[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by IamIan

And every 1 pound of the steel and other things cost more pollution than the same 1 pound did today with modern industry ... even if was the same amount of steel ... it polluted more to produce it.

Producing steel under current environmental standards won't neutralize the pollution from the older steel manufacturing process.

If you want to admit the inferiority of the maintenance of the older vehicle ... than fine invest the additional costs of both money and pollution in order to try and improve it , by making those upgrades to the beater ... but don't forget to include their environmental costs of doing those upgrades ... to the whole life time pile the vehicle is producing.

Some improvements in an old beater can be applied with a smaller energy expense than it would be required in a newer car with an increased electronic complexity.

And if you already opened up the can to allow overhauls and modifications ... the Prius can be modified to run on alternative fuels as well... and it would still produce less toxic emissions per gallon ... and use less gallons per mile.

An old-school engine, either a Diesel or a spark-ignited one, is still usually easier (then cheaper and less energy-expensive) to convert to alternative fuels than a Prius engine. I can set a carburettor-fed engine to run on both gasoline and ethanol without having to hook it up to a computer since there is no ECM to require a reflashing.

So you think a 79hp engine is a good comparison to a 134hp current Prius?

Considering what it does in such a low-geared brick, yes, I do. If I would ever buy a Prius bodyshell, I could eventually consider to put an old Diesel into...

Why stack the deck so much ... compare apples to apples ... where's the nearly ~134 HP diesel to compare vs the ~134HP HEV?

They're not so usual in America, but in the European market there are many examples. But let's consider the power output of the gasser, 99hp, so a Diesel with a lower power wouldn't fare so badly, also considering the torque output.

Toyota started selling a Bio-Fuel running Prius in Brazil in 2012

I don't consider E20/E25 as bio-fuel, since I can have E96h here in Brazil. And no, the Prius doesn't run on E96h back here.

Re-using waste is a good thing ... but is not limited to only be converted to bio-diesel ... nor is waste restaurant oil the only waste that can be converted to fuel.

Any source of organic matter can be turned into bio-fuel, including some sort of synthetic gasoline like the one that was made out of wood chips in Poland during WWII.