If jewelry is a woman’s best friend, then a car is a man’s baby. A lot of guys out there are looking for the best deals on cars. They either want to change their old cars or look for a new car. But in order to get a new car, one must know when is the better time to pick out his own vehicle.

The best month to buy a car within the year is over is in December. The reason is that during this time, a lot of people are busy with their holiday shopping. This is the perfect time to choose a car without any hassle. You will have the option to pick any car with no competition whatsoever. Also, car dealers want to break their sales record by the end of the year, therefore, making the car prices go lower than the usual.

Still if you don’t want to end up buying one at the end of the year, then look for a better deal. Ask around and know when a dealer will be getting rebates from the car manufacturer. Dealers will cut you with a better price if they get extra earnings or incentives from car brands such as Ford, Toyota, Chevy, and others. Browse for rebate car offers on newspaper ads and the online web. They will at least, give you an idea on when a rebate is going on.

Finally, to get the best car deal, be knowledgeable when it comes to buying cars. Be well-informed and do a bit of research. While researching, know your credit score and your finances. Be sure that you can afford to get a car from your income. Do your work and soon, you’ll be having your own set of wheels that you can drive freely on your neighborhood.

BMW plans to export nearly 500 electric versions of its Mini car to California, company sources said.

The Electric Minis are being built at the Mini factory in Oxford, England, without engines, gearboxes or fuel tanks, then shipped to Munich, Germany, where they are being fitted with electric powertrains.

BMW sources told Automotive News Europe that 490 of the Minis will be leased to selected customers in California and 10 will be used as show cars.

The Electric Minis are painted silver and have yellow roofs, the sources said.

BMW engineers working on the electric Minis are part of a new division called Project i established by the automaker to develop low-emission city cars.

The electric Minis will help BMW to meet new California regulations that will require carmakers selling cars in the state to offer zero emission vehicles.

Mini spokesman Cypselus von Frankenberg did not confirm that BMW is building electric Minis.

“BMW will announce whether it will build electric vehicles or not later this year,” he told ANE.

Other carmakers are developing electric cars.

Volkswagen, Daimler, PSA/Peugeot-Citroen and Renault have all announced electric-vehicle programs in recent months, joining several U.S. and Japanese automakers that are working on the technology.

Chevrolet will unveil a small crossover - Cruze at the Paris Motor Show in October 2008. Growing concerns on fuel economy and pollution legislation around the world has compelled most auto makers to re-align their vehicle lineup to reduce carbon footprints.

General Motors has not lifted the veil on what this small crossover will look like as yet.  All we know is that the Cruze has been penned by Chevrolet’s global design and engineering team and is to be built in multiple locations around the world. The Cruze is designed to handle a parcel of five passengers.

Chevrolet used to sell a badge-engineered version of the Suzuki Ignis with the same name ‘Cruze’ in Japan as well as some South Asian markets. The same was rebadged as the Subaru Justy for Europe and Holden Cruze for Australia. We are not sure if Chevy is intending to launch an all-new Cruze altogether or scout around from its partner parts-bin and come up with some sort of a compact SUV to keep up with the rest of the players in the market!

One thing we are definitely sure of is that the Cruze is gonna cruise to this side of the world as their press release rightly puts it: The new Chevrolet Cruze will be available in European markets in spring 2009, followed by other “global regions”. Currently the smallest SUV offered by Chevrolet here in the Middle East is the mid-sizer Captiva.

The image shown with this story is that of the Captive and not Cruze.

Upcoming cars in the Indian market

Here are details on some of the new cars which are soon going to be available on sale in the Indian market.

Tata is clearly aiming to launch the Nano model in the festival season around October.

Audi is all set to launch their new A4 model.

Porsche would be bringing their new generation 911 Carrera sports car.

BMW is working on launching their updated 5-series edition model.

Mercedes is also going to launch their latest edition of E-Class. The company is also said to be working on bringing the latest editions of M class and SLK in the Indian market.

Sales by the German luxury car maker BMW fell in June owing to weaker markets in Japan and the United States, it said on Monday.

