6445 Carlisle PikeMechanicsburg

766-0284800-427-4505

See Our Entire Inventory at: * Taxes, Tags and Transfer Fees additional. You may choose Rebates oR new carfinancing as low as 0% up to 72mos. on select models with financing approval.

20% discount includes all applicable rebates.

* Rebates are subject to change without prior notice.Not all customers will qualify for all applicable rebates and incentives.

y S#1301455 $6,199

y C#1301721 $13,799

’01 Chevy S-10

’10 Chevy Cobalt LT

’10 Honda Element EX#1207872 $18,599

’04 Chevy Colorado LS#1302642 $11,598

’13 Chevy Malibu Eco#1300076 $22,299

’04 Acura MDX Touring#6651811 $12,999

’08 Chevy Avalanche#1300321 $22,999

’12 Chevy Impala LT#665212 $16,999

’10 Chevy Silverado Crew Cab#665204 $29,900

’11 Chevy Silverado Crew Cab#665213 $33,999

’11 Chevy Tahoe LTZ#665210 $44,499

’10 Chevy Silverado#665206 $25,999

’07 Chevy Cobalt LT#1301232 $7,999

y A#1301001 $19,899

’11 Chevy Equinox LS#665196 $20,899

’09 Chevy Silverado#665214 $27,499

’12 Chevy Captiva Sport#665221 $19,999

’11 Chevy Silverado#1303441 $21,999

’08 Pontiac Grand Prix#1303812 $10,999#1210771 $21,199

’11 GMC Sierra 1500 ’12 Buick Enclave#665219 $35,999

’07 Chevy Avalanche

We’re so confident in ourLow Everyday Pricing,

We’ll BEat any other Chevy Dealer’swritten offer by $250! Must be bona-fide written offer on in stock vehicles.

So Many ReasonsWhy there’s Lot to Love !

STk# 130289

$7900uP To

’13 Silverado

LEaSEfOR OnLy

$192 PEr Mo.

’13 Malibu LS

24 mo. lease / 12,000 mi. per yr.2,000 cash or trade due at signingtax and tags extra. Well qualified buyersIncludes Auto Show Bonus Cash

STk# 130454LEaSE

fOR OnLy$169PEr Mo.

’13 Cruze LS

24 mo. lease / 12,000 mi. per yr.2,000 cash or trade due at signingtax and tags extra. Well qualified buyersIncludes Auto Show Bonus Cash

LEaSEfOR OnLy

$269PEr Mo.

’13 traverse LS fWD

36 mo. lease / 12,000 mi. per yr.2,000 cash or trade due at signingtax and tags extra. Well qualified buyersIncludes Auto Show Bonus Cash

OFF!

STk# 130372 STk# 130320

2 yr / 24,000mi. maintenanceplan included with purchase orlease of all 1500 Silverados!

SundayMarch 10

2013SectionAutosplus

The Sentinel

Autos PlusE2 • The Sentinel Sunday, March 10, 2013

Behind the Wheel

Toyota Avalon takes sleek turn by ANN M. JObAssociAted Press

Toyota’s flagship sedan, the Avalon, is stylishly el-egant for 2013, offers more technology and safety fea-tures than ever and has a new, noticeably controlled and poised ride.

The Avalon also impresses with a base retail price that’s some $2,200 less than the starting retail price for last year’s Avalon.

The price cut to a starting manufacturer’s suggested retail price, including des-tination charge, of $31,785, stems in part from the moonroof being removed from the list of Avalon stan-dard equipment.

But leather seat and steer-ing wheel trim, heated front seats and power-adjustable driver and front-passenger front seats remain on every Avalon.

The base engine — last year’s smooth and powerful 268-horsepower, 3.5-liter V-6 — is still there, too, and is mated to an updated six-speed automatic.

Meantime, new standard features in the Avalon in-clude 10 air bags, up from seven last year. There’s a new eBin, too, where drivers can manage and store away plug-in devices like phone, radar detector, etc.

Perhaps best of all, Con-sumer Reports puts pre-dicted reliability of the new Avalon at better than aver-age.

Competitors to the front-wheel drive, four-door Ava-lon include other premium mid-size sedans such as the 2013 Buick LaCrosse, which has a starting MSRP, in-

cluding destination charge, of $32,555.

But the base LaCrosse doesn’t have leather seat trim, and its base engine is a 182-horsepower four cyl-inder.

Another competitor, the 2013 Hyundai Genesis se-dan, packs more power — 333 horses from a larger displacement V-6 than the Avalon has — and an eight-speed automatic for a start-ing retail price of $35,095.

The 2013 Avalon is about 2 inches shorter in overall length and about an inch shorter in height than its predecessor. But it still looks generously sized, and some auto critics still refer to the Avalon as a large sedan though the federal govern-ment continues to classify it as a mid-size.

Interior dimensions for passengers are not changed much from last year’s mod-el, save for rear-seat leg-room which went from 40.9 inches in the 2012 Avalon to 39.2 inches in the new car.

Cargo room in the Avalon now is a surprising 16 cubic feet vs. 14.4 cubic feet last year. Much of this space is under the rear window.

But other interior space dimensions are pretty much unchanged. For example, rear-seat headroom of 37.5 inches is nearly identical to that of last year’s Avalon, and front-seat headroom of 38.5 inches is just 0.4 inch less than that in the 2012 Avalon.

The test Avalon Limited, which is the top-of-the-line model, didn’t feel cramped, though the new-styled rear seats mean the middle per-son now sits atop a more

contoured area than before. Taller passengers may brush against the ceiling.

T h e te s t ca r i n te r i o r showed craftsmanship, with well-aligned trim pieces and nicely supple, perforated leather on the seats.

The only thing that didn’t feel right were the plastic-covered, memory seat but-tons in the test car. They pushed way in on the driver door and had a weak, cheap feel.

The new Avalon dash-board design is inviting, with a minimum number of visible buttons on the dash-board to control everything from navigation to audio and phone operation.

The design was simple, yet eminently usable.

Best of all, it doesn’t take long learn how the controls work, and the seven-inch, high-resolution touch-screen had bright colors and large, legible letters for easy viewing.

The Avalon rode quietly much of the time, with little noise intruding from trucks and blaring radios nearby.

Views out were a bit con-fined by the low stance of this car compared with sport utility vehicles and trucks.

The test Avalon Limited with 18-inch tires rode more firmly than any previous Avalon tested, but it wasn’t harsh or even noticeable. The more controlled ride was in contrast to some pil-lowy rides in earlier genera-tion Avalons and made for confident driving on twisty mountain roads.

Still, the 2013 Avalon re-mains, like its predecessors, one of the most comfortable cars for highway cruising.

The improved dynamics comes in part from stouter stabilizer bars, as the Ava-lon’s basic suspension de-sign — MacPherson struts

up front and dual-link MacPherson struts in back — remain.

Rack-and-pinion steering this year is electrically as-sisted and needs only a light touch, yet has a surprisingly decent on-center feel.

The V-6 provided strong power in all situations and moved the car easily along in city traffic and on the highway.

Paddle shifters on the steering wheel give conve-nient access to no-clutch-

pedal driver shifts, but just letting the automatic tran-ny handle things created smoother transitions be-tween gears.

Peak torque is the same as last year: 247 foot-pounds at 4,700 rpm.

The test car spent time in all three drive modes — nor-mal, sport and eco — and averaged 21 miles per gallon in driving that was 65 per-cent in the city and 35 per-cent at highway speed.

The 21-mpg is on par with

the government’s city fuel economy rating for the 2013 Avalon. The government pegs highway mileage at 31 mpg, but the test car never got close to that.

Regular unleaded is fine for the Avalon, which has a smaller, 17-gallon fuel tank this year instead of the 18.5-gallon tank last year.

So filling the tank at to-day’s prices can cost more than $65. In the test car, this $65 bought a travel range of just over 350 miles.

2013 Toyota Avalon Limited

BASE PRICE: $30,990 for XLe; $33,195 for XLe Pre-mium; $35,500 for XLe touring; $39,650 for Limited.

PRICE AS TESTED: $42,195.

TYPE: Front engine, front-wheel-drive, five-passenger, mid-

size sedan.

ENGINE: 3.5-liter, double overhead cam V-6 with dual VVt-i.

MILEAGE: 21 mpg (city), 31 mpg (highway).

TOP SPEED: NA.

LENGTH: 195.2 inches.

WHEELBASE: 111 inches.

CURB WEIGHT: 3,500 pounds.

BUILT AT: Georgetown, Ky.

OPTIONS: technology pack-age (includes dynamic radar cruise control, automatic high beams, pre-collision system) $1,750.

DESTINATION CHARGE: $795.

In Focus

Associated Press

This file photo shows the 2013 Toyota Avalon at the New York International Auto Show.

All About Cars

New Pathfinder generation pampers and performs

In its first generation be-ginning in 1986, Pathfinder was derived from Nissan’s hardbody compact pick-up truck platform. Now in its fourth generation, Path-finder has moved away from body-on-frame construc-tion and is now unibody with corrosion-resistant and high-strength steel. It is also now a crossover, rather than a generic sports-utility vehicle.

Along the way, Pathfinder has become less truck-like, more pampering and has gained dignity, a self-confi-dent demeanor and refine-ment. Fully redesigned for 2013, Pathfinder features a sleek, aerodynamically styled exterior, a premium interior, class-exclusive user-friendly technology and advanced drive train that help it achieve improved fuel economy while maintaining its recognized towing and off-pavement capabilities.

New design cuts 500 pounds

The all-new vehicle de-sign sheds 500 pounds of weight compared to the pre-vious model while preserv-ing its SUV-ruggedness and increasing its fuel economy figures to 26 mpg (25 mpg highway for my test 4WD model). Addressing its ex-panded pampering of driv-er and passengers, the 2013 Pathfinder has enhanced its amenities to include a class-exclusive Around Viewmon-itor, three rows of leather-appointed seating, heated and cooled front seats, heat-ed rear seats, heated steering wheel, programmable Nis-san Intelligent Key, Blue-tooth Hands-free Phone System, 13-speaker Bose Premium Audio system, SiriusXM Satellite Radio, tri-zone automatic climate

control, rearview monitor, remote engine start, tri-zone entertainment system and dual panorama moon-roof.

The 2013 Nissan Path-finder is available in 4WD and 2WD drive configu-rations and in six trims. Its new body melds modern, aerodynamic exterior styl-ing with bold Nissan sig-nature design cues, a fresh interpretation of Nissan’s “power strut” grille design, wheel-oriented muscular fenders and a strong stance, an open upper cabin with low beltline and thin A- and D-pillars, a long wheel-base with short front and rear overhangs, body color bumpers and dual power remote-controlled outside mirrors (manual fold), avail-able heated outside mirrors and mirror reverse synch, front (chin) and rear (roof) spoilers, rear tire deflectors and rear suspension fairing, black roof molding, available chrome bodyside molding, UV-reducing solar glass, rear privacy glass, manual front sunshade and rear roof glass with power sunshade, available painted roof rails and cross bars and chrome grille, front and rear door handles and front and rear fascia accents.

Built at the same Smyrna, Tenn., plant that assembles the Infiniti JX35, Pathfinder measures 197.2 inches long, 77.2 inches wide and 69.6 inches high on a 114.2-inch wheelbase. The vehicle of-fers minimum ground clear-ance of 6.5 inches and a step-in height of 18.9 inch-es in front and 19.5 inches in the rear. Curbweight for the AWD model comes in at 4312 lbs.

Good low-end torquePathfinder gets its power

from a 3.5-liter DOHC V-6 engine that produces 260 horsepower and 240 lbs-ft of torque. With an aluminum block with cast iron cylinder liners, mated to an Xtronic CVT (Continuously Variable

Transmission), the system is EPA rated at 19 mpg in city driving and 25 mpg on the highway for the AWD con-figuration. My week of test-ing in extreme winter condi-tions garnered an average of 21.1 mpg.

