Hybrids Gas Mileage in the real world...INTERESTING !

Ah, yes. The mythical "hydrogen economy". Greenwash at its best.

AP

Reply to
Alan Petrillo
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But that would hurt his buds in the oil industry. You know, the ones who are largely resposible for getting him into office.

AP

Reply to
Alan Petrillo

TBone wrote: [snip]

Depends on who you are, I suppose. There are some insecure men who just need that Penis Enhancement Vehicle.

AP

Reply to
Alan Petrillo

Indeed, it makes the reader wonder if the test was intentionally rigged to get the absolutely worst mileage out of the hybrids. That would be par for the course with hybrid bashers.

Well, hey. You can't be getting on it _all_ the time. They really do get pretty good mileage when they're cruising, and the engine only has to produce ~20 hp to keep the thing at highway speed.

Nope. My mother's boyfriend was driving, and he had the cruise control set at 85mph the whole time. Real world 47mpg on the highway.

AP

Reply to
Alan Petrillo

Ah. You mean like the "city" course that is used to determine the "city" mileage rating?

AP

Reply to
Alan Petrillo

Correct but different cars are optimized for different things. A Hybrid is optomized for mileage but to take advantage of that, you need to drive it as efficiently as possible to gain those benefits.

Perhaps if you cleaned the inside of you windshield every now and then it wouldn't fog up so bad. As for Florida and the deep south, that perhaps is not the best place for a first generation hybrid vehicle.

Normal for them and in these areas, the current hybrid technology mignt not be the correct fit. You have to be willing to give a little to get a little.

Not every vehicle is capable of significant mileage.

Sounds like justifications and excuses to me. Just because people decide to drive wastefully doesn't make the car a bad thing.

No, that is normal for the older tech cars but hey, if people want to continue to drive gas sucking pigs then they had better get used to dishing out a large portion of their income for the privilege.

Reply to
TBone

That's not quite so easy anymore. While it is obvious that they do own the White House, our high speed communications makes it much more difficult to pull that off.

Reply to
TBone

Give it a few more years and the costs for the hybrid systems will come down. I hope.

Something like one of these?

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Hear, hear!

AP

Reply to
Alan Petrillo

That depends on who you choose to believe. Properly produced, ethanol produces a net energy _gain_ of about 1.2:1, and can have other positive environmental benefits as well.

Look here

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more.

The major problem is that gasohol, or e85 if you can get it, requires _anhydrous_ ethanol, and most anhydrous ethanol in the US is made not from corn, but from _coal_.

It'll probably be Exxon. Don't understimate the oil companies. They can see the writing on the wall just as well as anyone else, and they have been for some years now moving into the alternative energy arena.

AP

Reply to
Alan Petrillo

I recall a late evening/early morning return from a party stopping for a light out on the edges of College Station, TX.

Waited for a few minutes while giving the gal I was with an earful about how humans should not be subjected to the mindless idiocy of machines. Absolutely no one around.

Finally, the woman said "Why don't you just go through then!"

So I did, and encountered the cop sitting in the dark up ahead waiting for people dumber than stoplights! Got a ticket for running a red light, which I've always felt was really unwarranted. I had actually stopped for it for a period before passing through.

Always felt it should have been a warning, but considering I might have flunked a breathalyser at the time, I suppose I made out as well as could be expected.

SMH

Reply to
Stephen Harding

"TBone" wrote in news:GPJ5e.24174$ snipped-for-privacy@twister.southeast.rr.com:

LOL! "High speed communications" makes it easier and more efficient than ever. And with the willingness of our present administration to cozy up to these guys, no problem at all.

Reply to
Joe

Alan Petrillo wrote in news:2KJ5e.26066$ snipped-for-privacy@tornado.tampabay.rr.com:

No, read it again: Like the real world driving that everybody does every day.

Reply to
Joe

"TBone" wrote in news:8MJ5e.24173$ snipped-for-privacy@twister.southeast.rr.com:

Right, but unfortunately that opportunity doesn't present itself all that much in real world driving. Thus the decreased actual mileage results.

a) I've always cleaned the windshields every weekend, and (b) using the defroster's got nothing to do with dirt. It's got everything to do with humidity.

First, there's a substantial number of people that live in warm climates here in the U.S. There are also a helluva lot of people that use their a/c 24/7/365, even in cooler climates. Running a/c all the time is real world - it's standard equipment, btw.

Nonsense. Companies selling hybrids know all this, but yet they continue to market their cars as across-the-board alternatives. That's simply not true. It's ridiculous that we'll pay an extra whatever thousand dollars for a car that's not going to get the advertised mileage, and we have to drive it in a "special way" to come anywhere near that advertised mileage.

I'll bite - what is "significant mileage"? Is there some universal cutoff point where a mileage figure becomes "significant"? So maybe

29mpg isn't significant but 30mpg is?

Driving wastefully is not the same as driving normally for most people. Like I've already said below, pick any day and go out and see how people drive. Some will drive conservatively, others will drive wastefully, but most will be driving normally.

Newsflash: It's normal for any car.

Very true.

Reply to
Joe

That is especially frustrating on the motorcycle since most the time I dont have enough steel to trip the lights... I will see the "smart" lights cycle though a few times, skipping me since it doesnt see anyone in that lane.

Reply to
Trey

I like to refer to it as "small manhood syndrome"

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Reply to
Trey

Yeah, I bicycle commute, so the problem can be even more pronounced.

They say you can try leaning the bike over a bit to help the light recognize you're there. More detectable magnetic field? No, matter, never seems to work.

And not effective if the bicycle is aluminum, or on a motorcycle that you can only lean over so far. Maybe a motorcycle lying on its side might trip the light. Probably best not to try!

SMH

Reply to
Stephen Harding

__ Arold "Al" Green

Reply to
Arold "Al" Green

I have tried this with mixed results. Not enough data to tell if it's me or just some coincidence. IOW, it seems to work sometimes and not other times, all at the same street/light.

It's a bother no matter what. ;-)

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Mayner

Usually, you can see where they have cut the ground to put the loops in. Passing right over the middle does nothing. I try to hit just inside the side of the loop at a reasonable speed. that seems to trip most of them.. However. I think the signal polls the loops. so if I pull up on a yellow, I know I trip the signal, but by the time its cycled though the other directions, its almost like it forgot I was there... I just roll the bike back a little and then move forward real quick and it trips it again and it turns green. There are some though, where a 4" think steel plate wont trip them!

As for bicycles, I have the same problem. My old Canondale is all Aluminum, and my new Litespeed is all Ti. My friend has a Carbon Colnago C40, and seems to be able to trip them some how. This summer, I plan on cycle commuting, save gas, AND get some miles in for the race in October.

Reply to
Trey

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