Alas, no CES for yours truly. I’m headed to the Detroit Auto Show this week, along with thousands of other journalists.  As per my usual modus operandi, I’ll be capturing the maximum amount of footage, but with a twist … I’m going to try live streaming from a show for the very first time …

Stay tuned for the hilarity that will no doubt ensue!

With the credit market still frosty and gasoline prices nearly a third of what they were at their peak this past summer, sales of 2008 hybrid models have plunged precipitously. Green Car Congress reports that hybrid sales are off by 50% for the month of November. It’s a far cry from six months ago, when gas prices were at their peak and hybrids were tough to find at dealer lots at MSRP.

For those who waited, this presents a opportunity … six months later, we’re looking at a buyer’s market for those with the means to make the purchase. Dealers have the inventory and they’re itching to move it.

While a hybrid vehicle might not seem like a prudent purchase, given the current economic situation, today’s cost/availability differential is profound. Although gasoline prices are low, they won’t stay that way, given OPEC’s intent to cut back production. In another six months, this may be a remarkable opportunity.

Or not …

I was in Washington DC last week while the media was awash in the Detroit Bailout story. The Big 3 CEOs rode down from the Motor City in a small armada of their companies hybrid vehicles to state their case before Congressional committees. I jumped on the Northeast Corridor line and rode Amtrak to attend the Electric Drive Transportation Association’s (EDTA) 2008 conference.

By circumstance these events transpired simultaneously.

On Thursday, I made my way over to Capitol Hill in the off chance that I might be able to ask a question or two of the CEOs. Although I wasn’t able to maneuver my video camera to the front of the pack, I ended up catching some very cool footage … but not of the top brass …

I caught the Chevy Volt on tape, moving under its own electric power.

But better then that, I caught a ride in the Dodge EV electric sports car.

All I can say is this …

The Future is Electric.

Is the Flying Monkey the Best Stocking Stuffer of 2008, as the latest unsolicited commercial email that invaded my inbox (ever.so.strongly) suggested? Oh, it looks like a barrel full of fun … until someone pokes an eye out, as will inevitably and sadly happen.  (When the Flying Monkey lawsuits begin, will there be a manufacturer there to sue?)  The Flying Monkey isn’t just a slingshot … it’s a screaming furry slingshot. One that’s bound to knock off table lamps, smash heirloom vases, and scatter cherished knickknack across the globe.

The Flying Monkey is bound to tick off your pooch and make your cat crazy … not that you would terrorize your pets … but your nephew will.

Want to score points with friends and family?  Bring a six-pack of Flying Monkeys!

Or not.

While it might feel like the world’s been turned upside down, the sun still rises in the morning and sets in the evening. In between, or shortly before or thereafter, we have to get to work each day. And for a great many folks, getting to work means getting in the car, for better or for worse. But what do you do in these times - with budgets clamped down and belts tightened to the last notch - when old paint gives up the ghost?

Rather then splurge on a luxury land yacht, you look for the cheapest car you can find.

The good news is that today’s cheapest cars aren’t the chum hauling rust buckets of the days of yore. There are some excellent values in today’s crop of economy rides. The latest entry-level version of the Nissan Versa starts at just under $10,000. And if you live in a climate where all wheel drive (AWD) is a necessity in the winter, the Suzuki SX4 Crossover - the least expensive AWD in America - can be had for about $16,000 … that’s not too shabby, all things considered.

Resource: 2009’s Cheapest Cars

Of all the trucks shown at the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Manufacturers) Show in Las Vegas last week, just one emerged with the geek crown. Painted in an aprapros green and tucked to the side of Ford’s booth in the Las Vegas Convention Center’s central hall, PML Flightlink’s HI-PA Drive electric Ford F-150 conversion wowed the crowd with four electric motors - one in each wheel.

The full electric F-150 is said to deliver a 100 mile range and one hour quick recharge (with typical overnight charging of 6-8 hours) via a whopping 1000 pound 40 kilowatt hour battery.

