I love my Hybrid vehicle more and more each day. :)

Oh look Psyra is not talking about birds or feathered cars ;D

Talking about the high price of the gas, I have never seen a gas station in SL, yes it is not exactly needed inworld, since many cars here works with garbage fuel like Delorean, but its an idea, some house that looks like what, an old styled 70´s gas station?

Actually I have seen a couple of gas stations in sl while out wandering.

As for gas at $75 a barrel, as a person that trades crude oil futures, I am hoping for $80 a barrel!!

Ka-ching!!!

*prepares for the barrage of hatred soon to come her way*

The real advantage of the smart car isnt its gas usage, its the fact that you can find parking in european cities....

Well, as long as you aren't a celebrity who owns a private jet or yacht, and preaches about it saving the planet, that's cool.

I'm probably on about three months now since I've gotten gas.

Public transportation and tiny 4 cylinder cars can go a long way too...

They work like that in the movies too!

Umm I believe the battery warranty for the Toyota is five years, it is designed to fail at 8-10 years with the intention you junk the car at that point because the battery will cost more than the car is worth. Then you may very well have to pay to have the battery disposed of and that could be another $1000. I am too poor to drive a car like that.

I have a Prius, but these are then next big thing in London:
http://www.goingreen.co.uk/index.html?PageID=AboutGWiz
It costs £8 ($14) to drive into central London on a weekday, unless you have an "alternative fuel" car like a hybrid or an electric car. As a result, these all-electrics are suddenly very popular!
They are four seaters made in India, anyone over about 5ft 8in looks like Mr Incredible... No gears, but two settings: economy and "perfomance". Actually, they are a lot of fun to drive (I tried one) and they attract more attention than driving a Ferrari (tho I haven't tried one of those)

My concern is not the legalities or politics behind a car. It could be a BMW SUV that hits the smart car for all I care. My concern is soley on the safety of the passengers in the vehicle, and I doubt a car like that, even if it had a perfect defenseive frame, could truly protect its passengers from being hit by a car that weighed 10x what it does. I fear it would get tossed like a rag doll, and that would not be good for those inside.

I stand by what I originally said, show me a video of it being hit for a Ford Explorer, or some other equaly heavy SUV, travelling at 60mph, and maybe then I will consider it safe. Part of the reason I would need to see it being hit by a SUV is the difference in height of the bumpers, too often had I heard of the bumpers of some SUB going through the upper portions of a compact car, never being slowed by the ultra safe grid of protection, just inches below...

You believe wrong.

Road & Track says the warranty is 8 years with a 10 year lifespan guestimate.

Here is an article from 2004 about the battery: http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=19&article_id=1183&page_number=1

In this article the price of gas is $1.65/gal.

Briana Dawson

15 gallons of gas will last me about 300 miles. I floor it on every onramp, sometimes with the air conditioner on. My next car will probably be a G35, which will require more expensive gas and possibly get poorer mileage. If they've got a hybrid G35 available by that time, I'll buy it, chiefly for the extra low-end torque coming from the electric motor.

Now, if I was commuting 50 miles a day, and there was no hybrid G35, my next car would be a hybrid Accord. A big comfy V6-powered car with some extra torque, and it gets great mileage? Well, why not.

Well if you can find a video of a crash of that sort at 30mph I will take a look at it. But yes, ultimately my main concern is the safety of myself and my loved ones, politics be damned. Not that politics aren't important, but those are my priorities.

And yes, any car broadsided by an SUV at 60 is in for a world of hurt, thats not to say that steps cant be taken to protect oneself from such a scenario. Driving an SUV oneself helps. And no, I don't drive an SUV... Minivan for me (I am considering a smallish Hybrid truck thingy though, like a Rav-4 equivalent).

I don't think SUVs are safer simply because one sits up higher. One would of course do research on a series of cars before buying it, SUVs and all tall cars do indeed have a higher roll-over rate than sedans or sports cars, 2+2 is also equal to 4.

;-p

Make the leap that I have a level of intelligence greater than that of a 5 year old. If you want to sell the idea of this Smart Car to me, say something smart to convince me of its safety. I'm asking you to prove to me the safety of the car in a specific situation, and you're dancing around the issue like any good car salesman would.

Color me unimpressed.

Aha, you are a car salesman, I knew it. This... explains much.

Yes, well the rose colored glasses have changed shades after a couple years of real world usage. First off, the batteries used are not reconditionable. They are like laptop batteries (in fact, they basically are laptop batteries) and their ability to hold a charge will decrease over time based on recharge cycles. Sure, it will still be going in 10 years but you may only be getting a range of 5 miles. The toxisity of the NimH batteries is such that it has to be disposed of as hazardus waste.

The warranty for the Toyota is 5 years in Austrailia, and varies from state to state in the US, in California it is 10 years and 8 in most other states although it can vary with the dealer as well and some people are getting only five years on pre 2004 cars, sorry for the confusion.

Also, you stated you are getting far less than the 60 mpg the Prius is supposed to get, other owners are wondering about the math Toyota is using.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/hybridwatch01.html

I like the surprise "need to charge the battery every two weeks or your warranty is void" yet not telling the buyer.. oooh. The "feel good" milage computer is even better...

You seem strangely hostile towards the Prius.

First off, let me say that I am sorry that you are poor. I do hope your poverty isn't driving your opinion.

Second, all vehicles get less mileage than touted on the sticker. Mileage is based on a closed road test under optimal conditions. I am happy with the mileage my car gets and the mileage I have divulged earlier in this thread.

As for the "feel good" mileage computer. It is an estimate but pretty darm close for my car. I drive it down to until it beeps that it wants more gas and then calculate the actual mileage after I fill up. If I ever doubt that my car gets better mileage than my previous, I can just look at my bank statements and count the trip to the gas pump.

That entire article was based on some person named "Sarah" who claimed she wasn't getting near the mileage she should be. I'm not sure who Sarah is or how she is driving but I am not sure I could even make my Prius get 35mpg if I tried.

"Hybrid cars performed much closer to EPA estimates in Consumer Reports'
highway tests."

You can selectively pull out the information you want to make your attack against hybrid cars, but so far I find your facts to be lacking.

Actually EPA estimates for fuel economy come from the SAE derived fuel economy during the emmisions test. All cars get less than these numbers since the method was devised in the 70's before closed loop systems were in use. The Prius being an extremely low emmissions vehicle will likely vary more from the sticker than a typical SUV.

How someone drives of course effects economy considerably. Simply driving a little slower and accelerating less will impact economy quite a bit , and bring you much nearer the EPA sticker numbers.

As far as that SMART car it looks interesting - it has 60 horse power and weighs 1500 pounds. Therefore it is actually comprable to a car such as the early Tercel or Chevette in power and weight. I dont know if its worth 25k though.

I think the real concern I would have for long term ownership of a car like the prius though isnt the battery cost , it would be that transmission. It is so complex that replacing it out of waranty would have to be extremely expensive.

Ford was for a time working on a Hybrid that used direct drive electric motors. This is inferior in overall performance than the Prius system, with a distinct advantage that direct electric drive motors last over 300,000 miles in tests. Becuase of things like this, I suspect the hybrids 10 years from now will be much more impressive even than the Prius.

Here is an example of a more traditional Compact Car that gets 60 miles per gallon Using an advanced diesel engine rather than a hybrid.


http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/02/vw_introduces_6.html


Diesel hybrids have been proposed of course but the US laws are designed around gasoline engines for light duty vehicles and making a diesel work well in that framework is difficult. If the laws were made more like Europes, 80 miles per gallon compacts should be possible.

The fuel economy on these cars is tempting, but I agree with the point someone else made earlier. I have a van that makes a mockery of fuel efficiency (not a mini van, gets about 11-12 mpg in town, 17-18 on the highway), but I don't drive it very much, and I live in a town of 50K. There's no where I can't go in like 5 minutes. It's also paid off, I love driving it (nothing rides and drives quite like a van, yes I'm weird), and I can pull trailers with it (it moved me across the country recently), take the family of four and some friends out for the night, go to the hardware store and pick up more than one bag of potting soil at a time for the garden, load up the family with everything we need for a couple weeks of camping, etc, etc, etc. I'll pay the higher gas prices that are still less than a car payment on a fancy new hybrid car that won't be any use to me.

Lets see, my miata has an intercooled greddy turbo, a team voodo fule management system, an after market ECU, Eibach racing suspension, an ACT stage II clutch and running about 8lbs of boost I still get about 23 MPG. yeah I'm gonna trade that in for a hybrid..in hell.