Chuck Squatriglia over at Wired took some time -- both behind the wheel and behind the driver -- in the Equus, Hyundai's entry into the true luxury market, and he has a message for the other luxury badges: Be afraid; be very afraid.

If the Genesis is playing in the shallow end of the luxury market, the Equus is ready to swim in the deep -- especially those models with the Ultimate package, designed for owners more likely to be driven than to drive. That model comes with reclining, massaging rear seats, a refrigerator and a few other extra amenities. But even the Equus Signature package, which is expected to make up most of the car's sales, is awash with leather, chrome, wood and plenty of technological bells and whistles. 

One of the current realities for the automotive industry is that many new models don't compete for customers' attention solely with track times or fuel efficiency, but with technology. GM was a pioneer with its OnStar onboard concierge service, since expanded to include various types of applications and services. Ford made "the democratization of technology" a key focal point in its turnaround, offering what was considered high-end in-car tech in the form of its MyFord Touch and Sync systems, which run on Microsoft technology, on low-price models. Now, GM looks to take a similar strategy -- likely as a direct shot across Ford's bow -- by offering free OnStar services to new customers.

According to Automotive News, the subscription OnStar service will receive an upgrade this month that moves it past accident alerts, directions and vehicle diagnostics to include links to social media sites and voice-to-text translation of incoming messages. 

 

Are Americans ready for a 4-cylinder premium sedan? The Buick Regal is about to find out.

 

I’ve been testing the reborn 2011 Regal this week, including a holiday zip from Brooklyn to Boston and back again. The made-in-Germany Regal is essentially a rebadged Opel Insignia, the European Car of the Year for 2009. In other words, this is no rental-counter Buick.

 

And despite a mere 2.4-liter 182-horsepower engine that works a bit hard to motivate this roughly 3,600-pound sedan, the Buick is a winner. It’s loaded with curb appeal, it's as quiet and solid-feeling as most luxury sedans, and the interior looks and feels posher than its $26,995 base price would suggest. It's not quite the sporty Acura TSX-fighter that Buick bragged about, but it's still an impressive car, especially at a price that's in line with high-end Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys. And with three well-received products in a row -- the Regal, LaCrosse sedan and Enclave crossover -- Buick is putting together the kind of lineup that could justify GM keeping it around while dispatching Pontiac, Saturn and Saab instead. (Of course, it helped Buick’s cause that the brand is hugely popular in the booming Chinese market).

 

We’ve all heard the argument that speed limits, and the associated fine structure for exceeding them, are little more than revenue generators for cash-strapped localities. Law enforcement officials tend to point to ever-decreasing traffic fatalities as proof that their methods of tailoring driver behavior work. According to USA Today, there’s some validity to those claims. The paper reports that last year, the number of deaths on U.S. roadways were at a low that we haven’t seen since the 1950s, even though there are many more drivers behind the wheel compared with 60 years ago.

But considering that the approach to curbing speeding really hasn’t changed since the first automobile tire touched pavement, the decrease in deaths is just as likely as attributable to safer vehicles as it is the expert issuing of traffic citations. One politician in Nevada seems to think that speed isn’t nearly as dangerous as everyone is making out. Eugene DiSimone wants to offer anyone who wants to speed up to 90 mph the option to do so legally -- for a small fee, that is. 

Peugeot has debuted the first-ever production diesel-electric hybrid passenger car, called the 3008 HYbrid4. While diesels are more fuel-efficient than gasoline cars, making them an ideal candidate for hybridization, they are more expensive to produce, and cost has thus far been a factor.

The 3008 crossover's drivetrain is unique in that it supports 4-wheel drive. Unlike the power-split parallel hybrid system in most hybrids, the 3008 has an engine in the front, driving the front wheels, and an electric motor under the rear axle, powering the rear wheels; Peugeot calls this a "Through the Road" (or TtR) drivetrain.

The vehicle is powered by a 2.0-liter diesel engine with 163 horsepower as well as an electric motor. They provide a combined 369 lb-ft of torque -- 221 in the front and 148 in the rear. According to the manufacturer, the combined output of the engine and motor is equivalent to a 2.2-liter twin turbo engine. 

 

I've used a bunch of different GPS units, and the basic setup ("in 300 yards, turn left," etc.) is straightforward and plenty easy to use -- though the folks at Navteq don't think so. They've rolled out something called a "natural guidance" system, which aims to mimic the way people give directions to one another. So, for example, the GPS unit will say something like "take a right after the blue building."

Compiling that amount of data seems impossible, but according to the company, it already has enough verbal cues for 10 cities.

I get that GPS companies need to find a way to stand out, but this seems foolhardy to me: As soon as a building changes the color of its awning, or does away with it altogether, one direction has already become obsolete. It doesn't seem as if they could possibly keep up with an ever-changing landscape well enough to ensure that the directions are always correct -- which defeats the whole purpose of a GPS unit.

Check out a commercial for Navteq's natural guidance system after the jump.