As the leaves turned in the Catskills, greenery and green cars were hard to find

On a visit to Monticello, N.Y., an open top, manual transmission, deserted two-lane roads and a gorgeous fall day are an unbeatable combination.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

MONTICELLO, N.Y. -- Quiet has returned to the two-lane roads that wind past clusters of homes framed by fall colors.

This week saw the annual invasion of the International Motor Press Association, whose members were unleashed at the wheels of performance and super cars with incredibly loud mufflers.

IMPA, the country's oldest organization of automotive journalists and public relations professionals, set up camp at the Monticello Motor Club, a 4.1-mile race circuit and playground for the wealthy nestled in the Catskill Mountains.

Many sponsors

Sponsors of the so-called Test Days included Detroit and foreign automakers, manufacturers of tires and automobile sound equipment, PR Newswire and the private club where the event was held.

Previous Test Days took place at Pocono Raceway and Lime Rock Park.

On Wednesday, writers and publicists had access to a parking lot filled with some of the fastest cars in the world, many of which could be driven on the track.

Others were meant to be driven only on quiet public roads in Monticello and nearby villages, set amidst lakes and wooded hills. 

On Tuesday, the first day of the event, all driving was restricted to public roads except for IMPA members who signed up for drives or rides with instructors on the challenging race circuit.

I did hot laps in a Fiat 500 Abarth and a Lexus GS sedan with 467 horsepower, but actually enjoyed driving several other cars over nearly deserted public roads that were a breath of fresh air compared to the congestion of northern New Jersey.

Among them were the FIAT 124 Spider, Infiniti Q60, Jaguar F-Type, a luxury sports car with loud snap, crackle and pop exhausts; and Volvo S90 AWD Inscription, a comfortable sedan that is the biggest Volvo I have ever seen.

Being confined to public roads didn't lessen the excitement for some IMPA members.

For example, a writer for the Chicago Tribune syndicate who gave me a ride in a McLaren GT shouted, "That's 90 [mph]," as he paddle shifted up through the gears on Route 42 toward Montcello's economically depressed downtown.

One of the few green cars at the event was the highly anticipated Acura NSX, an all-wheel-drive supercar bristling with 573 horsepower from a twin-turbo V-6 and three electric motors, above and below.

A pro racecar driver at the wheel of the Acura NSX took me on the fastest lap I have ever experienced at the Monticello Motor Club.

Green cars

Sadly, there were no purely electric cars at the event.

Chevy didn't bring the Bolt, the first $40,000 EV with more than 200 miles of range, even though the four-door hatchback is expected to go on sale at the end of the year.

And as usual, Nissan had IMPA members lining up to drive the fearsome GT-R, but disappointed me and others by not supplying an updated all-electric Leaf with a longer range. 

Typically, most of the writers and publicists who attend Test Days are gear heads, speed freaks and lead foots who are wined and dined by the automakers, and loaned new models for a weekend or a week.

They willingly engage in a conspiracy of silence about climate change, the 53,000 deaths every year from auto emissions, and the environmental benefits of hybrids and EVs.

I heard one IMPA member boast of driving a Fiat 500 Abarth at 107 mph on a Nevada highway, complaining he was the only one of 10 writers in a caravan of speeding Fiats pulled over by the police. 

Toyota Mirai, Prius

Toyota brought the Mirai, powered by electricity from a hydrogen fuel cell; as well as the Prius Prime, a plug-in gas-electric hybrid that has an EV range of 25 miles.

I got behind the wheel of both, and found the Mirai far quieter and more refined than the pre-production model I drove in Manhattan last April at the New York Auto Show.

The Prius Prime only went a few all-electric miles before the gasoline engine kicked in, because its handlers from Event Solutions International (ESI) forgot to plug it in overnight.

Both the Mirai and Prius Prime approached the quiet of a Tesla Model S.
   

Two more photos of the mid-engine Acura NSX, above and below. 

