Fuel Efficient Autos

Taking a ride in a hybrid taxi in New York may cost you extra these days, but it’s worth it for helping the environment.

The idea to raise the price of cab fares for hybrid taxis was a part of the Bloomberg administration as a way to entice taxi owners to make the switch. Some cab owners did not want to trade in their old gas-guzzling cabs because of the cost of new hybrids, but the permission to charge customers more may do the trick.

The new rules for these hybrid taxis will take effect on May 1. In addition to allowing hybrid taxi owners to charge more, the new rules also penalize the ones who lease less efficient cabs by making them charge less.

“Taxi fleet owners will have more reason to purchase cleaner vehicles,” said Mr. Bloomberg following the vote to pass the new laws. “The result will be more clean taxis on city streets.” As for the extra cost, it seems like a small price to pay to be a better steward with the environment.

Currently, about 2,000 of the 13,200 cabs in New York are hybrids and many of them are Toyota hybrids.

If you’re used to using your cell phone or texting while driving your Pontiac cars, you better get ready to change your habits.

Currently, there are 42 states considering legislation restricting or outright banning the use of cell phones while you’re driving. There are also more than 250 bills that have been proposed for the same purpose. Just 10 months ago, there were only 120 bills proposed for restricting cell phone usage behind the wheel. That just shows how much the support is growing for this type of legislation. Here are some more bits of information about this topic:

• Idaho, Georgia, Texas and North Carolina are considering a ban on all types of cell phone usage when driving. This includes hands-free devices.
• Nationwide Insurance offers parents a discount on their premiums if they buy devices that disable their teens’ cell phones when they are in a moving car.
• Six states currently have laws that ban handheld cell phones behind the wheel of a car.
• According to a report in 2008, about 270 million people in the United States own cell phones. That’s approximately 90 percent of the population!
• At any given moment of the day, about 11 percent of the drivers on the roads are talking on their cell phones.

Talking on your cell phone while driving your Pontiac cars should only be done when you’re pulled over or stopped. Even if it’s not a law in your state, it’s safer for everybody around you.

Have you been planning on buying one of the new or used Pontiac cars at your local dealer but the choices are overwhelming? If so, there’s no need to be overwhelmed. Here are five things to keep in mind when choosing your next Pontiac cars.

1. Daily Needs – Are you buying the car to commute to work every day or just for pleasure on the weekends? Will it be primarily for rural driving or driving through the city?
2. Resale Value – If you decide to sell the car after a couple years, will it hold much of its value? Will you lose a lot of money if you decide to sell it in a year or two?
3. Monthly Payments – Do not just consider the monthly payments. Make sure you have some extra money left after making the payments each month for other car-related expenses.
4. Insurance – Are some Pontiac cars much less for insurance coverage than others? Research this before making your final decision.
5. Fuel Efficiency – How many miles does it get per gallon?

These are a few things to get you started when choosing your next Pontiac cars. Visit a local dealer armed with this information and you’ve won half the battle!

When I woke up this morning to check my email, there happened to be an article on the front page of Yahoo about the new 2010 Prius, one of the most anticipated Toyota hybrids ever. Here are some of the highlights from that article in case you missed it.

• Dennis Simanaitis, the article’s author, said that hybrids are “getting closer to mainstream” and as they continue to do so, they are “just going to embarrass what we once considered conventional cars.” It’s true. Hybrids are becoming more like the norm and making many of us wonder why we still stick with the car we have.
• Although the new Prius generation is “a skosh heavier” than previous units, the 2010 models have a better fuel economy. Officially, the 2010 Prius gets 51 mpg on the highway and 48 mpg through the city.
• Engineers improved upon the Hybrid Synergy Driver system for this generation. Both of the electric motors are “more compact.”
• The previous generation Prius had an impressive drag coefficient of 0.26. However, engineers were even able to improve upon that to bring it down to an even more impressive 0.25.

These are just a few of the great things about the new Prius. Check one out today at your Pennsylvania Toyota dealer and see why so many people are turning to hybrids for their everyday cars.

Driving your Pontiac cars at certain times of the day or night can be more dangerous than others. A recent study by Forbes showed some surprising results.

One conclusion that the study made was that the most dangerous time to drive your Pontiac cars is during the afternoon rush hour. That might not seem surprising because this is when people are trying to hurry home after work and they are often more careless in their driving habits. The weekday hours between 5 and 7 p.m. account for an average of 6.6 deaths per hour in the United States.

The hours between midnight and 4 a.m. are also dangerous. According to the study, 5.87 people for every 100 million driving at this time get into a fatal accident. More than 35 percent of these fatalities are related to drunken drivers while only nine percent of daytime accidents are related to alcohol. More than 70 percent of the people killed in traffic accidents after midnight were not wearing a seatbelt. Compare that to 55 percent during the daytime hours.

Keep these facts and figures in mind when planning a trip with your Pontiac cars. It could just save your life.

