Test drive
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Last week, Tesla announced it would close all its stores. This week, it said it would keep most of them open. Lots of people have speculated about the causes and effects of both moves, from rent owed, to state statutes, to the logistics of test drives. Our question is, what do potential electric-car buyers think? DON'T MISS: Tesla will raise prices on all but $35k Model 3, keep more stores open That's what we decided to ask our Twitter followers this week: "Do Tesla stores still matter?" If Tesla is to sell the Model Y, much less move on to selling the upcoming pickup it has planned, as well...
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2017 Toyota Highlander Hybrid: brief drive of updated three-row SUV
The 2017 Toyota Highlander Hybrid remains the only three-row hybrid crossover utility vehicle sold in the U.S. today. And for the 2017 model year, it's gotten some mild updates. a power increase, and a critical feature for family vehicles: a total of five USB ports. We had a chance to spend half an...
John Voelcker -
2016 Nissan Altima 2.5 SL gas mileage review
Nissan made big waves a few years ago when it introduced its then-new 2013 Altima. On the side of a barn not too far from its Franklin, Tennessee, headquarters, the automaker painted "38 mpg"—referring not to its combined EPA rating, but its highway number. And then it took a bunch of...
Andrew Ganz -
2016 Hyundai Tucson Eco: Gas Mileage Drive Of New Compact SUV
South Korean carmaker Hyundai has aggressive plans to expand its lineup and its sales in virtually every segment, and it's launched consistently better cars for several years in a row. With gas prices remaining low, the compact crossover utility segment is red-hot in the U.S. market right now, and...
John Voelcker -
Is Chevy Actually Testing New Marketing For The 2016 Volt?
The new 2016 Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid keeps and expands on all the good points of the first-generation Volt, while fixing a number of the old car's quirks. As we wrote in September, "The new Volt's a great car, and brings practical electric drive to U.S. drivers without a shred of range...
John Voelcker -
Minnesota Tesla Owners Show Banned Model S To Iowa Electric-Car Shoppers
Suppose auto dealers in a neighboring state pressured their DoT to make Tesla Motors stop giving test drives of its Model S electric car--the same kind it now offers in more than a dozen other states. What would you do? If you were you a group of Tesla owners in Minnesota, you might just take...
John Voelcker -
Subaru sales have surged over the last decade, taking the quirky Japanese brand from its Snow Belt niche into more and broader markets. This year, the redesigned 2015 Subaru Legacy is a viable contender to go head to head with the most mainstream mid-size sedans: Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Ford Fusion, Hyundai Sonata, and more. DON'T MISS: 2015 Subaru Outback: Gas Mileage Review Of Crossover Wagon Utility Vehicle But with all-wheel drive standard on all Legacies--which adds weight--how does the new sedan do on gas mileage? Over the past three months, we've driven two different 2015 Legacy...
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2015 Honda Fit Gas Mileage: True 40-MPG Subcompact, Or Not?
The 2015 Honda Fit subcompact is an entirely new model, and for North America, it's built in a new plant in Mexico. That means that its launch was necessarily slow and cautious--in fact, it was delayed two months--and then a bumper upgrade to reinforce crash-safety welds hardly sped up the...
John Voelcker -
Riding The Harley-Davidson LiveWire Electric Motorcycle: News Video
Harley-Davidson may be the most traditional of motorcycle makers. But it's now taken a huge leap into a greener future with its LiveWire electric motorcycle concept. Recently, our writer Ben Rich rode it--and reported on what it's like. This is Green Car Reports' video news for the week of July 28...
John Voelcker -
Electric Car 'Guest Drive' Service Launches In CA To Get 'Butts In Seats'
If it's worth saying once, it's worth saying a thousand times: The best way of getting people interested in electric cars is to let people drive them. That's exactly what Electric Car Guest Drive, a California-based initiative, is doing--giving people interested in electric cars the opportunity to...
Antony Ingram -
2014 Mazda 3: Gas Mileage Review Of Sporty Compact Hatchback
Auto writers tend to like Mazdas; they generally perform and handle well, and are far more fun to drive than the anodyne Fords, Hondas, and Toyotas that outsell them in the compact and mid-size categories. The newest crop of Mazda cars and crossovers, built around the company's highly...
John Voelcker -
Gas Mileage During Dealership Test Drives: Mostly Meaningless
You've read the reviews, and it's finally time: You're off to the dealer to replace your old car with a new, much more fuel-efficient vehicle. But then you get to the dealer, and during your test drive, you notice that the gas mileage shown on the car's display is nowhere near the EPA rating...
