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Now that we are officially in the throes of winter weather, dealing with driving in it can be a bit difficult. We suggest first understanding what kind of weather is expected to hit your home city this winter and then adjusting your driving around that. Learn tips and tricks to make sure you are fully prepared for whatever kind of weather you find yourself in. For example, if you live in a snow heavy place, look into how to drive in the snow. If you live in San Francisco, or many other places in California, you can almost guarantee at least heavy rainfall. Sometimes you will experience snow as well, but most likely just snow. With this in mind, make sure you know how to drive in the rain.

Avoid Cruise Control

While this driving feature is very convenient for long trips on predominantly flat terrain, this is dangerous for drivers when driving in rainy environments. This increases the chance a driver has of spinning out, putting them and other drivers in serious danger. Slick roads require constant change in speed, even if small changes, so the driver has to actively have their foot by the brake and accelerator.

Leave Plenty of Space

This is an important driving rule to follow when on the road at any time, but especially when driving in the rain. Decelerating takes a lot more time in order to do so safely in order to avoid spinning out, so you want to make sure you leave plenty of space to account for that. Otherwise, you may either 1) reduce your speed too quickly and spin out or 2) hit the car in front of you.

Furthermore, Follow This Guide to Avoid Hydroplaning

Hydroplaning is something that happens to your car when the roads are wet. It is when your tires lose the grip of the road and rather than touching the surface of the road, glide along the water. In order to avoid this happening, make sure you slow down your overall driving speeds. You also will want to avoid aggressive braking, rather brake at a slower rate. We also suggest that you avoid taking sharp turns as that can also affect your tires’ grip of the road.

This week San Francisco is celebrating Fleet Week. Lasting through the entire week and ending on October 10^th, this year’s Fleet Week will be extra special, having a special celebration of the life and work of late California Senator Dianne Feinstein. Active and former service members are arriving in the city to celebrate the week as are Naval ships.

Two U.S. Navy ships are expected to arrive in San Francisco Bay to participate in the festivities.

The first ship to arrive was the U.S.S. John P. Murtha. It docked in the waters on Sunday. The ship is over 650 feet and serves as the home for approximately 120 Marines. Starting later this week, on October 4^th, tours of the ship will be open to the public. On Monday, the second ship joined the U.S.S. John P. Murtha, the U.S.S. Paul Hamilton.

The Fleet Week events were originally unconfirmed due to the possibility of a government shutdown, however Congress managed to reach an agreement hours before the shutdown would have begun. The 2023 Fleet Week marks San Francisco’s 42^nd Fleet Week. This year’s two ships docking in the harbor both differ in service type. The U.S.S. John P. Murtha is an amphibious transport dock, while the U.S.S. Paul Hamilton is a guided missile destroyer.

The schedule for this year will feature some classic Fleet Week events, as well as some new ones.

This Friday, October 6^th, there will be the Parade of Ships. Then with different events happening on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, there will be the annual Air Show featuring the Blue Angels. In the Air Show will be a first time San Francisco appearance of the Marines F-35B. The Air Show will also feature a tribute to late Senator Dianne Feinstein, who represented California for decades in office. Feinstein started her political career largely in the Bay Area, even serving as mayor of San Francico. During her time as mayor, she actually was the honorary chair and founder of Fleet Week in San Francisco.

This year the Fleet Week will certainly be a taste of the classic, well loved celebration as well as a taste of the future. With reflections to the past and honoring those who we have lost, celebrations of the future will feel all the more special.

San Francisco’s design differs from most other larger cities in a very interesting way. The city is built on a series of severe hills, creating steep roads that can be hard to drive around, even for residents. So, if you are a tourist planning your next visit, or a soon-to-be San Francisco resident preparing for what it will take to drive around the city, we suggest following these tips to understand these hilltop roads.

Drive Faster Than You Think To

Some people think the key to taking on a steep hill is to take it slow and steady, but that is the opposite of what you should do. It is best to drive faster rather than slower when trekking up a hilly road. Now, there is a happy medium that you have to find. If you go too fast, you risk stalling out, but if you go too slow, you risk not making it up the hill.

If you have an automatic car, you do not run the risk of stalling out, but you can cause damage to your engine still. We suggest drivers with those cars gain enough speed at the base of the hill to power them through the rest of the hill. If you have a manual car with a stick shift, you want to have enough speed to go into second gear and then take the rest of the hill that way, maintaining a consistent fast, but not too fast, speed.