Don’t get ready to sign on the dotted line just yet … the full electric HI-PA Drive F-150 is just a technology demonstration … for now … with plans for it to become a series hybrid in the near future.

Source: PML Flightlink HI-PA Drive Ford F-150

I’m writing this on my iPhone from one of the nicest hotel suites I’ve ever experienced here in Las Vegas. I lucked into an outrageous deal on one of the nicest hotels in town by rolling the dice on Hotwire. I plugged five stars into the system to see what came up.

All I can say is “whoa Nellie!”

This is probably the best hotel deal I’ve ever landed in Vegas. I’m in town for the SEMA auto show … It’s a biggie, needless to say, and the prices are cranked up. I was going to split my stay between hotels to catch the best deals.

That was before I rolled the dice. Five stars, off the strip, non-smoking, brand-spanking new … An quiet. No smoke. No casino.

Today’s installment from the why can’t we get our act together department: a Mazda3 that gets nearly 60 miles per gallon (MPG) on the highway.

Like many of their European clean diesel counterparts, Mazda diesels are remarkably efficient. The Mazda3 is available with three different diesel engines in Europe.

But here in America?

Zero.

The most fuel-efficient of the Mazda3’s three clean diesels delivers approximately 58.8 MPG.

(I’d bet I could squeeze 60 MPG out of it, with no problem.)

It’s time we bring the cars from over there to over here.

Source: Mazda Diesels

There are some among the anti-SUV crowd that refuse to accept that a great number of folks actually do need the space that can only be found in a SUV or minivan. For those who eschew the minivan, an SUV is the only choice when there’s people and stuff to be hauled.

The trick is to find the best SUV to meet your specific needs. When you take both new and used models into consideration, there’s never been more choices.

Nevertheless, it’s pretty darn tough these days to justify a Hummer H2 over a less conspicuous SUV. (The wheels wont be long before they fall off that beast, whether or not a buyer is found.)

The good news right now is that dealers lots are bursting with unwanted SUVs. While gasoline prices have dropped considerably this fall, SUV prices are mired at bargain basement levels. Dealers are dealing and buyers wield leverage, given the raft of special offers and price reductions.

For those that don’t want to understand, tough luck.

Hauling a carful of kids around is a huge responsibility. It should never be a burden.

When my cheap paper shredder gave up the ghost recently, it sent my daily routine into a tailspin. I’m not obsessed with paper shredding … it’s just that shredding the junk mail is a morning ritual. I guess I shouldn’t complain. The cheap paper shredder I bought at Staples lasted roughly three and a half years.

The clerk at the register had asked if I wanted to buy an extended warranty. I decided not to do so, as it was a ridiculously cheap shredder.

If it breaks … well, twenty bucks a pop sure seems like it falls into the disposable razor range … come to think of it, maybe I’ll pick up a spare and store it out in the shed …

So here I am down in Kingstone (er, Staples) again … looking for another cheap shredder.

Only this time, nothing seems to be on sale.

I might not go for the bargain basement model, this go round. But I’ll probably skip that extended warranty again. Now if I could just find a way to turn all that junk mail into fireplace logs …

Have you ever stopped to think how many times you run out of kitchen garbage bags each year? If you’re like most folks, you may have never given it a thought … you keep buying the smallest package of kitchen garbage bags you can each time you run out.

If you’re looking for a place to save a few bucks around the house, you can start right here. Buying kitchen garbage bags in bulk can save a considerable amount of money over a year’s time.

The next time you’re in the supermarket, check out the pricing difference between the package of 10-15 garbage bags and the bulk packge of 100 bags. Don’t look at the price of the package. Look at the per unit cost label on the store shelf … that’s where the real story will be found.

If you really want to save, take a close look at your supermarket’s house brand. (Those big name brands can cost a pretty penny.) But before you buy the house garbage bags in bulk, try them out by buying the smallest package … if the bags past the test and the quality is sufficient, go for the bulk package. (You don’t want to get stuck with a box of 100 sub-standard bags.)

