No more deals after Labor Day?
No more deals after summer?
“This may be as good as it gets, and get used to it,” Jeff Schuster, the executive director of forecasting for J.D. Power and Associates, recently told the AP about summer car deals.
In the past automakers have used August to unload excess inventories in preparation for [...]
Shifting into fuel economy
Hybrid fuel economy or hybrid performance?
When the Lexus CT 200h hybrid hits dealers it will offer 4 different driving modes – Normal, Eco, Sport and EV – that will provide a nice element of control that might be demanded from Lexus drivers.
While control is a nice option, is a focus on fuel [...]
Too reliable for a mechanic to make a living.
Reliable hybrid cars
Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers have picked the ten cars they hate the most for being too reliable. “Yes, the cars we hate most, as mechanics,” claim the brothers, “are the cars that provide us with the fewest repair dollars.”
The list is mostly Japanese [...]
GM's 'revolutionary' HCCI engine
Embracing efficient and cost-effective change
A new study claims that by 2035 US light duty fleet fuel economy could be tripled to 74 mpg without plug-in or hydrogen technology, at a much cheaper cost than achieving the same goal through plug-in or or hydrogen technologies.
So, have plug-ins become an excuse – dare I [...]
Good for just 70 mpg?
An extra 20 mpg
What’s it like to drive a Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid? What kind of fuel economy does it achieve? What’s the EV range? Time to charge, etc?
MotorTrend answers those questions today in a great article on the plug-in Prius and, well, the plug-in Prius drives pretty much like a [...]
US dependent upon on China for 17 critical rare earths
Can rare earth activities in US catch up in time?
For a few years now worries about a rare earth metal shortage have been growing. Several times this topic has been covered on this blog regarding rare earths and hybrid cars, most recently in: Just how important [...]
Except the hybrid versions.
As red, white and blue as it gets
Essentially, every foreign brand saw their sales get hammered in August, and while US automakers also experienced declining sales, sales of pickup trucks continue to post gains.
Without big gas guzzling pickup trucks, the Big 3 would be seeing a lot of red.
Cars.com has put together [...]
Camry hybrid just can't compete
Camry sales, but not the hybrid, lead way
Sales of Toyota hybrid cars dropped from 17,504 hybrids in July to 15,444 hybrids in August, as the Toyota Prius dropped from 14,102 sales in July, to 11,799 sales in August.
Despite some of the best lease deals ever on the Toyota Prius, hybrid sales [...]
Will demand outstrip supply?
Final pricing rests with the dealer
Nissan has been taking reservations on the Nissan Leaf for a while now, but the automaker is just about ready to turn those reservations into orders according to Straightline.
However, final pricing needs to be negotiated with the dealer. Thus, are dealer markups a possibility?
A few weeks ago [...]
