What is Your Greatest Motivation for Being an Ecomodder? poll
 

I picked A for sure. Although C was a close 2nd.

I would say A and C which contribute to B and D. ;)

Well said you two! Nothing else to add!!!

E: To crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and to hear the lamentation of their women.

E: For 'MURIKA!

It started with "C" after the fuel light in my old Mazda (14.5 gal tank) came on at 247 miles.

But once I got into it, it's definitely "A" with "all of the above" being secondary considerations.

It's all about the game!

I never made it into a formal poll, but I started a thread on this topic a long time ago:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ing-17749.html

Money savings, range increasement for longer trips, and altough some mods could increase tailpipe emissions they decrease the demand for fuel and then end up decreasing the emissions from the logistics background. The ability to run on alternative fuels also matters for me, due to the fuel supplies often being not so constant in certain locations.

Definitely all of the above, although B and D are probably the most influential for me, since I am an Environmental Studies major.

Doesn't Brazil use natural gas as their main vehicle fuel supply? Are there consistency issues with that?

Mostly economic
 

Call it 70/30 economic / hobbying.
I'm trying to limit myself to projects that have a return on investment under 18 months or so. I don't imagine I'll drive my Cherokee as a commuter forever - I'll have a '57 chevy pickup to run around in pretty soon.

It all started with the curiosity of how things worked. (E)
So I bought a scan gauge to see how consumption worked.
Then I realised that I could save money. (C)
Then talk to a friend of mine of my discovery and how simple it is to save money (C)
Then me and my friend we are trying to do better that the other one(A)
There is only one thing, I dont want to pay more money for a mod that what that mod can save me in gas.

To conclude, saving money is prevalent on the challenge/game but the challenge/game is important to try to do better; witch is the point of that ecomodder.com, promoting the exchange on ecommoding and encouraging everyone to do better.

I started with E -my hatred for Exxon/Mobil's atrocious corporate behavior durfing and after the Exxon Valdez disaster. But A - my enjoyment of the real life hypermiling game sustains me.

Its was A for me, though I admit it all began with C.

Let's not forget about the other other option E... To have strange and confused looks and questions from strangers.

Three points come to mind:

1) Keeping money in the USA
- the majority of our oil consumption is imported, and that means our money spent on this, goes out of country. We become poorer for this luxury.
2) Helping the environment.
3) And because of 1) and 2), getting the most MPG's possible.
- it's amazing how many small things we can do to improve this!

Jim.

mikeyjd -

Thanks for putting other, I think all polls should have that option.

A, B, C, and D are part of my equation, but I also want to prove that an American designed and built car with a "normal" ICE drivetrain can get great MPG. I would put the Saturn S-Series in the top-5 for that. That top-5 does not include American cars made after the 2008 gas crunch because I think we're in a new MPG era.

CarloSW2

Natural Gas is widely used in light-duty vehicles, but its availability is still pretty much limited. Anyway, I'm more focused into Diesel engines :D

What limits it's availability? Is it actual resource limits or government intervention or is the infrastructure just not there yet? How is the availability of diesel, the same or relatively widespread?

Thanks! I like learning about other systems in different regions! :)

What currently limits CNG availability is hte infrastructure, more concentrated in highly urbanized areas. Diesel fuel is easily available, but I'd still like to be able to use vegetable oils in farming regions where it can be had cheaper :D

E - As interest to research these things :D

It's pretty tough to stick with motivation A) as my fuel price has dropped by 31.5 % , fulfilling C) - that is if I even had to pay for it ...
I'm currently using the 500 euro credit I got from a fuel supplier when I bought the GasDwarf, a VW up! on CNG.

At the same my fuel consumption has dropped (albeit in liters to kilos) by 22.5 % .
Tailpipe emissions with CNG are one or two orders of magnitude lower than the diesel I was using before, fulfilling B) .


I'm waiting on somebody to start producing biogas in Belgium, so I can change over to biologically / locally produced natural gas - motivator D) - which I'm trying to help happening.

While you can get biogas in the Netherlands or Germany, Belgium doesn't even have legislation or regulation in place on how to practically make it happen :turtle:


If things stay the way they are for CNG in Belgium - even relatively speaking compared to other fuels - my VW eco up! is expected to pay for itself over the next 10 years, compared to keeping Hägar the Volvo running.
And that's on the fuel bill alone ...

when are you gonna start posting fuel logs?

Well ...
That's a wee bit of a problem :)

The Garage software doesn't allow for kilograms of CNG.

There are 2 very different gas qualities, H-gas has some 17% more energy in it than L-Gas.
In the US, you probably have different caloric values again, and pounds instead of kg.
That'd probably make it a bit too involved to get this into the Garage software ...

I've been looking for a way to convert kilograms and caloric value to kWh, which is in the Garage, but it ain't that easy without knowing the (variable) density.
I could use an average value, but it wouldn't be correct.


Easiest solution :
I'll put my spritmonitor fuel log in my signature.

[this will be changed to display miles / kg when spritmonitor.de get the conversion properly sorted ;) ]

C was the reason for me to buy the car, though all apply.
The modding and driving style change, definitely A.
Would rephrase that as 'my hobby'. :)

C: To Save Money
 

altho I havn't "modded" my classic prius yet,

I have modded my garage, and picked up a car that gets double the mpg of its stablemates


I paid $2200 for the car,
and it should pay for itself in fuel savings in about a year of driving my 120 mile/day commute:thumbup: