2011
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What is the basic purpose of the new electric cars? For most of us, it is as a city or local commuting vehicle. The basic commuting "appliance" might be optimized to: 1. cost as little as possible to acquire; 2. have decent functional range for the typical commute or errand, e.g. 50 miles?; and 3. be able to carry 4-5 passengers. The 2011 Nissan Leaf clearly meets these functional parameters, and the waiting list of eager drivers attests to how it promises to serve those needs. Current Leaf drivers, the 400 or so lucky early adopters, report great satisfaction with this vehicle, and attest to...
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Lexus Plans Performance CT 300h Hybrid For Sports Minded Consumers
Last year AllSmallCars.com took a little trip down to New Orleans to check out the prototype version of the Lexus CT 200h. Of course, we were pleasantly surprised with this entry-level luxury hybrid aimed at a younger market that is looking for upscale features with the hot-hatch image. At the time...
Jonathan McGrew -
Buying Or Selling a Used Electric Car? What You Need to Know
On the face of it, buying or selling a used electric car could seem like a great idea if you either need to make more room in your garage for your shiny new plug-in ride or you just can’t afford the sticker shock associated with buying new. However, we’ve been watching Internet auction...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Wheego CEO Says Electric-Car Company Survives “Hand to Mouth”
Atlanta-based Wheego Electric Cars Inc may have just delivered its first all-electric two-seat LiFe, but it is also fighting for its life. Talking candidly to Lindsay Chappell from Automotive News, Wheego CEO Mike McQuary painted a bleak picture of the firm and its future. “My constraint is...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
IIHS Gives Volt and LEAF Top Safety Pick Award
Safety is a big concern when it comes to today’s modern automobiles and there has been a lot of interest around the subject when you add electric vehicles to the mix. A recent Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) announcement may quell electric vehicle safety fears and help boost...
Jonathan McGrew -
2011 Suzuki Kizashi: Hard To Say, But Best Suzuki To Date
When you think of entry-level luxury sedans our bet is that the Suzuki Kizashi isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Instead you probably think of cars like the Audi A4, Mercedes-Benz C-Class and Acura TSX. If we said affordable, yet luxurious economy car, you probably still...
Jonathan McGrew -
The MINI brand has quite the following and a range of products that can support those looking for something small and fun to high-performance to all-wheel drive. You might be familiar with the John Coopers Works model that designates the highest of high performance MINI models and the history that is behind it. However, you might not have ever noticed that MINI doesn’t have a luxury specific version of their MINI Cooper models. That is all about to change according to Autocar in the UK. The first showing of an uber luxury model with the Goodwood badging showed up at the Shanghai auto...
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Top 5 Small Convertibles For This Summer
With May and Mother’s Day just around the corner the summer is almost upon us and with summer comes the urge to be in the sun. When you pair sun with automobiles, then you have a couple of options to get out in the sun while on the open road—a convertible or a sunroof. Of course, for...
Jonathan McGrew -
Small Cars That Can Haul…People That Is
Just because you want to drive a smaller car doesn’t mean you have to give up the ability to haul around a decent amount of people. There are a number of smaller options out there that also allow you to utilize a third row seat option. Okay, so small is a relative statement and we...
Jonathan McGrew -
Electric-Car Warning: Check Your Utility Bill Carefully!
It is apparently quite possible that the local utility company that provides the power to charge your new electric vehicle may not have "all its ducks in a row" when it comes to charging you properly for that electricity. I recently bought both a 2011 Nissan Leaf and a 2011 Chevy Volt, and well...
George Parrott -
Tesla Morphs into GAP With Branded Clothes for Kids
Here’s a question. Would you put your kids in branded clothes for a $109,000 sports car? If you answered yes, then we think that’s the answer Silicon-Valley electric car firm Tesla Motors is hoping for after it has quietly launched a new line of clothing aimed specifically at those way...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
The Price of Conformity: Tesla’s $750 J1772 Charge Adaptor
As those who purchased Betamax when everyone else was choosing VHS will tell you, being at the cutting edge of technology is sometimes very, very expensive. The latest victims of “early-adopter light-wallet syndrome” aren’t buying a new video collection though: they’re...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
In some new cars, you can't learn enough over the course of a first drive. There's not enough time to experience every handling nuance, or every electronic helper, in a hundred miles or less. With the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI, you'll find the opposite. Spending more than 2000 miles behind the wheel doesn't tell you anything more than you'd find in the first dozen miles--that the TDI is probably the best Jetta you can buy, and a great counterpoint to the argument that hybrids are the only green cars Americans really want. The proof accumulates with lots of highway miles. Our red turbodiesel...
