driven stick before. That idea gave way to the Honda Manual Driving School and now they are into their second year.

 
It wasn’t a surprise that Honda would come up with this event, as they have one of the best press fleet selections of manual vehicles and they do show plenty of respect for their history as well as their manual-driving customers. 

 
You never know when you might need to use this skill someday. You could be in a pinch while needing to rent a car in Europe? You might need to borrow another’s car for an emergency and it’s a manual? Why not learn a new skill? You might be the hero someday.

 
Honda’s Manual Driving School had two race car instructors, Kelly Williams and Daniel Morad as well as the Franczak Enterprises team led by Chris Bye on hand to teach the newbies the first steps and provided some new tips for the veterans. The vehicles on hand were the limited edition 2013 Honda Accord HFP and the Honda Civic Si HFP. Two sporty cars that feature enhanced handling, style and performance.

At first Chris went through a proper seating position in the instructional. To test whether you’re sitting correctly, you should stretch out your arms in front of you, when your wrists are level with the top of the steering wheel – you’re in a perfect seating position. I personally sit even closer to the three pedals when in a manual vehicle. Not sure why I do this…I guess I have a non-realistic fear of being too far away to depress the clutch all the way.

 
As I’m jotting down some notes and taking some photos I overhear a question, “so what’s this whole clutch thing all about?”

It’s not as mystifying as it seems. Each newbie got one-on-one instruction on how to move a vehicle without pressing down on the accelerator. Believe it or not, this can be done. Just put it into first gear and gently ease off the clutch. At the half way point you will start to move, so continue releasing the clutch fully and then gently use your right foot to apply some throttle. If you do this successfully – you’re off and running, but not close to being done.

The next step is to switch into second gear by depressing the clutch fully. Once depressed, put it into second gear and once again ease off the clutch at a bit quicker pace. This time once you hit that halfway point you have to apply a little throttle, while easing fully off the clutch. After second, gear shifting gets easier, as you only need to depress the clutch half way before switching into gear leading to much smoother transitions.

It’s a lot to take in and it takes a while to master. If you stall a whole bunch of times (and you will), don’t worry – we all do it. Practice is the key and Honda provided enough challenges to practice starting and stopping. Unfortunately, we didn’t have all day, so the instructors challenged the newbies with some driving exercises including a slalom, a few courses and an emergency stopping drill.

As long as we’re in a secured area – I feel it’s always best after some initial instruction to throw people into the fire and see how they react. You can only start to get comfortable with the clutch-throttle application on gear shifts through practice and feel. Believe it or not, the new drivers were able to practice gear shifts throughout the course, even reaching third gear.

Its impressive how quickly the art of manual driving caught on and it just shows that it only takes some instruction and practice to learn the ancient skill of manual driving. I’m glad to see Honda is taking the initiative to promote manual driving and I can tell you first hand, all those newbies had an exhilarating experience and more importantly learned something from it. It might be basic instructions, but it could get you out of a jam someday. And for Honda’s sake, this event provides them some nice exposure and more importantly the hope of more manual sales.

When I received the invite to the Bridgestone Racing Academy – I couldn’t contain my excitement. The Bridgestone Racing Academy is one of a kind and it teaches future race stars and racing enthusiasts how to successfully and safely drive a race car. Now where else would you get the same experience as Danica Patrick or James Hinchcliffe, who were once instructed at this very same school?

The Bridgestone Racing Academy is held at the newly named Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (CTMP), formerly Mosport. The day starts out with some classroom time led by owner Brett Goodman and chief instructor Jamie Fitzmaurice. They both went over certain safety procedures as well as how to handle some tricky corners around the race track. Surprisingly, every media member in this group would be in a Formula car for their first time, so I’m sure there was plenty of nervous tension to go around from the drivers to the instructors who have a 28-year injury-free safety record intact. 

The formula cars were powered by a Mazda engine producing 170 horsepower, which doesn’t seem like a lot, but what you need to consider is that these race cars only weigh 900 lbs., so it’s a hell of a lot faster than you think. 

The day wouldn’t be only about racing, the team from Suncor were on hand to teach us more about Ultra 94, a premium gas that’s used in these very Formula cars. Considering the cost of fuel nowadays, I’m sure many would like to understand more about why they need to stick to using this higher quality fuel. But first it was time to hit the track and feel that Ultra 94 in use. 

Drivers, start your engines!

We were supplied racing suits, shoes, gloves, and helmets, you name it – they had it. They supply you with everything to make you feel like a race car driver, but it was left to me to actually drive like one. We all know there was no chance for that, but the main focus was to master the correct braking points, hit the racing lines and keep up with the lead instructor. 

