>
> > Hi all;
> > Soap Box switch set to 'ON'
> > I'm going to barge in here and state that something is being
> overlooked.> The thing that is being overlooked is the greed of
> the politicians
> > in Congress.
> >
> > Case to point:
> > In 1993, while working at Lawrence Livermore National
> Laboratory, I found
> > myself in a 50 mile commute - one way... Being ever the
> engineer (is that
> > how that word is spelled?), I decided to get a classic commute
> car. The
> > car of choice was a Honda Civic VX (the VX is important) hatchback.
> > Reasons for buying it were the essence of simplicity.
> >
> > It had, (the VX model,
> > that is) at that time, the highest EPA estimated millage of
> any car on the
> > market. The figure I was interested in was highway mileage
> because, at that
> > time, most of my commuting was done at 55-65 mph. This changed
> by the time
> > I sold the car to absolutely awful Los Angeles style stop and
> go for 50
> > miles
> > each way. I digress. Back in those days, there was a lot of
> chit chat about
> > the EPA estimates not being accurate, so after buying the car,
> I dutifully
> > recorded every fill up with mileage.
> >
> > I sold the car ten years later with .25M miles
> > on it.I tallied up on my trustee Excel what I actually saw,
> for my driving
> > style,
> > tires, etc. Here's the results: The EPA estimated mpg was 51
> highway. The
> > best
> > recorded mpg I got was 58. The worst mpg was 35. The mean was
> 45 mpg over
> > ten
> > years of mostly freeway (bumper to bumper driving). The 58
> figure was early
> > on when you could still travel at 65 mph. So, what's this got
> to do with
> > politicians?
> >
> > Just show me, today, a car that gets the average mpg that mine
> > got for the highway, which is not a hybrid, can carry 4
> comfortably, 5
> > uncomfortably,  has large cargo and easily exceeds 120mph
> and could drive
> > from San Jose, CA to San Diego, CA without a fill up. I don't
> think it's
> > out there. I don't think anyone would suggest that the failing
> car companies
> > who desperately need high mileage cars to stay in business are
> not building
> > them because they're in cahoots with the oil industry? Or am I
> all wet here?
> >
> > It's simply a case of environmentalists doing everything they
> can do to get
> > greenhouse gases down, ignoring the fact that much more
> gasoline is being
> > used to supply these somewhat cleaner, low mileage vehicles.
> Does anyone not
> > think that whatever technology breakthrough us techies come up
> with that the
> > gov won't come down on the industry with yet cleaner
> requirements? Not to
> > mention the need for an excessive increase in fuel tax to
> "balance" it all
> > out and, of course, replenish the king's coffers? If you
> disagree, I invite
> > you to look at yesterday's news about a two phase  tax on
> cng fueled
> > vehicles,
> > the tax so high that their relatively cheap $0.88/gal cost
> will more than
> > double. Ah well, all in a days work.
> > Soap Box switch set to 'OFF'
> > -- Keith
>
>
>
> We can blame the car companies on one hand - for lack of
> planning and
> foresight (and imagination), but at the same time, we, the consumer
> share much of the blame as well.  We're the ones that have been
> choosing big gas hogs over the vehicles with better efficiency.
> Capitalism dictates that suppliers produce what consumers
> demand.  If
> consumers had been leaving the gas hogs on the car lots 5 years ago,
> Detroit would have slowed down production of them, and Toyota/Nissan
> wouldn't have entered the market for these vehicles (full size pickups
> and SUV's).  Similarly, if demand for the lower powered and more
> efficient cars like the Ford Focus had been greater, production of
> those vehicles would have been increased.
>
> My gripe about the American car companies is that they seem to have
> long only paired high efficiency with poor quality - from the Chevette
> to the Malibu.  In my opinion, none of the high efficiency
> Americancars have had very good handling, looks, nor
> fit/finish.  In most
> cases, if you wanted a "nice" American car, it would get relatively
> poor mileage - Explorer/Tahoe.  Nothing comparable to a
> small Acura,
> Lexus or BMW in the American car ranks.
>
> The dynamic (unstable) nature of our economy leads to some producers
> being stuck in a corner when things go awry.
>
> As far as ultimate MPG (40-60mpg), I think it's a bit of a red herring
> for most people.  We (as a consuming body) would be far
> better off
> improving the fuel economy of the worst performing vehicles by ten
> percent than improving the best performing vehicles by
> 30%.  Far more
> fuel would be saved.  The miserly vehicles already burn so
> little fuel
> compared to the hogs that improvements in efficiency in that group
> yield a small total amount of fuel saved.  I probably need
> to give
> Peter Garrison credit for this thought from one of his articles in
> Flying a few months ago - talking about how mpg as a fuel efficiency
> metric makes some aspects of fuel use less obvious.
> gallons/100mi or
> the European equivalent makes more sense...
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Matt-

A Mercedes-Benz G is the most polluting vehicle on the planet.  At
least it was 2 or 3 years ago.  Please note this is not an American
vehicle :))

Mercedes-Benz G 55 AMG
>

Marc Joseph