New Kia’s in CT support a wide variety of lifestyles with a tasteful, but frugal budget.

The Kia Rio 5-Door SX, Kia Forte SX and Kia Soul have been named the “Most Versatile 2012 New Cars Under $20K” by NADA Guides according to John Gogliettino, manager of the staff at Executive Kia, the Executive Auto Group’s Kia dealership in Wallingford, CT.

• • 2012 Kia Rio 5-Door SX topped the subcompact segment with its class-leading 138-horsepower 40 miles-per-gallon highway fuel economy
  • Kia’s impressive 2012 Forte SX is noted for its combination of smart styling, value, technology, safety and comfort among compact sedans
  • The popular 2012 Kia Soul is recognized as the most versatile segment-leading compact crossover vehicle

With gas prices in CT fluctuating budget-minded car shoppers want a little of everything from features and fuel efficiency to versatility and value and Kia delivers in all categories. Kia Motors is the one of the world’s fastest growing automotive brands and in recent years has launched more new vehicles in the U.S. than any other automaker.

With a full line of fuel-efficient, fun-to-drive Kia cars manufactured in Georgia the lineup also includes the Sportage compact CUV, Soul urban passenger vehicle, Optima Hybrid, Forte compact sedan, Forte 5-door compact hatchback, Forte Koup two-door coupe, Rio and Rio 5-door sub-compacts and Sedona minivan.

On the heels of the ‘most improved’ in  Automotive Loyalty award by Polk in 2011, the Most Versatile 2012 New Cars Under $20K comes as no surprise to loyal Kia drivers. For more information visit Executive Kia in Wallingford or view our CT Kia Specials.

Executive Auto Group Donates Van for Vets

Join the festivities at Acura of Berlin, Thursday 4/26 at 12:30 P.M.

St. Luke’s has initiated a new program Vets4Vets which guarantees every veteran that lives in St. Luke’s eight town service area safe, comfortable and reliable FREE transportation to veteran facilities in West Haven or Newington. “The Executive Auto Group and their Berlin Acura dealership in CT will donate a Dodge Caravan to the St. Luke Eldercare Services Vets4Vets program in Middletown, CT to be used expressly for this purpose,” said Diane Cummings, Executive Director.

Due to the lack of available, reliable, affordable transportation, many veterans of all ages find themselves unable to access the excellent medical care provided by the Veterans’ Administration.  A recent study of veterans’ needs indicated that together with affordable housing and employment, reliable transportation was identified as a leading priority.

St. Lukes Eldercare Services

“Local veterans that fought for our country will benefit from ready transportation to doctors appointments and to perform other errands,” said Scott Orsini, owner of CT’s largest auto group adding, “The 7 passenger van will be driven by volunteers from local veteran groups that have agreed to assist fellow veterans. This free service will also be available to families who wish to accompany the rider for support or to act as “care givers” during long and/or painful procedures.”

 The Vets4Vets program is both the Executive Auto Group’s and St. Luke’s way of saying “Thank you” to the troops that have given so much to this Country.

Please provide your support and funding to this vital, essential and cost effective service that will guarantee that an expanded base of veterans will be able to access the medical services they deserve.

St. Lukes Eldercare Services will gladly accept your tax deductible donations. For more information call 860-347-5661 or email info@stlukeshome.org. We invite you to take photo’s, video’s, share it on your Facebook page, and help us in any way you can to get this message out to the public.

This act of community goodwill follows the Mahovic Family Fundraiser and a long series of other community activities in which the Executive Auto Group gives back to the communities in which they do business.

Racing Starts 10 A.M. Sat 4/21

The Cub Scouts are coming, the Cub Scouts are coming…

On Saturday April 21st, the Cub Scouts from the Sleeping Giant District of the BSA CT Yankee Council will descend on Executive Auto Group‘s Executive Jeep and Executive Nissan dealerships in North Haven for a day of racing.

For the 5th consecutive year Executive Jeep Nissan will clear their North Haven dealership showroom for the Pinewood Derby District Champions race. Racing starts at 10 am and runs all day… Thank You Scott Orsini and all the employees of Executive Jeep Nissan… We’ll see you at the races…

Acura Dealers in CT are now showing the 2013 Acura RDX with an improved – and quieter – interior, larger door openings, a power rear tailgate, three-view rear camera and a Pandora radio interface. The upgraded navigation system has voice recognition, can reroute around traffic, includes real-time weather with radar image maps, and offers 15 gigabytes for music storage. Other 2013 RDX luxuries include an SMS text message reading feature, smart entry keyless access system, and push-button start.

