If you want the best of everything in a fuel efficient SUV (except the ability to tow or go off road) The new BMW X5 35d is your kind of vehicle

Just in time for ski season and trips over the river and through the woods to grandma’s house, is my post to pick the best rated SUV. I’m looking at things from a gas mileage perspective, among other things. Obviously you don’t typically buy an SUV with fuel economy as your first requirement. If you looked at things from a fuel economy first point of view, you’d be motoring around in a Mini Cooper or Honda Fit.

No, it’s typically mundane requirements such as how many kids and their gear can I fit in it for soccer practice, or can it take the whole family skiing or camping? Other considerations enter into the picture as well, if you have any off road aspirations or even have the occasional need to venture into the back woods for camping or exploration. Then there is the question of towing? If you have need of a tow vehicle, what you’re after in an SUV will obviously change a bit.

Recently some manufacturers have introduced clean diesel technology. How do those clean diesel engines compare from a power and driveability standpoint to their gas fueled brethren? Should you consider one?

Okay, here are the picks for an SUV to drive,  if you want to keep a larger share of your fuel budget in your pocket instead of your tank.

Luxury / Performance SUV – BMW X-5 x-drive35d
If you want to roll around in an SUV that actually handles and goes more like a sports sedan, the BMW X-5 is on your short list. It has almost no competition in the area. For all it’s street cred, it was short on fuel mileage with the V-8 engine. That’s nothing to be ashamed of in this category, where no mid or large sized SUVs really excel. Enter BMW’s new twin-turbo, 3.0 liter diesel, torque monster.

I’ve always been a big fan of diesel engines in SUVs, due to their amazing torque curves; perfect for towing, pulling your boat out of the water, and crawling around in the muck. The new BMW twin turbo definitely doesn’t disappoint in the torque category, furnishing 425lb-ft of beautiful twist. What does all this torque do for you? Zero to 60 in a very sports sedan like 6 and a half seconds, but it feels even faster. It’s no off roader, even with all wheels driven, what with it’s more summer oriented rubber, but it does great in the rain, as long as you’re a bit judicious with your right foot.

What’s the damage at the pump for the BMW X-5 x-drive 35d? A huge amount better than you’d expect. The EPA combined rating is a respectable (for a mid sized SUV) 22mpg, but it gets even better. The TV show Motorweek got a very nice 27+ mpg out of their X5 -x-drive 35d during its stay with them. As per the norm with journalist test vehicles, the vehicle received more than its fair share of flogging, what with the numerous 0-60 and quarter mile acceleration runs it was subjected to. You might even get better mileage out of yours. Any way you slice it, that’s great fuel economy for an SUV, especially a mid sized one that can scorch its way to 60 in almost 6 seconds flat.

Sure the X5 is a bit pricey, at around $60,000, but you can offset some of the pain with an $1,800 federal diesel vehicle tax credit.

Luxury SUV – Alternate – Lexus RX450h – Hybrid
If your preference lies more toward the luxury end of the spectrum, the Lexus RX450h is right up your alley. It’s smooth as glass, quiet, and screwed together with the top quality we’ve come to expect form Lexus. To top it off, it returns stellar gas mileage numbers, with an EPA combined rating of 29MPG. As with all hybrids, you’re distribution of highway / city mileage will have a significant influence on your mileage numbers. If most of your driving is done in town, where the hybrid drive train can strut it’s stuff, you’ll see better mileage, than if you do most of your commutes on wide open freeways.

While it’s not as sporty as the X5, the RX450h is a jewel and will save you even more at the pump. The Lexus is undoubtedly reliable for the long term, but how it will stack up against the BMW diesel after 150,000 miles or so remains to be seen. Then again, few purchasers of either of these two vehicles will probably keep them around for anything approaching that length of time.

The new 2010 CR-V addresses the down on power issue of the previous CR-v (somewhat)

Small SUV – Honda CRV AWD
Honda has been known for smooth, efficient power plants for decades, and the CRV uses the corporate 2.4l in-line 4, which is the very picture of unruffled, almost rev happy bliss. The small Honda covers just about the whole $20,000 price range, with the least expensive AWD CRV fetching less than $23,000, and the mack daddy, EX-L Nav version nearly touching $30,000.

Technical wizardry such as variable valve timing and a drive by wire throttle helps give the CRVa broad power band for a mid sized four cylinder. The high tech power train is also a large part of the reason  the CRV returns such great gas mileage, despite the fact the 2010 CRV has significantly more power (180hp) than the ’09 version. (166hp) The EPA says you’ll average 23 mpg in the AWD CRV, although many magazine tests have recorded substantially better fuel economy. For example a Car and Driver test of an earlier model got over 25mpg, and the 2010 is supposed to be even more efficient.