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Hybrid Lexus LS 600h Limousine Will Turn Royal Wedding Green
No, we’re not talking about the Prince William and Kate Middleton royal wedding that’s taking place this week. We’re talking about that other royal wedding, the one between Monaco’s Prince Albert II and his bride-to-be Charlene Wittstock scheduled for July 2 of this year...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt Get Highest IIHS Crash-Safety Ratings
Spend much time looking into electric cars online and you’ll come across the old chestnut that suggests that battery electric and plug-in hybrid cars just aren’t as safe as their gasoline-engined counterparts. But the two best-selling mainstream electric cars of the year have just put...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf Get Top IIHS Crash-Safety Ratings
Among the many things that confuse or worry potential buyers of plug-in electric cars is whether they'll be safe. One concern is car washes or even deep pools of water, but another is whether the battery pack will be damaged or dangerous in an accident. Well, now you can chalk that last one off the...
John Voelcker -
Wheego Ships First LiFe Electric Car on Earth Day
Late last week a couple in Atlanta, Georgia became the first owners of the latest battery electric car to hit the roads, the 2011 Wheego LiFe. Handed over to commemorate Earth Day 2011, the small electric car which bears a passing resemblance to the 2011 Smart ForTwo electric drive is the first...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Electric Cars: How They Work, What You Need To Know (Video)
Driving the 2011 Chevrolet Volt leads all sorts of people to ask you questions: passers-by, the guy at the parking garage...and sometimes, even museums. A few weeks ago, we had a Chevy Volt for review. At the time, we were asked by the Forward Thinking Museum in Manhattan not only to show its staff...
John Voelcker -
Every movie has to have a premiere, and every premiere has to have a red carpet. When the red carpet is on a Manhattan sidewalk, with plenty of passers-by stopping to gawk, and many of the celebs are arriving in electric cars, things get a little more complicated. Still, last night's premiere of Revenge of the Electric Car offered its share of glamor, even if the stars were better known in the automotive and electric-car advocacy world. They included Elon Musk, CEO of electric carmaker Tesla Motors (accompanied by his mother); former GM vice president and all-round "car guy" Bob Lutz;...
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Sales Of Small Cars Boost Average Gas Mileage For 2011 So Far
During the first quarter of 2011, small car sales accounted for 19.4 percent of all vehicles sold. That is a sudden increase in popularity--up 2.8 percent from the last quarter of 2010--and it helped propel the average fuel economy of vehicles sold in the U.S. during January, February, and March to...
Kurt Ernst -
Range Anxiety or Stupidity? Pushing an Electric Car to its Limits
Yesterday we told you about our generally hassle-free, two-day, 520 mile round trip in a 2011 Nissan Leaf. Thanks to a succession of available rapid charging stations, a little measured driving and a few strategic detours we were able to arrive at both destination and start point without little...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Five Things We Don't Like On The 2011 Hyundai Elantra (Video)
Finally, here's our last video in the series we did on the new 2011 Hyundai Elantra. Since we tested that car a few weeks ago, the compact segment has only heated up. There's a new 2012 Honda Civic, an entirely redesigned all-wheel-drive 2012 Subaru Impreza, and the highly competitive 2011 Chevy...
John Voelcker -
2011 Nissan Leaf, 520 Miles, 2 Days: Here's How
We all know electric cars like the 2011 Nissan Leaf were designed to satisfy the daily driving needs of 90% of the population. For most cars, that translates to a life in or near a large metropolis, where daily commutes are between 10 and 40 miles. But with rapid charging capable of fast-charging...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2011 Nissan Leaf Wins World Car of The Year
Over the past year we’ve seen the 2011 Nissan Leaf win plenty of awards, including the accolade of European Car of The Year and even GreenCarReports’ Best Car to Buy 2011. But while its main competitor, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, may have more awards to its name than Nissan’s first...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield