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Showing posts from August, 2016

Consumer Reports isn't giving all-electric cars and climate change a lot of attention

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Honda will be the next automaker to market an all-electric car as Toyota continues to sit on the sidelines. -- HACKENSACK, N.J. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR Consumer Reports seems to have a blind spot for all-electric cars. The magazine's annual Auto Issue, just out, picks the 10 best new cars for 2017, but all of them use gasoline. For a full report, see: Consumer Reports smells (of gasoline)

With no humans or batteries, self-driving cars will hurt both economy, environment

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No. That isn't the biggest, roof-mounted boom box you've ever seen. That's an autonomous Ford Fusion with a human back-up driver Uber will use to pick up passengers in Pittsburgh. Once the self-driving car is perfected, Uber likely will fire tens of thousands of drivers. This photo is from The Associated Press. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR GM, Ford, Volvo, Uber, Google and other companies are investing billions of dollars in the race to develop self-driving cars. But I've seen little discussion of whether they will be gasoline powered, hybrids or all-electric. Only an all-electric self-driving car makes sense, given climate change and the 53,000 deaths each year from auto emissions. And when Uber perfects a self-driving car, you can bet the unemployment lines will swell with tens of thousands of drivers let go by the anti-labor, ride-hailing monstrosity. Only Google has said its self-driving cars will be "mainly electric." BMW, Nissan lag The media have been spe

Automakers who can't compete with Tesla hone the art of blowing smoke at buyers

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The BMW i8 has been called "jaw dropping," but if you're a woman, don't try getting in or out of the plug-in hybrid in a skirt. MSRP starts at $147,700. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR The Olympics in Rio continue and so do all of those idiotic car ads. As BMW struggles to build a car that can match the speed or 200-mile-plus range of a Tesla Model S, the German automaker tries to deceive consumers into settling for second-best gas-electric hybrids. The i8 with "scissor doors" is the most advanced BMW ever built, the company's TV ad boasts. Of course, it's also one of the noisiest.  A car that uses gasoline isn't advanced at all. You'll still be poisoning the environment with almost every mile you drive. You also can buy gas-electric hybrid sedans and SUVs from BMW. Big deal. You want fancy-schmancy doors? Tesla's Model X has them and zero emissions, too. BMW, Audi, Mercedes and Porsche can't say that. Tesla lowers prices Meanwhile, Tesl