RideLust

Can someone please tell me when good old fashion exercise got replaced by electricity and pedal powered mopeds? It seems like people, especially intercity hipsters, simply love to feel as though they’re doing something that saves the planet. They’ll go out and purchase electric cars and hybrids, join environmentalist groups and buy things like the mini-electric scooter you see here. Called the Voltitude, this Swiss-designed mini-ped concept will apparently get your lazy ass from point A to point B at the blazing speed of 15 mph. It’s got a pedal-assisted range of 12-25 miles, weighs in at over 50 lbs., and will fold up into something that’s still too big and heavy to hide away neatly. You can call me a skeptic and hater or whatever, but at the end of the day I find contraptions like this to be utterly useless and a complete waste of money. The Voltitude is scheduled for release at the end of 2011 and is sure to come with a price that will probably be too high and sold to people that love to wear knit caps in the summertime.
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Prices for premium fuel are bouncing over $4.25 here in the Northeast, which means I’m seriously considering picking up a fuel efficient beater car to have as a daily driver. I’m looking at everything from used Toyota Tercel’s to Honda Accord’s and everything in between. There is however one major catch – my budget is $1000.00. Obviously a 1k budget eliminates anything that one would consider to be “nice”, but as I already have a nice car, I’m not too worried about its looks. What I am concerned with however is how the car runs and has it been serviced regularly. Now some of you may be thinking that you can’t find a good car for $1000.00, but I completely disagree. In fact I’m betting I can find a good old lady car for a G-note right in my neighborhood if I look hard enough.
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For the first time in quite awhile people are purchasing automobiles based on fuel economy more than emotion. They’re shopping with their brains more then their hearts, which means that the performance based automobile may be looking at a tough road ahead. 550 hp cars are wonderful things and as journalist we’re pre-programmed to like them because let’s face it, they make our jobs fun. However when it comes time to filling their fuel tanks our love for them tends to diminish. The new Cadillac CTS-V line for example is one of our favorites, but the thought of putting $65.00 worth of fuel in those suckers every 225 miles is simply not appealing. Don’t get me wrong, I’d buy one in less than a heartbeat if I could, but I’d also have to have something fuel efficient parked next to it in the driveway. The question though is which type of fuel efficient car should you purchase.
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*Photo Credit: Good.is

Let me be the first to congratulate Indiana University for being total masters of the obvious. You see according to AutoNews.com they’ve just conducted a study that states that the majority of consumers are not ready to own electric vehicles (big surprise). The study was done on the heels of President Obama reiterating his goal of getting 1 million electric or advanced technology vehicles on the road by 2015. Hey Barack – here’s a news flash, it ain’t going to happen buddy. Regardless of how much money government and or manufacturers throw at the development of electric vehicles, there is still one major problem – people don’t want them yet. We’ve seen manufacturers like Tesla and Nissan tout how wonderful these machines are, and I’ll agree that from a technical perspective they are. For practical everyday usage though, they’re simply not there yet. Drop their initial cost, up their range and make them as practical as a regular automobile and then you’ll have people stopping to take notice.
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Let’s see now… 0-60 in under 5 seconds, two seats and a range of 150 miles. Hmm… it seams as though Nissan is getting the idea that if you want to sell electric cars to enthusiasts you’d better make them fun. Meet the Nissan Esflow, a concept car for those people who actually like to drive cars. The Esflow is based on the same technology that is found in the all electric Nissan Leaf. It’s got two motors that independently drive the rear wheels as well as the same laminated lithium-ion battery packs as the current Leaf. In the Esflow however, the packs are placed along the axis of the front and rear wheels thus centralizing the cars mass which helps it achieve 150 miles per charge. The idea behind the Esflow is to give the public an idea of what future electric sports cars might look like (umm.. Tesla?)
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If you’ve ever been to San Francisco then you know that these people ride their bicycles. They take them on the train, into restaurants and even into the stores with them. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever seen more people using pedal power as their main transportation than in this City by the Bay. I mean I thought that New Yorkers rode their bikes, but these west coast granola crunchers take it to a whole new level. One thing that you won’t see in San Francisco however are bicycles that are powered by anything but human legs. That hasn’t stopped the 2011 PiCycle from hitting the market though. The PiCycle is an interesting machine for a few reasons. First off it’s electric, second it’s two-wheeled drive and third, it has a built in theft recovery system that updates its location on your smartphone. Personally I don’t believe in bicycles that power themselves, but I do believe in getting back at the bad guys that stole them. The PiCycle is currently being sold through Best Buy for $2,495.00. It’s not cheap, but with up to 20 miles on a single charge and a way to get it back if it gets nicked, it’s actually not a bad way to get around.

Source: PiCycle.com

2010 was a good year. The venerable Lancia Stratos came back from the grave. Jaguar built a car with two jet engines in it. The Mustang shaved its mullet and proved itself as a more-than-capable sports tourer. Chevy’s long-awaited Volt turned out to be pretty good. And Cadillac made the most bitchin’ station wagon ever. But my favorite cars this year didn’t make the glossy magazines. They won’t end up in posters plastered to 15-year-olds’ walls. They won’t be featured in Forza or GT5. They are, however, spectacular in every way imaginable. Here they are, in no particular order.

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With the average price of regular fuel in the United States teetering around $3.15 per gallon I got to wondering if die-hard car enthusiasts would change their buying habits. My daily driver for instance gets a whopping combined mileage of about 15 mpg. Obviously it’s not the most efficient vehicle on the planet, but as a performance vehicle I make the compromise to pay more at the pump so I can have more fun on the road. There are however times that filling up my tank to the tune of $60.00 does make me reconsider my choice in vehicles. This week for instance I happen to be driving around in a 2011 Chevrolet Cruze, a car that gets about 35 mpg on the highway. It’s a car that gets economy car mileage, but one that doesn’t feel like an economy car.
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If you’ve ever driven a front wheel drive car with some power behind it then you already know what torque steer is. For those that haven’t however, let me give you a quick explanation. Torque steer occurs when power is transmitted to the front wheels of a vehicle in such a manner that the vehicle wants to pull to one side under hard acceleration. It’s a freaky feeling and one that can startle novice drivers who have never experienced it. Over the years front wheel drive automobiles have gotten so good that manufacturers have all but eradicated this condition from their front drive models. Take the upcoming 2012 Ford Focus for example, a car that comes standard with Ford’s new Torque Vectoring Control system.
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This past weekend I found myself talking to a few buddies about cars we loved and which cars we could simply do without. Most of the cars built today are actually quite good. Sure they may have some flaws here and there, but for the most part they’re comfortable, well built and drive ok. We conversed about every major manufacturer, but when it came time to single one company out, we almost all unanimously chose the car that you see above – the Smart Car. People, I absolutely hate this little thing. So much so that I would rather see it pushed off a cliff on fire than have it sitting in my driveway. Now I know that there are some of you that are going to chime in and say that the Smart is a great little car, that it’s economical and fits a certain lifestyle, but I am here to tell you that for the most part…. your wrong. Keep in mind also that one of the people in this conversation was a Smart car owner and he hates the flippin’ thing.
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