Little did I realize that the biggest challenge might be getting in and out of the Formula car. It’s no longer a shock why most race car drivers are petite in stature and I start to feel sorry for the Justin Wilsons and Mark Webbers of the racing world. I manoeuvred myself into the cockpit and had belts fastened over each leg and over each shoulder. Safe to say I wasn’t going anywhere as I could barely move, but nothing could contain my excitement. 

I flicked the engine switch on and pushed the big black button to start it up queuing one of the best adrenaline rushing sounds you’ll here. 

These cars are fitted with a sequential gear shift, so that was easy to work with as long as you remember or feel what gear you’re in. It took a little time to get used to the clutch as this car didn’t work like your typical street manual. Once you start to depress the clutch you have to get on that throttle and give it some – this wasn’t going to be a test on how smooth you could do it. 

We were off and running for three separate sessions. The first would be a slower ride to get familiar with the race car and CTMP’s 12 turns and we got progressively quicker as our comfort level improved.  

After starting off I put it in second gear and pedalled my way through turns two and three. It would definitely take a little time to get used to driving these Formula cars, because you’re so close to the ground as if you’re driving one of those Flintstones’ cars while leaning back. To understand it fully, I was at level with those Bridgestone Potenza tires. 

During the second run, I started to gear shift quite frequently between second, third and fourth to get a good feel for the sticky shift and find the appropriate moments to ease off the throttle and shift down while approaching the corners. 

I tried to incorporate all of my racing knowledge while in these beautiful specimens. I broke before the corners, gently accelerated from the turning point to the apex and hit the throttle hard as the steering wheel straightened out. The biggest thrill were the corners before the long straightaway that you can attack hard by shifting down to second and picking up the throttle quickly into third and then fourth allowing you to reach your highest speeds and fly down that large straight. Some might have tested it in fifth gear, but it was fast enough in fourth and the instructors did warn us of the concrete wall at turn 12, so I didn’t want to push it – I'm a guest after all. 

I always love track time, because it gives me the chance to improve on my racing skills and the Bridgestone Racing Academy gave us more than enough laps to master our craft. I’m definitely using the word master loosely!

Before I knew it my time was done and the thrilling experience was over. For a person that gets some track time occasionally, I had an amazing experience that I’ll never forget. It just proves what a great corporate event or birthday present the Bridgestone Racing Academy could be. Brett, Jamie and the rest of the crew take you through the ropes in class with tips on how to tackle each corner and they continue that lesson with helping you out whenever you need during your track time. They really know how to make it a fun experience while keeping the entire day organized and safe. 

Ultra 94

In the middle of the session and after lunch, we were treated to an Ultra 94 presentation as mentioned before. If you’re not familiar with Ultra 94, it’s the super-premium gasoline offered at Petro Canada. It surpasses the recommended octane in any street vehicle, so the question is why would people spend the extra money to get it?

Ultra 94 is a choice and it's nice to see that it's offered to us, but what are the benefits?

The 94 octane level resists knocking which is when abnormal combustion occurs creating the fuel/air mixture to burn more rapidly. The higher the octane, the more resistant it is to knocking and the better performance you get out of your vehicle.

If you’re really into getting the maximum performance out of your vehicle – Ultra 94 can definitely help. The people at Ultra 94 preached that it will maximize horsepower, acceleration and performance. Furthermore, it will optimize fuel economy and reduce your carbon dioxide emissions. 

It’s not for everybody or every car, but if you’ve paid for a high-priced luxury sports vehicle like the BMW M6 Coupe or the Mercedes-BenzSL 63 AMG Roadster – you might want to partake in some Ultra 94. 

Should you pay if you have a Scion FR-S or Subaru Impreza WRX STI?  

You need to figure out if it’s worth it to you – all depends on what you’re doing with your car. If you like to take it to track and get the most out of it, it might be worth it. If you’re driving back-and-forth from home to work in it with the occasional fun drive, you might be better off with the recommended octane listed. 

In Summary

The advantages of Ultra 94 were intriguing and it worked it sync with what they do at the Bridgestone Racing Academy. Ultra 94 is trying to increase their awareness and recently became the new title sponsor and official fuel for the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada. Racing is the perfect arena to demonstrate Ultra 94’s performance and it showcased its talents at the Bridgestone Racing Academy and I’m sure it will do the same in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge.

If you’ve ever had the desire to try out a racing car, I can’t think of a better place to start than the Bridgestone Racing Academy. It was an experience I will remember forever and one where I want to try several more times. It was a thrilling ride and the instructors allow you to go at the pace you want while being safe in the process. Therefore, if you’re more experienced you can tackle the course at the speed you wish; while on the flip side, if you’re new and want to take a more conservative approach you can go at the speed you’re comfortable in. It’s your experience, so do what you want with it and have a blast – I know I did.