A knock on the CRV has been its lack of get up and go. The added power on board you’ll not be buying a V6 CRV anytime soon. Seeing as how this is a fuel economy oriented blog,  that’s not the end of the world, but more power is never a bad thing if it comes with too larrge of a fuel economy penalty.

The plus side for the CRV:
Great handling and fuel economy, substantial cargo room for a small SUV, Honda reliability, vehicle dynamics, and overall quality. Improved looks for 2010.

The negative side:
The aforementioned power deficit, not enough zip, could be faster, a bit more torque would help things along some, only has a tow rating of 1,500lbs.

As the Fuel economy leader among SUVs, the Ford Escape Hybrid 4WD deserves an honorable mention here. However, at over $32,000, it is about $8,000 more than the CR-V. Looking a the Escape’s thrifty, fuel sipping EPA mileage rating of 29mpg, you may well be impressed. I know I was. However, even if the price of regular unleaded hits over $4.00 per gallon, it will take you about  220,000 miles to get that money back. If gas prices stay at about $3.00 per gallon you’re looking at almost 300,000  miles before you see a return on your hybrid investment. If you buy and Escape before April Fool’s Day, 2010, you’ll be eligible for a $487 Federal income tax credit, so you’ll want to figure that in as well. Also remember to add in the cost of a battery pack replacement, because if you keep your escape hybrid for over 200,000 miles, you’ll be needing one of those, too.

For those of you who plan on keeping your vehicles that long, or just want to make an environmental statement, by all means break out with the Ford. If fuel prices should hit around $6.00 a gallon, you’ll look like a genius and be laughing all the way to the bank. The above ROI calculations ignore any interest expense you might be paying should you have financed your Escape purchase. Since the vast majority of people do finance their automotive purchases, these should not really be ignored. As for me, I’ll take the CR-V.

If you need the ginormous variety SUV, you’ve really got only one choice in something that gets any kind of decent gas mileage, the Hybrid Chevy Tahoe / GMC Yukon. If you’re up for dropping about 60 large, the Mercedes GL-350 BlueTec is almost as large as the TahUkon and gets a respectable (for the Titanic) 19MPG combined, and actually out does the Hybrid GM twins on the freeway, where it delivers a decent 23mpg. However, many folks with the new clean diesel engines actually do even better than the EPA estimates on the highway, and so may you.

I’m awaiting some developments in the SUV arena, namely the TDi Diesel powered VW Tiguan, which should deliver spectacular mileage, decent handling, and a hint of luxury at a not quite luxury price. With any luck it will have some off road prowess as well.

This proves that if you need an SUV, (although  for many folks, a mini van would actually be a better choice) and want to do your part to save gas (or diesel) you have options, and these are my picks for fuel saving SUVs for 2010.

You can save money on gas by buying your gas with a credit card that gives you a rebate for gas purchases. These rebates can be upwards of 6%, depending on which rewards card you choose. Unlike a decade or so ago, many consumers eschew the using an oil company gas card in favor of a traditional Visa or MasterCard that gives some type of reward or rebate for gas purchases. The reasons for this are many, but suffice it to say that flexibility is definitely not the oil company credit card’s strong suit.

With an oil company credit card you’re limited in two ways; one, you have to use it for purchases at a gas station, and two it has to be a gas station owned or affiliated with that specific oil company, for example, Chevron or BP. Need to pick up a new HDTV or 5 lbs of bananas and a large combo pizza? Too bad.

That sort of inflexibility has consumers fleeing company gas cards for the greater options provided by credit cards that pay rewards for gas purchases, but can be used in any store that accepts credit cards, and for any purchase the consumer might wish to make. In many cases they’ll get rewards or rebates for these other purchases as well.

One way to save gas is to use one of these gas rebate credit cards and, this is important, pay off the balance every month, so you’ll accrue no interest charges. Failing that, at least search high and low to find the card with no annual fee and the lowest interest rate possible. Click here to check out a vertical credit card search engine that lets you do just that, find the gas credit card with the lowest interest rate, and more importantly if you’re trying to maximize your gas rebate, the biggest rebate.

