2013 Kia Optima 4dr Lx Burgandy Clean Title! on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2014 Kia Soul

Rounding Out The Market's Best Box
As a car critic, you can tell a lot about a new car just by looking at a map. That's because more often than not, the geography of where a vehicle is initially launched will tell you a surprising amount about how the automaker feels about its new baby. Manufacturers want their models to be shown in the best light - dynamically and socially - so they put a lot of thought into where they first let members of the media slip behind the wheel. Luxury cars nestle up closely to swank hotels in the globe's trendiest locales, high-performance cars are let loose on breathtaking mountain roads with adjacent racetracks, and so on. It all makes for a tough life, as you can imagine.
So consider it telling that when Kia first launched the Soul way back in 2009, it did so in Miami. Trendy? Check. Billiard-table level, arrow-straight smooth roads? Frequently snarled with traffic? Check and check. You see, good as it was, the original Soul wasn't a particularly thrilling driver. Competent, sure, but its simplistic suspension, modest power and upright dimensions didn't exactly afford it entertaining driving dynamics. Which is exactly why Kia launched it in an environment utterly devoid of potholes and curves (save those conjured by the area's robust plastic surgery community), instead choosing a city loaded down with pedestrians and slow-moving motorists.

Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.

Car dealership gives man a new car after his is tagged with racist graffiti

Update: The Facebook post from the passerby mentioned is no longer available, and has been removed from the text. A man in Arkansas who found his pride and joy broken into and covered in racist graffiti has a new set of wheels, thanks to one generous car dealership. Reshod Johnson left his car parked outside of his place of work for just 15 minutes last week while he retrieved chairs for his son's third birthday party. When he returned, he found his belongings scattered across the street and racist terms spray painted on his car. "I just don't understand it. I don't do anything to hurt anybody," Johnson told THV11. "I don't go out looking for trouble." A friend spotted two white men fleeing the scene in a red truck. He made a police report, but as a full time student and former veteran with Christmas around the corner and a three-year-old at home, money is tight. Johnson made the painful decision to continue to drive his 2006 Nissan with the hateful messages intact, though he was keeping his young son away from it. "We're supposed to have advanced past this and to serve the country and to serve for everyone and to fight for rights and freedom for everyone and for this to happen, it's like a slap in the face and makes you wonder for what," Johnson told THV. When a passerby saw the damage, she became emotional and posted about the incident on Facebook. According to 9news.com, the post drew a ton of help and attention to Johnson's story. Steve Landers Kia saw Johnson's story and decided to help. They donated a new ride to Johnson just in time for Christmas. They said it was the least they could do for a veteran who experienced horrific random hate. "Times are hard out here and he's a veteran," an employee for Steve Landers Kia told 9News.com. "We're just trying to help the community out."Related Video: Weird Car News Kia Maintenance Ownership Safety vandalism veterans graffiti racism