Posted on 09/08/2001 9:09:37 PM PDT by Utah Girl
ETROIT — As long as Americans could count on stable prices for gasoline, they did not have much interest in vehicles that ran on anything else. But unpredictable fuel prices have helped to spur demand in a small assortment of cars and trucks that are available with diesel engines and for hybrid vehicles that run on a combination electric motor and gasoline engine.
"It's always great to go 500 miles on less than $20 in gas," said Jim Alden of Hollywood, who recently sold his 1994 Honda Accord and bought a $22,000 silver 2001 Toyota (news/quote) Prius, one of two hybrid gas-electric vehicles on the market, along with the Honda Insight.
Mr. Alden, 39, had paid more than $2 a gallon for gasoline earlier this year during his frequent road trips for his business, which maintains computer networks for small companies. But it was not just a need to save money on gas that prompted him to buy an alternative-fuel vehicle.
"I was motivated by the technology, and it's so good for the environment," he said.
A growing number of consumers appear to share his interest. According to CNW Marketing/Research of Bandon, Ore., which studies consumer behavior, about 37 percent of car shoppers in 2001 considered themselves "extremely concerned" about the environment, more than triple the 11 percent who put themselves in that category in 1996.
Still, sales of alternative-fuel vehicles make up only a fraction of the overall market for cars and trucks — about 50,000 of more than 16 million vehicles sold nationwide this year. That is partly because they are not as plentiful in the United States as they are elsewhere, where gas prices tend to be much higher. And drivers who want to switch will probably have to make some adjustments: the new fuel-efficient vehicles lack some of the convenience and, in some cases, the comforts of conventional ones. They may also be more expensive than gasoline-powered cars of similar size.
Diesel power, the most familiar alternative for improving fuel economy, is a popular choice for buyers of big pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles like the Ford F- Series, the Dodge Ram and the Chevrolet Suburban. Analysts expect sales of about 500,000 diesel-powered trucks and S.U.V.'s this year, about the same as last year.
But for Americans, finding a diesel vehicle can be difficult. The chief source now is Volkswagen (news/quote); diesel versions of its New Beetle, Jetta and Golf have been flying out of showrooms this year.
Dealers exhausted their supply of 2001 models by mid-July and since then have been taking orders for the 2002 versions, which should start arriving this month. If sales continue at their year-to-date pace, VW dealers will sell about 23,000 diesels this year, about 8 percent of VW's total sales of 365,000 vehicles in the United States. While dealers are urging Volkswagen to ship more diesels to America for the 2002 model year, which starts this fall, VW's supply is limited because its diesels are so popular abroad. In Europe, more than half the cars sold are diesel-powered; the figure is as high as 75 percent in Italy and France.
All diesel cars sold by VW in the United States have a 1.9-liter, 90-horsepower turbo- charged engine, which gets above-average gas mileage — 42 m.p.g. in city driving, 49 on the highway. (By contrast, a gasoline Golf, with a 2.0-liter engine, gets 22 m.p.g. in the city and 28 on the highway.) Unlike past diesels, which spit and chugged and were generally noisy, the modern VW diesels with redesigned engines are smooth and quiet, providing relatively peppy acceleration, given the engine's small size. (Prices start at around $17,600 for the Golf, $19,300 for the New Beetle and $19,700 for the Jetta — slightly higher than the nondiesel models.)
The primary drawback is the same frustration known by many past owners: finding fuel. Gas stations in some cities and suburbs do not carry diesel, so the primary source is truck stops, which can be inconvenient.
Availability of fuel is not a problem for owners of hybrid gas-electric cars like the Insight and the Prius (pronounced PREE- us), which use unleaded gasoline to bolster the thrust of an electric motor. Those cars also have an advantage over recent, purely electric cars like the EV1 from General Motors (news/quote), which proved too expensive and quirky to find wide acceptance. The EV1, introduced in 1996, was available only in California and Arizona and was discontinued in 1999.
Unlike electric cars, hybrid gas-electric cars need no special equipment, like battery-charging stations.
"A lot of people are surprised that you don't have to plug them in," said Ernest Bastien, corporate marketing manager at Toyota Motor Sales USA, who is in charge of American sales for the Prius. The car became available in Japan in 1997 and in the United States last year.
