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Nissan Leaf sells 3,186 in best month ever as Chevy moves 2,511 Volts

The end of summer seems to inspire people to go out and buy a lot of plug-in vehicles. Last year, for example, the Chevy Volt had its best month ever in August, with 3,351 sales. This year, the Nissan Leaf is going up to the winner's podium, setting its own best-ever record with 3,186 units sold. This beats the Leaf's previous record by 69 vehicles. This beats the Leaf's previous record of 3,117 set in May 2014 by 69 vehicles and is up 31.7 percent from August 2013. Nissan is once again quick to remind us that the popular EV's record sales streak has now been extended to 18 months in a row. This record is simply noting that the current month, in this case August, had the highest sales that that month has ever seen in the US. Over all, US Leaf sales are up 34.1 percent so far this year. In a prepared statement, Nissan's director of Leaf sales and infrastructure, Brendan Jones, said that the Leaf is selling well on both coasts, including cities like Raleigh, Boston and Washington, DC. "It's what we call the 'cul-de-sac phenomenon,' where once someone in a community buys a Leaf, then friends, family, co-workers and neighbors see the benefits of this fun-to-drive electric vehicle firsthand and are sold on the idea of going electric," he said. The Volt also had a good month - its best of 2014 by almost 500 sales – but the 2,511 Volt sales still represent a drop of 25.1 percent from the excellent sales the Volt had this time last year. In fact, August 2014 represents the Volt's best sales month since, well, August 2013. Apparently, there's just something about the end of summer. As always, we are working on our in-depth round-up of green car sales across the country and will have that up soon.

Should heavy-duty pickup trucks have window stickers with fuel mileage estimates?

If you were to stroll into your nearest Chevrolet, Ford, GMC, Nissan, or Ram dealership, you'd find a bunch of pickup trucks. Most of those would have proper window stickers labeled with things like base prices, options prices, location of manufacture, and, crucially, fuel economy estimates. But you'd also run across a number of heavy-duty trucks with no such fuel mileage data from the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA doesn't require automakers to publish the valuable miles-per-gallon measurement for vehicles with gross weight ratings that exceed 8,500 pounds. That makes it difficult for consumers to compare behemoths powered by turbocharged diesel engines – between one another, and between smaller, gasoline-fueled trucks. Consumer Reports doesn't think it should be this way, and it's spearheading an effort (PDF link) to get the government to require manufacturers to publish fuel economy estimates. In its own testing, CR found that heavy-duty pickups powered by Ford's Power Stroke, GM's Duramax, and FCA's Cummins diesel engines (which doesn't include the Ram's EcoDiesel) get worse fuel mileage than their lighter-duty gas-powered siblings. We're not so sure HD-truck buyers are unaware of this fact – big diesels don't really come into their own until big loads are placed in their beds or attached to their trailer hitches. Under heavy workloads, the diesel trucks will almost certainly return greater efficiency than a similar gas-powered truck. What's more, HD trucks with lumbering diesels in general make the driver feel more confident while towing due to greater torque at low engine RPM than gas trucks. They also offer greater max-weight limits. Still, we agree EPA fuel mileage estimates should be offered for heavy-duty pickups. And we think the comparisons provided by Consumer Reports might be interesting to potential buyers. Click here to see the results of CR's tests, and let us know what you think using the poll below. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2017 Ford F-Series Super Duty: First Drive View 22 Photos News Source: Consumer Reports Government/Legal Green Read This Chevrolet Ford GMC Nissan RAM Fuel Efficiency Truck Commercial Vehicles Diesel Vehicles poll gmc sierra hd chevy silverado hd

Man surprises girlfriend with C7 Corvette

How would you react if someone just showed up at your place of work with a new, 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, complete with all the trimmings? While a lot of us would likely be flipping out over the still rare sports car, it's a fair bet many more of us would be responding like Pattie here, whose boyfriend stopped by her work to show her her new C7.
Speechless and shocked as she seems, she does end up taking it out for a drive, despite claiming she wasn't really outfitted to handle the car's seven-speed manual transmission at the time. From the sound of the video, we got the impression that she knew the car was coming, just not that it was anywhere near ready for delivery. It also, as Pattie says, seems like her boyfriend is more excited about the car than she (which, can we blame him?). Take a look down below for the full video of this C7 Stingray delivery.