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Five cars enter, one car leaves. Well, actually all five cars get to leave, but only one with the title.
(Credit: CNET)Every year, for the past four years, Green Car Journal picks its Green Car of the Year at the LA Auto Show. Well, the LA Show will be here before you know it, so it's time to start thinking about this year's contestants, which have been narrowed down to five finalists.
The finalists include the Audi A3 TDI, the Honda Insight, the Mercury Milan Hybrid, the Toyota Prius, and the Volkswagen Golf TDI. That's two VW turbodiesels and a trio of hybrids; or four small hatchbacks and a small sedan. No matter how you look at it, there's not too much variation this year. However, three of the vehicles have taken our Editors' Choice award at different times this year and two of them have already done battle in a CNET Prizefight, so it will be interesting to see which is chosen as the overall winner.
A panel of jurors (which includes notables such as Jay Leno, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Carroll Shelby, Matt Petersen of Global Green USA and the Sierra Club's Carl Pope) will have to pick one of these vehicles to be crowned the fifth annual Green Car of the Year--which, by the way, is a very different thing from Greenest Car of the Year. There's apparently a bit more that goes into the choosing than just raw fuel economy and emissions numbers.
Last year, it was the Volkswagen Jetta TDI that walked rolled off with the 2009 crown by winning over the judges with its real-world performance and relatively low price. The year before that, it was the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid which was a really big hybrid that didn't return really big mpgs, but still managed to improve fuel economy by a massive 25-percent over the conventional model. Looking way back to the 2007 and 2006 winners, we can see that the Toyota Camry Hybrid and the Mercury Mariner Hybrid have also seen time in the winners' circle.
Editor's note: Polling is closed, the judges have voted, and the results are in. The 2010 Green Car of the Year award has gone to...
BorgWarner will supply engine and drive-train technologies to the 2010 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan midsize sedans.
The new mechanics will include an industry-first Cam Torque Actuated (CTA) variable cam timing (VCT) technology for the upgraded Ford Duratec 3.0-liter V-6 engine.
Unlike traditional cam phasing methods that typically use engine oil pressure to rotate the camshaft, BorgWarner's CTA technology captures the existing torsional energy in the valve train to accomplish this event, similar to a hydraulic ratchet. CTA cam phasers operate more quickly and under a wider range of engine speeds and temperatures than traditional oil-pressure-actuated cam phasers, allowing CTA variable cam timing to more efficiently improve fuel economy, increase horsepower and reduce emissions.
BorgWarner technologies includes a transmission solenoid module features proprietary closed-end variable bleed solenoids to minimize oil flow, reducing the energy needed to drive the oil pump. With high-energy friction materials and specific oil grooving, BorgWarner friction plates minimize drag losses, and the light-weight Morse TEC HY-VO transmission chain is more efficient than transfer gears, further enhancing fuel economy.
(Credit:
Corinne Schulze/CNET)
The cash for clunkers program has proven so popular, Congress passed a bill to keep it funded. If you have a car built in the last 25 years that gets an EPA-certified combined fuel economy of 18 mpg or less, it qualifies for the credit. And to get the full $4,500 credit, the new car you buy has to get at least 10 mpg better than the clunker you scrap. We've picked out six cars we've reviewed this year that qualify for the maximum credit.
(Credit:
Corinne Schulze/CNET)
We were expecting a lot from the Mercury Milan Hybrid. After having briefly driven the Ford Fusion Hybrid, we had an idea iof what to expect from the power train, and we've also seen Ford's killer combination of Sync and Sirius Travel Link in a few cars over the last year. But we didn't realize what a car tech dream the Mercury Milan Hybrid would be.
The first clue it gives comes from the high-tech instrument panel, with a variety of virtual gauges that you can configure. Then there's the phone and MP3 player connectivity offered by Sync, along with its incredible voice command system. Sirius Travel Link mixes traffic, fuel prices, and weather into the navigation system. And finally, the driving experience, with its excellent fuel economy and seamless transition between electric and gas.
The Mercury Milan Hybrid is a remarkable car, and we've rated it appropriately.
Probably the only race that Buick and Jaguar would finish in a tie is the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Vehicle Dependability StudySM (VDS), but both are on the top of the leader board this week. Each rank highest in vehicle dependability in a tie. Buick improves from a sixth-place ranking in 2008, while Jaguar improves from 10th place. Following in the top-five rankings this year are Lexus, Toyota and Mercury.
