California Dolphin

The Environmental Protection Agency’s fueleconomy.gov website ranks various types of light duty vehicles based on their fuel economy, and the 2025 Lucid Air Pure is now ranked highest among fully electric vehicles. The coveted spot at the top of the EV efficiency ranking was formerly held by Hyundai’s 2024 Ioniq 6 long range rear-wheel drive, which boasts a combined MPGe rating of 140 and a stellar city rating of 153. The frugal luxury sedan from Lucid gets 149 in the city and 142 on the highway for an all-time high combined MPGe rating of 146, edging out the Ioniq 6 as the most efficient passenger vehicle sold in the United States. The Lucid Air is available in four trim packages that offer a wide assortment of capabilities. The Air model with the gold medal efficiency rating is the entry-level Air Pure rear-wheel drive with 19-inch wheels. Priced around $70,000, the Air Pure’s 84-kWh battery pack delivers an impressive driving range of 420 miles, and its 430-horsepower motor can launch the vehicle from zero to sixty in 4.3 seconds. For about $9,000 more, the 620-horsepower Air

With the 2024 Volvo V60, largely unchanged from the previous year’s model, the Swedish carmaker continues its long-standing reputation. It makes a modern-day station wagon, solidly built and stoic on the road. The poorer the weather, the better its performance. All of the manufacturers who make wagons pay some reverence to the originals. But gone are the trundle suitcases stacked to the tops of the automotive workhorses and tied together with rope. Wagons’ heydays are more than a half-century ago. But the 2024 Volvo V60 Cross Country does everything about a wagon right. The  V60 was updated in 2023 with a mild-hybrid standard and a new powertrain, the B5. It’s the same for 2024. It has 247 horsepower, slightly less than 2022 miles. It comes standard with an eight-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive. The mild hybrid uses the electrical system to power the auxiliary functions of the car. Technology and convenience features have also been improved. Google stuff — maps, play and voice assistant — are standard and over-the-air updates are now also available. The exterior also has a more modern front grille and rear

What is a Ranger? A Ranger is a midsize pickup truck built in the Wayne, Michigan assembly plant and sold in North America by Ford. Slotting between the F150 full size truck and the Maverick compact truck, the Ranger is the middle child of the pickup truck lineup from Ford. Not too big, not too small, it’s just the right size for just about everyone. Over the 107 years that Ford has been in the truck business, many examples have stood out, making an undeniable impact on the direction of this iconic franchise. Trucks have been a regular part of Ford Motor Company’s lineup since 1917. The earliest models were utilitarian with chassis and bodies based on the company’s automobiles. Henry Ford gets the credit for both the first factory built pickup truck, and for coining the term “pickup.” The 1925 Model T Roadster with a pickup body was created when Ford saw an opportunity to cash in on the fact that many farmers were modifying the famously simple and rugged Model T automobiles for hauling stuff and doing farm work. So then what is

One of the perennial questions asked during a presidential election season is: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” The answer often gets wrapped up in emotions and behavioral biases that do not always sync up with data. For a numbers nerd like me, that’s frustrating, so let me state from the top that this column is not meant to sway your political leanings. Rather, it is an attempt to paint a broad picture of where the U.S. economy stands and how Americans are faring overall, using various data points. By its nature, it will not apply to everyone specifically. To state the obvious, the pandemic wreaked havoc on our lives, causing widespread suffering that will cast a shadow for years to come. For the U.S. economy, the impact was deep, though not long-lasting. The COVID recession lasted just two months, the only two months of recession since June 2009. Although scars formed during the pandemic and its aftermath, according to analysts at Capital Economics, the “U.S. economy is now nearly 10 percent larger than it was pre-COVID,” despite a shuttered economy

By Terry Spencer | Associated Press Hurricane Helene killed and destroyed far and wide — from Tampa to Atlanta to Asheville, North Carolina, its high winds, heavy rains and sheer size created a perfect mix for devastation. The storm made landfall late Thursday along a largely undeveloped expanse of pine trees and salt marshes on Florida’s Big Bend coast, but it immediately displayed its far-reaching power several hundred miles away. As of Sunday morning, at least 64 people were confirmed killed. Tampa Bay was inundated with a massive storm surge that sent water up to people’s attics. Atlanta got more than 11 inches of rain, more than any 48-hour period in recorded history. So many trees were toppled in South Carolina that at one point more than 40 percent of the state lost electricity. In North Carolina, dams were in jeopardy of failing and entire communities are cut off by floods. Floodwaters submerged a hospital in Tennessee so quickly that more than 50 patients had to be rescued from the roof via helicopter. How did a single storm unleash destruction so far away? Dan Brown