Categories: Car News

Over at GM, you have the all-new 2014 Corvette, and its sure-to-follow packages like the ZR1 and Z06. Then you have the Camaro, and all its packages including the ZL1 and all-new Z28. At Chrysler, you have an all-new super muscle car in the SRT Viper, and you have SRT Viper packages like the Time Attack. But what you don't have is a Challenger package in the vein of the ZL1 (or Ford Mustang Shelby GT500). Yet. According to several reports, Chrysler is working to fill that void with an all-new 6.2-liter HEMI V8 engine that will debut on the next-generation Challenger.

Automakers have been busy as bees over the last decade designing lightweight, fuel-efficient vehicles for a public increasingly suffering from price shock at the gas pumps. As a result, dozens of car models and even some light trucks now average 25+ miles per gallon on the highway. Hybrids like the Prius are even more fuel-stingy, getting 50 MPG or more.

But even Toyota's ultra-efficient savings champ is outdone by a new vehicle called the Elio, which can go 84 miles on a single gallon of regular unleaded. Scheduled to be released in 2014, the Elio is causing waves across the automotive world.

When the topic of conversation turns to ways to save on gas, it seems that everyone has an opinion. But, while all these suggestions are well-intended, not all of them are equally valuable. Take changing the air filter as an example. While it can do your car a world of good in other ways, it won’t boost your MPGs, despite what many people believe.

Other folks swear that the trick is to buy gas early in the morning, so it comes out of the pump cooler. This, too, has no effect on fuel use. So how do your separate fact from fiction when it comes to boosting your car's efficiency? Here's a look at 10 popular tips for saving gas. We'll see how much truth there is in each one.

Back in the 1980s, the automotive industry underwent a golden age of technologically advanced sports cars. Cars like the Porsche 959 and Ferrari F40 used technologies never before seen on the road, and as time went on, that technology trickled down. Tech-heavy cars are more common here in 2013, but we appear to be on the verge of another technological golden age involving Porsche and Ferrari. Porsche is developing the 918 Spyder, a sort of spiritual successor to the 959, and Ferrari recently revealed the LaFerrari, a direct descendant of the F40. A cornerstone of the new era will be hybrid power. Both the 918 and LaFerrari have hybrid units, and, at least in Porsche's case, plug-in hybrid technology will be trickling down to its entire line.

The average price for unleaded gas has been over three dollars a gallon since late 2010, and, despite recent drops, chances are good that gasoline will remain pricey for the foreseeable future. Because of this, millions of motorists across the country are showing keen interest in vehicles that promise better mileage for each drop of fuel, and automakers have been busy offering models to meet this demand.

Leading the way are gas/electric hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius and Chevy Volt, which can drive 50+ miles on a single gallon of gas. Backed by aggressive marketing campaigns and government tax credits, it seems clear that hybrids are the way to go for anyone who wants to save money at the pump.

It's a good week to be Tesla. On the heels of announcing its first profit in 10 years of business, the electric luxury carmaker gets a nearly perfect rating on its Model S. After testing the sedan, Consumer Reports slapped a big, old "99 out of 100" on it, a first for an electric vehicle.

When humans and machines assemble thousands of individual parts, and the resulting product is expected to survive extreme use/abuse by... humans, something is bound to go wrong every now and then. So here's a roundup of all the latest automotive oops-a-daisies and bad ideas.

When it comes to building awesome, lust-worthy, high-performance electric cars, Tesla has experienced success for years. But when it comes to making money on those electric cars—like the 'more money than I spent to make money' type of money—it has had less success. It has failed to turn a profit for the entire 10 years that it's been in business. Until last week. In a letter to shareholders detailing its 2013 Q1 financials, Tesla announced its first profit ever.

Back in 1899, a Scottish immigrant named David Buick decided to try his hand at building horseless carriages. At the turn of the last century, automobile manufacturing was the new boom industry. Much like the dot com boom a century later, there was a fledgling car company on every corner. And nearly all of them would eventually run out of money, and go belly-up. Just a few years after Mr. Buick started his automotive venture, it too went bankrupt, and the company was taken over by a man named Billy Durant.

Mr. Durant was a very wealthy man, having turned his small wagon/carriage business, the Flint Road Cart Company, into the world's largest horse-drawn wagon manufacturer. His wagons were sold all over the world, and he decided to replicate his success In the automobile business. The Buick Motor Company was his first automotive acquisition, and it would eventually become the cornerstone of his new car-making conglomerate called General Motors.

The future of car buying is going to get more complicated, at least if you want to keep up with the latest technology. Not only will you need to educate yourself on engine options, standard equipment, safety features, fuel economies, and available packages, you'll need to compare computer systems. Each year, more and more vehicles include advanced infotainment systems that keep you connected to the cloud. Unfortunately, unlike the old car radio head units, which were pretty straightforward to compare and use, each system uses its own hardware and software interface, making them difficult to compare from one brand to the next. Infotainment reviews and awards provide a helpful shortcut toward helping you identify what might work for you. Ford's SYNC system is the latest infotainment system to earn a nod, getting named "Best Traditional-to-Mobile Transition."

Toyota calls its RAV4 the first crossover SUV, and the model is certainly one of the more well-known crossovers on the market. Thanks to a consumer-centric redesign, the model is experiencing stronger sales than ever.

"Sales of the new RAV4 have been tremendous," said RJ Romero, chief executive officer of Tustin Toyota in Tustin, Calif. "Our buyers really like the new styling, including the new rear liftgate and the removal of the spare tire from the rear door. They also tell us they feel the new RAV4 is a great value as it is loaded with key standard equipment that is important to them. Our only challenge has been keeping our inventory well-stocked to meet the heavy demand."