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In the future, you're going to hear much more about HCCI, or homogeneous charge compression ignition. Besides universities and national laboratories, virtually every major automaker is working on this promising technology. Research on HCCI, underway for about three decades, is now producing tangible results. General Motors has shared the results of its considerable research in this area with two drivable concept vehicles, a 2007 Saturn Aura and Opel Vectra, each with a 2.2-liter Ecotec four-cylinder engine incorporating HCCI. General Motors claims up to a 15 percent fuel savings with the 180-horsepower engine while meeting current emissions standards. This results from...

As the cost of driving seems to rise every day, drivers are looking to get the most out of every tank. While some use alternate modes of transportation, many people need their cars on a daily basis. For those in the driver's seat, there are simple ways to increase fuel efficiency and save at the pump. John and Helen Taylor can attest to that. The couple, who holds the Guinness World Record for Fuel Efficiency, set the record in 2006 when they averaged 52.1 miles per gallon in a record-setting road trip around the world. By using Shell "FuelStretch" tips,...

Senator John Warner (R-Virginia) suggested that Congress consider banning unnecessary automobile travel in order to help save gasoline. “In 1974, when we faced oil prices of $12 per barrel, Congress set a national 55 mph speed limit,” Warner remembered. “Studies showed that this saved 167,000 barrels of oil per day and reduced highway fatalities by an estimated 4,000 per year. Now, with oil prices more than ten-times higher we need more drastic action.” Under Warner’s proposal all non-essential automobile travel would be banned. A “Bureau of Travel Permits” would be established within the Department of Transportation and charged with determining...

DETROIT, July 4 (UPI) -- A mini-car designed by the General Motors (NYSE:BGM) Corp. for Asia and Latin America may soon be available in U.S. showrooms, a company spokesman says. GM spokesman Dee Allen said the automobile giant was reviewing its current sales plan in the United States following new demands in the domestic auto market because of soaring gasoline prices, The Detroit News said Friday. "Everything is under review," Allen said. "Obviously, the market has been changing rather rapidly." General Motors already used a 2007 New York auto show to unveil its new two-door hatchback, the 11 and a...

With the U.S. auto market worsening for Ford Motor Co. almost daily, managers told union officials Friday that the company will have to further reduce its factory work force in the coming months. The slumping U.S. economy has cut U.S. auto sales by 8 percent during the first five months of the year, but it's been a double hit on Ford, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC as consumers shun their high-profit pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles for more fuel-efficient models as they cope with $4 per gallon gasoline. United Auto Workers union officials were told in a meeting...

Loveliness was everywhere this holiday weekend in upstate New York, and it was probably hard for many to believe that the wayward nation would return to the dread uncertainty of life in the crash lane when the barbeques were over. There was even a wan overtone to the late-night sports news about the Indy 500 race -- as though the spectacle of cars droning round and round a speed oval epitomized the futility of American life in this moment of our history. I had a discussion with one guy at a Sunday night party about the prospects for hydrogen-powered cars....

Chrysler is offering to subsidize the cost of gasoline for car and truck buyers, but its biggest rivals — General Motors, Toyota and Ford — said Tuesday they have no plans to match it. The Auburn Hills-based maker of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles on Monday night announced an offer that caps the price of gasoline at $2.99 a gallon for three years for people who buy or lease new vehicles from Wednesday through June 2. The offer covers most of its models and is based on 12,000 miles of driving per year and the vehicle’s government fuel economy rating....

Sagging pickup truck and sport utility vehicle sales have forced General Motors Corp. to shut down one shift each at four North American factories and lay off about 3,500 workers. The world's largest automaker by sales said Monday that the cuts, to take effect starting this summer, were brought on by weak demand due to high gasoline prices and an economic downturn. The cuts will affect pickup factories in Pontiac and Flint, Mich., and Oshawa, Ontario, as well as the full-size SUV plant in Janesville, Wis. The layoffs represent just over 4 percent of GM's hourly manufacturing work force of...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A government crash test of the 2008 Smart Fortwo micro car, the fuel- sipping vehicle that made its debut in the United States this year, found a safety concern in side-impact testing, officials said Thursday. During the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration side test on the Smart two-door, the driver door unlatched and opened. The government said that could increase the likelihood of a driver or passenger being ejected from the 8-foot, 8-inch vehicle. NHTSA, however, still gave the car its top score of five stars in side testing because of the ability of the car to...

BETHESDA, Md. — April is National Car Care Month, the time of year to focus on taking better care of your second largest investment. Especially now, with record high gas prices, regular vehicle maintenance is even more important as it can increase gas mileage by as much as 10 percent, according to the Car Care Council. "Consumers cannot control the price of gas at the pumps, but they can control the amount of gas they use," said Rich White, executive director of the Car Care Council. "The condition of tires, air filters and spark plugs can impact fuel economy and...

