I'm in Vancouver until the end of Jan. Anyone interested in getting together after the holidays?
I'm in town, near Little Mountain/Queen Elizabeth Park. I do have use of a vehicle -- Honda Odyssey van (V6, oink, oink) ... though I've managed to avoid driving it so far.
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I get a kick out of spending time here. Part of the enjoyment comes from seeing a very different automotive scene vs. small town Ontario.
Some efficiency-themed observations on this visit so far ...
1. Prius & hybrid taxis. They're everywhere!
Can't step off the curb without risk of being run over by one of these!
2) Old Metros / Fireflies!
Even the older generations! These are long, long gone from rust-belt Ontario. I'm pretty sure I literally have the last Metro/Firefly on the road in my city back home (and my "BlackFly" is the
last generation car)!
3) Electric Smart Car
I saw... correction
heard, then saw ... one of these go by yesterday. Haven't seen a Leaf or Volt yet, but surprisingly, I did see ...
4) Fisker Karma
Saw one cruising down Main St last week. Unmistakeable looks. OK, a Karma doesn't really belong in a list of "efficient" cars - It's a hog whether running on electrons or gasoline. It's only efficient in EV mode
relative to other gas hogs.
5) Car sharing services
The Daimler-owned Car2Go smarts are
everywhere.
The "Modo" car co-op has a wider variety of cars. I've seen a Prius C, and a few other conventional compacts/sub-compacts.
And spotted this Hymotion-converted PHEV Prius (2009 according to their site:
http://www.modo.coop/phev
6) Various blasts from the past...
One of these VW pickups lives a block from where I'm staying. It's being used as a work truck.
Saw a Civic like this on my first day here. I had one of these for a few months about a dozen years ago: bought it for $265 and it got 50 mpg (US) easily, cruising at 90 km/h / 55 mph in summertime conditions. Then the head gasket blew & I cracked the head.
There seem to be
tons of 80's & 90's subcompacts still on the roads around here. Far more choice for the efficient used-car shopper than anywhere that uses salt on the roads!