Re: Why GM Shouldn't Fail (and why hybrids are crap)

On a 650 mile super highway trip from DC to Detroit I got 32.5 miles per gallon on a 1990 Honda Accord LX 4dr with automatic transmission using a 2.2L motor. A skilled hypermiler probably could have gotten even better.

The report's I've heard is that in the hands of a skilled/Hypermiler driver a 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid can get over 50 mpg and a

To gain the maximum advantage, a gas electric hybrids requires that the driver learn a new skill set - not everyone will be willing or capable of doing so.

Extra150miles.com is selling an on board diagonistic II (OBD II) instantaneous fuel efficiency display (iFED) called the Scan Gauge II which requires that your car be newer than 1997 if I recall correctly. This after market iFED cost about $150 to $180 dollars most of the time. CleanMpg.com review of "Scan Gauge II" indicates it can help the driver gain about a 20% increase in fuel Efficiency (FE). An iFED tells the driver how to save fuel by showing the car's instanteous fuel usage. Reports I have read on the internet suggest very light subcompacts like the

Mileage improvenment gained from using any iFED (aka Scan Gauge II) is dependent on the driver learning how to slowly accelerate, coasting when going down hill, learning slow down going uphill, doing a technique called a Pulse and Glide (P&G) on flat terrain, keeping the car speed under 45mph, not stopping (e.g. adjusting the car's speed to match green lights at traffic lights), turning off the a/c, rolling up the windows, reducing the weigh/cargo of the car, and keeping the tires at their max rated inflation for lowest rolling resistant. There are also additional FE techniques available to PHEV and HEV which are not relevant to non PHEV/HEVs..

Most new cars (from GM anyway) have this function built in to the engine management computer and dashboard display.

No need to buy it again from the Scan Gauge folks or Extra150miles.com.

The weakness is that it is optionally displayed, not by default all the time. And the intervals are not sensible to help as much as possible in tuning your driving habits.

Also, in the owner's manual they do not explain very well if at all how to increase your mileage using the display.

I would hazard an estimate that if all manufacturers would display this information all the time by default, and make it slightly more useful and accurate by doing a running average over a short time period like approx. 3 to 5 seconds, and also educated drivers on how to use it, we would see a vast reduction in gas-guzzling driving habits like speeding, jack-rabbit starts, speeding up to a red light, trying to maintain speed up steep hills (like your stupid cruise control does), and other things that hit you right in the wallet.

By watching the display, but still travelling at a fair clip at the right times, I regularly get 30+ mpg (imp.) in my 2009 Chev Uplander Van.

If you only knew what it was costing you to drive like Jensen Button, we'd never have a gas shortage!

Why don't you try a Jetta TDI that gets 50mpg on diesel and will climb those hills with the AC on.

The US car companies are feeding you all full of bullshit. They could easily make a diesel hybrid that could get 80mpg but they WILL NOT!

Problem is US auto doesn't know how to make them. Seriously.

Even Chrysler has Cummins do it. Duramax is a hangover but hardly car material.

OK Mr. Engineer - please enlighten us... how could they produce this 80 mpg diesel easily? No one else is doing it, but US companies could do it easily? Beyond your bullshit, just what do you have to substantiate this claim?

Get real! If any auto manufacture could build a vehicle, that buyers would want to buy that got 80 MPG, they certainly would built it.

Think about it, dummy, they would control the market with such a vehicle. LOL

Published in the January 2001 issue.

Too bad they don't make them.

We know American pigs like to waste and pollute as much as they can.

That is GMs problem right there. They had quite a few very clever people working for them once upon a time. Then the beancounters killed all progress and want to sell mediocre stuff. That is why GM is now bankrupt and dead.

Saw this coming, but the next major complaint about those tiny hybrids will be safety. Insurance rates will surely rise in the upcoming years as sales of these 'tin cans' goes up and accidents start having more fatalities.

Name calling is counterproductive and uncalled for. That being said.

A few european vehicles can get over 80 mpg but there many other factors involve in dominating the auto market such that hi mileage by itself is not enough.

For example, the SEAT-Ibiza-Ecomotive gets up to 88 mpg in its super urban mode, and about 58 mpg in regular urban mode. However, it's not that fast and takes about 13 seconds to go from 0 to 60 mph. Volkswagon makes a super efficient diesel called the Polo BlueMotion which similar performance (both are using three cylinder diesel engines). Note that this source (european/british) also rates the Prius as getting 67 mpg - which reminds us that any fuel efficiency rating is contextual/relative.

see

In message , GasSaver writes

Are you happy to come for a 100 mile drive, brim the tank and if the mileage isn't what a hybrid will give me then charge me nothing?