By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos

Apparently so. A woman in Los Angeles believes that the highly reflective energy efficient windows in a neighbouring condo are the cause of her Toyota Prius' damaged door mirrors. The reflected sunlight, even on a partially cloudy day, somehow became focused on the plastic bits on her car, and melted them.

And then damaged another car parked nearby...

According to the local CBS affiliate, she's not alone. "Reports across the country have alleged damages brought on by concentrated sunlight reflected off of energy efficient windows," says the network. "The National Association of Home Builders is now conducting a study on the matter."

Check out the woman's claim here.

Maybe this finally gives us an excuse for fully-chroming cars! Seriously, though, 120 degrees F wouldn't seem to be enough to melt the kind of plastic used on modern Toyotas and the rest... It would need to be a 'repeat offender' for sure.

By John LeBlanc for MSN Autos

You don’t have to be a sports fan to know the National Football League’s championship game is this Sunday. As one of the most-watched television events annually, companies looking to make a big marketing splash have coveted the game’s half-time commercial spots for years. And with sales rebounding in the U.S., automakers have jumped on Super Bowl ad bandwagon this year in a big way.

By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos

Anyone currently shopping for a new child car seat might be concerned and confused about the Federal government's new rules and regulations, and how they'll affect their children. It extended the deadline for manufacturers to implement the new regulations by a year (from January 1, 2011 to January 1, 2012) to ensure a proper inventory of compliant seats, allowing a year's grace period where seats could be built to either the older or newer standards.

But there's plenty of facts that aren't terribly clear or are being misreported...

Just because the new regulations are in effect, that doesn't mean that you need to rush out and replace your child's current car seat. Transport Canada says that the older regulations helped keep kids safe for years, and the only time replacement is required is if the car seat is in a vehicle that's been in a collision - even if your child wasn't in it - or if the seat has passed its expiry date. 

Without getting into too many specifics, the new testing standards are designed to reflect the increasing size and weight of Canadian children, and to put a stronger focus on side-impact protection. Any seat with a manufacturing date of January 1, 2012 or after and is marked with a Canadian standards sticker will comply. Seats built before, during the grace period, could be either or, but a call to the manufacturer is the easiest way to find out.

There's a pretty good FAQ page on TC's site that's worth a visit.

By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos

At the UN climate change conferance in Durban, South Africa, the Canadian government confirmed to attendees that Canada would not re-sign the expring Kyoto Protocol on global warming, saying that it could not agree to support an "agreement that covers fewer than 30 per cent of global emissions." 

Government ministers say that they're only interested in agreements that include the world's up-and-coming developing nations, like China, India and Brazil. 

Obviously, the Conservative government has been under attack in recent years for its unwavering support of not-especially environmentally friendly resource industries like the Alberta Oil Sands and natural gas 'fracking'. Just recently, the plan to build the Keystone XL pipeline that would transfer bitumen from Alberta down to the Gulf state of Texas was shelved until after the US Presidential election in 2012 because of growing concerns about the pipline's proposed route passing over one of the world's largest natural aquifers.

What kind of repercussions do you think this will have on Canadians in general, and more specifically, our drivers? Will Canada keep its close ties to the US when it comes to vehicle emmissions standards, or will our closer ties with Europe have us looking closer at carbon dioxide rather than nitrogen oxide?

By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos

According to two new polls done by Leger Marketing for the Canadian Broadcasting Commission, it appears that half of Canadians who live in our largest cities would be willing to pay some kind of road toll to ease conjestion or shorten their commute. That must come as a huge surprise to politicians who generally won't raise the spectre of paying more to an increasingly stressed population. The average daily amount respondants were willing to cough up was $3, which equals about $800 a year. 

Most of those willing to pay (76 per cent) preferred the idea of it being used to cover the cost of newly built roads or infrastructure - like the new toll bridge linking Laval and Montreal - rather than simply tolling existing roads (56 per cent). 

Perhaps the most telling figure is that 30 per cent of drivers polled think their commute will worsen, with only 10 per cent believing that things will improve.

Bing: Find out where Canada's toll roads are located.

Personally, getting away from traffic and commuting is one of the big reasons I left Toronto for the wide-open spaces of Fredericton. Just couldn't take the daily uncertainty of whether things would go well and it would be 40 minutes to work, or if a series of problems along the way would double or sometimes triple that time. Blech. No more. But if a 407-style toll road had been a possibility for me, I certainly would have used it occasionally.

What about you?

By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos

In the same vein as yesterday's post about post-Labour Day traffic nightmares, there's yet another Canadian think tank who believe they've found the solution. the call for building high-occupancy carpool lanes on major highways comes from the highly respected C.D. Howe Institute. There is a twist though: rather than outlawing single-occupant vehicles from the 'diamond' lanes altogether, those drivers would have the option of paying a toll to drive along alone. Think of it as two-tiered travel.

