Introducing Fuel-Saving Cars People Can Afford
Yesterday, we talked about a new gasoline-powered Daihatsu car that gets 70 mpg (non-EPA). After The Nikkei [sub] broke that story, the phone rang in Tokyo and several other manufacturers said “watashi tachi mo!” (Us too!) And today, The Nikkei [sub] is out with the story that other manufacturers “are mounting a challenge by launching gasoline-powered models that can compete with hybrids on fuel economy.” Not only that, they severely beat the pricey hybrids on price. Buy the car, and you can start saving right away.
- Daihatsu’s fuel-miser will cost around $10,000 when it is out in September. Rightly or wrongly, it expects to be “the most fuel-efficient gasoline vehicle on the market.”
- Mazda reminded The Nikkei that it has a 59 mpg (non-EPA) Demio subcompact that costs 1.4 million yen ($17,700).
- Suzuki is not sitting idle and “is developing an offering whose fuel economy will equal or surpass the competition’s,” The Nikkei says.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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By the way, speaking of fuel saving cars that people can't afford (to bring into production), I'm surprised nobody commented on the electric car company out in California (sorry, I forget the name) intending to build a 3-wheel plug-in electric vehicle, into which a city (sorry I forgot that too, something like Saucilito maybe) sunk like 500k+350k USD. Seems a couple of days ago, the CEO called it quits due to the fact that they were under capitalized and unable to attract further investment.
I'm really curious to see how Mazda's SkyActiv strategy works out. If it succeeds in improving efficiency as much as they claim while still preserving performance, then this could be revolutionary for Mazda, and could very well push them to the head of the pack in a relatively quick period (I'm serious!). By dedicating their research to conventional fuels (instead of ev's, hybrids, and so on) Mazda has most certainly chosen to walk a radically different path from most manufacturers, and so still remain under most people's radar for now. It's definitely an interesting strategy, and one that has really caught my eye. Of course we won't know for sure until the new vehicles are actually released, but if they actually perform as well as they claim, watch out!
You need to base your car monthly allowance on your salary and your usage. It also matters what you want to have in the car as far as tech goes. Basically, you have three choices. #1 Buy a used car that gets decent gas mileage - so you save up front costs on financing. #2 Buy an inexpensive new car that gets good gas mileage - even though it will cost more to finance than the used. or: #3 Buy an expensive hybrid car that gets better gas mileage. It makes no sense to buy an expensive Hybrid car just to get 40mpg. I tested a KIA OPTIMA HYBRID and felt I'd do better saving the $5000 premium between the hybrid and the regular car if I had to shop in that segment. http://www.epinions.com/review/2011_Kia_Optima_epi/content_554427059844
Pretty sad when a gas engine is getting more mileage than a hybrid...