BMW sold 146,138 new cars, a drop of 2.8 per cent from June 2007, a statement said.

“Despite difficult economic conditions in certain automobile markets, the BMW group aims to improve on last year’s sales level for the year as a whole,” it quoted sales director Ian Robertson as saying.

For the first six months of the year, the group posted a 4.7 per cent sales increase to a total 764,874 units, owing in large part to the Mini division which reported an 18 per cent rise to 127,000 cars following the launch of its Clubman model.

The BMW brand meanwhile turned in a 2.4 per cent increase to roughly 638,000 units.

Results from the company’s various global regions were described as mixed however, and Robertson said that BMW would “continue to monitor world markets and their performance so as to react as necessary.”

A breakdown showed that deliveries increased in Europe, Asia and South America, but slipped in North America and Africa.

In the United States, sales fell by 4.0 per cent to 157,913 vehicles in the first half of the year, though the overall market showed an even larger contraction of 10.1 per cent.

Last week, BMW’s main rival, the German automaker Daimler, published first-half results that showed a jump of eight per cent to 668,000 vehicles, despite up and down results from its main brand, Mercedes Benz.

The elegant, expensive Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe is the ultimate in personal transport

At 100 mph, you can’t hear the clock in the new Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe. That’s because the clock doesn’t tick. But you can’t hear much of anything else, either, apart from the rustle of wind around the A-pillars. It might be the sportiest Rolls-Royce ever — faster than a Porsche Boxster to 60 mph and boasting a myriad of detail changes to suspension, steering, and transmission tune designed to sharpen its responses — but the Phantom Coupe is first and foremost a luxury car.

The Phantom Coupe perhaps not quite as sybaritic as its near-identical convertible sibling, the Phantom Drophead Coupe, though the distinction is a fine one. This is still, after all, a $400,000 two-door that’s about an inch shorter and narrower than a Chevy Suburban, yet barely has enough room in the back for a couple of adults. Coupes don’t come much more personal. And it screams me! me! me! without the showy strut of the convertible: If the Drophead is Donald Trump, the Coupe is the Duke of Westminster.

Based on the 101EX concept first seen at the 2006 Geneva show, the Coupe shares its basic aluminum space-frame structure with the convertible, but also picks up some extra pieces from the Phantom sedan, like the 26.4-gallon fuel tank (and if you’ve already figured out that’s gonna take somewhere between $105 and $130 to fill, this car most definitely ain’t for you). The close-coupled roof echoes the profile of the Drophead with the softtop raised, but the smoothly contoured crown and C-pillars give the Coupe a more elegant look, especially from the rear.

Although it’s been 26 years since the last Corniche coupe rolled off the line, Rolls-Royce and two-doors go back a long way. New Rolls-Royce boss, former BMW North America chief Tom Purves explains the Phantom Coupe’s mission: “It’s designed to do in 2008 what the Phantom II Continental did in 1928.” In other words, the Phantom Coupe is meant be a fast yet luxurious transcontinental Grand Tourer. The irony is, of course, that the folks with the money to afford one would be more likely take their own Rolls-Royce powered private jet on any long distance journey than their Rolls-Royce car.

Automotive enthusiasts have been waiting for the release of several new hot car models, perhaps none hotter than the Nissan GT-R sportscar. Based on the heralded Nissan Skyline, the $70K GT-R will be making its debut next Monday, with more than 70% of its first year quota already spoken for.

The 2009 Nissan GT-R has an MSRP of $69,850 for the GT-R and $71,900 for the GT-R Premium model,with an additional destination, handling charge of $1,000 tacked on. Unlike every other Nissan model, the GT-R is available only through officially certified Nissan dealers that have met a number of strict sales, service and facilities commitments, including dedicating a master technician to service the GT-R. Nissan has provided a searchable listing of the 671 GT-R Certified Nissan dealers on its website at nissanusa.com.

