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

Yea, but it is still a Miata and that is the gayest car on the planet.

Well here in the Michgan and Indiana area you would have found, for about the last week to last two weeks that the gas price ranged from $2.75 per gallon to about $3.02 or .03 per gallon. But during the last week or so the price had been steadily droping.

Now, well.... Wam!!!!! Prices zoomed back up today. from $2.78 per gallon to $2.89. And that is the word in the Sothern End of Michgan and norther end of Indiana. LOL.

I keep hearing the comment that people can't afford to work anymore with the gas prices they way they are.

Filled up 3 hours ago on premium, $3.08/gal. This is actually a good price in DC...

WTF do you have against Arkansas? Not all of us in Arkansas are hillbillies.

At any rate, I'm glad you enjoy your car. Get off your soapbox. Neehai likes the Prius.

Oh, and I got gas today... $2.76 a gallon. Eat your hearts out, people.

P2

/me considers starting a thread entitled "Ode to my folding bicycle"

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.....

I know a lot of folks say hybrid cars are expensive - but ya know that isn't really true.

You can turn any deisel burning car/truck into a hybrid running on vegetable oil.

We did a story here at the station 2 years ago on this, thinking it was some kinda bullshit ripoff. We got a crappy deisel jetta from a charity junker auction, got it running, and put this kit in it.

Truth is that car is still running - the producer that installed it drives it every single day. Whats more a local restaurant PAYS HIM to take away several gallons of vegetable oil every week from their deep friers - because it saves them money on having it hauled.

He gets over 10,000 miles per gallon of deisel. No Shit. He fires it up on deisel - hits a switch to go over to vegetable oil - drives to where he wants to go and flips it back to deisel 2 mins before he gets to his destination to clear the lines.

Also - on smog tests in Nevada running on yellow it showed 0 (zero) emmissions.

Last I looked the kit was around 800 bucks and pays for itself very quickly.

If I was running a deisel, I'd do it.. in fact if I see a cheap second hand one going around I'm tempted to throw away my old honda civic for one.

I take it that its biodiesel technology. Driving down the road, spewing the scent of french fries as you drive.

A few years ago, I started following the adventures of this guy. Interesting (but long) read here.

I don't pretend to know the ins and outs of it - all I know is you fill the tank in your trunk with used vegetable oil (filtered to get the lumpy crap and charred bits out) and drive on down the road on it..

but yah it does smell like french fries

To tell the truth - I'd be wary of anyone who prefered the smell of car exhaust to chinese food.

I filled up my Explorer today with 17 gallons of gas at $2.89.

I get about 275 miles to a tank.

Considering I drive 55 miles roundtrip to/from work every day, that should last me till next Monday.

We just watched a program on the Discovery Channel about this guy making biodiesel in his garage. It's a bit time consuming and you have to know what chemicals to add when, but it sure is worth it in the end. The guy was getting 500 miles to a 12 gallon tank of biodiesel. I think the show was the one with the guy doing dirty jobs. I can't think of the name right now, it's late.

Yah I've seen stories on folks doing some convoluted mix of kerosine, some chemicals and vegie oil to make 'home brew fuel' - thats pretty cool.. what I find cool about the greasecar is that its a kit the pretty much any idiot can install with a couple of normal power tools (drill, spanners, hammer) - and there is no need to be a rocket scientist to make it run.

You strain used grease - put it in the tank in your trunk - start your car - turn a switch to go from deisel to grease.

What I love most is the guy from work working an angle on it that he's not only driving for free by hitting up a local restaurant for his fuel - but the money they pay him to take it away pays above and beyond what his occasional tank of deisel costs.

He is actually being PAID to drive - while us 'smart eggs' are forking out to fill our tanks.

As a somewhat bizzare twist of fate - at the moment you can get a 5 gallon of fresh veggie oil at the local supermarket here for 15 bucks (you could probably get less at cost-co) - which works out that if you were to BUY your alternative fuel, you'd still be paying less than deisel in a lot of places at the moment.

Food for thought.

Hybrids aren't necessarily beyond the reach of the 'common man'.

Siggy, thought you'd get a chuckle out of this; on another forum, I just read about another fellow's experience switching over to vegetable oil:

"Awhile back up in Winsted CT (15 min north of where I grew up) a man converted his old VW to Vegetable oil. One night a black bear attacked it after smelling the oil. The bear destroyed the car and drank the contents of the oil tank."

Tell your friend not to park out in the woods

Um no, the VW BUG is more gay, as is the already mentioned cabriolet. Lets not forget the kia, any kia as well. Living as I do in one of the (Proudly) Gayest places on earth, I see a lot more jeeps, suvs and corvettes than I do Miatas.

Gay Or Not, Its always nice looking at the face of the guy in the Mustang Cobra in my rear view mirror as it dawns on him he just got beat by a miata. And nothing, nothing is better than my miata on a windy road. The only ride I would trade it in for would be an F-1 race car.

A turbo'ed out Miata is one of the fastest and best handling cars for the price. It makes a bad ass SCCA bone stock and none of my gay friends or neighbors own one.

Prius is ok, I rented one once and I was impressed with the stereo system. The gas mileage was not so great but I flogged the shit out of it. It was MPG less than my BMW 328ci, that gets about 29 mpg even when I haul ass on the freeway. The 3 series BMW in my opinion is an excellent compromise between performance and mpg.

I agree. I think if I were going bigger car...maybe a tricked out hemi chrysler 300. But really hybrids make a lot of sense. I give it a couple of years and someone will have sorted out after market electric motors..lol

We ran tests on the Audi V6, it cant pass US emissions; Too much NOX. Even on European quality diesel. To get it under the numbers youd have to run it with Huge ammounts of EGR, killing the whole performance advantage. And that A6 with the 3.0 is fast. Actually I wouldnt expect any Diesels bigger than the 4 cylinder TDI in the volkswagon for passenger cars with the '07 standards, unfortunately.

Largely Market related since the Euro demand for those cars is huge, but also technical considerations. Now if you could get the US to make more diesel friendly laws like Europe ... then we might have something. Including a fuel efficency boost on current diesels for sale.