SUVs

Chrysler Comes Late to the Hybrid Party

khallgeisler — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Chrysler Co. announced that its 2009 Chrysler Aspen and Dodge Durango Hemis will be available as hybrids, the first fuel-saving vehicles the manufacturer has offered. The "two-mode" hybrid technology Chrysler uses should, they say, get 25% better mileage than the standard Aspen and Durango.

The EPA estimates that the 2008 Aspen gets 13/17, so a 25% increase over that would be 16/21. The Durango's fuel economy would go from 14/19 for the two-wheel-drive version to 17/24 in the hybrid. Both SUVs will keep their eight-cylinder V8 Hemi engines, so they should have the same towing capacity for slightly better gas mileage.

Chrysler execs say they'll have a hybrid Dodge Ram pickup in showrooms by 2010, and the new Chrysler Journey, another SUV, could get a hybrid version, too.

By way of comparison, the 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid, a model that's been around the block a few times, gets 34 miles to the gallon in the city and 38 on the highway. Toyota's 2008 Highlander hybrid is slightly less effiecient at 27 city, 25 highway, but those numbers still rank higher than anything Chrysler's got.

It looks like Ford and Toyota showed up early to the hybrid party and brought beer, while Chrysler came late with an open bag of Cheetos.

Record Month for Selling Gas-Saving Cars Getting Better than 30 MPG

khallgeisler — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

April 2008 was a month of records for the auto industry. For the first time, one in five cars driven off U.S. lots was a compact or subcompact car. Also for the first time, gas-saving four-cylinder engines outsold six-cylinder engines. The other segment to do well last month was small crossovers, or "tall cars," as my friend Penny calls them. They look like SUVs but are built on car platforms.

Compared with sales from the same month last year, SUV sales fell 17.4%. Models that get better than 30 mpg or so sold like gangbusters, including sales of the jelly-bean-esque Toyota Yaris, which increased by 46%. Even the Ford Focus got a boost, to the tune of 32% higher sales than last April.

While vehicle sales were down across the board last month, the small-car trend seems to be here to stay this time. People usually buy smaller cars in a gas crunch (think of the death of the muscle car and the rise of the two-door hatchback in the '70s), but gas prices aren't predicted to get lower any time soon. Like, ever, really. Trucks may be relegated to the people who need them -- construction sites and landscapers, for example.

The latest sales results shouldn't surprise most people, especially RiverWired.com readers. When the Transportation Department announced its new CAFE standards on Earth Day, we pointed out that the average gas mileage of cars on the road is higher than the current minimum requirement not because of forward-thinking auto manufacturers, but because of you, the car-buying public, who chose gas sippers over gas guzzlers.

Yaris image courtesy of Toyota.

For more information, check out:

15 Tips For Better Mileage -- Want to Get 70 MPG in Your Toyota Prius?

The Hype About Hypermiling

Two Wheels Are Greener Than Four

Honda Civic GX Tops List of Greenest Cars

Driving Green = Fewer Greenbacks

Five Tips to Find the Cheapest Gas Near You

Top 10 Most Fuel-Efficient Cars: Save Gas, Save Money

Top 10 Fuel-Efficient Cars, Both Little and Luxury

khallgeisler — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:26:32 -0500

Using the EPA’s new fuel efficiency estimates, The Daily Green blog has rounded up the top ten most-efficient vehicles for 2008. Not surprisingly, the Toyota Prius sits atop the heap, with 48 mpg around town and 45 mpg when it’s cruising along the highway.

The rest of the field is made up of the usual suspects, including the Honda Civic hybrid, and the Nissan Altima hybrid. A couple of non-hybrids made the cut, such as the compact, jelly-bean-like Toyota Yaris and Honda Fit. The surprise may be that there was a three-way tie for the number four most fuel-efficient vehicle—between three SUVs. The Ford Escape hybrid, its sister the Mercury Mariner hybrid, and the Mazda Tribute hybrid all rated 34 city, 30 highway.

On the EPA’s new web site, www.fueleconomy.gov, they lay out all of the ratings and offer a PDF for easy printing or download. They also break down ratings by class, which is where we find the 2008 Smart fortwo at 33/41 mpg.

As long as we’re in a top-ten mood, ForbesAutos.com compiled a list of the ten most fuel-efficient luxury cars. The winner was the Mercedes-Benz E320 Blutec, a large, two-ton, diesel sedan that returns 23 mpg in the city and 32 on the highway. Second place went to the Audi TT 2.0T, which gets 22 city/30 highway in either hardtop or convertible form.

While the EPA list is mostly Japanese makers with the occasional SUV from the Big Three, not one American car maker made Forbes’s luxury list. Volvo filled a couple of slots with the S40 and new hatchback C30; Audi had two more make the list, the A3 2.0T and A4 2.0T; and Lexus (with its 450h hybrid), Acura, and even a Porsche polished off the rankings.