“After years of speculation and anticipation, the wait for a U.S.-spec Nissan GT-R is over,” said Al Castignetti, vice president and general manager, Nissan Division, Nissan North America, Inc. “GT-R is one supercar that more than lives up to its promise, with independent testing by the leading auto enthusiasts magazines and online sites producing performance results that only a handful of production cars have ever attained - much less at a $70,000 MSRP.”

The 2009 Nissan GT-R comes equipped with a standard 480-horsepower, twin-turbo 3.8-liter V6 engine and a 6-speed dual clutch automatic transmission. The sportscar set a lap time of 7 minutes 29 seconds at Nurburgring Nordschleife, one of the fastest times achieved by a production-spec vehicle to date on that famous track.

Only 2500 GT-Rs will be available in the US market for its first year of sale stateside.

Purchasing a new or old car is not an easy process. It requires expertise in the auto sector to evaluate a car value if buying a second hand car or else anybody will scam/fool you.

So before purchasing a car, you should consider following points :

Determine your budget - whats your minimum budget and how much you can stretch yourself to get a deal. Remember, your EMI should not exceed 40% of your monthly income.

Determine your needs - This is very important - choosing your car model can be frustrating and might take ages. Also there are thousands of models available in market ranging from 4k to 40k USD. So decide on which segment car to buy, your needs, which fuel etc.

Research on your car - So once you have decide on which car to buy, research about it. Read reviews, advantages and disadvantages of your car, ask friends and experts. Check detailed specification, fuel average, maintenance needs, warranty etc. of the car.

Financing options - As there are variety of car models, so are finance options. Ask an expert to help you in best and affordable finance solution and auto loan.

Choosing the Dealer - Don’t make mistake while selecting the car dealer or car broker - a wrong choice could mean years of aggravation and frustration. Choose a popular and reputable dealer.

Test Drive - Its true that lot of people buy a car without a test drive. If the company is giving a free test drive, then why don’t drive it yourself to see if it is comfortable for you or not.

What’s The Total Cost - The price of a car on brochure is just a beginning. You will also have to pay insurance, taxes, warranties, maintenance, loan interest etc. So work out a total cost before buying a new car.

Although the Lexus ES 350 is situated in a price range that loosely defines it an “entry-level luxury” or “near luxury” car, there is nothing entry level or near luxury about it - it is quite simply luxurious.

While on the subject, the modifier “sport” - as in sport-luxury - has no business being used to define the ES either. Leave that for the Audi A4s and BMW 3 Series of the world. The ES 350 is conservative in the manner in which it transports its occupants. The car is smooth, powerful and sophisticated - words often used to describe many Lexus products. However, there is one word that can be added to luxury to describe the ES 350 - affordable. Like many automakers looking to keep sales momentum in a tight economic climate, parent Toyota has dropped the prices on the Lexus lineup - the ES 350 starts at less than $40,000, cheaper than what was then the Lexus ES 300 cost in 1995.

And that doesn’t mean a stripped-down model, either. The list of standard features, modern conveniences and thoughtful touches is long and generous.

When the first ES model debuted in the early 1990s, there was some uncharitable but valid criticism that the four-door was little more than a tarted-up Toyota Camry. While the Camry is still the host vehicle, subsequent generations of the ES have forged their own identities. What hasn’t changed much over the years is the car’s inherent conservatism within the Lexus lineup as well as its presence within its market segment. What has changed over the same period is my attitude toward it. As I’ve grown older, greyer and slower, what is now the fifth-generation ES has become more stylish, dynamic and quicker. Old school has a new attitude.

The first item to credit is the sedan’s proven 3.5-litre DOHC V6. Pumping out a robust 272 horsepower and 254 pound-feet of torque, the engine is mated to a six-speed manumatic. The combo marries silky smoothness with strong acceleration (zero to 100 kilometres an hour in 7.2 seconds and 80 to 120 km/h in 4.7 seconds) with an uncharacteristically deep timbre to the exhaust note when getting on the gas. Fuel economy isn’t all that shabby, either. I averaged 9.4 litres per 100 km during a week that saw about half my time on the highway and the rest commuting during non-peak hours. The engine uses premium unleaded, though.

