Well, they all have spots on Leno, of course.

Jay Leno took a step down (or up) from late night TV and started broadcasting in Prime Time.  Well, Ford is taking advantage of this exposure and Leno's love for vehicles, to help get the American public accustomed to driving Electric vehicles.  That's why the Sept 18th show will feature Drew Barrymore racing a new all electric Ford Focus.

The car Barrymore will be driving won't actually be available until sometime in 2011, so don't get out your checkbooks just yet.  However, it might not be a bad idea to start saving now.  Most estimates put the new all electric Ford Focus at $10,000 higher than it's all gasoline counter part.  eeek!

There are lots of conflicting information about he upcoming Chevy Volt, that just doesn't seem to add up.  Past news has presented the Volt in a light that makes the electric car look like GM's savior.  But what can an expensive vehicle focused on a small niche market do for a failing monster like GM?

Furthermore GM has announced that the Volt will get 230 miles per gallon, which is true, if you don't understand basic math.  This issue has been discussed at length with GM's 100 mpg Hummer as well, electric cars and hybrids have limitations, which aren't taken into consideration when figuring gas mileage.

All of this aside, from a strictly economic perspective, do you know how much gas I can buy for $40,000?  At a price of $3 per gallon I can purchase over 13,000 gallons.  Assuming I drive an average of 20,000 miles per year in a vehicle that gets an abysmal 16 mpg, I can purchase 10 YEARS worth of gasoline.  So, with a cost analyst of buying a Volt, the only people interested will be the rich hippies.

As far as I'm concerned, we still don't have a viable option to the traditional internal combustion engine.  Count me out until the next big thing hits.

Green Motorcycles

Recently there was a post in the The-Grayline.com automotive forum stating that motorcycles pollute more than trucks and SUVs.  The thread starter claims that the typical motorcycle will emit 10 times more pollutants compared to a passenver car, light truck, or SUV.  Personally, I find it hard to believe, but is there any truth to the inefficiency of motorcycles.

California has already taken steps to to make sure all motorcycles on the road are meeting or exceeding emission standards.  However, these standards are different than passenger vehicles and may reflect a lower requirement.  In February of 2009 California issued legislature to require maintenance and smog check checks every year for motorcycles.

An argument more fitting to the emissions of motorcycles is, don't we have bigger fish to fry?  I mean, motorcycles are typically driven only a few months out of the year, compared to passenger cars that are driven year round.  So, focusing on such a small percentage of the actual problem shouldn't we work on broader strokes?  Even more to the point, if it's a single person getting from A-B isn't it more efficient to drive a motorcycle than a 4 passenger vehicle?

Increase Gas Mileage

If you do a search for how to increase fuel mileage on a search engine you will find millions of results. As gas prices have went up over the years, people have been wanting to improve their cars fuel economy. Many did not know you could do much about increasing your fuel economy or what it takes so they just went out and bought a small car. By driving carefully and steady you can really increase your current vehicles fuel economy without having to upgrade to another car.

As people became desperate sellers decided to try and see how dumb people are. Sellers saw a large market with millions of dollars on the line and so they came up with all kinds of crazy things to "help" your fuel economy. This has been going on for many years now and it amazes me people actually think these things work. I am going to talk on a few of the top fuel economy improving scams so you will know what not to buy into.

Nitrogen in Tires:

Have you ever seen a cars tires with green caps on the air inlets on the tires? That means they had their tires filled with all nitrogen instead of just plain air and that they were scammed. Let me explain how this works. Advertisers say that filling your cars tires with nitrogen will help fuel economy because the tires deflate slower. The thing is air is 80% or so nitrogen by itself. Tests have been done and there may be just the slightest delay of the air leaking out of tires if you fill them with nitrogen. No where near enough to be worth the money they charge. The best thing you can do is to check the air pressure often.

Vortex Fuel savers in your airboxes:

This one has been going around for many years. It was advertised somehow that if you put in this little ring in your air box it would make the air swirl like a tornado and increase fuel economy by making the gas vapors and air mix better. It however does nothing but make fuel mileage drop as anything in the way of the air flow only slows the air down causing worse fuel mileage.

Magnetic fuel line devices

This device is supposed to give you up to 25% better fuel economy just by clipping on these magnets to your fuel line. In reality this does nothing for your car. Honestly what could it do to a liquid to make it burn better? The magnets are supposed to break up the molecules for a more even burn which just screams scam. Don't fall for it!

Fuel additives

People think and swear that they get better fuel mileage if they ad things like Acetone to their fuel. It is proven otherwise and in most cases it physically impossible for them to work like they claim they will. In some cases they can help for older cars with carburetors on them but not so much for new cars with Electronic Fuel Injection.  Acetone actually cleans carburetors and such out so if you have a increase in fuel economy its because it did its job. After you have added it there will be no need to keep on doing it as it wont help.

Don't fall for those scams. Always read reviews of stuff before you buy them online. If you have any of these in or on your car be sure and remove them.

Hybrids are getting a lot more attention as gas prices go up. Now you see more and more of the popular but ugly Toyota Prius on the roads. Hybrids are good cars because they get great fuel mileage but its limited to the city. Once you get out on the freeway you will see very little difference between a hybrid model car and its regular non hybrid model.