With more interior space, added power, and increased fuel economy, the newest Acura RDX is well on its way to capturing a bigger slice of the compact luxury crossover pie.

New Exterior

The all new Acura RDX has a more formal SUV appearance with a longer, sculpted hood, and styling that is more elegant and sophisticated to match the Acura philosophy of timeless, beautiful design, including:

• A more aerodynamically efficient body
• Back Door openings increased by6.5 inches
• Lower lift-over height
• Power rear tailgate

New Interior

New sweeping shapes, matte surface trim, and generous use of leather give the 2013 RDX’s interior an upscale look and luxury feel, including:

• Additional noise insulation
• 2.0 cubic feet more overall passenger room (including more front and rear legroom)
• Increased cargo volume

New Powertrain and Chassis Features

More powerful and more fuel-efficient, the 2013 RDX includes:

• A 3.5-liter V-6 engine producing 273 horsepower (33 more than the outgoing model) and 251 lb-ft of torque
• Variable Cylinder Management^™ (VCM^®)
• An all-new 6-speed automatic transmission with a new lock-up torque converter
• A new, lighter weight all-wheel-drive system with intelligent control that provides outstanding performance with increased efficiency to achieve higher fuel economy
• A longer wheelbase with increased track
• All-new Amplitude Reactive Dampers
• Vehicle Stability Assist^™ (VSA^®) with traction control and motion adaptive steering

Technology Package

For those clients who want only the very best, the available Technology Package includes:

• AcuraLink^® Satellite Communication System
• Acura Navigation System with Voice Recognition^™
• A hard disk drive (HDD) with 60 gigabytes of storage capacity
• AcuraLink Real-Time Traffic with Traffic Rerouting^™
• AcuraLink Real-Time Weather^™
• A GPS-linked solar-sensing, dual-zone automatic climate control system with air filtration
• Acura/ELS Surround^® Premium Sound System
• Projector beam headlights with Bi-Xenon High Intensity Discharge (HID) bulbs
• Front fog lights

Standard Amenities

The 2013 RDX is well-equipped, including these standard features:

• Leather seating surfaces
• Heated power front seats
• A power moonroof
• A 360-watt audio system
• Active Sound Control

New technologies include Pandora^® Internet radio interface and SMS text message function

• A Keyless Access System with smart entry and push button start
• A multi-view rear camera system

Consumers appetites for trucks and SUV’s in CT is still high today and the 2013 Acura’s 20/28 mpg city/highway estimated fuel economy might be just the ticket to rising fuel prices in Connecticut today. Are you looking for

Contact Acura by Executive for new vehicle information on the 2013 Acura RDX and all other Acura models.

Social Media & Car Dealers

Rather than hanging up balloons or inflatable gorillas outside many CT car dealerships are active in social media hoping to attract shoppers.

“We are not all experts in this area and we can’t really point to car sales from our social media efforts. Instead, our goal is to reach out to as many people as possible hoping it will help us build relationships. We know that our customers are on Facebook,” says Scott Orsini, owner of the Executive Auto Group, “and that’s where our customers expect us to be. Social media is emerging as a vital marketing tool that for some of us it is replacing the weekend newspaper ad.”

Facebook may not be a huge traffic builder for CT dealers, but it does help get people to their websites. Web shoppers can instantly initiate a  chat session with us, get directions to our dealership, see videos of cars and view our discounts and specials. Much of the Executive Auto Group’s business now starts at the websites – from initiating contact to making appointments to meet.

10 Executive Auto Group Dealerships in CT

“People don’t just drop in like they used to,” Orsini says. “Before they visit, they’ve already done their homework, narrowed their choice down to 2 or 3 vehicles, talked to us online about pricing. People don’t have time to spend all day at the dealership anymore so we try to answer all their questions online before they come in, and get them right out.”

Are you on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn? Do you like our pages or follow us? What can we do to make our social media efforts more enjoyable for you?

How often do you go to a restaurant, have a wonderful meal, get great service – until the server drops off the tab – and then they’re nowhere to be found? Tabbedout is a new application for smartphone users that adds PayPal to existing choices for credit and debit cards.

You open your tab as you normally would, but when it comes time to settle up, you simply enter your email address and password to pay using PayPal, and then just walk out without having to deal with a waiter. Welcome to the universal digital wallet:

What do you think, will you sign up and use it?

Nissan Leaf now available In All US Markets

See Bolling’s Chevy Volt Adventure as Eric Bolling test drove the Chevy Volt at the invitation of General Motors.