So it wouldn't affect those who make the effort to travel with two or more people in their vehicle - for them, it would still be free.

The study's author, Benjamin Dachis, suggests over $1 billion could be raised to be rolled back into growing transportation and infrastructure costs. But obviously there would be hundreds of billions of dollars needed to implement High-Occupancy and Express Toll (HOT) lanes across our cities. Chicken and the egg, right?

What do you think? If you had carpool lanes on the major highways nearby, would you be willing to pay a toll to access those if you were only travelling by yourself? Or should governments just leave well enough alone?

By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos

When I was younger, Montreal was my favourite city to drive in. Its tight confines, aggressive drivers and confusing orientation made it enjoyable to conquer the chaos. Were the roads ever the greatest? No way. Always potholed and frost-heaved. The overpasses and off-ramps were very dishevelled, but that was part of the appeal.

Now that I'm older, although not necessarily wiser, the increasing number of incidents around the province are starting to make me question my safety. The concrete slabs that fell in the Ville-Marie Tunnel recently didn't hurt anyone, but there is a long list of previous accidents where that wasn't the case. Five people died in 2000 and another in 2006 around Laval, but apparently very little has been done in the meantime to improve the public's safety.

So, if you're travelling by car, how do you avoid the worst of the risk? Or, do you think this whole issue is overblown, that similar risks exist anywhere in Canada because our weather is constantly raging havok on our infrastructure?

By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos

According to a Los Angeles Times story re-run at the Toronto Star earlier this week, Toyota's greatest challenges to cleaning up its safety record and regaining the public's trust comes from within. The results come from a study produced by an internal safety and quality panel set up by the automaker after the series of recalls and governement fines over the delays in implementing them.

The report is pretty damning of Toyota's corporate culture, including its drive to be the number-one automaker in the world. According to the Times, "reviewers found that Toyota has problems differentiating quality from safety, in part because of a 'well-deserved sense of pride at being number one' that can 'slowly and subtly transform into arrogance and foster complacency.'"

The story goes on to say that the panel name itself was a perfect example of Toyota's problems: its official title is the Toyota North American Quality Advisory Panel, but mentions nothing about safety, bolstering the argument that those two goals need to be treated separately.

While Toyota paid for the panel, it doesn't have any say over its decisions and deliberations. It will continue to investigate for at least another year before the company can decide its fate.

By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos

With only five days left until Canada's federal election on May 2, things are starting to get very exciting. The Conservatives are still leading the way, but the Liberals seem to have blown a tire and are falling further back every day. Surprisingly, the NDP are picking up support from places like Quebec and are giving the Bloc Quebecois fits. Jack Layton could become a real challenger at the ballot box. And while she was shut out of the official televised leader debates, the Green Party is hanging in just fine.

So, having scrounged through the various party platforms, here are some (very) basic run-downs of how each plans to deal with anything remotely related to transportation. That includes energy, taxes, transit, environment... Read on and let us know in the comments whether any of these change your mind about who you'll vote for on election day.

And on election day, you can visit the MSN Canada News Page  for up-to-the-minute coverage.

By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos

Well, several of you were happy to fill us in last week when we asked about your worst car-buying experiences, and some of the replies were – sadly – just as expected.

This week, we’ll try to put those negative vibes behind us, and ask the opposite: what was the best buying experience you’ve had? A salesperson who let you take the car out on a long test drive, perhaps even overnight? A dealer who was straight up with the number? No hassle for skipping the add-ons in the finance department?

I had a surprisingly easy time when buying my latest car after moving to New Brunswick last year. Was looking specifically for a used Subaru Forester, but given the province’s nasty weather systems, finding ones with low miles and in decent shape was difficult. Most people who owned them held onto them for a reason. Looked for what felt like weeks, and one evening went by a local used-car shop to see one they had on the lot. Turned out it wasn’t quite what I was interested in, but they did have a black-on-black ’07 Legacy Wagon that looked to be in good shape, and was about the same price as the Forester.

To make a long story short, the Legacy was in great shape, had all its paperwork in order, was checked out by the local Subaru dealer to make sure everything was in order, and the sales guy let me take it overnight without me even having to ask. We’d already sorted out our finances, so he gave me a straight-up price, I asked to knock some off the top, he came back soon after with a no-bull number I was happy with. No extra charges, no paperwork, and when the check engine light came on a couple weeks after I bought it, the dealership paid to have the work done properly.

Their efforts paid off, though. Two or three friends and family members in the area have been in the market for new-to-them autos this past year, and every one I’ve sent over to that dealer.