If you do mostly city driving a hybrid is a great choice as it gains electricity back with regenerative breaking. This means when you stop it uses generators to gain back energy as you stop. When you are not stopping and going like on the freeway you can see why Hybrids do not do well on freeways.On a freeway you might not like a Hybrid being they usually have like a 1.3 liter gas motor that will be powering you. They use a small motor so it does not burn much gas and at freeways speeds you wont have much passing power.

There is another way to get good fuel mileage and you wont have to worry about any of these set backs the hybrids have. What I am talking about is a diesel vehicle. Diesel engines are more efficient than gas engines but you don't usually see them in cars but in big trucks. In Europe diesel engines are very popular but in America they are not. As fuel prices go up they are starting to make more sense in the USA too.

One diesel car the Jetta Beetle can get 50 miles per gallon without any hybrid technology! The same goes for the other 2 models Jetta makes that runs on diesel. All 3 models get great fuel mileage and have none of the set backs a hybrid has. These are not the stinky diesels of the past but clean diesels of the future. One guy even did some minor modifications to a diesel beetle and he is getting a steady 70+ miles per gallon! He added a different spoiler and a free flow catalytic converter among other things and that was all it took.

A Jetta is also a good bit cheaper than a Hybrid and you never have to replace batteries. Honda may bring over a diesel in the near future, the Honda Civic Diesel! If you want good fuel mileage without hybrid set backs take a look into a diesel car. They might just save you a lot of money!

Diesel Jetta

LEED Certified Toyota Dealership

Toyota announced today the opening of the nations first 'Green' Toyota Dealership in the Western USA.  Mark Miller Toyota had their grand opening today marking the first Toyota dealership to LEED-Certified.

"Anyone familiar with Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive knows there is a screen that shows the car's energy use over a time period. We'll have the same sort of panel inside the dealership that shows the building's energy use over the last half hour or so," added Miller.

Being LEED-Certified means that Mark Miller Toyota built their facility using the latest environmental technologies for a 'greener' work environment.  This translates into parts of the building being made from recycled materials, installation of high efficient cooling heating and cooling systems, and high speed service doors that cut down on the amount of air released from the building during opening and closing.

Looks like Japan is getting Nissan's first foray into clean diesel applications.  According to Nissan the all new X-Trail 20 GT SUV has increased fueleconomy over 30%, compared to the traditional 2.5l gasoline engine.  This is especially big news for those in Japan and Europe where actual Diesel engine sales account for more than 60% of all vehicles sold, compared to the US where it's actually less than 10%.

In it's early launch the early adopters will be the ones to pay the high price, much like all new technology.  The MSRP on the Nissan eco-friendly SUV will be about $27,000 USD.  Check out this Nissan currently only available in Japan.

Nissan X-Trail

If you had all the money in the world, wouldn't you wan tall the cool toys?  I would and if I had said toys, like the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640, I wouldn't want Joe Blow's Ripoff-Service working on it.  I mean, it's a finely tuned animal and any grease monkey with a wrench and plumbers crack shouldn't be allowed near it.  Apparently a certain rich Qatari felt the same way, only took it a bit to the extreme.

At the beginning of August it was reported that a resident of Qatar (I didn't know where it was either-wikipedia) had his Murcielago flown all the way to London and back.  This £20 000 round trip service was done, just to have the oil changed.

Lamborghini Murcielago LP640

Looks like Toyota is taking another green move and will possibly be outfitting the Toyota Prius with a set of solar panels.  These panels would be equipped on a select number of Prius hybrids and would power things like A/C and other electronics on board.

"It's more of a symbolic gesture," said the person, who asked not to be identified because he was not allowed to speak publicly. "It's very difficult to power much more than that with solar energy."

It's a novel move to add the solar panels to the Toyota hybrid, but it really doesn't accomplish a whole lot.  Unfortunately, according to industry experts, technology has not come far enough to do a whole lot with solar energy.  The surface area required to produce significant energy is not condusive to cars and trucks yet, and it's barely suitable for homes.

The Honda FCX Clarity is starting to get some bad publicity, considering it's not as green as it seems.  According to industry analysts the Honda Hydrogen-Powered small size car is not the answer to our fuel problems and may be more disaster than relief.  First thing that comes to my mind is the famous fire ball known as The Hindenburg.

Furthermore it appears that Honda may be producing the FCX Clarity as nothing more than a publicity stunt.  Honda is planning to produce a very limited number of the Clarity, meaning 200, all pre-sold to actors and other big wigs.  Smells like they are looking cook up some advertising, but actually solve our addiction to gasoline...no.

After some closer inspection of the technologically advanced hydrogen-powered FCX Clarity, you realize your not really saving fossil fuels.  Electricity is still required to produce hydrogen and as we all know the majority of our electricity is still coming from burning fossil fuels.  Industry experts call this a displacement of pollution, not actually making it green at all.

Obviously none of this sounds nearly as good as just saying that the Honda FCX Clarity emits water from it's tail pipe instead of carbon dioxide.  Like most minorities, the cuter ones always get the most attention.