MEXICALI — Failure to prove U.S. citizenship or legal residency is the most common violation that results in vehicle seizures by Mexican authorities at the Mexicali port of entry, said a local high-ranking Mexican federal official. Mexican nationals who don’t hold legal residency in the U.S. and are at the wheel of U.S.-registered cars that cross into Mexico at the Mexicali border will result in “automatic” confiscation if detected, said Gerardo Herrera, the port director for the Mexicali port of entry. “They will lose that car and that’s it,” Herrera said. In Mexico, only U.S. citizens, legal residents or Mexican...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Capt. Clint Roberts makes his living cutting accident victims out of hideously mangled vehicles, but even he could hardly believe it when two people in a 2007 midsize car survived a head-on crash with a full- sized pickup last year. The Ford Fusion's reinforced steel construction probably saved the lives of the 18-year-old driver and his 16-year-old passenger. But Roberts said it gave his Hillsborough County Fire Rescue crew fits as they tried to free them last November. Because hydraulic cutters couldn't shear the roof posts, rescue workers had to turn to heavy-duty electric saws, replacing...

After more than two decades, the ghost of the El Camino has finally risen from the grave, at least for U.S. drivers. It never actually went away in Australia. Now that the Pontiac G8 has ushered in a new era of affordable rear-wheel-drive performance at General Motors, the car-based pickup truck, or Ute as they are called Down Under, is coming back. Rumors have been flying for months about a G8 Ute and GM even showed the GMC Denali XT concept at the Chicago Auto Show last month – a four-door ute with a two-mode hybrid power-train that may or...

James Willman seems to be a nice enough guy: polite, good-humored and hard-working, pumping gas seven days a week at the Amerigo Gas Station in the tiny Big Sur town of Gorda, about 35 miles north of Cambria. But at least once a day, Willman said, someone pulls in and starts cursing him. “They say all kinds of stuff—‘You ought to be shot,’ or ‘Where’s your mask?’ ” Willman said. “I’m like, ‘Hey, I just work here.’ ” The reason for consumer hostility is that the station is serving up what might be the costliest gas in the land. This...

What you are looking at is the physical representation of Hyundai's will to succeed in the U.S., also known as the 2009 Hyundai Genesis. The Korean automaker's first attempt at a rear-wheel-drive luxury sedan will debut in Detroit next week and arrive on our shores later this year (we think) with a price tag that starts below $30,000. As is Hyundai's way, it will feature power, performance and amenities that belie its little price tag. First, the design. The Genesis sedan has clean lines and uncluttered surfaces that look detailed and, frankly, expensive. Yes, it's derivative. There's a bit of...

As one smoker said at the Detroit Auto Show, "Do you know what smokers have to go through today just to smoke? It's like they're trying to erase us from history." More and more carmakers are making it harder to smoke in one's own vehicle by replacing lighters and ashtrays with storage spaces and power outlets. The trend is driven by "pressure from anti-smoking groups, fewer smokers and the need for the extra storage space." According to the United Health Foundation, about 20.8% of the population smokes, which means about 60 million people. According to Apple, 100 million people have...

Looking for a fuel-efficient alternative to your current gas-guzzler? How about a car that gets 30% better fuel economy, doesn't require a giant battery in the trunk or have to be plugged into the wall, and can travel 600 miles between fill-ups? Believe it or not, automakers may have a tough time selling those attributes to consumers later this year, when a new generation of diesel-powered vehicles arrives in dealerships. Images from the 1970s--of rattling engines and tailpipes spewing black soot--are hard to shake. And, thanks to superb marketing by Toyota (nyse: TM), maker of the Prius hybrid, Americans are...

While brands certainly don't want people using their products, logos and other related imagery to create products of their, own, the hammer that Ford legal dropped on the Black Mustang Club seems a bit heavy handed. Recently the club created a calendar which contained images of club member's cars photographed by the member's themselves. Ford didn't take kindly to this and asked CafePress, the service the group had chosen to print the calendars, to kill the project claiming all the images in the calendar are the property of Ford...including the Black Mustang Club logo. It's understandable that a brand would...

Parking outside your home could cost more if you have a long carBy MATTHEW HICKLEY - More by this author » Last updated at 22:31pm on 31st December 2007Motorists face a fresh financial onslaught with rules linking the cost of parking outside their homes to the length of their cars.  Owners of many ordinary family cars - including the Ford Focus, Renault Scenic and Vauxhall Vectra - will see the price of annual permits almost double as part of a move to encourage drivers to switch to small hatchbacks. Campaigners condemned the move as another 'stealth tax' for hard-hit...

1- Dukes of Hazzard's General Lee 2- Night Rider's Firebird 3- "My Mother the Car" 4- 1979 Olds Vista Cruiser from "That 70s Show" 5- Fred's Flintmobile 6- Magnum PI's red Ferrari 7- The A-Team's GMC van 8- The Batmobile 9- Starsky's Gran Torino 10- Jed Clampetts' flat bed truck from Beverly Hillbillies

The energy bill to be signed by the president today is arguably the worst piece of energy legislation ever enacted into law. It will substantially increase the price of automobiles, increase highway fatalities, increase fuel prices, worsen air pollution, and force consumers to buy products (like super-efficient light bulbs) that they manifestly -- and for very good reason -- do not want to buy. It will transfer huge amounts of wealth from the consumer to the farm lobby in the course of promoting a dubious product -- ethanol -- that will make energy supplies less reliable and greenhouse gas emission...

The last time the three-wheeled Aptera was featured on our site, we promised to keep you abreast of any new information that we found. Thanks to a tip from a reader named Matthew, we are pleased to let you know that Aptera is now accepting orders. Aptera has a Web site here, but there is not a great deal of information or raw-data to be found there. A better source of information is at their MySpace page, which is here. According to this article, Aptera is looking at around 300 miles per gallon along with acceptable performance numbers of about...

* Take It Easy - aggressive driving ruins efficiency as much as anything. Revving the engine, quick acceleration, and high speed travel reduce your MPG a lot faster than you may realize. When applicable, use your cruise control to help keep the RPMs level. * Timing is Everything - Stop-and-go traffic, crowded roads, and looking for a parking space are all fuel-burners. Try running your errands outside of rush hours and peak shopping times. With the amount of stores that are open late or 24-hours, you can find most of what you need later or earlier than peak times. Not...

'WE have turned out the lights in the studio," NBC's Bob Costas told viewers of Sunday's Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles game, "to kick off a week that will include more than 150 hours of programming designed to raise awareness about environmental issues." Discerning viewers with eyes keen enough to pierce the sanctimonious glare of Costas' candlelit silhouette may have noticed that the stadium's klieg lights still shone brightly. On a typical game day, a large football stadium burns about 65,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and 35,000 cubic feet of natural gas. The cars driving to the game spew about 200 metric...

The link to the site also has the least efficient. Here are the most fuel efficient.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The American Automobile Association of California said some drivers are now paying up to $5 a gallon for regular unleaded gasoline. Crude oil prices hit an all-time high Wednesday, above $98 a barrel and analysts said with worldwide oil demand rising -- it is still not clear just how high prices will go. In Salinas, AAA recorded an average of $3.39 per gallon. Santa Cruz is at an average of $3.37 per gallon. KSBW checked and found gas in Gorda, south of Big Sur, is even higher. Drivers there are paying $5 for gas. Over the past...

Big Brother may be about to get just a bit bigger. General Motors just announced a new and improved version of its OnStar telematics system that could be used to shut your car's engine off (or at least, cut back the power) remotely. ~~~snip~~~ Come 2009, it will be technically feasible to make speeding impossible. A modern car is controlled by computers; the computers are now tied into GPS systems such as OnStar -- which have the ability to send and receive electronic transmissions, including instructions that tell the computer how to run the car. "Smart" speed limit signs can...

DETROIT (AP) -- Negotiators for the United Auto Workers and General Motors Corp. ended a marathon bargaining session early Saturday, more than four hours after their contract was set to expire. Bargainers, who on Friday night agreed to extend the contract while they continued negotiations, decided to resume talks later Saturday, said GM spokesman Dan Flores, who did not know exactly when negotiators would return to the table. "The parties have agreed to take a break and resume later on this morning," Flores said. "Our bargaining continues, but both parties have agreed to take a short break." The hiatus came...

... the Model T was a piece of junk, the Yugo of its day...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Nearly two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall a German company plans to give the Trabant, a stinky two-cylinder car that became the symbol of communist East Germany, a new lease of life. The new Trabants will no longer have tiny engines, noxious fumes and plastic bodies but will retain the iconic design of the original -- like Volkswagen's new Beetle or the new Mini. The Trabant was the most common vehicle in the former East Germany and was produced without major changes for nearly 30 years. Known in the West as a "spark plug...

Drivers risk two years in jail for using their mobile phonesBy JAMES SLACK - More by this author » Last updated at 22:35pm on 6th September 2007Motorists who use a hand-held mobile phone or fiddle with a satellite-navigation system while driving could be jailed for up to two years.Prosecutors have said they could be charged with dangerous driving in a dramatically tougher approach to such offences. Those caught fiddling with an MP3 music player or texting on a mobile at the wheel could also face the charge. Scroll down for more ...  Prosecutions will be brought whenever it is...

AUSTIN, Texas - Millions of inventions pass quietly through the U.S. patent office each year. Patent No. 7,033,406 did, too, until energy insiders spotted six words in the filing that sounded like a death knell for the internal combustion engine. An Austin-based startup called EEStor promised "technologies for replacement of electrochemical batteries," meaning a motorist could plug in a car for five minutes and drive 500 miles roundtrip between Dallas and Houston without gasoline. By contrast, some plug-in hybrids on the horizon would require motorists to charge their cars in a wall outlet overnight and promise only 50 miles of...

By keeping your car for 15 years, or 225,000 miles of driving, you could save nearly $31,000, according to Consumer Reports magazine. That's compared to the cost of buying an identical model every five years, which is roughly the rate at which most car owners trade in their vehicles. In its annual national auto survey, the magazine found 6,769 readers who had logged more than 200,000 miles on their cars. Their cars included a 1990 Lexus LS400 with 332,000 miles and a 1994 Ford Ranger pick-up that had gone 488,000 miles. Consumer Reports calls the Honda Civic a "Good bet"...

—Dr. Robert Peltier, PE Editor-in-Chief Fueling Around Europeans didn't know that corn existed before Columbus "discovered" America. It had been cultivated by indigenous North Americans for thousands of years before the Italian brought home what was to become a favorite food for many. The more adventuresome even figured out how to distill corn into something more to their liking. Fast-forward five hundred years, and those yellow kernels are embroiled in a political food fight. Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, is being served up as a way to slake our thirst for foreign oil. Ethanol is even on the menu of...

Old and new automotive favorites from the big screen appear on Cars.com's annual ranking of the Top 10 Movie Cars. While the DeLorean DMC-12 from "Back to the Future" holds steady at the coveted No. 1 slot, three cars debut on this year's list and six others jockey for position. "When we came up with our list of Top 10 Movie Cars last summer, we had no idea our readers would be so passionate about their favorite car films," said Patrick Olsen, managing editor of cars.com. "With 'Transformers' arriving on the big screen, we revisited our list -- listening to...

The panel vent on my van's A/C has stopped working, it's hot down here in the South, and I wanted to see if any of my mechanically-adept Freeper brethren could give me some guidance here.

The first shipments of Chrysler cars built by China's Chery Automobile Co. could reach the U.S. or Europe within 30 months, Chrysler said on Wednesday, opening the door for Chery to be the first mainland auto maker to do so. "The first product within one year, and then into the United States and western Europe within two to 2- years," Chrysler Group chief executive Tom LaSorda told reporters. The first auto built by Chery Automobile Co. for Chrysler could be exported to North America, but not the United States, said LaSorda, who made the forecast at a Beijing signing ceremony...

China's Brilliance BS6 is a recent entry into the European market, positioned as a premium-style import sedan at a budget price. Well, after seeing the videos of the car undergoing crash testing using Euro NCAP guidelines at the ADAC (Germany's AAA, essentially) test center, one thing's certain: buyers get what they pay for. The BS6, as currently constructed, appears to a complete piece of crap. The horrifying 40 mph offset frontal crash test video shows damage that can be described as catastrophic at best. The A-pillar collapses and folds up like a cheap suitcase, forcing the driver's door to pop...

With its unique construction, the eXasis is a real thriller, offering staggering performance and near-unbeatable emissions. The Rinspeed eXasis has bared all - just for you! The two-seater was the wildest thing at March's Geneva Motor Show with its distinctive, see-through bodywork. And it set a new standard for green motoring with its efficient bioethanol-powered engine, too. We got behind the wheel this week to see for ourselves what the new car has to offer. The main ingredients of the eXasis' extraordinary look are its clear plastic body panels. They're made of Makrolon, a lightweight material produced by Bayer -...

The milestone that the global auto industry has been holding its collective breath for -- Toyota Motor Corp.'s (Tokyo:7203.T - News) unseating General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - News) as the world's biggest carmaker -- came last year instead of in 2007 as many had expected, according to a leading industry journal.

Simple, clever, fun. That's the philosophy behind the vehicle you see pictured above, the Loremo (pronounced lo-ray-mo which is short for Low Resistance Mobile). Of course, there's nothing simple about designing and building a car, but there has certainly been a large need for cleverness to meet our current standard of "fun". Don't let the picture fool you. There's nothing really new here, aside from the impressive 50g/km CO2 figure. This car achieves its high level of fuel efficiency by taking current fuel-saving methods to a level almost beyond reason. A main part of this is weight saving. Every part...

