This February file photo shows a line of 2012 Prius sedans at a Toyota dealership in the south Denver suburb of Littleton, Colo. Consumer Reports has just named the Toyota Prius as its best value car – one of several hybrids that made the consumer magazine's list of best-value vehicles. (David Zalubowski/AP/File)

Best value cars? Hybrids.

By Philip LeBeau, CNBC Auto and Airline Industry Reporter / 12.27.12

They may not be sexy or exciting to drive, but a new study by Consumer Reports said hybrids offer the best value for those buying a new vehicle.

Consumer Reports analyzed 200 new cars, SUVs, and minivans to come up with it latest list of the best and worst value vehicles.

While gas-electric hybrids often cost substantially more than comparable models that are gasoline powered only, Consumer Reports said other factors make hybrids a great value.

In this year's report, the Toyota Prius has replaced the Honda Fit as the best value for car buyers. "It's extremely reliable, roomy, rides well, gets great fuel economy, and is inexpensive to operate," says Rik Paul, automotive editor at Consumer Reports.

Consumer Reports estimates the Prius costs owners $.49 cents per mile — less than half the cost of operating the average car.

This is the first time in four years Consumer Reports did not rate the Honda Fit as the best new-car value.

Consumer Reports calculates value scores for vehicles using the five-year owner cost for each vehicle, the Consumer Reportsroad-test score, and the vehicle's predicted reliability. Depreciation is the biggest cost for new vehicle buyers.

Consumer Reports rated Toyota Motor and Lexus models as the best value for buyers in six of 10 categories. The magazine said Toyota and Lexus hybrids stand out as having excellent value. The Japanese automakers hybrids rated No. 1 in three of four categories.

(Read More: Cheaper Midsize Cars Rated Safer Than Luxury Models)

The latest recognition from Consumer Reports comes as Toyota is enjoying strong sales for its flagship hybrid line-up, the Prius. This year, Toyota has set a record for the Prius, selling more than 200,000 models in the U.S.

On Wednesday, Toyota agreed to pay more than $1 billion to settle a class action lawsuit related to investigations and complaints about unintended acceleration in 2010.

Consumer Reports Best and Worst Values:

Best Value Small Hatchbacks: Toyota Prius Four

Worst Value Small Hatchbacks: Ford Focus SE

Best Value Family Sedan: Toyota Camry Hybrid XLE

Worst Value Family Sedan: Chrysler 200 Limited (V6)

Best Value Large /Luxury SUV: Lexus RX 350

Worst Value Large /Luxury SUV: Nissan Armada Platinum

Best Value Minivan/Wagon: Toyota Prius V Three

Worst Value Minivan/Wagon: Chrysler Town & Country Touring-L

Best Value Small SUV: Honda CR-V EX

Worst Value Small SUV: Mini Cooper Countryman S

A Ford 2013 Ford C-MAX Hybrid vehicle is seen on display outside the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Mich, last month. The C-Max has become the fastest-selling hybrid ever in its first two month on the market, according to Ford. (Rebecca Cook/Reuters/File)

Ford hybrids hot sellers despite mileage concerns

By Antony Ingram, Guest blogger / 12.22.12

Ford may yet have to account for discrepancies between real-world mileage and EPA ratings on its hybrids, but any issues certainly aren't harming its sales.

The company reports that the C-Max hybrid has become the fastest-selling hybrid ever, with 8,030 units sold in its first two months on sale.

By comparison, the Toyota Camry Hybrid sold 7,300 units in its first two months on sale, May and June 2006.

Between C-Max Hybrid and the plug-in Energi hybrid, sales are three times that of the combined launch sales of the first-generation Toyota Prius and Honda Insight back in 2000.

We'd interject at this point and suggest that the latter statistic isn't surprising in the least, given that, like electric cars today, hybrids were very much new, unusual and disruptive technology back in 2000. ( Continue… )

Some 145,000 Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize trucks are involved in a new GM pickup recall, including this 2012 Chevy Colorado. Some of the trucks are missing secondary hood latches, which can allow the hood to fly open if the main latch isn't fastened. (Courtesy of General Motors/File)

GM pickup recall: Front hood can fly open

By Associated Press / 12.21.12

General Motors is recalling more than 145,000 pickup trucks because the hoods can fly open unexpectedly and block the driver's vision.

The recall affects Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize trucks from the 2010 through 2012 model years. Most of the trucks were sold in North America.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says some of the trucks may not have a secondary hood latch. If the main latch isn't fastened, the hoods can open while the trucks are in motion.

GM said Thursday that it doesn't know of any crashes or injuries caused by the problem. The automaker traced the problem to a parts supplier after getting four reports of trucks with missing secondary latches. ( Continue… )

Ruckersville, Virginia. A crash test is performed at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in Ruckersville, Va. More than 10,000 people are seriously injured or killed in small overlap crashes every year, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. (PRNewsFoto/Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)

Are cheap cars safer than expensive ones?

By Philip LeBeau, CNBC.com / 12.20.12

New crash tests replicating some of the most deadly head-on collisions show less expensive midsize cars do a better job protecting the driver and front seat occupants than many luxury and near luxury midsize cars.

"This is a surprise to us," says Adrian Lund, President of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. "It shows you don't have to spend a lot of money to get state of the art crash protection." (Read More: Whoa! 1.7 Billion Cars on the Road by 2035.)

The latest IIHS small overlap crash tests measure how well mid-size cars handle accidents involving their front quarter panels. Small overlap crashes are responsible for approximately one out of every four frontal crashes. The Insurance Institute says more than 10,000 people are seriously injured or killed in small overlap crashes every year.  ( Continue… )

A policeman stands guard between a line of New York City yellow taxis and cabs waiting to get fuel from a gas station in Midtown Manhattan in this November 2012 file photo. Following Hurricane Sandy, taxi drivers were desperately trying to get hold of the hybrids, as long lines for gas stations crippled city road transport, Ingram writes. (Adrees Latif/Reuters/File )

Electric and hybrid taxis gaining in popularity

By Antony Ingram, Guest blogger / 12.20.12

For decades, the stalwart of the taxi ranks has been the full-size sedan.

Sturdy, simple and cheap to buy, cars like Ford's Crown Victoria have become part of the landscape in cities like New York. But with rising gas prices and concerns over emissions, things are really changing.

While not yet a dominant force in taxi fleets,hybrid and electric vehicles are increasingly popular as a way of cleaning up city fleets.

Initial concerns over the reliability of hybrids have long passed thanks to taxis still going strong at 300,000 miles, and electric vehicles are proving their worth in the environment to which they're most suited--inner cities.

Already comparatively green, as a method of transportation that foregoes car ownership, we've seen several electric fleets spring up over the last few years.  ( Continue… )

Lines of new cars are seen at a customs depot at the main port of Piraeus, near Athens, in this November 2004 file photo. About 37 percent of auto loans are made to folks with credit scores below 700 and yet delinquencies remain very low, Read writes. (Thanassis Stavrakis/AP/File)

Despite easy credit, a decline in late car payments

By Richard Read, Guest blogger / 12.19.12

One of the major contributing factors to the Great Recession was the U.S. credit crunch. For years, banks had been loaning money to many people who probably shouldn't have been taking on additional debt. When the economy began tanking, a significant number of those consumers defaulted on their loans. As a result, banks became more cautious with their lending, which had a ripple effect on the entire country -- not least of all, the auto industry.

Five years down the line, the U.S. has begun to recover, and, not surprisingly, credit has become much easier to find. That's worried some folks (including us), but so far, Americans are keeping up with their financial obligations -- or at least their car notes.

Speaking to Peter Turek, the vice president of automotive financial services at TransUnion, theDetroit Free press reports that the percentage of Americans who are 60-days behind on their carnotes is projected to reach 0.36% by the end of December. That's near the record low.

