Why we drive Toyotas

"Why?" Because they rock. Next question.

Natalie

They also get good mileage.

Case in point: I used to own an S-10 with the 4banger 2.2 118 hp engine. Got about 20 mpg. I own a 95 Previa 2.4 191 hp engine (Supercharged). Guess what her average mileage is? About 20 mpg.

Charles of Kankakee

2000 LS 400 with 4 liter, 4 cam 32 valve engine: 26+ MPG at 75-80 MPH cruise round-trip from Chicago to Lacrosse WI :-)

Bad news: Work van FORD. Good news: Boss buys the fuel & repairs. If he won't listen to me, that's his problem.

Of course there's price collusion everywhere, and there are no politicians on either side of the aisle who have the huevos to confront and solve the root problems.

There's collusion in the exploration and wellhead pumping side - if the wholesale crude price is too low, they shut down domestic wells. And then OPEC holds all the marbles, and they play their own games. Plus with shipping the oil around the globe, there is more chance for terrorists to interrupt the supply, which is one big part of why crude oil is so high right now - it's a "fear tax".

There's collusion in the refineries - they don't have enough excess capacity to handle refinery outages. If a refinery has a small fire or an equipment breakdown, suddenly there's a spot shortage and a price spike. Getting a permit to open or expand a refinery is almost impossible.

And the local NIMBY's do their best to stop new refineries, too - the same people driving around electric and bio-diesel cars who won't be affected by their actions.

There's collusion from the government, with hundreds of various regional emissions blends across the country - they can't trans-ship fuel between regions without changing the refinery mix to be legal in another area. The recipe book needs to be whittled down to two or three levels of emissions gas, to allow easy supply balancing between regions.

Proof: Unocal worked with the California government to come up with a gas that meets the emissions targets without MTBE or Ethanol oxygenates, and the state required everyone to use this process - and as this was being publicly announced the Unocal Patent Lawyers quietly ran to the Patent Office and quietly got a patent on the process. Now everyone has to pay them a licensing fee to refine gas in California.

There's collusion in the pipeline and storage system - they don't have enough pipeline capacity to move the crude to the refineries, and the refined gas and diesel from the refineries to the areas where it is sold, and there is very little reserve supply of refined product stored in tank farms. If a pipeline has to go down for a few days, you have an instant crisis on your hands.

There's collusion at the regional refined product distribution - they put 'zone pricing' in effect to artificially raise prices in neighborhoods where they think they can get another dime or two a gallon out of the consumers.

There's even gross inefficiencies in the retail sales - why do they sell three grades when we really don't need an 89? Cars either run well on 87, or they have a higher performance car that requires 91 or

1. They sell the Mid-grade 89 and Premium to people who don't need it solely on 'cachet' and 'machismo', wasting precious resources in the process.

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I drive an '85 Toyota Van - - it doesn't rock, I'm afraid, but I still like it because it's big enough to haul around the things I now and then need to haul around. It gets about 18MPG, since I use it mostly for around town, and don't baby it.. I also own a 3.3 liter Dodge Grand Caravan that I drive like a little old lady at 60 MPH on the freeway - - and get 25MPG - - and passed up a lot. It has a digital display of MPG, current or average, and on the straightaway flat it shows 31MPG as the current reading, which blows my mind, but the gas pumps confirm what the digital display shows for the average. Some day I dream of driving another Toyota, but with the hybrid system of the Prius, and the cargo capability of my little 85 Van. I don't know if it will happen, but I wrote Toyota about my dream, so we'll see.

Chuck

I believe that a hybrid van is available in Japan.

Unforutnately I don't get to use cruise much on the 294, when I can, the mileage goes up. My old Corolla is the last 'manual' car in the family, it only has AT, no cruise, no power windows etc.

Charles

Amen Bruce, but you're preaching to the choir. Here in Illinois we have 12 different areas, according to the EPA, with 12 different blends. Sometimes Kankakee will be higher than downtown Chicago. And the Reformulated gas that is mandatory in the Chicago/suburban blends from April 1 to October 1 actually LOWERS gas mileage about 10% in most of the vehicles I own, so it doesn't really help reduce pollution, since it takes MORE of it and the supposed reduction in pollution is less than 10%. A friend I know refers to it as ref***ulated gas. I avoid buying it.

Oddly some of the gas stations around here sell 89 as cheap or cheaper than

2. Charles of Kankakee

Right on! Embarrassingly, WE hire the idiots who make all of this possible. BTW, if you give the Ford the same care you would a Toyota, it'll return the same service.

Well, usually, if they're rocking, then there's something wrong with the suspension, unless you and Bob are reliving your high school days..

-LMB

When I said "cruise," I didn't mean to imply that I used cruise control on that trip. I rarely use cruise control because I feel I can get better gas mileage with my foot, especially on rolling terrain.

That *would* be part of the 'they rock' thing, Charles...

Natalie

There's a lot of flat land around here and what isn't flat is gently rolling. What screws things up is the traffic. Near Kankakee you will get people sitting in the left lane doing 60 and no way to get round them 'cause someone else is going slow in the other lane, too. We watch out for Buick owners and old men wearing hats.

Charles of Kankakee

But dude, the van is an *85* - how many 85 GMs do as well?

Natalie

*Fwap*

Natalie

LOL!

Never get behind a Buick or Olds if you're in a hurry, or certain other ethnic groups in Camrys and Corollas.

Around Kankakee, Camrys are becoming the Buick of Toyotas.

Charles

I love those vans! I was supposed to buy an '87, but the guy never came back. It was from Colorado and had very, very minor rust. I think I talked him out of selling it by telling him how good it looked. I still see him driving it. It was AWD to boot!

So, I got a '94 Grand Voyager instead. My second. First one was FWD and got about 27MPG, this one is AWD and gets about 24.