When it comes to ride and handling, the ES 350 trades sportiness for comfort and balance. Oh, you can build up speed when merging on to the highway, but those same on-ramps - at least the tighter ones - also show that the front-drive ES rolls a little more and doesn’t grip with the same security as, say, Infiniti’s all-wheel-drive G35x sedan, a sportier rival. The upside is a ride perfectly suited for travelling long distances in serenity. The suspension setup consists of MacPherson gas struts, coil springs and stabilizer bars mounted both front and rear. The progressive-rate power steering delivers reasonable feedback, but it is one notch lighter than what I find ideal.

As for stopping power, the ES 350’s four-wheel disc brakes and ABS - with electronic brake-force distribution and Brake Assist - will drag the 1,625-kilogram sedan to a stop from 100 km/h in 41 metres.

Other active safety features of note include vehicle stability and traction control systems.

Inside, the ES 350 seats five, with leg-stretching comfort for the front-seat occupants and more than adequate space for taller passengers in the back. The heated and ventilated front buckets provide excellent support for ageing backs, although a titch more side bolstering would be appreciated. The tester came with the optional Premium Package ($3,700) that added a bunch of modern conveniences and safety items to what is already a very stylish and well laid out cabin, including a wood steering wheel and shift knob, Bluetooth capability, rear-seat side air bags, variable length driver’s seat cushion, passenger seat memory, power rear window sunshade, rain-sensing wipers and high-intensity-discharge headlights.

The ES 350 isn’t the sexiest or sportiest upscale sedan out there, deferring to the Europeans as well as some of its Asian competition in that department, but it more than compensates with roominess, comfort and refinement, all at a lower price that should make more shoppers say, “Really!? Hey, why not?”

The Specs:

Type of vehicle: Front-wheel-drive, luxury sedan

Engine: 3.5L DOHC V6

Power: 272 hp @ 6,200 rpm,254 lb-ft of torque @ 4,700 rpm

Transmission: Six-speed manumatic

Brakes: Four-wheel disc with ABS

Tires: P215/55R17

Price: base/as tested: $39,900/$43,600

Destination charge: $1,780

Transport Canada fuel economy L/100 km: 10.9 city, 7.2 hwy.

Standard features: AM/FM stereo with in-dash six-disc CD changer with MP3/WMA capability, audio auxiliary input jack, eight speakers and steering wheel-mounted audio controls, automatic air conditioning with dual-zone control, 10-way power-adjustable front seats with heat and ventilation, driver’s seat memory, power door locks with key lockout protection, keyless entry and trunk release, Smart Key system with push-button start, cruise control, power tilt and telescopic steering column, electro-chromic rear-view mirror with integrated digital compass, power windows, leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, fog lamps, power sunroof.

The brand new Dodge Challenger R/T was just recently released a couple of weeks ago at the New York International Auto Show. This 2009 Dodge is designed to mimic many different machines and it has powerful engine with great control. Cars like these are often expensive but you will be able to pick up a Dodge Challenger R/T for around the mid $20,000’s.

The Challenger has room for five passengers and is one of the only 2 door coupes that allows for five passengers to fit comfortably. It will have a new generation 5.7 Litre Hemi V8 engine and five speed automatic transmission that will be able to pump about 370HP. The automatic transmission equipped on the challenger has MDS technology which means it’s good for fuel economy.

By choice you can have a custom six speed manual transmissions installed on the car instead of the stock five speed automatic transmission. If you can drive stick then I highly recommend going for it with the custom add-on because the sixth gear gives it more power. It will need to be run on premium fuel to see the best effects of the vehicle though and it isn’t that much more expensive so it’s totally worth using premium fuel when dealing with a car like the Dodge Challenger.

The Dodge Challenger R/T can go from 0 to 60 Mph in less than six seconds which is remarkable for a family cost vehicle. The Challenger is less than your typical brand new minivan and this thing can fly on open roads and with a hemi V8 you don’t need to worry about power. The car controls great in the winter as well although you may want some specialized custom winter tires put on for added safety.