Got a prius

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Ignition timing affects sensibility to octane. If you have late timing low octane is fine. If you have early timing you need high octane fuel. Most older cars have a selection for high or low octane fuel. The selection effectively adjusts the ignition timing.

[SIG220]

Originally posted by EagleDNY
Heck - my wifes' 99 VW Jetta TDI (Diesel) gets 45 Mpg Highway, and 40 in the City, and has been doing it for the last 8 years.   You can get TDI in Jettas and Beetles (and probably you'll see it in the new Rabbits too) - they got plenty of power, and they all get great mileage.  If you want to go way green, run em on vegediesel.  

Beats spending $3K on a battery pack replacement and wondering where all those dead NiMH batteries are going if you ask me.  

EagleDNY
$.02

There is no Jetta TDI Diesel available for sale on the Volkswagen of America website.   In fact, there are no Diesel cars shown on their website for any of their different models.

So I must dispute your claim that such as car is currently available for sale here in the USA.   There is no evidence to show that it is being imported here now.

A lot of the VW's being sold in North America are now being built at their plant in Puebla, Mexico.   My daughter briefly drove a New Bettle made there, and it was an absolute lemon.   I would not drive one of these Puebla made cars even if it was given to me for free.  They are even manufacturing engines and transmissions there now.

I would be open to owning and driving a high mileage diesel car.   But certainly not if it was made in Mexico.

SIG 220

[SIG220]

Originally posted by FX1

BTW you can have a BMW or a Camero but i bet you cant hold 15 women that cant wait to get wet... Just dont tell Bev that i said that...

But what does one do out on a boat with 15 wet women???

You must at least enjoy the view, no doubt!  

SIG 220

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Mercedes Benz USA

For some diesel power

[lazs2]

"Lazs have you ever met someone you liked?"

all the time.. they just don't believe in "sensible gun control" or "man made global warming"  or extra rights and..  they don't drive a prenus.

lazs

[JBA]

Originally posted by FX1
Got a prius

Thanks for screwing the environment

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.

I have two American made combustion engine cars on the road with over 100K with one at 157K. Still running strong.

[SIG220]

Originally posted by Ripsnort
Sig, don't put all your bolts into that Consumer Reports bucket...it can show signs of rust in the bottom. Use many sources (JD Power, etc.) before you quote.

Consumers is good, but not god and not always right.

So you find a single source ( JD Power) that says there is a rust issue, and feel that is somehow the word of God??   Interesting that JD Power gave the Prius the highest ratings possible in all the other major categories, yet you somehow forgot to mention that.  Hmmm,  you seem rather biased, to say the very least.

If there was a significant rust issue, I think we would be seeing a lot more about this on various websites.   I spent quite a bit of time looking on Google for further documentation of any rust problem, and could find none.

While we get a lot of rain here in Western Oregon, it very rarely ever snows here.   So we don't have any sort of issues like there are in other states, with road salt usage.

SIG 220

[SIG220]

Originally posted by JBA
Thanks for screwing the environment

This is one of the biggest hoaxes on the Internet.   Thanks for being to gullible as to swallow the story!!  

For your information, CNW Marketing is one single man by the name of Art Spinella, who is living in a remote little coastal village here in Oregon.  His information is as biased and inaccurate as it can get.  In fact, his company actually gets funds from GM.  Hmmm, I wonder why someone in the pay of GM might want to bash the Prius?

Here is a lot of info to discredit his Dust to Dust report:

http://www.denialism.com/labels/George%20Will.html

Even the number one environmentalist group in our nation, the Sierra Club, has condemned the report for being untruthful:

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200711/mrgreen_mailbag.asp

The TRUTH of the matter is that all of the massive environmental damage done around the Sudsbury area in Ontario was done from the time the mining operation opened in 1883, up through the second world war.  And that is long, long before the Prius was ever invented.  For many decades now, the plant has been operating cleanly, under the extremely strict environmental regulations that Canada now has.  

Do you really think that such a liberal and environmentalist country as Canada would allow such pollution as described from taking place?   You should have questioned this report from the start.   Even before the mining operation started, the forests in the area were decimated to get lumber to help rebuild Chicago after the huge 1871 fire.

So the whole claim that the Prius helped to cause all of this environmental damage in Canada is a totally false one, and completely discredits the author of this report.   You should also note that Art Spinella has a degree in MARKETING, and not in any field of science.  

In the future, don't be so gullible in believing everything you read on the Internet.