Toyota's Prius Prime, a gas-electric hybrid, wasn't plugged in overnight, and yielded only a few miles in all-electric mode on Wednesday, above and below.

Toyota Mirai is a car in search of hydrogen fueling stations, above and below.

Hydrogen gas reacts with oxygen in the air and produces electricity to power the vehicle.

This McLaren GT, which cost more than $200,000, didn't match the excitement of the Acura NSX.

The Alfa-Romeo 4C Spider with paddle shifters was a hoot to drive on the racetrack.

A Ford Fusion gas-electric hybrid.

A driver returning to the pits at Monticello Motor Club.

Tuesday's lunch at the Monticello Motor Club included veggie burgers, coleslaw, and potato salad. I didn't attend that night's banquet at Honor's Haven Resort & Spa in Ellenville, N.Y., but was told no fish was available for IMPA members who don't eat meat.

Eggplant Rollatini, Potato-Crusted Cod and Caesar Salad were on Wednesday's lunch menu at MMC.

I had dinner on Tuesday night at Crust Italian Eatery in Rock Hill, N.Y., a restaurant next to my hotel. Steamed Clams were $10. A glass of red wine was $6.

I also had a Caprese Salad with Fig Balsamic Glaze ($12), but the only off note were the roasted tomatoes, which had been refrigerated and were much too cold.

Crust Italian Eatery bakes 24-inch pizzas. Bottles of wine are $20.

On the way home, I stopped to charge my Tesla Model S 60 on Route 300 in Newburgh, N.Y., where six free Superchargers were available in the parking lot of a strip mall, above and below.

Customers were dining outdoors at Cosimo's on Union Ristorante & Bar, which serves wood-fired pizzas. I had a yogurt next door at Hoopla Frozen Yogurt (51 cents per ounce).

Nissan hedging its bets with new Leaf EV, new Armada and other gas-guzzling trucks

The homely Nissan Leaf EV is available with a bigger battery in the 2016 model year and added range -- up to 107 miles on a full charge. You can still get a Leaf that goes a maximum of 84 miles before you need more juice.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Jose Munoz, chairman of Nissan North America, delivered good news and bad news to consumers worried about climate change and the 53,000 deaths blamed on auto emissions every year.

Speaking to members of the International Motor Press Association in Manhattan, Munoz said Nissan is "close" to launching a new-generation all-electric Leaf with a redesigned body.

There was no indication whether the second-generation Leaf will have more range than the 107 miles available with a 30kWh battery in the 2016 model.

Leaf lags behind Tesla

The homely Leaf, introduced in December 2010, once led electric-vehicle sales in the United States, but it has changed little and has been eclipsed by Tesla, which cost more than twice as much.

Meanwhile, Munoz -- also executive vice president of Nissan Motor Co., Japan's No. 2 automaker -- had plenty of bad news for environmentalists.

To take advantage of the low price of gasoline, Nissan is launching the "Year of Trucks."

He promised a new Armada and Pathfinder, and a "brand new" Rogue, a crossover.

And if the price of gas rises again, Munoz said, Nissan will market its herd of gas-guzzlers as the most efficient on the market.

In answer to a question from the audience, Munoz delivered more bad news regarding Manhattan's traffic congestion and pollution.

The automaker has no plans to add a gas-electric hybrid version of the Nissan NV200, the so-called Taxi of Tomorrow.

So, the Nissan NV200 instantly becomes the Taxi of Yesterday.

The roomy Nissan NV200 taxi.

Autonomous driving

The Nissan executive did say the company is rolling out autonomous driving features, starting this year, to prevent accidents.

By 2020, he said, Nissan will sell cars that will be fully autonomous in a city environment.

Of course, if Nissan introduces a fully autonomous NV200 taxi, there's no telling how many drivers will be thrown onto the unemployment lines.

The free lunch is alive and well in Manhattan, thanks to Nissan North America, one of the automotive companies that play host at meetings of the International Motor Press Association, described as the nation's oldest organization of automotive journalists and public relations professionals.

I enjoyed a plate full of salad, roasted vegetables, smoked salmon and tomatoes with bite-size mozzarella balls.

I also was able to get two crisp-skin fillets of branzino instead of the same fish prepared in a butter-cream sauce for the buffet. I drank red wine and had fresh fruit for dessert.

Has tide turned on the media's negative coverage of EVs and other green cars?

A Tesla Model S tucked in and plugged in for the night. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Bill Vlasic's report on "as raft of electric and hybrid models" at the annual Detroit auto show stood out for a number of reasons.

Vlasic, who was writing for The New York Times, is one of the few reporters to focus on the showing of green cars instead of the latest, gas-guzzling performance model.

He also doesn't indulge in the usual negatives, such as higher prices for EVs, limited range and other perceived weaknesses.

"With increases in federal fuel-economy standards looming in 2017, car companies are hustling to bring out hybrid and electric models to help them meet the new rules -- even though electrified vehicles make up only 2 percent of overall sales," Vlasic wrote on Jan. 11 from the North American International Auto Show.

The 2017 standard is a corporate average fleet economy of 37 mpg and in 2025, that average will go up to 54.5 mpg.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles introduced "a plug-in hybrid-electric version" of its new minivan model with an old name, the Pacifica.

The Pacifica joined new electrified models introduced by Ford, General Motors and Toyota.

However, Vlasic, like many other reporters, doesn't discuss the environmental benefits of EVs, plug-in and other green cars, and their role in slowing climate change.

The all-electric 2017 Chevrolet Bolt was shown at the Detroit auto show.

After a decade of driving Priuses, I'm ready for an affordable all-electric car

I'm raring to go all-electric.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

I'm ready for an affordable all-electric car, but the world's auto industry isn't ready for me.

I've owned four Toyota Priuses since 2004, and now drive a red 2010 model with less than 41,000 miles on the odometer.

But 15 years after Honda introduced the first hybrid car to the United States, followed a year later by the Toyota Prius, neither Japanese auto company produces an all-electric model with a range of 200 miles.

The 2015 Nissan Leaf, with an MSRP of $29,010 for a basic model, has an EPA range of only 84 miles -- a nail-biter, judging from my recollection of renting one for the day from Hertz in San Francisco, where customers often ran out of juice and the rental agency had to send out a flat-bed truck to retrieve the vehicle. 

That Hertz agency stopped offering the Leaf in 2012.

Here is what I said about the 2012 Leaf in a post on my food blog, Do You Really Know What You're Eating?

I rented the all-electric Nissan Leaf sedan from Hertz for one day, and when I picked it up in a downtown San Francisco garage, the instruments said I had a 98-mile range.

But in the end, I got only 39 miles out of the car, and that required charging the batteries for 3 hours and 40 minutes in my cousin's garage. The charge added "12 miles" to the car's range.

"To avoid draining the batteries, I didn't use the air conditioner or play the radio. Of course, the car is quiet, but its optimistic range added an anxiety level akin to running out of gasoline and being stranded far from a refill.

See: http://doyoureallyknowwhatyoureeating.blogspot.com/2012/02/eating-out-in-san-francisco-part-2.html

The Leaf's range hasn't changed much since the car was introduced in the U.S. in December 2010 -- this from the second-biggest car company in Japan.

The 2014 Toyota RAV4 EV, which has a Tesla powertrain, has an MSRP of $50,700 and a range of 100 miles, but is available only in California.

Toyota has expanded the Prius line, adding smaller and larger models,  and a plug-in hybrid, which has an all-electric range of only 11 miles. That's not a typo: just 11 miles.

I've been planning to buy a Tesla Model S with a 60 kWh battery and an advertised range of 208 miles for $69,900 without options. But I don't consider that "affordable."

With 302 hp, the car is said to do 0-60 mph in 5.9 seconds. Nice to know, but I'm part of the "cruise-control" generation, and usually drive at or a little above the speed limit.