In trials, Pathfinder de-livered solid passing pow-er when called upon, good low-end torque for hauling and performed well enough on a slick track to sprint from zero to 60 mph in 7.7 seconds on the way to a 15.9-second quarter-mile (hand-timed).

An independent strut front suspension with a 26 mm solid stabilizer bar, twin tube shocks with a dual-flow path and multi-link rear suspension with 26.5 mm hollow tube stabilizer bar smoothed out most road imperfections and while understeer was noticeable in quick turning, and some top wobble is apparent dur-ing twisties, Pathfinder was stable and confident during all maneuvers.

Roomy, 7-person cabinThe roomy cabin pro-

vides 42.2 inches of front headroom with 39.4 in row two and 37.8 inches in row three; legroom measures 42.3 inches in the first row with 41.7 and 30.7 in the two other rows and shoul-der room goes 60.7, 60.4 and 57.1 inches. Along with all the interior items mentioned above, the newly designed 7-passenger setup includes 6-way manual driver’s seat and manual lumbar support, 4-way manual front passen-ger seat, push button igni-tion, power windows with driver/front passenger one-touch auto and wood-toned

interior trim accents.Safety and security sys-

tems include dual-stage front supplemental air bags with seat belt sensors and an occupant classification sensor, supplemental front seat-mounted side-impact air bags, roof-mounted sup-plemental curtain air bags for side impact and rollover head protection for outboard passengers in all three rows, child safety rear door locks, tire pressure monitoring system (with standard easy fill tire alert) and brake over-ride technology.

The 2013 Nissan Path-finder starts at $28,650 for the base “S” trim and goes all the way to the Platinum Premium trim for $41,850. My test Pathfinder SL (mid-way of the six trims) started at $34,850, adding roof rails, rear view monitor, Bluetooth Hands-free Phone system, Nissan Intelligent key, fog lights, power liftgate, remote engine start and leather-ap-pointed seats to the base ve-hicle. A tow hitch receiver added $400; the SL premi-um package added $2650 for a dual panorama moonroof, Bose audio system, 120-volt

AC power outlet, tow hitch receiver and 13 speakers; splash guards added $150; hood airflow protector added $125; side window deflectors added $125; and destination and handling was $845, for a final sticker-as-tested of $38,740.

Visit www.CarlisleEvents.

com for more on the automo-tive hobby.

Mike Blake, former editor of KIT CAR magazine, joined Carlisle Events as senior au-tomotive journalist in 2004. He’s been a “car guy” since the 1960s and has been writ-ing professionally for about 30 years.

By Mike Blake

submitted photos

Above: The 2013 Nissan Pathfinder’s design is lighter than older models, increasing fuel economy to 26 miles per gallon.below: Interior features include leather-appointed seats and wood-toned trim.

the model has moved away from generic sUV to a unibody crossover.

■

the stylish new model offers a noticeably poised ride and more technology than its predecessors.

■

Autos PlusE2 • The Sentinel Sunday, March 10, 2013

Behind the Wheel

Toyota Avalon takes sleek turn by ANN M. JObAssociAted Press

Toyota’s flagship sedan, the Avalon, is stylishly el-egant for 2013, offers more technology and safety fea-tures than ever and has a new, noticeably controlled and poised ride.

The Avalon also impresses with a base retail price that’s some $2,200 less than the starting retail price for last year’s Avalon.

The price cut to a starting manufacturer’s suggested retail price, including des-tination charge, of $31,785, stems in part from the moonroof being removed from the list of Avalon stan-dard equipment.

But leather seat and steer-ing wheel trim, heated front seats and power-adjustable driver and front-passenger front seats remain on every Avalon.

The base engine — last year’s smooth and powerful 268-horsepower, 3.5-liter V-6 — is still there, too, and is mated to an updated six-speed automatic.

Meantime, new standard features in the Avalon in-clude 10 air bags, up from seven last year. There’s a new eBin, too, where drivers can manage and store away plug-in devices like phone, radar detector, etc.

Perhaps best of all, Con-sumer Reports puts pre-dicted reliability of the new Avalon at better than aver-age.

Competitors to the front-wheel drive, four-door Ava-lon include other premium mid-size sedans such as the 2013 Buick LaCrosse, which has a starting MSRP, in-

cluding destination charge, of $32,555.

But the base LaCrosse doesn’t have leather seat trim, and its base engine is a 182-horsepower four cyl-inder.

Another competitor, the 2013 Hyundai Genesis se-dan, packs more power — 333 horses from a larger displacement V-6 than the Avalon has — and an eight-speed automatic for a start-ing retail price of $35,095.

The 2013 Avalon is about 2 inches shorter in overall length and about an inch shorter in height than its predecessor. But it still looks generously sized, and some auto critics still refer to the Avalon as a large sedan though the federal govern-ment continues to classify it as a mid-size.

Interior dimensions for passengers are not changed much from last year’s mod-el, save for rear-seat leg-room which went from 40.9 inches in the 2012 Avalon to 39.2 inches in the new car.

Cargo room in the Avalon now is a surprising 16 cubic feet vs. 14.4 cubic feet last year. Much of this space is under the rear window.

But other interior space dimensions are pretty much unchanged. For example, rear-seat headroom of 37.5 inches is nearly identical to that of last year’s Avalon, and front-seat headroom of 38.5 inches is just 0.4 inch less than that in the 2012 Avalon.

The test Avalon Limited, which is the top-of-the-line model, didn’t feel cramped, though the new-styled rear seats mean the middle per-son now sits atop a more

contoured area than before. Taller passengers may brush against the ceiling.

T h e te s t ca r i n te r i o r showed craftsmanship, with well-aligned trim pieces and nicely supple, perforated leather on the seats.

The only thing that didn’t feel right were the plastic-covered, memory seat but-tons in the test car. They pushed way in on the driver door and had a weak, cheap feel.

The new Avalon dash-board design is inviting, with a minimum number of visible buttons on the dash-board to control everything from navigation to audio and phone operation.

The design was simple, yet eminently usable.

Best of all, it doesn’t take long learn how the controls work, and the seven-inch, high-resolution touch-screen had bright colors and large, legible letters for easy viewing.

The Avalon rode quietly much of the time, with little noise intruding from trucks and blaring radios nearby.

Views out were a bit con-fined by the low stance of this car compared with sport utility vehicles and trucks.

The test Avalon Limited with 18-inch tires rode more firmly than any previous Avalon tested, but it wasn’t harsh or even noticeable. The more controlled ride was in contrast to some pil-lowy rides in earlier genera-tion Avalons and made for confident driving on twisty mountain roads.

Still, the 2013 Avalon re-mains, like its predecessors, one of the most comfortable cars for highway cruising.

The improved dynamics comes in part from stouter stabilizer bars, as the Ava-lon’s basic suspension de-sign — MacPherson struts

up front and dual-link MacPherson struts in back — remain.

Rack-and-pinion steering this year is electrically as-sisted and needs only a light touch, yet has a surprisingly decent on-center feel.

The V-6 provided strong power in all situations and moved the car easily along in city traffic and on the highway.

Paddle shifters on the steering wheel give conve-nient access to no-clutch-

pedal driver shifts, but just letting the automatic tran-ny handle things created smoother transitions be-tween gears.

Peak torque is the same as last year: 247 foot-pounds at 4,700 rpm.

The test car spent time in all three drive modes — nor-mal, sport and eco — and averaged 21 miles per gallon in driving that was 65 per-cent in the city and 35 per-cent at highway speed.

The 21-mpg is on par with

the government’s city fuel economy rating for the 2013 Avalon. The government pegs highway mileage at 31 mpg, but the test car never got close to that.

Regular unleaded is fine for the Avalon, which has a smaller, 17-gallon fuel tank this year instead of the 18.5-gallon tank last year.

So filling the tank at to-day’s prices can cost more than $65. In the test car, this $65 bought a travel range of just over 350 miles.

2013 Toyota Avalon Limited

BASE PRICE: $30,990 for XLe; $33,195 for XLe Pre-mium; $35,500 for XLe touring; $39,650 for Limited.

PRICE AS TESTED: $42,195.

TYPE: Front engine, front-wheel-drive, five-passenger, mid-

size sedan.

ENGINE: 3.5-liter, double overhead cam V-6 with dual VVt-i.

MILEAGE: 21 mpg (city), 31 mpg (highway).

TOP SPEED: NA.

LENGTH: 195.2 inches.

WHEELBASE: 111 inches.

CURB WEIGHT: 3,500 pounds.

BUILT AT: Georgetown, Ky.

OPTIONS: technology pack-age (includes dynamic radar cruise control, automatic high beams, pre-collision system) $1,750.

DESTINATION CHARGE: $795.

In Focus

Associated Press

This file photo shows the 2013 Toyota Avalon at the New York International Auto Show.

All About Cars

New Pathfinder generation pampers and performs

In its first generation be-ginning in 1986, Pathfinder was derived from Nissan’s hardbody compact pick-up truck platform. Now in its fourth generation, Path-finder has moved away from body-on-frame construc-tion and is now unibody with corrosion-resistant and high-strength steel. It is also now a crossover, rather than a generic sports-utility vehicle.

Along the way, Pathfinder has become less truck-like, more pampering and has gained dignity, a self-confi-dent demeanor and refine-ment. Fully redesigned for 2013, Pathfinder features a sleek, aerodynamically styled exterior, a premium interior, class-exclusive user-friendly technology and advanced drive train that help it achieve improved fuel economy while maintaining its recognized towing and off-pavement capabilities.

New design cuts 500 pounds

The all-new vehicle de-sign sheds 500 pounds of weight compared to the pre-vious model while preserv-ing its SUV-ruggedness and increasing its fuel economy figures to 26 mpg (25 mpg highway for my test 4WD model). Addressing its ex-panded pampering of driv-er and passengers, the 2013 Pathfinder has enhanced its amenities to include a class-exclusive Around Viewmon-itor, three rows of leather-appointed seating, heated and cooled front seats, heat-ed rear seats, heated steering wheel, programmable Nis-san Intelligent Key, Blue-tooth Hands-free Phone System, 13-speaker Bose Premium Audio system, SiriusXM Satellite Radio, tri-zone automatic climate

control, rearview monitor, remote engine start, tri-zone entertainment system and dual panorama moon-roof.

The 2013 Nissan Path-finder is available in 4WD and 2WD drive configu-rations and in six trims. Its new body melds modern, aerodynamic exterior styl-ing with bold Nissan sig-nature design cues, a fresh interpretation of Nissan’s “power strut” grille design, wheel-oriented muscular fenders and a strong stance, an open upper cabin with low beltline and thin A- and D-pillars, a long wheel-base with short front and rear overhangs, body color bumpers and dual power remote-controlled outside mirrors (manual fold), avail-able heated outside mirrors and mirror reverse synch, front (chin) and rear (roof) spoilers, rear tire deflectors and rear suspension fairing, black roof molding, available chrome bodyside molding, UV-reducing solar glass, rear privacy glass, manual front sunshade and rear roof glass with power sunshade, available painted roof rails and cross bars and chrome grille, front and rear door handles and front and rear fascia accents.

Built at the same Smyrna, Tenn., plant that assembles the Infiniti JX35, Pathfinder measures 197.2 inches long, 77.2 inches wide and 69.6 inches high on a 114.2-inch wheelbase. The vehicle of-fers minimum ground clear-ance of 6.5 inches and a step-in height of 18.9 inch-es in front and 19.5 inches in the rear. Curbweight for the AWD model comes in at 4312 lbs.

Good low-end torquePathfinder gets its power

from a 3.5-liter DOHC V-6 engine that produces 260 horsepower and 240 lbs-ft of torque. With an aluminum block with cast iron cylinder liners, mated to an Xtronic CVT (Continuously Variable

Transmission), the system is EPA rated at 19 mpg in city driving and 25 mpg on the highway for the AWD con-figuration. My week of test-ing in extreme winter condi-tions garnered an average of 21.1 mpg.

In trials, Pathfinder de-livered solid passing pow-er when called upon, good low-end torque for hauling and performed well enough on a slick track to sprint from zero to 60 mph in 7.7 seconds on the way to a 15.9-second quarter-mile (hand-timed).

An independent strut front suspension with a 26 mm solid stabilizer bar, twin tube shocks with a dual-flow path and multi-link rear suspension with 26.5 mm hollow tube stabilizer bar smoothed out most road imperfections and while understeer was noticeable in quick turning, and some top wobble is apparent dur-ing twisties, Pathfinder was stable and confident during all maneuvers.

Roomy, 7-person cabinThe roomy cabin pro-

vides 42.2 inches of front headroom with 39.4 in row two and 37.8 inches in row three; legroom measures 42.3 inches in the first row with 41.7 and 30.7 in the two other rows and shoul-der room goes 60.7, 60.4 and 57.1 inches. Along with all the interior items mentioned above, the newly designed 7-passenger setup includes 6-way manual driver’s seat and manual lumbar support, 4-way manual front passen-ger seat, push button igni-tion, power windows with driver/front passenger one-touch auto and wood-toned

interior trim accents.Safety and security sys-

tems include dual-stage front supplemental air bags with seat belt sensors and an occupant classification sensor, supplemental front seat-mounted side-impact air bags, roof-mounted sup-plemental curtain air bags for side impact and rollover head protection for outboard passengers in all three rows, child safety rear door locks, tire pressure monitoring system (with standard easy fill tire alert) and brake over-ride technology.

The 2013 Nissan Path-finder starts at $28,650 for the base “S” trim and goes all the way to the Platinum Premium trim for $41,850. My test Pathfinder SL (mid-way of the six trims) started at $34,850, adding roof rails, rear view monitor, Bluetooth Hands-free Phone system, Nissan Intelligent key, fog lights, power liftgate, remote engine start and leather-ap-pointed seats to the base ve-hicle. A tow hitch receiver added $400; the SL premi-um package added $2650 for a dual panorama moonroof, Bose audio system, 120-volt

AC power outlet, tow hitch receiver and 13 speakers; splash guards added $150; hood airflow protector added $125; side window deflectors added $125; and destination and handling was $845, for a final sticker-as-tested of $38,740.

Visit www.CarlisleEvents.

com for more on the automo-tive hobby.

Mike Blake, former editor of KIT CAR magazine, joined Carlisle Events as senior au-tomotive journalist in 2004. He’s been a “car guy” since the 1960s and has been writ-ing professionally for about 30 years.

By Mike Blake

submitted photos

Above: The 2013 Nissan Pathfinder’s design is lighter than older models, increasing fuel economy to 26 miles per gallon.below: Interior features include leather-appointed seats and wood-toned trim.

the model has moved away from generic sUV to a unibody crossover.

■

the stylish new model offers a noticeably poised ride and more technology than its predecessors.

■

Autos PlusSunday, March 10, 2013 The Sentinel • E3

Geneva Motor Show

Lamborghini unveils $3.9 million car — all 3 sold by SARAH DiLORENZOAssociAted Press

GENEVA — Who buys a €3 million ($3.9 million) car? Not you.

Lamborghini’s run of the new Veneno is sold out — though it only made three.

The latest in its tradition of bespoke cars, the Veneno is the fastest, most power-ful Lamborghini ever built. At the Geneva Motor Show, where it was revealed Mon-day night, Lamborghini C EO S te p h a n Wi n ke l -mann made sure to rev the engine as he drove the car out on stage.

Rest assured, the Veneno, which is named for an infa-mous fighting bull, sounds like a Lamborghini.

But why build a car for just three people?

“It gives you a high degree of freedom in terms of the design, you can test materi-als and new technologies, it has a halo effect on the oth-er products,” said Winkel-mann. “Last but not least, you’re fulfilling dreams, at least for a few people.”

A carmaker like Lambo-rghini isn’t immune from the travails of the economy, but sales of high-end cars,

like many luxury products, have been surprisingly resil-ient. And a one-off like the Veneno creates a lot of buzz — or a halo — for the rest of the brand. Lamborghini is also part of the highly suc-cessful Volkswagen Group, which is weathering the Eu-ropean storm better than others.

Two of the buyers — both Americans — were in Ge-

neva to get their f i r s t l o o k a t the car, hav-ing signed the contract long ago.

Antoine Dominic, who is the principal in a Lambo-rghini dealership on Long Island, and Kris Singh II, a Floridian who is the managing director of in-vestment firm Tequesta In-vestments, both have col-lections of exotic cars and both plan to actually use the car.

Under the hoodPowering the Veneno is

a 12-cylinder engine and a 7-speed transmission with five different driving modes. Lamborghini says the Vene-no can reach speeds of 220 miles per hour (355 kilome-ters per hour) and acceler-ates from 0-60 mph in 2.8 seconds.

OutsideThe body is car-

bon-fiber to keep the car as light

a s p oss i b l e and allow for that quick

accelera-tion. The shape is angu-l a r a n d

muscu-lar, with cut-outs

sprinkled through-out and a back fin

that fades into the roof. The rear looks like the bottom of a rocket ship, and the car nearly kisses the ground it sits so low.

insideScissor doors open up to

reveal an interior also clad in carbon-fiber. The feel is suede-like throughout, but the dashboard has a fairly standard look. You don’t feel as if you’re about to take off.

CheersThe customers are thrilled

— though they have yet to actually get behind the wheel. “It’s rolling artwork, it’s like owning the Mona

Lisa,” said Singh. “I look forward to driving it.”

Dominic said that can be hard since it turns so many heads. He plans to take it out at 5 a.m. on a Sunday when he finally gets it.

Open questionsLamborghini is billing the

Veneno as a race car that just happens to be street legal — but how close-ly they’ve hewn to racing technology is unclear. “It sounds like they’re trying to use the cache of a racing vehicle but not go the whole way,” said Paul Newton, an analyst with I.H.S. Auto-motive.

Associated Press

The new Lambo-rghini Veneno is seen during the first media day of the 83rd Geneva International Motor Show, Switzerland, Tuesday.

Geneva Motor Show

European carmakers to get serious by SARAH DiLORENZOAssociAted Press

PARIS — The Geneva Motor Show has long had a reputation as one of the glitziest stops on the glob-al auto show circuit — the place to unveil luxury mod-els and out-of-this-world fantasy concept cars. But this year the dire state of the European auto industry will hang over the exhibition halls. Hit by fleeing cus-tomers, struggling econo-mies and idle production lines, the region’s carmak-ers need to make tough de-cisions if they are going to survive.

Paul Newton, an analyst at HIS Automotive, an in-dustry consulting firm, says no broad themes have e m e rge d a h ea d o f t h i s week’s show and no land-mark unveilings are expect-ed — a sign of the industry’s malaise and uncertainty. He argues that European auto-makers need deep restruc-turing — not just a set of flashy new wheels.

“The Koreans are tak-ing customers from some-where. And it would appear that these guys are taking customers from the mass-market, established Euro-pean players,” said Newton.

While the European fi-nancial crisis has sent un-employment soaring and led to a sustained fall in overall retail sales across the region, Europe’s auto companies were struggling even before the global fi-nancial crisis hit in 2008. They have long had far more factory floor space and em-ployees than they need to

produce the number of cars they can reasonably expect to sell.

This is reflected in the poor results of the Geneva Motor Show’s European exhibitors: Last year, Fiat’s profit fell 73 percent, while Renault’s dropped 15 per-cent. PSA Peugeot Citroen posted a record €5 bil-lion ($6.5 billion) loss. Of the major European auto groups, only Volkswagen is thriving — profit rose 41 percent in 2012, although that was less than expect-ed.

Meanwhile in the U.S., both General Motors, which will be debuting a convert-ible Corvette at the show, and Ford recorded healthy — but reduced — profits as strong sales in the U.S. cov-ered losses in Europe.

Even if Europe’s car-makers were better able to compete on a global stage, their home market is suf-fering. Car sales across Eu-rope fell for the fifth year in a row in 2012, pulling back another 7.8 percent, ac-cording to data from con-sultancy PwC. Analysts say sales probably won’t climb back to the 2007 peak be-fore at least 2020.

One reason for the poor financial performance is idle factory floors. A report by analysts Alix Partners found that at the height of production in 2007, the in-dustry in Europe was only using 83 percent of its ca-pacity. It’s expected to be around 75 percent for the next couple of years. One way carmakers in the U.S. have turned around their operations is by dealing

with their own overcapac-ity problem, shutting 18 factories in four years; Eu-rope has yet to bite the bul-let.

On top of this, building a car in Europe is more ex-pensive than in many com-petitor countries thanks to rigid labor agreements that drive up wages and offer generous benefits. Those same agreements also make it difficult to transfer jobs elsewhere.

The high costs of labor and the overcapacity at fac-tories both conspire to eat into profits — which could otherwise be re-invested in innovation and technology to capture new customers.

The only way forward, analysts say, is to become leaner by tackling uncom-petitive labor regulations and closing factories.

This may be harder in some countries than oth-ers. In recent months, for instance, the French gov-ernment and unions have fought plans by PSA Peu-geot Citroen to trim its ex-cess capacity by closing its Aulnay plant and eliminate 8,000 jobs.

“The principles behind egalite and fraternite and all the rest are great if you can afford it,” said New-ton of the generous French contracts that also hamper other European manufac-turers.

“The problem is France really can’t afford it when it’s competing with people who basically make bet-ter products at a cheaper price.”

Volkswagen, which is ex-pected to unveil a new GTI

model in Geneva, has bene-fited from Germany’s more flexible labor laws, which have helped it keep costs lower and continually push innovation. In addition to the rise in profits, the car-maker saw sales jump 21 percent last year.

Carlos Ghosn, head of the Renault-Nissan alliance, has hailed a new partner-ship with Mercedes as a way to address overcapac-ity, but said it all comes back to negotiating more flexible terms with workers. The carmaker is planning to eliminate 7,500 jobs in France over the next three years, mostly through attri-tion.

“It’s a win-win relation-ship, which allows us to in-crease the utilization rate at Renault’s factories, while keeping our partners from investing in new production capacity,” he told Le Monde in a recent interview.

Ghosn and his competitor CEO Philippe Varin of PSA will be using Geneva to per-suade the press and their customers that 2013 repre-sents a new beginning.

But as Laurent Petizon, an analyst with Alix Part-ners, stresses, if manufac-turers are going to make a new start once the current economic and industrial downturns begin to ease, they have to learn the les-sons of overcapacity and inflexibility.

“The crisis is an oppor-tunity to reform the in-dustry once and for all,” he said. “There will be growth, maybe in two years. But to capture it, you have to be healthy!”

Car Manufacturing

Can the new Corvette save GM?bRAD SCHMiTTthe NAshville ledger

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — It looks part Ferrari, part Bat-mobile. But can this super-hero save GM?

Auto industry analysts and mainstream media predict the 2014 Corvette Stingray will have all sorts of extraordinary, megastar powers.

One of them could be the power to revive a par-ent company that, less than four years ago, had the fourth-largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.

General Motors execu-tives told reporters at last month’s Detroit Auto Show - where the new Corvette completely dominated the buzz - they hope the 450-horsepower Stingray will revive the company’s image and sales.

The GM plant in Spring Hill will reap the benefits as well, building the front and rear bumpers for the storied vehicle. The company has not announced how many Spring Hill workers will be involved, but Mayor Mi-chael Dinwiddie sees prom-ise in the development.

“It will bring more jobs to support that operation,” Dinwiddie says. “We’d like to see that plant running three shifts, fully-staffed and operating as the crown jewel of General Motors in the future, so everything that goes in there helps.”

But expectations aren’t just for reviving GM. The Corvette mystique goes beyond one company, one brand.

“The ‘Vette, that most aspirational dream car for heartland buyers, may be a bellwether for America’s recovering car industry and economy: when mid-dle-class strivers feel flush enough to splurge on Cor-vettes again, the good times may be about to roll,” The New York Times gushed.

They certainly are for Bal-timore Ravens QB Joe Flac-co, who got a 2014 Corvette Stingray as his reward for being named this year’s Su-per Bowl MVP.

At the center of all this excitement, of all these high expectations, is a huge, de-cades-old assembly plant on 212 acres just off I-65 near Bowling Green, Ky., just 29 miles north of the Tennessee border.

Leading the charge - and bearing much of the weight of those heavy expecta-tions - will be plant man-ager Dave Tatman, who landed in Bowling Green af-ter working at 12 other car plants on three continents.

“The early returns from the day of the reveal to the auto show to now, dealers are telling us that people are lining up to put a deposit down on this car. We an-ticipate pretty high demand for this car,” says Tatman, who declines for “competi-tive reasons” to be specific about sales projections.

“I anticipate that we’re gonna hit the ground run-ning pretty hard, for sure. There’s an excitement for the Corvette Stingray that we haven’t seen.”

Different generation of buyers

The key to the success of the C7 (seventh-genera-tion Corvette) and its abil-ity to revitalize GM will be Chevy’s ability to make the new Stingray desirable to young, affluent buyers.

Lipscomb University business professor Andy Borchers, a graduate of General Motors Institute, says that’ll be an uphill bat-tle.

“A lot of young people these days look at environ-mental sustainability. Some are living without cars and using public transit,” Borch-ers says. “It’s a different era.

“Those who do use cars are interested in differ-ent things, like how do the electronics work? How do I connect my iPhone to this car?” he says. “So those things made the 1960s-, ‘70s-era Corvettes such a hot vehicle and society has changed.

“Being Grandpa’s per-formance vehicle is very much the concern. They would obviously like to have a younger customer base. This car is not going to do that unless they can reim-age that.”

Tatman concedes the point: “That’s absolutely true.”

But, he adds, C7 designers have included enough new toys - including two eight-inch screens, seven-speed manual transmission with active rev matching - to make it sexy to young buy-ers.

“We think obviously with the technology we’ve load-ed in the car, we hope to at-tract an entirely new demo-graphics to our car,” Tatman says.

Several auto industry crit-ics agree, with the C7 shak-ing the the car’s dated im-age.

“This autumn, the Cor-vette ditches its mullet, avi-ator glasses, and Thursday night bowling league image forever,” the New York Daily News recently wrote. “It’s all grown up now.”

Driving

Roads Scholar: New app helps keep teens safe by JEFF WOLFEdelAwAre couNty dAily times

If you are a parent of a teen driver you certainly don’t want your son or daughter driving and texting, or (even though it’s not against the law in Pennsylvania) driv-ing and talking on the cell-phone. There are enough distractions on the road outside of the vehicle as it is. Whether you’re a teen or adult driver, you shouldn’t add to the distraction list by using electronic devices in-side your vehicle.

And for sure, when you drive with your teen, he or she is most likely on their

best behavior. They know that if they drive well with mom or dad in the car, they will likely be more trusted to go out on their own.

However, we all know things can happen with-out mom or dad or anoth-er adult in the vehicle. It’s usually not a premeditated type of occurrence, but one thing leading to another. Somebody sees a picture on Twitter and everyone else in the car has seen it and is talking about it. Maybe your son or daughter just can’t resist that one quick peek. And while looking at, tex-ting on or talking on their phone while driving may not be a habit, it just takes

one moment of poor judg-ment to result in disaster.

So if your son or daughter is going out and needs your vehicle both of you want some type system in place, both to hold them account-able and to give your son or daughter proof they are keeping their word.

So, like pretty much ev-erything these days, there is an app for that. It’s called Canary and you can pro-gram it with your teen’s smartphone. Then, the app will tell you if the teen is talking or texting on the phone and how fast the car is going. The app works once the phone is in a car and does not distinguish if

your teen is the one driving or not.

Also, the program comes with a password so a teen can’t disable it quite so eas-ily. Just make sure you use a clever password, something even your tech-savvy teen can’t easily guess.

Sure, a teen can say he or she was letting some-one else in the car use their phone, and that could be a bit of a loophole here. But if you have some real concern about your teen’s ability to stay focused while behind the wheel, Canary can at least offer you some assur-ance he or she is making the right choices when you’re not in the vehicle.

Autos PlusSunday, March 10, 2013 The Sentinel • E3

Geneva Motor Show

Lamborghini unveils $3.9 million car — all 3 sold by SARAH DiLORENZOAssociAted Press

GENEVA — Who buys a €3 million ($3.9 million) car? Not you.

Lamborghini’s run of the new Veneno is sold out — though it only made three.

The latest in its tradition of bespoke cars, the Veneno is the fastest, most power-ful Lamborghini ever built. At the Geneva Motor Show, where it was revealed Mon-day night, Lamborghini C EO S te p h a n Wi n ke l -mann made sure to rev the engine as he drove the car out on stage.

Rest assured, the Veneno, which is named for an infa-mous fighting bull, sounds like a Lamborghini.

But why build a car for just three people?

“It gives you a high degree of freedom in terms of the design, you can test materi-als and new technologies, it has a halo effect on the oth-er products,” said Winkel-mann. “Last but not least, you’re fulfilling dreams, at least for a few people.”

A carmaker like Lambo-rghini isn’t immune from the travails of the economy, but sales of high-end cars,

like many luxury products, have been surprisingly resil-ient. And a one-off like the Veneno creates a lot of buzz — or a halo — for the rest of the brand. Lamborghini is also part of the highly suc-cessful Volkswagen Group, which is weathering the Eu-ropean storm better than others.

Two of the buyers — both Americans — were in Ge-

neva to get their f i r s t l o o k a t the car, hav-ing signed the contract long ago.

Antoine Dominic, who is the principal in a Lambo-rghini dealership on Long Island, and Kris Singh II, a Floridian who is the managing director of in-vestment firm Tequesta In-vestments, both have col-lections of exotic cars and both plan to actually use the car.

Under the hoodPowering the Veneno is

a 12-cylinder engine and a 7-speed transmission with five different driving modes. Lamborghini says the Vene-no can reach speeds of 220 miles per hour (355 kilome-ters per hour) and acceler-ates from 0-60 mph in 2.8 seconds.

OutsideThe body is car-

bon-fiber to keep the car as light

a s p oss i b l e and allow for that quick

accelera-tion. The shape is angu-l a r a n d

muscu-lar, with cut-outs

sprinkled through-out and a back fin

that fades into the roof. The rear looks like the bottom of a rocket ship, and the car nearly kisses the ground it sits so low.

insideScissor doors open up to

reveal an interior also clad in carbon-fiber. The feel is suede-like throughout, but the dashboard has a fairly standard look. You don’t feel as if you’re about to take off.

CheersThe customers are thrilled

— though they have yet to actually get behind the wheel. “It’s rolling artwork, it’s like owning the Mona

Lisa,” said Singh. “I look forward to driving it.”

Dominic said that can be hard since it turns so many heads. He plans to take it out at 5 a.m. on a Sunday when he finally gets it.

Open questionsLamborghini is billing the

Veneno as a race car that just happens to be street legal — but how close-ly they’ve hewn to racing technology is unclear. “It sounds like they’re trying to use the cache of a racing vehicle but not go the whole way,” said Paul Newton, an analyst with I.H.S. Auto-motive.

Associated Press

The new Lambo-rghini Veneno is seen during the first media day of the 83rd Geneva International Motor Show, Switzerland, Tuesday.

Geneva Motor Show

European carmakers to get serious by SARAH DiLORENZOAssociAted Press

PARIS — The Geneva Motor Show has long had a reputation as one of the glitziest stops on the glob-al auto show circuit — the place to unveil luxury mod-els and out-of-this-world fantasy concept cars. But this year the dire state of the European auto industry will hang over the exhibition halls. Hit by fleeing cus-tomers, struggling econo-mies and idle production lines, the region’s carmak-ers need to make tough de-cisions if they are going to survive.

Paul Newton, an analyst at HIS Automotive, an in-dustry consulting firm, says no broad themes have e m e rge d a h ea d o f t h i s week’s show and no land-mark unveilings are expect-ed — a sign of the industry’s malaise and uncertainty. He argues that European auto-makers need deep restruc-turing — not just a set of flashy new wheels.

“The Koreans are tak-ing customers from some-where. And it would appear that these guys are taking customers from the mass-market, established Euro-pean players,” said Newton.

While the European fi-nancial crisis has sent un-employment soaring and led to a sustained fall in overall retail sales across the region, Europe’s auto companies were struggling even before the global fi-nancial crisis hit in 2008. They have long had far more factory floor space and em-ployees than they need to

produce the number of cars they can reasonably expect to sell.

This is reflected in the poor results of the Geneva Motor Show’s European exhibitors: Last year, Fiat’s profit fell 73 percent, while Renault’s dropped 15 per-cent. PSA Peugeot Citroen posted a record €5 bil-lion ($6.5 billion) loss. Of the major European auto groups, only Volkswagen is thriving — profit rose 41 percent in 2012, although that was less than expect-ed.

Meanwhile in the U.S., both General Motors, which will be debuting a convert-ible Corvette at the show, and Ford recorded healthy — but reduced — profits as strong sales in the U.S. cov-ered losses in Europe.

Even if Europe’s car-makers were better able to compete on a global stage, their home market is suf-fering. Car sales across Eu-rope fell for the fifth year in a row in 2012, pulling back another 7.8 percent, ac-cording to data from con-sultancy PwC. Analysts say sales probably won’t climb back to the 2007 peak be-fore at least 2020.

One reason for the poor financial performance is idle factory floors. A report by analysts Alix Partners found that at the height of production in 2007, the in-dustry in Europe was only using 83 percent of its ca-pacity. It’s expected to be around 75 percent for the next couple of years. One way carmakers in the U.S. have turned around their operations is by dealing

with their own overcapac-ity problem, shutting 18 factories in four years; Eu-rope has yet to bite the bul-let.

On top of this, building a car in Europe is more ex-pensive than in many com-petitor countries thanks to rigid labor agreements that drive up wages and offer generous benefits. Those same agreements also make it difficult to transfer jobs elsewhere.

The high costs of labor and the overcapacity at fac-tories both conspire to eat into profits — which could otherwise be re-invested in innovation and technology to capture new customers.

The only way forward, analysts say, is to become leaner by tackling uncom-petitive labor regulations and closing factories.

This may be harder in some countries than oth-ers. In recent months, for instance, the French gov-ernment and unions have fought plans by PSA Peu-geot Citroen to trim its ex-cess capacity by closing its Aulnay plant and eliminate 8,000 jobs.

“The principles behind egalite and fraternite and all the rest are great if you can afford it,” said New-ton of the generous French contracts that also hamper other European manufac-turers.

“The problem is France really can’t afford it when it’s competing with people who basically make bet-ter products at a cheaper price.”

Volkswagen, which is ex-pected to unveil a new GTI

model in Geneva, has bene-fited from Germany’s more flexible labor laws, which have helped it keep costs lower and continually push innovation. In addition to the rise in profits, the car-maker saw sales jump 21 percent last year.

Carlos Ghosn, head of the Renault-Nissan alliance, has hailed a new partner-ship with Mercedes as a way to address overcapac-ity, but said it all comes back to negotiating more flexible terms with workers. The carmaker is planning to eliminate 7,500 jobs in France over the next three years, mostly through attri-tion.

“It’s a win-win relation-ship, which allows us to in-crease the utilization rate at Renault’s factories, while keeping our partners from investing in new production capacity,” he told Le Monde in a recent interview.

Ghosn and his competitor CEO Philippe Varin of PSA will be using Geneva to per-suade the press and their customers that 2013 repre-sents a new beginning.

But as Laurent Petizon, an analyst with Alix Part-ners, stresses, if manufac-turers are going to make a new start once the current economic and industrial downturns begin to ease, they have to learn the les-sons of overcapacity and inflexibility.

“The crisis is an oppor-tunity to reform the in-dustry once and for all,” he said. “There will be growth, maybe in two years. But to capture it, you have to be healthy!”

Car Manufacturing

Can the new Corvette save GM?bRAD SCHMiTTthe NAshville ledger

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — It looks part Ferrari, part Bat-mobile. But can this super-hero save GM?

Auto industry analysts and mainstream media predict the 2014 Corvette Stingray will have all sorts of extraordinary, megastar powers.

One of them could be the power to revive a par-ent company that, less than four years ago, had the fourth-largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.

General Motors execu-tives told reporters at last month’s Detroit Auto Show - where the new Corvette completely dominated the buzz - they hope the 450-horsepower Stingray will revive the company’s image and sales.

The GM plant in Spring Hill will reap the benefits as well, building the front and rear bumpers for the storied vehicle. The company has not announced how many Spring Hill workers will be involved, but Mayor Mi-chael Dinwiddie sees prom-ise in the development.

“It will bring more jobs to support that operation,” Dinwiddie says. “We’d like to see that plant running three shifts, fully-staffed and operating as the crown jewel of General Motors in the future, so everything that goes in there helps.”

But expectations aren’t just for reviving GM. The Corvette mystique goes beyond one company, one brand.

“The ‘Vette, that most aspirational dream car for heartland buyers, may be a bellwether for America’s recovering car industry and economy: when mid-dle-class strivers feel flush enough to splurge on Cor-vettes again, the good times may be about to roll,” The New York Times gushed.

They certainly are for Bal-timore Ravens QB Joe Flac-co, who got a 2014 Corvette Stingray as his reward for being named this year’s Su-per Bowl MVP.

At the center of all this excitement, of all these high expectations, is a huge, de-cades-old assembly plant on 212 acres just off I-65 near Bowling Green, Ky., just 29 miles north of the Tennessee border.

Leading the charge - and bearing much of the weight of those heavy expecta-tions - will be plant man-ager Dave Tatman, who landed in Bowling Green af-ter working at 12 other car plants on three continents.

“The early returns from the day of the reveal to the auto show to now, dealers are telling us that people are lining up to put a deposit down on this car. We an-ticipate pretty high demand for this car,” says Tatman, who declines for “competi-tive reasons” to be specific about sales projections.

“I anticipate that we’re gonna hit the ground run-ning pretty hard, for sure. There’s an excitement for the Corvette Stingray that we haven’t seen.”

Different generation of buyers

The key to the success of the C7 (seventh-genera-tion Corvette) and its abil-ity to revitalize GM will be Chevy’s ability to make the new Stingray desirable to young, affluent buyers.

Lipscomb University business professor Andy Borchers, a graduate of General Motors Institute, says that’ll be an uphill bat-tle.

“A lot of young people these days look at environ-mental sustainability. Some are living without cars and using public transit,” Borch-ers says. “It’s a different era.

“Those who do use cars are interested in differ-ent things, like how do the electronics work? How do I connect my iPhone to this car?” he says. “So those things made the 1960s-, ‘70s-era Corvettes such a hot vehicle and society has changed.

“Being Grandpa’s per-formance vehicle is very much the concern. They would obviously like to have a younger customer base. This car is not going to do that unless they can reim-age that.”

Tatman concedes the point: “That’s absolutely true.”

But, he adds, C7 designers have included enough new toys - including two eight-inch screens, seven-speed manual transmission with active rev matching - to make it sexy to young buy-ers.

“We think obviously with the technology we’ve load-ed in the car, we hope to at-tract an entirely new demo-graphics to our car,” Tatman says.

Several auto industry crit-ics agree, with the C7 shak-ing the the car’s dated im-age.

“This autumn, the Cor-vette ditches its mullet, avi-ator glasses, and Thursday night bowling league image forever,” the New York Daily News recently wrote. “It’s all grown up now.”

Driving

Roads Scholar: New app helps keep teens safe by JEFF WOLFEdelAwAre couNty dAily times

If you are a parent of a teen driver you certainly don’t want your son or daughter driving and texting, or (even though it’s not against the law in Pennsylvania) driv-ing and talking on the cell-phone. There are enough distractions on the road outside of the vehicle as it is. Whether you’re a teen or adult driver, you shouldn’t add to the distraction list by using electronic devices in-side your vehicle.

And for sure, when you drive with your teen, he or she is most likely on their

best behavior. They know that if they drive well with mom or dad in the car, they will likely be more trusted to go out on their own.

However, we all know things can happen with-out mom or dad or anoth-er adult in the vehicle. It’s usually not a premeditated type of occurrence, but one thing leading to another. Somebody sees a picture on Twitter and everyone else in the car has seen it and is talking about it. Maybe your son or daughter just can’t resist that one quick peek. And while looking at, tex-ting on or talking on their phone while driving may not be a habit, it just takes

one moment of poor judg-ment to result in disaster.

So if your son or daughter is going out and needs your vehicle both of you want some type system in place, both to hold them account-able and to give your son or daughter proof they are keeping their word.

So, like pretty much ev-erything these days, there is an app for that. It’s called Canary and you can pro-gram it with your teen’s smartphone. Then, the app will tell you if the teen is talking or texting on the phone and how fast the car is going. The app works once the phone is in a car and does not distinguish if

your teen is the one driving or not.

Also, the program comes with a password so a teen can’t disable it quite so eas-ily. Just make sure you use a clever password, something even your tech-savvy teen can’t easily guess.

Sure, a teen can say he or she was letting some-one else in the car use their phone, and that could be a bit of a loophole here. But if you have some real concern about your teen’s ability to stay focused while behind the wheel, Canary can at least offer you some assur-ance he or she is making the right choices when you’re not in the vehicle.

Autos PlusSunday, March 10, 2013 The Sentinel • E3

Geneva Motor Show

Lamborghini unveils $3.9 million car — all 3 sold by SARAH DiLORENZOAssociAted Press

GENEVA — Who buys a €3 million ($3.9 million) car? Not you.

Lamborghini’s run of the new Veneno is sold out — though it only made three.

The latest in its tradition of bespoke cars, the Veneno is the fastest, most power-ful Lamborghini ever built. At the Geneva Motor Show, where it was revealed Mon-day night, Lamborghini C EO S te p h a n Wi n ke l -mann made sure to rev the engine as he drove the car out on stage.

Rest assured, the Veneno, which is named for an infa-mous fighting bull, sounds like a Lamborghini.

But why build a car for just three people?

“It gives you a high degree of freedom in terms of the design, you can test materi-als and new technologies, it has a halo effect on the oth-er products,” said Winkel-mann. “Last but not least, you’re fulfilling dreams, at least for a few people.”

A carmaker like Lambo-rghini isn’t immune from the travails of the economy, but sales of high-end cars,

like many luxury products, have been surprisingly resil-ient. And a one-off like the Veneno creates a lot of buzz — or a halo — for the rest of the brand. Lamborghini is also part of the highly suc-cessful Volkswagen Group, which is weathering the Eu-ropean storm better than others.

Two of the buyers — both Americans — were in Ge-

neva to get their f i r s t l o o k a t the car, hav-ing signed the contract long ago.

Antoine Dominic, who is the principal in a Lambo-rghini dealership on Long Island, and Kris Singh II, a Floridian who is the managing director of in-vestment firm Tequesta In-vestments, both have col-lections of exotic cars and both plan to actually use the car.

Under the hoodPowering the Veneno is

a 12-cylinder engine and a 7-speed transmission with five different driving modes. Lamborghini says the Vene-no can reach speeds of 220 miles per hour (355 kilome-ters per hour) and acceler-ates from 0-60 mph in 2.8 seconds.

OutsideThe body is car-

bon-fiber to keep the car as light

a s p oss i b l e and allow for that quick

accelera-tion. The shape is angu-l a r a n d

muscu-lar, with cut-outs

sprinkled through-out and a back fin

that fades into the roof. The rear looks like the bottom of a rocket ship, and the car nearly kisses the ground it sits so low.

insideScissor doors open up to

reveal an interior also clad in carbon-fiber. The feel is suede-like throughout, but the dashboard has a fairly standard look. You don’t feel as if you’re about to take off.

CheersThe customers are thrilled

— though they have yet to actually get behind the wheel. “It’s rolling artwork, it’s like owning the Mona

Lisa,” said Singh. “I look forward to driving it.”

Dominic said that can be hard since it turns so many heads. He plans to take it out at 5 a.m. on a Sunday when he finally gets it.

Open questionsLamborghini is billing the

Veneno as a race car that just happens to be street legal — but how close-ly they’ve hewn to racing technology is unclear. “It sounds like they’re trying to use the cache of a racing vehicle but not go the whole way,” said Paul Newton, an analyst with I.H.S. Auto-motive.

Associated Press

The new Lambo-rghini Veneno is seen during the first media day of the 83rd Geneva International Motor Show, Switzerland, Tuesday.

Geneva Motor Show

European carmakers to get serious by SARAH DiLORENZOAssociAted Press

PARIS — The Geneva Motor Show has long had a reputation as one of the glitziest stops on the glob-al auto show circuit — the place to unveil luxury mod-els and out-of-this-world fantasy concept cars. But this year the dire state of the European auto industry will hang over the exhibition halls. Hit by fleeing cus-tomers, struggling econo-mies and idle production lines, the region’s carmak-ers need to make tough de-cisions if they are going to survive.

Paul Newton, an analyst at HIS Automotive, an in-dustry consulting firm, says no broad themes have e m e rge d a h ea d o f t h i s week’s show and no land-mark unveilings are expect-ed — a sign of the industry’s malaise and uncertainty. He argues that European auto-makers need deep restruc-turing — not just a set of flashy new wheels.

“The Koreans are tak-ing customers from some-where. And it would appear that these guys are taking customers from the mass-market, established Euro-pean players,” said Newton.

While the European fi-nancial crisis has sent un-employment soaring and led to a sustained fall in overall retail sales across the region, Europe’s auto companies were struggling even before the global fi-nancial crisis hit in 2008. They have long had far more factory floor space and em-ployees than they need to

produce the number of cars they can reasonably expect to sell.

This is reflected in the poor results of the Geneva Motor Show’s European exhibitors: Last year, Fiat’s profit fell 73 percent, while Renault’s dropped 15 per-cent. PSA Peugeot Citroen posted a record €5 bil-lion ($6.5 billion) loss. Of the major European auto groups, only Volkswagen is thriving — profit rose 41 percent in 2012, although that was less than expect-ed.

Meanwhile in the U.S., both General Motors, which will be debuting a convert-ible Corvette at the show, and Ford recorded healthy — but reduced — profits as strong sales in the U.S. cov-ered losses in Europe.

Even if Europe’s car-makers were better able to compete on a global stage, their home market is suf-fering. Car sales across Eu-rope fell for the fifth year in a row in 2012, pulling back another 7.8 percent, ac-cording to data from con-sultancy PwC. Analysts say sales probably won’t climb back to the 2007 peak be-fore at least 2020.

One reason for the poor financial performance is idle factory floors. A report by analysts Alix Partners found that at the height of production in 2007, the in-dustry in Europe was only using 83 percent of its ca-pacity. It’s expected to be around 75 percent for the next couple of years. One way carmakers in the U.S. have turned around their operations is by dealing

with their own overcapac-ity problem, shutting 18 factories in four years; Eu-rope has yet to bite the bul-let.

On top of this, building a car in Europe is more ex-pensive than in many com-petitor countries thanks to rigid labor agreements that drive up wages and offer generous benefits. Those same agreements also make it difficult to transfer jobs elsewhere.

The high costs of labor and the overcapacity at fac-tories both conspire to eat into profits — which could otherwise be re-invested in innovation and technology to capture new customers.

The only way forward, analysts say, is to become leaner by tackling uncom-petitive labor regulations and closing factories.

This may be harder in some countries than oth-ers. In recent months, for instance, the French gov-ernment and unions have fought plans by PSA Peu-geot Citroen to trim its ex-cess capacity by closing its Aulnay plant and eliminate 8,000 jobs.

“The principles behind egalite and fraternite and all the rest are great if you can afford it,” said New-ton of the generous French contracts that also hamper other European manufac-turers.

“The problem is France really can’t afford it when it’s competing with people who basically make bet-ter products at a cheaper price.”

Volkswagen, which is ex-pected to unveil a new GTI

model in Geneva, has bene-fited from Germany’s more flexible labor laws, which have helped it keep costs lower and continually push innovation. In addition to the rise in profits, the car-maker saw sales jump 21 percent last year.

Carlos Ghosn, head of the Renault-Nissan alliance, has hailed a new partner-ship with Mercedes as a way to address overcapac-ity, but said it all comes back to negotiating more flexible terms with workers. The carmaker is planning to eliminate 7,500 jobs in France over the next three years, mostly through attri-tion.

“It’s a win-win relation-ship, which allows us to in-crease the utilization rate at Renault’s factories, while keeping our partners from investing in new production capacity,” he told Le Monde in a recent interview.

Ghosn and his competitor CEO Philippe Varin of PSA will be using Geneva to per-suade the press and their customers that 2013 repre-sents a new beginning.

But as Laurent Petizon, an analyst with Alix Part-ners, stresses, if manufac-turers are going to make a new start once the current economic and industrial downturns begin to ease, they have to learn the les-sons of overcapacity and inflexibility.

“The crisis is an oppor-tunity to reform the in-dustry once and for all,” he said. “There will be growth, maybe in two years. But to capture it, you have to be healthy!”

Car Manufacturing

Can the new Corvette save GM?bRAD SCHMiTTthe NAshville ledger

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — It looks part Ferrari, part Bat-mobile. But can this super-hero save GM?

Auto industry analysts and mainstream media predict the 2014 Corvette Stingray will have all sorts of extraordinary, megastar powers.

One of them could be the power to revive a par-ent company that, less than four years ago, had the fourth-largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.

General Motors execu-tives told reporters at last month’s Detroit Auto Show - where the new Corvette completely dominated the buzz - they hope the 450-horsepower Stingray will revive the company’s image and sales.

The GM plant in Spring Hill will reap the benefits as well, building the front and rear bumpers for the storied vehicle. The company has not announced how many Spring Hill workers will be involved, but Mayor Mi-chael Dinwiddie sees prom-ise in the development.

“It will bring more jobs to support that operation,” Dinwiddie says. “We’d like to see that plant running three shifts, fully-staffed and operating as the crown jewel of General Motors in the future, so everything that goes in there helps.”

But expectations aren’t just for reviving GM. The Corvette mystique goes beyond one company, one brand.

“The ‘Vette, that most aspirational dream car for heartland buyers, may be a bellwether for America’s recovering car industry and economy: when mid-dle-class strivers feel flush enough to splurge on Cor-vettes again, the good times may be about to roll,” The New York Times gushed.

They certainly are for Bal-timore Ravens QB Joe Flac-co, who got a 2014 Corvette Stingray as his reward for being named this year’s Su-per Bowl MVP.

At the center of all this excitement, of all these high expectations, is a huge, de-cades-old assembly plant on 212 acres just off I-65 near Bowling Green, Ky., just 29 miles north of the Tennessee border.

Leading the charge - and bearing much of the weight of those heavy expecta-tions - will be plant man-ager Dave Tatman, who landed in Bowling Green af-ter working at 12 other car plants on three continents.

“The early returns from the day of the reveal to the auto show to now, dealers are telling us that people are lining up to put a deposit down on this car. We an-ticipate pretty high demand for this car,” says Tatman, who declines for “competi-tive reasons” to be specific about sales projections.

“I anticipate that we’re gonna hit the ground run-ning pretty hard, for sure. There’s an excitement for the Corvette Stingray that we haven’t seen.”

Different generation of buyers

The key to the success of the C7 (seventh-genera-tion Corvette) and its abil-ity to revitalize GM will be Chevy’s ability to make the new Stingray desirable to young, affluent buyers.

Lipscomb University business professor Andy Borchers, a graduate of General Motors Institute, says that’ll be an uphill bat-tle.

“A lot of young people these days look at environ-mental sustainability. Some are living without cars and using public transit,” Borch-ers says. “It’s a different era.

“Those who do use cars are interested in differ-ent things, like how do the electronics work? How do I connect my iPhone to this car?” he says. “So those things made the 1960s-, ‘70s-era Corvettes such a hot vehicle and society has changed.

“Being Grandpa’s per-formance vehicle is very much the concern. They would obviously like to have a younger customer base. This car is not going to do that unless they can reim-age that.”

Tatman concedes the point: “That’s absolutely true.”

But, he adds, C7 designers have included enough new toys - including two eight-inch screens, seven-speed manual transmission with active rev matching - to make it sexy to young buy-ers.

“We think obviously with the technology we’ve load-ed in the car, we hope to at-tract an entirely new demo-graphics to our car,” Tatman says.

Several auto industry crit-ics agree, with the C7 shak-ing the the car’s dated im-age.

“This autumn, the Cor-vette ditches its mullet, avi-ator glasses, and Thursday night bowling league image forever,” the New York Daily News recently wrote. “It’s all grown up now.”

Driving

Roads Scholar: New app helps keep teens safe by JEFF WOLFEdelAwAre couNty dAily times

If you are a parent of a teen driver you certainly don’t want your son or daughter driving and texting, or (even though it’s not against the law in Pennsylvania) driv-ing and talking on the cell-phone. There are enough distractions on the road outside of the vehicle as it is. Whether you’re a teen or adult driver, you shouldn’t add to the distraction list by using electronic devices in-side your vehicle.

And for sure, when you drive with your teen, he or she is most likely on their

best behavior. They know that if they drive well with mom or dad in the car, they will likely be more trusted to go out on their own.

However, we all know things can happen with-out mom or dad or anoth-er adult in the vehicle. It’s usually not a premeditated type of occurrence, but one thing leading to another. Somebody sees a picture on Twitter and everyone else in the car has seen it and is talking about it. Maybe your son or daughter just can’t resist that one quick peek. And while looking at, tex-ting on or talking on their phone while driving may not be a habit, it just takes

one moment of poor judg-ment to result in disaster.

So if your son or daughter is going out and needs your vehicle both of you want some type system in place, both to hold them account-able and to give your son or daughter proof they are keeping their word.

So, like pretty much ev-erything these days, there is an app for that. It’s called Canary and you can pro-gram it with your teen’s smartphone. Then, the app will tell you if the teen is talking or texting on the phone and how fast the car is going. The app works once the phone is in a car and does not distinguish if

your teen is the one driving or not.

Also, the program comes with a password so a teen can’t disable it quite so eas-ily. Just make sure you use a clever password, something even your tech-savvy teen can’t easily guess.

Sure, a teen can say he or she was letting some-one else in the car use their phone, and that could be a bit of a loophole here. But if you have some real concern about your teen’s ability to stay focused while behind the wheel, Canary can at least offer you some assur-ance he or she is making the right choices when you’re not in the vehicle.

Autos PlusSunday, March 10, 2013 The Sentinel • E3

Geneva Motor Show

Lamborghini unveils $3.9 million car — all 3 sold by SARAH DiLORENZOAssociAted Press

GENEVA — Who buys a €3 million ($3.9 million) car? Not you.

Lamborghini’s run of the new Veneno is sold out — though it only made three.

The latest in its tradition of bespoke cars, the Veneno is the fastest, most power-ful Lamborghini ever built. At the Geneva Motor Show, where it was revealed Mon-day night, Lamborghini C EO S te p h a n Wi n ke l -mann made sure to rev the engine as he drove the car out on stage.

Rest assured, the Veneno, which is named for an infa-mous fighting bull, sounds like a Lamborghini.

But why build a car for just three people?

“It gives you a high degree of freedom in terms of the design, you can test materi-als and new technologies, it has a halo effect on the oth-er products,” said Winkel-mann. “Last but not least, you’re fulfilling dreams, at least for a few people.”

A carmaker like Lambo-rghini isn’t immune from the travails of the economy, but sales of high-end cars,

like many luxury products, have been surprisingly resil-ient. And a one-off like the Veneno creates a lot of buzz — or a halo — for the rest of the brand. Lamborghini is also part of the highly suc-cessful Volkswagen Group, which is weathering the Eu-ropean storm better than others.

Two of the buyers — both Americans — were in Ge-

neva to get their f i r s t l o o k a t the car, hav-ing signed the contract long ago.

Antoine Dominic, who is the principal in a Lambo-rghini dealership on Long Island, and Kris Singh II, a Floridian who is the managing director of in-vestment firm Tequesta In-vestments, both have col-lections of exotic cars and both plan to actually use the car.

Under the hoodPowering the Veneno is

a 12-cylinder engine and a 7-speed transmission with five different driving modes. Lamborghini says the Vene-no can reach speeds of 220 miles per hour (355 kilome-ters per hour) and acceler-ates from 0-60 mph in 2.8 seconds.

OutsideThe body is car-

bon-fiber to keep the car as light

a s p oss i b l e and allow for that quick

accelera-tion. The shape is angu-l a r a n d

muscu-lar, with cut-outs

sprinkled through-out and a back fin

that fades into the roof. The rear looks like the bottom of a rocket ship, and the car nearly kisses the ground it sits so low.

insideScissor doors open up to

reveal an interior also clad in carbon-fiber. The feel is suede-like throughout, but the dashboard has a fairly standard look. You don’t feel as if you’re about to take off.

CheersThe customers are thrilled

— though they have yet to actually get behind the wheel. “It’s rolling artwork, it’s like owning the Mona

Lisa,” said Singh. “I look forward to driving it.”

Dominic said that can be hard since it turns so many heads. He plans to take it out at 5 a.m. on a Sunday when he finally gets it.

Open questionsLamborghini is billing the

Veneno as a race car that just happens to be street legal — but how close-ly they’ve hewn to racing technology is unclear. “It sounds like they’re trying to use the cache of a racing vehicle but not go the whole way,” said Paul Newton, an analyst with I.H.S. Auto-motive.

Associated Press

The new Lambo-rghini Veneno is seen during the first media day of the 83rd Geneva International Motor Show, Switzerland, Tuesday.

Geneva Motor Show

European carmakers to get serious by SARAH DiLORENZOAssociAted Press

PARIS — The Geneva Motor Show has long had a reputation as one of the glitziest stops on the glob-al auto show circuit — the place to unveil luxury mod-els and out-of-this-world fantasy concept cars. But this year the dire state of the European auto industry will hang over the exhibition halls. Hit by fleeing cus-tomers, struggling econo-mies and idle production lines, the region’s carmak-ers need to make tough de-cisions if they are going to survive.

Paul Newton, an analyst at HIS Automotive, an in-dustry consulting firm, says no broad themes have e m e rge d a h ea d o f t h i s week’s show and no land-mark unveilings are expect-ed — a sign of the industry’s malaise and uncertainty. He argues that European auto-makers need deep restruc-turing — not just a set of flashy new wheels.

“The Koreans are tak-ing customers from some-where. And it would appear that these guys are taking customers from the mass-market, established Euro-pean players,” said Newton.

While the European fi-nancial crisis has sent un-employment soaring and led to a sustained fall in overall retail sales across the region, Europe’s auto companies were struggling even before the global fi-nancial crisis hit in 2008. They have long had far more factory floor space and em-ployees than they need to

produce the number of cars they can reasonably expect to sell.

This is reflected in the poor results of the Geneva Motor Show’s European exhibitors: Last year, Fiat’s profit fell 73 percent, while Renault’s dropped 15 per-cent. PSA Peugeot Citroen posted a record €5 bil-lion ($6.5 billion) loss. Of the major European auto groups, only Volkswagen is thriving — profit rose 41 percent in 2012, although that was less than expect-ed.

Meanwhile in the U.S., both General Motors, which will be debuting a convert-ible Corvette at the show, and Ford recorded healthy — but reduced — profits as strong sales in the U.S. cov-ered losses in Europe.

Even if Europe’s car-makers were better able to compete on a global stage, their home market is suf-fering. Car sales across Eu-rope fell for the fifth year in a row in 2012, pulling back another 7.8 percent, ac-cording to data from con-sultancy PwC. Analysts say sales probably won’t climb back to the 2007 peak be-fore at least 2020.

One reason for the poor financial performance is idle factory floors. A report by analysts Alix Partners found that at the height of production in 2007, the in-dustry in Europe was only using 83 percent of its ca-pacity. It’s expected to be around 75 percent for the next couple of years. One way carmakers in the U.S. have turned around their operations is by dealing

with their own overcapac-ity problem, shutting 18 factories in four years; Eu-rope has yet to bite the bul-let.

On top of this, building a car in Europe is more ex-pensive than in many com-petitor countries thanks to rigid labor agreements that drive up wages and offer generous benefits. Those same agreements also make it difficult to transfer jobs elsewhere.

The high costs of labor and the overcapacity at fac-tories both conspire to eat into profits — which could otherwise be re-invested in innovation and technology to capture new customers.

The only way forward, analysts say, is to become leaner by tackling uncom-petitive labor regulations and closing factories.

This may be harder in some countries than oth-ers. In recent months, for instance, the French gov-ernment and unions have fought plans by PSA Peu-geot Citroen to trim its ex-cess capacity by closing its Aulnay plant and eliminate 8,000 jobs.

“The principles behind egalite and fraternite and all the rest are great if you can afford it,” said New-ton of the generous French contracts that also hamper other European manufac-turers.

“The problem is France really can’t afford it when it’s competing with people who basically make bet-ter products at a cheaper price.”

Volkswagen, which is ex-pected to unveil a new GTI

model in Geneva, has bene-fited from Germany’s more flexible labor laws, which have helped it keep costs lower and continually push innovation. In addition to the rise in profits, the car-maker saw sales jump 21 percent last year.

Carlos Ghosn, head of the Renault-Nissan alliance, has hailed a new partner-ship with Mercedes as a way to address overcapac-ity, but said it all comes back to negotiating more flexible terms with workers. The carmaker is planning to eliminate 7,500 jobs in France over the next three years, mostly through attri-tion.

“It’s a win-win relation-ship, which allows us to in-crease the utilization rate at Renault’s factories, while keeping our partners from investing in new production capacity,” he told Le Monde in a recent interview.

Ghosn and his competitor CEO Philippe Varin of PSA will be using Geneva to per-suade the press and their customers that 2013 repre-sents a new beginning.

But as Laurent Petizon, an analyst with Alix Part-ners, stresses, if manufac-turers are going to make a new start once the current economic and industrial downturns begin to ease, they have to learn the les-sons of overcapacity and inflexibility.

“The crisis is an oppor-tunity to reform the in-dustry once and for all,” he said. “There will be growth, maybe in two years. But to capture it, you have to be healthy!”

Car Manufacturing

Can the new Corvette save GM?bRAD SCHMiTTthe NAshville ledger

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — It looks part Ferrari, part Bat-mobile. But can this super-hero save GM?

Auto industry analysts and mainstream media predict the 2014 Corvette Stingray will have all sorts of extraordinary, megastar powers.

One of them could be the power to revive a par-ent company that, less than four years ago, had the fourth-largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.

General Motors execu-tives told reporters at last month’s Detroit Auto Show - where the new Corvette completely dominated the buzz - they hope the 450-horsepower Stingray will revive the company’s image and sales.

The GM plant in Spring Hill will reap the benefits as well, building the front and rear bumpers for the storied vehicle. The company has not announced how many Spring Hill workers will be involved, but Mayor Mi-chael Dinwiddie sees prom-ise in the development.

“It will bring more jobs to support that operation,” Dinwiddie says. “We’d like to see that plant running three shifts, fully-staffed and operating as the crown jewel of General Motors in the future, so everything that goes in there helps.”

But expectations aren’t just for reviving GM. The Corvette mystique goes beyond one company, one brand.

“The ‘Vette, that most aspirational dream car for heartland buyers, may be a bellwether for America’s recovering car industry and economy: when mid-dle-class strivers feel flush enough to splurge on Cor-vettes again, the good times may be about to roll,” The New York Times gushed.

They certainly are for Bal-timore Ravens QB Joe Flac-co, who got a 2014 Corvette Stingray as his reward for being named this year’s Su-per Bowl MVP.

At the center of all this excitement, of all these high expectations, is a huge, de-cades-old assembly plant on 212 acres just off I-65 near Bowling Green, Ky., just 29 miles north of the Tennessee border.

Leading the charge - and bearing much of the weight of those heavy expecta-tions - will be plant man-ager Dave Tatman, who landed in Bowling Green af-ter working at 12 other car plants on three continents.

“The early returns from the day of the reveal to the auto show to now, dealers are telling us that people are lining up to put a deposit down on this car. We an-ticipate pretty high demand for this car,” says Tatman, who declines for “competi-tive reasons” to be specific about sales projections.

“I anticipate that we’re gonna hit the ground run-ning pretty hard, for sure. There’s an excitement for the Corvette Stingray that we haven’t seen.”

Different generation of buyers

The key to the success of the C7 (seventh-genera-tion Corvette) and its abil-ity to revitalize GM will be Chevy’s ability to make the new Stingray desirable to young, affluent buyers.

Lipscomb University business professor Andy Borchers, a graduate of General Motors Institute, says that’ll be an uphill bat-tle.

“A lot of young people these days look at environ-mental sustainability. Some are living without cars and using public transit,” Borch-ers says. “It’s a different era.

“Those who do use cars are interested in differ-ent things, like how do the electronics work? How do I connect my iPhone to this car?” he says. “So those things made the 1960s-, ‘70s-era Corvettes such a hot vehicle and society has changed.

“Being Grandpa’s per-formance vehicle is very much the concern. They would obviously like to have a younger customer base. This car is not going to do that unless they can reim-age that.”

Tatman concedes the point: “That’s absolutely true.”

But, he adds, C7 designers have included enough new toys - including two eight-inch screens, seven-speed manual transmission with active rev matching - to make it sexy to young buy-ers.

“We think obviously with the technology we’ve load-ed in the car, we hope to at-tract an entirely new demo-graphics to our car,” Tatman says.

Several auto industry crit-ics agree, with the C7 shak-ing the the car’s dated im-age.

“This autumn, the Cor-vette ditches its mullet, avi-ator glasses, and Thursday night bowling league image forever,” the New York Daily News recently wrote. “It’s all grown up now.”

Driving

Roads Scholar: New app helps keep teens safe by JEFF WOLFEdelAwAre couNty dAily times

If you are a parent of a teen driver you certainly don’t want your son or daughter driving and texting, or (even though it’s not against the law in Pennsylvania) driv-ing and talking on the cell-phone. There are enough distractions on the road outside of the vehicle as it is. Whether you’re a teen or adult driver, you shouldn’t add to the distraction list by using electronic devices in-side your vehicle.

And for sure, when you drive with your teen, he or she is most likely on their

best behavior. They know that if they drive well with mom or dad in the car, they will likely be more trusted to go out on their own.

However, we all know things can happen with-out mom or dad or anoth-er adult in the vehicle. It’s usually not a premeditated type of occurrence, but one thing leading to another. Somebody sees a picture on Twitter and everyone else in the car has seen it and is talking about it. Maybe your son or daughter just can’t resist that one quick peek. And while looking at, tex-ting on or talking on their phone while driving may not be a habit, it just takes

one moment of poor judg-ment to result in disaster.

So if your son or daughter is going out and needs your vehicle both of you want some type system in place, both to hold them account-able and to give your son or daughter proof they are keeping their word.

So, like pretty much ev-erything these days, there is an app for that. It’s called Canary and you can pro-gram it with your teen’s smartphone. Then, the app will tell you if the teen is talking or texting on the phone and how fast the car is going. The app works once the phone is in a car and does not distinguish if

your teen is the one driving or not.

Also, the program comes with a password so a teen can’t disable it quite so eas-ily. Just make sure you use a clever password, something even your tech-savvy teen can’t easily guess.

Sure, a teen can say he or she was letting some-one else in the car use their phone, and that could be a bit of a loophole here. But if you have some real concern about your teen’s ability to stay focused while behind the wheel, Canary can at least offer you some assur-ance he or she is making the right choices when you’re not in the vehicle.

Autos PlusE4 • The Sentinel Sunday, March 10, 2013

[lō•k l]

The Sentinelw w w . c u m b e r l i n k . c o m

e

CASHFOR

CARS!!!!!!Buying Cars,

Trucks, Tractors, Buses, ATVs, RVs, Motorcycles & Heavy Equip.Also offering Business & Industrial

Clean-Outs!Call Barrick’s Towing

717-386-4888

CADILLAC, 2006 DTS Luxury Collection: Leather, power windows & heated/cooled seats, cruise, CD, XM, rear park assist, remote start.

Stock #63001A. SALE PRICE... $14,995!888-532-2121

or view ourfull inventory at:

www.hhchev.com

Autos880

HONDA, 2009 OdysseyWhite/tan,74k miles.

Stock #LX17383A $19,988

1-800-778-0850www.bobbyrahallexus.com

FORD, 1993 Sentaurus High-Top LTD. Like new! CD, DVD, TV, new tires, power bed. $3,900. 249-6551.

Vans870

471 E. NORTH STREET, CARLISLE

249-5418

www.martysinc.com

08 Ford Taurus SEL...........................................................$9,99505Chevy CobaltAT, 1Owner........................................$7,59505 Ford Focus Zx5 SE 1Owner................................$6,99504DodgeGrandCaravan SXT............................$8,99504Hyundai AccentAT....................................................$6,09504Kia OptimaAT...................................................................$6,59503 JeepGr. Cherokee Laredo1Owner..........$9,09503 Ford Focus SdnAT......................................................$6,09503 Toyota Camry LEAT..................................................$9,59503Chevy Cavalier CpeAT, 1Owner.....................$6,59503 Ford Focus CPAT, 1Owner....................................$5,99503HondaCRV AT..................................................................$9,59501 Saturn SL1AT....................................................................$4,59501 Ford Focus SESW, Auto...........................................$5,09500 Ford Focus ZTSLeather, 79K ...............................$6,29599 Ford EscortAT, 86K......................................................$4,495

“Cleanest Cars in Town”Since 1953!

THANK YOU...FOR YOUR

CONTINUED SUPPORT

CELEBRATING

60 YEARS!

CHEVY, 2011 Silverado Crew Cab 4x4V8, auto., A/C, CD, cruise, 1 owner. GM Certified. Bought new at H&H.

Stock #72018A. SALE PRICE... $26,995!1-888-532-2121 Full inventory at: www.hhchev.com

hunting for a

home?Check the

classifi ed section fi rstSavvy home shoppers reach for the classifi edads before they hit the streets. The newspaper classifi ed section offers everything they need to make an informal purchasing decision.

Want to make a move?Check the classifi ed ads fi rst.

the fi rst place to look for everything

LEXUS, 2002 ES300Silver/black,97k miles.

Stock #LXP796$10,388

1-800-778-0850www.bobbyrahallexus.com

VW, 2007 Rabbit,72.5k,2 door, grey,1 owner, local car, all VW dealer maintenance. Runs great! $8,250. For sale by owner, 717-713-4333.

CHEVY, 2009 Silverado Crew Cab 4x4V8, auto., A/C, power windows & seat, CD,

XM, OnStar, tow package, 1 owner. Bought new at H&H. Stock #72231A.

SALE PRICE... $27,995!

1-888-532-2121 Full inventory at: www.hhchev.com

LEXUS, 2001 ES300Coach Edition. Black,

4-door, 160k mi., 1 owner. $5,900. Call 717-440-1645.

CHEVY, 1993 Extended Cab 4x4. Inspected, 350 motor. Runs good! $2,800. Call 717-386-2078.

TOYOTA, 2006 CorollaSilver/black,94k miles.

