mpg
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We don't write much about trucks here at GreenCarReports.com, but our friends at PickupTrucks.com follow them obsessively. Now they've provided the data for an obvious but revealing truth: People drive better and more smoothly, saving gas, when they're being watched. They report that truck fleets using the Ford Work Solutions' Crew Chief application, which lets fleet operators track not only the location but the driving behavior of their drivers, both save gas and drive more safely. The data comes from Bill Frykman, the product and business development manager for Ford Work Solutions, which...
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New Way To Save Gas: An Accelerator Pedal That Talks Back
Next year's all-new 2011 Infiniti M series of luxury sports sedans will spawn a hybrid version, the 2012 M35 Hybrid, a year later. But even standard gasoline-engined models will offer new technology to help drivers save fuel. In this case, it's an accelerator pedal that talks back, courtesy of the...
John Voelcker -
How To Get 85 MPG In a 2010 Lexus HS 250h Hybrid: Go Downhill
You have to give corporate PR guys some credit when they publish an article on the astoundingly high mileage their car got in a road test, and then dismiss the whole thing as "silly and totally unscientific." That's what Lexus magazine auto editor Clark Heideger did. When a coworker got 47.4 miles...
John Voelcker -
Most Popular Posts of 2009: Prius Perks, VW Golf TDI, Ethanol & Urine!
Maybe you're already overloaded with end-of-year lists. But indulge us; this is the weirdest collection of most-popular articles we could ever have imagined. We've got urine. We've got Muslims and ethanol. We've got hybrid Ferraris. We've even got our ever-popular rant on why Miles-Per-Gallon is a...
John Voelcker -
EPA's Most Climate-Friendly Cars: All About Fuel Efficiency
The dirty little secrets of Top 10 lists are in the methodology, as Forbes found out with its weirdly inaccurate "10 Dirtiest Cars" list. (It's the end of the year, so it's time for a lot of Top 10s.) But we see no such problems in the EPA Green Vehicle Guide, which rates vehicles not only on...
John Voelcker -
Cash or Coupon for Honda Civic Hybrid Owners In Mileage Lawsuit
If you're one of the 120,000 people who own a Honda Civic Hybrid made between 2003 and 2008, you may already know about the proposed settlement to a lawsuit against Honda contending its advertising overestimated the gas mileage of your car. If you're not aware of the suit, read up quick. EPA...
John Voelcker -
Honda fan-boys have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the upcoming CR-Z Hybrid for months. The Japanese automaker calls the CR-Z "that place in the universe where sport and efficiency meet." According to a Japanese brochure leaked to the Temple of VTEC, what many had hoped would be the heir apparent to the much loved CR-X, sounds more like "that place in the universe where slow and efficiency meet." Honda bets that the new CR-Z will take 9.7 seconds to get to 62 mph. In other words, a 1998 Chevy G1500 cargo van will handily smoke the new hybrid. To be fair, the cargo van won't get you...
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2011 Ford Fiesta Prices Start at $13,995, Go As High As $23K
Prices for the eagerly awaited 2011 Ford Fiesta will start at $13,995 for the four-door sedan, but prices for the new subcompact will go as high as $23,000 for top-line model when it goes on sale next summer. The base sedan with a five-speed manual gearbox carries a sticker price of $13,320, plus...
John Voelcker -
To Infiniti and Beyond: What's the Essence of Their Hybrid Program?
It's no mystery that Nissan CEO, Carlos Ghosn, wants electric vehicles to be a significant part of the Japanese automaker's future. He takes every chance he gets to advertise his ambitions and he's got the Leaf EV to champion his cause (and perhaps more importantly for Nissan, to take some press...
Robert Scardino -
Hyundai: No More V6s For Midsize Cars or Compact Crossovers
One of the standouts among the global carmakers at the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show was Hyundai. The Korean company has seen its market share rise from 3 to 4 percent during a dismal downturn, even without any new volume models to spur excitement. Now, with its Los Angeles launch of the 2010 Tucson...
John Voelcker -
Toyota Prius To Become Brand's Biggest Seller Soon?
Well, maybe "soon" is a bit of an overstatement. But Jim Lentz, the president of Toyota's U.S. arm, recently told Ward's Auto News that sales of the Prius--the best-selling hybrid in the U.S. market--could grow to equal those of the Toyota Camry sometime this decade. The Toyota Camry, including its...
John Voelcker -
2011 Mazda2 Subcompact To Launch At Los Angeles Auto Show
We previewed the upcoming 2011 Mazda2 subcompact a couple of months ago, but now we have more details, along with photos of its updated styling. The five-door hatchback will be officially unveiled in early December, at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The 2011 Mazda Mazda2 will go on sale in the U.S. and...