For four days in a row, the fully charged battery lasted only 25 miles before the Volt switched to the reserve gasoline engine. Eric calculated the car got 30 mpg including the 25 miles it ran on the battery. So, the range including the 9 gallon gas tank and the 16 kwh batery is approximately 270 miles. It will take you 4 1/2 hours to drive 270 miles at 60 mph. Then add 10 hours to charge the battery and you have a total trip time of 14.5 hours. In a typical road trip your average speed (including charging time) would be 20 mph.

According to General Motors, the Volt battery hold 16 kwh of electricity. It takes a full 10 hours to charge a drained battery.

GM was to "Double Production"

The cost for the electricity to charge the Volt is never mentioned so I looked up what I pay for electricity.

I pay approximately (it varies with amount used and the seasons) $1.16 per kwh.

16 kwh x $1.16 per kwh = $18.56 to charge the battery.

$18.56 per charge divided by 25 miles = $0.74 per mile to operate the Volt using the battery.

Compare this to a similar size car with a gasoline engine only that gets 32 mpg.

$3.19 per gallon divided by 32 mpg = $0.10 per mile.

The gasoline powered car cost about $15,000 while the Volt costs $46,000.

It’s no wonder then why GM will halt the production of the Chevy Volt for 5 weeks due to slow sales, while the Nissan Leaf at dealers in CT is selling out.

Executive Auto Body Repair in Wallingford Ct and Liberty Collision Center in Hartford CT celebrate 40 years in business!

Before & After

Cars are safer now than ever before and our auto body collision repair services are designed to carefully and expertly rebuild the original safety ratings back into your car. But automobile accidents can be traumatic and some create such lingering negative feelings about the vehicle involved that the driver sees no alternative, but to dispose of the vehicle. That’s just one reason why we feel it is so important to restore the auto body damage to its pre-accident condition.

To try to reduce stress we also streamline the auto body repair process to minimize any inconvenience to our customers. From towing your vehicle to our auto body repair shop to working directly with your insurance claim for the repair estimate and payment to arranging for a rental car while yours is being repaired and to keeping you informed until your car is ready for delivery, we do it all – we know that you’ve been through enough already.

Whether your vehicle has been sideswiped or scratched, rear-ended or dented, our goal since 1972 has been to eliminate tension and stress from your auto body repair experience and handling your vehicle with the care it deserves. From scratches to frame straightening, paintless dent removal to bumper repair, our I-Car certified technicians are the most skilled in the auto repair business.

Your vehicles appearance, handling, steering and performance will be restored to the pre-accident condition. Where welding is required we use state-of-the-art MIG welding to maintain their structural integrity. We ensure that all mechanicals are properly positioned to the engine and transmission and axles, crucial to long-term performance. We adjust exterior panels to assure the seams of the hood, fenders, grill and bumpers are accurate to factory specifications. And then we apply our advanced color matching paint technology. And due to our time-tested processes, we can often have minor repairs completed and get your car back to you the same or next day.

You can count on Liberty Collision Center in Hartford and Executive Collision Center in Wallingford for all your auto collision repairs.

Liberty Mazda Hartford is proud to announce that the National Education Association (NEA), in partnership with Mazda USA is sponsoring “Read Across America Tour – Driven by

One Million Dollar Pledge

Mazda.” The tour will visit more than 20 cities, stopping at public schools and Mazda dealerships across the country to bring the gift of reading to thousands of public school students.

For each test drive of a Mazda vehicle between Feb. 21 and April 2, Mazda will donate $25 toward public school libraries, up to $1 million. As the first and only carmaker to receive The Lorax’s honor of the “Truffula Tree Seal of Approval,” Mazda will power the reading tour by providing Mazda CX-5 and Mazda3 vehicles, equipped SKYACTIV TECHNOLOGY and wrapped with the colorful graphics of the program.

To support this worthy cause, please visit MazdaTestDriveOffer.com, get your certificate, and then take it to Liberty Mazda in Hartford where the certificate will be validated upon completion of the test drive. Plus, you will be entered into our sweepstakes for a chance to win a trip for 4 to Universal Orlando Resort, where you’ll see all your favorite Dr. Seuss characters come to life at Seuss Landing!

“Mazda is a different kind of car company,” said Don Romano, chief marketing officer. “Our pledge to help raise up to $1 million for libraries and our ‘Truffula Tree’-approved SKYACTIV® TECHNOLOGY are just a couple of ways Mazda expresses its commitment to our communities and the future of our natural resources.”