Gas PRICES
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tahoe hybrid?? gimme a break, i bet it doesnt better 25MPG. the hybrid cars are a joke, if it wasnt such a trendy thing to be a greeny poser they wouldnt sell i single one. no sir, the real hybrid will have an engine too small to accelerate or drive on and only be there to power a generater.
BMAN said:
Hah! GM is waiting for it's stock to plummet, buy it back dirt cheap, then suddenly show profit when it doesn't have as many investors to pay dividends to. GM is not pursueing hybrid technology very heavily because of the reverse engineering it has done on the others out there. They cannot make it cost effective, so they are shooting for the "next big thing"....hydrogen fuel cells.
Interesting article is here: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.02/teardown.html
hydro fuel cells, another great american marketing joke right there. you know darn well we are not going to produce hydrogen with renewable recources, just plain ol' fossil fuels, so john Q public is being sold yet another false promise. man it must be a gift for me to be able to see through these scams.
No, No, dont worry ... we will have a clean burning, unlimited supply of hydrogen being introduced into our cars.. but it wont be free for us. Just for the gov. We will pay out the ass to purtchase this free resource, Cause you know... it takes someone/something to formulate it, then someone to bottle it, somene to market it, sell it, package it, meter it, transport it, etc. etc. and being that its highly explosive, well have to pay for thoes guards at the hydro station to keep people from using them as BOMB MARTS. Pluss this "Good for the enviroment" auto will cost you a premium if you want the hydro package.,. by then it will be $8.00 for a gallon of hydro or $5.00 a gallon for petrol. Just like a hybrid runs 35K and gets 45+ mpg and a kia runs 4K and gets about 35.
Though on a side note.. I do believe Europe actually does run a hydro station or two. for the the hydro. powered BMW's and/or Mercedies.
Though on a side note.. I do believe Europe actually does run a hydro station or two. for the the hydro. powered BMW's and/or Mercedies.
project i think you misunderstood me, my gripe isnt that we wont or dont have hydrogen fuel, its the way it will be made. i feel for hydrogen cars to reep the benefits sales folks are touting hydrogen needs to made from renewable resources, i:e: solor, wind and water produced electricity, but since we dont have those in place on the scale it would take to supply hydrogen as a fuel source the easier and cheaper way from the suppliers point of view will entail producing hydrogen from fossil fuels and coal. in my opinion that takes all the benefits of running a hydro car and throws it right out the window.
also, on hybrids. i went down to check out the camry hybrid this a.m.. what a joke. just like the others, a good concept with a very poor execution. the camry hybrid for example starts with the standard 4 banger engine at 140'ish HP, throws a generator on the end and with the electric motors produces about 190 HP with the claimed MPG of 40. thats horrible. a 4 banger camry drives quite snappy with the standard engine so why not use the small 1.2 litre engine with the generator and motor to produce a finale of about 140HP and maybe 80MPG ?? stupid, its all about pandering to the idea of fast while getting a little better mileage.
sure it all revolves around what american consumers want, fast... but i know for a fact there is a very large group of potential buyers out there that would be happy with modest performance for 100MPG. it is possible today if they would just put a car out there to feel the market.
sorry for the long winded shout folks, but heck, maybe some of you will appreciate it
also, on hybrids. i went down to check out the camry hybrid this a.m.. what a joke. just like the others, a good concept with a very poor execution. the camry hybrid for example starts with the standard 4 banger engine at 140'ish HP, throws a generator on the end and with the electric motors produces about 190 HP with the claimed MPG of 40. thats horrible. a 4 banger camry drives quite snappy with the standard engine so why not use the small 1.2 litre engine with the generator and motor to produce a finale of about 140HP and maybe 80MPG ?? stupid, its all about pandering to the idea of fast while getting a little better mileage.
sure it all revolves around what american consumers want, fast... but i know for a fact there is a very large group of potential buyers out there that would be happy with modest performance for 100MPG. it is possible today if they would just put a car out there to feel the market.
sorry for the long winded shout folks, but heck, maybe some of you will appreciate it
Oh dont mind me.. I agree with you. I was just saying thats another way they will present it... Just like GM and thier Battiery powered Corvette. Sure they can produce one.. but with a price tag of $40K+ and a milage of maybe 180miles per charge, who in thier right mind would buy one.. They do/did it just to keep people away from electric, and keep us hoked on petrolium.
I agree with you.. Just drop in a small Honda 9-12hp engine behind a generator, and get reduced preformance at the trade of 80+mpg. Hell, A 2 gallon gas tank on one of thoes will run them for about 4-8hrs straight.
I agree with you.. Just drop in a small Honda 9-12hp engine behind a generator, and get reduced preformance at the trade of 80+mpg. Hell, A 2 gallon gas tank on one of thoes will run them for about 4-8hrs straight.
bout 7-8 yrs ago i started on the research to turn my wifes car into a hybrid, but really not a hybrid thats a made up term for the cars they are doing now. i was going to make a downsized mine truck drivetrain. at the time i was looking at a surplus ONAN generator, dont remember the KW rate but it was a 1.4 litre diesel. anyway i was going to get two 20HP elec motors for the front wheels and go to town.
i am now in the mood to start on that again, VW diesel looks good, but really it might be a better idea to go CNG, fill at home. i'll have to look into this again and start from scratch but i think i calculated that ONAN would net me close to 85MPG.
my wife is all for it and stands behind me in something like this so i might go for it this time.
i am now in the mood to start on that again, VW diesel looks good, but really it might be a better idea to go CNG, fill at home. i'll have to look into this again and start from scratch but i think i calculated that ONAN would net me close to 85MPG.
my wife is all for it and stands behind me in something like this so i might go for it this time.
Let me know when you do. Id also like to go with cng, as its by far the cheapest route to go now that propane is 2.50 a gallon.
RHINO said:
We're about to find out if that's true.
NPR announced a 100 MPG hybrid is en route.
I think it was even a Toyota.
And one of the advantages of hybrids that could theoretically be adapted to conventional engines is eliminating the need for startup enrichment. Think of how many times you start your engine on a tank of gas. With a conventional starter, it takes a lot of fuel to fire up.
Since the ISG (integrated starter and generator) spins the engine up to idle speed almost instantaneously, you simply run the injectors and spark plugs normally right off the bat.
And the ISG also acts as an engine brake, too, but that's computerized.
hj60 said:
It's a Prius, actually.
http://www.autoblog.com/2006/04/11/third-gen-prius-to-flirt-with-100-mpg/
I think my wife's Tahoe gets close to 20MPG right now, so it'd have to be a hell of a lot better than 25 for it to sell. But my point is that it's nice to see that PERHAPS the companies are opening up to do hybrids in vehicles other than f**king cars!!! I have no use for a f**king car. I drive a lil' ol Toyota pickup, and I couldn't see why they wouldn't want to put Hybrid technology in smaller pickups, SUV's (which they're doing, but have no idea about the numbers). If the price was right, I would seriously buy a hybrid pickup like mine if the mileage was a significant amount better. Right now I average 25 mpg, I fuel up once every two weeks and sometimes barely notice price changes, though this week the price hiked up at least 15-20 cents. The media says it all has to do with the Iran BS, but I know it's because of Memorial day. Watch it peak out right around that time then level off, maybe come down a tad, then go back up a bit for the 4th. They've done it very predictably and obnoxiously now for 2 or 3 years (the mofo's used to be more subtle). They know thousands of people are gonna load up the boats and hit lakes, or take the camp trailer up to the mountains and cough up a bunch of cash.
Remember how last year was record year for oil? Well they gotta try to do it again, and feed you any excuse in order to do it.
Lastly, I just gotta say on the negative side about the Hybrid thing, is the huge clouds of smug they create.
Remember how last year was record year for oil? Well they gotta try to do it again, and feed you any excuse in order to do it.
Lastly, I just gotta say on the negative side about the Hybrid thing, is the huge clouds of smug they create.
its funny you mention smug with hybrid owners cause i think its funny they feel entitled to get said attitude driving a car that costs more than you'll get out based on the average 5 yr ownership.
was also listening to a bit today about a group of guys turning coal into a viable and clean fuel source, i think they are targeting methane.
was also listening to a bit today about a group of guys turning coal into a viable and clean fuel source, i think they are targeting methane.
RHINO said:
Actually, they claim they can turn it into any hydrocarbon. The big advantage is it'd be pure. No impurities like in normal gas and diesel. I'm intrigued. But they say it'll take many years before it becomes competitively priced to drive us away from petroleum based fuels.
The company doing it is local. The tchnology is called Hydramax (or maybe Hydromax?)
This is also the name of a hydraulic brake assist system, so you may have to scroll down a bit in Google.
Last time I looked a Civic Hybrid was 28k and up. A wee bit more than I can pay for a new car. If they would let them go for right around 20k or less, I would have one.