Hasta La Gadget!

BMW’s EfficientDynamics Vision concept car combines the best of all worlds with incredible fuel efficiency, breaktaking performance, and sensational looks. It’s powered by a three-cylinder turbo-diesel engine, lithium polymer batteries, and electric motors front and rear. The BMW Vision gets a U.S. unveiling next week at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Dec. 4-13. The only bad news: The BMW Vision is more vision than production-ready concept car. What you’d most likely see on sale would be the key components such as the drivetrain and battery technology transplanted to a more mainstream body.

Ford calls the feature CTA, for cross-traffic alert, but CTA could just as well be called CYA. The blind spot detectors on the rear fenders of the Ford Fusion and other 2010 Fords perform a second task when you’re going backwards: They watch your backside for crossing traffic. It’s a smart example of how one piece of technology can serve multiple purposes. And it’s one of three Fusion technologies that protects your rear flank: CTA, parking sonar, and rear camera.

CTA is another indicator that Ford does the best job among U.S. automakers in providing technology that’s about as good as what the expensive imports provide at a higher price, or technology they don’t yet have. This was on the 2010 Ford Fusion hybrid, which has many of the benefits of a Toyota Prius, if not quite the same cachet.

Did somebody beat the Honda Accord Crosstour with the ugly stick, if only on the outside? That’s been the pre-launch knock on what is actually the cheapest and most cost-effective of the upscale, fastback, crossover utility vehicles and it offers plenty of mainstream technology. The Crosstour is a fine $30,000 people mover and cargo hauler for those who don’t need the size of an SUV or the soccer-mom aura of a minivan: empty nesters and families just starting out. The four people who sit comfortably inside also have the advantage of looking out, not in.

It’s hard to screw up a vehicle based on something as solid as the Accord, so Honda starts with a good platform that is offered in front-drive and all-wheel-drive editions. Four people ride very comfortably, with more back seat room than in the $57,000 BMW X6 that will blow the doors off a Crosstour on the racetrack (in case you think that’s what these vehicles are for). That’s because the Crosstour stands 197 inches long, almost half a foot more than an X6. I’d much rather drive the X6 (it really is awesome on the track) but if I had to sit in the second row for more than an hour, I’d take the Crosstour hands down. Not that these are really competing cars when the typical as-sold price is approaches two-to-one.

GM announced that Chevy, Buick, Cadillac, and GMC dealers will begin offering Autonet Mobile’s $499 WiFi router as a dealer-installed option for its SUVs and trucks, according to Autoblog.

The router will be available for new vehicles as well as for current owners. The router and installation together cost $499; after that, owners pay $29 per month for 1GB of service. Go over the limit and service stops for that month. Honestly, that’s preferable to what the cell phone carriers do instead–which is to charge you something like $400 per kilobyte afterward, and not even tell you it’s happening.

Sorry, where was I? The Autonet Mobile router offers a 150-foot-radius hot spot but lacks encryption capability. In practice, it offers 3G download speeds in the 700 to 800 Kbps range, assuming good cellular coverage. Look for the Autonet Mobile router option at the above dealers beginning in November.

British cars used to be plagued with electrical problems. Not any more (usually). Bentley had an off day Thursday when a transporter truck pulled into New York City in the pre-dawn hours with a prototype Bentley Mulsanne for a media unveiling. Alas, the Mulsanne wouldn’t start, and for a while couldn’t even be pushed out of the transporter. It finally made it off the truck and into the press conference an hour into the presentation, under human power.