Auto blog

40+ cars that barely avoid the gas guzzler tax

The Gas Guzzler schedule, with mpg ratings and charges that haven't changed since 1991, lays out which fuel-swillers owe what to Uncle Sam.
I started thinking about the "Gas Guzzler Tax" - considerably less well known as The Energy Tax Act of 1978 - when I was driving Dodge's new Challenger SRT Hellcat last week. Unsurprisingly for a car that can burn 1.5 gallons of gas per minute at max tilt, theoretically able to empty a full tank of premium in about 13 minutes, the Hellcat will be subject to the Gas Guzzler Tax schedule when it goes on sale.

Couple arrested after carjacked Jaguar breaks down

A couple that played musical chairs with allegedly stolen luxury cars was arrested in suburban Salt Lake City following a carjacking and police pursuit after one of the cars drove over a “stop strip” tire deflater and the other was a Jaguar suffering from mechanical problems. Police arrested Brock Hansen, 33, and Brittney Price, 23, on Sunday in Taylorsville, Utah, following the incidents, which were reported by local media and spotted by Jalopnik. They began, police say, when an officer out on patrol spotted what he suspected was a stolen BMW. The officer began to trail the car to run the license plate numbers when the BMW came to a stop to pick up a man, later identified as Hansen, who was walking on the street. The officer then continued to follow the car, was able to confirm that the BMW was, in fact, stolen, and called for backup. Police at one point used a stop stick — a triangular tube filled with tire-puncturing nails — to try and stop the duo, but Price instead made a U-turn after driving over it and continued on with a deflated tire. She eventually pulled into a gas station, where surveillance footage shows Hansen exiting the vehicle, walking over to what appears to be a Jaguar X-Type sedan whose driver was standing at the pump, climbing nonchalantly into the drivers seat and taking off, following the stolen BMW. Price eventually stopped and exited the BMW to try and get into the Jaguar but was apprehended by police after a brief foot chase and scuffle that left an officer injured, KSL-TV reported. Hansen then took off and led police on a chase — “at relatively low speeds,” according to ABC4.com — before he stopped the car and surrendered to police without a fight. Both were taken to jail. “What we learned from the owner of that Jaguar is that heÂ’s been having some issues with that Jaguar and he believes that the Jaguar just wasnÂ’t going to go anymore and was bogging down Â… so may have picked the wrong vehicle to try and run from the police in today,” Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake Sgt. Melody Gray told ABC4.

Jaguar-Land Rover will use recycled waste to make parts for future models

Jaguar-Land Rover's future models will be partially made of junk. The company announced it's working on integrating a recycled material named Econyl into its manufacturing process in the coming years. Created in 2011 by Italy-based Aquafil, Econyl is a fiber made with a blend of recycled industrial plastics, fabric offcuts sourced from clothing manufacturers, and discarded fishing nets aimlessly floating around the ocean. It's more eco-friendly to produce than oil-based fibers, according to Jaguar, and it helps clean up the planet. Jaguar and Land Rover will use Econyl to make floor mats in the not-too-distant future. Neither company listed the models they'll put the material in, but it's reasonable to assume recycled floor mats will be available in the next-generation XJ, which will be electric, and the next-generation Range Rover. Both will be released in 2021. Eco-friendly materials are slowly but surely spreading across the luxury car segment. Jaguar already offers the I-Pace with a Kvadrat upholstery that combines regular wool and up to 53 recycled plastic bottles per car. Audi's fourth-generation A3 is optionally available with an upholstery made largely using recycled plastic bottles, and Volvo estimates at least 25% of the plastics in its cars will be recycled starting in 2025. Environmentalist organizations are putting an increasing amount of pressure on carmakers to deliver so-called vegan interiors. A group called EarthSight recently accused several companies (including Jaguar-Land Rover and BMW) of using leather from cattle raised on illegally logged lands in Paraguay. Representatives for the British company stressed they found no evidence to verify EarthSight's claims. Related Video: