Gas 2.0 |
- ZOMG! It’s a CNG Civic GX!
- U.S Believes Saudi Arabia Running Out of Oil
- Lexus Brings Ridiculous “Tuned” Hybrid to Chicago
| Posted: 11 Feb 2011 03:53 PM PST
Having written about these cars before (here, here, etc.), you’d think I would have been psychologically prepared to encounter an honest-to-goodness, CNG-powered Honda Civic GX. I wasn’t, and immediately opened the car up and started pulling knobs and levers. “Hi,” said the charming Honda marketing rep, noting my press badge. “Can I answer any questions about the new Civic for you?” I’d been ignored by most of the factory reps all morning, so the warm welcome was a bit … I think “disconcerting” is the proper term. See, most press guys (and gals!) show up at these auto shows dressed like actual human beings – which is to say: business slacks, jacket, dress shirt, shiny shoes. This is because 1. this is their “real job”, or because 2. this is not their “real job”, and they are trying to weasel an impromptu job interview out of one some factory bigwigs in an effort to make this their “real job”. At that moment I looked down at my Freddy Krueger sweater, jeans, and USAF basic-training issue boots (with hot pink laces!) and muttered something eloquent, like “Yeah, what’s up with the GX?” “This is a 2011 model Civic,” he said, still chipper. “The new 2012 Civic concept is over there (points over there).” “I know,” I said, “but I’m not interested in that one. I want to know about the CNG car. They just started selling these nationwide, didn’t they?” At that moment, he looked at me like I had 9 heads. I could only imagine the Honda rep’s thought-process, seemingly grinding to a halt as this person in front of him, oddly dressed and clearly disinterested in the new Honda hotness, insisted on asking about an “old” oddball Civic squirreled away in a corner of Honda’s lavish display. He kept looking at my chest, though, which seemed odd … until I followed his gaze. Right there, on my ID badge, were the magic words: IMPORTANT MEDIA. Ding ding ding! We have a winner! Suddenly drunk with a sense of power, I told him “I don’t write for a normal car blog. I’m here asking questions about the environment and technology. I don’t care about that stuff.” I waved dismissively at Honda’s 2012 Civics (which quite nice, but still). At that, I got the full scoop. The Civic GX’s had been available for a while, but very few dealers were properly trained to sell and service them. The new home filling stations were available now, however, and could be “rolled into the financing” on the cars. Personally, I was very surprised how utterly invisible the Civic GX was. Except for some easily removable stickers on the rear, the car itself looked just like any other Civic – which is to say: not bad. There was no visual clue to tell the people around me that I was driving one of the cleanest-burning vehicles on the planet. Perfect. As we walked around exploring the car, the Honda rep did encourage us (!?) to take some snapshots of the trunk, pointing out that the Civic GX car did ask you to make some sacrifices …
… which are all there. In the trunk. In order to offer similar cruising range when compared to the standard Civic (240-260 miles, per Honda’s rep) the CNG tank had to be larger than the standard gasoline tank. In addition to displacing the spare tire and jack, the tank also cut trunk space by almost two-thirds, and rendered the fold-down seats virtually useless. All things considered, however, this is still an ideal commuter or passenger car – especially if your cargo-hauling duties are limited to grocery runs and briefcases. As for me, I’d do this as a primary car (possibly sooner than later) but I’d like to keep some pick-up owning friends handy, just in case.       Source: 2011 Chicago Auto Show.
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| U.S Believes Saudi Arabia Running Out of Oil Posted: 11 Feb 2011 01:30 PM PST
The report comes from those recently released Wikileaks documents, which among other things include information on what the U.S. thinks of key allies and enemies. Saudi Arabia is a long-standing U.S. "ally" and the third largest exporter of oil to America. Saudi Arabia may even sit on one-fifth of the world's proven oil reserves. The problem is that Saudi society is not nearly as open as America's, and the data is very susceptible to tampering and does not go through any sort of external verification. In fact, since the OPEC countries have started reporting their oil reserves, the countries have consisntely declared finding more and more oil, despite pumping it out of the ground at an astonishing rate. Now it could be that Saudi Arabia sits on top of the Pacific Ocean of oil, but at the rate they are pumping it out of the ground (12.5 million barrels of oil per-day), it only makes sense to me that these oil reserves should, I don't know, start to be depleted? Aprominent geologist named Sadad al-Husseini says that the Saudi's will have difficulty hitting that target in the coming months, and they could hit peak oil production as soon as…wait for it…2012. Bum bum bummmm…. Does that mean gas will be unaffordable right away? Probably not. But with China and India both having booming economies, and the east Asian car market increasing exponentially, we could start having problems. And with the recent instability in the Middle East, it’s not a matter of if, but when the Saudi ruling family is overthrown. So getting off of oil is as much about the environment as it is about national security. More cars + Less oil = Doomsday? It sure is a fun time to be alive. Source: Yahoo! Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMI’s. You can follow his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout.
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| Lexus Brings Ridiculous “Tuned” Hybrid to Chicago Posted: 11 Feb 2011 11:42 AM PST
Lexus brought out a number of modified hybrid cars to Chicago, apparently hoping that customizers like 5 Axis would be able to bring some sort of “baller” cred to their awkward luxo-hatch … which raises one very important question: do the kids still say “baller”? Whether they do or don’t, this bass-boat glittery 5 Axis Lexus is trying extra-hard to impress with an aggressive fiberglass wide-body kit and low-profile tires wrapped around an extra-wide set of Tein wheels, which do an adequate job of showing off a set of big brake rotors from Stoptech. I think it goes without saying that the extra weight, increased frontal area, and massive frontal openings of the bodykit seriously detract from the factory CT200h’s excellent aerodynamic package – as do the extra-wide wheels with sticky (read: high rolling resistance) tires. I don’t know quite what to say about the brakes, other than to point out that 5 Axis has chosen to ditch the millions-of-dollars-and-years-in-development regenerative braking system from Lexus with brakes that are (and I say this generously) more fashion-conscious. *facepalm* Source: 2011 Chicago Auto Show.
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