At the dawn of a new era in environmentally conscious automotive engineering, some auto-makers are taking a giant, green leap into the future, moving High technology into the main stream with a new generation of gas/electric Hybrids. Advances in technology are helping break the stereotypical image of the stodgy little, although ecologically superior, hybrid automobile.
On Monday, company joined several dozen other media outlets in Los Angeles for a chance to drive Ford’s new 2010 Fusion hybrid for the first time. After a brief repeat of the technical highlights of the new hybrid sedan, Ford spokesman Alan Hall challenged the group to go out and drive a route through Beverly Hills and Hollywood to see who could achieve the best mileage. The final EPA numbers aren’t done yet for the Fusion but Ford is saying it will be at least 39 city/37 highway, handilly beating its primary competitor, the Toyota Camry Hybrid.
We can’t yet share our full driving impressions until the end of the week but we can tell you all what happened during the mileage challenge. We paired up in the cars and each driver got to drive half the route before we switched places. Ford’s hybrid applications manager Gil Portalatin went out Sunday set the baselines for each half of the route. Nobody matched Portalatin’s results of 46 mpg on the first segment or 43.5 mpg on the second part, but some of us came close. On the first route Steve Siler of Car and Driver managed 43.6 mpg while yours truly achieved 43.1 to capture the second part. Stayed tuned this weekend for all the details on how we topped 40 mpg in the Fusion.
When GM and the UAW agreed to a new contract in 2007, several new models and the plants in which they would be built were agreed on. Drastic shifts in customer tastes are changing those plans rapidly, and the General is scrambling to deliver. GM was planning to build a seven-seat crossover based off its global Delta small car platform at the Detroit Hamtramck plant next year, but the Wall Street Journal is now reporting that the vehicle will no longer be produced for the US market.
The small MPV, which is being unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in concept form as the Chevy Orlando, will still be available in Europe where small seven-seaters are much more popular than here in the States. The small crossover will instead be replaced by a compact vehicle from Asia, possibly the Chevy Beat. However, GM never designed the Beat to meet U.S. crash-test standards, but hopefully the extra resources freed up by nixing the Orlando’s U.S. launch could make that happen in quick order.
The state of California has the toughest vehicle emissions regulations in the world in its LEV II (and the corresponding national Tier 2 Bin 5) standards. Those rules treat all engine types the same regardless of what fuel they use. It doesn’t matter if the engine runs on gasoline, diesel or cow dung, the emissions standards are the same. These rules are so tight that no manufacturer has been able to sell light-duty passenger vehicles powered by diesel engines in California and four other states for the last several years. That’s all about to change beginning with last month’s sales launch of the 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI. The Jetta TDI is the first new diesel-powered car to meet the tough T2B5 standards, and it’s fitting that VW invited us out to the birthplace of these emissions regulations to drive it. We spent a day driving the Jetta TDI in and around Santa Monica to gauge whether it has the right balance of Fahrvergnügen and low fuel consumption to be a viable alternative to cars like the Prius, Civic and Focus. Continue after the jump to find out more.
With the 2010 Ford Mustang set to be unveiled in November, time is running out for tuners to put out special edition Mustangs. Saleen seems to have saved its best for last and will be unveiling a “Dark Horse” Mustang next week. The super-Stang will feature the 620 horsepower V8 from the S302 Extreme plus the SuperShaker system that combines a functional ram air system with Saleen’s twin-screw supercharger system - a first for a Saleen production car. The “Dark Horse” will sport the Heritage body style and have additional features exclusive to the model. Production will begin in the Fall of 2008, and only 25 will be produced. Our best guess for the “Dark Horse” moniker is that the car will feature an all matte-black paint scheme. We’ll bring you all the details of the car after its official debut next week.
As you may know, Pontiac has finally decided to sell the Korean-built G3 five-door hatchback in the U.S. On sale elsewhere in the world as a Daewoo and as the Pontiac Wave in Canada and Mexico, the G3 is basically a Chevy Aveo5 with a different nose and red gauges. It’s brand rebadging in the grand old GM tradition. Jim Hopson, Manager of Pontiac Communications, has recently attempted to defend the G3’s insertion into Pontiac’s lineup on the GM Fastlane Blog. Let’s take a look…
Gas/electric hybrid vehicles present a conundrum for many car shoppers. They typically deliver the best fuel economy in their class, but they’re also priced higher than similar conventional cars. So it has been difficult to know whether a hybrid will save money overall.
Not anymore. With gas prices soaring, our latest analysis of owner costs shows that you can save more than $4,000 over five years by choosing a hybrid over a similar conventional gasoline-powered vehicle.
Six of the 12 affordable hybrids we looked at can save you from about $500 to $4,250, even without tax credits, and pay back their price premium after only one year. They are the Toyota Prius and hybrid versions of the Chevrolet Malibu and Tahoe, Ford Escape, Saturn Vue, and Toyota Camry. For several, you can save even more by taking advantage of federal tax credits.
The Honda Civic, Nissan Altima, and Saturn Aura hybrids will cost you a little more than their conventional counterparts—from $250 to $750 over five years—but some consumers might find it worthwhile to drive a more environmentally friendly car. With federal tax incentives, all three come out ahead after just one year.
Three hybrids—the Lexus GS 450h and RX 400h and the Toyota Highlander Hybrid—cost significantly more than their counterparts in the first five years.
Hybrid payback
Interest in hybrids has been on a parallel trajectory with gas prices. Hybrid sales jumped almost 40 percent last year. According to a recent Consumer Reports survey, 32 percent of active car shoppers are considering a hybrid for their next vehicle. And this past summer automakers had a difficult time keeping up with demand for the most popular models.
Array 2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid
2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid
It would take many years for most hybrids to pay back their premium price just on fuel savings. But fuel costs are only a relatively small part—25 percent—of the overall owner costs in the first five years. Other factors include depreciation, insurance, interest on financing, maintenance and repairs, and sales tax.
In this affordable hybrid analysis, we compared the five-year owner costs of 12 hybrids with those of similar conventional vehicles, using Consumer Reports’ new-car owner-cost estimates.
The Toyota Camry Hybrid, which got 34 mpg overall in our tests, saves the most money, about $4,250 over five years, compared with a similarly equipped four—cylinder Toyota Camry XLE, which gets 24 mpg.
The Saturn Vue Greenline Hybrid can save about $3,000; the Toyota Prius and Chevrolet Tahoe save $2,000 and $1,500, respectively. With tax credits, the Vue and Tahoe come out ahead by about $4,500 and $3,700. Federal tax incentives are no longer available for Toyota and Lexus hybrids.
The Lexus models and Toyota Highlander Hybrid show five-year losses ranging from about $1,250 for the Highlander to $5,500 for the GS. All three are positioned as the flagship models within their model lines and offer extra features and/or performance at a significantly higher price. The Lexus GS 450h, which emphasizes performance over fuel economy, is priced more than $8,000 higher than its all-gas sibling, a hefty premium despite saving about $1,500 in gas over five years. The Highlander Hybrid and RX 400h are priced about $6,000 and $4,000 higher, respectively, than their all-gas siblings.
Source:autos.yahoo
Honda was the first automaker to put a hybrid on the road with the original Insight in December 1999 and it wants to reclaim its place at the big kid’s table with the resurrection of the name on an all-new hybrid.
The automaker provides this first official look at the five-door hatch that will be formally unveiled in October at the 2008 Paris auto show. It will technically be a concept, but appears more than production-ready.
The Insight rides on an all-new platform as a bespoke hybrid, as opposed to offering a hybrid version of an existing vehicle as is the case with the current Honda Civic hybrid and the Honda Fit hybrid planned by 2015.
The Insight will be smaller than a Civic and CEO Takeo Fukui says it will be priced significantly below current hybrids. We expect it to start about $19,000, in keeping with the automaker’s goal of pricing it competitively against conventional small vehicles in its segment. “This new Insight will break new ground as an affordable hybrid within the reach of customers who want great fuel economy and great value,” Fukui says in a statement.
The on-sale date for the Insight is April 22—Earth Day—and the automaker is projecting global annual sales of 200,000, half of which are for the North American market. But Honda is known for erring on the conservative side, and given that it will go head-to-head with the Toyota Prius, which has sold almost 120,000 in the first eight months of this year in the U.S. alone, we would not be surprised to see Honda exceed these modest forecasts.
In looks, the new hatch bears a familial resemblance to Honda’s other poster car for alternative fuels—the FCX Clarity fuel-cell vehicle, but the Insight also shares an aerodynamically raked front, stubby tail, and an overall profile with the Prius. Both offer five-passenger seating and plenty of cargo space inside a relatively small body. The Insight’s folding rear seats further accentuate the cargo hold.
In terms of propulsion, the Insight gets a smaller, lighter—and less-expensive—version of Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist hybrid system that is in the Civic. The smaller pack of nickel-metal-hydride batteries is stored under the trunk floor. Honda says lithium-ion batteries aren’t yet a viable option.
Honda officials in the U.K. have been quoted as saying the new hybrid will achieve 60 mpg, but that is on the higher-yield Euro cycle.
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Leading UAE based magazine and one of the world’s most established and authoritative motoring titles, CAR Middle East, has named the Chevrolet Lumina SS as “Best Sports Saloon” for 2007. The ‘Car of the Year (COTY)’ awards were launched this year to coincide with the 9th Middle East International Motor Show.
According to Shahzad Sheikh, Editor of CAR Middle East, “The Chevrolet Lumina SS has a 6.0-Litre V8 Corvette engine under the bonnet. Need I say more? This all new-car from ‘down under’ is a fantastic reinterpretation of the cult Lumina SS. No other car offers this level of practicality, performance, and potential tail-sliding fun for the money.”
This is the first time the influential Middle East edition of CAR magazine has presented awards in the region and Sheikh added that: ‘The Lumina SS edged ahead of some fierce competition to deservedly take the ultimate sports saloon award and perfectly demonstrates GM’s renewed commitment to giving us the cars we really want to drive. Well done!” A jury of six regional automotive experts carefully picked the winners from 125 cars in total judging on quality, innovation, engineering, style and relevance to the Middle East market to crown the winners.
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Barely weeks after Audi first showed the Q5 officially, the German marque has revealed an S Line version of the Q5.
The car attracts a sportier demeanor through a number of exterior changes. Some of these are 19-inch wheels which if you didn’t know, would certainly put you off the idea of going off-road in the swashbuckling Audi SUV.
An optional 20-inch alloy is available, put around 255mm of black rubber. A groovy grille with a matching mesh pattern of air vents around the fog lights accentuates the aggression of S Line.
Interior features layons of brushed aluminium with the three-spoke steering wheel featuring multi-function capability and wrapped in perforated leather.