Fuel Economy

The results of German national elections don't get much news coverage in the U.S. But the re-election of Angela Merkel as chancellor on September 22 could prove to have an effect on your future Audi, BMW, or Mercedes-Benz. At issue is the desire of the European Union to impose even more stringent...

Toyota will continue to concentrate on hybrids despite other car makers' interest in electric cars, the Toyota chairman said.

It's one of the most common questions asked of any new car: "So what kind of gas mileage does it get?" The answer most often comes from the car's gas-mileage readout on the dashboard, generally specified to the tenths of a mile per gallon. But as Edmunds determined, those readings vary considerably...

Ford is putting its 2.0-liter four-cylinder EcoBoost engine in a police car.

Ford recently built its two-millionth EcoBoost engine. The small turbocharged engines are available in 90 percent of Ford vehicles.

The all-new 2014 Mazda 3 was revealed at the end of June, but only as a five-door hatchback--the model that will be the mainstay in Japan and Europe. Now we've had our first look at the 2014 Mazda3 four-door sedan in person; it was displayed at last week's Frankfurt Auto Show. The pictures show the...

The EPA is expanding its used car gas-mileage label tool. It now allows sellers to create a graphic for online ads.

The EPA has released fuel economy ratings for the 2014 Mercedes-Benz E 250 BlueTEC, and they put it ahead of its diesel midsize luxury sedan rivals.

Diesel engines and typical American-style commuting conditions are already a great match. Longer daily-driving distances get diesels up to their peak operating temperature—and hopefully out to higher highway speeds, where they return their best fuel economy. In low-speed stop-and-go driving...

The Nissan Versa is one of the largest "subcompacts" on the market. For 2014, a new hatchback model called the Versa Note joins the all-new sedan launched last year. We spent several hundred miles with a prototype 2014 Versa Note over three days of this past weekend, and came away relatively...

The 2014 Nissan Pathfinder Hybrid hasn't quite hit the dealerships yet, but already Nissan is promising more models that use the same hybrid system. When they're redesigned during the next couple of years, both the Murano and Rogue crossovers will be offered with a hybrid option, Nissan said. The...

Ford spent nine months justifying the 47-mpg fuel-efficiency rating of its new 2013 C-Max Hybrid--before it bowed to public pressure and lowered it to 43 mpg late Thursday. While its three latest hybrid models continue to sell well, the latest reversal draws attention to Ford's challenges when the...

For Ford, it's all about "customer satisfaction"--a phrase it's repeated hundreds of times over the past nine months. During that time, it's grappled with the realization that not only did its 2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid not achieve anywhere close to its 47-mpg EPA rating, but the shortfall had made...

Ford will lower the 47-mpg gas mileage rating for its C-Max Hybrid hatchback, a much-disputed metric that was never backed up by real-world owner experience. Soon after the cars launched a year ago, widespread media coverage--on this site and Consumer Reports, among others--indicated that owners...

Gasoline prices rise. Gasoline prices fall. And every time there's significant movement, it's a news story. Last week, for instance, CNBC (via The Car Connection) reported that a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline dropped to about $3.59 last Friday. That's almost 8 cents lower than the cost two...

Many buyers of new Ford cars--both its 2013 C-Max and Fusion hybrids, and those fitted with its EcoBoost line of downsized, turbocharged engines--report real-world gas mileage much lower than the cars' EPA ratings. Ford is trying to counter almost a year's worth of media attention to these concerns...

While automatic transmissions are more efficient than ever before -- and many now beat manual transmissions on gas mileage -- fans of stick-shift gearboxes are quick to point out that guiding your car into the right gear with your right hand is a sure-fire way to give you an enjoyable, efficient...

That noise you heard yesterday afternoon? That was the sound of the other shoe dropping. Ford said yesterday that it will "enhance the on-road fuel economy performance" of the 77,000 2013 hybrid models it's sold over the last year, in an effort to "improve customer satisfaction." The announcement...

With substantial weight savings and all-new drivetrains, the seventh-generation 2015 Volkswagen Golf TDI -- coming to the U.S. next year as a 2.0-litre TDI model, and also a hot hatch Golf GTD -- suggests diesel fans may get the kind of fuel-efficiency figures normally reserved for hybrid cars. But...

Mazda launched its all-new 2014 Mazda 3 compact hatchback today at coordinated events in New York, Melbourne, Istanbul, St. Petersburg, and London. The new Mazda 3 lineup, which will include a four-door sedan version as well when it goes on sale this September, is the second model designed around...