John Voelcker -
Hybrid SUVs and crossover utility vehicles remain rare compared to the growing array of hybrid passenger sedans and hatchbacks. So we've been eager to test the new 2014 Nissan Pathfinder Hybrid, one of only four hybrid crossovers. MORE: 2014 Nissan Pathfinder Hybrid: Is It Hybrid Enough To Matter? It's only a mild hybrid, unlike Toyota and Lexus competitors, and we've had our doubts about whether it can deliver its rated gas mileage in real-world use. After spending more than a week with a Pathfinder Hybrid over the end-of-year holidays, the news isn't good. The 2014 Pathfinder Hybrid is...
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2014 Jeep Cherokee Limited 4X4: Gas Mileage Test With V-6
It's winter in the Northeast, and last week's Polar Vortex luckily came along just as our weekend test car was a 2014 Jeep Cherokee. This is the all-new compact crossover that replaces the old truck-like Jeep Liberty, going head-to-head with popular compact crossover utilities like the Chevy...
John Voelcker -
Mercedes-Benz GLK 250 BlueTEC Diesel: Luxury Crossover Fuel Economy
This year has seen several new diesel passenger vehicles hit U.S. roads, and last fall, we were able to spend a full weekend with the 2013 Mercedes-Benz GLK 250 BlueTEC 4matic crossover. We'd driven the luxury compact utility vehicle for a day last spring, and enjoyed it--but we wanted to put it...
John Voelcker -
Electric Cars: Drivers Love 'Em, Want 'Em--But Butts In Seats Is the Challenge
It's pretty clear that many car buyers are very interested in electric cars, and that they love them when they drive them. Electric cars have a handful of natural advantages that offset their higher purchase cost: They cost far less per mile than gasoline cars, and they're simply nicer to drive...
John Voelcker -
2014 BMW i3: First Drive Of BMW's Radical New Electric Car
You may have read stories lately that suggest the BMW i3 is the first luxury competition for the Tesla Model S electric car. It’s not. You may also have read that it’s the first range-extended car to go head to head with the Chevrolet Volt. It’s not. In building its first...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model S 'Get Amped' Tour: 5,000 Test Drives In Sight
Fourteen of the planned sixteen cities have been completed on the “Getting Amped Tour,”
George Parrott -
Although we try very hard to put cars through a variety of tests on a variety of roads when we carry out our first drive reports, it’s not always possible to gauge what day-to-day life would really be like for real-life owners. So when possible, we try to spend more than a few hours with a car to help you better gauge if it suits your lifestyle, usually with an extended weekend or week-long test-drive. One such car we wanted to get to know better was the 2012 BMW ActiveHybrid 5, which we got a chance to drive earlier this year on a closed, private test track. We’ve already given...
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Volvo C30 Electric: Winter Drive Report
Over the past few days, we've told you about our trip to Kiruna, Sweden, where Volvo allowed us to put its C30 electric car through its paces in a series of cold-weather tests designed to push the car to its limit. Now it's time to tell you about our real-world test drive, along 40 miles of snow...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2012 Toyota Prius V: Hybrid Wagon Drive Report
When you drive a wagon, you usually need the space. And so it was with the 2012 Toyota Prius V, in which we hauled holiday gifts, heavy sagging boxes of old car magazines, furniture, and other life impedimentia over a 10-day, 650-mile test drive that spanned late December and early January. It's a...
John Voelcker -
2012 Fisker Karma Electric Car: Quick Drive Review [Video]
Price increases be damned, the 2012 Fisker Karma is finally here, and first examples are about to arrive in customers' driveways. Earlier in the week we posted our video driving impressions of the new four-door extended-range electric car from startup Fisker Automotive. Now it's time to expand on...
Joel Feder -
Why Offer Electric Cars? Because They Sell More Gasoline Cars
Amidst supposedly slow sales--actually limited mostly by low production--one benefit to automakers of offering electric cars has nothing to do with cars that plug in. Not only do electric cars attract radically different buyers to the brands that offer them, they also help sell conventional...
John Voelcker -
2011 Chevrolet Volt Enters Palin Country In Alaskan Test-Drive (Video)
It may not be available in the northernmost of the 50 states, but the 2011 Chevrolet Volt is no stranger to Alaska. Last winter, a team of engineers from Chevrolet spent many weeks in the frigid north to see how well its range-extended plug-in hybrid would fare with the extreme cold and heavy...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield