To Wait or Not to Wait?

If those (Shell’s) FuelStretch Tips are not working out for you, maybe you are doin’ it wrong. Or, then again, it may be time that you bought a new car that’s really more fuel-efficient. You will shell out some hard-earned cash but consider it as an investment. Analysts see no decrease in the price of gasoline in the near future, so your new car will be more useful in the months, and maybe even years, to come. I’m actually giving you options here. One day I’m encouraging you to keep your car and just try to do things that can let you make the most out of every drop of gasoline, then, the next day I advise you to buy a hybrid instead. Well, it’s all a matter of perspective. I’m just posting for the sake of providing information. The choice is still up to you.

Well, a lot of hybrids showed up recently, some of which are just concept cars that aren’t that far from coming out of the production lines. Hyundai brought two eco-friendly concept cars to the recent Busan Auto Show, namely the i-Mode and i-Blue. It was revealed in a press release featured by Damon Lavrinc of the AutoBlog that:

The i-Mode is an innovatively styled, eco-friendly and socially adaptive vehicle.

The materials used are lighter and more adaptable than the metal and glass they replace. This, in combination with a light weight body construction, reduces fuel consumption and CO2 emission. Self-healing water based bodywork finishes from Bayer add to the environmentally friendly concept of the vehicle and even let minor scratches magically disappear by themselves.

If the i-Mode is innovative as it is adaptive, then the i-Blue concept is downright impressive.

The i-blue concept, which was developed at Hyundai's research center in Japan, is an eco-friendly model that emits nothing but water.

At the Geneva International Motor Show in March, Hyundai Motor unveiled three i-blue line-ups, including i10 blue, i10 blue CNG and i30 blue.

i-30 Blue:
With the 90PS new 1.6CRDi diesel engine, the i30 5-door emits an impressively low 125 g/km CO2. With the i-blue package, this is reduced by 15.2% lowering the CO2 emissions to just 106g/km. Naturally, this percentile reduction is also reflected in reduced fuel consumption.

"Blue" represents Hyundai Motor's eco-friendly strategy and related technologies.

Hyundai and the Eco-Sphere:
Hyundai has always been at the forefront of ecological consideration. From the very beginning, we have offered our customers the best possible economy combined with technology designed to protect them and our world. Long before legislation arrived, Hyundai had cut pollution in all of its factories and introduced recycling codes.

Hyundai is indeed giving other automakers a reason to keep on researching ways to make their vehicles far better. But Toyota is a step ahead of most of the other car manufacturers. In fact, they have already announced their plans of redesigning the Prius hybrid. The plan is to make it more buff and give it more oomph in the horsepower department. More upgrades will also be available. There will be no significant changes in the weight though. The plan to unveil this new concept Prius is scheduled for January of next year.

If you do not want to wait for the Hyundai concept cars or the next Prius to go out in the market, then you can just consider getting a small car like the Honda Fit, or what’s called the Jazz in some places. You can get 30 miles on a gallon; that’s twice as much as what you can get from an SUV. Or you can get a Chrysler and get yourself one of those pre-paid cards that get you free gasoline for a fixed amount of time.