Transiting: The Reverse Commute – By Northstar

by Randy Stern

In the Twin Cities, regular gasoline is now averaging $3.54 a gallon. Diesel is sitting between $3.75 and $3.95 a gallon. Have we panicked, yet?

It depends on where you’re at financially. It also depends on your commute patterns. There are plenty of variables here between holding on to your old economy and embracing a potentially new economy. A new economy that would induce more options to transportation access as metropolitan area commutes is taken under consideration.

In the Twin Cities, we experienced a growth in public transport over the past couple of years. The Metropolitan Council, a state-run agency, facilitates the agencies that make up the transportation grid the links commuters from Woodbury to Mound, from Lakeville to Forest Lake. We’ve seen construction broken for the controversial Central Corridor light rail project linking the two downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul. We’ve also witnessed a new Bus Rapid Transit station at 46th Street and Interstate 35W servicing a high occupancy lane for South Metro commuters.

We’ve seen the opening of a few multi-story park-and-ride facilities within the region and out in the exurbs. The result of these new park-and-ride lots were new bus service linking Forest Lake and Lakeville with downtown business centers in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Perhaps the biggest leap in public transport in the region was the opening of the Northstar commuter rail line. The line links the exurbs of Big Lake and Elk River with downtown Minneapolis over a set of Burlington-Santa Fe rail stock. The plan is to eventually extend the line to St. Cloud, a city of 67,000 about 63 miles from Minneapolis.

I’ve been to St. Cloud several times before. It’s a nice town with a major university hosting a Division I collegiate hockey power. It is also a business center with ING’s US consumer banking unit located there among other major employers in town. It may seem odd that with the vast number of employers down in The Cities that people down my way actually commute up to St. Cloud. I happen to know a couple of friends who do.

So, I wondered whether one could commute up to St. Cloud without a car? How could one not battle Interstate 94 with its flying semis and rural and exurban blandness? I decided to find out.

The key to the commute is the Northstar train. You have to get up pretty early to catch it. A 6:13AM departure from Target Field will get you to Big Lake. In the winter, that means being deprived of light – probably a good thing when you get past Anoka.

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Getting Small (and Efficient) – 2011 Edition

by Randy Stern

Before the 2008 election, there were calls to get more fuel-efficient vehicles on the road. How slowly we heeded that call…

However, the price of fuel has been climbing since before the end of 2010. Now, it has reached its highest price since 2008 (and still climbing). This has caused some concern across the automotive industry yet again.

However, there is good news: There are more B-segment offerings than before. There is also talk of additional diesel-fuel offerings in the next couple of years. Not to mention there will be more hybrid and all-electric offerings in the coming months.

Does it seem that we were more prepared for this oil price jump than we were before? Or, did anyone foresee the crises in oil producing countries over despots and democracy to warrant rolling out new offerings for North American consumers?

Keep in mind, this is not a conspiracy theory posting. This is a MotorGeek consumer guide to beating the $3.49-and-possibly-even-more-per-gallon pump price.

2012 FIAT 500: The little car that turned heads and changed minds about Italy’s biggest selling brand. With about a small chunk of Chrysler to their name, Sergio Marchionne’s employer leveraged the capacity availability left behind by the end of the PT Cruiser in Toluca, Mexico to build the fashionable small Fiat for the Americas. It also is a new beginning for an unloved automaker that once left these shores only to rebrand their sportiest products by their design houses.

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Commentary: Classic Muscle or New Modern?

by Randy Stern

Tweet There are those who look at the current gas prices and their causes with fear. Others just could care less – “What price gasoline?” This post is for the latter group of readers. One of the press events I attended during the Chicago Auto Show was the unveiling of the most powerful Chevrolet Camaro …

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Corn Juice – An Experiential Update

by Randy Stern

Regular gasoline just reached $3.29 a gallon range throughout the Upper Midwest today. There are plenty of explanations for this. In some cases, I call them "excuses." We learned our lesson from 2008 when the price of petrol soared to its highest levels in history just before the election of Barack Obama as our President.

Even three years ago, we talked about finding alternatives to standard petroleum products to power our automobiles. Hybrids were starting to gain traction back then with the introduction of the third generation of the Toyota Prius, the latest Honda Insight and the Ford Fusion Hybrid just around the corner. Yet, the automotive industry was feeling the backlash of high fuel prices when they saw market share of trucks, SUVs and crossovers dwindle and the demand for smaller automobiles scaling. Larger vehicles did come back after petrol bottomed out below $2.00 a gallon – yet fuel prices slowly climbed enough for many to climb back into large conveyances again.