Why focus on those who are 60 days late? Because that's how TransUnion defines delinquency. Folks who fall behind 60 days or more on their loans are often unable to catch up and frequently default.  ( Continue… )

Nissan Motor Co. employee Kazuhiro Fujibayashi demonstrates the electric recharge plug-in process of the company's latest LEAF car for photographers in Tokyo, in this November 2012 file photo. One path to improving electric car batteries is to find incremental improvements in today's technology, Ingram writes. (Junji Kurokawa/AP/File )

The future of electric car batteries

By Antony Ingram, Guest blogger / 12.17.12

There are three main paths to improving batteries for future electric vehicles.

One is the development of entirely new technologyreplacing today's batteries entirely with something lighter, more powerful and more energy dense. The next is the greening of batteries--reducing their environmental impact.

The other is simply to find incremental improvements in today's technology--like eliminating some of its current weaknesses.

According to the Ohio State University (viaCleanTechnica), One such weakness has been found in the chemistry of current lithium-ion batteries, and scientists are now looking into fixing that issue.  ( Continue… )

Trey Leavenworth harvests some herbs in Cape Cod, Mass. in this 2011 file photo. Herbs are great for cooking, but studies suggest that Rubia may make car batteries run more efficiently. (Joanne Ciccarello/Staff/File)

Can garden herbs improve your car battery?

By Antony Ingram, Guest blogger / 12.15.12

However you choose to enjoy herbal products, the last place you'd expect to find them is in your electric car battery.

Thanks to a new discovery though, the Madder plant, also known as Rubia, could prove useful as a natural cathode in batteries.

Madder has long been used as a source of purpurin, an organic dye used since ancient times to color fabrics.

As ScienceBlog reports, scientists at Rice University and the City College of New York have discovered that purpurin also makes a good natural cathode for lithium ion batteries.

Unlike many other future battery technologies, this one isn't aimed at improving charging time, increasing capacity or reducing weight--it's simply tasked with making batteries greener.

While the battery toxicity and rare earth metal arguments from electric car naysayers are often exaggerated, finding a renewable alternative to lithium and cobalt cathodes certainly couldn't hurt.

“Green batteries are the need of the hour, yet this topic hasn’t really been addressed properly,” suggests Arava Leela Mohana Reddy, author of the study.

"[Lithium-ion batteries aren't] environmentally friendly. They use cathodes of lithium cobalt oxide, which are very expensive. You have to mine the cobalt metal and manufacture the cathodes in a high-temperature environment. There are a lot of costs."

While current lithium-ion batteries are recycled and reused in huge numbers (and lead-acid batteries are the world's most recycled product), Reddy also explains that extracting the cobalt from batteries, during the recycling process, is quite energy-intensive.

The discovery that purpurin was a suitable alternative came during testing different organic molecules for their ability to interact with lithium ions.

Purpurin turned out to be most suitable. 20 percent carbon is added to increase conductivity, and the cathodes can even be made at room temperature. Better still, some of the purpurin used in future could be harvested from agricultural waste.

In addition to the organic cathodes, the team is working on finding organic materials suitable for anodes, and an electrolyte that doesn't break the molecules down. A working prototype of a completely organic battery could be completed in only a few years.

As with other battery technologies, we await the team's results with interest. It's good to see that, in addition to improving a battery's performance, work is still being done to make them greener, too.

A Nissan Leaf charges at a electric vehicle charging station in Portland, Ore., in this August 2011 file photo. Some of electric cars' biggest gains in reducing emissions and running costs are likely to come from vehicle fleets, Voelcker writes. (Rick Bowmer/AP/File)

Electric municipal fleets? Indianapolis thinks so.

By John Voelcker, Guest blogger / 12.14.12

There's a lot of discussion about hybrids and plug-in electric cars being sold to private buyers.

But some of the biggest gains in reducing emissions and running costs are likely to come from vehicle fleets.

While individual car owners may suddenly have to take a car 100 miles instead of their usual 25, that's far rarer for municipal fleets.

And the cost savings from greener, more fuel-efficient vehicles can be properly evaluated by savvy fleet managers.

It's in this light that the city of Indianapolis announced a goal to convert essentially its entire municipal fleet--excluding police and fire vehicles--to hybrids or plug-ins by 2025.  ( Continue… )