The Chinese government has managed to keep the country's economic growth engine humming along – despite slowdowns in most other countries – by keeping fuel prices low. The government has been subsidizing gasoline to keep the price at $2.60/gallon, an…

Hybrid and battery electric cars get most of the attention from drivers looking for more efficient transportation. Toyota has done a masterful job of marketing the benefits of hybrids and, for a great many people, hybrids are an excellent means of…

In a bid to try and salvage some sales from the rapidly deflating full size truck market, General Motors has decided to add XFE models to its big pickups and SUVs. As with the Cobalt XFE the new label is short for Xtra Fuel Economy. While the new XFE…

A new poll conducted by Autobytel.com is contradicting some of the usual stereotypes of hybrid car owners. The typical image of a hybrid owner is someone living on the west coast, but the reality appears to be somewhat different. Only 16 percent of…

Fiat is joining the race to dual clutch gearboxes with a range of new transmissions that will be debuting in June 2009. The lineup of six-speed gearboxes will kick off with a manual transmission followed by a dual clutch unit in September of 2009. In…

Hybrid transit buses using the GM-Allison Two-mode hybrid system are becoming fairly common in North America with several thousand now on the road. In the UK however, the two-mode buses are brand new, with the first four recently going into service…

Anyone who actually wants a had better go out and grab one now because they won't be around much longer. As production of the the current body-on-frame Explorer winds down in the coming months, the pickup bed version and the rebadged Mercury…

Click the A3 TDI for a high res gallery
With the Q7 TDI showing up at US Audi dealerships in the next few weeks, Audi has revealed the next step in its North American diesel onslaught. The A3 TDI has been rumored to come to America since last fall's…

Ford has acknowledged for some time that they plan to introduce a smaller B-Class car in the US market in the coming years. On the way home from the office the other day I spotted a Fiesta wearing manufacturer plates and a bracket on the back that's…

We first brought up the topic of a diesel-powered AMG Mercedes last April after the New York Auto Show. Now on the heels of the Audi R8 V-12 TDI in Detroit, the story is back. AMG is the in-house tuning arm of Mercedes-Benz that installs over-sized,…