But first, you have to find one. Both the Prius and the Insight are in short supply — the Prius is sold out until April, while the Insight can be extremely scarce in markets like California, where they are most popular. (The City of New York just bought 231 of them, while New York State and New Jersey bought several dozen to be used by municipal and state agencies.)
Of the pair, Prius is clearly the more conventional in appearance. It closely resembles the Toyota Corolla subcompact, on which it is based. It has an automatic transmission, four doors, seating for five people, plenty of interior room and a large trunk. But it costs about $20,000, or at least $5,000 more than a comparably equipped Corolla. Toyota expects to sell about 14,000 Prius cars during this calendar year.
The Insight, which also starts at around $20,000, makes a bolder statement. It is a low-slung, two-seat hatchback with an aluminum body that brings to mind an inverted bathtub. It has a 1.0-liter, three-cylinder engine and until the 2002 model year was available only with a manual transmission. Honda now offers an automatic.
If the Insight lags behind the Prius in practicality, it whooshes ahead in fuel economy, getting 61 m.p.g. in city driving and 68 on the highway. Many owners say they have achieved 70 m.p.g. or more under optimum conditions.
While the Prius is not as frugal, it performs better in city driving than on the open road. It is rated 52 m.p.g. city, 45 m.p.g. highway. Both cars are more efficient at slower speeds, which make greater use of electric power, than at high speeds, which require a blast of gasoline.
To achieve those figures, however, Honda and Toyota encourage owners to drive sedately, without quick starts or stops. "If you're a hot-rodder, and you expect to get the numbers we claim, you're going to be disappointed," said Andrew Boyd, a spokesman for Honda in Detroit.
Jeff Harris, a Chicago lawyer, says he is averaging 55 m.p.g. in his Insight because he spends so much time in stop-and-go traffic. Mr. Harris bought his Insight last April, before gas prices climbed in his area, and bargained his dealer down to $15,200, so he considers his car a good value.
Mr. Harris, 39, says there is just one irritation about owning an Insight: the attention it draws.
"Sometimes it's an annoyance, because people want to stop and talk to you all the time," he said of his car.
Soon after he bought it, Mr. Harris recalled rolling up to a four-way stop, along with three other cars. He waited for one of the others to proceed. But none did: they were all staring at his car.
The Insight and the Prius are about to have challengers in the hybrid market. Following Toyota with something more conventional, Honda will introduce a hybrid version of its subcompact Civic, due early next year. Chrysler plans a hybrid Dodge Durango sport utility, in spring 2002, while Ford plans a hybrid version of its small Escape S.U.V.
Mr. Alden, the Prius owner, says he is delighted with his new car and is looking forward to having more hybrid vehicles on the market.
"It wasn't long ago that American manufacturers were saying, `this can't be done,' " he said. "Well, this really is what the public is buying."
from what I understand, you don't plug these in, I think they run on a gasoline engine, powering an electric generator, which powers electric motors which move the vehicle. The gasoline engine runs at a steady speed and optimum efficiency when powering the generator, so it is very efficient.
I got rid of my Corvette (by definition, a low-emissions vehicle), and I'm currently in the process of getting rid of my tuna-boat Sunday cruiser. My new daily driver? My 1968, metallic razberry, Chevy Camaro. It has a bitchin' 396 big-block, a 4-speed, positraction and 17" wheels/tires. Currently, a custom Alston Chassisworks suspension package is on order for it.
Yeah, it gets a grand total of 14 mpg, if I can keep my foot out of it. Yeah, I could buy a new car... But why? My insurance is a pittance, the maintenance (for an experienced gear-head like me) is minimal, and it'll suck the doors off a "top of the line" 2001 Z06 Corvette... For a fifth the cost. It's a hoot to drive, and it's HEAVY! My wife had hit a dog with it, a couple of years ago. The dog was well over 100 pounds, and she hit it doing 65... It stove in the fender (the bumper had been "shaved" by the previous owner), which I pushed back out with 20 minutes of work- and you can't see it, unless you know where to look...
Do that in some little eco-box (high-mileage, low structural integrity) deathtrap... And it would be totalled...
Yeah. I can just see it...
In wheezing breath: "Well, yeah, I'm a quadraplegic because I hit a bicyclist with my Insight, and the bicycle won... But it got 52 miles per gallon before it ruined my life!"
No thanks...
In the article's defense, note the line where they quote the guy saying, "A lot of people are surprised that you don't have to plug them in". I'm sure that slipped by most people who read the article, since the author doesn't explain why that is true. So, don't worry about distant smokestacks or anything like that producing the electricity for these cars. That isn't the case here, though there are always the gasoline refineries to do that.
I've got a friend who claims the same thing. Even had a schematic of a secret carbuerator that was alleged to have done the same thing. I examined the drawings thoroughly (copies of the drawings in the US Patent office), and dismissed them as bogus on the face of it.
Ironic thing: An engine needs to have a certain ratio of fuel to air, for proper combustion to occur. If there is too little fuel for the oxygen present (commonly referred to as a "lean" condition), excessive temperatures occur rapidly within the cylinder, causing the piston to melt and/or fragment. Too much fuel ("rich" condition), causes the spark plugs to be doused in raw fuel, and they "foul," and no longer function correctly. The correct ratio is 14.7 parts oxygen to one part fuel. The technological advances that have occurred thus far, are in the delivery of the fuel into the cylinder- by shooting a fine mist into the cylinder instead of droplets in suspension (the difference between fuel injection and carbueration), you can improve efficiency: less wasted gas, no lean conditions, no dreaded "detonation" which will quickly destroy an engine. Fuel injection and computer controls have taken us to the pinnacle of technology, with regard to the internal combustion engine. There have been a variety of expirements with things such as extremely high-pressured fuel injection (15000 psi), radial ceramic valves, compression ratios, etc. But nothing as yet has proven to be as reliable, and durable, as what we now have.
To the environmental nuts who make such outlandish claims, you only have to point out the stoichiometric ratio of 14.7:1 (just like 14.7 pounds of pressure at sea level), of air to fuel. A gasoline engine must have this, to survive. A vehicle must have a certain number of horsepower to attain a certain rate of speed, as well as to maintain that speed. One cannot simply disregard the friction of moving parts, wind resistance (due both to frontal mass as well as coefficient of drag or "streamlining"), etc.
Having a car be able to get 70 mpg is a lofty goal... But I'll NOT sacrifice my safety, the safety of my wife, or the enjoyment my old-school "musclecar" brings... For a noble (and ill-considered) goal of a liberal twit.
That your friend is so easily stumped by logic is no suprise. Liberals are always stumped by logic, common sense and facts which contradict their (emotionally) preconceived opinions.
My regards to you, lady.
While a carbuerated engine without a catalytic convertor using non-oxygenated gasoline is very "dirty", and while either a catalytic convertor or oxygenated gasoline alone will reduce emissions substantially with only a small loss of power and efficiency, using oxygenated gasoline in a car with a catalytic convertor causes an efficiency loss greater than the sum of individual losses from those two technologies, while producing emissions-reduction benefits scarcely greater than using either technique alone.
The Prius is very entertaining to drive. It changes your driving habits almost automaticly. You just keep trying to do better while watching the computer display on the dash. It has plenty of power, and we love it.
The Prius and Insight are both really nifty vehicles. And the VW turbo diesels are also phenomenally quiet and clean in comparison to the American diesel cars of a few years back. (And for those concerned about safety, the VWs are some of the safest cars on the road.)
I think some FReepers are inclined to write off anything described as "green" as somehow evil, but these are all terrific cars. I just wish American companies would get on the ball and start to compete in these markets.
From what I can see, hybrids are going to be a popular and viable approach to building cars, and the technology that goes into them will help to pave the way for the first generation of fuel cell based cars coming in the next few years. Indeed, the highest performance luxury or sports cars of the future may well be fuel cell / gas engine hybrids.
The Hybrids are silly junk. If you drive one 600,000 miles you can breakeven on car cost vs gas cost: IF you don't have to buy $3,000 batteries every 80,000 miles. It is extremely likely that these hybrids use more energy during manufacting than they can possibly save during their lifetime. Buy one and expect Zero resale value in 5 years.
51 mpg half of the year, and 21 the rest... average of 36!
I also really like the idea of the 1960's Camaro, too, CE...
make mine a '66 Mustang Convertible or a '68 GTO convertible.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.