It’s safe to say that the iconic Toyota Prius isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. While legions of fans love Toyota’s least expensive and most fuel-efficient hybrid, many folks simply can’t stand the styling. While the shape of the car is based upon aerodynamics rather than the stylistic whims of the designers, that’s beyond the scope of many. In the end, it all come down to gas mileage.

There’s no question that when it comes to the official EPA estimates, the Toyota Prius’ gas mileage tops the charts. What it does in the real world, however, is up to the interpretation of each individual driver.

Folks who drive the Prius with little or no regard to the on-board displays will likely achieve lower then expected results. Those who take the time to learn how to drive the Prius for optimal efficiency, should have no problem exceeding the official estimates.

50 MPG in the city and at speeds under 40 MPH isn’t a pipedream once you understand how it all works.

It’s all in the way you drive.

Want to know what it’s like to live with a Prius?

Check out MPGomatic’s: Toyota Prius Review

I’m afraid that I’ve become addicted to Acai berries. It started out innocently enough. I tried a bottle of Acai juice out of curiosity one day at lunch. One bottle and I was hooked on the Brazilian superberry. I’ll admit that I was initially drawn in by the lure of the extreme levels of anti-oxidants, but I stuck around for the taste. Crazy though it might sound, I actually like the taste of Acai.

Now I didn’t start with the hard stuff. I fell in the trap door, via the gateway anti-oxidant laden fruits. First it was blueberries, then pomagranete, and a side-track to the exotic goji berry and a brief fling with cacao nibs. Once I found Acai, it was all over.

I’ve tripped into a couple of favorite brands, Bossa Nova and Sambazon. Bossa Nova is smoother and easier on the newbie palette … it’s great straight, on the rocks, or cut with green iced tea.

Sambazon has more texture … treading close to smoothie territory, but some folks don’t like texture in their fruit juice. The 10.5 ounce Sambazon bottle claims “2130 healthy omega 3-6-9″ and “120 acai berries per bottle”… with roughly 200 calories and nearly half the daily requirement for Vitamin C.

Does it hurt every time you fill up the gas tank in your car, truck, or SUV? What if I told you there was a gimmick-free way to increase your gas mileage? What if I told you that you could easily save 20% or possibly more, without changing anything more than your attitude?

By now, you may be sick and tired of reading the same gas saving tips, over and over. You’ve heard them all before. Once you’ve taken all the junk out of your trunk, changed your air filter, and properly inflated your tires, avoided jackrabbit starts, planned ahead, left early, rolled up the windows, turned off the air conditioning, shifted into the highest gear, what else could you do?

It’s scary how simple this trick is to implement. It’s so frighteningly easy that I debated waiting until Halloween, before sharing.

Resource: A Simple Way to Increase Gas Mileage

I’d been following the Toyota Yaris gas mileage threads for quite a while, with more than a bit of skepticism. As Toyota’s entry-level car, the Yaris is marketed to a different audience then those interested in a more expensive hybrid model. It sounded too good to be true. The claims of fantastic real-world results that rivaled those of the hybrids got me revved up to test the little critter.

After a week long road test of the Yaris, over hundreds of miles, I was left nothing less than amazed.

When it comes to MPGs, this little car delivers the goods.

The MPGomatic Toyota Yaris Review is an eye-opener. Forget about everything you may have seen or heard. It is indeed possible to get 50 miles per gallon on the highway without buying a hybrid (as long as you drive in a relatively conscientious manner) …

Using credit cards for groceries is a dangerous trap. By deferring the cost of food you purchase today until another day, you run the risk of bloating your account with an unpaid balance. When you put off the cost of groceries purchased with a credit card, you mortgage your future.

As I was poking around the website of a credit card company (who shall remain nameless) yesterday, I ran across a Special Promotional Rate Offer of 1.9% for “new qualifying purchases made at Grocery Stores” … this made my stomach turn … for this was the very same company that’s promised to crank up the rates on my account.

Buying those groceries on a credit card with a promotional 1.9% rate might be attractive in the short run, but it’s an evil lure. The credit card companies are betting that a certain percentage of folks will jump at the offer out of desperation. When the promotional rate runs out and the balance is still on the account, those companies will automatically crank up the APR by 1500%.