The talk also expanded to electric-drive automobiles, such as the Tesla Roadster. While other try to dismiss electric cars, it foresaw a growth now with the Nissan Leaf.

Beyond that were two fuel options: Diesel or Ethanol. Many argue that we would still import the elements to make diesel fuel, despite the fact that diesel engines have an edge on overall maintenance and repair costs than a hybrid. Diesel offers have grown slightly since then, but in larger vehicles rather than smaller ones.

There has been growth on the use of Ethanol fuel, as well as the vehicles offering the option to fuel up with corn juice. To my glee, I’ve found that more than the usual vehicles that had come across my hands were FlexFuel vehicles – and, for most of my fuel-ups, E85 was used to fill up the tank over regular petrol.

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Chicago 2011: Riding Along and Making Notes

by Randy Stern

Covering an auto show is hard work. You attend press conferences, angle for the best shots possible, mentally prepare your questions and take time to render photos and do the write-ups. This year, I added social media elements to augment the coverage giving interested parties a sort-of live view of the goings on during Press Days. I believe it worked, but not without its faults.

Every time I walked through an auto show, I try to not pound my feet too hard. When I do, my feet react poorly. Not to mention that the cold weather does a job on my right shin.

Enough of my own maladies, this segment from my coverage of the 2011 Chicago Auto Show starts with perhaps the rising star of the automotive world. It was 25 years ago when they sold over 250,000 units of a single model in its first full calendar year. The price was right, but many lessons were learned.

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Chicago 2011: Shining (Penta)Star

by Randy Stern

If you have read this site over the years, one particular automaker shows up on these pages as a through-line. Why? I have always been a fan of said automaker.

Then again, how many times have I stated how much I’ve been in Chrysler’s corner? Every time the Auburn Hills-based company is down, it always gets back up from the canvas. It always innovates through historically top-notch engineering and design.

It came as almost no surprise that I was able to connect with Chrysler prior to arriving on the show floor. Being an independent blogger among automotive professionals, I was brought into the realm of the Pentastar as an originator of relevant and topical material using strictly electronic media. For the two days I worked the show’s floor, I was never too far from the Pentastar’s beacons. They began following me on Twitter – something I never expected.

So, obviously, the following stories from this year’s Chicago Auto Show were all about Chrysler. Enjoy the salad…

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Chicago 2011: Darth Vader's Foil, The GS Button and the Latest Saab Story

by Randy Stern

Welcome to the we’re-almost-out-of-the-global-economic-crisis reality of the automobile industry.

Two years ago, government bailouts and bankruptcy challenged the industry’s ability to produce excellence across the globe. With General Motors and Chrysler emerging as changed entities, others had fielded setbacks of their own. Toyota’s handling of unintended acceleration claims and niggling quality issues began to topple the giant from Japan. Even Honda was caught in the recall mix, but lost ground to Nissan in a twist of interesting fate.

The game has now shifted to Ford, Hyundai and Kia. Ford’s refusal to take government loans made it stronger. The product mix in North America alone helped build some confidence in a company most analysts predicted would lose footing before GM and Chrysler stateside. Hyundai and Kia began to create automobiles consumers love – and build them on a level once enjoyed by Toyota, Nissan and Honda. Now, demand for Hyundai’s popular models created some scenarios between manufacturing sites in the USA and the Republic of Korea.

Today, the Chicago Auto Show set the stage for this new reality. As the industry returns to growth, there are still storylines being played out on the floor of McCormick Place. Here’s what went down…

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Chicago 2011: Preview

by Randy Stern

Tweet On my 40th birthday, I worked the second press day of the Chicago Auto Show. It was in 2004 – and, eventually, I celebrated my birthday hours after I left McCormick Place and the Bentley stand. But, I will admit thoroughly enjoying my first ever press days at any event and delivering my work …

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Detroit 2011: The Wacky Goings-On at Cobo Hall

by Randy Stern

Tweet If you’re like me, you’re following what’s going on at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. It’s exiting stuff already. There’s something for everyone it appears. Shall I parse it all out for you? MORE GREEN THAN YOU THINK: While the Chevrolet Volt collects its accolades, the competition is lining up. Ford …

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