Comments on: Gas guzzlers still popular

Despite poor gas mileage people prefer sports cars and trucks, says CarGurus analysis of its community ratings for 2007 models.

[Christopher Hall]

The cars that sell the best...

The cars that sell the best strike a balance between form, function, and price. Any one of the three can be lowered to raise the other two. The biggest problem with the non "gas guzzlers" is that they ask you to sacrifice cargo capacity (function) and drivetrain power (more function), and in the case of the Prius the driver must adopt the mindset that the Aztek was not, in fact, an ugly vehicle (form). Oh, and by the way, you get to pay more for it than a comparably equipped non-hybrid. Say what?

Hybrids are not a step forward. It's a step to the side at best and a technological dead-end.

[zeeboid]

I Completly Agree

The Number One reason people buy hybrids is because "It makes a statement about me"( http://www.hybridcars.com/hybrid-drivers/prius-popularity-vanity.html ) ( http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/07/15/INGHKQVEIM1.DTL ) Becasue we all know, if it was realy about saving the environment, they would buy a Salvage vehicle from a salvage yard, repair it, drive it, and use the 12k they save on an environmental cause while single handedly performing in a single action a greater amount of energy saving and recycling then the average environmentalist does in a lifetime... but its not realy about the environment, its all about fassion... much like Bell Bottoms, Mullets, and Mikie Jackson music.

[BW1977]

"Personal" Vehicles

I feel the same about vehicles. My wife drives a Escape V6 AWD. It gets
@ 18 city, and 23 - 26 hwy. She loves it. She shops with her mother on
the weekends. Flowers, Groceries, heavy/ bulky items fit well. She never
is stuck in the winter (important in buffalo). I drive a beater neon that
gets 27 - 35 mpg. It gets me to work. I wanted a hybrid Escape, but the
cost premium was on the order of 8k at the time. With a family, and the
desire to enjoy your "personal" vehicles, it cannot compromise on the
functionality that you need. I would get a hybrid for myself, but I drive
@5k / year. My wife's vehicle is the primary vehicle, and get a lot of use.
She cannot have compromises. We will get an Edge next for the room,
no hybrids in that class. We wait for something that will work for our
AMERICAN family...

[jimsum]

Hybrids are a step forward

I disagree that hybrids are a technological dead end. Electric motors have a very good property for cars; they have great torque at low speeds and they react quickly to changes in power demands. Electric motors also have the advantage that they can work as generators, and thus recover some of the energy that is otherwise wasted when slowing a vehicle.

Electric motors are a great match for a gas engine. The electric motor can take care of low-speed acceleration, and gas engines can be used only at the most efficient speeds and power loads.

Fuel cell cars will also be hybrids. The fuel cell doesn't react quickly to power demands, so these cars need batteries to be usable.

Adding an electric motors and a battery to a car enables an efficiency increase of 20-50%, and this efficiency gain is even higher in stop-and-go traffic. That is a technological advancement; to get equivalent or better performance at a higher efficiency level.

The only question about the usefulness of hybrids is whether the extra costs outweigh the increased efficiency. That isn't a technological issue, it is a cost-of-fuel issue. By my calculations, a hybrid that gets 45 mpg will burn 1666 fewer gallons of fuel over a 150,000 mile lifetime than a vehicle that gets 30 mpg. If we assume gas will cost $3 a gallon or more for the next decade, then a hybrid will save $5000 worth of gas. That's pretty close to break-even now, and if gas prices go up, or roads become more congested, the hybrid powertrain will be worth even more.

Maybe we will switch fuels from gasoline. Maybe that alternate fuel will be cleaner and cheaper so we don't have to worry about wasting it. But, if the quantity of fuel you are using matters, hybrids are a technological advance that will allow you to reduce fuel use, in any type of vehicle, for a fixed cost.

[anomalator]

Sustainabilty instead of a hybrid

I have to agree with all these comments. Both of my vehicles are over ten years old, and they run great. My first vehicle is a car, a '91 BMW with 210,000 miles on it, and it still runs strong and gets 30 mpg on the highway. And its very well built. Talk about sustainability! It's the best car I've ever owned, and the only reason I might consider selling it to buy another car is because we have a son now and we may need a bigger vehicle. But until then I'nm going to get as many miles as I can out of it. My other vehicle is an '95 F150. While I'm not completely thrilled with it's mileage, there's just no substitute for a good ole truck when you need to haul a big load. It's also well built, and has a lot of miles on it, about 180,000. I've always had pretty good luck with used vehicles, and I can do all of the maintenence these vehicles need which cuts down on the cost of ownership. I'd much rather sustain an older vehicle that has plenty of life left in it then go into debt for a 30 or 40 grand hybrid vehicle that is probably impossible for me to work on or maintain.

[aabcdefghij987654321]

fuel cells are decades away from practical use

"The more we are consuming oil that either comes from places that are bent on our destruction or helping those who are ... the more we are enabling those who are trying to kill us," Frank Gaffney, President Reagan's undersecretary of defense. " Gaffney, who heads the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Security Policy, said Americans would embrace hybrids if they understood arguments from him and others who say gasoline contributes to oil-rich Middle Eastern governments that support terrorism.