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Hybrid car

entropie

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Yes thats what I posted on page 1. A small diesel aggregate is atm still the best solution.

The thing is, hybrid cars depend on their batteries and batteries decay over time. There is a lot of reasearch going on in that field but the current batteries in hybrid cars, only live for like 1 maybe 2 years and after that you need to change them.

The Prius and other cars, use an electric engine for the power train. A diesel / gasoline aggregate is only used to recharge the battery. Similiar hybrid cars use 4 separated electric engines, which are built into the wheels. But those concepts are more prone to fail over time of use.

If you have such a site with people comments about cars, like Pink suggested, I would make use of it.

In my personal and professional opinion as an engineer, I can tell you, dont buy a hybrid car, they are not really ready yet. The thing about battery decay will very soon start to bug you, when driving such a car.

The best alternative atm is a small diesel engine. If you use a small diesel engine built by VW for example, you can fuel it with biodiesel aswell. Dont know if you have such sorts of gas. Biodiesel though is no real alternative in the long run, because its made of plants poorer countries need to feed themselves and so you take away their food supplies by fueling your car with biodiesel. Therefore there is the opportunity to build an additional gas tank into you car and fuel it with compressed gas. Thats called an LPG tank (Liquified Petroleum/Propane Gas). Those things sound dangerous but are safe and they reduce your gasoline consumption significally, amortizing itselves after 1 year of use.

A nice car, which is equipped to use this LPG technology and whose aggregate and powertrain are build by VW (its an aggregate + powertrain that has been used for more than 20 years) is this one:

GreenLine Škoda Auto - Škoda Fabia -

I drive the 105 HP version myself and the car costed around 22000 dollar. You can get the smallest engine (with a lot of extras that doesn't cost you) around 16000 dollar. Its all VW technology, from around the year 2006 - 2008 and its really a great car, feels like a Mercedes sometimes (cause it does look fancy in black) :)

P.S.: the mileage of the Fabia greenline btw is 4.1 l/100 km which is around 58 mpg. And its still equipped with a 4-cylinder turbo-diesel so its got some power and doesnt drive boring :)

P.P.S.: the greenline doesnt have a LPG tank, but one can be added to it. Then you can increase your mpg even more. Costs around 1000 dollar extra and gives you easily 20-40 additional mpg
 

simpleamazement

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Should I get one?

Does anyone here have one?


What do you think of them?

Why do you want one? Is it because you want to save money on gas? Is it because you want to "go green"?

I'm not really a fan of hybrids (I think they're kind of boring), but the ones I kinda like are the Lexus LS600h and the Honda Civic Hybrid.

Take your pick of hybrids made since 2000:

Cadillac Escalade Hybrid
Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid
Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid
Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid
Chrysler Aspen Hybrid
Dodge Durango Hybrid
Ford Escape Hybrid
Ford Fusion Hybrid
GMC Sierra Hybrid
GMC Yukon Hybrid
Honda Accord Hybrid
Honda Civic Hybrid
Honda Insight
Lexus GS450h
Lexus LS600h
Lexus RX400h
Mazda Tribute Hybrid
Mercury Mariner Hybrid
Mercury Milan Hybrid
Nissan Altima Hybrid
Saturn Aura Green Line
Saturn Vue Green Line
Toyota Camry Hybrid
Toyota Highlander Hybrid
Toyota Prius
 

Giggly

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Why do you want one? Is it because you want to save money on gas? Is it because you want to "go green"?

Both? I heard that soon Obama will be asking the car manufacturers to start make more hybrid cars and less of normal cars so that it forces people to buy more hybrids.
 

Mole

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Should I get one?

Does anyone here have one?

What do you think of them?


Why not buy a Greenspeed Recumbent?

They are beautifully made, an awful lot of fun, and your recumbent tricycle would always remind you of Oz and me.

You can find your Greenspeed by clicking on Welcome Page
 

Giggly

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Why not buy a Greenspeed Recumbent?

They are beautifully made, an awful lot of fun, and your recumbent tricycle would always remind you of Oz and me.

You can find your Greenspeed by clicking on Welcome Page

That looks fun. What makes them better than bicycles though?
 

93JC

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The Prius is the best atm, thats because

2010-ford-fusion-hybrid.jpg


The Prius is a bucket by comparison.
 
O

Oberon

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Here's my deal:

My 2000 Buick LeSabre will seat my entire family of six. I get 30mpg on the highway by keeping the tires up to spec pressure and using cruise control during my commute. I have 220 hp on tap if I need it for merging with traffic. I have one of the best-developed powerplants in the industry in GM's 3800cc V6. Right now my car has 171,000 miles on it and remains in serviceable condition. (I keep synthetic oil in the engine to minimize wear.) The Buick LeSabre continues (along with the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord) to top the J.D. Power and Consumer Report surveys for auto reliability. This car cost me $6500 when I bought it used in 2004, and I fully intend to drive the bloody wheels off it.

It would be difficult for me to duplicate this degree of utility per dollar. The only thing I give up to the Honda and the Toyota is resale value, and that is compensated by the reduced price point at purchase.

5365079.jpg


I would have to give up a lot for that additional 5.5 mpg.
 

rhinosaur

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That looks fun. What makes them better than bicycles though?

According to what I've read on the intertubes, the recumbent position uses your body power more efficiently than the upright normal bicycle position, which allows you to go faster with less effort. However, there is a tradeoff -- drawbacks are how well you can see the road, how easily you can react to traffic and hazards, and how visible you are to traffic. I'm not familiar with the three-wheeled version but it looks interesting.

As for non human-powered vehicles, after a long deliberation I settled on a 2009 Toyota Tacoma, 4-cylinder, 2-seater, gas-powered, manual transmission. I've been getting 26 mpg, and I think my next fill-up will be closer to 30 mpg. It fits my needs...
 

simpleamazement

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Both? I heard that soon Obama will be asking the car manufacturers to start make more hybrid cars and less of normal cars so that it forces people to buy more hybrids.

True, more and more hybrids are being made, and President Obama has put a nice chunk of money to go towards the development of hybrids/electric vehicles.
 

Giggly

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True, more and more hybrids are being made, and President Obama has put a nice chunk of money to go towards the development of hybrids/electric vehicles.

Yeah, that's cool. I also saw some guys on the news at some world-wide conference thing where they talked about how the globe is warming by 1 degree F every year saying that whatever we do now to try to reverse that won't make a difference because it's too late. I wonder if that's true. :huh:
 

millerm277

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While I don't have the data to back it up....I personally feel that it's impossible for current hybrids to be environmentally friendly. The materials in the battery packs, are far too destructive to mine/toxic. In addition, there are cars that get equally good gas mileage, or close to it, without 500+ lbs of batteries and extra thousands of dollars.
 
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