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Automotive News & Views Are gas prices fueling your pain? 
10042 messages, Last post on Jul 12, 2008 at 3:07 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: tpe (Apr 29, 2008 8:14 am) Cool tpe ! I will have to look that one up. I can convert my wife's Mazda Protege to EV using it, and race any Tesla's with it, zoom zoom...  I am not familiar with this ICE generator. Which EV car presently uses it ?
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From television and newspaper coverage of everyday folks, it seems that the universal answer to "What to do when gas is $4" is: Stay home, spend less. It's easy. We all have cable TV and internet. We don't have to go out to see a movie, and the public events survive without us. Our kids can just as well play in the back yard as a city park or sports complex. And avoiding the shopping malls saves both gas money, and discretionary money, which we now need to pay for higher utility and food costs, anyway. Our economy will decline, the stock market will suffer. But the cost of livng is so high now that we can no longer afford to worry about the bigger picture. .
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a couple days ago, I mentioned having to drive my '79 NYer up to PA for Spring Carlisle, when my Intrepid decided to die on me. To recap, I filled up the tank while I was up there, and the weather was horrible the whole way back. I was averaging 45-55 mph, occasionally getting up to 60. The tires on that car are a bit thin in the tread, so I didn't push it too hard, but the weather was so bad that EVERYBODY was going slow, so even at those speeds I wasn't holding anybody up. Even with acceleration I was very gentle, because it doesn't take much to make that car spin out in the rain. So the weather basically forced me to hypermile. Well, this morning I drove the car to work, and topped off at the local Shell. Anybody wanna guess on what kind of fuel economy I got on this mostly highway, 111.3 mile jaunt, driven like an old lady? The car has about 92K miles on it, 360-2bbl, an advertised base weight of 3850 lb, 2.45:1 axle, a cranky choke. Whoever guesses the closest wins a free ride around the block in it.  Just to narrow down the range a bit, I drove my uncle's '03 Corolla on this same trip (but nicer weather) last year, and got 37.4 mpg. The New Yorker, umm, did somewhat worse. 
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Replying to: flash11 (Apr 29, 2008 6:28 pm) "Zap! Zap! Zap!" |
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Replying to: andre1969 (Apr 30, 2008 4:31 am) I figured it out for the '88 Park Ave: 106 miles/3.6 gallons = 29.4 MPG.
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Replying to: tpe (Apr 29, 2008 3:08 pm) It is MORE for sure, but not WAY more. $19 a month is not WAY more. |
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Replying to: lemko (Apr 30, 2008 4:53 am) |
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Replying to: 1stpik (Apr 30, 2008 4:15 am) I suggest you and everyone else should look at history. Our country and many other countries have been through bad times, and economies and countries have rebounded. I'm sure people who lived in the Great ddepression, Europeans and Asians who were devastated by WWII, and even other poor economies of the 70's here in the U.S. were convinced life was going to be horrible from henceforth. The problems seemed insurmountable. Well guess what, the problems aren't. But you do need to accept that things change. Jobs and careers change, our transportation has changed, where and how we live. Maybe the problem is that too many people can't or just don't want to adapt and change, and whine about the world changing. Personally I think it would be good for our society to stop consuming so much, and maybe we could move away from the frivolous entertainment portions of the economy (sports, movies, TV, cable ...) , and actually have a work-force that makes or invents things. I'd say we we're a little messed-up as a society, when we can name people on American Idol or on the Boston Red Sox, and probably can't name 1 scientist who's doing research on alternate energies. Maybe our newspapers should have a Science section rather than a Sports section? To all: are you the person who is whining about the high cost of gas, want your comfy lifestyle, and are always looking for others to blame because they aren't doing enough to make the world better?
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Replying to: flash11 (Apr 29, 2008 6:28 pm) As far as I know there are no cars being marketed that use this serial hybrid configuration where the ICE simply charges the battery pack. GM's Chevy Volt sounds like the first one being developed. From a technological perspective it's actually much simpler than the hybrid system that Toyota incorporates albeit not quite as fuel efficient. I suspect the main reason it hasn't been pursued is that it will put much more wear on the battery pack. As we know battery packs are expensive. With these new batteries coming out that supposedly last for several thousand charges this might change. |
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Replying to: lmpracetech (Apr 29, 2008 4:01 pm) Last year Toyota unveiled a hybrid supercar concept that might go into production in a few years. I don't know if that's still the case. So far the hybrids that have also offered performance, like the Lexus 450h and the discontinued Accord hybrid, still rely primarily on their ICE for the bulk of their power. So the mpg gain isn't all that remarkable. If you change the balance so that most or all of your propulsion is being provided by the electric motors you could significantly reduce fuel consumption without sacrificing performance. As I mentioned earlier, the main drawback is that this would require a much bigger battery pack which would probably wear out quicker. hybrid sportscar |
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