With all of the new hybrids on the market, it might be difficult to discern between them. But since Toyota introduced the first mass-produced hybrid to the North American market, it’s safe to assume that the automaker is the leader in hybrid technology. Here is a brief description of the lineup of Toyota hybrids currently available in the United States today.

Toyota Camry Hybrid
This popular bestseller recently received its hybrid counterpart. The 2009 model has an MSRP of about $26,000 and gets up to 34 miles to the gallon. It also has new features like a Smart Key system and a state-of-the-art voice-activated DVD navigation system.

Highlander Hybrid
This hybrid SUV starts at about $40,000 and gets up to 27 miles to the gallon on the highways. It offers the convenience that we’ve come to love about SUVs without the gas-guzzling annoyance.

Toyota Prius
The Toyota Prius really needs no explanation. It’s currently the best-selling hybrid on the market and there was even a waiting list for this brand when gas prices skyrocketed last summer. Toyota is currently releasing a third generation of this popular model that will arrive at dealer lots later this summer.

Visit your Philadelphia area Toyota dealer today and see what you’ve been missing in the hybrid lineup!

The GTO is possibly one of the most popular Pontiac cars ever made. Many people refer to it as the very first muscle car. But there are many other things about the GTO that you may not know.

• Pontiac only manufactured the GTO between 1964 and 1974. In Australia, Holden manufactured the model from 2004 to 2006.
• Russell Gee, Bill Collins and John De Lorean were the minds behind the creation of the Pontiac GTO.
• De Lorean came up with the name for the GTO, which stands for Gran Turismo Omologato. That’s Italian for homologated when racing in the Grand tourer class. It was inspired by the Ferrari 250 GTO.
• If General Motors had had its way, the GTO would have never gone into production. The management of the automaker did not want to build any performance cars or any other models that were designed to “go fast.” Before the GTO, Pontiac had a reputation for producing more conservative vehicles.
• In 1965, Pontiac sold more than 55,700 two-door hardtop GTO units. The price at the time was only $2852. More than 11,300 two-door convertible units were sold, too, at a price of about $3100.

Cities all over the United States have been replacing their big yellow taxis with more fuel-efficient Toyota hybrids.

The Denver Metro Taxi company now has 40 Toyota hybrid vehicles in its fleet of 400 cabs. In Phoenix, the Discount Cab service has 75 Toyota Prius hybrids. Other cities are switching to greener cars to help reduce costs and be a good steward of the environment at the same time.

One of the only things holding some cab companies back from making the switch is the room in many hybrids. When compared with the current larger cars, the hybrids tend to be more compact and offer less leg room for passengers. But that seems to be a small price to pay for reducing a company’s carbon footprint by 65 percent, which is what Metro Taxi in Denver has done since making the switch.

Some cab companies are taking their eco-consciousness even further than just the cars they drive. Metro Taxi uses used motor oil from its vehicles to power its furnaces. It also uses energy-efficient light bulbs. That’s probably why it has been referred to as “one of the greenest cab companies” in the United States.

Why not follow the trend of the cab companies and get a Toyota hybrid near Royersford for your daily use? You’ll be surprised what a difference they can make!

If you’re like most drivers these days, you’re driving your Pontiac cars a lot fewer miles than you were more than one year ago. Studies by the Federal Highway Administration show that Americans have cut back their driving “for a record 14th straight month in January” as people are feeling the financial crunch and unemployment is soaring to the highest rate in 25 years.

The drop in vehicle miles is part of a ripple effect that was created by the recession that we are in, according to some experts. The current financial climate has spurred job losses which means fewer people commuting to work. There is also less money for people to use to buy new cars and less money from the gasoline tax dollars that are normally used for repairing roads and infrastructure.

The largest drop in miles driven occurred in Ohio with a 10.2 percent drop in January.

Of course, there’s always a bright side to every story. There should be fewer drivers congesting the highways and roads during your morning and evening commute. And if you want to enjoy a nice spring afternoon driving your Pontiac cars around, there will likely be fewer people on the roads to get in your way.

For several weeks, we’ve been telling you to stay off your cell phone when driving your Pontiac cars. The debate and the push for a ban on cell phone usage while driving continues.

There have been several bills introduced into the Pennsylvania Legislature to ban or even limit the use of handheld cell phones while driving. However, those have all failed to garner any support or even attention until recently. Jacy Good, a 22-year-old resident of Lititz, has been pushing hard for a ban on cell phones while driving since her parents were killed in an accident involving another driver who ran a red light because his cell phone distracted him.

“I have to get this law passed,” she said in an interview. “I have to know that my parents died for a reason.”

The sad thing is that the law should have been passed a long time ago. Evidence that talking on cell phones while driving causes distractions and accidents has been around for several years. Statistics from the National Safety Council show that about six percent of car accidents can be linked to at least one of the drivers involved using a cell phone while behind the wheel.

Don’t become one of these statistics. There is no phone call that is so important that it can’t wait until you can safely pull over. Do it for yourself and other drivers on the road even before it becomes a law.