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"   Cars have been part of America&amp;#039;s DNA for more than a century. Whether you&amp;#039;ve owned small, efficient compacts or gas-guzzling sports cars you&amp;#039;ve learned that no matter what anyone says, there&amp;#039;s always a tradeoff between fuel economy and power. You just can&amp;#039;t have both. Now, manufacturers are re-writing the rules, using the fuel efficiency of a hybrid while also making better use of performance benefits of an electric motor - effectively pushing hybrids out of the perceived, &amp;quot;boring to drive&amp;quot; zone. At the extreme end, Porsche is showing there&amp;#039;s potential for hybrids to be potent performers with its planned launch of a 918 hybrid. But at the steep price of $800,000, it&amp;#039;s unaffordable for all but a few. For the rest of us, Honda is offering its own sport-hybrid, the CR-Z coupe. The CR-Z is the first mainstream hybrid to enter the &amp;quot;sport&amp;quot; realm and also the first with a 6-speed manual transmission, something other hybrid systems can&amp;#039;t accommodate. After a day of test driving the CR-Z it became very evident to me that this is indeed a fun car to drive, even if there&amp;#039;s only room for one other passenger. I easily surpassed the CR-Z&amp;#039;s combined mpg EPA rating of 33mpg, averaging 41mpg during a trip with mixed driving conditions. While handling and braking felt great especially for a hybrid, the CR-Z doesn&amp;#039;t have sporty acceleration; however, a &amp;quot;Sport&amp;quot; mode helped by increasing the sensitivity and willingness of the electric motor to help  accelerate.  What impressed me the most was the elegant, thoughtful dashboard which feeds information about your driving habits through changes in the color of the speedometer backlight. When you&amp;#039;re driving economically it turns green and when you should ease back it glows blue. I was surprised at how this feature gradually tamed my occasionally lead foot.  Similar to other hybrids like the Prius, the CR-Z has a sloped, split-rear window that impedes visibility. For the time being, this seems to be an unavoidable shortcoming drivers will have to get used to in high-mpg cars, in the name of aerodynamics. The bottom line is that the CR-Z is among the first cars to offer the driving experience of a sporty car, along with exceptional fuel economy. While not as extreme as a  Porsche, and more practical than an all-electric like the Nissan LEAF, it&amp;#039;s a realistic blend I suspect many will appreciate. For more on fuel-saving cars, read our other top picks and recent reviews. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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