An American Revolution?

Ok you might be thinking that I'm pushing the "Green" issue too much here.  But this post is about saving money, Helping the environment is just a bonus.  Finally, American car makers are starting to catch up to the trend of...well being green.  I don't me environmental I mean making vehicles that won't cost their drivers $100 every time they full up the tank.  

Well, I guess GM made a pretty "innovative," not a word associated with American car makers anymore, car back in the the late 1980's with the EV and EV1, but that's a whole other issue. (See: Who Killed the Electric Car)  Now Ford and Chevy are taking steps to correct this with the introduction of the new Ford Escape Hybrid and the new Chevy Volt.  

The Ford Escape Hybrid is a "true" hybrid SUV that get 34 mpg city and 31 mpg highway.  This is nothing amazing but for a relatively full size SUV that's pretty good.  Of course there are a bunch more environmentally friendly features on the vehicle but we're mainly concern about how much money it is going to save us and starting around $29,000 its still not cheap but I for an SUV its not a bad start.

The New Chevy Volt is due to come out in 2010, but is even more "innovative."   By this I mean it is a hybrid car but in a very different way.  Were as most hybrids have 2 systems an electrical drive system and a gas powered system that kicks in at higher speeds or when the batteries are low.  This new hybrid does not have a gas powered drive system, it simply has a gas powered generator that recharges the electrical drive system.  Therefore, the car runs only on electrical power and can go up to 40 miles on a full charge, great for city commuters and also has a plug in feature for recharging in a standard 110 volt outlet.  It is said to be able to go 400 mile on a single tank of gas.  

Ok all this technology is great but my car is a 1996 Dodge Avenger 4 cylinder manual transmission, power nothing(except steering and breaks) and I get an average of 32mpg and roughly 430 miles to a tank.  Yes, I know that both of these cars are much better than mine and have numerous features lacking in the old Dodge, but when it comes down to dollars and cents the Dodge is still leading.