Welcome to the AskPatty Blog Carnival, where we provide a refreshing assortment of female friendly news and interesting automotive tidbits from around the blogosphere. Whether it's informative stories about eco-friendly people and cars, adventures and roadtrips, exciting reports about women in the automotive industry, or female friendly car reviews, we've got something here for everyone. Have you got something to share? Email Ask Patty at info@askpatty.com or use the form at the end to include your own blog bits in next week's carnival!


While the wage gap between men and women in the United States has narrowed, that doesn't mean the ladies get fair pay in today's workplace. According to an article at Yahoo!news,  a new study suggests the narrowing is the result of more capable women entering the workforce. Researcher Yona Rubinstein, an economist at Brown University in Rhode Island, is quoted in the article, saying "While there may be more women holding high-power positions today, they are still being paid as their counterparts were three decades ago."

The ZenBagLady says she “hasn’t seen a decent sunset since the last time I was in Minnesota. Here on the prairie, you watch it slowly sink into the western sky like a pancake absorbs thick syrup. As I watched the long lazy sunset while driving north on Hwy. 10 between Big Lake and St. Cloud in my rented Dodge Caliber, I knew I’d made the right decision to leave my work unwritten and head up to the lake.”

Ralph Bernstein at Productivity Press described a recent high-level automotive conference in which Toyota's Steve St. Angelo rattled off the family-oriented benefits that the company's manufacturing arm offers its employees, saying he certainly captured the attention of most of the attendees. By offering such benefits as child care, Toyota does more than build cars, they nurture its human assets.

If you enjoy a good roadtrip, you’ll enjoy the blog entries of this father and son duo describing their exciting adventures to magnificent locations. Throughout the expeditions, the team explores the cultural diversity that makes each adventure unique. This story describes a solo nighttime driving adventure through the high country of the Olympic National Forest, accompanied only by Hula Betty -- she is after all stuck to the dash!

Mac Demere at autoMedia.com says you needn’t be a member of Mensa to know that the best deals in used cars right now are vehicles that get poor fuel mileage.  He optimistically predicts that gas prices “will drop below $3 a gallon in the near future. If that’s true, the value of these cars will rocket back up to their previous prices.” Saying you can buy a lot of gas with a good deal, this article lists 10 used cars that are big in size, but big in value.

Using owner cost estimates, Consumer Reports recently evaluated the actual cost of owning a hybrid over time.   Of the seven hybrids they recently tested, they found that three -- the Toyota Prius, Toyota Camry Hybrid, and Honda Civic Hybrid -- save owners money compared with their all-gas alternatives, while others depend on tax breaks to break even.

The 2009 Honda FCX Clarity doesn’t have an engine. It doesn’t use gasoline, diesel, or biofuel. Its emissions are only water vapor and oxygen. It gets the equivalent of about 80 miles per gallon gasoline and is almost completely silent. The FCX Clarity uses a hydrogen-fed fuel cell to create electricity. Lithium-ion batteries store the energy. Three electric motors use that energy to move it down the road. Fuel range is 280 miles. Read more about Honda’s hydrogen fuel cell vehicle at autoMedia.com.

Since 1994 ZAP (Zero Air Pollution) has been a world leader for electric and advanced technology vehicles, delivering more than 100,000 electric vehicles in more than 75 countries. The company believes the EV market will continue to grow, especially with its introduction of affordable electric vehicles such as the XEBRA, which retails around $11,700, and deliver speeds in excess of 40 mph. Check out their collection of other electric scooters, cars, and trucks!

Speaking of electric vehicles,   in an effort to demonstrate the demand for the upcoming all-electric Chevrolet Volt, Lyle Dennis, a New York neurologist, has released details of an unofficial waiting list for the vehicle with over 33,000 prospective buyers. According to this article at Reuters, Dennis has been assembling a list of prospective Volt buyers for over a year through his Web site GM-Volt.com; the average price buyers were willing to pay for the car was $31,261.