2012

When it comes to performance cars there is always competition; you might be thinking the competition is mostly on the street or at the track, but there is another place that competition is ramped. The Office. And by office we mean the sales floor. Neither Chevrolet or Ford would come right out and...

The 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Chevrolet Volt had better watch out. The Blue Oval’s contender in the zero-emissions segment, the upcoming 2012 Ford Focus Electric, is edging closer to production. This week it gained a new microsite on the official Ford website. We already had a look at the car...

With gas prices topping $4 a gallon and a slew of brand-new models on the market, the compact car class has never been more competitive. For several years, the highest-selling model to actual retail buyers (after you take out rental cars and other fleets) has been the well-known and much-loved...

It’s a well-known fact that just like humans, electric cars work best in temperate climates. But what is the coldest temperature an electric car needs to be operational in? And just how do you test that? While we’ve proven that cars like the 2011 Tesla Roadster can more than adequately...

As well as the "What kind of car should I buy?" questions, we're suddenly getting a lot of questions about driving techniques to save gas. Shouldn't be surprising; the average cost of a gallon of gasoline passed $4 this week. But one of the most confusing areas of gas saving turns out to be speed...

The city of San Francisco, California, will install electric vehicle charging stations in publicly-owned garages and at San Francisco International Airport by the end of the year that drivers can use for free until 2013. The plan involves dropping around 90 charging stations across the city in the...

Here in the U.S. the government, both at the federal and state level, offers an array of incentives for eco friendly vehicles such as clean diesels, plug-in hybrids and electric cars. However, the U.S. isn’t the only major automotive market with such incentive programs in place. Over in China...

We tend to get a lot of "What car should we buy?" questions at GreenCarReports, and we'll usually respond with a list of questions to narrow down the choices. Recently, though, our high-school friend Sarah Sette in Baltimore sent the following note: We are car shopping, seriously this time. The...

Of the five separate 2012 Honda Civic models featured at last month's New York Auto Show, the Civic HF sedan is probably the most affordable tradeoff between gas mileage and purchase price. Its base price is $19,455. It's EPA-rated at 29 mpg city, 41 mpg highway, toward the top of the 2012 Civic...

The excitement for the Fiat brand is growing in the U.S. now that we know we will be able to purchase a Fiat 500 in the near future. Maybe it is the unique size or the cache of the brand from the past, but there is a definite air that the Fiat 500 will be a popular car in the U.S. even when...

Saab fans all over the world are looking anxiously at a company that says it's pulled itself back from the brink of death. Again. The latest rescuer is the little-known Chinese carmaker Hawtai Motor Group, which will invest 120 million euros ($177 million) in Spyker Cars NV, the Dutch company that...

Even in the sixth year of its life, the old 2011 Honda Civic frequently topped the chart in retail sales--meaning individual buyers--in the compact car segment. Now, there's a new 2012 Honda Civic lineup, launched to the world at the New York Auto Show two weeks ago. The version with the highest...

With Chevrolet on track to complete its rollout of the 2011 Volt range-extended electric car to all 50 states by the end of this year, the carmaker is turning its sites to other countries. And it's starting next door in one of the two closest foreign countries to the U.S., one right on our border...

Introduced for 2010, the Porsche Panamera horrified purists but lured buyers all over the world. It was Porsche's first-ever four-door sedan, built in part for the burgeoning Chinese market, and its humpbacked styling is ... well, let's just say ... polarizing. Now Porsche has unveiled the most...

With gas prices approaching $4 a gallon and the effects of the recession still very much in evidence, a high-mileage, inexpensive compact car with better-than-average interior room sounds like an appealing offer. That's what emerged at the New York Auto Show 10 days ago, as Nissan officially...

If you ask people what Mitsubishi sports car is most memorable it wouldn’t be a surprise if they answered Mitsubishi Eclipse. In fact, the Mitsubishi Eclipse began its production in the U.S. back in 1989 as the replacement to the Starion coupe. The Eclipse quickly got the reputation for being...

The Nissan Versa has been one of those cars that suites those looking for good, economic, no frills transportation. Put another way, the Versa really isn’t anything to write home about; in fact the most impressive thing about the Versa used to be that it was the most inexpensive new car you...

There has been a large amount of commentary around electric cars, charging capabilities and the role of your local utility. The question that continues to come up is whether utilities can handle electric cars in mass quantities. That question isn’t just directed at the power grid, which is...

If you've been paying any attention at all, you'll see new-car ads touting the magical "40 mpg highway" number in big print. You'll see a whole lot of car ads, in fact, for vehicles that include the 2011 Ford Fiesta SFE, 2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco (with six-speed manual), 2011 Hyundai Elantra (all...

Hyundai is on a roll, hammering its 40-mpg highway gas mileage advantage and launching new cars left and right. We covered the new 2012 Hyundai Accent a few days ago when it was launched at last week's New York Auto Show--focusing on its 1.6-liter direct-injected four-cylinder engine, which is...