With just a few days until the 2011 SEMA show, a group of our esteemed elected officials have introduced “The Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act” (H.R. 3274) – a bipartisan bill that is intended to enable custom car manufacturers to build and market a range of specialty vehicles on a national level.
The bill was introduced by Congressman John Campbell (R-CA). It directs the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to “establish a regulatory structure to facilitate the production of these cars.” Co-sponsors of the bill include Rep. John Barrow (D-GA), Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL), Rep. Don Manzullo (R-IL), Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA).
The Free MPGomatic Sticker giveaway has come and gone. We may offer them for free again in the future.
In the meantime, we’re selling a limited number of MPGomatic stickers.
You can buy one, two, or three stickers at a time.
If you order three stickers, we’ll throw in a bonus sticker … a special round edition that pays tribute to the super cool custom MPGomatic Poker Chips that we’ve given away at industry events like the SEMA Show in Las Vegas.
Ordering stickers is easy. When you click the Buy Now button, you’ll be taken to PayPal’s website. You can pay for your order with PayPal or with a major credit card (including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover).
PS: Our stickers were printed by our friends at StickerGiant. They did an awesome job. We will be printing a bunch of crazy stickers with them down the road.
You don’t have to go far to hear folks complaining about how the current level of ethanol content in unleaded gasoline has affected the gas mileage in their vehicles. Today’s gasoline contains approximately ten percent ethanol, for the most part, and is referred to as E10. Finding “ethanol-free” gasoline at a common service station has become increasingly rare, at best.
Ethanol contains approximately 33 percent less energy than gasoline. If you were to run 100 percent ethanol (E100) in your vehicle, you’d expect to take a 33% hit to gas mileage.* (Theoretically, since you can’t legally run 100% ethanol.) With E10, it’s a 3.33% penalty. Seeing that you can’t buy E0, there’s not much you can do about it.
At some point, we hope to perform dyno and real-world tests to document the drop in gas mileage. With “pure” pump gas nearly impossible to find, we’ll likely have to buy expensive street-legal racing fuel. Continue reading →
MPG-o-Matic 2011 Chevrolet Volt Review Summary: The 2011 Chevrolet Volt is both futuristic and familiar, with a range-extended Voltec drivetrain designed to provide efficiency, as well as flexibility. Top off the battery overnight and you’ll have approximately 40 miles of pure electric range in the morning. If you should exceed the Volt’s range before recharging, a fuel-efficient gasoline-powered engine will kick in to provide electricity to power the electric motor. Welcome to the future.
Ford has chosen a different path to electrification of the automobile. While the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt enjoyed a substantial marketing blitz in the build-up to their debuts, Ford was rather quiet by comparison. (If Jay Leno’s ill-fated prime-time show had not flopped, America would have seen more Stars in an Electric Car). Those in the know might recall that MPGomatic first reported on the low-key/high-result Ford Electric Car efforts way back at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show.
