Super Value Price! on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Trump calls Germans 'very bad,' vows to stop their car sales in US

TAORMINA, Italy -Talks between President Trump and other leaders of the world's rich nations at the G7 summit on Friday were expected to be "robust" and "challenging" after he had lambasted NATO allies and condemned Germans as "very bad" for their trade policies. Trump's confrontational remarks in Brussels, on the eve of the two-day summit in the Mediterranean resort town of Taormina, cast a pall over a meeting at which America's partners had hoped to coax him into softening his stances on trade and climate change. According to German media reports, Trump condemned Germany as "very bad" for its trade policies in a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, signaling he might take steps to limit sales of German cars in the United States. "The Germans are bad, very bad," he reportedly told Juncker. "Look at the millions of cars that they're selling in the USA. Horrible. We're gonna stop that." White House economic adviser Gary Cohn on Friday confirmed the reports. "He said they're very bad on trade, but he doesn't have a problem with Germany." Cohn said Trump had pointed out during the meeting that his father had German roots in order to underscore the message that he had nothing against the German people. Trump's spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump had "tremendous respect" for Germany and had only complained about unfair trade practices in the meeting. Juncker called the reports in Spiegel Online and Sueddeutsche Zeitung exaggerated. The reports translated "bad" with the German word "boese," which can also mean "evil," leading to confusion when English-language media translated the German reports back into English. "The record has to be set straight," Juncker said, noting that the translation issue had exaggerated the seriousness of what Trump had said. "It's not true that the president took an aggressive approach when it came to the German trade surplus." "He said, like others have, that (the United States) has a problem with the German surplus. So he was not aggressive at all," Juncker added. In January, Trump threatened to slap a 35 percent tax on German auto imports. "If you want to build cars in the world, then I wish you all the best. You can build cars for the United States, but for every car that comes to the USA, you will pay 35 percent tax," he said. "I would tell BMW that if you are building a factory in Mexico and plan to sell cars to the USA, without a 35 percent tax, then you can forget that." Last year, the U.S.

Honda engines and giant killing in the classic Mini Cooper

Electric Federal has taken a fresh look back at the enduring legacy of original Mini with a video interview with Heritage Garage's Graham Reid, one of the foremost experts on classic Minis. As Electric Federal points out, it's important to remember that the Mini did not start out as a performance car. It was built in response to the Suez Canal crisis of the mid-50s, which had a similar effect on British gas prices as OPEC did on American prices in the 1970s - rationing and rapid price jumps.
Through the years, Minis have grown from their budget roots to become seriously competent performance machines. As Reid says, a 150-horsepower Mini on the right track should have no problem outpacing a contemporary Porsche 911.
For some time now, classic Mini owners have been dropping Honda engines under the tiny hoods of their classics. With up to 250 horsepower pulling a car that tips the scales at barely 1,200 pounds, the upgraded Mini is "a real sleeper," Reid says. Interestingly, Reid doesn't mention another increasingly common swap in the Mini community - Suzuki Hayabusa-powered Coopers.

2019 Mini Cooper JCW Knight Edition Drivers' Notes | Drama in a tiny package

The Mini Cooper John Cooper Works Hardtop is the most performance you can buy in a Mini. More powerful JCW Clubmans and Countrymans are over the horizon, but those are much larger cars. A two-door hardtop with a hatchback is the traditional Mini shape, and we were thrilled to have a go in it. Being the JCW, our tester was equipped with the 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder that makes 228 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque. Those power figures aren’t tantalizing, but theyÂ’re enough to make this little car a real hoot to zip around town in. We also had the six-speed automatic, which costs $1,500 more than a manual — donÂ’t worry, the automatic is still fun. After adding options and the all-important Knights Edition package, the sticker was up to $42,565. That is far more expensive than a lot of cars with more performance than what this little Mini has to offer. However, the Mini lifestyle is about more than just performance — customizability is huge, allowing you to personalize your brand-new car to a much higher degree than competitors. Additionally, there are only going to be 150 Knights Edition models made, so youÂ’ll have a car that could be rather appealing to a Mini enthusiast in the future. Road Test Editor Reese Counts: I love hot hatches. Even in the hatchback-averse American market, there's a wide variety to choose from. There's the tried-and-true Volkswagen Golf GTI (I used to own a MkV), its more powerful all-wheel-drive Golf R sibling, the unfortunately styled but extremely fun Honda Civic Type R, and the soon-to-be-extinct (if possibly already) European-American hybrid Ford Focus RS. Few cars at any price point are as consistently fun as hot hatches. Good ones are always eager to play, even putting around town. The Mini Cooper JCW has always been one of the more wild of the bunch, a hopped-up version of the Cooper S that spits and pops and burbles like oil on a cast iron pan. Past models were for Mini enthusiasts that were willing to pay more for the most hardcore Cooper around. The current car debuted in 2015, and while I've driven a few current-gen Coopers, this is the first time I had a chance in a JCW. My complaints hold true — visibility isn't great and it's expensive for what you get — but it's a hell of a lot of fun and not nearly as punishing as I expected. The ride was pretty compliant on Detroit's moon-cratered streets, even with our tester's 17-inch wheels. It was firm, sure, but not nearly as bad as I'd heard.