Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Krusher on May 09, 2006, 07:40:30 PM
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When a hybrid hits 100+ mpg I may have to trade in the Civic for one. This one looks promising and quick.
113 mpg Prius (http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/66260/prius_hits_113mpg.html)
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You may want to hold off on any of these so-called "high MPG" hybrids- I have heard of people getting actual mileage as much as 50% less than advertised, especially in highway driving.
One of my coworkers had one for two months before he went back and got a Corolla. Was getting 27 miles a gallon- a whopping 1 mile more than my Mustang averages.
I've heard those Hybrid SUVs get even less mileage than the regular ones in anything but level, slow, city driving. On the highway or out in the countryside, they are useless.
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I've been on the fence on these, waiting for more models...and more competitors...to force the designs to look better, get better mileage and that sorta thing.
It seems some are using a novel feature of going from using 6 cylinders to 4 when at cruise, then re-activating the other pistons on demand, when more power is needed.
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Originally posted by Treize69
You may want to hold off on any of these so-called "high MPG" hybrids- I have heard of people getting actual mileage as much as 50% less than advertised, especially in highway driving.
One of my coworkers had one for two months before he went back and got a Corolla. Was getting 27 miles a gallon- a whopping 1 mile more than my Mustang averages.
I've heard those Hybrid SUVs get even less mileage than the regular ones in anything but level, slow, city driving. On the highway or out in the countryside, they are useless.
Thats the main reason I have held of on the current hybrids. I never buy anything new anyhow, I hate being a beta tester.
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new golf is advertising higher milage than a prius, without the wussy hybrid crap. besides, there ugly as sin and nothing says hippy/yuppie moron more!
im more interested in that 6 stroke thing that was posted a while back, looks like its much more feasable and marketable than this one wimpy engine, and one wimpier motor "hybrid" crap.
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The 4/8 (or 6/8?) engine in the Monte Carlo is supposed to be pretty good. Great power when you need it, great mileage when youre cruising on the highway.
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ya excpet after you save all that money on that gas you half to pay for the 8000 doller battery. pluss it looks stupid lol. i dont know electric cars just seem boring to me.
catfish6
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Originally posted by ujustdied
i dont know electric cars just seem boring to me
Buckeye Bullet 271 mph
(http://www.megawattmotorworks.com/articles/images/bullet/oct17.jpg)
LiX-75 from Hybrid Technologies 0-60 3 sec, 200+ top speed
(http://www.mobilemag.com/content/images/7322_large.jpg)
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It seems some are using a novel feature of going from using 6 cylinders to 4 when at cruise, then re-activating the other pistons on demand, when more power is needed.
Thats not really novel, or new. Cadillac tryed that back in th '80s with a V8. The engine would use as few as 4 cylinders or up to all 8 depending on the power demands.
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Originally posted by Holden McGroin
LiX-75 from Hybrid Technologies 0-60 3 sec, 200+ top speed
(http://www.mobilemag.com/content/images/7322_large.jpg)
How long is the extension cord
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Hurry up and buy those hybrids so Demand goes down and my full size conversion van can have cheap gas again :)
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Originally posted by Krusher
Thats the main reason I have held of on the current hybrids. I never buy anything new anyhow, I hate being a beta tester.
I wish I could beta test a car LOL I gave up on figureing out what milage I get in my escort when the odometer stoped working, along with the speedometer.
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Originally posted by Krusher
How long is the extension cord
Hybrid Technologies says it can go 100 miles on a charge. $125K list
You can be as bad as a Ford GT and be smug too. :D
And the Ohio State Buckeye Bullet.... 314 mph is the top speed AFAICT
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Originally posted by Elfie
Thats not really novel, or new. Cadillac tryed that back in th '80s with a V8. The engine would use as few as 4 cylinders or up to all 8 depending on the power demands.
Ya beat me to it Elfie. Those 8-6-4 engines were crap, so will the new ones. Think of how complicated it is rearrainging the spark, fuel, intake and exhaust valves to operate on a different set of pistons while on the fly. Even if you do make it fire right, you are wasting inertia on pistons not in use. There's just too many things that can go wrong that will cause catastrophic failure.
I remember watching a news report in the 70's where a guy patented a new carburator. He took a '74 Ford LTD with 1 gallon of gas in an external tank and drove it from Dallas to St. Louis. You never heard about him again, some oil or car company bought the rights to it and buried it. The technology is out there, the big companies are just not ready to let you have access to it.
It's just like the ethanol thing going on now. They have finally started using ethanol widespread, but it's corn ethanol. Ethanol from sugar beets is 5 times more efficient than corn ethanol and is cheaper to produce, but the sugar beet lobby doesn't have the muscle the corn lobby does (can you say Archer-Daniels-Midland?). You know ADM well, they are the same folks that have you ingesting high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar in sodas, candy and just about any commercially produced food. They also run those warm and fuzzy feel good commercials during the Sunday morning political shows... coincidence?
