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Automotive News & Views Will Green Cars Be Exciting To Drive And Enjoyable To Own?
312 messages, Last post on Nov 23, 2009 at 1:15 PM
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Replying to: lilengineerboy (Jan 30, 2009 12:18 pm) I have voted Republican my whole life. I just realize that sometimes, people, when left of their own accord, are not smart enough or capable enough or willful enough to do the CORRECT, unselfish thing. That's where guvmint and laws and mandates need to step in and help people take care of themselves. How dirty would the air be if leaded fuel had not been outlawed? DDT? What if the EPA had never been formed? Can you imagine the wasteland we'd be living if if the Guvmint did not force private industry to clean up after themselves !!?!?!?!?!?
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Replying to: larsb (Jan 30, 2009 12:24 pm) So back on topic, do you feel that "green" cars will be: 1. Exciting to drive? 2. Enjoyable to own? btw i have been following the photo radar conversation also...you seem to have a very European view of things, kind of what made me align you with something of a socialist mentality. Thats not a dig at all, just seemed to be a lot of similarities there.
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Replying to: larsb (Jan 30, 2009 12:24 pm)
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Replying to: fintail (Jan 30, 2009 12:37 pm)
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Replying to: lilengineerboy (Jan 30, 2009 12:33 pm) I think it's exciting to see how many MPG I can squeak out of my TCH. It's enjoyable for me to fill my tank up only every 25-35 days. I'm not interested in a road-hugging, take-this-55-mph-curve-at-85-mph vehicle. Give me an electric car with 20 mile range for my commute, and as long as it seats 4, goes at least 65 mph, and has an air conditioner, I'm good.
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Replying to: gagrice (Jan 30, 2009 12:50 pm) It's just another battle front for the globalization proponents, it seems. |
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Replying to: gagrice (Jan 30, 2009 12:50 pm) I bought a "heat pump electric water heater assist device" that has my electric water heating costs for the year down to less than $50 PER YEAR. Not a misprint Look up the AirTap. It's awesome. I paid $549 with shipping, and the heating elements in my water heater have been turned off since July 2008. |
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Nippon has a valid point. We will need public transportation and the government will be the driving force in moving us in that direction. We as a country swing like a pendulum politically and we are in a full socialist swing at the moment. It is true that with a good public transportation system cars become less important. I know people living in Nippons back yard, San Francisco, that don't own a car and can't see a reason to buy one. They are like the small car people that don't understand why people own a SUV or Pickup. In those forums I hear people saying, "if you need a truck or SUV why not just rent one for the few times they are necessary?" The attitude of the buying public here and in Japan and parts of Europe is moving more in the direction of cars being more of a necessary evil rather than a need or want. when we moved from the Mussel car era we went through a period of bland cars with new smog controls that sapped power from them. It took 20 to 25 years for cars to get back to the point that enthusiasts could say they were happier with the new generation of cars. I don't know if we will recover as enthusiasts from the next 25 years. Maybe we will have a better idea of what happened to the Wooly Mammoth. |
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Gagrice, CARB gotcha' down? It may soon be time to move to Arizona, buddy!  But seriously, are cars, green or not, progressing in any sort of "exciting direction" even now? The roads become more and more crowded every day (a very California perspective, I realize), so there's hardly anywhere to drive for fun and stretch your legs anyway. Municipalities everywhere are harder and harder up for money, so police enforcement is clamping down ever harder on what little driving fun one might be able to extract from said roads. Meanwhile, the trend right now is toward less and less steering feel (electric steering, ugh), heavier and heavier vehicles with their consequent loss of natural agility, higher and higher vehicles as manufacturers seek that magical butt height where one can sit on the driver's seat without moving even one inch upward or downward (thereby raising the vehicle's center of gravity enormously), more computers every year taking away driver controls, and everyone's idea of the biggest possible improvement to a vehicle being the addition of two or three more passive driver safety features (hello ABS, 22 airbags, lane departure control and warnings, 17 cameras pointing out in every direction to display extra information about surrounding obstacles in the middle of your dash, stability control, traction control, brakes that brake for you if you don't brake yourself, I'm barely getting started), thereby adding cost, complexity, and weight to already over-heavy, overly expensive vehicles. I say bring on the green movement. At least then cars might get lighter and use less gas. But will they be more exciting to drive? I think not, but they already aren't.
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Replying to: lilengineerboy (Jan 30, 2009 12:33 pm) Is being fast and corner-hugging all there is to 'Exciting'? If so then all but a few of the SUVs, trucks are disqualified. An electric car using no gasoline with 4 motors on each of the 4 weels doing 0-60 in under 6 sec certainly qualifies. 'Enjoyable'? How many buyers are there each year? 40 million? Well then you have 40 million versions of 'enjoyable'. Enjoyable for a youngster in his first car at 19 is pure unadulterated pleasure. The fact that it's a Versa doesn't matter one bit. Those from the George Halas School of Economics ( 'He throws around nickels like they were manhole covers.': Mike Ditka ) love the fact that their 4 cyl MT 1994 Toyota pickup has never missed a beat in 200,000+ miles. Now that's pure unadulterated pleasure.
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