CVT

If you're reading this in North America, the vehicle sitting on your driveway probably has an automatic transmission. So do around 95 percent of other new vehicles on the U.S. market right now, though the Canadian figure is slightly lower. The numbers don't lie: Drivers just aren't buying cars with...

We're fond of the Chevrolet Spark minicar; it's by far the best-executed of the several smaller-than-subcompact cars sold today. But our fondness had been limited to the five-speed manual version; the four-speed automatic offered in 2013 was, in a word, awful. Now we've driven a 2014 Chevrolet...

Smaller, more efficient engines better matched to more complex transmissions will have some of the biggest effects in making tomorrow's cars more fuel-efficient. The 2025 corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) level of 54.5 mpg translates to about 42 mpg on the EPA window sticker. And while Toyota...

The Chevrolet Spark, the smallest Chevy sold in the U.S., will get some mechanical changes next year, according to Christi Landy, the brand's small-car marketing director. The 2014 Chevrolet Spark, which will go on sale late this year, will offer a continuously-variable transmission (CVT) in place...

If you shop strictly by the EPA numbers today, the 2013 Honda Fit probably won't be among the top subcompacts you cross-shop. The current Fit's federal ratings, of 28 mpg city, 35 highway with the five-speed automatic, or just 27/33 mpg with the five-speed manual, aren't exactly at the top of the...

At the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show, Honda unveiled the Earth Dreams Technology range, a set of new engines, transmissions and hybrid drivetrains which it claimed would help it lead the automotive industry in fuel efficiency for every segment within three years. Now the Japanese automaker has expanded...

Ask any advertising executive how you make a product sound more environmentally friendly, and they’ll suggest you give it a name that evokes the natural world. Enter Honda, and its Earth Dreams Technology range. Announced today at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show, Honda claims the Earth Dreams...

One of the best ways to improve fuel economy is to keep a car's engine operating at its most efficient speed, regardless of how fast the vehicle is traveling. That's the principle behind continuously variable transmissions, or CVTs, which use belts and variable pulleys to match road speed to an...

Although Nissan has taken its Altima Hybrid off the market for 2012, the model is likely to live on. The latest evidence: Nissan today unveiled in Japan a new generation of its Xtronic continuously-variable transmission (CVT) and a new hybrid system designed for front-wheel drive vehicles. So far...

Subaru has taken heed of customer complaints that its lineup wasn’t as efficient as those of its competitors, making its latest generation 2012 Impreza return an impressive 27/36 mpg city/highway gas mileage. Not only is the car still offered with the extra safety of all-wheel drive as...

Hyundai’s vehicle fleet is about to get a whole lot more fuel efficient as there are plans to introduce a new range of advanced dual clutch transmissions and more continuously variable transmissions (CVT) as early as next year. The move is just one part of the Hyundai’s overall goal of...

Subaru is sticking to its almost trademark horizontally opposed or ‘boxer’ engine for its future lineup of cars, improving on the design, making it more refined and fuel efficient with each generation. The third and latest generation of the engine--the first major redesign in 21...

Nissan has showed us the future of the automobile with its advanced Leaf all-electric vehicle but that doesn’t mean it’s game over for the internal combustion engine. Gasoline and diesel powered cars can live on, well into the future in fact, thanks to new fuel-saving technologies that Nissan...