Volkswagen Polo Sips Its Way To 60 MPG – In Your Face Hybrids!

The Polo may be a step down from the already lowly Rabbit; but it is a giant step forward in terms of Gasoline powered Efficiency. It has 4-doors, a reasonable price tag, and last but not least: a sweet little engine. Europeans have always known what we Americans have been missing: Turbo-diesel power is the way to go! Not only can you get the best MPG from a diesel car, the fuel burns more cleanly, and adding a turbo increases power by using wasted exhaust gasses.

The little engine that could is a 1.4L, 3-cylinder, direct injected, turbo-diesel. This bad boy pumps out a staggering 79-hp. But when combined with a LRR tires, special aerodynamics, and a manual transmission; the Polo can easily obtain the 60 MPG advertised, eat that hybrids. And the little 12-gallon tank will take you well over 700 miles. Sounds good to me!

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=116314
http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4262351.html
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Lighten Your Load!!!!! Less Is More…Better MPG That Is!!!

I'm sure that most of you out there....especially women....have you cars loaded to the brim with crap. You are the pack-rats of the highway. Well let me tell you that those extra pounds your car has to lug around is effecting your fuel economy and costing you money. Just a quick look into my trunk and I had a baby stroller, some tools, a nice heavy blanket, and some half empty water bottles.
Every 100 pounds or so can decrease your Fuel Economy by a few percent. Think about a race car; they only have the bare essentials, this is because every 100 pounds of weight they shed is equal to a tenth of a second off their ¼ mile time. And that’s a big deal. All that extra weight could cost you up to $0.10 a gallon.
SO PUT YOUR CAR ON A DIET!!!

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American Car Manufacturers are either: blind, stupid, or too stubborn to change!!!

They remind me of the big dumb jock from high school…..he was good for something at one point in time….but now that a few years have passed….what good is he?

Recently Edmunds.com published a story about the top 10 most efficient 4-door cars available. They ranked the cars based on EPA fuel economy numbers. And would you guess that not one car from an American manufacturer made the list!

With gas prices on the never-ending rise…..it’s clear that foreign automakers have their finger on the pulse of the car buying world.

Do American car companies just not care about what consumers want?

We do know that there are domestic hybrids out there……such as: the Ford Escape, Saturn Vue, and Chevy Silverado. But these are not cars at all!!!!!! They are SUV’s and Trucks. It seems that American car makers have decided to take aim at areas outside the hybrid car market.

So the Japanese have such a stranglehold on the hybrid car market, and the big American manufacturers won’t even give it a try. Actually Saturn does have Aura and that’s about it!! But now there is hope on the horizon…..

The Chevy Malibu Hybrid is coming out late this year. Horary for all you Bow Tie fans out there. But wait….just how good is the Malibu Hybrid….well according to the EPA; 27 MPG is the average you can expect to get out of this car. That is absolutely hilarious….my Nissan Sentra which is 8 years old, tops that number by 3 MPG and I don’t even practice gas saving driving.

But what about Ford all the Blue Oval fans out there shout? Nope…sorry…Ford doesn’t make a hybrid car. But the Escape hybrid SUV gets 32 MPG which is still better than the Malibu hybrid.

So 9 out of the 10 most fuel efficient sedans come from Japanese auto makers. The tenth comes from Kia. Kia……a company that is tiny compared to the big American Automakers. The future does not look good for domestic vehicles.

Of course the reigning champions are still there…..the Civic hybrid, the Prius hybrid, and the Camry hybrid are all on the list. The interesting thing is that 6 of the 10 most fuel efficient 4 door cars are not hybrids at all. They are small gasoline powered cars such as the Corolla.

Fuel Efficient Sedans…….Not A Domestic Insight!!!!!

This information was gathered from:
http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/list/top10/125477/article.html
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/findacar.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_2007_Hybrid_Vehicles

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Life in the Slow Lane.....

Back in the 1970's when the oil crisis was on.....the government lowered the speed limit down to 55 mph. The reason being that cars get the best gas mileage at this speed. Our Government figured that by reducing highway speeds, that would reduce our fuel consumption by just a little bit.
If you live in California like I do.....the slow lane moves at about 70mph. And if you are anywhere near the fast lane then you'd better kick it into warp drive!! Fuel economy dramatically drops after 55 mph. And driving that musch fast only further kills you MPG.
Reducing your speed to the speed limit can increase your gas mileage by 6%-10%. Which may only look like 33 MPG vs 30 MPG. But if you factor in that savings to the price of Gas....its like saving .35 or .40 cents per gallon. Which could be up to $4per fill-up on a normal economy car like a civic.
And if you fill up once a week at the least than that equates to over $200 per year. But if you are a heavy commuter and fill up quite often...the savings could be much higher.
here is a link to a
Dallas Morning News story

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