Fuel Economy

Did you make a road-trip this weekend? Did you have to buy gas? If the answer is yes, then the chances are you found yourself paying the highest price for gas since May, and the highest you’ve ever had to pay for a Labor Day travel. Highest ever According to the AAA (via FoxNews), the average...

Ford’s all-new 2013 Escape compact crossover may have only been on sale for a few months, but it is already proving a strong seller at Ford dealerships across the U.S. On paper, there’s little difference between the gas mileage figures of the entry-level 2.5-liter, four-cylinder Ford...

Last year at the 2011 Qatar Motor Show, Volkswagen wooed the audience with its XL1 plug-in hybrid concept car, a vehicle it said would get an amazing 0.9 liters per 100 kilometers, or 260 mpg. Now, a road-going prototype version of the gas-sipping two-seater has been spotted undergoing extensive...

After a long, political battle, both on Capitol Hill and in Detroit, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Obama administration have confirmed new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for all cars made between 2017 and 2025. The final ruling, originally due two weeks ago but delayed...

With ever-tougher fuel economy regulations and the rising price of gasoline, more Americans than ever before want to know what the gas mileage of their car really is. Keeping records of your car’s gas mileage may sound like a bore, but it will help you figure out where and how you’re...

It has been in production in one form or another for 38 years, but the next-generation Volkswagen Golf, due to be unveiled next month at the 2012 Paris Auto Show, will be the biggest, smartest and most economical Golf yet. According to Autocar, the seventh generation Volkswagen Golf, due to go on...

If you’re preparing to return to college in the next few days -- or are a Freshman heading away from home for the first time -- your preparations probably include a long road trip. But with every cent you spend on gasoline diminishing your college fund, how do you make that heavily-packed...

In coming years, every car company will make every vehicle it builds greener--meaning more fuel-efficient--courtesy of increasingly stringent gas mileage and carbon emissions rules around the world. That applies not only to smaller, simpler cars, but also large, heavy, fast, luxurious, and...

Yesterday, the U.S. EPA had planned to release final rules on new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations requiring automakers to achieve average fuel economies of 54.5 mpg by 2025. But continued opposition and bitter disagreements has lead the current administration to delay the ruling...

There's a lot of focus--perhaps too much--on carmakers using smaller engines, hybrids, and plug-in cars to meet increasingly higher gas-mileage standards from now through 2025. But another, equally important method is reducing the amount of car that has to be moved around in the first place. That...

With continued uncertainty about gas prices, more Americans than ever are buying smaller, more efficient cars. According to Automotive News (subscription required), the demand for small, high gas mileage cars has meant that sales of compact cars -- like the Toyota Yaris, Kia Rio and Chevrolet Sonic...

How much do you spend on gasoline each year? If you happen to live in the average U.S. household, the total is more than $2,850 every year--roughly $240 a month, or $60 each week. So when the Consumer Federation of America surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults in May on their attitudes toward fuel efficiency...

When you see that magic 40-miles-per-gallon number in a car ad, does it make you pay attention? Most likely it does. (Among other things, it's usually in much larger type than the other two EPA ratings.) But how seriously should you take any publicized gas-mileage ratings? Most people seem to know...

Whenever a new car hits the market, there’s always a website somewhere on the Internet keeping track of how real-world gas mileage differs from the EPA’s official quotes. So it’s no surprise that owners of the 2012 Toyota Prius C have started to keep track of the gas mileage of...

A few years ago, some automakers began offering stop/start technology on select cars as a way to help lower emissions and increase fuel economy in busy city traffic. Early stop/start systems in non-hybrid cars were often slow to respond to driver input, making them unpopular with drivers, but now...

If your workplace is anything like ours, it seems that while you're at work, most of the rest of the United States has taken the entire week off to celebrate Independence Day. For our own celebration, and with a friendly nod to our defeated British colleagues, we thought it would be appropriate to...

Three-cylinder engines have never found much traction in the U.S. Outside of the much-loved Chevrolet Sprint, Geo Metro, and Suzuki Swift, they've mostly been in the domain of obscure subcompact nameplates like the Subaru Justy and Daihatsu Charade, and in niche minicars like the Smart Fortwo. Now...

Anyone who's traveled overseas has seen the small car-based commercial vehicles common in the crowded cities of Europe and Asia. While U.S. workmen may use full-size Ford or Chevy vans, their European counterparts use smaller vans (and pickups too) based on compact or even subcompact models. But...

The numbers came in this morning, and gas prices took a sharp drop, with the national average now at just $3.50 per gallon. And they're expected to stay relatively flat through the summer, barring any surprises and geopolitical actions. That $3.50 average is s a drop of 7 cents in the last week...

If your daily driving resembles a New York City cabbie's--lots of stop and go--you should get a hybrid for best fuel efficiency. But if it's closer to that of a traveling farm salesman--steady speeds on Interstate highways and wide-open state roads for hours--you'll likely be better off with a...