Europe vs US

I recently took a trip to Italy and got to drive my rented Fiat Punto on the autostrada. Hooray! lol. So maybe driving a car that has a top speed of 96mph and a 0-60 more worthy of a 14 year old's scooter is a little dull. But I can tell one thing, I only had to fill the 12 gallon tank once, and I drove over 600 miles. The car got about 40-50 MPG. And I wasn't the only one. Everywhere I looked, everyone drove minicars that were run on diesel. Going to Italy's Tuscan wine country, I was let down in that I expected to see Enzo's and Lambo's cruising around at 120+. Instead it was just a bunch of wussy econoboxes that sipped on diesel like it were a fine wine, an 84 Chateau Margeaux possibly. But here's the catch, we are a country obsessed with our cars. They are our second homes, our status symbols, our american contagion. Europeans are far more eco sensitive than Americans, especially when it comes to transportation. All the VW's, Fords, BMWs, Mercs and Chevy's are retrofitted to have little tiny engines that run on diesel and average up to 76mpg. AND THESE ARE NOT HYBRIDS. MPGs are doubled and carbon footprints are cut in half. A perfect example is the new Ford Fiesta. IS the US it gets a 1.6 liter that gets 35mpg and has a Carbon Footprint of 261gram per mile. The UK version gets a 1.6 litre diesel that is capable of 76mpg and a carbon footprint of 157. We need to get our priorities straight. What is more important to us? Performance or Economy? We are too obsessed with getting from A to B quickly. Lets live like italians and relax. Cruise the highways at a safe speed and be courteous to our fellow motorists.Just to give you an idea of how disinterested we currently are with these European cars. Road and Track magazine gives the stats of all the cars it has tested in the back of each issue. There was only one euro-enviro-like vehicle tested. It was the VW Golf TDI with a tested 38.9mpg. Of course the tested some Teslas too. But we need to expand our taste of enviro friendly vehicles beyond the Supercarish Tesla, which is essentially one of its kind right now. Please correct me if Im wrong on that.

Read more: http://forums.motortrend.com/70/8287695/future-concept-vehicles/the-future-of-transportation/index.html#8221876#ixzz0psnB71X6

Pony cont..

I recently wrote about how today's Mustang is no longer the "one trick pony" it has been in the past. I pointed out that it's handling, and specifically grip, have drastically improved over the models of yesteryear. But I failed to mention the huge improvement in fuel economy. The said Mustang V-6 gets almost 30mpg highway, thats incredible when you look at the figures of the Pony cars of the 1960's. The question is, "will the internal combustion engine find ways to cope with rising gas prices and environmental pressures or will there be an automotive revolution?" With oil spilling uselessly into our Gulf Coast at thousands of barrels an day, it's good to know that u wont have to be stopping at the pump every other day. Especially when the effects of the BP spill hit the gas prices.

Read more: http://forums.motortrend.com/70/8201525/sports-high-performance-cars/pony-cars-no-longer-a-one-trick-pony/index.html#8221747#ixzz0pskpsJcr

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Say Goodbye to the One Trick "Pony"!

Forty years ago the Pony car was introduced to America. It was you basic Mustang or Camaro. They had huge engines and put up great numbers in the quarter mile as well as their 0-60 times. The downside to these one trick Pony's was just that: they only accelerated quickly. The new Pony cars are more than just big wild beasts, they're nimble as well. The affordable new base Mustang can get to 60 in about 5 and a half seconds and pull .95g on a skid pad, that grip is almost as good as the rally-bred Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. This performance is all for around 23 large, thats cheaper than my Subaru; maybe I should have reconsidered...buyer's remorse, well...possibly a little.

The Electric Car and The Future

We are coming to a crossroads in the automobile industry. Will there come a day when the internal combustion engine (ICE) will be as antiquated as the horse and carriage? Some believe that this is a possibility and others think that the ICE is here to stay. Statistics show that only 10% of the cars on the roads in 10 years will be fully electric. But is the emergence of the electric car the notion we should be entertaining? What about an evolutionary shift in the field of transportation itself? Instead of everybody driving around in Teslas, maybe we won't be driving at all. Perhaps our future, and the solution to our energy crisis, lies in a whole new infrastructure of trains, trolleys and bicycle paths. Roads and highways have been around for almost a century and the american love affair with the ICE is irrefutable. Can we transfer that American passion to the electric car? Will we wither away in the future? Or will we adopt a whole new infrastructure that will save us from the environmental and financial perils of the internal combustion engine?