Re: Dreaming of Bigger, Better Hybrid cars!

Wow, ~~Philip! What a well thought-out, reasoned, pragmatic response! At least according to you!

Now, please go stick your head back in the sand.

I wouldn't be surprised if you disagree with the movement from leaded to unleaded gas, the requirement for seatbelts, emissions controls, bias ply to radial tires, tire treadwear and temperature ratings, points and condensor to electronic ignition, AM radio to AM/FM, vinyl records to CDs, automatic transmissions, NTSC television to high-definition TV, and 1200 baud modems to 3 mbps broadband connections. You sound like the guy who said there is no reason anyone would ever need their own personal computer. What you could do is adopt that as part of your world view, and shut yours off!

Best regards, Z

Oooh, that is a snappy come back. I apologize if the truth hurt you, Philip. You talk so tough I figured you could take it. I'll stick around, for now, because there are people here with useful advice and because its so easy picking your bigoted and biased nonsense apart. For crying out loud, even your sig block is inaccurate. The famous phrase you are misquoting is actually, "I never let my schooling interfere with my education." Which most anyone can see is something altogether different from what you have inferred. Furthermore, according to The Quotable Mark Twain, the saying can not be positively attributed to the great writer himself. Here's an authenticated Twain quote that may be more aptly applied whenever you post: "Let us be thankful for the fools; but for them the rest of us could not succeed." Oh, but there I am, being mean again. Sorry, tough guy.

George :-)

Z... I have a knack for making other people think. Nothing pisses them off so much. :-)

-- Twain's quote is reported both ways. The message is the same either way.

. ~~Philip "Never let school interfere with your education - Mark Twain"

Putting attribution and the credibility of sites such as jokemonster.com aside, I would argue that the message is not the same. The wording you've chosen to use in your sig block infers that Twain discounted the value of formal schooling in general. The alternate wording is specific to the speaker's personal experiences and does not denigrate formal schooling. At least that's how I read them. And that's all I have to say on the subject, George :-)

Twain"

I would ask only that you pull favor with a Human Resources person... one who screens and evaluates job applications submitted by graduates and get back to me. Then there is the pervasive entitlement attitude at the college and university level in this state that is most astonishing.

You're good at it too Philip :-D

I disagree with Z on a point - Automatics are a TOTAL WASTE OF TIME. PERIOD. Stick shifters were the way and still are, shy of a sequential.

And while yer Corolla is zippy, and George's Prius 'Holds more crap and is zippier', my cloud-creating pollutin' fossil-fuel burnin' 2TG powered Corolla will outzip ya both! :-D

Nick.

The local paper here had an article about how GM was backing up the car hybrid project a year or two, but was going strong on a bus hybrid project. Whether full hybrids ever take hold in America, one thing should come out of the research. That is, we need to have some sort of regenerative saving for all the braking we do in our driving. The loss of energy there is tremendous. Whether it's a battery or a spring or a flywheel, we need to recover that energy in a cost productive way.

"Regenerative braking" and all that lost energy. Leave it to some skull full of political mush to declare that all that wasted heat generated by the brakes of semi trucks and cars in mountainous states is measurably contributing to global warming. You watch! LOL

You still have the loss associated with running the hydraulic pump. Plus automatics are generally much heavier and require extra plumbing for the cooler.

Still, for most people, the loss in mileage is trival.

Ed

Approximately 11/13/03 13:36, C. E. White uttered for posterity:

Good points. Not entirely sure how that compares with friction losses in a stick. And the sticks are smaller...and could probably be smaller still if it were mandatory to be driver tested for ability to use a clutch properly before being allowed to buy or drive one.

Or reasonably well disguised by engine management integrated with transmission control.

On my hot rods, I always owned sticks, but with a big huge torque heavy monster or a exhaust turbocharger, I'd guess that for 99% of all drivers, the slushbox is also faster. With 4.56 rear and a close 4 speed, there isn't a lot of time between shifts with over 450 cu inches. The slushbox allowed you to stand on the brakes and the gas at the same time for much better street racing performance, not that I would ever think of engaging in such.

When one considers the high end automatics offer on the fly shifting as though it were a stick. But with all the protections the computer can thrown in there I'm sure.

So in essence, they have created an idiot-proof stick - except that there is a computer controlled automatic wrapped around it.

Politics aside, anyone who does not understand the potential benefits of regenerative braking is just plain ignorant. Global warming would not be sufficient reason and if it cannot be brought to market to save me lots of money then the hell with it. FWD was sold to the public as a safety and fuel saver. All it really did was raise the cost of transportation. If they don't make it cheap I'll be driving the same

Ed... how many horsepower do you believe it requires to maintain 60 psi (the typical line pressure in most automatics)? WHile I don't have total assembly weights of an automatic transaxle (w/torque converter) vs an optional 5 speed manual (with flywheel and clutch assembly), I really do not believe there is a significant difference. For those who commute, a manual transmission is not the best choice.

Doc... don't take youself so seriously!

Let's see - rebuild of a transmission - $1400-1600. Clutch job: $150 plus parts.($350-$400 is common). I know which is a better deal.

???

Mixed fruit. For a clutch job, you are not even opening up the transmission. Don't tell me manual transmissions rarely need attention. 2nd and 3rd gear synchros are the most stressed in most cars because the RPM spacing is the greatest in the lowest ratios. And the exposure to component failure is present everytime the driver changes gears. As you know there are a lot of people out there with stick shifts that should have automatics.

For a Toyota Corolla CE, Edmunds lists the automatic version as being 66 pounds heavier than the manual version.

A manual often gives better acceleration and fuel economy, especially with smaller engines. The penalty tends to be less for larger engines. Driving a manual transmission in traffic is not especially difficult, unlike in the days of heavy clutch action, weak engines that would stall if you looked at them funny, etc..