These things change with the winds in the financial sector (which lately have risen to hurricane force), but as I pen this you can get a gas reward of up to 10%, depending on the particular card. Don’t forget to avoid any card with an annual fee, unless it’s extremely small and the rewards for your specific type of use far outweigh the impact of the annual fee. That’s a very important point, you must remember to give careful consideration to your expected use of the different cards when making your decision. The offers are varied (and seem to change with the wind) so you have to look at your past credit card usage, and examine how any prospective new card would fare if you were using it instead. Calculate the different rewards percentages for each type of purchase, and total your expected total annual reward dollar amount.

You can use the gas reward percentage to directly offset the price at the pump. For example, if the reward percentage for a particular card is 7%, that is effectively a discount on gas prices that’s applied to the final price you’ll pay. Two more things to consider here; some credit cards have a maximum rewards amount, so keep that in mind when making your decision, and if you fail to pay off the balance every month, you’ll pay an interest rate that I can almost guarantee will be higher than your reward percentage.

So, you can use a credit card gas rebate to effectively save money on gas, if you find the best card, and be careful to use it correctly. It is just one more strategy to save money on gas you can keep in your arsenal. Go here to use that gas rewards search.

….until next time.

If high gas prices have hit you right in your (too thin) wallet, you may be thinking about finding a good, cheap, used car to rack up the endless miles to and from work every day. Just as declining sales of big SUVs and pickups have have some car dealers’ hair coming out in huge clumps, other dealers are making a fortune selling smaller cars of the gas saving variety. When it costs upwards of $80 to fill up the F-150, many people have decided that it just doesn’t make sense to continue driving such gas hogs any longer. In fact, with some of the real gas guzzlers, you can almost pay for a the monthly payments of another car with gas savings alone!

Here’s an example:
Drive to work each way: 25 miles – part city, part highway driving
Other driving: 500 miles per month
Vehicle : 2002 Ford F-150 4×4 4.6l V-8 pickup
EPA mileage: 14 combined
Current gas prices, regular gas: $3.68 / gallon, nationwide average

That means that in this example, you’d drive approximately 1,600 miles per month. At 14 mpg, your truck would drink about 114 gallons of unleaded regular every month (don’t burn premium in this rig, it’s a waste of money). That would set you back $420 per month.

If you got a used car that gave you 25mpg, you’d drop your monthly gas bill to about $235, or a monthly gas savings of $185. The smaller car would probably be cheaper to insure as well, but I won’t even put that into the equation. Your $185 monthly gas savings could be put straight into a car payment. According to Bankrate.com, if you have good credit you can get a 48 month, used car loan in about 10 minutes from lenders such as FirstAgain at an interest rate of 6.49% (today’s rate).

At that interest rate, a 48 month car loan of $7,800 would get you a car payment of $184.94, right at your gas savings for the month. Here are some of the top gas saving cars you could buy for that $7,800 according to used car values for used cars in good condition from Edmunds.com, fuel economy ratings from the EPA, and vehicle reliability ratings from MSN.

Best Cheap Used Cars to Save Gas With – #5
2001 Acura Integra LS Sedan, 1.8L, 5sp manual trans, EPA MPG 22 city / 28 hwy
This is a great car. It drives superbly, handles well, and returns fantastic gas mileage. The reliability is beyond reproach and the power train is jewel-like. Saving gas in this thing would be a pleasure. About the only disadvantages are that, as a 2001, it’s getting a bit older, so most examples will tend to have racked up a few miles, and they are not the most quiet cars from the driver’s seat. One more issue is that these cars enjoy a strong enthusiast following, so finding one that hasn’t been modified and abused may require a bit of commitment, but would be worth it.

Best Cheap Used Cars to Save Gas With – #4
2005 Ford Focus ZX4 2.0L, 5sp manual trans, EPA MPG 22 city / 32 hwy
This car gets excellent fuel economy, and handles very well. Although not the fastest thing on the road the handling makes it fun to drive and the interior was redesigned for 2005, making it a more palatable place to spend the daily slog. Not super quiet inside, but few econo rigs are. It’s new enough that you should be able to find lightly used examples out there, and it doesn’t command much of a following among the performance oriented crowd, so finding a good one shouldn’t be a challenge.

Best Cheap Used Cars to Save Gas With – #3
2003 Mazda Protege ES 4dr, 2.0L, 5sp manual trans, EPA MPG 22 city / 28 hwy
Good gas mileage, but stellar handling. This thing livens up the drive to work. Not too fleet of foot though, sort of oozes down the road more than scampers. Given the handling prowess, the Protégé is way short of grunt. Pretty good sized interior, so if you have to take your family along for the ride, this’ll do it for you. Not the absolutely highest gas mileage, but would definitely save gas over a big truck.

Best Cheap Used Cars to Save Gas With – #2
2004 Hyundai Elantra GLS Sedan, , 2.0L, 5sp manual trans, EPA MPG 23 city / 31 hwy
Great gas mileage, very good reliability, MSN Autos says “Infrequent problems reported, all with low repair costs” for all categories. The Elantra boasts decent acceleration, and is loaded with features (especially considering the low cost). The reliability should make sure you gat to work every day, and the Elantra’s cockpit isn’t a bad place to spend your drive, but it’s not as nice as the Honda Civic.

Best Cheap Used Cars to Save Gas With – #1
2002 Honda Civic DX 4dr, 1.7L, 5sp manual trans, EPA MPG 28 city / 36 hwy
And here’s my pick for the best cheap, used car to save gas with. Look at that! Buy one of these cars and you’ll get the best gas mileage short of dropping some big coin on a new hybrid. The little (but not too little) Honda really saves gas, but also goes down the road in a quiet, composed way the other cars in it’s class just can’t quite match (unless the road starts to get curvy). It’s kind of the mirror image of the Mazda; only so-so handling, but a quiet, cushy ride for your commute to work. The Civic was redesigned for 2002, so it looks even newer than it is.

It has a well deserved rep for safety and, like the Protégé, is pretty large inside for a compact car. The cons for the DX version of the Civic is that you can’t get ABS, and many of these cars may not have A/C. That last one is obviously a deal breaker if you live in Phoenix, Dallas, or Bakersfield.

The Smart ForTwo, built by Mercedes as an ecologically responsible answer to the world’s environmental and gas problems is tiny, gets good gas mileage, and takes up little space. It is so smart it even has smart in its name; since it is Smart ForTwo, it’s presumably twice as smart. But, is it really, or is it a dumb idea?

Say what you want about Mercedes prodigious engineering know how, I think their smart car is really a dumb idea and here’s why:

Why the Smart ForTwo is a Dumb Idea 7 -
Right from the top, who the hell in MB’s product planning department thought that an economy car that burns premium gas is a good idea? Right from the get go, you’re at a fuel economy deficit over a car that gets the same gas mileage, but burns regular grade gas. Currently, the U.S. national average for premium is $3.92/ gallon, for regular gas it’s $3.68. That means you’re at a 6.5% disadvantage before you burn your first gallon. That means that, while the Smart ForTwo has an 2008 EPA rating of 33 city / 41 hwy MPG, compared to a car that burns regular gas, it’s closer to 31/39 mpg.

Why the Smart ForTwo is a Dumb Idea 6 -
The reason that the smart gets the fuel economy numbers that it does is due to it’s light weight and 71hp, 1 liter engine.Unfortunately, even with a curb weight of only 1,800 lbs, this thing is really slow. The performance is just plain terrible. Not that it’s raison d’etre is to win races, but being able to get out of it’s own way would be nice.

Why the Smart ForTwo is a Dumb Idea 5 -
The Smart only has an 8.7 gallon fuel tank, restricting range between fill ups to about 250 miles of in town driving. While the typical use of this vehicle is not long distance, freeway jaunts, you’d only get a hair over 325 miles before you had to pull into the petrol station for another round of Chevron’s finest (there’s that expensive, premium gas again).

Why the Smart ForTwo is a Dumb Idea 4 -
Being small just doesn’t get you anywhere in most places. Unless you can convince your city to let you park with another of your Smart owning friends in the same parking spot, a parking spot is the same size, weather you own a Smart For2, or a Hummer H1. That means that they’ll still take up just as much room to park on our city streets, and you still will have to pay $15 to park when you go downtown.

Why the Smart ForTwo is a Dumb Idea 3 -
Unless you’re only taking your laptop to work you, probably wouldn’t take one of these cars downtown though, because they have no room! You couldn’t take you and a friend shopping, unless you were looking for diamonds and iPODs, as you’d have no place to put both yourselves and your stuff for the drive home.

Why the Smart ForTwo is a Dumb Idea 2 -
It really doesn’t get very good gas mileage, especially given it’s abbreviated stature. There are several “real” (dumb??) cars that get close to or better gas mileage. If one factors in the premium fuel requirement noted above, it gets even closer. If you include hybrids, all bets are off, because hybrid cars will absolutely clobber the Smart when it comes to gas mileage. Unfortunately they tend to command premium prices, too. You could however, consider the Toyota Corolla (28/37mpg, regular), Toyota Yaris (29/36mpg, regular), and if you wanted to have a ton of fun and burn premium gas, a Mini Cooper, or Mini Cooper S (both get 26/34mpg, premium).

