green living, smart spending
San Diego’s Hotel Solamar is the city’s first downtown hotel to become Green Seal™ certified, and one of just 20 in all of California to earn this top rating for social and environmental responsibility. The Hotel Solamar is operated by Kimpton, which is one of the hotel industry’s top green leaders. Kimpton operates 50 boutique
Read more
The 2011 Nissan LEAF has been named the 2011 European Car of the Year, the first electric car to win the prestigious award. The Nissan LEAF award comes just two weeks after its top competitor for world headlines, the Chevrolet Volt, won the important Green Car of the Year award at the Los Angeles Auto
Read more
Green hybrid and electric cars are the big news at the Los Angeles Auto Show, which opens to the press on Wednesday, November 17th and to the public two days later. You’ve been hearing a lot about the extended-range plug-in hybrid-electric Chevrolet Volt, and all-electric Nissan Leaf. They are the headliners, for sure. But several
Read more
The 2010 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance is the 60th anniversary of what has become the most famous and most prestigious vintage and antique car show in the United States, perhaps even the world. The Pebble Beach Concours is this weekend, August 13-15, attracting thousands of classic car fans to Monterey and Carmel, California, to see
Read more
What’s your dream car for a summer road trip? Mine would be a fast, sexy roadster, preferably a convertible, preferably a two-seater, probably in red, with enough trunk space for a weekend bag for each of us. The 2011 Audi R8 Spyder 5.2 V10 tops the list, according to the August issue of the Robb Report.
Read more
The long-awaited Chevrolet Volt goes on sale Fall 2010. A real problem for owners of electric cars and plug-in hybrids is that recharging stations are still limited. General Motors and its partners will reduce what’s called range anxiety by making 15,000 charging stations available to Chevy Volt buyers. These are heavy-duty 240-volt charging stations, which
Read more
Car sales are a great indicator of the state of the economy. when car sales are down, so is the economy. In April 2010, car sales were up 20% over April 2009. That’s a good sign that the economy is turning around. Of course, some brands did better than others. Nissan had the largest increase
Read more
The top-rated green vehicle of 2010 is not the 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid, which tops most such lists. The greenest vehicle title goes the Honda Civic GX, powered by natural gas. Okay, the Toyota Prius is number two, and Honda Civic Hybrid claims spot three. The top three green cars list from the American Council for an Energy Efficient
Read more
The new VW hybrid compact sports coupe unveiled this week at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show has received a best in show award from AutoWeek. The car is much better than its name, which is Volkswagen New Compact Coupe, or NCC. Every year, editors from AutoWeek search the halls of the world’s biggest auto shows,
Read more
Green cars were the big news at the Frankfurt Auto Show in September and the Los Angeles Auto Show in December 2009, and the expectation is that hybrid cars, plug-in electric cars and hydrogen fuel cell cars will be making headlines at the important Detroit Auto Show in January 2010. The rumor is that Toyota will introduce
Read more