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Ford, Toyota clean up in Best Car For The Money Awards

The U.S. News Best Cars for the Money Awards picks winners by looking at the average transaction price, five-year total cost of ownership, the regard a car has from the automotive press, reliability figures from J.D. Power and Associates and safety data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The result, according to the magazine, is "the best combination of critical acclaim and long-term value."
Ford nabbed six of the 21 categories that received awards this year, the Focus, Fusion, Fusion Hybrid, Taurus, Escape and Edge getting trophies. Toyota and its Lexus and Scion sub-brands took another five, the Tacoma and Tundra owning the two categories given to pickup trucks. The other ten awards were split between Honda with three, Buick with two, and one each for Subaru, BMW, Hyundai, Chevrolet and Mazda.
Follow the link to see all the winners and read about why they were chosen.

US Congress lets $8,000 hydrogen vehicle tax credit expire

When Toyota introduced the 2016 Mirai last month in preparation for a launch late next year, it said that the hydrogen car will have a $57,500 MSRP and that there will be a federal tax credit available worth up to $8,000. The problem, as we noted at the time, is that that federal credit was set to expire at the end of 2014. The technical language of the current rule says that someone who buys a fuel cell vehicle, "may claim a credit for the certified amount for a fuel cell vehicle if it is placed in service by the taxpayer after Dec. 31, 2005, and is purchased on or before Dec. 31, 2014." With the 113th Congress now finished up for the year and legislators headed home for the holidays, we know one thing for certain: the federal tax credit for hydrogen vehicles was not updated and will end as we're all singing Auld Lang Syne next week. All of this isn't to say that Mirai buyers won't be able to take $8,000 off the price of the car 12 months from now. For proof of that, we only need to look at other alternative fuel tax incentives and realize that this Congress simply isn't moving fast enough to deal with things that are expiring right now. One of the last things that the 113th Congress did in December was to take up the tax credits that expired at the end of 2013 and renew some of them. Jay Friedland, Plug In America's senior policy advisor, told AutoblogGreen that PIA and other likeminded organizations worked with Congress to extended the electronic vehicle charging station (technically: EVSE) tax credit that was part of the Alternative Refueling Tax Credit in IRS Section 30(C) through the end of 2014. "Individuals can deduct 30 percent of the cost of purchasing and installing an EVSE up to $1,000; businesses, 30 percent up to $30,000," he said. "This tax credit is applied to any system placed into service by 12/31/14 and is retroactive to the beginning of the year. So go out and buy your favorite EV driver an EVSE for the holidays," he said. An electric motorcycle credit was killed at the last minute as Congress was getting ready to leave, but H.R. 5771 did extend the Alternative Fuels Excise Tax Credits for liquefied hydrogen and other alternative fuels. These sorts of tax credit battles happen all year long. In July, Blumenthal introduced the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Infrastructure Act of 2014, which never got out of the Finance Committee. Back to the hydrogen vehicle situation.

2016 Honda Pilot packs more of everything

Honda has come a long way over the course of its history, evolving from motorcycles to automobiles, marine engines, power equipment, robots and even jet aircraft. But its biggest push over the past couple of decades has been in crossovers and SUVs. From the Passport that was rebadged from the Isuzu Rodeo in the early 90s, Honda's high-riding lineup has expanded to include the CR-V, the smaller HR-V, the oddball Crosstour, the soon-to-be-updated Ridgeline pickup, a smattering of luxury crossovers from Acura, and this, the biggest of them all, the Pilot. And Honda has just revealed an all-new version here at the Chicago Auto Show. Now in its third generation, the all-new 2016 Honda Pilot is, like its predecessors, a three-row family-hauler. Compared to the decidedly boxy model it replaces, the new Pilot is certainly more dynamically styled to more closely match the latest crossovers in the Honda lineup, but it may start to resemble the Odyssey minivan (with which it shares its underpinnings) too closely for some tastes. The new Pilot is three inches longer than the model it replaces, primarily to the benefit of cargo space: Honda says you can now fit a full-size 82-quart cooler in the back without infringing on the third row of seats – ingress and egress from which are now enabled by a power folding second row that opens a wider aperture to the back to more easily fit in all eight passengers. (That is, unless you go for the available second-row bucket seats that reduce capacity to seven.) Interior amenities are increased all around, with a proliferation of power outlets and connectivity ports and an available panoramic roof. Despite the growth, though, the new Pilot is 300 pounds lighter than the model it replaces. It is also built on a more solid platform, to the benefit of handling, crashworthiness and NVH insulation. Of course the new Pilot benefits from all the latest safety and driver-assist systems, and Honda anticipates top ratings from both the National Highway Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Power comes from a 3.5-liter V6 with all the tricks in the book (short of a hybrid assist) to make it as economical as possible. The i-VTEC engine has direct injection, cylinder deactivation, stop/start ignition and an automatic transmission with either six or (for the first time from Honda) nine speeds, depending on the trim level. Buyers will also be able to choose between front- or all-wheel drive.