Another Monday, another random spike in MPGomatic.com traffic. Monday is always a busy day, but yesterday was even more so. At first I attributed it to the onset of spring and a hopeful sign that the economy is beginning to thaw with the jump in the stock market.

As I dug deeper into the daily site statistics, I noticed a dramatic jump in traffic to the front page of MPGomatic.com … without a referring link. This always makes me scratch my head. The last time this happened, it was from a mention in a MSN/TreeHugger article …

If you’re new to MPGomatic.com, a hearty welcome … and if you’re a regular, welcome back!

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Influence is just as important as action (or inaction).

Here’s a specific case in point …

Last April, Newsweek published a piece entitled Miles to Go, with the far more descriptive yet entirely misleading subhead, “Why automakers don’t sell a car that gets 50 MPG.” Never once does the article mention fuel-efficient diesel engines, yet the article begins with the chestnut:

Wouldn’t it be great if you could drive a car that gets 50 miles per gallon? Well, you can. Just hop on a plane and fly to Europe, where all new cars average 43mpg, or Japan, where the average hits 50mpg.

Well, gee … why do European cars get such great mileage? Lets guess … it’s not just because they are often smaller then their American counterparts. It’s not because Europeans are driving hybrids (which they largely dismiss). It’s because more than fifty percent of the new cars sold in Europe use far more efficient diesel engines.

Can we blame the article’s omission of fact on editorial ignorance or something more heinous?

Ah, but all hope is not lost.

Earlier this month, Newsweek woke up and ran an article entitled Diesel vs. Hybrid, with the subhead “There’s more than one way to build an environmentally-friendly car.”

Could it be? The oil men have left the building and only weeks later Newsweek wakes up to the facts?

The piece opens and closes with the word from Volkswagen. The 2009 Jetta TDI is flying off the lot. VW put in the work to bring a clean diesel engine to the States and the gamble – rather, the investment – is paying off.

The vast majority of Americans have absolutely no clue how wonderful the new clean diesels are to drive. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time test driving clean diesel vehicles over the past year, at my own expense. (My research and coverage is not influenced by corporate overlords, though it is constrained by current economic conditions.)

The German automobile manufacturers absolutely have it right. Bringing fuel-efficient fun-to-drive clean diesels to America takes a lot of guts … and smarts.

The phone rang just minutes after uploading the video to CNN’s server.

My jaw dropped when I saw “Turner Broadcasting” on the Caller ID. CNN.com reporter Katie Hawkins-Gaar asked a slew of questions.

I did my best to reply, although I couldn’t come up with the answer to the seemingly simple question “what’s your favorite car?”

A victim of abundance, I spend time with so many cars, it’s tough to name just one.

This morning, I discovered that a clip from my piece actually made it on the air. You’ll see it about 2:10 in …

Here’s the complete iReport:

We’re getting LOTS of traffic to the front page of MPGomatic.com this morning and I haven’t been able to figure out where it’s coming from. My best guess is that we landed a media mention somewhere.

I couldn’t let this pass by without sending out a hearty welcome to all our new friends! I’d love to know who to thank for the mention …

UPDATE: Wow … it’s MSN … Many thanks for the heads-up!
The author of the article kindly referenced our Toyota Yaris review.

Please feel free to drop your comments and questions.

Never mind the never-touched-a-wrench ne’re-do-wells. A fundamental shift has taken place. You know blogging has hit the big time when conventional media sits up and takes notice …especially the television news operations in major metropolitan areas, like Toledo, Ohio.

I met Barrett shortly after setting up my camera gear setup stage right in Cobo Arena for the Ford press conference. Hours later, Barrett caught me when I had packed everything up and was headed out for the day. He asked if I would do a piece on camera for his audience and I happily obliged.

Guy seemed genuinely interested in what we’re up to, and suggested that we submit our feed to Alltop, his ‘”online magazine rack” of popular topics’ …
lo and behold, we’re now on Alltop’s Auto page.
Many thanks to Guy and Neenz!

My panel discussion on Building Blogger Cred went fantastically well, thanks to a positively stellar panel (Scott Monty, Michelle Naranjo, Joe Neuberger, and Muhammad Saleem) and an absolutely wonderful audience. Scott got things rolling by setting up a Twitter hashtag (#cred) allowing the session to be completely interactive.

When I got back to the ranch, I set out to take care of a bunch of loose ends that have been flopping around here for far too long. Getting our videos into iTunes has been a goal for some time now. I’m glad to say that goal’s been reached. You can now download our video podcast to watch at your leisure, away from your computer: MPGomatic iTunes podcast

While the economy’s imploding, we’re plowing everything we can back into the website and video podcasts, with the promise to continue to bring you a free stream of content unlike anything else you’ll find either in print or on the Internet.

I was checking the site referrals for MPGomatic this morning and saw a blip of traffic from the Fox television station in Houston, Texas.

My curiosity piqued (MPGomatic on Fox?), I had to take a look at the MyFox Houston website to see where the traffic was coming from.

After a quick crawl through the website, I found the source: Trade in the SUV? MPGomatic Has Your Answer … hey, mass media gets it, after all …

It gets even better. FOX 26’s Doug Delony (a.k.a.: “My Tech Guy”) named MPGomatic the station’s Website of the Day.

The news segment is spot on and there’s a bit of interesting conversation on the blog … well worth checking it out …