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There's a lot to discuss with the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco, but the only thing on my mind is the ECO gauge. Did Chevy have a contest to see how useless and uninformative this seemingly simple gauge could be? There's a green zone in the middle and some white zones on the ends. Not a single number in sight. Since the needle is almost always in the green zone, I don't think it's adding any information for the driver. Why not an instantaneous mpg gauge here? Why not a fancier dash like Ford offers with the Fusion Hybrid?

May of 2011 was the month that saw new-car sales collapse at many of the Japanese automakers, as inventories dried up due to supply interruptions caused by the disaster in Japan. Today, the Japanese auto industry is back to full strength, which means some wild year-over-year sales increases for May.

The Fiat 500 is the archetypal city car, but can it double as a comfortable highway cruiser? If spaciousness isn't a main concern, the Fiat is actually pretty good after going down an on-ramp.

After being smitten with the clean looks of our Four Seasons 2013 Mazda CX-5, we are finding out that the beauty is more than skin deep. The CX-5 is the second car in Mazda's U.S. lineup to gain the automaker's new Skyactiv suite of powertrain engineering, after the 2012 Mazda3. Rather than opting for forced induction and higher final-drive ratios to find efficiency gains without losing performance, Skyactiv works to optimize a known quantity -the internal combustion engine. To up the engine's efficiency by a claimed 15 percent, Mazda increased the little four-banger's compression ratio to an incredibly high 13:1, added direct injection and electronically variable valve timing, lengthened piston stroke by 8.1 millimeters, and reduced internal friction.

Pontiac will be remembered for styling and shtick -- Wide-Track, Ram Air, body cladding, screaming chickens. Behind the juvenile antics, though, there once existed a capable group of engineers. Pontiac Motor Division ran its own successful racing efforts, had its own chassis-tuning group, and fielded its own engines, including an overhead-cam in-line six and a V-8 family that was distinct from Chevrolet's small-block. If that sounds redundant, ask Porsche executives how they'd feel about putting a Volkswagen four-cylinder in a 911. The sun was already setting on Pontiac's golden age, however, when the engineers turned out their greatest effort: the Firebird Super Duty 455. The SD-455 has been accurately described as Pontiac's last stand and the last real muscle car. It also prefaced the dawn of the performance era we enjoy today.