Is your car a lemon? Or do you really want another car and so you try to force the manufacturer buy it back?

For every consumer protection law, such as the so-called Lemon Law, there are people trying to game the system and use it to their advantage. And then there are the lawyers (don't get me started on lawyers!) exploiting the laws for personal gain.

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The screaming headline of Automotive News this week was: "Industry in Turmoil." Cars aren't selling. Pickup truck sales in particular are completely stalled. Dealers are desparate for ways to get buyers into the showroom (as evidenced by Chrysler's "Refuel America" plan).

What does all this mean for you?

It means all bets are off when it comes to negotiating. Yes, check our True Market Value prices but you should know that due to slow sales you have extra leverage. A friend at Edmunds.com bought a two-year-old Infiniti G35 for $18,000.

Conversely, I've been checking prices on the 2007 Honda Fit that I own and have been thinking of selling. Due to high pump prices the asking price on those cars is going through the roof.

Moral of the story: sometimes prices change faster than the pricing guides. Look at the world around you and consider all factors before shopping.

"I'm so sick of the price of gas I'm going to buy a hybrid!"

I can't tell you how often I've heard this. And I want to tell these people that they are on the wrong track. If they merely want to save money, dumping the old gas guzzler and buying a hybrid will take years to save them money. That's because it costs more for the privledge of saving gas. This is the so-called "hybrid premium."

If you compare a hybrid to a nonhybrid car you will see that the hybrid car costs more because of the sophisticated powertrain. In the long run this saves money for the car's owner when buying gas. But most people aren't in touch with exactly how much they spend on gas for a year.  Even driving 15,000 miles, and paying $3.61 a gallon for gas, a typical car will consume about $2,000 of gas a year. Over the same distance a typical hybrid will consume $1,500 of gas for a $500 savings.

Now, how long does it take for the $500 savings to cancel the higher purchase price? That's the hybrid break even period.

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(The smart fortwo and Ford Focus compete in the "Gas Sipper's Smackdown.")

For the past two days I've been driving. A lot.

We took four cars and selected three different driving routes to see which would win the "Gas Sipper's Smackdown."

Battling for the title was our flyweight 2008 smart fortwo,  our 2005 VW Jetta TDI, a 2008 Toyota Prius and our 2008 Ford Focus SES Coupe.

We drove from Los Angeles, through Death Valley and into Las Vegas to see which got the best gas mileage while cruising the backroads. Then we did a 131-mile city loop in Las Vegas which was absolutely gruelling. Then we did a highway-speed run back into LA.

Four cars, three different driving conditions. Which one took first in the Smackdown? The numbers are being crunched as I write this. But I can tell you, it's not who you think. And, while one of the cars lost in every category, it fought bravely and did better than we ever expected.

While I was in Las Vegas I read the Wall Street Journal because it appeared at my hotel room door. I read this interview with Chevron boss David O'Reilly. One exchange about gas prices was as follows:

Mr. O’Reilly: I can’t predict what the price is going to be. You would have to tell me what the economic situation in the world is going to be a year from now. I don’t think it is going to get back to those relatively low levels we experienced in the late ’90s and early 2000s.
WSJ: Ever?
Mr. O’Reilly: No.

I couldn't help but think of those words as I cruised around Las Vegas looking for a way to stretch an extra mile from every drop of gas.

Stay tuned for "Smackdown" results!

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This morning's Automotive News was filled with evidence of a global shift in thinking: small is better. There was an interesting story that said most of the current engine research is geared toward making more out of less. The number of cylinders are being reduced while engine displacement is being downsized. Meanwhile, performance is boosted with turbo or supercharging or even direct injection.

Another story talked about the introduction of the Think electric car next year. And still another story touched on Mitsubishi's development of a new mini car.

What the heck's going on?

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With gas-guzzling former cash cows such as Yukons and Expeditions collecting dust on dealer lots across the country, it's clear that business as usual will no longer cut it for the Big Three in Detroit. Yet Chevrolet's ballyhooed Volt concept is still a couple years away, and although the Ford Escape and Saturn Vue hybrid models are admirably efficient for SUVs, the best one can say for the Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid (21 mpg combined) is that it guzzles marginally less gas than its non-hybrid relatives. Americans aren't used to paying European prices at the pump, and they're showing it in their sudden aversion to relatively inefficient vehicles. It's past time for Detroit to start thinking green.

While struggling Chrysler has remained largely silent on this front, Ford and GM have shown definite signs of life. The manual-shift Ford Focus is now rated at 35 mpg on the highway, and the next-generation Ford Fiesta will be arriving on our shores before too long. Even more impressively, as the Volt inches closer to production, GM has made a few refinements to the current Cobalt that it says will yield best-in-class fuel economy.

That's right -- going forward, any Cobalt LS or 1LT coupe or sedan will get a class-leading 36 miles per gallon highway (the outgoing 2008 Toyota Corolla, which was rated at 37 mpg on the highway, is technically no longer in production) if ordered with a manual transmission. That's a big "if" given Americans' chronically lazy left feet, but it's still quite an achievement for Chevrolet, which formerly extracted just 31 mpg from the same Cobalt models. Gone are the days when any given Japanese econobox would blow the doors off the domestic competition in an efficiency contest. In the Cobalt's case, at least, the greener future is now for America's hopefully rebounding automotive industry.

Josh Sadlier, Associate Editor, Edmunds.com