October 1 marks a pretty significant day in the history of automobiles. On that day in 1908 the first Model T Ford came chugging out of the company’s plant in Detroit. The first of more than 15 million built over the next 20 years. By 1913, the assembly-line process was so refined that a single [...]
Dailyfueleconomytip.com ran an interesting story on the 24th summarizing the results of a GasBuddy.com poll on monthly fuel expenditures. Here’s the gist of the thing:
- 6% less than $50
- 20% between $51-$100
- 33% between $101 and $200
- 21% between $210 and $300
- 11% between $301 and $400
- 9% more than $400
Okay, if I was spending [...]
For some time I’ve been saying that to really reach a green relationship with our automobiles we need to redefine what those vehicles mean in society. I haven’t been quite ready to give up my ride and start hoofing it, however, but I have been trying to drive more intelligently — planning the shortest routes [...]
Volkswagen likes to hit the ground running. They’ve had a good record with fuel efficiency, mainly because they offer a lot of diesel vehicles, but now, instead of introducing their first hybrid, they’re going for broke.
Every single new VW will now have a hybrid version with the first models set to become available next year. [...]
We spend so much time talking about car tech when I wonder if we shouldn’t be spending an equal amount on car ethics. There are those folks who think that Henry Ford’s development of the moving assembly line (that’s right, not the car, the thing that made mass production possible) was the beginning of the [...]
Treehugger is reporting on yet another entry into the all-electric vehicle genre. A 79-year-old millionaire, Miles Rubin, has founded Miles Automotive with the goal of producing a low-cost, all-electric vehicle for mass production.
The ZX40 is a four-door hatchback with an approximate cost of $15,000 — and it plugs straight into the wall. (There’s a sedan [...]
I don’t understand the lifestyles of the rich and famous. My housemate and I were watching a show about luxury jets the other night and I almost spewed my coffee when the announcer said it was $16,000 a person to hitch a ride on the charter.
My reaction was pretty similar when I ran across this [...]
On Fridays, we take a break from the tech talk and get a little more personal. Today, we’re talking about family cars.
I’m technically an only child, so for me, the family car was never a minivan or even a station wagon. Instead, the first car I remember riding in was a classic VW Bug. It [...]
Lots of automotive news has been coming out of the Frankfurt auto show in the past few days. An interesting announcement is a partnership between Toyota and TomTom to embed a portable navigation device into the radio stystem on the Yaris.
From what we’ve been able to glean, there’s a port in the dash with connectors [...]