If only my drive to work was a 1/4 mile long, I'd pick this up... http://home.comcast.net/~wicked46/jb051199HQ.WMV
two things on Hybrids: Do the math, how much will it cost you to ditch your gas guzzler and pay the premium to buy a hybrid? (I'll bet it will cost a bunch) Now take the difference in gas milage and mutiply that by the cost per gallon and see how many miiles you'd have to drive to break even. (I'll bet a lot) If you are an accounting major be sure to use the full cost of the new car vs. the old one by including the total cost of financing it too. Also, I heard but don't really know, that on a Hybrid the gasoline engine runs whenever the airconditioner is on, so in Houston that would be 75% of the total milage meaning the net miles per gallon is actually pretty low here. The real best tact is probably trading your current used car for one of a similar value but more fuel efficincy i.e. less horse power and less weight. I just have to laugh when I watch TV and all the car commercial tout 325 horsepower! or 395 Horse power and the American people and their big ego's have just been buying them up like hotcakes and now wonder what is happening to gas prices. There hasn't been a new refinery built in the US in 30 years, did they all think they could drive 6000lb. 400 HP vehilces by the hundreds of thousands and not effect the supply and demand of gasoline. Hell in1980 Jimmy Carter said the Energy Crisis was the moral eqiuvelant of war...and everyone laughed at him.
Some co-workers and I sat around doing the math on hybrids about 3 or 4 years ago and came to conclusion that it would take you about 7-10 years of ownership just to break even. I'm sure it's much better now(?). Also, the biggest complaint from hybrid owners recently has been the fact that hybrids don't seem to get anywhere near the mileage their EPA ratings state. Read this article. The other option is get a diesel powered car.
A couple of more things... a lot of these people driving these SUV's or pickups they don't need are wincing right now. As for $2 for gas... big deal. Like I always say, gas is a necessity - go find out how much a gallon of milk, a pitcher of beer, or foo foo starbucks coffee costs, but damn you'll go out an buy those by the truckload without complaining. Check out where you're wasting your money and you'll find you're b****ing about all the wrong things.
Well I guess you can say I'm lucky to drive an older car with better mpg than most. My employer recently moved a ton of us downtown and gave us the option to pay for our parking or get us a Metro Park and Ride pass. Well I chose the pass, and thank god I did. I'm now filling up my car an average of 1 time every 2 to 3 weeks instead of every week. After doing the math I figure this saves me about $14 per week. So that comes out to about $700 a year, and it looks like that is only going to go up with the rising prices. Even if your employer doesn't pay for it, maybe this would be a better way for you go to if you work downtown. If you want to look into it you can check: www.ridemetro.org Pugs
Look heres the thing about Hybrid cars. The car uses gas anytime you are accelerating. It only switches to electric once you have started cruising. If you keep on accelerating and decelerating the whole time you drive in the city then you defeat the whole purpose of a hybrid car. Then you will get a similar mpg as a regular honda civic. So in order to best utilize your hybrid car, you need to drive your car a little differently.
I just saw a Consumer Reports article that said the Toyota Camry hybrid has a faster 0-60 (5.5 sec) and the pure gas powered Camery (6 sec). The reason was that during acceleration, both gas and electric engines contribute providing it additional power. (I don't remember if it was the Camry for sure. It might have been a different model. Nevertheless, that was interesting.)
Bah...I don't see what the big deal is. If the gas has gone up $0.15 per gallon, and you fill up with 14 gallons (like me), that's $2.10 more per fill up, so instead of $28.00 per fill up, it's now $30.00 per fillup. That's on my 13 year old Mustang that has been modified up to close to 275 HP and steep gears. I'll get maybe 18 MPG on average. At $2.00 more per weekly fill up, I'll cut back on two cokes per week. Big woop. Hell, I'm getting ready to build a motor that's gonna add 60 cubic inches and over 100 hp to my car. Then again, I've always believed that if you could afford the car, you could afford the maintenance.
I 'm looking to by a nice car, but the one I want needs to have the topgrade crap in it all the time.. What to do, what to do??? BTW....Didnt we have this topic lastweek??
Oh, I moved near the light-rail line just prior to it opening and I recently got a job downtown. I now take the train to work everyday. (BTW, door-to-door commute time versus driving is on average 5 minutes difference.) I calculated that I've spent about $45 on gas YTD. In years past, I had jobs that required I fill-up every week. So I figure I'm saving ~$85/month or over $1000 annually on gas. I'm now considering dropping my insurance coverages down since I drive so little which would provide me additional savings. Not to start a D&D on lightrail, but I thought I'd throw that out for those of you considering buying a new car. Me, I'm considering buying an electric scooter which would then easily make my commute faster via light-rail than driving.
The problem isn't so much of the current price of gas. Its the trend. At the current rate of increase, at what point does it become a problem? For you, your hobby is cars so I understand your position. For most, cars are only transportation. Why pay more for something that gets you from Point A to Point B?
That is true. Cars (Mustangs specifically) are my hobby, but at the same time, if someone is going to buy a gas guzzler to get to and from work, surely they could have foreseen that there are more reasonable choices for point a-b driving. I do remember back in the 80's when gas was in literally in the $.80's. I have been driving through the entire range of prices, from $.80's to $2.00+. Gas prices creep up relatively slowly, so the adjustment of budgets is no big deal. Now, if there were a $1.00 per gallon jump, I thin kthere would be some big problems. I broke down my budget and have to 110% agree w/ DoD.
Ok, I looked it up for you. It was the Honda Accord...not the Camry. Since Consumer Reports is a paid site, I'll paste the performance stats. 2003 EX sedan, 3.0-liter V6, 5-speed automatic Tires as tested Michelin Energy MXV4 Plus, size P205/60R16 91V Acceleration 0-30 mph, sec. 3.1 0-60 mph, sec. 7.4 Quarter mile, sec. 15.9 Quarter mile, mph 93 45-65 mph, sec. 4.2 2005 Hybrid sedan, 3.0-liter V6, 5-speed automatic Tires as tested Michelin Energy MXV4, size P215/60R16 94V Acceleration 0-30 mph, sec. 2.6 0-60 mph, sec. 6.9 Quarter mile, sec. 15.6 Quarter mile, mph 93 45-65 mph, sec. 4.5
Hehe, thanks for posting that. I was about to say I needed to go up to the Nissan place where I bought my Z and complain that a damn hybrid could go from 0 to 60 faster than it!
