About Gas Taxes; Car of Year Lists; Cadillac Changes
Snowbirds and parents driving college students along the East Coast on a regular basis quickly realize that gas prices are lower in New Jersey, Virginia, and South Carolina.
Conversely, it’s best to avoid filling up in Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina.
The reason? State taxes on gasoline vary considerably around the country.
A tip of the cap goes to Sam Jackson and New York-based car-shopping website MojoMotors.com for compiling the countrywide data.
One of the reasons for doing the study, notes Jackson, is the pending global warming tax that California is scheduled to implement on January 1, adding a predicted 15 cents per gallon.
While the federal tax on each gallon is a uniform 18.4 cents, state tariffs range from a low in Alaska (12.4 cents) to the high in New York (50.5 cents). California (49.78), Connecticut (49.3), Hawaii (48.4), and Michigan (42.01) round out the high five in applying state taxes.
New Jersey (14.5), Virginia (17.28), and South Carolina (16.75) are the East Coast bargain spots.
Taxachusetts—sorry, couldn’t resist—actually is moderate in taxing gas at 26.5 cents per gallon. New Hampshire predictably is a tad cheaper at 23.83. The rest of New England checks in a bit higher, but still well below Connecticut: Maine is 30.01, Vermont 32.95, and Rhode Island 33.0.
Not-so-short lists
Early voting for the North American Car and Truck of the Year awards has resulted in a short list of 10 cars and 12 trucks.
The awards are notable because they single out vehicles that are new or substantially changed in the past year.
Voting is done by a panel of 57 automotive journalists representing all types of media outlets.
The list is reduced to three cars and three trucks in December with the winner in each category announced at the Detroit Auto Show in January.
Cars on the list are the Acura TLX, Audi A3, Chrysler 200, Ford Mustang, Honda Fit, Hyundai Genesis Sedan, Hyundai Sonata, Mercedes-Benz C Class, Toyota Camry, and Volkswagen Golf/GTI.
Trucks (and SUVs) are the Audi Q3, Chevrolet Colorado, Chevrolet Tahoe, Ford F-150, GMC Canyon, Lexus NX, Lincoln MKC, Mercedes-Benz GLA class, Nissan Murano, Porsche Macan, Subaru Outback, and Toyota Highlander.
The Ford Edge originally was on the list but is being introduced too late to be eligible.
GM swept last year’s awards with the Corvette Stingray and Silverado pickup.
The presence of the new Ford F-150 pickup and the new midsize GM pickups—the Colorado and Canyon—could make for some interesting votes.
Rethinking Cadillac
Cadillac’s transfer of its headquarters to New York represents something not often seen at General Motors—someone taking charge, making decisions, and changes.
Johan de Nysschen, who joined Cadillac as its new president in August, clearly is in charge. And the brand can use it after seemingly constant changes at the top in the past three years.
The move is significant in saying that Cadillac wants to be in the city where trends are set and brands are burnished. It also says that Cadillac will have some separation from the GM corporate bureaucracy in Detroit.
However, the question will be how the geographic independence results in getting things done back in Michigan where things don’t move so quickly.
De Nysschen comes to Cadillac from stints at Audi, which is thriving, and Infiniti, which is in the midst of a lineup revamping using the Q naming system he instituted.
A similar naming convention seems likely with the announcement that Cadillac will build a new flagship car—the CT6—to compete with top-of-the-line large luxury cars.
Cadillac says it will be positioned above the CTS and XTS lines and also that “CT’’ will become the new name of the company’s cars with the number indicating its relative size and place in the model hierarchy, which currently includes the ATS, CTS, ELR (electric), and XTS cars and Escalade and SRX SUVs.
Electric trucks?
California is the center of electric car sales in North America, in part because those vehicles can be driven in carpool lanes. Last month, Cupertino, Calif., hosted a parade of 507 electric cars, mostly Nissan Leafs, during Plug-in America’s National Drive Electric Week. Meanwhile, Nissan engineers in Stanfield, Ariz., converted a Leaf into a small pickup truck, using the Leaf drivetrain and front seating area along with a Nissan Frontier pickup bed. The vehicle is used around the facility, but it sure looks as though that car/truck could have a future.
Etc.
Kia is introducing the electric version of the Soul with a price tag in the mid-30s, depending on trim level. The vehicle will be eligible for a $7,500 federal rebate and should qualify for a Massachusetts rebate of up to a $2,500. Visit more-ev.org … Today is Tutto Lite, a time for Italian cars, motorcycles, and scooters to take over the Larz Anderson Auto Museum grounds for a people’s choice awards show … Next weekend (Fri.-Sun.) British Cars are at Heritage Museum and Gardens in Sandwich. A public show is on Sunday … Next Saturday, Larz Anderson hosts Waterbahn, a day for water-cooled Audi and VW models in advance of next Sunday’s VW/TransporterFest day.
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