Why the Smart ForTwo is a Dumb Idea 1 -
The real reason that the Mercedes Smart ForTwo is a dumb idea is that for about the same money you can drive a real car that just gives you so much more, while still getting fantastic gas mileage (on regular gas). You can get almost the same gas mileage, transport 4 people in relative comfort, get more performance, have room for your packages and grocery bags, etc. In short (no pun intended) you’ll be driving a real car and still conserving gas. If you want to get a hybrid, you’ll be driving a real car and saving even more gas.

Maybe the Mercedes Smart ForTwo is an idea who’s time has come, and judging from the waiting list many think it has, but for my money, I’ll twist the keys to a Mini Cooper or a Corolla.

Until Next Time.

The Chevy electric car, or more properly, the new Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, and the similar cars its’ success is sure to spawn, is the best chance the General has to return to profitability after an especially bleak quarter. Even GM can’t absorb too many -$15 billion quarters and expect to survive. To be fair to GM, some of this can be attributed to non recurring events and write downs, that aren’t likely to be repeated.

As a manufacturer built on the success of relatively fuel inefficient vehicles, such as the Silverado and Tahoe, GM needs alternatives that consumers want to by with the same fervor that they flocked to lots with when gas was $1.80/ gallon and new Tahoes had dealer incentives. With gas hovering at $4.00 per, those days may never return, but GM’s hoping that a new era of profitability returns, driven by $30,000+ plug-in hybrids.

$30,000+? Yes, the initial versions of the Volt promise to carry a fairly robust price tag. Don’t for get that fuel efficient vehicles will continue carry with them some pretty attractive tax incentives. Unfortunately the $30,000 price for the first versions of the Volt likely factors those tax benefits in already. The actual price is closer to $40K! Now, if you’re Leonardo DiCaprio, that’s no big deal. For those of you that get your paychecks from Paramount Sand and Gravel, Paramount Landscape Services, or Paramount Electric, rather than Paramount Pictures, the Volt’s price may be a bit of a stretch.

If Chevy can just get the Volt to have the same cachet among the ultra green set as the Prius enjoys, the same automaker that draws ire and wrath for daring to concoct the Tahoe / Suburban will ironically be lionized for popularizing the plug-in hybrid.

One thing’s for sure, it will take more than $4 or $5 gasoline to make the Volt a success. Chevy’s marketing department had better do a bang-up job. After all Toyota will be hot on their heels with the plug-in Prius. The Volt promises a higher level of technology than the Prius, and will be larger, theoretically appealing to those with larger (Suburban sized?) families.

The Volt will face stiff competition in the marketplace when it arrives however. Besides the aforementioned Prius plug-in, Honda is readying a few possible competitors, such as a hybrid version of the already economical Fit, a “Global Small Hybrid”, and the new CR-Z, being referred to by some as the “CR-X for the 2010’s”. All will feature hybrid power trains and outstanding fuel economy. Nissan also has electric cars just around the corner, having announced them in May of this year.

The question is weather or not Chevy’s “electric car” (it can go up to 40 miles on electric only power), as they like to call it, will rise above the competition and generate sufficient sales and profits to pull GM out of its doldrums. GM may be able to generate substantial licensing revenues from some of the technologies it’s developed for the new car and its E-flex drive train. GM has substantial engineering might, and has developed some of the things we take for granted in cars today, like another electric enhancement to our rides, the electric starter.

It’s already reportedly talking with rival Ford to use some of the power train. How long will the batteries in the Volt last? GM is saying that they expect a 10 year battery life, which is a good thing, considering the initial cost of the advanced lithium ion battery pack. Priced a replacement lithium ion battery for your laptop recently? Now you see what I mean.

So, although the Chevy electric car may be a paragon of modern technology, and may in fact help the General return to profitability, it will not be a cheap car for the masses, which may be okay, since they’ll only build about 10,000 units the first year, and could probably sell them all, even at $40,000. If the price of gas remains above the magic $4.00 per gallon barrier, or people expect it to, the Chevy Volt will be a slam dunk for GM.

If the price of gas should decline to around $3.25, and people expect it to stay there, the less expensive traditional hybrid alternatives will be much more attractive to car buyers, especially given the rising price of electricity.

Until next time, save that gas, you’ll need it.