When looking at a signal car by itself, that call may look great. However, when you put two cars side by side one will stand out. The weakness of each are more easily seen.

A white car against a white background is blends in to the background. When you put a red car or a black car against that white background it is easy to see the cars.

This week we are going to look at two of the top gas/electric hybrids; the 2011 Chevy Volt and the 2011 Toyota Prius. In a effort to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges we will be looking at the Chevy Volt’s base 4 door Hatchback and Toyota’s 4 door Hatchback.

Chevy launch the Volt in the later half of 2010. Since then it has quickly attracted shoppers. It wasn’t long before, in the public’s eye the Chevy Volt and the Toyota Prius were equals.

These two gas/electric hybrid cars are marketed to people who are concerned about their environment and want to save money on gas. So we are going to make a side by side comparison of the two.

The Chevy Cruze, and Volt are bill as two energy efficient flagship cars from General Motors. The EPA awarded both cars for their highway mileage ratings. The Cruze for its rating of 42 miles on a gallon of gas. Then the Volt for traveling down the road 40 miles while using only a gallon of premium gas.

According to EPA  the Chevy Volt can go about 35 miles on fully charged battery. The cost for charging that battery is approximately $1.50. This much cheaper than buying a gallon of gas.

There has been some questions about how Chevy Cruze Eco gets its in city rating of  28 miles per gallon. From the Cruze Eco website it is rated at 42 mpg highway and 28 mpg city. A report I read from CNN Money where he did some actual city driving test found he was not getting 28 mpg. He got a considerable less results. He was getting closer to 20 miles per gallon in city. In all fairness, his city driving was New York City. Portions of New York City does have a lot more stop than going driving.

Gas prices have been on the rise, forcing people to take a hard look at alternate ways to get from point A to point B. Some people have gone to public transportation. Others are choosing to ride bicycles. Then there are people heading to the car dealerships to consider the number of electric power cars. In the past year we have seen almost every car manufacture come out with at least one car totally powered by electricity or assisted by electricity.

There has been quite a number cars that have hit the dealership floors either partially or entirely that are powered by electric batteries. I figured it is time for us to take a hard look at a few of the electric cars. I hate to see any of you buying something that you end up regretting. 

It was just over a couple of months ago that I wrote about the Chevy Cruze. Since then the Chevy Cruze, Ford Focus along with other electric cars have been getting a lot of attention. For the last 20 or so years your basic car has not change much. In the last couple of year we are seeing a radical change in the cars themselves.

The Chevy was born in 1911 with founder Louis Chevrolet and General Motor founder William C. Durant. In 1917, The Chevy car company became part of General Motor. The Chevrolet car was to go up against Henry Ford’s Model T. It has been that way for a 100 years.

This weeks Auto Recon is going to take a look at a new breed of car that is not on the streets. It is expected to be out next year or in 2011. Why am I doing a recon on something that is not currently available?

The Chevy Volt is Chevy’s offering in the changing face of the automotive world. I am talking about fuel efficient, energy efficient cars. In fact the Chevy Volt is marketed for you and me as our first practical electric car.

A $40,000 price tag is not bad for cutting edge technology. However, the Toyota Prius has got its’ third generation on the street at just over $22,000 retail. I expect to see the Volt’s price go down after some of the R&D costs are paid off, with sales.