Toyota Prius, Fact or Fiction

[GaryM]

My winter milage has been in the middle 40's. Getting ready to get better milage week after next. Heading to Florida! got to get that milage up any way I can.

[Pat]

Gary, Since I drove the car a while before we ran that tank out I got the mileage up to 40 by thte time we were down to one bar. I'm seeing a lot more green in the battery condition indicator in cold weather. It was very rare earlier but frequent now. It must be from the engine running more to stay warm in the cold weather.

Check your tower thread...

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[GaryM]

While I'm in Florida I guess I'll get to see if the valet parkers know anything about the Prius.

[Pat]

Prius Update: I hear that the '08 prius will have new better battery technology, higher capacity battery, AND a plug in recharge port.

It won't make you gas free, Gary, but for folks who frequently only drive a very few miles a day normally and then longer runs less frequently, it sounds wonderful. A fillup is pluging in overnight. For those typically only driving a few miles at moderate speeds you wouldn't be buying much gasoline.

If you realy want to hit the road in all electric style there is the Tesla convertable all electric plug in recharge car. Couple bucks for a charge and it gets up to a 250 mile range. Has fair power as it will jump from 0 to 60 mph in 4.0 seconds, yeah will light up the tires. They run about $80- $100K. Lesser models may follow for the rest of us.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[egon]

I like this style much better! [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Egon, If I'm not mistaken that is a 1915 Baker. The Baker was "KING" of electric cars.
Here is what someone else said about them:
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The electrics were urban cars which preferred paved city streets to bumpy country roads that would shake them to pieces. The major problem was the power, however. Batteries were heavy, took up too much room and deteriorated rapidly.

And even though motoring range on a single charge was extended to about 80 miles by 1910, charging facilities cost quite a bit and were not rapidly available outside metropolitan areas.

Also, electrics were slow movers, with the exception of one of Baker's experimental racers, the "Torpedo," which boasted it could do 120 mph.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Now that you are in the city with convenient electricity maybe a Baker would serve you but an electric golf cart with a "weather" cover would out perform it and be way less maint prone as well as cheaper. Restored and functional Bakers are $$$. (that's $$$$ Canadian)

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Bird]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
Now that you are in the city with convenient electricity maybe a Baker would serve you but an electric golf cart with a "weather" cover would out perform it and be way less maint prone as well as cheaper.

[/ QUOTE ]

The electric golf cart seems to me to be a great idea, except for the fact that in many places it would not be legal (or safe) to drive on the streets. But in some of the "retirement" communities, such as Sun City at Phoenix, they are quite common on the streets, as are the gasoline powered golf carts. And while we're accustomed to the specially marked "Handicapped" parking spaces, out there, they have lots of "Golf Car" parking spaces. They also have some pretty fancy golf cars, too.

[Pat]

Bird, I have always had my concerns about golf carts mixing in regular traffic. Where practical, in areas of high concentration, it might be prudent to offer a special vehicle lane in speed zones above say 30mph. At speeds of 25-30mph a golf cart might not be a complete death trap but doing 30 in a 45 zone might get you hit and what would be a minor fender bender with two cars can be a fatality in a cart. Carts are as vulnerable as motorcycles but less able to evade.

Back in the nasty oil crunch decades ago there was a rumbling about taxing cars based on weight with a rapidly escolating fee structure to promote lighter cars. I personally think there should be weight standards set for manufacturers just like the CAFE standards for fuel economy. Manufacturers won't control what isn't monitored and or incentivised.

Now about the '08 Prius... I personally think it is going to be a good incremental improvement over the one I have that I realy like. It has been decades since a car got my attention like the Prius has and the '08 is going to be even better.

If there weren't so much unreasonable unthinking resistance to diesel cars then maybe Toyota or someone would do a diesel-electric hybrid. Diesel-electric hybrids have even more potential than the gas-electric for economy. The electric capability complements the diesel's shortcomings quite well and together would make a great little car or light truck.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[kokopelli]

Don't people get that we are still using fossil fules when we "plug in"? its not in the form of gas! mybe is coal, or oil...but dang there is no point in plugging in if you want to be green.

[Pat]

Not everything is perfectly black or white. There are shades of grey and ALSO SHADES OF GREEN. Plugging in offsets the fuel consumption to a less poluting source which may in fact be wind, water, or solar.

Check it out. Does a car generate less polution burning gasoline than a power plant does in charging the car's battery?

If you are alive, you contrtibute to polution. How motivated are you to seriously reduce your personal contribution of the green house gas, CO2? So long as you eat carbon based food (it is nearly all carbon based) and breathe then you are exhaling CO2.

Ultimately people are poluters, directly personally and in all their manipulation of the physical world. Population reduction is the fastest way to reduce polution there is. Until or unless you are willilng to embrace population reduction you are not facing up to the single most effective polution reduction strategy there is. Every child born, especially in a developed or developing nation is a little superconsumer. Consumption invariably produces polution. Even the message of yours to which I am responding, created polution.

Pat