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Hyundai is on a roll. Just recently, Clark told you how the Korean automaker was praised by JD Power. Now the August issue of Consumer Reports says the Hyundai Elantra is one of the best and most affordable small wagons/hatchbacks.

Earlier this year, Hyundai started offering buyer's assurance as an incentive. Now their marketing wizs are on to gas. If you buy a new car, they will fill up you at $1.49/gallon for 12 months.

Mind you, the cost of gas is likely headed down, barring unexpected world events or weather patterns…but Clark doesn't think it's going down to $1.49! So Hyundai's offer is very generous.

Meanwhile, Consumer Reports trashes the new hybrid Honda Insight. The vehicle received an overall score of 54, which is the second lowest for any small vehicle. This is perhaps the first time ever that a Honda has gotten a low F from Consumer Reports.

Yet the lowest score of all goes to the Dodge Caliber with a 49.

On the other end of the spectrum, the No. 1 hatchback/station wagon is the Mazda 5, which earned a score of 86. That's right up there with some very expensive luxury vehicles. The Mazda 5 has a street price of around $17,000 with power gizmos included.

But what a stunner for the Insight, which Honda was marketing as an affordable hybrid at around $18,500. The people at Honda must be licking their wounds after having put so much research and resources into the Insight.

Other top picks from Consumer Reports in the small car category include the Volkswagen Rabbit, the Volkswagen Jetta-SE and the 2009 Toyota Prius.

Two new developments highlight how we as a country are finally getting on the ball with energy efficiency.

First, there are new lighting standards coming that mean traditional incandescent bulbs will be phased out. The traditional Edison bulb was miraculous in its time, but it's a real energy hog. In addition, recessed lighting will have to become more efficient, as will fluorescent tube lighting.

(Editor's note: There are diverging opinions on the fate of the Edison bulb. The New York Times reports that new designs for the traditional incandescent can allow it to be up to 30% more efficient than older counterparts.)

Clark has CFLs all over house, plus he's trying out four LED lights. The early LEDs are proving to be as poor as his early CFLs were -- that's the danger of being an early adopter. Some of his first CFLs installed in 1998 take a full 2 minutes to warm up from dim light to interrogation-style brightness.

Second, the feds are setting up an expedited procedure to have sun farms throughout the Southwest producing solar energy. One of the longstanding problems to getting these going was the "not in my backyard" mentality. But the feds are now dedicating their own land for the farms. The goal is to have 13 sun farms under construction by next year.

Clark first saw solar energy in the Middle East during the late '70s. Since then, new developments with rotating solar receptors to catch the direct path of the sun have made it an even smarter idea.

As the consumer champ has said many times before, he doesn't care about the environmental angle of becoming energy efficient. He's just interested in our national defense as we seek to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

In May, Clark told you that an advisory panel was being convened by the FDA to address the question of how to label products that contain acetaminophen.

Well, that panel has come back and recommended a ban on Percocet and Vicodin, which combine narcotics with acetaminophen. Exactly what the FDA will do with this recommendation remains unclear.

Acetaminophen is the active ingredient in a seemingly benign dose of Tylenol. However, the dangers of liver failure and death associated with unintended large doses of acetaminophen are well documented.

It's particularly dangerous when you have flu symptoms and take a cold remedy that contains acetaminophen (such as Nyquil, for example) with a couple of Tylenol in addition to that. The combo can be truly deadly. In fact, acetaminophen is the leading cause of liver failure.

So be alert and wary of the problem with medications that have acetaminophen in them.

Tylenol may get a black box warning as a result of the panel's recommendations. Know that the people at Tylenol are not in any way trying to harm the public. It's just one of those things where they built a famous name brand around a substance that now has a big, red target on it.

Clark upsets truckers whenever he talks about governors on trucks...and we're not talking about Mark Sanford on an 18-wheeler! Governors are simply micro-chip controlled motors that only allow a preset top speed.

Such devices are especially common on the kinds of trucks you would rent to move yourself. They're a built-in safety feature because the moving companies know these rentals are usually driven by motorists that don't regularly drive trucks.

Wal-Mart had governors put on all its trucks, a move that greatly reduced their fleet's accident rate. That's also why Wal-Mart trucks go slower than other trucks on the road.

Steve Owings is a crusader for a nationwide law to limit the speed that trucks can go. He's a Don Quixote of sorts who's gotten some unlikely support from industry group the American Trucking Association (ATA). The consumer champ is a big fan of governors too.

Some Libertarian groups are opposed to governors, as are some independent truck drivers not affiliated with ATA.

Truckers say it's the cars on the road that are the real problem, especially motorists who jack-rabbit around tractor trailers.

15% of all fatalities in road accidents involve a car and a truck. It isn't the truck driver who winds up getting injured or killed, either.

Remember this key rule: Get out of the way of a truck or you could wind up dead.

Want your say about the use of governors? Be sure to vote in our poll.