John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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It's almost sold out in some areas, the solar sunroof is smashing sales projections, and now the 2010 Toyota Prius had added a further laurel to its overflowing cap: The Insurance Institute for...
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Buying Tip: Is 2010 Ford Escape Hybrid Only a Fair-Weather Friend?A few weeks ago, we got a note from reader Laila Folk asking about air conditioning in hybrid cars, specifically the 2010 Ford Escape Hybrid. She wrote: Can you get an answer from Ford Corporation regarding the inclusion of an electric motor driven air compressor for the A/C unit in the 2010...
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Peugeot To Show First Production Diesel Hybrid, For Europe OnlyWe're pretty focused on the US car market here at GreenCarReports.com, so we don't write about cars we won't be able to buy all that often. Today, we're making an exception for a particularly significant technology advance. Next month, at the Frankfurt Motor Show, French automaker Peugeot will...
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2011 Scion iQ To Go On Sale By End of Next YearIn March, when Toyota unveiled a concept version of the 2011 Scion iQ at the New York Auto Show, it said only that it was studying the idea of bringing the "micro-subcompact car" into the US. Now it looks like the iQ will arrive by September or October of 2010. That's a few months earlier than the...
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Yet Another Reason To Buy a Toyota Prius: Cheap Insurance!There are many excellent reasons to buy a Toyota Prius, new or used, leading off with the hybrid's superb fuel economy: 50 miles per gallon for the new 2010 Toyota Prius. Now you can add to that list another justification. It turns out that the Toyota Prius will save you money on insurance. The...
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2010 Honda Insight a Top Safety Pick By IIHSIt may be subcompact in size, but the 2010 Honda Insight hybrid just got handed a big award. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has awarded the 2010 Honda Insight EX its "Top Safety Pick" designation, which it bestows on vehicles that do the best job of protecting their occupants in front...
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Today seems to be Ford day; this morning's e-mail included a news release on the early sales success of the 2010 Ford Transit Connect small delivery van, just while we're in the middle of writing up...
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Cashing In On Clunkers: Ford Faces Focus FamineNow that Congress has voted another $2 billion in funding for the Car Allowance Rebate Systems (CARS) program, better known as "Cash for Clunkers," the program's success means carmakers are starting to face shortages of their most popular high-mileage models. The latest manufacturer to face a...
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2011 Chevrolet Volt: Talk About Limited Production ...If you're one of the tens of thousands of green car fans excited about the launch of the 2011 Chevrolet Volt electric car, start making nice to your local Chevy dealer. Because the number of Volts built is going to be very, very low for at least its first year of production. Despite excitement over...
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2010 Toyota Prius: Solar Sunroof Smash Success, Hard To GetBy now, anyone who's shopping for a 2010 Toyota Prius knows that Toyota's newest hybrid is a smash hit. Global demand is high, the company is making as many cars as it can get battery packs for, and the US Cash-for-Clunkers program has boosted sales of the new hybrid even above already-high demand...
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2010 Honda Insight Sales To Fall Short of Goal?Before it launched in the US in March, the 2010 Honda Insight generated huge buzz. It was the "affordable hybrid," the "Prius killer," Honda's triumphant re-entry into the dedicated hybrid market it abandoned with the first generation Insight in 2006. So how's it going? Well, 2010 Insights are...
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GM's 'Bare Necessities' Concept: How Little Car Do You Want?Among the many vehicles shown, described, or teased at this morning's big General Motors press briefing was this unusual green concept from GM Labs, called 'Bare Necessities'. The two vehicles--a car and a truck--are meant to be maximally minimal. While the event itself focused on the next two...
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It's not every day you get to welcome a new big sibling into the fold. But today, from here at our global command center, the staff of GreenCarReports extends its greasy hands to welcome our new...
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How Does The 2011 Chevy Volt Get 230 MPG? By Making AssumptionsUPDATE: GM confirms that the 2011 Chevrolet Volt will get 230 mpg city, and a composite fuel economy (city and highway) of more than 100 mpg according to draft regulations being developed at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). If the rumors are correct, this morning General Motors CEO Fritz...
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Big Mileage Gains From Really, Really Small EnginesWe keep saying that one of the ways all cars will get greener and more efficient is for their engines to get smaller and work harder. One of the first production examples of this is Ford's EcoBoost V6 engine, which delivers the power of a V8 with better gas mileage. Now a couple of experimental new...
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Clunkers Success: 2010 Toyota Prius Almost Sold OutLast Tuesday, we noted that sales of the 2010 Toyota Prius have soared due to the Cash-for-Clunkers program. In fact, it's the fourth most popular vehicle purchased to replace a clunker trade-in. The unexpected success of the Clunkers trade-in system, formally known as the Car Allowance Rebate...
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Want To Build Your Own Plug-In Hybrid? New Book Tells You HowWhile many US car buyers are still getting used to the idea of hybrid electric vehicles like the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid or the 2010 Toyota Prius, a new variation is barreling down the pike: the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, or PHEV. A plug-in hybrid uses a larger battery pack to allow the car...
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Top Clunker Buys Compared: Toyota Corolla vs Ford Focus vs Honda CivicThinking about trading in your clunker for a nice, new, fuel-efficient car? Take a breath; the first-week success of the Car Allowance Rebate Systems (CARS) program, better known as "Cash for Clunkers," looks to be continued at least through Labor Day. Last Friday, the US House of Representatives...
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Every August, executives from the world's auto industry gather in Traverse City, Michigan, for what's known as the Management Briefing Seminars. It's a mix of presentations, news, schmoozing (and,...
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UPDATE: Cash-For-Clunkers Adds $2 Billion, Lasts Through Labor DayAs expected, the US Senate voted yesterday to add $2 billion more to the Car Allowance Rebate Systems (CARS) program--better known as "Cash for Clunkers". President Barack Obama is expected to sign it today. The vote approved a bill identical to the one passed last Friday by the US House of...
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Surprise, Surprise: That GM Plug-In Hybrid Is a Buick After AllWell, the other shoe finally dropped. General Motors said today that the plug-in version of its Two-Mode Hybrid system would be fitted to a Buick crossover to be introduced next year, with the plug-in arriving in 2011. That'll be at least a few months after the arrival of the 2011 Chevrolet Volt...
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Why $2.4 Billion of Battery Grants? To Get US Competitive in Electric CarsIt's now clearer than ever: Electric cars are coming to showrooms near you. They will be fully competitive, their makers are deadly serious, and they will be "real cars" rather than the golf carts people seem to worry about. At GreenCarReports.com, we've experienced the 2011 Chevrolet Volt mule...
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Clunker Dollars Data: Minnesota Wins, Mississippi LosesThis morning's Detroit News lists the amount of cash each state has gotten thus far under the Car Allowance Rebate Systems (CARS) program, better known as "Cash for Clunkers". The paper notes, "Michigan ranks No. 1 in the nation ... with $34.4 million requested from the federal government as of...
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Girly Rhinestone Prius To Interest Young Women, Only In JapanSometimes you have to run something just 'cause it's goofy. And so it is with today's item, showing the Japanese-market "DecoPrius" concept whose goal is to lure young women's interest back to a product they view as increasingly anti-social: the automobile. In urbanized Japan, cars are far less...
John Voelcker