John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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Over the past decade, Cadillac has been trying to build--or rebuild--its reputation as a world-class luxury brand.
Style, luxury, and performance all play into the mix of its new products, but it...
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Gas Prices Are Down, But Demand? Turns Out That's Down TooConventional wisdom says that when gas prices rise, demand falls--and vice versa. Except that's not what's happening right now, as TheCarConnection noted a few days ago, pointing to data published in the Detroit Free Press. The newspaper noted that retail demand for gasoline is down almost 5...
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So How Many 2012 Model S Electric Cars Can Tesla Really Sell?The 2012 Tesla Model S has launched, short drive reviews are coming in, and new owners are taking delivery every day. So what's next for Tesla? We know what the company plans to launch for its future vehicles--the 2014 Model X crossover, a Roadster replacement, and down the road, a smaller, less...
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2013 Toyota Avalon Hybrid: 40-MPG Model For Mid-Size SedanToyota's remorseless drive to maintain its largest-by-far share of the global hybrid vehicle market continues apace. The latest vehicle to add a hybrid variant is the all-new 2013 Toyota Avalon, the large, luxurious, mid-size front-wheel drive sedan sold only in North America. The 2013 Toyota...
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2013 MINI Clubvan, Its First Truck, To Arrive This FallAnyone 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...
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New 2014 Chevrolet Impala Eco Model To Join Cruze, MalibuBuick has placed a major bet on its eAssist mild hybrid system, offering it as standard equipment on base versions of the 2012 Lacrosse and, more recently, the 2013 Regal as well. Now Chevrolet is planning to spread that same system--which the Bowtie Brand uses on the 2013 Chevy Malibu Eco on sale...
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On Friday, Tesla Motors delivered its first production Model S electric sedans to retail customers, an event the company webcast live.
Watch the 26-0minute video above if you want to relive the...
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OK, E15 Gasoline Is Now Approved; Do You Need To Care?You felt the earth shake a week ago today when the EPA formally approved the sale of E15 gasoline, right? Oh, you didn't? Not surprising, really. No gas station in the U.S. sells E15 today, and it looks like it may be a while before any given driver sees the stuff showing up as one of several...
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2012 Tesla Model S Electric-Car Deliveries To Start TodayThey said it couldn't be done, but it looks like Tesla Motors has indeed pulled it off. If all goes to plan, at 3:30 pm Pacific today, CEO Elon Musk and other Tesla executives will hand over the keys of a new 2012 Tesla Model S to the first retail buyer to take delivery of the all-electric luxury...
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2012 Volkswagen Beetle: Quick DriveIt's not all that fuel efficient, but it's more fun to drive than we expected. That's our reaction to a quick drive last month in a blue 2012 Volkswagen Beetle. It's the entirely redesigned follow-on to the former New Beetle model that was perhaps best known for its dash-mounted flower vase--which...
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2013 Chevrolet Malibu Priced At $23,150 (Sans Eco)Launching the greenest model of a car first isn't all that common. Often carmakers want to get their high-end luxury variants out in front to draw attention to a new car. While the 2013 Chevy Malibu Eco has been out for several months, Chevrolet has just now priced the standard 2013 Malibu model...
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2012 Tesla Model S: EPA Range Of 265 Miles, 89 MPGe EfficiencyFriday will be a big day for startup electric carmaker Tesla Motors. On that day, it will deliver its first 2012 Model S luxury sport sedans to retail customers in a big webcast event at its Fremont, California, assembly plant. But a couple of days beforehand, the EPA has issued the eagerly awaited...
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Last month, we got a chance to drive the all-new 2012 Nissan Versa sedan, perhaps the largest "subcompact" we've ever been inside.
We only had about 20 minutes with the car, but that was enough time...
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800 Number On Blink Electric-Car Charging Stations? Useless, Don't BotherYou'd think a company awarded $115 million by the Department of Energy to build electric-car charging stations would make them accessible to every single driver, wouldn't you? Apparently, you'd be wrong. At least, that is, in the case of Ecotality's Blink network. Any plug-in driver arriving at a...
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2013 Hyundai Elantra Gives You A Choice: Sedan, Coupe, Hatch (But No Wagon)Americans won't buy hatchbacks, or so goes the hoary old conventional wisdom. That may no longer be true, as Ford found out, but most compact cars are still four-door sedans. With the 2013 launch of its Elantra GT hatchback and Elantra Coupe, however, Hyundai has expanded its compact line to offer...
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Will Lower Summer Gas Prices Boost Car Travel For Vacations?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...
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2012 Mercedes-Benz S 350 BlueTEC: One Week In 32-MPG Diesel Luxury SedanIf 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...
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Nissan Sticks With 20K Leafs In U.S. By End Of (Fiscal) YearElectric-car sales are actually doing better than sales of hybrid-electric vehicles were at the same stage of their launch, though you'd never know it from much of the media. But the prevalent "electric-car-sales-are-disastrous" meme has caused carmakers to couch their predictions much more...
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Mitsubishi is only the second global volume carmaker to sell a plug-in electric car in the U.S., but battery electric minicars like its 2012 'i' won't be a high-volume segment any time soon--if ever.
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Will Buick Launch A Volt Version Called Electra?Sometimes online news sites can build complete stories--almost entirely hypothetical--around a single factoid. This is one of those stories. The factoid is that General Motors registered its intent to use the name Electra on a product in the category of "Motor land vehicles, namely, automobiles...
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Audi A3 e-tron Prototype: First Drive Video (Exclusive)Unlike other carmakers--including BMW with its ActiveE program--Audi has chosen to use only in-house drivers to test the fleet of electric A3 e-tron prototypes it has brought to the U.S. So we're pleased to be among the few media outlets to drive an Audi A3 e-tron, one of just 17 such cars in North...
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2013 Buick Regal Gets eAssist Mild Hybrid As Base Engine To Boost MPGThe eAssist system may have entered production less than a year ago, but General Motors is clearly making a big bet on the mild hybrid system to help its Buick brand meet rising fuel economy regulations. First offered on the base 2.4-liter engine in the 2012 Buick Lacrosse, the eAssist system was...
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Job Training For Returning Vets: Installing Electric-Car ChargersIndustrial manufacturer Eaton Corporation, whose automotive business makes superchargers and many other parts, also supplies electric-car charging stations. Under a recent Federal contract, Eaton will provide those charging stations to various Federal locations--and the company is also working to...
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A123: New Li-Ion Cell Performs Fine In High, Low TemperaturesIt's been a rough year for lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems, but the Massachusetts company is forging ahead. This morning, it introduced a new battery technology it calls Nanophosphate EXT, which A123 says can operate at extreme temperatures without requiring the degree of heating or cooling...
John Voelcker