Posted on 08/03/2006 1:35:00 PM PDT by Irontank
What is it with the halos following the hybrids?
There you are, in a group of folks having a perfectly rational discussion, then one person announces she's looking into getting a hybrid car - that environmentally correct model that uses both gas and electricity - and everyone sort of says, "wow, really?" and "good for you!" as if the person has just scored eternally usable brownie points for helping to rescue the planet.
The cars are given all sorts of special status. Their buyers get tax breaks. In many parts of the country, they get a free pass to drive on "high occupancy vehicle (HOV)" lanes, even if there is only one driver. Chicago Alderman Rey Colon has just introduced an ordinance in the City Council there to allow hybrids to enjoy free public parking. "He doesn't know how much revenue it would cost the city, but suggests raising metered rates to make up the difference," the Chicago Sun-Times reported this week.
Apparently no price is too much for glory. What's next? Giving hybrid drivers the right to park in handicapped spots?
This feel-goodism has never felt quite right to me. It's not just that until recently the cars were so little and lacked power - I prefer big, heavy and safe - it's that it's always been the case that the market doesn't support them. They may be politically correct, but hybrids would get nowhere without government and manufacturer subsidies. (Car companies take losses on the cars.) Hybrids cost about $6,000 more to make than similar gas-powered car, and consumers won't shell that out - whatever their politics - and so buyers require the subsidies, Reason magazine recently reported.
But car manufacturers won't go out of business over hybrids, either. Despite all the hype and the recent spike in gas prices, sales of hybrids have dropped every month this year compared to the same month last year. So much so, manufacturers like Ford are backing away from earlier politically motivated commitments to produce so many of them, Reason revealed. In fact, hybrid manufacturers are now doing what car manufacturers always do, according to National Geographic magazine - trying to add horsepower to the vehicles - because that is what the buyer wants. But that will, in turn, lower their fuel efficiency.
Already, by the way, outside of the Environmental Protection Agency's special testing sites, they don't get near the great gas mileage we're told they do, The Weekly Standard magazine recently showed.
Look, some folks just like the things and saving some money on gas, and good for them. What I object to is the myth that persists in the popular culture that hybrids confer some kind of special "pure" status on the driver.
I wonder if once they grow nearly as big and heavy as an SUV, if they will keep their halos? My bet is "yes" - some people just want to feel good about feeling good about themselves, no matter the facts.
Even these: The well respected auto research firm, CNW Marketing in Brandon, Ore., recently found after a two-year study collecting data on the "dust to dust" energy costs of the cars, meaning the "energy necessary to plan, build, sell, drive and dispose" of them, that the hybrids don't stack up well against their gas powered counterparts. That's in part because they require such complicated computer systems and hard-to-make, light-weight materials, and they don't last nearly as long as gas-powered cars (around 100,000 vs. 300,000 miles).
CNW translated all that and more into "energy costs per miles driven" and found that hybrids use more total energy in their lifetime than their gasoline powered cousins. Hear this - even a Hummer, the ultimate bane of the environmentalist world - uses less total energy over its lifetime than any currently offered hybrid (including the halo-special, the Prius), said Car and Driver magazine in reporting on the study.
Well look, apparently nobody is going to give me a halo or a tax break or a special parking space or room on the "HOV" lanes for driving my gas-powered minivan, and that's fine. (I once wanted a halo for accommodating myself to a minivan, but I'm over that now.)
I just don't think those of us who resist the hybrid craze - maybe even those folks who dare to drive Hummers - should be seen as having horns either.
In the long run, sorry, but they're going to have to sex this stuff up.
There are only so many hacky-sack fans out there....
Smug alert!
Are there any liberal policies that don't have consequences that cause the opposite of the intended effect?
I own a hybrid. What's funny to me is that I don't bring it up unless others do. I love the Mariner. I'm really enjoying it. It's a four wheel drive and I get anywhere from 26.5 to 30.5 mpg.