John Voelcker -
Once again, Honda has the most fuel-efficient model range of the nine carmakers that sell a full lineup of vehicles in the U.S. Preliminary figures from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed Honda averaging 23.6 miles per gallon across its 2009 vehicles, closely trailed by Hyundai (23.4 mpg) and Toyota (23.2 mpg). The 2009 average across all vehicles sold is 21.1 mpg. Estimates track final figures The EPA estimates are made using sales estimates and confidential information on model mix and engine options from the carmakers, as well as early sales data. Final figures based on actual...
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Teaching Fuel Efficiency In Driving School: Smart, or Satanic?
Driving school is often a drag for participants. But as long as you're learning to drive, it might not hurt to learn a bit about how to identify more fuel-efficient cars and driving tactics to save gasoline, right? Wrong. It's a distraction and irrelevant, since "so-called environmental...
John Voelcker -
How To Improve Fuel Economy? Raise Gasoline Taxes, Say Executives
Auto executives know how to get U.S. drivers to save a whole lot more gasoline: Raise the price of gas, to at least $4 a gallon. That was the message at the recent Reuters Autos Summit in Detroit this week. The simplest way to get U.S. drivers into cars with higher gas mileage is economic: Make it...
John Voelcker -
How Far Can the 2010 Volkswagen Golf TDI Go On a Tank of Diesel?
We seem to be covering the 2010 Volkswagen Golf TDI clean diesel hatchback an awful lot here, but a recent blog post raised an issue we hadn't considered: How far can the 2010 Golf TDI go on a single tankful of diesel fuel? The question comes from blogger, host of #carchat on Twitter, and general...
John Voelcker -
Coupe To Join Expanded Prius Lineup, Perhaps Even Minivan
It's long been the dream of Toyota's U.S. arm that the company would add additional body styles to the Prius line. And Toyota finally gave the nod to that idea earlier this year. Now, details are starting to emerge on the new models that will join the all-new, third-generation 2010 Toyota Prius...
John Voelcker -
2011 Chevrolet Cruze Compact Car Launch Delayed Til Next Fall
As U.S. carmakers get serious about building world-class compact cars, one of the most eagerly awaited entries is the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze, which will face off against a totally new 2012 Ford Focus as well as revised models of the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, and Nissan Sentra. Now reports say that...
John Voelcker -
During a trip to Detroit last week, we had a chance to spend a couple of days with the all-new 2010 Chevrolet Equinox five-pasenger crossover sport-utility vehicle. We'd wanted to try this vehicle for some time, as most reviews deemed it vastly superior to the previous model. Certainly it's got crisper styling, a far nicer interior, and better gas mileage. We were especially interested in the model fitted with a 2.4-liter, 182-horsepower four-cylinder engine and six-speed automatic transmission. That's the most economical Equinox, rated by the EPA in front-wheel-drive form at 22 mpg city / 32...
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Greenest Car Company, Honda, Goes Greener Yet, Harder and Faster
Honda has the highest average fleet mileage of any volume carmaker selling in the U.S. market today. And it's had that distinction for many years. But in the face of the car-market meltdown, oil prices that have risen from $30 to $80 a barrel within months, and growing global environmental...
John Voelcker -
2010 Prius Beats 2010 Fusion Hybrid in Detroit News Showdown
Every so often, we like to take a look at what other reviewers have said about the 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid. So we were excited to hear that the Detroit News, from the bowels of Big Three territory, was doing a hybrid showdown comparison test. The paper rated eight mass-priced hybrids, leaving out...
John Voelcker -
Driven: 2010 Volkswagen Golf TDI, Clean Green Diesel Hatchback
As regular readers no doubt recall, we [heart] the 2010 Volkswagen Golf TDI. We think it'll be the big diesel winner in the U.S. market, and that's before we've even driven one. But Bengt Halvorson loved his drive in a European version of the 2010 Golf TDI. Now, our colleague Marty Padgett has...
John Voelcker -
2010 Gas Mileage Ratings Released, Hybrids Take Top Slots
Gasoline may be averaging around $2.50 a gallon right now, but gas mileage remains an important factor in choosing a new car. Now the EPA has released 2010 fuel efficiency figures for all new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. Hybrids from Ford, Honda, Lexus, Mazda, Mercury, Nissan, and Toyota...
John Voelcker -
Flex-Fuel Future: Cars Are Coming, But Where's the Fuel?
We don't hear so much about ethanol these days, now that gasoline is back down to $2.50 a gallon. But we still get e-mails, so here's a post to answer the question: What's going on with flex-fuel cars? Short answer: Manufacturers are slowly increasing the number of vehicles they build that can...
John Voelcker