These fuel costs are depressing...

[vettemaniac]

Re: These fuel costs are depressing...

Gas is averaging about 3.85 for regular and 4.35 for diesel here in the East Bay Area. With the Yukon XL and the F-250 diesal its quite a bit for my parents. Good thing we have a little putt around town car. Seems to be a life saver right now.

[Lt1Corvette]

Re: These fuel costs are depressing...

Just paid 4.19 for 91. Diesel was 4.55.

[CosmoTiki]

Re: These fuel costs are depressing...

Its getting pretty ridiculous and we've started looking into hybrids. We're think about the Prius for my mom which is supposed to live up to its MPG statements pretty well and sometimes even exceed it. Ryan

Sounds like your application is right for an HEV as they produce the best mileage on short, stop & go trips.

HEV's primary fuel savings comes from the gas (ICE) engine turning off when it comes to a stop, restarting w/ the electric motor when the accellerator pedal's depressed. That's why some folks have been disappointed in Toyota & Honda's HEV MPG ratings when they spend more time on freeways (or extended high-speed) than around town... it's counter-intuitive to the conventional wisdom on MPG.

I still advocate clean diesel -> bio-diesel -> H2 FCEVs as our commercialization pathway to affordable ground transportation energy. That way we can save the remaining dino-juice for our weekend toys!

[Forever New]

Re: These fuel costs are depressing...

^ I agree completely, the technology is here, the question is who will be the first here in the states to take it mainstream. As long as it remains a subculture type of deal it will never take off. A very off subject comparison would be the sub-compact tuner market. It had been a large underground group for decades until the Fast and The Furious came out and made the concept "cool", that market boomed right after as it introduced a whole new world to many who otherwise had no idea what all the car people were doing in parking lots until the wee hours of the morning on Fri and Sat nights.

Unfortunately the avg American these days doesn't have a clue about hybrids or how little it would actually take to start stepping away from "dino-juice" With as much money as the gov't craps down the toilet every year we could easily begin designing and implementing a new infrastructure for bio-diesel, hydrogen, and a variety of other green energy ideas.

[kellyinkc]

Re: These fuel costs are depressing...

Honda has the Clarity fuel cell car now. One can lease it for $600 a month for 3 years. A good idea, however where do you fill it up at? What are the maintenance costs?

IMHO we need to drill now plus develop fuels for the future. We must not forget about China and India. They are getting a taste of cars now. They LOVE big SUV's.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/18/CHINA.TMP

Kelly