The national 55 mph speed limit was enacted in 1973 -- but do you know why? Rather than a safety issue, it was a fuel-saving measure put in place as a response to the first OPEC oil embargo.

The law was later changed to allow speeds up to 65 mph, and in 1995 the 55 mph mandate was repealed, leaving states up to their own devices in regards to speed limits. Since then, some states have bumped that limit up to 70 mph (or higher -- to 75, in some wide-open states such as New Mexico).

Virginia joined the 70 mph club this week, according to The Wall Street Journal, after a newly elected governor made the issue a priority. All told, 34 states now allow highway speeds of 70 mph or higher.

Raising speed limits rankles safety-advocate types, but I find their "more-speed-is-more-danger" reaction simplistic and, frankly, condescending. 

All four classes of the teen driving school B.R.A.K.E.S. were packed last weekend as 160 teens age 16 to 18 from all over Southern California took part in the school's West Coast debut.

"It's a lot more intense than I expected," said 18-year-old Dylan Wright, who spent part of the morning flinging a Dodge Avenger sideways on a wetted-down skidpad.

"The best thing is, like, you've never done any of this stuff, ever," said another driving student whose name badge read Chris.

"I like when they encourage you to go faster," said a third, whose name tag read Donald and who had two accidents on his driving record before attending the class.

The school--which was founded in Charlotte, N.C., but plans to expand across the country--teaches abbreviated versions of techniques you might find in a typical racing school but with an aim toward teenage pilotes, with some good lessons in driver distraction thrown in.

 

Consumer Reports is back doing what it does best: thoroughly testing and rating new cars.

The magazine has just released its new best-and-worst list, ranking overall vehicle safety. Consumer Reports combines government and insurance industry tests -- including crash and rollover test scores from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety -- with its own battery of performance assessments.

A note from Consumer Reports on understanding the ratings:

"When comparing safety scores, it’s important to evaluate vehicles in the same weight; most vehicles in a vehicle class have a similar weight. Even if a small car has top crash-test ratings, for instance, it will still take the brunt of the impact if hit by a larger sedan or SUV, or even in a single-vehicle crash, say against a tree."

You can check out the original article here; after the jump, we've also reposted the magazine's comprehensive chart (with its permission, of course) in its entirety. 

Japan's automakers aim to cement their lead in electric vehicles by making Japanese recharging technology the global standard and bringing it to the United States.

A coalition of manufacturers, including Nissan and Toyota, is teaming with Japan's biggest electric company and the government to make it happen.

They aim to corner the market on one of the technologies that will be key to the eventual acceptance of electric-powered cars: the high-speed charging points that will act like gasoline stations of the future and enable drivers to recharge and keep driving after their batteries run low.

“What we need to do is make this protocol a standard outside Japan,” said Tsunehisa Katsumata, chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Co., the main utility backing the venture. The coalition, launched Monday, is called CHAdeMo and has 158 partner companies.

 

Part of being an early technology adopter is a willingness to shell out some bucks, and the same goes for those getting in on electric vehicles before they go mainstream -- and not just for the drivers who have dropped $100,000 on a Tesla Roadster. Installing home charging stations can require a significant cost outlay. We say "can," because -- unlike Apple telling an early adopter that the first-generation iWhatever costs $600, take it or leave it -- the cost of a home power station for your EV can vary greatly depending on a number of factors.

In fact, the cost of the charger itself can take a back seat to the price of installation and labor, which is much more likely if you live in an older house. While houses built from the '90s on are pretty sure to have 200- or 400-amp service, which works well with EV requirements, older homes may not be equipped with the right stuff, meaning the homeowner is stuck with a costly upgrade bill.

But there must be a range, right? Something to help gauge how much it could cost, on the low end and the high? 

Two doomed General Motors brands--Saturn and Hummer--are getting their last hurrahs on the assembly line.

GM assembled 1,037 Saturn Outlooks last month after not making any Saturns since October.

“We are building out a few Saturns to utilize existing material,” GM spokeswoman Kim Carpenter said. GM will assemble Outlooks for a few more weeks, she said.

 

For more than a decade, the Ford Crown Victoria has held a special place in the hearts of two demographics: members of law enforcement and people who love "Matlock." It looks like the former may finally be bidding farewell to the car that’s inspired fear in the hearts of motorists everywhere and kept our streets safe from all sorts of nastiness. General Motors unveiled its Holden-based Caprice PPV not too long ago, but it would seem the Blue Oval isn’t ready to hand over the police-cruiser crown just yet. The company just announced the 2012 Police Interceptor, a car with more power and better fuel efficiency than the elderly Crown Victoria. But will it be a winner with officers? That all depends.  

(UPDATE: So, basically, Toyota went right up to the line of calling Sikes a liar -- but stopped short during its presser today. Like the results of NHTSA's tests, Toyota has concluded that his brakes should have been adequate to stop the car. Based on its findings -- again, corroborated by NHTSA -- everything pretty much worked the way it should have during testing.

Of course, as James Bell of Kelley Blue Book pointed out in an e-mailed release, the tests did not address whether Toyota vehicles can "momentarily malfuntion" and, in a sense, go haywire, with nothing working as it should. Personally, I don't think that's the case in this instance (the whole thing seemed a bit off from the start), but it would behoove Toyota to hang onto whatever customer loyalty it has left and put that issue to rest once and for all.)

More bad news for James Sikes, the man behind the wheel of the alleged runaway Toyota Prius in California, which garnered loads of publicity and which under scrutiny looks increasingly like a scam, as we reported on Friday. The official investigation into the incident, conducted jointly by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Toyota, is under way, and the preliminary results don't jibe with Sikes' story.

For one thing, the wear on the brakes doesn't suggest that they were fully applied over a sustained period at high speeds, which is a key element in Sikes' story. Instead, the report suggests that Sikes' brakes were actually applied intermittently, and with moderate force.

More obvious, though, is the fact that Sikes' 2008 model-year Prius has an electronic brake override system that cuts power to the accelerator if it and the brakes are deployed simultaneously. The override system operated successfully during tests to re-create the alleged runaway scenario, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Actual unintended acceleration could not be re-created; however, as Sikes' lawyer pointed out, this has been true of all previous unintended-acceleration allegations.

[Source: The Wall Street Journal, CNN.]