Understand the Science of Parking

Parking on the hills of San Francisco is usually more intimidating than driving the hills to people. There is the concern of your car just rolling down the hill, hitting cars and people on its way down, creating chaos and destruction. That’s why it is extremely important that you understand the science behind parking since it ultimately comes down to basic physics. The most important thing to always remember when parking along the curb on a hill is to turn your wheels away from the curb when you are facing uphill and to turn them toward the car when you are facing downhill. These wheel turns will prevent your car from rolling right down the hill as it will naturally fall toward the curb instead.

Self-driving cars have been flooding the streets of San Francisco for quite some time now while they are being tested by a few different companies wanting to put them to market soon. Two of the companies, Cruise and Waymo, are using the cars as self-driving taxis, or robotaxis, to test how they handle different routes and people in the vehicles. However, residents of the city are not happy with the robot takeover of the streets.

San Francisco residents have outspokenly complained many times in the past regarding different tech companies using them as guinea pigs. For the most part though, in the past, you could just not participate in the tests, and you would remain relatively unaffected. That is not the case with the robotaxis, as they take up space on the streets, leaving others around them to have to deal with them in their testing stages.

A group of “safe street activists” in the city made a discovery that is helping them fight against robotaxis.

They discovered that a traffic cone on the hood of one of the driverless cars renders it confused and unmovable. It disables the car as it is no longer able to decipher how to safely continue driving.

This discovery has led to a viral social media trend, called “The Week of Cone.” The trend that is taking over Twitter and TikTok is not just a funny prank to the people doing it, but also their way of protesting against tech companies always testing on them, especially these companies like Waymo and Cruise.

Residents are tired of Waymo and Cruise’s presence in the city as the driverless cars malfunction frequently and leave others on the road to have to deal with the repercussions, such as traffic jams and even accidents.

Currently, the two companies are scheduled to have a hearing that will determine if they are able to expand their practices. The hearing is with the California Public Utilities Commission and is scheduled for July 13^th. The Commission is not the determining agency that ultimately allows the companies to operate their cars on the streets, but they do allow them to charge money for their services, which would be an extension of their taxi services.

The ultimate goal for the “Week of Cone” movement is to spread the word about protests against the car companies in order to get more people vocally speaking out against them before the hearing happens.

Cadillac has first had their first “V” bAdge arrive about 20 years before, when 2004’s  Cadillac CTS-V arrived on the scene with a 400 horsepower and 5.7-liter V-8 engine had rocked the industry to it’s core.

As per celebration, Cadillac is showing off new advancements within their upcoming model year. That’s right! The 2024 Cadillac CT4-V and CT5-V sedans will be available with some choice adjustments.

With the addition of a 20th anniversary placard upon the car’s exterior, these new and improved models will also feature a new startup animation within the digital gauge cluster. Plus, brand-new colors will be available, such as Metallic Dandelion, Speedster Red and even West Coast Blue.

To ensure the visibility of the Blackwing badge, it’ll be placed next to the V placard.

The CT4-V is beginning at a price tag of $48,490 while the 360-horsepower powered CT5-V begins at a rate of $52,890.

When you notice the CT4-V Blackwing, it costs about a rate of $62,890 to begin with while the

The car costs an additional $6785 for the Super Cruise hands-free driving tech for the CT5-V Blackwing.

Additionally, the Blackwing V has a ten-speed transmissions with the extra two driver-assist packages.

When observing the V-Series high-performance is driven by the incredible 2023 CT5-V Blackwing, while giving out enough horsepower when utilizing a V-8 engine. Specifically, around 668 ponies and 6-speed manual transmission. 

Such a combo is pretty decently shown in 3.6 seconds when it zooming from zero to 60 miles per hour. A 10-speed automatic transmission is also around, but it’s significant to think about when you input the manual transmission.

Such handling is imperative as the acceleration gives off a stick-shift handling capacity as it produces a low range of prices as the chassis is well-tuned.

With great steering and a 472-horsepower twin-turbo V-6 engine that can go along well with Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires with additional rear-wheel-drive.

As it isn’t quite as strong as the CT5-V Blackwing, the model still reached 60 miles per hour in only 4 seconds.

Overall, the Cadillac brand deserves to be celebrated, no matter which model you choose for your driving pleasure. The cars are at-large and in-charge of opportune destiny, therefore making your chances of having an admirable presence around your neighborhood.

Toyota is often the purveyor of electric vehicle innovations. It’s obvious from their track-record of seeing about dozens of electric vehicles exist on the wider scale. Certainly, it’s existent in the Prius which is all to familiar to anyone and everyone involved.

So what’s new this time around?

The Prius Prime is going to operate off of electricity as is, for what is looking like an EPA-estimated 44 miles within the base SE. However, it drops to 39 miles on other trims, which is about the double of the old model’s range, that can only require four hours to be on a Level 2 charger that had therefore topped off the battery. This is the functioning mode in regular hybrid mode, while the Prime has returned for an EPA-estimated 53 mpg that would be combined for the base level SE and 50 mpg that would be combined for XSE and XSE Premium variants.

