Gas 2.0

I’m going to answer my own question and say both.

It’s true. According to Kelley Blue Book’s list of most searched cars, perennial favorites the Honda Civic and Accord topped the list. The Prius came in at #8, within spitting distance of the Camaro which came in at #12. In fact, if you look at the different lists from websites across the web, muscle cars are pretty consistently high on the search lists, as are hybrids and fuel efficient models like the Smart ForTwo.

So can America have its cake and eat it too?

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There were surprisingly few unveils at this year’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit, and even fewer thrills. The AWD turbocharged Buick GS concept and electric Fiat 500 not withstanding though, perhaps the best looking car to come out of Detroit is the 2012 Ford Focus.

Based on the Blue Oval’s “One Ford” global platform sharing idea, the 2012 Focus will share over 80% of its components with European models. Even better, an electric model of the Focus should hit showrooms sometime in 2011.

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Pretty much everything in America, at some point (and often multiple points) hitches a ride on a tractor trailer of some sort. It doesn’t matter if it is locally grown organic produce or the latest and greatest Chinese-built computer. By the time it has arrived at your home, it’s probably been on one of these big, smelly beasts.

Improving the fuel efficiency of tractor trailers would be a big deal not just for the environment, but for our wallets as well. So we can all celebrate the latest round of funding from the Department of Energy that is going towards improving the efficiency of Class 8 trucks by 50%.

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For 33 consecutive years, the Ford F-150 has been America’s best selling vehicle-car, truck, SUV, basically anything with a motor that movies. Moving more than 500,000 units in an average year, the F-150 is just a sales beast, and it is only getting better.

A report by PickupTrucks.com is saying that the F-150 will be getting the new Twin Independent Variable Camshaft Timing (Ti-VCT) 3.7 liter V6 in the near future. This is the same engine that delivers 305 horsepower and 30 MPG in the 2011 Mustang.

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Rack another one up for the Blue Oval.

After ending 2009 on a high note, and with their hybrid sales up 147% from the year before, the Blue Oval started 2010 off with a bang. Today, at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, the Ford Fusion Hybrid was gifted with the Car of the Year award, and the Transit Connect, Ford’s new compact transport van walked away with Truck of the Year honors.

Ford beat out Chevy, Volkswagen, and Subaru to take home the awards. And why not? This is the strongest lineup Ford has had since the original Taurus debuted, and it only gets better from here.

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Back in high school, I had a friend who drove a 1972 Cadillac Eldorado. The thing was a literal land yacht powered by a 500 cubic inch engine with enough torque to burn the tires at 60 mph. 500 cubic inches = 8.1 liters. This thing could displace more volume than four bottles of Mountain Dew. And there was a time people thought engines would only get bigger.

Flash forward forty years, and everyone is running in the opposite direction. How small can we get an engine? Well Ford seems to think its EcoBoost technology can take engines to less than a liter, and plans to introduce a whole slow of low-volume engines during 2010 for Europe and North America.

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In one of Top Gear’s more infamous (and yet informative) vehicle tests, Jeremy Clarkson pitted a Toyota Prius against a BMW M3 to see which car could get better gas mileage. The catch was, the Prius had to drive as fast as it could, while all the M3 had to do was keep up with the hybrid. The end result was the Prius got 17.2 mpg, while the M3 got 19.4 mpg. The point, according to Clarkson, is that it isn’t what you drive, but how you drive.

Now we can debate the merits of the video (posted below) all we want. But the point is, you can get decent mileage if you drive, well, gingerly. It isn’t easy, but Garmin, maker of GPS devices, has come up with a device called the ecoRoute hd. This device plugs into your car and calculates just how green you are driving, no matter what you are driving. It’s pretty cool, in a green, Big Brother sort of way.

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Efficient, light, and affordable. That is the philosophy behind the Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car, and one of the smallest as well. Launched earlier this year in Tata’s home market of India, the Nano is a lesson in minimalism, with a trunk that doesn’t open, a single wiper blade, and a number of other cost cutting features that keep its price down to just $2,160. Yes, you can buy a brand new car for just over $2,000 American dollars in India.

In fact, you might be able to buy one here in the good old U.S.A. in a few years. Reuters is reporting that Tata is considering selling the Nano right here in America. The question is, would Americans buy it?

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I’ll admit upfront, I’m a Ford fanboy. I bleed Ford blue. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a car fanboy in general, but Ford is numero uno in my book… and now I have another reason to love the Blue Oval.

According to a report by the Environmental Protection Agency, Ford has improved its average fleet fuel economy by 20% over the last five years, twice the improvement of any of its competitors.

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The Mazda Miata (or MX-5 as it is now called) is one of those quiet-yet-consistent cars that rarely gets much press, positive or negative. Yet it has been leading the roadster revolution for two decades now. It is a light, agile car that dominates autocross and road racing events across the country due to its availability and affordability. But for such a light, small car, it doesn’t get all that great of gas mileage, with the 2010 model averaging about 25 MPG between highway and city driving.

But Mazda aims to change that in 2011. Rumors circulating about seem to suggest the 2011 MX-5 will get a Sky-G engine, which Mazda unveiled without much fanfare. This engine could get as much as 70 mpg while still cranking out a respectable 150 horsepower in the featherweight roadster.

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According to an article over at Reuters, the coming onslaught of new small car models from major manufacturers over the course of the next year may cause an oversupply in that market segment and force automakers into a situation of offering large incentives for them at reduced profits.

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In the US, Ford is still behind the 5 major foreign auto makers in fuel efficiency, surpassing only GM and Chrysler. Yet Ford of Europe already achieves dazzling mileage that we Americans can only dream of.

Imagine a gas-fueled car that gets 62 miles to the gallon: “With start-stop, regenerative brakes and an Eco Mode system, the new Focus gets 62 MPG (U.S.) on the European scale and emits just 99 grams of CO₂ per kilometer” Available in Europe next Spring.

What is even more startling about this achievement by European Ford is that this mileage is achieved with just good old-fashioned tweaks on the traditional ICE gas car. There is no major technological breakthrough.
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Volkswagen chose the 2009 LA Auto Show as the venue for the world debut of it’s Up! Lite concept car. Spawned as a direct cousin to the L1 two-seater unveiled in Frankfurt a several weeks ago, the Up! Lite takes that idea and makes it a bit more practical—with marginally enough room for 4 people.

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According to a report from Autocar UK, Renault and Mercedes are teaming up to design a new, modular small car platform that will form the basis for a new Smart Car, a new Renault City car and the upcoming Renault Twizy EV. In addition, the two companies are jointly developing new engine platforms to power these vehicles—well, the gas versions anyway.

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The all-electric Mitsubishi i-MiEV isn’t set to hit U.S. shores for another 18 months, but already the company is considering selling a gas version of the car alongside its battery-powered sibling in the U.S. to compete in the same segment as the Smart Car.

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