Archive for August, 2014
Test Drive: 2014 Chevrolet Volt
Consumer Guide’s loaded test Chevrolet Volt listed for $40,640 including destination charge (pun not intended).
2014 Chevrolet Volt
Dates tested: 8/07/2014-8/14/2014
Miles Driven: 300
Fuel Used: .9 gallons
Real-world fuel economy: 333.3 mpg
Anxious to exploit the exploding consumer interest in SUVs, Acura tapped Isuzu for a version of that maker’s Trooper. The SLX became Acura’s first truck.
Fact: Japanese automobile manufacturers were just as willing as American makers to build fuel-thirsty trucks, they just weren’t as good at selling them. Had early versions of the Nissan Pathfinder or Toyota 4Runner sold nearly as well as the Ford Explorer, history might recall said companies less as the “green” good guys they came to be considered.
10 Most-Expensive Wagons of 1990
At $26,500 including destination charge, the Peugeot 505 Turbo SW8 was the 4th most-expensive wagon available to American shoppers in 1990.
It is Consumer Guide managing editor Rick Cotta who first began noting vehicles that are turning 25 years of age, and thus becoming “classic.”
In Illinois, home to Consumer Guide Automotive© and Collectible Automobile magazine, a car is officially an antique when it crosses the quarter-century line.
Test Drive: Kia Optima SX Turbo
Consumer Guide’s test Kia Optima arrived in SX Turbo trim. Loaded with options, our test car came to $33,900, including the destination charge.
2014 Kia Optima SX Turbo
Dates tested: 7/21/2014-8/04/2014
Miles Driven: 633
Fuel Used: 26.1 gallons
Real-world fuel economy: 24.3 mpg
5 Best-Selling Vehicles (in Russia)
Sadly, the UAZ 469 “Hunter” is not among Russia’s five best-selling vehicles. In truth, this cold-war-era relic didn’t make the top 20. We’re using the classically tough-looking Hunter as our feature image because Russians vehicles just look so darn normal these days.
Serbians knew it as the Zastava Koral, we, for a brief moment in time, knew it as the Yugo GV. To no one’s surprise, a peoples’ car designed around then 20-year old Fiat technology built behind the Iron Curtain didn’t sell especially well in the United States. Mostly we pointed and laughed. For you youngsters out there, the Yugo was a really bad car import from what was then known as Yugoslavia for the 1984-1991 model years. They didn’t sell well.
Consumer Guide’s test Mercedes-Benz CLA45 AMG arrived well equipped. Our test car listed for $54,525 including the $925 destination charge.
2014 Mercedes-Benz CLA45 AMG
Miles Driven: 172
Fuel Used: 8.5 gallons
Real-world fuel economy: 20.2 mpg
Sometime between the height of their popularity and acquiescing to record a Christmas album, Hall and Oates take time to scuff the finish of a 1985 Pontiac Fiero.
It has taken a while, but demographers seemed to have coalesced around 1985 as the year dividing the people identified as Generation Y from those we’ve labeled Millennials.
Test Drive: 2015 Hyundai Genesis V8
Consumer Guide’s test Genesis arrived in 5.0 guise with the Ultimate Package. With the destination charge our test car came to $55,700.
2015 Hyundai Genesis V8
Miles Driven: 548
Fuel Used: 33.6 gallons
Real-world fuel economy: 16.3 mpg
Are you inadvertently wasting gas? Here are 5 bad habits to break if you want to use less fuel.
We all know what we can do to save some gas. We know that we’re obliged to avoid jackrabbit starts, that we should travel at close to the posted speed limit, and that we’re committed to religiously checking the air pressure in our tires. Noted.
We’ve seen the list before. But, you ask, what else can we do? A better question might be, is there anything we should stop doing? The answer is yes. In fact, there are five things you can stop doing immediately in the name of improved fuel economy.
The updated 2015 Ford Expedition is shown here in King Ranch trim. A new Platinum trim level tops the lineup.
Among large SUVs, Ford’s Expedition has long played second fiddle to its popular quartet of GM rivals, the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, and the similar GMC Yukon and Yukon XL. But maybe it shouldn’t … at least, not based on our drives of the revised 2015 edition.
