Automobile Retailers

When you’re in the car business, it doesn’t take long for a competitor to arrange to go head-to-head with a similar model. With Toyota’s extremely popular and successful Scion, it was only a matter of time that a competitor stepped into the arena to take on the economic car face-to-face. This spring in the United States, the battle for the small economy car has another entrant in the race: the Kia Soul.

Kia is billing the new Soul as “rebellious,” which is a way to say that the Korean automaker plans to take Scion to task as the car that represents the youthful generation.

The Soul apparently provides a creative platform for the buyer and will go into production in Korea in September. The production car will make its international debut at the Paris motor show in October.

Scion, meanwhile, will continue to roll out its popular model and will continue to add special edition vehicles to compete with other cars on the market. The latest Scion xD Special Edition was covered here yesterday.

So in essence Kia has its work cut out for it. It’s extremely tough to go head-to-head with the Scion xD or any other Scion model, as the Toyota vehicle has proven to be durable, spacious, and extremely efficient when it comes to gas mileage and handling.

The Soul is based out of concepts shown at the Geneva motor show in March, which were in turn developed from an earlier concept shown at the Detroit show in 2006. The compact styling has roots to the style of the Land Rover LRX concept. The front-wheel-drive vehicle is expected to pack a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine, which is plenty of punch for a car of its size.

Scion is certainly setting the bar high for vehicles like the Kia Soul and other competitors. Toyota shows no signs of stopping and will likely have a more than satisfying answer to the question of spirit and Soul.

Have you grown tired of seeing the meter continue going higher at the fuel stations? Are you excited about the electric car technology? If so, you don’t need to trade that vehicle you adore for one of the newer models.

Al Pugsley, a truck owner in Prairie Village, Kansas, has an anomaly of a truck. From the outside, it looks just like a normal pickup truck. But on the inside, it runs on electricity. You wouldn’t know it from riding in it, though. According to Pugsley, you can “driver it like a normal car.” It can reach speeds of 70 mph, but you don’t need to worry about how much fuel you’re using by going so fast.

This is just one example of what the EV Blue company is doing throughout the United States. Since Pugsley’s story was featured on MSNBC, EV Blue has had hundreds of calls from car owners wanting their beloved gas-powered vehicle turned into an electric vehicle. So far, the company has converted many vehicles, including a Pontiac Fiero (which is typically known as a gas-guzzling muscle car).

The engineers accomplish this conversion by taking out about 90 percent of the stuff under the hood because you simply “don’t need it anymore,” according to EV Blue mechanic, Wayne Alexander. And even though it sounds like a million-dollar process, most vehicles can be converted for right around $10,000. When you think of how you can enjoy your favorite car for another 30 years without worrying about fuel prices, that’s a relatively cheap price! In fact, EV Blue claims that your vehicle can go another five million miles after the conversion with little to no maintenance concerns.

Does this sound appealing to you? If so, visit your local Pontiac dealer and get the car of your dreams. After that, consider getting it converted to an electric vehicle for a low cost. That way, you can have the best of both worlds!