Tag Archives | fuel economy

Honda Civic Hybrid Plaintiffs SHOULD Win

By on February 10, 2012 in Editorials

By Chris Haak

By now you’ve surely heard the story of Heather Peters, a disappointed Honda Civic Hybrid owner who took Honda to small-claims court in California and won a $9,800 judgment against the company.  In California’s small-claims court, neither side may use a lawyer.  Ms. Peters sued Honda because her Civic Hybrid didn’t get anywhere near the numbers posted on her car’s window label (which, for pre-2008 Civic Hybrids, was a whopping 49 MPG city/51 MPG highway/50 MPG combined.  She won her case, but Honda has vowed to appeal, if for no other reason than to stem a tide of copycats who also want a pound of flesh from Honda.

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Review: 2012 Subaru Impreza Premium 5-door

By on February 7, 2012 in Reviews

By Kevin Miller

Over the years, Subaru has carved an interesting niche for itself in the new-car marketplace.  Its vehicles all come with standard all wheel drive (aside from the upcoming BRZ sport coupe codeveloped with Toyota).  They also tend to cater more to the function-over-form school of design.  Subarus aren’t typically noted for the beauty of their designs, but many of the company’s models have a “small on the outside, big on the inside” feel.  Aside from subjective design issues, the knock against many Subarus has been that their all wheel drive hardware makes them somewhat thirsty, and their interior materials are a bit polymer-heavy.  I was anxious to try out the all-new Impreza, which promises to address some of those issues, and hopefully – for Subaru - broaden its appeal beyond its traditionally strong markets in the Pacific Northwest and cold-weather states.

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Review: 2012 Mazda Mazda5

By on December 7, 2011 in Reviews

By Chris Haak

Back in the dark ages, there were cars and trucks.  Then there were cars with cargo beds and trucks with seats.  Then there were vans.  Then there were hippies in custom vans.  Then there were minivans, built on a car’s platform.  Then over several generations, those minivans grew to be almost 17 feet long and weigh more than two tons.  With its new-for-2012 Mazda5, Mazda is banking on the idea that perhaps we need a reset of the definition of the word ‘minivan.’

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Four Cylinders Take Largest Share of US Market

By on July 25, 2011 in News

By Chris Haak

It’s not the sixties anymore, kids.  Though certainly there are still high-horsepower holdouts, the days of the V8 and even V6 (or inline six)-powered family sedan are numbered.

The latest data from auto industry research firm IHS Automotive shows that four cylinder engines made up 43 percent of all new-vehicle registrations during the first half of 2011.

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Review: 2011 Toyota Prius IV

By on May 18, 2011 in Reviews

By Roger Boylan

Press the Prius’s ignition button and the info screen on the dashboard reads “Welcome to PRIUS,” as if flinging open the gates to a mythical kingdom–which in some ways it is. The Toyota Prius has acquired an almost mythical status, worshipped as a lifestyle statement by preening greenies and scorned for the same reason by the diehard SUV- and pickup-driving class. I fall into neither category. Although I have owned, and enjoyed, gas-guzzling SUVs and pickups, I was impressed by my previous exposure to the Prius (the Plug-In version), and I have no greater affection than any other citizen of the West for the Saudi oil sheikhs who hold us hostage to their whims.

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What Effect Will Rising Gasoline Prices Have on the Auto Industry?

By on April 15, 2011 in Editorials

By Chris Haak

That retail gasoline prices have been on the rise over the past few months, and that crude oil is concurrently on the march.  You may have also heard something about a war in Libya, an oil-exporting state in the Middle East.  Crude oil, which hit an all-time high of $147.27 per barrel on July 11, 2008, only to collapse to less than a third of that just a few months later, is now about $110 per barrel.

However, that’s about 32 percent below that July 2008 high.  News out of the most-recent Lundberg Survey of nationwide gasoline prices found that the average price of a gallon of self-serve regular is $3.76.  Three weeks ago, the previous Lundberg Survey found that the average price was $3.57.  A similar $0.19 gain in the coming three weeks would put gasoline prices at $3.95 per gallon.  Even so, Trilby Lundberg, the survey’s publisher, noted that even $3.76 is “within striking distance” of the record.  Indeed, that’s just 9.3 percent below it.

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Review: 2011 GMC Terrain AWD SLT-2

By on April 5, 2011 in Reviews

By Charles Krome

Frankly, I didn’t hold out much hope for the success of GMC when General Motors decided to make the truck-only division one of its core brands. Not only did I think truck sales in general would begin slipping, but I also thought it would be particularly difficult to make a go of things in the post-bankruptcy auto industry with a lineup that essentially duplicates the Chevy Truck roster. Well, I was obviously wrong on the first point (at least so far), and that made me especially curious about the second.

Today, I can consider that curiosity satisfied, because I just spent a few days living with a fully loaded 2011 GMC Terrain, provided to me with a full tank of gas by the friendly folks at General Motors.

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Review: 2011 Hyundai Elantra Limited

By on April 5, 2011 in Reviews

By Chris Haak

Having reviewed more than a hundred new cars for this site, and having driven several hundred more over my two decades behind the wheel, it’s kind of hard for a car to make a good impression on me.  I’ve just seen too much, for better or worse.  So after having spent a week in Hyundai’s all-new 2011 Elantra, I was surprised and delighted about just how good a compact car can be.  It’s not perfect, but it’s clearly the best or second-best car in its class.

Hyundai entered the North American market selling cheap cars, then sold cheap cars with a long warranty that looked odd.  That morphed into cheap cars with a long warranty that looked bland.  And now, Hyundai is offering buyers cheap cars with a long warranty and dynamic, organic – and most importantly, original – designs.

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Review: 2011 Mazda Mazda6 S Touring Plus

By on March 25, 2011 in Reviews

By Chris Haak

Thanks to the likes of the Mazda3 (and MazdaSpeed3), MX5 Miata, and the diminutive Mazda2 subcompact, Mazda has staked out its claim as the “Zoom-Zoom” car company for years.  It’s not exactly “The Ultimate Driving Machine,” but it has perhaps more meaning than “We Build Excitement” did against a backdrop of the Pontiac 6000 and Daewoo-builtLeMans did.

We now find the Mazda6 in the middle of its life cycle, and its competitors are not slowing down their pace of improvement.  During the week that I spent evaluating the Mazda6 S, I found that the car had plenty of zoom from its big 3.7 liter V6 (which produces a class-leading 272 horsepower and 269 lb-ft of torque), but that the car lost a bit of its handling prowess into its transition from a lithe midsizer into a super-sized Americanized midsize sedan.

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Review: 2011 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS

By on March 15, 2011 in Reviews

By Chris Haak

If you ask automakers what the hot ticket is likely to be in the next several years, they might say that premium compact cars are a potential growth area.  After all, with gas prices approaching the $4.00 per gallon line in many parts of the US, uncertainty in the Middle East, and increasingly-stringent CAFE standards on the horizon, we’ll have more small cars in the new-car mix.

With more small cars, that means more variety in the style, powertrain, equipment, and even size.  Yes, there are varying degrees of small.  To some traditionalists, the Chevy Cruze is small; to a Smart ForTwo driver, the Cruze is a perhaps large, wasteful near-midsize car masquerading as a small car.  There are also now cheap small cars – like the base Nissan Versa, and small cars that are more premium – like the Buick Verano.  The Mitsubishi Lancer GTS reviewed here kind of falls into the middle of the spectrum.  It’s a cheap car with some premium features.

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