Recent Comments:
Tesla Roadster rated at 300 HP {Autoblog}
May 5th 2008 10:00AM Actually, it'll be interesting to see if that happens. It turns out that all those Priuses didn't end up in Hollywood by accident. Toyota paid PR firms to get them placed at high profile events. They had a very expensive, but successful, campaign to get the Prius associated with celebrities. I'm not sure if Tesla has that kind of cash sitting around.
Tesla Roadster rated at 300 HP {Autoblog}
May 5th 2008 9:23AM Not exhaust free, just exhaust where you can't see it.
That said, I have a short commute (4 miles each way), so this would be one heck of a fast way to get there on wall power. On the other hand, my parking lot is a good 100 yards from my apartment, so I'd have to buy a pretty long extension cord to recharge it at night...
By the Numbers: April 2008 {Autoblog}
May 1st 2008 10:26PM Actually, despite being a Subaru owner, I find their bump surprising. Subies aren't cheap, nor are they the most fuel efficient vehicles in their categories. Doesn't seem like a winning formula in the current climate.
Is this mainly due to the Forester redesign?
Book Value: KBB lists Top 10 under $18k for 2008 {Autoblog}
Apr 30th 2008 10:01PM Not sure about the newest generation, because I haven't seen them in person much, but the last generation Vibe was definitely "cooler" looking than the Matrix. The Matrix screamed, "hey, we made a Corolla Hatch!" while the Vibe actually looked good.
Dutch cyclists want airbags installed on the outside of cars {Autoblog}
Apr 22nd 2008 11:51PM Is the $0.00005 discount on my insurance (amortize the cost associated with the small probability that I will hit a cyclist hard enough to incur medical liability over a 6 month premium) going to equal the cost of an airbag? Those numbers will never be equal. Airbags are crazy expensive.
By your logic, pick-up trucks should be designed with airbags that deploy on their bumpers so they stop destroying the heads of car drivers in side-impact crashes. But that's not what happens in the real world. Car drivers who care about not dying buy side airbags. Cyclists who are stupid enough to commute on busy American roads should front the money to protect themselves. They can take it from their gas savings.
Dutch cyclists want airbags installed on the outside of cars {Autoblog}
Apr 22nd 2008 7:59PM Or, they could wear one of those airbag jackets, thus putting the cost of this on the riders (where it belongs).
Damn that Flex is sexy! {Autoblog}
Apr 17th 2008 8:32AM I doubt it's any worse than most SUV's (or CUV's, for that matter). It may even be a bit better, since it's lower to the ground.
It's long and straight once you get past the initial barn door, and it's head-on profile isn't that unusual.
Automakers facing a 75 mpg CAFE rating by 2030? {Autoblog}
Apr 16th 2008 12:41PM Well, when our funding management went to Congress and asked why this had happened, that was the answer they were given (and this came from a Democratic congressman, not a Republican trying to score points).
Automakers facing a 75 mpg CAFE rating by 2030? {Autoblog}
Apr 16th 2008 12:39PM I don't deny that you might be getting 50mpg with your Prius, I'm just telling you what the computer on my friends' Priuses (Prii?) tell them.
As for the EPA website, there is an issue there with self-reported information. People tend to inflate their mpg numbers, whether consciously or not. Ie: they get say, 35mpg once during an interstate trip, and then from that point on they report their highway mileage as "35mpg," even though in reality their usual "highway mileage" is something lower, say 30mpg.
I think you misunderstood my point on the plug-in hybrid mileage. The energy off the grid is undoubtedly cleaner than using a tiny internal combustion engine, but it still needs to be accounted for if you're going to use it for calculating fleet-averaged emissions standards. This isn't hard, all of the power companies already have to provide where their energy comes from in annual reports. So to calculate the equivalent MPG, you take how many kWhr you sucked out of the wall, convert it into gallons of gasoline equivalent based on your regional energy supply, and you have your new number.
Ignoring the contribution to a plug-in hybrid from the electrical grid would introduce an inefficiency into the market, by giving the manufacturers of plug-in hybrids "free" mileage credits under the CAFE system, when they are not actually saving oil. If you're going to regulate, do it accurately.
Automakers facing a 75 mpg CAFE rating by 2030? {Autoblog}
Apr 16th 2008 11:43AM What's the source on the next-gen Prius getting 60mpg? The people I know who have them average about 42mpg now. Where is that 50% increase in efficiency going to come from?
If you're talking about making it a plug-in, that's not really getting 60mpg, because you're just ignoring the gallons of gasoline equivalent that you pumped out of the electrical outlet.
