In my car researching experience I discovered some horrible truths.
- A used version of this car would cost nearly as much.
- There is no payoff for owning a hybrid car. You can never (ok, if I drove >30,000 miles a year) get your money back, even if you use the mileage given by the government. Hybrids have proven to give far less mpg than they claim due to means of testing vs. actual driving conditions heavily favoring hybrid technology. For the extra money you get the most technologically sophisticated car on the planet, which, when it breaks, will require rocket scientists to fix. You also get a shit load of batteries filled with highly toxic chemicals.
- My original goal of driving a car that is rated for >40mpg turned out to be impossible without driving either a hybrid (see above) or some exceedingly small and inflexible car. I almost went that route in the Scion Xa, about the smallest car on the road, but it only gets 38mpg highway, and squeals like a pig at 65 mph. My only option was to spend >25% more for a hybrid (see above) and my budget couldn't take that.
- Americans are really stupid when it comes to cars. The average cost of a car in 2003 was 74% of the average person's wage. $28,000 for the car, $38,000 for the wage. Who are these people spending that much of their income on a car? Does that explain the level of personal debt in this country?
- The average fuel economy in 2004 in the US was 20.8 mpg.
- The average fuel economy in 2004 in Europe was 43 mpg.
- The top 3 vehicles sold in the US in 2003 were pick-up trucks. 4 and 5 were the Camry and Accord. 5 was the Explorer. All told, half of the top ten were trucks (including SUV's).
Do giant vehicles make you safer? Maybe, except in a rollover, and oh yeah, you're probably going to decapitate or otherwise obliterate the poor bastard driving the passenger car. Selfish fucker.
Do you support the war in Iraq and drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge, all the while getting <10mpg in your Hummer? Selfish fucker.
Do you 'buy American', laboring under the delusion that your Chevy or Ford has more parts in it made in this country than the guy driving the Camry or Accord? Think again jackass.
Do you demand that your 6000lb behemoth get to 60mph in 6 seconds, all the while getting fuel economy measured in gallons per mile? Selfish fucking jackass.
If you think that you have the freedom to drive with no consideration for the effects of your actions, simply because you have a Support the Troops ribbon sideways on the tailgate of your Expedition, think again. Your actions speak louder than a $2 bumper sticker. If you doubled the fuel economy of your vehicle and didn't drive 80 on the interstate, I might have some respect for you. Until you do, you're just a dumb fucking, selfish, stupid jackass.
And oh yeah - if you never drive anywhere other than to and from work on paved roads, and don't have 5 children or a horse trailer, you can't justify that Yukon. You suck and I'm going to figure out a way to tell you so, since I know you're not reading this.
Thanks to those that are - sorry for the tone and the foul language.
12 comments:
Tone & foul language understood. I realize this is an issue that is close to your heart; it is close to mine, as well. Our cars, the Saturn & the Corolla, both get between 33-37 mph (I think), depending upon the driving conditions. Our budget had us looking only at cars in the $7000-$8000 range for the first one, and $5000-$6000 range for the second-all in all I ended up very happy with the purchases (though moreso with the Toyota).
I really appreciate the openness & rigor with which you approached your checking into this; truly in the best research tradition. I definitely would be taking your findings into consideration if & when that time comes about.
The T-clog family will use these parameters when we buy our next vehicle. price, functionality, fuel economy, and maintence concerns. Not necessarily in that order. We will probably never buy a Ford or Chevy, unless our research proves that they are a superior car to a Toyota, Mazda, or similar foriegn model. Sarah and I are very concerned with fuel economy. I appreciate your research Mixdorf and we will use what we ahve learned from you in purchasing our next vehicle. I guess I should not tell you about the monster truck that I bought last week. :) Jonah loves it!
For what it's worth, I am THIS close (><) to opting into this program at Best Buy where the subsidize 100% of bus fare.
There's finally express routes linking my house to BBY-the reason I've been holding off is that it includes a transfer in downtown that I not particularly excited about, and I'd need to commit to riding the bus at least 3 days a week for tne entire year.
But the benefits (cost, as well as environmental) may have finally pushed me over the line.
That's really awesome.
It's actually possible to take the bus from my house to work, with a minimal amount of walking, but it takes about 2 1/2 hours each way, 5 times as long as my driving commute. That's 5 hours everyday, and too much.
My commute will change like this:
Going in by car: 25 min (ave)
Going in by bus: 50 min
Going home by car: 35-40 min (ave)
Going home by bus: 1 hr
Again, the transfer sucks, but other than that-bus time is great reading time or just general relaxation time.
There's another bus that is not express that would go all the way from my house to a stop that's about a mile from the corporate office. 2 problems with it:
1. It takes about 1 hr and 30 minutes, one way.
2. It winds through the crappiest neighborhoods in Minneapolis (in Near North). I don't mind that all that much, but I'd like to couple this particular route with a bike for that last mile. All busses here have bike racks, which is great, but I have this idea that my bike would be missing long before I ever made it through downtown.
If I spend many more years at EGA, I would like to try biking the 25 miles to work.
Would need a reasonably decent road bike - skinny tires.
Think it could be done in 1-1/2 hours or so, though maybe not at first.
I'm going to bike to work twice in May-around 17 miles one way, I think. It's actually a beautiful route of pure off-road trail the whole way until you get within a mile or two of the Big Buy HQ. I did it once last year, but Wirth Parkway's trails were under construction and I had to reroute my fancy, biking-shorted ass through Penn Ave in Near North. It was a little scary.
Ride this year should be much more pleasant. I expect a little less than 1 1/2 hours.
Check out the gas savings calculator at MixedPower.com to see how much you can save with a hybrid vehicle.
A hybrid costs significantly more - generally more than I can save in gas over the 5 years of the loan - and that's using the mpg gotten in testing. It is proving true that hybrids get about 25% less mpg in real world conditions. My experience with the cars I have owned is that I get as good or better than the list mpg.
So if you have a hybrid listed at 60mpg highway that never gets more than 45mpg that changes the math considerably.
Factor in the batteries and the environmental impact of them leaking in a crash etc. and the logic isn't quite as straightforward.
Keep in mind too that hybrid cars use their gasoline engines when travelling on the highway.
FWIW. Wired had a section on hybrids last month. They addressed the disparity from the fuel economy rating and the real world results. It turns out that many Prius owners end up improving their mileage the more they drive their cars. They end up getting as good or better mileage than what the car is rated. There is a learning curve to driving these things. It is more than step on the pedal and go.
The Accord hybrid got high marks. It actually makes more horsepower than the gas only six cylinder.
With the miles I drive, the Civic would pay for itself over ten years (at $2/gal, and that is only going up) and it would also save over three tons of CO2.
The CO2 is definitely better, but compared to what?
You must driver long-haul trucker's miles to make it pay for itself. At 18,000 miles a year with $2.20 gas, I couldn't get the Civic Hybrid to make up the difference in ths cost with the Matrix I bought over 5 years, let alone the actual cost of the car.
And as I said, we have the equivalent of California emissions in New England, so even the Matrix is a ULEV vehicle.
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