EPA
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Our reader Celeste wrote to ask us about available hybrid SUVs and crossovers, and we thought our answer might be useful for the site. At the moment, there are three main hybrid SUVs sold in the U.S. Each of them also has variations sold under other brands. All are likely to be durable, as their powertrains must be warrantied in some states for 10 years and 150,000 miles. Their mileage will vary depending on your "duty cycle." Hybrids are at their most fuel efficient in lower-speed and stop-and-go traffic, when their ability to switch off the engine on stops and run short distances solely on...
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2011 Ford Fiesta Gets 40 MPG Rating
The 2011 Ford Fiesta is officially the most fuel efficient model in its class, with the EPA announcing today that the ultra-funky hatchback and sedan rates in at 29 mpg in the city and 40 mpg on the highway when equipped with the smooth shifting six-speed PowerShift dual clutch transmission. To put...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Long-Haul Truckers Beg For Rescue From Nasty Gas-Saving EPA
It's pretty rare when a group of drivers begs a government agency to regulate them. But when it could avert what they think would be even worse regulations from another agency, anything's fair in love and war. The drivers in this case are the nation's long-haul truckers or, more precisely, the...
John Voelcker -
Now We Know: 2011 Chevrolet Volt Will Get 50 MPG In Gas Mode
It's been one of the most-asked questions about the 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car: So what kind of gas mileage will it get? Despite confusion around Chevy's claim of 230 miles per gallon, what people wanted to know was simple: After the battery is depleted, when the car's...
John Voelcker -
Obama and EPA Launch 34.1-MPG Fuel-Economy Rules for 2016
The other shoe has dropped: Yesterday, two U.S. government agencies jointly announced the final fuel-economy rules for model year 2012 through 2016 vehicles, giving automakers a single national set of standards and averting the threat of state-by-state regulation. Starting with 2012, automakers...
John Voelcker -
2010 New York Auto Show Preview: 40-MPG 2011 Chevy Cruze Eco
The trend started in Europe, and now every car make seems to have a green sub-brand. For a while, Chevy used the "XFE" label, but its highest-mileage 2011 Chevrolet Cruze is to be called the Eco. The EPA hasn't released final gas-mileage figures, but Chevrolet expects the 2011 Cruze Eco to be rated...
John Voelcker -
Ford's on a roll lately, selling more cars in the U.S. than General Motors last month. And it's vowed to achieve best-in-class fuel economy numbers for every new model it launches. So the news today that its revised 2011 Ford Mustang with the 3.7-liter V-6 engine has been rated at 19 mpg city, 31 mpg highway by the EPA is a remarkable achievement. That's with the six-speed automatic transmission; if you choose the six-speed manual, you lose 1 mpg on the highway rating. What makes it more unusual is that this isn't a tiny, anemic V-6. It's a dual-overhead-cam, all aluminum engine rated at 305...
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States Bite Back Against Emissions Regulations, Even California
When automakers and the Obama White House announced agreement on a single national standard for emissions and fuel economy last May, the entire auto industry heaved a huge sigh of relief. The issue was settled, at least until 2016. Yesterday, however, the state of Texas filed suit in the U.S. Court...
John Voelcker -
More Than 30 MPG Highway: The New Benchmark For Green Cars?
So what exactly IS a "green car"? At both the Los Angeles Auto Show and Detroit Auto Show, you could find the word "green" all over the place. LA has been pitching itself for years as the greenest auto show, with fewer muscle cars and more hybrids, clean diesels, and so forth than any other U.S...
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 -
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 -
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 compact crossover and the 2011 Sonata midsize sedan, Hyundai has unveiled two new volume vehicles that it hopes will keep it climbing. The big surprise? Hyundai won't offer a V-6 engine in either model. Omission by design And that's by design. As John Krafcik, CEO of Hyundai America, told us, "We...
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Most Fuel Efficient Full-Line Carmaker in the U.S.: Honda. Again.
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...
John Voelcker -
Forbes Calls Jeep Grand Cherokee Dirtiest Car, Readers Slam Methods
That old capitalist tool, Forbes magazine, has issued a list of the 10 dirtiest cars sold in the U.S. At the very top, in first place for filth, is the Jeep Grand Cherokee. But it turns out there are some problems with their list. There's history behind this. A decade ago, the website for Forbes...
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 -
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 -
Well, now it's official. The 2010 Toyota Prius offers the best gas mileage of any new car sold in the U.S. for the upcoming 2010 model year, with a blended EPA rating of 50 miles per gallon. The 2010 Prius had actually been rated at 50 mpg back in March, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had to finish rating all 2010 models before it could issue a definitive list. Its formal ratings are 51 mpg city / 48 mpg highway on the EPA's two cycles. The 2010 Prius returns better overall gas mileage than the 2009 Prius it replaced, which was rated at 48 city / 45 highway. The new car is both...
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2010 Fusion Hybrid Takes Credit For 73-Percent Ford Hybrid Sales Rise
With record unemployment numbers and an active global recession, it's not news that vehicle sales have been lousy, falling by more than one-third from the record levels of a few years ago. But at least one maker's green cars are doing better than ever: Ford's U.S. sales of its hybrid-electric...
John Voelcker -
Preview: 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6
We've known for a while that BMW would launch its first hybrid this year, and now we know when: The 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6 will reach dealers this December. We'll be driving the hybrid X6 in a couple of weeks, but meanwhile, here's our advance preview of BMW's hybrid-electric sport-activity...
John Voelcker -
Cheap and Green: 2009 Hyundai Accent vs 2009 Nissan Versa
Between car loans, trade-ins, and special promotional incentives, most people rarely write a large check for their new car purchase. But what you can get for $10,000? What's the absolutely simplest, least expensive car on the U.S. market today? Actually, there are two: the 2009 Hyundai Accent and...
John Voelcker -
MPG Follies, Or, Why Electric Cars Can't Get 367 MPG. Sheesh.
One of our most popular posts in August was a piece that broke down how General Motors projected a fuel efficiency of 230 miles per gallon in the city for its 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car. Soon after GM's elaborate press event, Nissan announced with a straight face that their...
John Voelcker -
Preview: 2010 Nissan Altima
What is it?: Sporty Nissan midsize coupe and sedan, with hybrid available in sedan only The basics: Always slightly sportier and more stylish than the competition, the low-volume hybrid lets you have it all. Price: $19,900-$29,600 On sale: October 5th Nissan has made some changes to its...
John Voelcker