Fuel Efficiency

While hybrids are one way to get good gas mileage in a variety of cars, another way is to wring every last drop of efficiency out of new and highly-efficient gasoline engines and transmissions. That's the path Mazda's taken, and it seems to be working. Two overachievers Almost two years ago, we...

At the end of every year, we look back at our traffic to identify the most popular stories we've published. Some of them may be evergreen topics that draw consistent traffic--three of the five were first published in 2012--while others are news or reviews that really took off and captured readers'...

Fiat, like MINI before it, thinks it's on to a good thing with its retro-styled small car, the 500. And like MINI, the Italian automaker thinks the best way of expanding on the car's popularity is to apply the badge to a whole range of vehicles--the latest being a four-door version of the currently...

Fueled by consumers disillusioned by the rising cost of driving and with less desire to own their own vehicles, the car sharing industry is growing rapidly. So rapidly, predicts Navigant Research, that global membership is forecast to have grown from around 2.3 million at the beginning of 2013 to...

Once in a while, we're blind-sided by responses to an article we publish--and we learn something in the process. On December 23, we wrote about ways that the all-new 2015 Ford F-150 full-size pickup truck might get better gas mileage. We learned that at least some of our readers seem to resent the...

The Ford F-150 full-size pickup is the best-selling single nameplate in the U.S. market, so any changes to Ford's premier truck mean a lot. Buyers, dealers, and the whole industry are paying close attention to information about the next generation 2015 Ford F-150, the first all-new design of Ford's...

If you have friends in Europe, you might have heard them complaining of gas prices topping $8 per gallon. It's certainly enough to make you feel better about the average $3.60 a gallon drivers pay in the U.S. Until you see what our counterparts in Venezuela are paying for gas--with the nation's...

Cars running on gasoline have been with us for almost 140 years, and diesels for almost 80 years. More than 1 billion vehicles on the planet use those fuels today. So the view that liquid hydrocarbon fuels are on their way out requires taking a rather long view. Now we have one estimate of a...

A car's mass affects virtually every aspect of its performance, handling and efficiency, and reducing it has become an all-encompassing pursuit for carmakers aiming to meet tough new fuel economy targets. High-strength steels, aluminum and even carbon fiber are now widely used, but the industry is...

Cruise control is an American driving staple. We use it on long road trips to reduce fatigue. And with the advent of adaptive cruise control systems, we're even using it on parts of our commutes, and during traffic-jammed holiday weekend slogs. For the most part, cruise control can save a lot of...

You might think that a list of the best engines on sale would be dominated by screaming sports car engines or a muscular V-8 from the latest muscle car. And while it's true that both feature on the Wards Automotive list of its 2014 Ten Best Engines, as well as several other high-performance units...

Stop-start systems have taken much longer to infiltrate the U.S. market than they have elsewhere, but several manufacturers are finally coming around to the idea of the gas-saving technology. One such automaker is Ford, which has announced that 70 percent of its North American vehicle lineup will...

You might be forgiven for thinking that as cars get ever heavier, better equipped, safer, more practical, more powerful and faster, fuel economy would suffer. Thankfully, the EPA's latest set of statistics proves that isn't the case--and dispels other notions such as increasing weight and ever...

The 1959 Opel P1 set a record of 376 mpg in a test at an Illinois airfield in 1973.

Last year, Nissan sold over 230,000 examples of its Juke compact crossover worldwide. MINI sold over 100,000 Countryman and Paceman models. Kia moved nearly 400,000 Sportage crossovers. The message here is that subcompact and compact crossovers are big business. Ford knows this, which is why its...

It wasn't so long ago that all-wheel drive was restricted to Jeeps, trucks, and the occasional esoteric supercar. Now, according to data from Polk cited in The Detroit News, it's fitted to almost one third of the vehicles sold in the United States. MORE: 2014 Jeep Cherokee: All The Details From NY...

The U.S. will provide technical assistance for China's next round of emissions standards.

Ford is reportedly considering green powertrains for future Mustang models.

Buffalo, New York has the cheapest used diesel cars in the United States, according to a new study.

Several large companies are prepared to pay for carbon emissions in the near future.