Fun and 50 mpg: Who needs a Prius?

[tasdrouille]

It's become something or an article of faith among the mainstream media in this country that the only environmentally friendly automobile is Toyota's Prius. True, the Prius and its fiendishly complicated and expensive hybrid powertrain is an innovative piece - innovative and accomplished enough, in fact, to be named our 2004 Car of the Year. But I've just spent the past five days in a car that not only trumps the Toyota for driver appeal, but arguably does a better job of saving the planet. More...

[RH77]

FE and panache. I can dig it...

Audi/VW Diesels are set to come across the pond, so we may see the "CleanTDI" in the Jetta soon: ABG.

RH77

[trebuchet03]

Boo clicking a link to read the thread....

That's pretty cool Haven't those FE numbers been possible with the TDI anyway? I have to admit, I'm one of the people that feel diesel isn't a viable solution. But not because of emissions - because of the mfr. A barrel of crude has a certain affinity towards x gas and y diesel. You get more gas than diesel and you can't just make more from what would normally be gasoline. :/

But all that said - the thing I like about the prius is that it isn't overly complicated as stated in the write up. I mean, the programming, sure - but "power split device" - just fancy speak for a differential.... I mean, trains have been doing it for nearly 100 years... How long does it take for something to graduate from complicated?

[tasdrouille]

Next time I'll post the hole article and just link to the source.

Trebuchet, what is your opinion about bioD?

[MetroMPG]

(Tasdrouille: just a quote or two, and a link to the full article is great - better not to repost the entire thing.)

And, I'd gladly take a diesel hybrid. Best of both worlds.

[MetroMPG]

Coincidentally, I just got e-mail from a contributor @ Jalopnik who will be posting an item tomorrow about "hypermiling" two euro-spec diesels:

I'm running a piece on hypermiling the euro-spec 2007 Honda Civic i-CTDi and the euro-spec 2007 Audi Q7 4.2 TDI with results of 72 mpg and 40 mpg respectively.

Should be an interesting read.

[trebuchet03]

Originally Posted by tasdrouille

Trebuchet, what is your opinion about bioD?

It's a catch22 :/

Originally, I was a person that said "yes, we have enough arable land to handle the demand." This still may be the case, but the recent facts are clear - even if we have the land (I believe only 3% of Earth's land is arable) - we're not using it.

Globally, foodstuff prices increased 37% last year (over the 14% increase in 2006). Food tensions, shortages and riots have taken their toll in Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt, Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Yemen and the list goes on… A stampede of cooking oil buyers, in China, left three people dead and thirty-one injured.

and

Last year, conversion of palm oil into fuel was a fast-growing source of demand, but in recent weeks, rising prices have thrown that business into turmoil.

Here on Malaysia’s eastern shore, a series of 45-foot-high green and gray storage tanks connect to a labyrinth of yellow and silver pipes. The gleaming new refinery has the capacity to turn 116,000 tons a year of palm oil into 110,000 tons of a fuel called biodiesel, as well as valuable byproducts like glycerin. Mission Biofuels, an Australian company, finished the refinery last month and is working on an even larger factory next door at the base of a jungle hillside.

But prices have spiked so much that the company cannot cover all its costs and has idled the finished refinery while looking for a new strategy, such as asking a biodiesel buyer to pay a price linked to palm oil costs, and someday switching from palm oil to jatropha, a roadside weed.

[tasdrouille]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Coincidentally, I just got e-mail from a contributor @ Jalopnik who will be posting an item tomorrow about "hypermiling" two euro-spec diesels:



Should be an interesting read.

40 mpg in a 4.2 liters big SUV...now THAT's impressive.

[MetroMPG]

I'm just hoping it's not a case of mis reporting Imperial vs. US gallons, a common mistake when people talk about Euro fuel efficiency. We'll see!

[NoCO2]

Heres to diesel and hoping it doesn't take too long to catch on in America!

I can't wait to be driving around in a diesel gulf!