Acura News & Blogs

California Mandates Cooler Cars to Fight Global Warming

It's not quite what you think. But the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has just passed the first legislation requiring solar-efficient glass to be used in all new cars sold in that state starting in 2012. Beyond literally keeping occupants cooler in the summer, the coincident reduction in the use of air conditioning will help improve average fuel economy and decrease the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. This new regulation will be enacted using a two-stage roll. From 2012-2015, all vehicle glass must be capable of rejecting at least 45 percent of the sun's total heat-producing energy, except for the windshield which will have a 50 percent rejection requirement. Starting in 2016, the numbers will rise to 60 percent all around. CARB data...
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Obama Plan Paves Way for Unified Mileage/Emissions Standards

President Obama today presented a landmark proposal aimed at moving the country ahead on the road to a clean energy economy. Speaking in the White House Rose Garden and flanked by members of his administration and key auto executives, Obama offered a comprehensive approach that will significantly boost fuel economy numbers and resolve the ongoing legal wrangling that has long set automakers and the state of California at odds over supplemental greenhouse gas emissions issues. The president, who characterized the existing rules governing fuel economy as "inadequate, uncertain and in flux," called for the adoption of a new single-standard formula that will accelerate the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) requirement to 35.5 mpg by 2016 -- four...
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No New CAFE Ruling Until Obama Administration Takes Over

Approving the new, more demanding and far more controversial fuel efficiency requirements covering 2011-2015 model year vehicles has now officially been passed on to the incoming Obama administration. In a tersely worded one-paragraph statement issued today by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), finalizing the new standards -- which the Bush administration originally promised would be done by the end of last year -- has now officially been added to the already daunting Obama agenda. According to the DOT release: "The recent financial difficulties of the automobile industry will require the next administration to conduct a thorough review of matters affecting the industry, including how to effectively implement the Energy Independence and...
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The 10 Cars that will Change Your Mind About Diesel

Diesel cars are noisy, rough and dirty. So say many Americans, whose negative impressions of diesel power continue to be reinforced by the noisy, rough and dirty diesel cars built 20 and 30 years ago that remain on the road today (longevity is a diesel strongpoint, afterall).With cleaner diesel fuel and new engine technologies, today's diesel cars are actually about as quiet, smooth and clean as their gasoline counterparts. Combined with more off-the-line oomph (more low-end torque) and greater fuel efficiency (by about 30 percent), the case for diesel has never been stronger. Essential to the coming clean-diesel revolution is ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD) fuel, which all retail diesel pumps have been dispensing since 2006. ULSD makes possible the...
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