The results of Colliers International’s 2011 Parking Rate Survey are in for the U.S., Canada and the rest of the world, and there are few surprises. The U.S. national median monthly parking rate is US$155.22, with the highest being midtown Manhattan at US$541 and Renoa at US$45 the cheapest. In Canada, Calgary topped out at US$486 followed by Toronto at $342 USD and Montreal at $305 USD.
Auto pricing website TrueCar studied the car buying behaviour of four million Gen Y (18 to 27 year-old) over a twenty-four month period and here’s what they found. Scion took the crown for top brand, with 37.4% of the market and for top model (the tC coupe), with 21.2%, while second place went to Mitsubishi (32.1%) and their Lancer sedan (20.3%). Mazda was the third most visited brand for Gen Y buyers, though only 17th in terms of model. The top four vehicle choices were Japanese, with a German in seventh place and a South Korean in ninth.
Car buyers’ preferences in China are shifting towards European models and away from domestic and even Japanese vehicles, according to a new study published today by JD Power Asia Pacific. This is the third year that the study takes place. The latest edition included 65 brands and 161 separate models in nine segments and is based on responses from 4,979 potential buyers of new-vehicles located in 53 cities.
If you are one of American Express’ very special customers, and have US$16.3 million in assets and an annual household income of around US$1.3 million, you may be granted the privilege of one of their black Centurion Cards. 
Simon Cowell has one, as does Kanye West, Denzel Washington and Lindsay Lohan. Interestingly, and of more concern to readers of this blog, you might also be the proud owner of a Hyundai.
During the course of a presentation at the South Korean automaker’s Ann Arbor engineering and research centre, Hyundai’s U.S. Chief John Krafcik revealed that some 6% of “Black Card” holders own a Hyundai – a percentage shared with those who own Bentleys and Audis.
Surely, it has happened to you. You embark on a journey driving your car and, when you feel tired or ready to fall asleep, you keep on driving because you just have to get there on time. At best, you drink a cup of coffee hoping it will wake you up. What you don’t realize is that you are setting up the scene for a, possibly fatal, accident. A new UK study by Brake and Cambridge Weight Plan that was presented today at a Parliamentary reception attended by MPs and road safety professionals revealed than in the past year, one in eight drivers has “head-nodded” at the wheel, or in other words, fallen asleep between 2 and 30 seconds, often without even realizing it.
Mercedes-Benz dealers were number one for customer treatment in the US according to an independent study by survey company Pied Piper. The California-based company hired 3,524 “secret shoppers” and sent them to US dealerships in order to determine how their salesmen were performing in anything from explaining a car’s features to closing a deal. This is the third year in a row that Mercedes-Benz, which looks set to top the sales charts this year in the luxury segment, has topped Pied Piper’s study.
In an article on a BMW-faced Honda Accord we found for sale on Craigslist back in 2008, we wrote that in a perfect world, our ultimate car would be “designed by Italians, engineered by Germans, built by Japanese and marketed by Americans”. So, what’s the worst car one could imagine? Well, if we played around with the above statements, we’d say one designed by Japanese, engineered by Americans, built by Italians and marketed by Germans. But UK insurance firm Warranty Direct had something a little bit different in mind. Instead of playing the origin card, the company decided to check out its database of 50,000 live policies on cars aged five years on average to part the UK’s most unreliable vehicle that would break down every other month and cost an average of £2,050 (equal to US$3,270 - €2,330) to fix each year.