If California wants to achieve its goal of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions 25 percent by 2020 to fight global warming, it must find a way to cut down the biggest source of those pollutants: cars, trucks and other motor vehicles. Even though transportation contributes 41 percent of greenhouse gases, our society is too geographically dispersed and mobile to realistically expect that we can dramatically reduce the number of miles we drive, ride and fly. So that means our vehicles need to become far more fuel-efficient. The less gasoline per mile that a car uses, the less heat-trapping carbon dioxide it spews...

An article in the Wall Street Journal last week points out what happens when public officials depend upon the continued bad behavior of Americans to fund their projects. Under the headline: "Fuel-Efficient Cars Dent States' Road Budgets," reporter Robert Guy Matthews writes that drivers, answering the call to conserve energy, are driving cars which use less gas. Less gas used means less gas purchased. Less gas purchased means fewer tax dollars collected. Way fewer. According to Matthews: The Federal Highway Administration estimates that by 2009 the tax receipts that make up most of the federal highway trust fund will be...

In 2005, General Motors Corp. executives -- blue over their company's less-than-green reputation and envious of eco-darling Toyota Prius -- began searching the world for advanced batteries they hoped would power a new generation of gas-electric hybrid cars. Most roads led them to Japan, the leader in battery technology and Toyota Motor Corp.'s home turf. Several GM engineers and executives describe their experience at Panasonic EV Energy Co. Ltd., one of the top makers of hybrid-car batteries, as typical of the reception they received there: When GM team members asked for detailed information about the company's most sophisticated automotive lithium-ion...

The KAZ (Keio Advanced Zero-Emission Vehicle) is a Japanese-designed Italian-built limousine prototype with eight wheels. The KAZ is not your average limo though. The all-electric KAZ can travel at 300kph and it handles more like a sports car than a 6.7m-long whale thanks to its computer-controlled eight-wheel drive train and low centre of gravity for added stability and handling around curves. On top of that, four-wheel steering in front is augmented by the two extreme wheels angling in the opposite direction making the KAZ more nimble around corners than one would expect for a vehicle of its size. But are...

Road tax doubles to curb ‘gas guzzlers’   Philip Webster, Political Editor   Gordon Brown is planning to double road tax for the country’s most polluting gas-guzzling cars in Wednesday’s Budget, The Times understands. As the Chancellor tries to enhance his green credentials before he takes over as Prime Minister, he is expected to say that the current tax of £210 for the 225,000 least fuel efficient cars purchased brand new since last April — including most 4x4s and sports cars — will rise steadily. Over the next two years it will increase to at least £400, it is...

For years, Jerry Sullivan, the head of the largest United Auto Workers local at Ford Motor Co., fought for higher pay, job protections and limits on the work... But in the past year, as Ford teetered financially, the 59-year-old Vietnam veteran has changed course. These days he has urged his members to accept the outsourcing of company factory jobs to lower-paid workers, and to work new shifts without... overtime... "Ford is in a desperate situation," sighs the burly, bearded Mr. Sullivan, who has spent 36 years at Ford... "If this company goes down, I want to be able to look...

Is it time to upgrade your current set of wheels to something a little more professional and comfortable? Are you trying to figure out how to drive something that looks like it should be on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, but with a nickel-and-dime budget? So where can you find a car that will impress without breaking the bank? Check out this list of cars that are all high on luxury and under $30,000 on the lot.

EU's green drive could put £3,300 on a carBy RAY MASSEY - More by this author » Last updated at 09:34am on 7th February 2007 Comments (24) Car manufacturers said the carbon dioxide limits were too stringent Drivers face paying thousands of pounds extra for new cars under EU proposals aimed at cutting pollution. After weeks of wrangling, bureaucrats in Brussels will today announce limits on the amount of carbon dioxide new vehicles can emit. An EU-commissioned report claims the proposals could add an average of £2,500 to the price of a car. But motor manufacturers claim the cost...

Ford will announce on Wednesday plans to rename its Five Hundred mid-size sedan "Taurus," according to a report by Dow Jones Newswires. The name change will be announced at the Chicago auto show. A month ago, a report in BusinessWeek suggested Ford could revive the Taurus name, but it seemed unlikely at the time. CEO Alan Mulally was quoted as saying Ford should have never dropped the nameplate in the first place. "I havent had time to do the deep dive on why we stopped investing in Taurus, but I'd like to," said Ford CEO Alan Mulally. "The Ford Five...