Posted on 01/20/2006 10:58:08 AM PST by RWR8189
Yeah, the smart key is fantastic. I figure I save about five hours a year not having to dig in my purse for the keys. I really like the car because it's so entertaining.
Fair enough. Some people just go by the car's calculator, which can't always be trusted.
But the suburbs are much more spread out and have trees and greenery which help mitigate the pollution.
I don't why you'd have to be any more vigilant than you'd normally be. If the pedestrian is in the street while you're driving, you should see him anyway. I'm sure hybrid cars still have horns, right?
I think you're right. Some work has been done on that (but not enough).
For example, my Hybrid Escape has what Ford calls an Atkinson cycle engine. It's not really that at all; what they've done is retard the timing of the intake valve to reduce pumping loss on the compression stroke (some of the mixture flows back into the intake runners).
Also, the throttle is fly-by-wire. You can't do things like rev the engine unnecessarily when the transaxle is in park. You can't power brake either, but then this isn't a performance car either.
Roughly half the time a pedestrian gets hit it is their fault, half the driver's. You still have control over your half, it's just that they can't hear you coming so sometimes they will step right out in front of you and there's nothing you can do to avoid the collision. Another problem is you can no longer run a yellow light in the city. With a conventional car, the pedestrian hears the car racing. In a hybrid they take their walk light right away and get hit. A hybrid driver does not have the high sitting visibility that an SUV driver has, so extra care is needed. Personally I wouldn't city drive in silent electric mode without buying a lot of ambulance chaser insurance.
So the poor folks downwind from the power plants get that much more fly ash from the increased kilowatt hours usage from everyone plugging in their battery chargers.
I'd rather the city folks keep their own pollution. It does not seem right that they import their power and let the neighbors of the power plants deal with their increased pollution.
Well, I don't know about this. I had a 2003 Escape V6 that averaged about 21 mpg overall. My new 2006 Escape Hybrid got 35.43 mpg on its first tank and I have gotten exactly 30.44 mpg in all driving at 1,500 miles. So I don't know where the author is coming from except he doesn't like hybrids.
I didn't buy it for the fuel economy but that is a bonus. I just happened to want to own it because I didn't see any downsides and it has plenty of power. And dead quiet at stoplights since the engine isn't running.
"Do I trust Consumer Reports to test cars? No. If I want to read about cars, I'll go get Car and Driver. Then there's this:
And the Ford Escape small sport utility vehicle managed 22 mpg
I don't know how the heck they managed that, but Escape Hybrid averages 30-31 MPG. And I drive to D.C. every day."
If they only got 22 mpg with the Escape Hybrid they must be the worst drivers in the world. Like you I get almost exactly what you get. The average is 30.44 mpg in all driving. I should know. I had a 2003 Escape with the V6 and the Hybrid is at least a 50% improvement and I haven't changed my driving habits.
Probably the delayed intake closure to which I was referring. It may be that doing that reduces throttle energy waste to the point that there's not much worth harvesting, but otherwise as I said the throttle, if harnessed, would represent better-than-free energy.
Maybe.
The Accord Hybrid one seems awfully low. They also managed something like 18 mpg with a Jeep Liberty CRD. Maybe they test cars with the parking brake set.
And if it's one of the newest ones, it no longer sounds like it's Cummins apart....
There is much to be said for high pressure injection... sure quieted those Cummins' down!
"prestige of owning such a vehicle,"
Um, maybe English is not this guys first language?
"prestige" should have been embarrassment!
I have owned a LOT of cars, and I am always looking for another, but I will NEVER own one those, and with any luck at all I will never ride in one either!
I notice I have owned several vintage sports cars that equal or better these losers mileage.
Yep.... The Empire of New York will not allow me to register a new TDI. Anyone have a good used one? Er.. never mind. Anyone with a good used one is keeping it.
Which is why I still drive my '97 Jetta TDI even though it has 327000 miles on it...
Which is just barely broken in, by VW Diesel standards... ;-)
I didn't buy it for the fuel economy but that is a bonus. I just happened to want to own it because I didn't see any downsides and it has plenty of power. And dead quiet at stoplights since the engine isn't running.
But if you plug it in to charge it up, aren't you displacing the pollution rather than eliminating it? Displacing it to the predominantly rural areas where power plants are located.
Why should those folks breathe the additional pollutants to reduce the same in the more urban area?
I would rather have a Bug-Eye Sprite, Triumph Spitfire, or even a Fiat 850.
I can probably buy any one of them, fully restored, for under $8,000
Classics don't depreciate, the modern junk is "upside down" the moment it leaves the dealer!
All of which can get better mileage than the hybrids in the article.
You left out PERFORMANCE!
It has to go, it has to stop, it has to handle.
Hybrids don't!
What would keep the air in cities even cleaner is a catalytic coating on automotive radiators, breaking down pollutants from other cars in the air as it passed through to cool the engine.
But since this technology had no effect on the vehicle's own tailpipe, it was disincentivized by the government.
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