Hybrid Cars not as Good as They Claim?

[acroyear]

Article @ Slashdot, referencing an entry from Consumer Reports...

Comments

[kmusser]

They still named the Prius "car of the year" in the same issue.

[dawntreader]

unfortunately for me, all that's going to do is drive up the price before i'm ready for a new car! i decided two years ago the Prius would be my next car. thankfully my 1995 Toyota Tercel is still holding up quite nicely, but when she goes i'll just look all trendy, buying up an expensive fad car. ;)

[kmusser]

*nods* I'm already on a waiting list for one - though I'm not sure I'll be able to last until they're available.

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

Have you testdriven one yet?

If not, I urge you to try and do so. I did and I found several things about the Prius I did not like.

[kmusser]

Not yet, it's on the to do list. The new ones are supposedly quite a bit different from the old ones anyway, so we'll wait and see.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Isn't that like the newspaper articles saying how Harry Potter was losing his audience, and then admitting further down how the book sales for each sequel set new world records? Makes you wonder what the reporters are smoking.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

I don't blame the reporters, I blame the editors who don't look for such contradictions (and/or are tainted by their sponsers to not look for it), and thus allow different reporters, each with different sources, to publish conflicting information in the same issue...

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

*Shrug* My new Honda hybrid went approx. 110 miles on less than a quarter tank (holds 11 gallons).

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

Our Honda Civic (not a hybrid, and it's a manual trans) gets 38 to 40 mpg most of the year (a bit less in the summer, probably due to AC). I can't imagine that the slight increase in mileage is worth the extra price of a hybrid, especially with the concurrent loss in power and room.

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

I used to own a nonhybrid Civic and the room is about the same.

When I factor in what CA gas prices are, along with my ability come Jan. to ride as a single in the carpool lane (about the only thing I'm glad Der Governator has done), it makes financial sense to me.

*shrug* Some folx think that SUVs make financial sense. I happen not to be one.

It really is all in what is important to you, I suppose. Most of my driving is in stop-and-go commuter traffic,so anything that cuts down on my drivetime and/or my gas bills is okie-day by me.

And who says we Angelenos don't live in our cars? :>

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Consumer Reports says that the highway MPG is closer to the EPA reported MPG than the city driving. Given that most of your commute isn't quite as stop&go as city driving, I don't know that you have much confirmation about the eventual mileage of your car. Also, I have the impression based on the WIRED story that the issue is that the car had decreasing efficiency as the guy owned and drove it for longer.

Meanwhile, just to amuse myself, doing some math: 4x110=440miles, 440/11=40mpg. Advertised hwy mpg is 47.

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

I did say less than a quarter tank, so it probably was close to 47 mpg. :>

As for older hybrids being less efficient - older *cars* are less efficient.

I certainly don't expect my car to hit that magic 47 for ever and ever.

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

Upon perusal of that guy's 'blog...

OK, a 2003 shouldn't be that low on mpg, granted.

But if he is having this much trouble and his state has a 'lemon law,' it seems to me that he should take advantage of that.

I just don't think one bad car should taint the entire line of cars.

[cozit.livejournal.com]

remember also, that bad driving habits can lower the gas mileage *big time*... as can the stupid lights on the 45 and 50 mph roads around here. Having to do that much speed up and the slowdown in a short time, rather than over a distance makes a *huge* difference.

Lately we've been running between 47-50 mpg on a combination of 55 and 65 mph highways with a bit of slow stuff with lights on either end. But it's not unusual to get pretty close to 30-35 if I'm just driving it around Columbia... and it was worse, because of the combination of where the hills, off/on ramps and lights are, when I used it to take one kid to pre-school last year... much worse.

Hm... IIRC, the trip out to Chicago and back was somewhere between 45 and 48 mpg overall. And that included a few "backroad detours" for fun, and two "stuck in traffics for 45-70 minutes" and driving in rain or at least wet pavement (which also kills mileage a bit) almost the entire way home.

Pretty close to their advertised numbers. Though I'll agree that their city numbers are messed up... mostly because stop lights kill the mileage more than just about anything else.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

The question is whether it's just that one guy's car, or if it's all the cars, and no one else has noted/complained.

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

While I may not be the biggest fan of the current hybrid cars, I will say that I like that the auto industry is finally putting something reasonable on the market which isn't completely gas-dependent.

What I'm waiting for is for production models of methanol/ethanol cars -- all that grain that farmers burn every year to keep the economy happy could be fuel, ya know!

[trinker.livejournal.com]

The question is whether producing ethanol/methanol is energy efficient. My understanding is that so far, the only reason it's reasonable is that it's heavily subsidized.