Fast efficient cars

Fast efficient cars are the wave of the future and the first wave has hit the beach. We all want and need more miles per gallon, but none of us want to give up performance along the way.

I will be writing a couple of articles about this subject, but I wanted to focus on three General Motors cars in today's article.

GM is leading the way on raising average miles per gallon, while at the same time increasing horsepower and performance.

Fast efficient American cars

The Pontiac solstice GXP comes with the 2 L turbocharged four-cylinder power plant. The standard solstice is equipped with a 2.4 L engine that is not as fuel-efficient.

The solstice GXP delivers 28 miles to the gallon on the highway and 19 in the city, which gives it an average fuel economy of about 24 miles per gallon for mixed driving situations.

The performance on the vehicle is an impressive zero to 60 times of 5.5 seconds and a total quarter-mile time of 14.0 seconds.

This is very impressive to me, because the fastest car I owned was a 1979 Pontiac Trans Am with a 6.6 L 403 V-8 engine. My Trans Am received 8 miles to the gallon and turned a best quarter-mile time of 13.75.

The price for the Pontiac solstice GXP is listed at 30,000. With a good trade and some haggling this vehicle could be had for around $25,000. This fast efficient cars one drawback is it is a 2 seater.

The fastest fuel efficient car

Yet the vehicle is capable of 26 miles per gallon on the highway Chevrolet has reported that the Corvette with a six speed manual transmission cruising in the overdrive top gear has seen north of 28 miles per gallon during testing.

This fast efficient cars fuel economy has not reduced it's performance from previous years. The zero to 60 times is reported at 4.2 seconds.

The total quarter-mile time has been reported as 12.6 seconds at 115 mph. Of course when you have your foot to the floor to achieve these performance standards you will not be receiving that fantastic fuel mileage.

To compare this to my non fuel efficient present day vehicle I have a 2004 Chevy blazer with a 4.3 later V6. The best fuel economy I have seen in my mix of city and highway driving has been 15 miles to the gallon.

So for the Corvette to achieve its average of 21 miles per gallon is truly amazing to me. The price on the Corvette stands at $56,185 brand-new 0 miles out of the box. Pretty good for what you get from this fast efficient cars overall performance.

Fuel efficient car last but not least

The Chevrolet cobalt SS shares the same 2 L turbocharged engine that is in the Pontiac solstice GXP. The engines 260 base horsepower rating is at 26 miles per gallon for average fuel economy.

General Motors has stated that the vehicle is capable of 30 miles per gallon or more on the highway. These numbers are as impressive as this little vehicle's performance.

The cobalt SS reports a quarter-mile time of 14 seconds flat at 102 mph. Zero to 60 times as reported at around five seconds.

The cobalt SS has also been in equipped with a performance suspension that would make any serious driver, very happy.

The best part about the Chevrolet cobalt SS is that the vehicles sticker price comes to 23,490. This is a lot of bang for your car buying dollar.

Fast efficient cars my opinion

It is said that it takes General Motors more than one year to retool a plant and billions of dollars to change the vehicle that plant produces.

General Motors has begun this process by retooling plants that build large SUVs to produce small performance oriented vehicles.

GM used to be known as the slow moving giant. It appears that GM is now modeling itself after its most recent successful vehicles as increasing their performance and lowering their overhead.

This is necessary for the company to survive, and I plan to continue to support America's largest and greatest car manufacturer.


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