Posted on 07/18/2007 8:28:59 AM PDT by 3AngelaD
Vandals Batter D.C. Man's SUV, Slash Its Tires and Scratch In an Eco Note
On a narrow, leafy street in Northwest Washington, where Prius hybrid cars and Volvos are the norm, one man bought a flashy gray Hummer that was too massive to fit in his garage. So he parked the seven-foot-tall behemoth on the street in front of his house and smiled politely when his eco-friendly neighbors looked on in disapproval at his "dream car."
It lasted five days on the street before two masked men took a bat to every window, a knife to each 38-inch tire and scratched into the body: "FOR THE ENVIRON."
"The thought of somebody vandalizing it never crossed my mind," said Gareth Groves...
Now, as Groves ponders what to do with the remains of his $38,000 SUV, he has been the target of a number of people who have driven by the crime scene in his upscale neighborhood and glared at him in smug satisfaction...
Neighbor Lucille Liem, 37, who owns a Prius hybrid, said that a common sentiment in the neighborhood is that large vehicles are impractical and a strain on the Earth -- and Hummers in particular are a symbol of consumer excess... Liem added quickly that she does not condone violence...
Investigators said they are searching for the vandals but don't have many leads. Witnesses saw two men about six feet tall with bandanas or masks over their faces smash up the car about 3:30 a.m. Monday and then run off...
He bought the used 2005 vehicle a month ago from a dentist in Fairfax County..."I'm worried about what I do now," he said. "If I get it fixed, do I put it back in the same spot three weeks from now?"
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
And hear I thought women liked grabbing hold of the knob on a stick... ;-/
If you live in Washington, D.C., they are impossible to avoid.
Corvettes aren't cheap and many men can't afford one until middle age.
Exactly! I had a girlfriend who said "Look at that old guy driving a Vette-- disgusting!" Pissed me off. The guy probably spent all his money on his family and couldn't afford the car until his kids were out of college.
Go drive a Toyota Corolla around and see where the bumpers of larger vehicles would strike you or your child if you were side swiped or rear-ended or had a head-on.
Hint: It’s known as the “kill zone” in hunting.
Higher is better. And it's basic physics: the larger mass absorbs greater force (rather than the occupants).
LOL
I would have paid real money to see you say that to her.
Opps.... that should read 200 mpH, not mpg. Good Lord, a Cobra that got 200 MPG and went 200MPG would be worth a zillion dollars.
ROFLMAO
I've got an itch to go get a '50s vintage Dodge M-37 Weapons Carrier, like this one:
Converting it to diesel would be easy enough - there's room under that hood for just about anything. I know there are transmission adapters available that allow Chevy small-block engines to be fitted, so options abound.
Agreed, out of sight and perfectly safe. **snicker, snicker**
How long is that? About as long as your regulation pickup, or bigger?
It looks like it could withstand even me.
I miss driving a stick sometimes, but my wrists were starting to bother me, and I didn't want to give up the typing, the sewing, or the piano, so I went automatic three cars back.
Seriously, buy a used 18 year old Crown Victoria with the 351 in it, clean it up and add just a touch of "go-fast" bits (headers and a better fuel map ought to be plenty), then go mop the floor with the "bling-mobiles". Keep it looking as stock as possible.
You can later tell the punk that he spent more on "look at me" stickers than you paid for the car that just sucked his doors off as it passed him.
Any V-8 Mustang that's in decent tune will also eat these fart-can cars's lunch anytime.
It's fun!
Bah! A pox on ye Paul-truthers!
not a zillion! It would be worth gazillions!
It’s “period” as far as vocab, but I’m not sensing fire behind your words. ;)
Y’all are killin’ me! He looks like an Eminem wanna-be.
Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage
By Chris Demorro
The Toyota Prius has become the flagship car for those in our society so environmentally conscious that they are willing to spend a premium to show the world how much they care. Unfortunately for them, their ultimate ‘green car’ is the source of some of the worst pollution in North America; it takes more combined energy per Prius to produce than a Hummer.
Before we delve into the seedy underworld of hybrids, you must first understand how a hybrid works. For this, we will use the most popular hybrid on the market, the Toyota Prius.
The Prius is powered by not one, but two engines: a standard 76 horsepower, 1.5-liter gas engine found in most cars today and a battery- powered engine that deals out 67 horsepower and a whooping 295ft/lbs of torque, below 2000 revolutions per minute. Essentially, the Toyota Synergy Drive system, as it is so called, propels the car from a dead stop to up to 30mph. This is where the largest percent of gas is consumed. As any physics major can tell you, it takes more energy to get an object moving than to keep it moving. The battery is recharged through the braking system, as well as when the gasoline engine takes over anywhere north of 30mph. It seems like a great energy efficient and environmentally sound car, right?
You would be right if you went by the old government EPA estimates, which netted the Prius an incredible 60 miles per gallon in the city and 51 miles per gallon on the highway. Unfortunately for Toyota, the government realized how unrealistic their EPA tests were, which consisted of highway speeds limited to 55mph and acceleration of only 3.3 mph per second. The new tests which affect all 2008 models give a much more realistic rating with highway speeds of 80mph and acceleration of 8mph per second. This has dropped the Prius’s EPA down by 25 percent to an average of 45mpg. This now puts the Toyota within spitting distance of cars like the Chevy Aveo, which costs less then half what the Prius costs.
However, if that was the only issue with the Prius, I wouldn’t be writing this article. It gets much worse.
Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.
The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius’ battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare.
“The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside,” said Canadian Greenpeace energy-coordinator David Martin during an interview with Mail, a British-based newspaper.
All of this would be bad enough in and of itself; however, the journey to make a hybrid doesn’t end there. The nickel produced by this disastrous plant is shipped via massive container ship to the largest nickel refinery in Europe. From there, the nickel hops over to China to produce ‘nickel foam.’ From there, it goes to Japan. Finally, the completed batteries are shipped to the United States, finalizing the around-the-world trip required to produce a single Prius battery. Are these not sounding less and less like environmentally sound cars and more like a farce?
Wait, I haven’t even got to the best part yet.
When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Prius’s arch nemesis.
Through a study by CNW Marketing called “Dust to Dust,” the total combined energy is taken from all the electrical, fuel, transportation, materials (metal, plastic, etc) and hundreds of other factors over the expected lifetime of a vehicle. The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles - the expected lifespan of the Hybrid.
The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it.
So, if you are really an environmentalist - ditch the Prius. Instead, buy one of the most economical cars available - a Toyota Scion xB. The Scion only costs a paltry $0.48 per mile to put on the road. If you are still obsessed over gas mileage - buy a Chevy Aveo and fix that lead foot.
One last fun fact for you: it takes five years to offset the premium price of a Prius. Meaning, you have to wait 60 months to save any money over a non-hybrid car because of lower gas expenses.
On a long wheelbase truck there is generally room to mount all sorts of fuel tanks. Putting a couple hundred gallons of Diesel along with the 50 gal gasoline tank to use in driving the truck wouldn't be a big deal.
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.