Stock #LX16993$9,988

1-800-778-0850www.bobbyrahallexus.com

Trucks860LINCOLN, 2001 Continental. Fully

loaded, 97k+ miles. Very good condition! $3,995. 717-432-5839.

FORD, 2006 Mustang GTLeather, power windows & heated seats, 18" polished wheels, A/C,

cruise, CD changer, spoiler, 1-owner, 14,592 mi.

Perfect Condition! Stock #12193A.

SALE PRICE... $19,995!Call 1-888-532-2121 or view our

full inventory at: www.hhchev.com

SUBURBAN, 1997 LT. Nice, clean condition. Front & rear air, leather. Maroon/silver. $4,900. 776-7926.

LEXUS, 2007 GX470White/tan,74k miles.

Stock #LX17190A$22,488

1-800-778-0850www.bobbyrahallexus.com

CHEVY, 2010 Cobalt LT4-door, auto., A/C, power windows,

cruise, CD, keyless entry, alloy wheels. GM Certified. Stock #92020A.

SALE PRICE... $13,495!1-888-532-2121 or full inventory: www.hhchev.com

JEEP, 1996 Grand Cherokee, good condition, new battery, rear shocks, steering gear box, good tires. Strong running 6 cylinder engine, 218k mi. Currently inspected. $2,499. 503-8656 tknepp@centurylink.net.

LEXUS, 2007 GS350White/tan,78k miles.

Stock #LXP798$21,488

1-800-778-0850www.bobbyrahallexus.com

CHEVY, 2007 Impala LTZSunroof, leather, power windows & heated seats, cruise, CD, spoiler, alloy wheels,

Bose, remote start, 1 owner. Stock #12181A.

SALE PRICE... $12,995!

Call 888-532-2121 or view our full inventory at: www.hhchev.com

CHEVY, 2011 Tahoe LS 4x43rd row seat, power seat & windows,

cruise, Bluetooth, remote start, assist, rear camera, tow package, 1 owner. GM

Certified. Stock #722435. SALE PRICE... $34,995!

1-888-532-2121 or view our full

inventory at: www.hhchev.com

LEXUS, 2004 RX330Blue/tan,74k miles.

Stock #LX17408A $16,488

1-800-778-0850www.bobbyrahallexus.com

CHEVY, 2006 Malibu LTSunroof, spoiler, power windows,

cruise, CD, remote start, low miles. Super clean! Stock #92022B

SALE PRICE... $10,995!1-888-532-2121Full inventory at: www.hhchev.com

LEXUS, 2004 ES330Black/tan,93k miles.

Stock #LX17298A$11,888

1-800-778-0850www.bobbyrahallexus.com

CHEVY, 2006 Equinox LTAWD, 3.4 V6, auto., A/C, power windows, cruise, keyless entry,alloy wheels. Stock #12154C.

SALE PRICE... $11,995!1-888-532-2121 or view our full inventory at:

www.hhchev.com

CHEVY, 2003 Blazer LS, 4 door, Champagne color. Great condition. 165k mi. Auto, 4x4, power locks & windows, aftermarket tires & original, CD player. $4,250/obo 249-0722.

CHEVY, 2004 Impala LS4-door, 3.8 V6, auto., A/C, power windows, cruise, CD, spoiler, alloys, keyless entry.Stock #12179A. SALE PRICE... $8,495!

1-888-532-2121 or view our full inventory at:

www.hhchev.com

LEXUS, 2002 IS300Silver/black,85k miles.

Stock #LXP698A $10,688

1-800-778-0850www.bobbyrahallexus.com

Sport Vehicles855 Autos880Autos880

sutliffchevrolet.com

I-83 AT 13TH STREET EXIT HARRISBURG717-234-4444 TOLL FREE 888-SUTLIFF

New 2013 Chevrolet Cruze LSStock #31421

MSRP $17,995

New 2013 Chevrolet EquinoxFWD LS

New 2013 Chevrolet SilveradoExt Cab 4WD LT

All Star EditionStock #35434

MSRP $37,310If you trade a vehicle 99 or newer, receive

additional $1,000 rebate on Silverado

Stock #35578

MSRP $24,595

SUTLIFF PRICE

$30,995

SUTLIFF PRICE

$23,226

SUTLIFF PRICE

$15,995

Autos PlusE4 • The Sentinel Sunday, March 10, 2013

[lō•k l]

The Sentinelw w w . c u m b e r l i n k . c o m

e

CASHFOR

CARS!!!!!!Buying Cars,

Trucks, Tractors, Buses, ATVs, RVs, Motorcycles & Heavy Equip.Also offering Business & Industrial

Clean-Outs!Call Barrick’s Towing

717-386-4888

CADILLAC, 2006 DTS Luxury Collection: Leather, power windows & heated/cooled seats, cruise, CD, XM, rear park assist, remote start.

Stock #63001A. SALE PRICE... $14,995!888-532-2121

or view ourfull inventory at:

www.hhchev.com

Autos880

HONDA, 2009 OdysseyWhite/tan,74k miles.

Stock #LX17383A $19,988

1-800-778-0850www.bobbyrahallexus.com

FORD, 1993 Sentaurus High-Top LTD. Like new! CD, DVD, TV, new tires, power bed. $3,900. 249-6551.

Vans870

471 E. NORTH STREET, CARLISLE

249-5418

www.martysinc.com

08 Ford Taurus SEL...........................................................$9,99505Chevy CobaltAT, 1Owner........................................$7,59505 Ford Focus Zx5 SE 1Owner................................$6,99504DodgeGrandCaravan SXT............................$8,99504Hyundai AccentAT....................................................$6,09504Kia OptimaAT...................................................................$6,59503 JeepGr. Cherokee Laredo1Owner..........$9,09503 Ford Focus SdnAT......................................................$6,09503 Toyota Camry LEAT..................................................$9,59503Chevy Cavalier CpeAT, 1Owner.....................$6,59503 Ford Focus CPAT, 1Owner....................................$5,99503HondaCRV AT..................................................................$9,59501 Saturn SL1AT....................................................................$4,59501 Ford Focus SESW, Auto...........................................$5,09500 Ford Focus ZTSLeather, 79K ...............................$6,29599 Ford EscortAT, 86K......................................................$4,495

“Cleanest Cars in Town”Since 1953!

THANK YOU...FOR YOUR

CONTINUED SUPPORT

CELEBRATING

60 YEARS!

CHEVY, 2011 Silverado Crew Cab 4x4V8, auto., A/C, CD, cruise, 1 owner. GM Certified. Bought new at H&H.

Stock #72018A. SALE PRICE... $26,995!1-888-532-2121 Full inventory at: www.hhchev.com

hunting for a

home?Check the

classifi ed section fi rstSavvy home shoppers reach for the classifi edads before they hit the streets. The newspaper classifi ed section offers everything they need to make an informal purchasing decision.

Want to make a move?Check the classifi ed ads fi rst.

the fi rst place to look for everything

LEXUS, 2002 ES300Silver/black,97k miles.

Stock #LXP796$10,388

1-800-778-0850www.bobbyrahallexus.com

VW, 2007 Rabbit,72.5k,2 door, grey,1 owner, local car, all VW dealer maintenance. Runs great! $8,250. For sale by owner, 717-713-4333.

CHEVY, 2009 Silverado Crew Cab 4x4V8, auto., A/C, power windows & seat, CD,

XM, OnStar, tow package, 1 owner. Bought new at H&H. Stock #72231A.

SALE PRICE... $27,995!

1-888-532-2121 Full inventory at: www.hhchev.com

LEXUS, 2001 ES300Coach Edition. Black,

4-door, 160k mi., 1 owner. $5,900. Call 717-440-1645.

CHEVY, 1993 Extended Cab 4x4. Inspected, 350 motor. Runs good! $2,800. Call 717-386-2078.

TOYOTA, 2006 CorollaSilver/black,94k miles.

Stock #LX16993$9,988

1-800-778-0850www.bobbyrahallexus.com

Trucks860LINCOLN, 2001 Continental. Fully

loaded, 97k+ miles. Very good condition! $3,995. 717-432-5839.

FORD, 2006 Mustang GTLeather, power windows & heated seats, 18" polished wheels, A/C,

cruise, CD changer, spoiler, 1-owner, 14,592 mi.

Perfect Condition! Stock #12193A.

SALE PRICE... $19,995!Call 1-888-532-2121 or view our

full inventory at: www.hhchev.com

SUBURBAN, 1997 LT. Nice, clean condition. Front & rear air, leather. Maroon/silver. $4,900. 776-7926.

LEXUS, 2007 GX470White/tan,74k miles.

Stock #LX17190A$22,488

1-800-778-0850www.bobbyrahallexus.com

CHEVY, 2010 Cobalt LT4-door, auto., A/C, power windows,

cruise, CD, keyless entry, alloy wheels. GM Certified. Stock #92020A.

SALE PRICE... $13,495!1-888-532-2121 or full inventory: www.hhchev.com

JEEP, 1996 Grand Cherokee, good condition, new battery, rear shocks, steering gear box, good tires. Strong running 6 cylinder engine, 218k mi. Currently inspected. $2,499. 503-8656 tknepp@centurylink.net.

LEXUS, 2007 GS350White/tan,78k miles.

Stock #LXP798$21,488

1-800-778-0850www.bobbyrahallexus.com

CHEVY, 2007 Impala LTZSunroof, leather, power windows & heated seats, cruise, CD, spoiler, alloy wheels,

Bose, remote start, 1 owner. Stock #12181A.

SALE PRICE... $12,995!

Call 888-532-2121 or view our full inventory at: www.hhchev.com

CHEVY, 2011 Tahoe LS 4x43rd row seat, power seat & windows,

cruise, Bluetooth, remote start, assist, rear camera, tow package, 1 owner. GM

Certified. Stock #722435. SALE PRICE... $34,995!

1-888-532-2121 or view our full

inventory at: www.hhchev.com

LEXUS, 2004 RX330Blue/tan,74k miles.

Stock #LX17408A $16,488

1-800-778-0850www.bobbyrahallexus.com

CHEVY, 2006 Malibu LTSunroof, spoiler, power windows,

cruise, CD, remote start, low miles. Super clean! Stock #92022B

SALE PRICE... $10,995!1-888-532-2121Full inventory at: www.hhchev.com

LEXUS, 2004 ES330Black/tan,93k miles.

Stock #LX17298A$11,888

1-800-778-0850www.bobbyrahallexus.com

CHEVY, 2006 Equinox LTAWD, 3.4 V6, auto., A/C, power windows, cruise, keyless entry,alloy wheels. Stock #12154C.

SALE PRICE... $11,995!1-888-532-2121 or view our full inventory at:

www.hhchev.com

CHEVY, 2003 Blazer LS, 4 door, Champagne color. Great condition. 165k mi. Auto, 4x4, power locks & windows, aftermarket tires & original, CD player. $4,250/obo 249-0722.

CHEVY, 2004 Impala LS4-door, 3.8 V6, auto., A/C, power windows, cruise, CD, spoiler, alloys, keyless entry.Stock #12179A. SALE PRICE... $8,495!

1-888-532-2121 or view our full inventory at:

www.hhchev.com

LEXUS, 2002 IS300Silver/black,85k miles.

Stock #LXP698A $10,688

1-800-778-0850www.bobbyrahallexus.com

Sport Vehicles855 Autos880Autos880

sutliffchevrolet.com

I-83 AT 13TH STREET EXIT HARRISBURG717-234-4444 TOLL FREE 888-SUTLIFF

New 2013 Chevrolet Cruze LSStock #31421

MSRP $17,995

New 2013 Chevrolet EquinoxFWD LS

New 2013 Chevrolet SilveradoExt Cab 4WD LT

All Star EditionStock #35434

MSRP $37,310If you trade a vehicle 99 or newer, receive

additional $1,000 rebate on Silverado

Stock #35578

MSRP $24,595

SUTLIFF PRICE

$30,995

SUTLIFF PRICE

$23,226

SUTLIFF PRICE

$15,995