Last year, the HP2g E85-powered Mustang was at the Detroit Auto Show, and things were looking pretty good for Doug Pelmear and his 110 miles-per-gallon equivalent plan. He was participating in the Automotive X Prize and was confident he would at least win the popularity portion of the AXP thanks to the classic looks of his entry vehicle.

Fast forward a year and things haven’t turned out quite as well as Pelmear had hoped. In June, he and his team acrimoniously dropped out of the X Prize, and while the HP2g Mustang still made a few appearances, the company’s next vehicle – the Revenge Verde Super Car – was supposed to be at the LA Auto Show last month. It wasn’t. Thankfully, when the Detroit Auto Show kicks off next week, Pelmear will be on hand at the NAIAS Green Zone with the Revenge Verde from Revenge Designs Inc. Read the rest of this entry »

With a slew of sensors and CPUs, the 2010 Lexus RX450h can pretty much drive itself. Want to go somewhere? Sit down in the driver’s seat, use the Remote Touch device (a.k.a. “mouse”) to tell the crossover where you want to go, and follow the easy-as-store-bought-pie instructions to your destination. Whether or not this is a good thing depends on how badly you want to feel like you’re in control of your commute. For those concerned about fuel economy and comfort, the almost-autonomous nature of the RX450h is nice, but certainly doesn’t offer a tremendous amount of ability to control how much fuel you burn moving down the street. As it turns out, this is a feature, not a bug. Find out why after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

The national coming-out party for the Toyota Prius was a television commercial during the 2005 Super Bowl. The narrator bragged, “Low emissions, high mileage, and you never plug it in.” In those early days of hybrids, Toyota marketers felt compelled to portray charging up your car via the electric grid as an evil to be avoided. Read the rest of this entry »

Mike Rowe has risen to fame as the host of ”Dirty Jobs” on the Discovery Channel: as well as narrating other shows such as ”Deadliest Catch:” and for the past three years has been a spokesman for Ford.

This is National Teen Safe Driver Week. One way to boost the skills of teen drivers is the Driving Skills for Life program: sponsored by Ford. The program has a Web site: www.drivingskillsforlife.com: and holds track events around the country.