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Here’s a car with good gas mileage.  The new rechargeable electric car, the Chevy Volt, will supposedly be getting 230 miles per gallon in city driving according to General Motors.  The Chevy Volt will be powered by an electric motor and a battery pack with a 40-mile range. After the 40 miles, a small combustion engine will kick in and give electricity for a total of 300 miles. 

The EPA guidelines have figured that cars like the Chevy Volt will travel more on straight electricity in the city than on the highway.  Therefore in theory, a person could drive the Volt at less than 40 miles, they could go without using gasoline. Who knows if this is really true, but according to the theories it should work.  The highway mileage of the Chevy Volt has yet to be determined.  The GM CEO, Fritz Henderson, is confident that the highway mileage will be triple-digits as well.  The EPA, who actually determines the fuel economy that is written on the car stickers, has not tested the Chevy Volt’s gas mileage.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see what the “official” fuel economy is for the Chevy Volt, but you have to think that it won’t be off by too much. That’s an exciting standard that GM will be setting in the triple digits!

 

GMAC will now be offering leasing for select models according to msnbc.com.  GMAC officials say that now that the restructuring has been done and the value of used cars is higher, so leasing can become an option again.  What leasing won’t be is available on all models. Leasing will mostly be available on new vehicles and luxury cars. The lease option from GMAC will be available in 45 states, but GM will be launching a leasing program that will cover the 5 states not included in GMAC’s lease which will be financed through U.S. Bank.   

Both leasing programs through GMAC and GM will offer lease options for the following vehicles:  2009 Cadillac CTS, Chevrolet Malibu, Chevrolet Traverse, 2010 Buick Enclave, Buick Lacrosse, Chevrolet Equinox, and GMC Acadia.  There will also be a SmartLease Protect program available that will provide limited coverage up to $5000 for excess wear and tear on leased vehicles and waive customer’s security deposit. 

I think that this is a good thing for GM. Leasing is a good option for a lot of people, and people really like to have new cars every few years, so they want to lease.  It’s important for GM to be able to give customers options.  I bet that the leasing will be a big hit. 

 

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Have you seen the new Ford F150 SVT Raptor?  Well, autoblog.com was able to test drive one and they cannot say enough about how wonderful it is. “Perhaps the single most impressive production vehicle ever,” according to them. That’s pretty impressive. What’s even more impressive is that the Customs and Border Protection division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security want the Raptor…at least 10 of them.  The government wants these pickup trucks but just the bare bone work interiors, which according to autoblog.com, that would make these trucks even ”more functional and/or intimidating.”  There is a choice of engine - either the 5.4-liter Triton V8 or the very powerful all new 6.2-liter V8. Either way, don’t try to run at the border, unless you want the Ford Raptor after you and that would be scary!

So, the Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, there will be a summit next month in Washington D.C. to discuss what to do about people talking and texting while driving. All the studies are showing that there are more accidents due to texting and talking on the cell phone. So, some Congress members, law enforcement officers, transportation officials, safety advocates, and professors who study distracted driving will meet to try to figure out a plan.  The thing is they just can’t pass a law saying no talking or texting while driving. This doesn’t work. People will still do it. They need to try to educate and enforce these laws to make it effective.  There was a study that was released last week by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institutestating that drivers of heavy trucks were 23 times more likely to get in an accident if there were texting and 6 times were likely if they were talking on the phone. Another report by Car and Driver magazinesays that texting and driving is more dangerous than drunk driving. Wow!

 

 

 

An article on U.S. News and World Report says that the Cash for Clunkers program has been quite successful in the past week and a half and that there is a common denominator for the top trade-ins…Ford SUVs.

Here are the top 10 Cash for Clunker trade-ins:

1.  1998 Ford Explorer

2.  1997 Ford Explorer

3. Yup another Explorer 1996 Ford Explorer

4.  An another - 1999 Ford Explorer

5.  Jeep Grand Cherokee

6.  Jeep Cherokee

7.  1995 Ford Explorer

8.  1994 Ford Explorer

9.  1997 Ford Windstar

10.  1999 Dodge Caravan

So, the list is alittle boring since it’s pretty much the same SUV on the whole top ten list!  Well, almost.  There are clearly a lot less Ford Explorers on the roads these days. 

Now, here’s a list of the top ten new cars being bought through the Cash for Clunkers program: 

1.  Ford Focus

2.  Honda Civic

3.  Toyota Corolla

4.  Toyota Prius

5.  Ford Escape

6.  Toyota Camry

7.  Dodge Caliber

8.  Hyundai Elantra

9.  Honda Fit

10.  Chevy Cobalt

Good news for the Detroit Big Three; 47% of the new cars are from Ford, Chrysler, or GM.  The gas mileage has increased by 9.4 miles per gallon, which is 61% better than the vehicles on the road prior. That’s good news as well.  The Cash for Clunkers may be over on Friday, but even if it is, I would say that it’s been a success.

    

 

Did you ever wonder and consider trying to run your vehicle on wood and not gas?  Well if you did, good for you to be so environmentally friendly but the majority of us just go to the gas station and fill up our tanks and call it a day. Well, a man in Connecticut, Dave Nichols, is currently running his 1989 Ford F-150 pickup truck on wood, leaves, cardboard, and other ”biomass” material that gives off virually no pollution.  This process is actually called gasification.  Gasification could also heat and power homes. There are a lot of possibilities for this, but according to Nichols and others is very “easy to achieve.”  Nichols’ truck seems to work like any other truck that can reach 40 mph and above on local roads and go 80 mph on the highway.  The big and very noticeable difference is that right behind the rear window there is something that looks like a wood stove. It’s actually a metal barrel. Gas is captured from the barrel and then a vacuum system sucks it through piping that runs under the truck to the engine.  Nichols says that he has driven 10,000 miles without gas including a 600 mile trip with 400 lbs of wood in the back.  A pound of wood will fuel his truck for 1 to 2 miles, which equals out to costing about 8 cents per mile to fuel compared to 19 cents per mile if you used regular gas.  Nichols is trying to perfect the fuel system and according to him he is close.  He says that an electronic system that would allow drivers to push a button instead of having to use a propane torch to start it is the final part needed.  Nichols started a company called 21st Century Motor Works to work on his gasification system. 

Of course there is always a downside. Larry Baxter, a chemical engineering professor at Brigham Young University says that there are two problems. One is that the gasification process can produce materials that can damage engines and the other problem is that it’s impractical to load up your car or truck with pounds of wood and other materials to drive.  Nichols disagrees with the first problem saying that he’s found a way to produce a clean-burning fuel that would save people thousands of dollars to fuel their cars and heat their homes.  I guess time will tell if this company or others can get the gasification process perfected and who knows maybe soon all of us will be using wood to run our vehicles and not gas! Alright, that’s far-fetched, but fun to think about!