RideLust

Is it me or are car companies spending more time working together than ever before? Every time I load up my car news it seems as though one company is holding its competitors hands on one project or another. This story is no different. Toyota and Subaru will be partnering to develop an affordable sports car that should hit global markets by the end of 2011.

Expect pricing to start just under $20,000. It will be sold under the Subaru brand globally except in Japan where it will be marketed under the Toyota brand. Go figure. Not that bad looking either if you ask me.

Source: InsideLine

At somepoint in time the Gas Prices will be more reflective of reality than based on what speculators can manipulate in the marketplace. Atleast that’s what George Soros thinks. By then I’m firmly in belief that the automotive industry will have shifted to alternative fuels, and electric powered vehicles. But lately I’m a junkie for alternative power supplies. Here’s the video where George Soros, the billionaire hedge fund investor chimes in.

Speculators are largely responsible for driving crude prices to their peaks in recent weeks and the record oil price now looks like a bubble, George Soros has warned.

The billionaire investor’s comments came only days after the oil price soared to a record high of $135 a barrel amid speculation that crude could soon be catapulted towards the $200 mark.

Source: Daily Telegraph

Interesting enough we profiled AMP, the company transforming Saturn Sky’s into Hybrid vehicles using a transformation kit. Likewise this company Poulsen Hybrid has a kit called PHEV, Plugin Hybrid Electric Vehicle that turns your gas guzzling automobile into a hybrid vehicle.

If you’re really interested in the nit and gritty details of how this works check out this explanation from Poulsen Hybrids:

Creates a PHEV by retro-fitting electric motors, DC motor controllers, storage batteries and an on-board charger to a conventional new or used automobile.
Read More…

Everywhere I seem to turn someone is talking about hybrids, and high gas prices. So it’s no suprise to me when I head on over to a green blog network I frequent to find an interesting article on the cars we might be driving in 2010.

“Green” autos have been all the rage at this year’s auto shows, with fuel-sipping compacts, plug-in and all-electric vehicles headlining events from Detroit to Geneva. However, many of these cars from the largest automakers are concept or pre-production models that still won’t be available by 2010.

While many hybrid or ‘green autos’ won’t be available until 2010, one huge thing we can all do is drive slower to improve on gas effiency and check out sites like GasBuddy.com for places to find cheaper gas in your neighborhood.

A Popsci contributor had an experiment. Test out Honda’s Natural Gas Powered Vehicle then sell it on Ebay. His results are an eye opener.

I did some research, and found that compressed-natural-gas vehicles are fetching big premiums online in places like Utah and Oklahoma where natural-gas prices are ridiculously low—as low as 60-cents per gallon. When I listed the car on eBay, it sold three days later to someone in Oklahoma for $18,600, about $4,000 more than what I paid for the car when I purchased it from Honda less than a year before, and $2,000 above its Kelley Blue Book value. (The sale price to me reflected various state and federal tax incentives that Honda took when they owned it.)

Who’d have thought that the highest-performing investment of my entire year would be a used Honda Civic? We loved owning the car, and will miss its greenest-car-on-earth cache. But we realized that living five miles from work is probably better for the environment than living 65 miles from work, no matter what you drive.

Source: PopSci

David Pogue of the NY Times had something to say about the rising gas prices. Be thankful your not running on one of these liquids:

Lipton Iced Tea, 16 oz @ $1.19 = $9.52 per gallon

Diet Snapple, 16 oz @ $1.29 = $10.32 per gallon

Gatorade, 20 oz @ $1.59 = $10.17 per gallon

Ocean Spray, 16 oz @ $1.25 = $10.00 per gallon
Read More…

Toyota Iswing-Concept – The top video clips of the week are here

The Toyota iSwing is an experimental single passenger vehicle developed by Toyota. The vehicle’s innovative quality is that it can recline from a standing position for faster travel.

Toyota engineers are trying to revolutionize travel with new technologies that merge transportation on a personal level with commuter transportation. Imagine a personal vehicle fit for each human that needs transportation.

I believe this is going to be a far better solution that sweating over prices at the pump.

If big cars were the wave of the last generation this generation present and future will surely shift to smaller cars. Take a look at this tiny concept car, called the M-112. Small it is, but small has been proven to be safe if designed correctly and get amazing gas mileage and still be fast and sporty.

As part of the EcoCustom Team that took part in the last Shell Eco Marathon 2008 in France, the Spanish designer set out to prove that super-duper small car design does not have to be comical or embarrassing.

Source: Yanko Design

I took a detour today into the archives of Flickr. I found some amazing photos of cars from eras ago. Particularly interesting and awe inspiring to me are the photos and other images from Fine Cars photostream.

This image was not taken from the Fine Cars stream, but is equally awe inspiring.

WARNING:PaRoDy

The 33 drivers participating in last Sunday’s 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500 were distracted by sky-high gas prices, which rose three times during the race, causing several crashes and an exceedingly high number of caution flags.

After Ryan Briscoe clipped Danica Patrick’s car in pit row on Lap 171, Patrick exited her car in a fit of rage. Instead of confronting Briscoe, she made an aggressive beeline toward her refueling crew to give them a piece of her mind.

Track sources say that earlier in the race, Patrick’s Citgo card had been declined for being over the limit during a routine pit stop. Patrick nearly ran out of gas before her crew was able to cobble together the $584 required to fill her IndyCar’s 35-gallon tank for another 28 laps of racing.

“I’m just the fuel guy; I don’t set the prices!” said Gianni Cutri, the head of Patrick’s three-member refueling team as he ran to hide in an opposing team’s garage.

While this is just funny, the truth of the matter is gas prices have risen 20 straight days with no end in sight, topping 4 dollar a gallon in so many places that now all of a sudden Electric Cars to some is an inexpensive future.

At this rate, people won’t be lusting after any cars, except hybrids and electrics.

Source: Free Associated Pressvia Michelle Miller