CarNerve

While doctors may no longer make house calls, electric carmaker Tesla now does. Tesla announced that it would send technicians to the homes or offices of their vehicle owners to take care of maintenance, software upgrades and many repairs.

Tesla’s “Mobile Service Rangers” will drive to owners even if they are hundreds of miles from the nearest dealership. The upstart carmaker has only four dealerships around he country: Menlo Park, Los Angeles, Seattle and New York. But the company has sold 700 Tesla Roadsters and now has customers in every state.

Because Tesla’s electric technology is so now, the average service station can’t work on the cars. Before this service, Tesla’s customers had to ship their car to the nearest dealership if they couldn’t drive in. To minimize the hassle, Tesla rolled out its mobile tech teams.

The service won’t be free, however. Vehicle owners will pay $1 for every round-trip mile that the technicians travel from the nearest Tesla service center. The minimum charge is $100.

Of course, Tesla Roadsters cost about $109,000, so this will be small change for the company’s vehicle owners.

If you thought that everyone was turning to fuel efficient hybrids nowadays, that’s not quite accurate. While more and more automobiles are getting great mileage, there are still those gas guzzling stalwarts that well off consumers keep buying.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently released its list of the biggest gas guzzlers for the model year 2010 and it is dominated by exotic high-end sportscars from Italy, the U.K., and Germany. Familiar names like Lamborghini, Bugatti, Bentley, Ferrari, and Mercedes all make the list.

Topping the list is the Lamborghini Murcielago with manual transmission which gets a mind-bogglingly puny 8 mpg in city driving. The Murcielago boasts a 631-horsepower V12 engine and zooms from 0 to 62 mph in just 3.4 seconds. Yipes! Oh, and the Murcielago will set you back a cool $400,000. I guess you’re not too worried about gas mileage at that price.

Here’s the top 10 list of shame straight from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:

1. Lamborghini Murcielago (manual) 8/13
2. Bugatti Veyron 8/14
3. Lamborghini Murcielago (automatic) 9/14
4. Bentley Azure Bentley Brooklands 9/15
5. Ferrari 612 Scaglietti (automatic) 10/17
6. Ferrari 612 Scaglietti (manual) 10/16
7. Maybach 57 10/15
8. Bentley Continental Flying Spur Bentley Continental GTC 10/17
9. Mercedes-Benz ML 63 AMG Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano 11/15
10. (tie) Aston Martin DB9 (manual) 11/17
    Aston Martin DBS (manual)
    BMW M5
    BMW M6
    BMW M6 Convertible
    Maserati Quattroporte (4.2 L)
    Mercedes-Benz CL 65 AMG
    Mercedes-Benz CL600
    Mercedes-Benz S600
    Mercedes-Benz S 65 AMG
    Porsche Cayenne GTS (manual)
    Porsche Cayenne TransSiberia

While the cars at the top of the list are hard to come by, many of the cars in the number 10 spot are familiar models you’re likely to see at your local country club.

Next time you see a Lamborghini or Ferrari cruise by, just keep this in mind. These sports cars burn an average of 34.3 barrels of oil a year. The fuel-efficient Prius burns just 6.9 barrels. Doesn’t that make you feel better?

New vehicle sales plunged in September, following two busy months of car buying thanks to the government’s cash-for-clunkers program. Now that the federal buyback program has ended, most automakers experienced a double-digit decline in sales as compared to a year ago.

General Motors announced its sales dropped 45 percent, and Chrysler reported a 42 percent decline from September a year ago. Ford fared a bit better with car sales declining only 5 percent from September 2008. However, Ford did register a 5 percent uptick in sales for the entire 3rd quarter, the company’s first quarterly increase in four years.

Overseas automakers were also hard hit in September. Sales dipped 20 percent at Honda, 7 percent at Nissan, and 13 percent at Toyota.

Korean carmaker Hyundai was the lone bright spot in the industry. Hyundai said its sales rose 27 percent in September. Due to its low priced cars, the automaker has been gaining sales momentum throughout the recession.

The federal cash-for-clunkers program generated almost 700,000 sales in July and August, bolstering carmakers. The program provided up to $4,500 in credits to consumers who traded in an older, inefficient vehicle and bought a new one with better gas mileage.