If we are going to make a serious switch from petroleum, we need to use the most efficient alternative, not the one most heavily lobbied.
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Originally posted by rpm
...He took a '74 Ford LTD with 1 gallon of gas in an external tank and drove it from Dallas to St. Louis. You never heard about him again, some oil or car company bought the rights to it and buried it. The technology is out there, the big companies are just not ready to let you have access to it.
You don't really believe that urban legend stuff do you?
I think that if Ford or GM or any other car company that is losing market share and a few billion dollars annually could bolt on a $1000 carburator and market 12 pax SUV with towing capacity of 15,000 while simultaneously getting 75 mpg, they would do it in a heartbeat.
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Hmm, this hybrid business is getting much more coverage over on your side of the pond. As it says, the popularity of diesels in Europe (tried and trusted technology and 70mpg or more if you want it) is keeping hybrids in the shade.
How do ethanol engines work? Is the fuel simply burned? Do they use spark ignition or compression ignition?
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It will change when the French get their diesel hybrids out. Ethanol is used as a gasoline substitute. I don't believe it will have much future though, as biodiesel is a much better solution. The biofuels are not going to be a petroleum substitute in a large scale though.
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Saab Biopower (http://www.saab.com/main/GLOBAL/en/model/95_WAGON/biopower.shtml) is an example of European multifuel vehicle. It can use either regular petrol, E85 or a mixture of these.
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http://wrightspeed.com/x1.html
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Originally posted by ROC
Hurry up and buy those hybrids so Demand goes down and my full size conversion van can have cheap gas again :)
And California will tax the heck out of it to punish you evil SUV drivers :)
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Originally posted by moot
http://wrightspeed.com/x1.html
yow !
The X1 prototype is just the beginning. It meets its design specs of 0-60 in 3 seconds, 170 mpg equivalent.
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let the rich guys who need the tax rebate drive and R&D the hybrids. They have some serious problems for a car that you don't use to commute in stop and go traffic in.
Once we get the price of electricity down to allmost nothing then electric cars will enjoy a lot more research and you will see more of em..
Diesel, hydrogen, electric, ethanol.... biodiesel... Things not even on the horizon....lot's of ways to go... lots of things that will make us change direction as time goes by.
Interesting times. Meanwhile... we are getting more and more HP out of conventional 4 stroke engines...
life is good.
lazs
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Hybrids are made for stop & go traffic. That's when the electric motor is engaged, as it's the time your engine is using the most fuel. I took a Prius overnight to check it out once. Got caught in very heavy Houston traffic the next morning. Not once did the gas engine take over. During fast highway cruising is when the gas motor comes on. I don't think I actually used any gas at all once I got on the freeway.
Displacement on demand has been around for a long time. There are vehicles that use it right now. Those new Dodge "hemi's" (hemi label, made by Mercedes) use it. The Dodge Magnum R/T (the reincarnation of the station wagon) uses on. Cruise on 4 cylinders, floor it & all 8 come up. The costs of the engine will outweigh the gas savings until your 1000th or so fill up.
I remember watching a news report in the 70's where a guy patented a new carburator. He took a '74 Ford LTD with 1 gallon of gas in an external tank and drove it from Dallas to St. Louis. You never heard about him again, some oil or car company bought the rights to it and buried it. The technology is out there, the big companies are just not ready to let you have access to it.
I gotta call shennanigans. It sounds an awful lot like the rhetoric that comes from people who believe in Free Energy Supression. I do however, love reading about garage inventors violating the laws of phsyics, just to be silenced by "the man".
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Originally posted by Krusher
When a hybrid hits 100+ mpg I may have to trade in the Civic for one. This one looks promising and quick.
Wait until the new federal MPG rules kick in in 2008. I bet the MPG will drop to 60. ;)
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And California will tax the heck out of it to punish you evil SUV drivers
LOL Probably so, but then again, half a soccer team and equipment into a prius just isn't practical :)
Lib friends of mine just hate when I show them how cheap my van is to drive compared to their 3 mini cars to get the same amount of people and equipment to the same location lol
Oddly enough, on longer road trips when the kids are on a bus, you'd be suprised how many parents Want to ride in my captains chairs instead of crammed into a mini. Pure Hypocrites but I enjoy the captive audience as I tease them the whole drive hehe
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That Prius in the initial post looks like a total piece of crap. It's not much bigger than a shopping cart.
113 MPG using euro gallons = a little under 100 MPG using US gallons. If they can build a 100 MPG shopping cart, why can't the automakers build something people actually want, like a REAL car that makes 60 MPG.
I don't think hybrid cars are the answer. All that extra junk just adds complexity and will likely result in a mechanic's dream, not to mention it'll probably inflate automobile prices even higher than the disgusting levels they've already reached (likely why the automakers are salivating over that tech).
J_A_B