Toyota garners five segment awards for the Highlander, Prius, Sequoia, Solara, and Tundra. Lexus follows with four segment awards for the ES 330 (in a tie with the Acura RL), GX 470, LS 430, and SC 430. Lincoln captures two awards for the Mark LT and Zephyr. Models by Acura, Buick, Dodge, Ford, Honda, Mazda, Mercury, Nissan, and Scion each rank highest in one segment.
The Buick LaCrosse was also ranked first in the midsize car segment, beating the Toyota Camry, while the Buick Lucerne came in second in the large car segment.
DETROIT--While the switch to electric power steering will boost fuel economy, it also opens the door to driver-friendly features for Ford vehicles--specifically, parallel-parking assist and a torque-assist feature that reduces driver effort on crowned road surfaces.
By 2012, 90 percent of Ford's vehicles, including light-duty trucks, will be equipped with standard electric power steering, replacing hydraulic steering.
"It improves fuel economy by 3 to 5 percent--which, depending on the size of the vehicle and the engine, equates to somewhere between 0.4 and a full 1 mpg," said Ali Jammoul, chief engineer of North American chassis.
Ford is purchasing electric power steering systems from Delphi and TRW Automotive. Valeo provides the parking-assist module.
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When Ford launched the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner hybrids five years ago, the company hoped the SUVs would be a hit. Now, the vehicles remain the most fuel-efficient SUVs on the market. Yesterday, workers at Ford's Kansas City assembly plant celebrated a milestone as its 100,000th hybrid SUV rolled off the line.
The Ford Escape Hybrid SUV and Mercury Mariner Hybrid SUV deliver 34 mpg city driving, 31 mpg highway. The newest entries to Ford's hybrid lineup, the Fusion Hybrid and Milan Hybrid deliver 41 mpg city driving, 36 mpg highway, the most fuel-efficient midsize sedans on the market, Ford announced in a news release.
The Kansas City assembly plant, which employs 4,100 people, has been the hub for Ford's hybrid SUV production since 2004 when the first Ford Escape Hybrid rolled off the line. Lean, flexible manufacturing processes and specially-trained employees at the plant allow the hybrids to be built on the same production line as conventional Escape and Mariner SUVs.
In addition to the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner Hybrids, the Kansas City assembly plant builds the Ford F-150 Regular Cab, Super Cab, and Super Crew; the Ford Escape; the Mercury Mariner; and the Mazda Tribute.
Ford Motos expects its Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan hybrid sedans to get better fuel economy than the Toyota Camry Hybrid.
The restyled, re-engineered Fusion and Milan will be company's first sedans with a two-mode hybrid power train. Ford now offers a hybrid power train only in the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner crossovers. The hybrid sedans debuted last week at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Sales begin in the first quarter of 2009.
"We expect to be up to 5 mpg more than the Camry Hybrid in the city, and we will also beat the Camry Hybrid on the highway," said Nancy Gioia, Ford's director of sustainable mobility technologies and hybrid vehicle programs.
The 2009 Camry Hybrid has an EPA rating of 33 mpg city/34 highway. Gioia says, Ford's hybrids would get about 38 mpg in the city.
The Fusion and Milan hybrids will have a two-motor system developed by Delphi and Ford's new 175 horsepower, 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine.
The battery pack, supplied by Sanyo, is different from the one on the Escape and Mariner hybrids. The battery pack in the Fusion and Milan has 17 percent fewer cells, is 23 percent lighter, and has 20 percent more power.
The Fusion and Milan hybrids can go 47 mph in electric mode. At a Michigan briefing before the auto show, Gioia said the Escape and Mariner manage only about 28 mph.
(Source: Automotive News)
(Credit:
Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive)
The days of keeping a library of tapes or CDs in your car are over. You walk around with an MP3 player, so why shouldn't you be able to use it in your car? Today's MP3 players can hold your entire music collection, so you don't have to decide which tunes to bring with you. Today's cars let you easily plug in an iPod or MP3 player and have full control over the device through voice command or the car's touch screen, and that's much safer than trying to manipulate the small controls on an MP3 player while barreling down the freeway. We've picked six cars that work particularly well with iPods and MP3 players.
(Credit:
Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive)
Just a year after it got an update, the Mercury Mariner Hybrid gets yet another update for 2009, but this one counts for a lot. Ford fits it with the best cabin tech available, which includes the excellent Sync system for integrating MP3 players and cell phones, along with Sirius Travel Link, giving you traffic information and gas prices right in the car. The Mariner Hybrid also gets a bigger gas engine than the previous model, but it doesn't bring the EPA mileage numbers down. During our testing, it didn't seem to make much difference either way.
