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People who want to be among the first to own an all-electric Model 3 started lining up at 3 p.m. on Wednesday and camped overnight, according to employees of the Tesla Motors Showroom and Service Center on Route 17 north in Paramus. By 10 a.m. today, the line wrapped around the store, and into the parking lot, below. Editor's note: After unveiling the $35,000 Model 3 in California tonight, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced more than 115,000 orders have been placed for the car in the last 24 hours. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR After a light workout at the gym in Paramus this morning, I drove over to the store where I bought my Model S, hoping to reserve a new, smaller Tesla, and put down $1,000 as a vote of confidence in the company's future. But pulling up shortly before 10 a.m., I was shocked to see a long line with about 150 people, and a jammed parking lot. Prospective buyers of the Model 3, which won't go on sale until the end of 2017, clearly are excited about owning a small...

On a mild day in February, Always Clean Mobile Car Wash sent Hernard to my home in North Jersey to wash my Tesla Model S and clean the interior, using less than a gallon of water. Editor's note: Always Clean Mobile Car Wash is offering $20 off the basic in-and-out cleaning for new customers. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR I've paid as little as $12 or $13 for a hand car wash in North Jersey, but have always left dissatisfied. I'm willing to pay more, just as long as I don't have to wait on line or for two or three other car owners to have their cars washed before me. Yet getting an appointment at a brick-and-mortar car wash is nearly impossible. Comes to you That's where Always Clean has you covered. Always Clean is mobile, bringing "luxury car wash and detailing services" to "your parked vehicle." I first saw Always Clean in action at Garden State Plaza in Paramus, where two employees were cleaning Model S demonstrators for the Tesla store in the ma...

BETTER PLUG-IN: For green-car enthusiasts, tree-huggers and other lovers of the environment, Toyota on Wednesday unveiled the 2017 Prius Prime. The plug-in gas-electric hybrid, above, gets 120 or more MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent); and travels 22 miles and up to 84 mph in electric mode. EV FROM KOREA: Meanwhile, Korean automaker Hyundai debuted its Ioniq line -- a gas-electric hybrid, a plug-in hybrid and a fully electric sedan, above, all with conventional styling and interiors. Prices weren't given. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR Automakers use the media at big shows in New York and other world capitals to distract consumers from an over reliance on the antiquated internal-combustion engine to snare big profits. On Wednesday, I walked the floor of the New York International Auto Show in Manhattan for about 5 hours, only to find a couple of new green cars that will go on sale soon. Instead, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Nissan, Maserati and other automakers pitched their cars as the ...

Hundreds of people attended the press preview of the 2017 Subaru Impreza in Manhattan on Wednesday, but as soon as an executive invited them to approach the stage and take a closer look at the new cars, many turned around and rushed for box lunches that had been concealed under a large black tablecloth, above and below. I enjoyed my hummus-and-feta-cheese wrap on the trunk of a Subaru WRX, which was on display during the first press day of the New York International Auto Show at the Jacob Javits Center. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR It's an annual spectacle few members of the public ever see. First, the world's automakers ship their newest models and wildest concepts to Manhattan, where they are displayed in a show sponsored by the region's auto dealers. All are hoping to win glowing reports, millions of dollars of free publicity and a spring sales boost from hundreds of members of the media during a two-day schmooze-and-booze preview. On Wednesday, the first of two press da...

MIRAI SEEMS OLD: The interior of Toyota's revolutionary, hydrogen-powered Mirai reminds you too much of the Prius and Camry, and the driving experience is disappointing for a car that runs on electricity, below. Mirai, which means "future" in Japanese, is available only in California for a starting MSRP of $57,500. BEEN THERE, DONE THAT: When asked why Toyota didn't develop a battery and electric-motor powered car, a Toyota spokesman pitching the fuel-cell vehicle at the New York International Auto Show mentioned the RAV4 with a Tesla power train the company once sold only in California. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR What a letdown. As the owner of four Prius gas-electric hybrids since 2004, I had hoped Toyota's revolutionary Mirai would transform the driving experience as much as the all-electric Tesla I've owned for nearly a year. But the Mirai reminds you too much of Toyota's conventional models, and it's, well, noisy for a car that runs solely on elec...

Allen Schaeffer, executive director of an industry group called the Diesel Technology Forum, spoke at a gathering of automobile writers on Tuesday, claiming the Volkswagen cheating scandal represents only a "speed bump" in the future of the diesel engine. Below, one of the VW models involved in the continuing controversy.  In February, U.S. sales of vehicles with diesel engines were less than a third of what they were a year earlier, Schaeffer told members of the International Motor Press Association at a lunch in Manhattan. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR Diesel rhymes with evil. Think climate change, global warming, polluted air, disease, death and premeditated deception. That's  deception of both regulators and customers, as in the massive Volkswagen cheating scandal involving 11 million VWs and Audis with diesel engines. Deception as in Mercedes-Benz USA, which was named in a federal lawsuit alleging that its so-called clean diesel engine reduces pollution far less than th...

The cover of Consumer Reports' 2016 Annual Auto Issue. Readers get mixed signals on the all-electric Tesla Model S.   By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR The editors at Consumer Reports boast that "our 327-acre Auto Test Center in rural Connecticut" allows the magazine to "give you the most trusted ratings anywhere." But the 2016 Annual Auto Issue delivered to subscribers sends mixed messages on the all-electric Tesla Model S. Highs and lows A graphic called Standouts and Stinkers From Our Road Tests shows the Tesla Model S P85D achieved a perfect score of 100, the first and only car ever to do so. Another graphic, this one on owner satisfaction, says that Tesla Model S owners find their EV "most satisfying" among buyers of luxury midsized/large cars. The Acura RLX and Cadillac XTS are listed as "least satisfying." Still, the Tesla Model S earns an overall score of only 77 in a section called Profiles, which says "reliability has dropped to belo...