SIG 220

[SIG220]

Originally posted by MrRiplEy[H]
Mercedes Benz USA

For some diesel power

Well, it is good to see that Mercedes Benz has some diesel vehicles.   However, they are all SUV's, and their quoted highway mileage of 32 mpg is well below what the Prius can achieve.   Although it is certainly excellent for a SUV.

These cars are also so very expensive, that Mercdes Benz does not even list their price on their website.   You have to contact a dealer for a quote.

So this is in a totally different class of car ( SUV ), that the vast majority of people would not be able to afford.

SIG 220

[SIG220]

Well, it turns out that Ripsnort is right about California being at fault for blocking Diesel vehicles here in the USA.

It looks like VW is indeed going to sell a new cleaner diesel version of the Jetta in their 2009 product line.  

Here is a news report about this upcoming car, and why its introduction in the USA has been delayed:

http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2007/11/vw-delays-relea.html

SIG 220

[JBA]

Fixed

Originally posted by SIG220

http://www.denialism.com/labels/George%20Will.html

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200711/mrgreen_mailbag.asp
SIG 220

In the future, don't be so gullible in believing everything you read on the Internet

[68Wooley]

Volkswagen sold a 1.9 liter TDi version of the MK4 Golf and Jetta in certain states (notebly not California or New York).

When they moved to the MK5 models, the TDi was discontinued as it was impossible to run the newer, cleaner 2.0 TDi engines on American diesel due to the sulfur content.

For reasons discussed above, diesels will probably be reintroduced in the near future.

As for the quality of VW cars, I've had 2. The first was a MK4 GTi, built in Mexico. The quality was indeed pants. My wife, however, currently has a 2008 Eos that was built in Germany. Its much, much better.

That said, I wouldn't necessarily hold it against the Mexicans for building rubbish cars. Its possible to do that anywhere. Ask anyone who owned an Alabama built first generation Mercedes M-Class.

[EagleDNY]

Originally posted by SIG220
There is no Jetta TDI Diesel available for sale on the Volkswagen of America website.   In fact, there are no Diesel cars shown on their website for any of their different models.

So I must dispute your claim that such as car is currently available for sale here in the USA.   There is no evidence to show that it is being imported here now.

A lot of the VW's being sold in North America are now being built at their plant in Puebla, Mexico.   My daughter briefly drove a New Bettle made there, and it was an absolute lemon.   I would not drive one of these Puebla made cars even if it was given to me for free.  They are even manufacturing engines and transmissions there now.

I would be open to owning and driving a high mileage diesel car.   But certainly not if it was made in Mexico.

SIG 220

The VW of America website notwithstanding, TDI's have been available in this country for years (again, we have a '99 Jetta, and we picked it up right at the dealership).  If you want proof, walk into a VW dealership, or better yet, just look on the back of the VW's that are passing your Prius and look for the TDI lettering on the back.  

A quick search on Carmax also shows 5 TDI's available right now (3 Jettas and 2 Beetles listed from 2001 to 2006 model years), so that should be proof enough that they are available in this country.  Admittedly, the dealerships have a lot more gas models than TDI diesels, but you can get them.  

Agree with you about the Mexican VW's, which was one reason we went TDI in the first place - the TDI's (at least in '99) were all still being made in Germany.  

EagleDNY

[EagleDNY]

Originally posted by SIG220
Well, it turns out that Ripsnort is right about California being at fault for blocking Diesel vehicles here in the USA.

It looks like VW is indeed going to sell a new cleaner diesel version of the Jetta in their 2009 product line.  

Here is a news report about this upcoming car, and why its introduction in the USA has been delayed:

http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2007/11/vw-delays-relea.html

SIG 220

Don't worry - with 3 out of 5 calls to the dealerships asking about the TDI Jetta, you can be sure the new model will be here as quickly as possible.  Figures it would be California that caused the delay on the new model though.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Originally posted by SIG220
Well, it is good to see that Mercedes Benz has some diesel vehicles.   However, they are all SUV's, and their quoted highway mileage of 32 mpg is well below what the Prius can achieve.   Although it is certainly excellent for a SUV.

These cars are also so very expensive, that Mercdes Benz does not even list their price on their website.   You have to contact a dealer for a quote.

So this is in a totally different class of car ( SUV ), that the vast majority of people would not be able to afford.

SIG 220

They're not all SUV's the E320 CDI is a sedan lika mine. Obviously it gets much better mpg than the SUV's and my older version which doesn't have a particle filter gets even better mpg.