I don't ask others to like my car. I don't care what they drive and I would hope they don't care what I drive.
I don't see a lot of articles hawking hybrids, but I see articles all the time dumping on them.
My suggestion is... get over it folks. You buy the car you like. I'll buy the car I like. I'm not going to set here telling you how much extra you're paying for gas. I'm not going to play some guilt trip on you. And guess what, I'm not buying into the guilt trip all these writers are trying to inflict on hybrid drivers.
As I said, get over it folks. It's a friggen car. Big whoopin deal.
Don't see much of Betsy Hart anymore, but she's a goody.
My prediction is that hybrids will soon take a back seat to new efficient and clean diesels coming out at the end of the year when the new diesel formulation goes into effect. This is assuming that these diesel cars are less expensive than the hybrids. Besides, hybrids are just trendy and people have bought into it. The more powerful hybrids are hurting badly. Honda's Accord hybrid (a great car that was marketed wrong) isn't selling well cuz it doesn't get the gas mileage it promises and the Lexus RX 400h sales have been cut in half when compared to last year. I can't wait to see Honda's diesel engine. I hope it rocks.
Some things are just hip. Hybrids are hip. People who talk about owning a hybrid are hip. People who own a hybrid say they are happy and are terminally hip.
What sort of gas mileage do these new cars get?
The average car lasts 300,000 miles? At about 150-175K cars up here are a rusty pile in the driveway.
Someone I was talking to the other day said she wanted one--I asked her, where do you think the electricity comes from to run these things? (Blank look, crickets...)
One of the knocks about most of the hybrids is the fact that a lot of weight has been "shaved off" to assist in the effort to achieve the advertised mpg's. That could have a deleterious effect on the safety aspects in and of itself.
Personally I don't care if you or anyone else choose to buy and drive one. The last time I check this is still "the land of the free because of the brave". For my personal choice, I'll stick to my Chevy C1500 with the extended cab, with the 4 bolt main 350 and posi. She's an oldie but a goodie and the Flowmaster exhaust system sounds really nice as I'm haulin down the road!
Which ones? I've heard the new EPA requirements for diesels will all but kill them off. For example, I think I read VW has no plans to sell the TDI here next year.
Owning a Hybrid is a badge of honor telling the world you failed thermodynamics.
This point was made very clearly last year when someone pointed out how many Prius cars were sold in comparison to the Honda Accord hybrid model. Under normal circumstances, one might have expected the hybird Accord to sell fairly well -- since from a visual standpoint it is basically the same car as the very popular standard (gasoline) version of the Honda Accord.
But that has not been the case. The fact that the Prius (which has no gasoline version) is far more popular than the Accord (which does) seems to support the notion that people who buy hybrid cars aren't just interested in reducing their gasoline consumption -- they're interested in reducing their gasoline consumption in a manner that is clearly visible to others.
Yesterday, while reading reviews of weed-whackers on Amazon, I happened upon one where the reviewer said she bought an electric rather than a gas-powered model in order to not contribute to global warming.
I laughed out loud.
" bogus studies (using methods more commonly associated with Moonbats), don't help advance the argument."
Hey, leave me out of this. I didn't do any studies!
Dr. Bogus Pachysandra
My employer recently bought a Hybrid Escape for us to drive at work. I work in Oklahoma and, needless to say, our summers are very hot. A hybrid is designed to run off battery power when stopped and at my work location I do a lot of stop and go driving and the vehicle will idle for extended periods of time. When the vehicle is running off of battery power alone the a/c does not run, no engine to turn the compressor. In order to get the a/c to run all the time max a/c must be selected. Then the engine stays running when the vehicle is stopped and keeps the a/c going. But with the engine running all the time any fuel savings from shifting to battery power is reduced. It makes me wonder how many hybrid drivers in Texas, Georgia, Florida, Arizona, etc., are doing the same thing so that their a/c continues to run.
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