If you have no other choice but to buy your groceries with a credit card, do everything that you can to pay off the cost of the groceries as soon as the bill comes due.

New credit card offers dominate the deluge of direct marketing material that lands in our real world mailboxes. Around these parts, the never ending stream of pieces hawking plastic piles up on the counter until I have the chance to sort things into one of the two most appropriate places … The new credit card fluff goes into recycling bin, while the personalized sheets head straight for the crosscut shredder.

There’s no question that new credit card campaigns play a huge part of the economy. While some folks might deride the effort as being harmful to the environment, I’d like to think that it’s not all that bad when folks deal with the paperwork in the proper manner and the credit card companies use recycled paper.

There was a land mine amongst our deluge of new credit card offers yesterday. It was one of those seemingly innocuous flat folded sheets that blends in with the pile. “Important Information About Your Account,” it read (or something of the sort) in 12 point bold caps above the address.

It should have been printed in bright red 72 point ultra bold, “Hey Loser, We’re About to Blast Your Interest Rate into the Stratosphere!”

Once my initial shock and anger passed, a steely resolve and a plan was formed. If all goes well, I’ll have that credit card paid off by January.

New car sales have fallen off a cliff. It’s not just that buyers are staying away from the showrooms in droves, its that the new cars they most desire are in remarkably short supply. There’s little-to-no room to haggle on the hottest-selling fuel-efficient cars, while the gas guzzling belles of last year’s ball sit collecting dust.

This chart of new car sales clearly shows how far things have fallen behind the previous five years. It’s downright scary.

If you’re in the process of buying a new car, what’s it like out there? If you’ve decided to wait it out for a while, what will get you back into the showroom?

It’s easy to get sidetracked by the marketing blitz. There are plenty of fuel efficient cars that are neither hybrids nor new. Looking to the conventional used car market for your next vehicle purchase might be a prudent financial move. With the lack of depreciation in many hybrid models, the attractiveness of an older Honda Civic or Geo Metro - which are known to deliver 40 miles per gallon or more - has spiked like it’s closing time at the bar.

You can overlook a lot of things when gas is over four dollars a gallon and you have no alternatives.

Fixing up older fuel efficient cars just might become a national meme. The newfound interest in some of these long forgotten gems is unprecedented. When the first gas crisis hit in the 1970s, we had little to fall back on. Today we have nearly three decades of gas-stingy vehicles to choose from, nevermind the rust, dings, dents, and rips.

Resource: Fuel Efficient Cars - 1984-2008

As of Sunday morning, I am now one of the iPhone borg … and I’m in search of gas mileage applications. GigaOM’s Earth2Tech jumped right on the topic on Friday, with a quick rundown on 5 iPhone Apps to Help Save Gas. I didn’t catch the GigaOM post until late on Monday, when I tripped into an EcoGeek echo-post, iPhone Apps That Can Save You Gas.

While someone else might have minted the meme, there’s huge potential in turning the quest for better gas mileage into a video game. The PLX Kiwi represents the first of what is bound to be a wave of technology that makes fuel economy fun for the masses. After all, isn’t that what the big flat screen display in the Prius is largely about?

Folks like to watch animation. They like to be rewarded.

And that’s where the iPhone will rule … eventually.

This first round of iPhone Gas Mileage apps aren’t overly ambitious. They take notes and provide limited visual feedback. There’s nothing that links the display to results in real-time.

What’s needed is a combination of hardware and software … an OBDII to USB cable, along with some extremely clever programming that takes all that the data rolling out of the vehicles ECU and presents it to the driver (and passengers, of course) in a truly useful and engaging (but not overly distracting) manner … something that is even more effective than the ScanGaugeII at improving gas mileage for the masses.

The most important computer in your car is your brain. Perhaps this is an XML scenario (in some fashion) … it about simplifying an exchange of data. The developer that creates the (pretty, fun, and functional) interface that bridges the vehicle’s ECU with your brain cells will take the checkered flag.