Look at the trim up top that would allow you to add a solar roof that can feed up 185 watts for the battery or the 12-volt electrical system.

It’s likely that each would be able to drive with e-propulsion, as the engine has been activated while moving smoothly and with no interrupting noise.

The Prime has a more enjoyable kick to it, as it’s all thanks to the TNGA-C Chassis that it sits on. This is also interesting in regards to the suspension tuning. All while the movement is smooth enough to keep you comforted as you drive. There’s strong enough framing that allows for the interior to keep you still in between the A-Pillars.

In regards to the infotainment, there’s an incredible improvement. The tall-portrait display and zero-buttons was not quite working out in a way that benefitted the audience. There had been a 8.0-inch touchscreen that took it’s place with the latest and greatest in appropriate size. 12.3 inches for higher trims are available. The Prius Prime also operates upon the Toyota Audio Multimedia infotainment system that showcases the wide improvement as an overbearing reach for all you can control the car with. Of course, there’s wireless smartphone mirroring and six-standard USB-C ports.

So that’s all to say the Toyota Prius Prime is truly the prime example of how electric vehicles can evolve! And if that’s the case, you really can’t go wrong into looking into buying the 2023 model year version of this classic EV. Price tags look like $33,445 at the base and $40,265 as the most expensive.

There are plenty of reasons you should invest in one of those electric vehicles, first and foremost because they are quickly becoming the most popular type of car to drive in the modern day era. It’s important to keep in mind the needs that you have as a consumer who is going to parade around in the streets.

Acura

Acura will bring in the much needed electrification that was so long desired from Honda and their lineup. All the while, the ZDX is going to be taking steps for changing the climate of Honda in 2024. There’s too many limited details that come through all while the electric SUV is based on the Honda Prologue. It’s reliant on General Motors’ original infrastructure. This is going to be recognizable with the ZDX name coming from the Aucra’s former SUV model. It’s this time around how the EV should use more conventional SUV designs, as it had been previewed by the Precision EV concept. This Type S performance variant is likely to be available as it’s assumed that there’s more horsepower, as well as aggressive exteriors and a stiff suspension.

Audi

Audi is showing off their A6 e-tron, while Audi believes that they’ll get close to the production car’s looks. It’s all while being based on Premium Platform Electric architecture, with a major resizing with different EV models. It’s all going to sold next to the gas-powered A6 with new EVs with the PPE platform while showing off future electric Audi vehicles, all while A6 e-tron can utilize the two electric motors with a new output of 469 horsepower. The PPE vehicles use 800-volt charging capability with beyond 400 miles of range while only on a single charge.

Buick

General Motors themselves had to clean off the Electra nameplate with a trademark to file with the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office. Using an Electra SUV for Buick’s lineup allows for enough sense to give GM can launch many EVs like the GMC Hummer EV and Chevy Silverado EV and Cadillac Lyriq. There’s not a huge announcement to be created as the Electra would appear on a Buick concept SUV.

Cadillac

Cadillac is approaching every one of the GM EVs with the Ultium battery platform of the Celestiq. The Celestiq is going to generate a driving range of 300 miles or so. In addition, the dual-motor all-wheel drive is made readily available too. It also allows for four-wheel steering. It’s also upon the same system that has been showcased on the GMC Hummer EV, with a four-panel “smart glass” roofing that allows for a change of transparency for every passenger. The Celestiq will be the flagship model with a new price of $100,000.

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At San Francisco Car Transport, we’re happy to ship any vehicle you need us to. Our team doesn’t fret about the shape or size of your vehicle; we have a plan to handle anything you throw at us! Of course, we have no problem shipping your standard four-door, but there’s so much more we can do. Here’s how we handle specialty vehicle shipping for our customers:

Motorcycles are no problem for us.

Shipping a motorcycle comes with unique challenges. After all, we can’t just roll it onto one of our car carriers like we would with a normal vehicle. It wouldn’t be secure! So, we take special precautions when our customers ask us to ship a motorcycle for them. We’ll make sure we get the proper equipment (usually a flatbed or enclosed trailer) and secure your bike properly. Small vehicles like these can give lesser car shippers trouble, but not us!

Got a huge bus? We can handle that, too!

Something else that sets our team apart from others is our ability to handle very large vehicles. Oversize shipping is not an issue for us at all. We’ve hauled some extremely large vehicles, from pieces of military equipment to entire buses, without issue. For these vehicles, we’ll make sure to get the right kind of oversize permits so we can haul the vehicle safely and legally. We’ll also make sure to plan our route so that we won’t encounter any danger along the way. Oversize vehicles require a professional touch, and you get that from us.

Our services extend to every specialty vehicle, including boats.

The best thing about working with us is that we love to rise to a challenge. No matter what vehicle you need to give to our team, we’ll be sure to give it the treatment it deserves. Even vehicles like boats, which can’t roll up onto a trailer, are no problem for us. So, when you trust the excellent team at San Francisco Car Transport, you’ll know that your vehicle is in good hands!

Volkswagen is going to totally revamp their R line. All because the executives from Volkswagen are going to focus up on the brightest EV future that can come from the sporty division. VW is looking to see their whole performance R sub brand electrified by 2030. This is all because there are visible changes that are coming soon to interact with VW executives. Through all of them, there’s a requirement for the new EV platform and software updates alike. After all, VW is deciding to sell their EV models for underneath the range of $25,000. All with the potential that there would be some halo cars in the R sub brand.

The electricity of high-performance models are always so rewarding. But with the new future inviting brand-new editions of the Golf and even a battery-powered Beetle. The future of Volkswagen R is a spark to follow as the R will represent sustainability in high-performance products. In which case, there would be fully-integrated energy for emotional, digital, brand-centric and balanced potential.

Within two decades, vehicles from the Volkswagen R line had shared similarities with stimulating trim packs and high-performance models. However, the reworking of the 2018 ID.R electric racer had been totally taken on as potential. The mid-engine roadster back then was well-known as the VW Mimo. In itself, it was in direct competition by Audi and Porsche in conjunction with each other. Additionally, the ID. R Buggy originally built by Karmann had in itself turned out to be misleading.

The Volkswagen R didn’t quite possess the energy to compete against the Audi Sport, BMW M and the Mercedes-AMG.

All in all, the Golf R had been high-ranking for the all-time greats. What’s known so far is how the Touareg, the Tiguan and the T-Roc will all be discontinued from being sold in Europe. All because the R vesions will be further encouraged within next-generation models. Meanwhile, the ID.R proposals are almost too good to be true.

The 2025 Trinity R is encouraged as Volkswagen’s latest re-engineered zero-emission flagship model. Plus, the 2026 ID.R CUV is known as a replacement for the Teramont/Tourareg/Atlas Cross Sport. Plus, the 2027 ID.R SUV shows itself off as Volkswagen’s entry for zero-emission full-size five- and seven-seater global SUVs.

Volkswagen is truly the forefront forerunner that knows how to make sure that electric vehicles are treated in the R line. This is a very necessary circumstance for the EV revolution.

If you don’t already know, the Kia Niro is going to introduce new style and great growth in the second generation. The 2023 Niro has more cabin space for passengers while also dumping about $1800 more upon the beginning price, in comparison to other model years, which retain the base of $27,785. Kia has also been able to successfully make the lineup much simpler.

Such as in the base model LX, the midrange EX, and the Range-topper SX. That one does surpass at about $33,785. Additionally, you can tell that an optional Touring trim comes with the packaging as well. The price isn’t quite yet so easily announced but it’s coming.

As far as the Kia Niro goes, it’s a little bigger and only just a lot more expensive.

Meanwhile, the wheelbase is an inch longer with the body being about 2.5 inches longer overall. The cargo capacity, itself, went up from 100.9 to about 105.1 in cubic feet. There’s also about 2.4 inches more of rear legroom. Plus, the base version of the last Niro had not much in the way of standard driver-assist technology.

You can tell that because of how every trim level standard forward collision detection could also be paired with rear-cross traffic warning systems and blind-spot monitoring.

In spite of higher prices the 2023 Niro has carried on mechanical developments from the past generation. This is the case because it comes with front-wheel-drive while only producing 139 horsepower via the 1.6-liter inline-four engine, paired neatly in itself with a 43-horsepower electric motor.

What else is exciting about the Niro is that its EPA combined fuel economy is rated at 53 miles per gallon. On average, the 2022 can at least go through 75 mph with 46 miles per gallon.

The price range for the plug-in hybrid and totally electric versions of the 2023 Niro that haven’t been seen yet. There’ll likely be a version of them soon, as they will cost premium beyond the standard hybrid trim.

The Kia Niro comes with an additional 3 miles per gallon over the 2022 model. The interior is quite on the basic level with some new design cues and fresh curves. Cargo space is likely to be better than the 12-volt battery which was relocated.

There are fans of exterior design with some small improvements in fuel economy, large size and very nice style with a slightly higher price tag. There are great cars like this Kia Niro Hybrid but only one Kia Niro Hybrid.