Problem with hybrid car owners?

Question

Hybrid cars are more expensive than ordinary cars and they give off less CO2 emissions. Owners feel they are superior to others because of that. They go all smug and like the smell of their own farts. What do you think....?

Answer 1

First of all the cars are ugly and not near as efficiant as they made out to be

Answer 2

The best way to use less fuel at minimal cost to the purchaser is to buy SMALL DIESEL cars.

The Lexus electric some-of-the-time car call-me-Dave Cameron uses averages 27 MPG and is only useful to avoid paying the London congestion charge. AND it was darned expensive to buy and build. Every two years or so it will need new batteries and think of the pollution there.

Once on a motorway the petrol unit kicks in - as it does with the Prius - and it uses MORE fuel than a normal car.

It's all a big con trick!

MPs should know better - some hopes - they love a Jag or two!

RoyS

Answer 3

All of these could be true.  I would remind them of the extra resources required to manufacture their car and the alternative fuel.

Answer 4

drive a 4x4 up and down their street and put plastic bags on the trees where they walk.

Answer 5

The trouble with hybrids is that they are worse than a supermini in the city, due to the extra weight of two engines . And worse than a family car on the motorway due to the weight and too small an engine. Unless you do a fair split of both types of driving then you are easing your conscince. And at £80k for the lexus you could afford both anyway.

With the lexus you are also fuelling the 'big car 'safety' race' and spending money which could be more effectively spent/invested elsewhere.

This is why they are smug instead of confident, because they got thier ego massaged by the saleman, spent the wonga, all the while not knowing thier **** form thier elbow.

There may be some who did thier homework properly, to them I apologise, unless you like the smell of your own farts!?

Answer 6

I think you need to watch less South Park and return to the real world.

Answer 7

Hi Laurie,

I'm going to guess that you want a real answer to this post, and this isn't a rant. If you want a full, solid answer, please read further. I will give several points of information and you can look up my previous posts for more detailed specifics.

This will require a bit of info, and it is a lot to read for a full answer. So get something caffeinated and get comfy...

First off, we'll use the Prius for example, because the Prius is the best selling hybrid in the world. The Prius is a full hybrid, meaning that it actually has less moving parts than a standard internal combustion engine (ICE). The Prius uses multiple electric motors which have one moving part and electric motors do not wear out like ICE's.

The Prius has no starter, no alternator, led lights for the taillights, no gas cable linkage, no distributor, no carborator, no power steering pump and no power steering belts. Because the Prius uses a generator to do the vast majority of the braking, you should never need new brake pads, they're rarely used. You can find on the internet pictures from an engineer who photographed his brake pads at about 7,000 miles and again at 105,000 miles and there was no apppreciable brake pad wear over 98,000 miles.

So less, moving parts mean less less to repair and maintain.

Also, Consumer Reports named the Prius the most likely vehicle to be bought again by 94% of the respondents for the last four years in a row. That measurement includes not only the initial impressions of the vehicle, but also how the vehicle performs over time and how the vehicle holds up under wear and tear. No other vehicle even comes close.

A vehicle like a Prius is not equal to a Yaris, Fit, Corolla or Civic. Prius are mid-sized vehicles and offer features, technology, comfort and abilities that aren't even available on small vehicles, so there is no cost comparison unless you want a lesser vehicle. Compare an Accord to a Fit or a Camry to a Yaris and that's the type of comparison people assume with the Prius to the others.

Ignore anyone who says the Prius will be "junk at 50-100,000 miles". The truth is Toyota has never had a person pay for a nickel metal hydride (NiMH) battery pack under regular use. There have been people who have damaged theirs (such as the guy who drilled a 3" s***w into the NiMH trying to install an aftermarket stereo system), and there have been ones damaged in accidents.

But there has never been one that failed under normal use, including multiple Prius used in multiple cities as taxis with over 200, 250, even 300,000 plus miles without an issue.

The federal government has tested Prius NiMH and discovered that at 100,000 miles, the NiMH power storage level had dropped by 10%. That means that at over 100,000 miles, a Prius will still have 90% of it's NiMH storage capacity.

If a NiMH did fail, the entire pack is $2985.13, for either generation Prius. Call your local Toyota dealership and ask for the parts department. And the only maintenance to do is oil and filter changes, tire rotations, a coolant change between 75-100,000 miles depending on your climate, and general inspections.

So, with the basics of how they hold up laid out, if you have any other questions on the NiMH packs, the electrical system, or any other aspect of the Prius, feel free to look up any of my assorted posts on Yahoo Answers.

I also have posts on the cost of ownership over each 100,000 miles, and how you can compare the Prius to any other vehicle over each 100,000 miles. Essentially, the Prius costs about 8 cents per mile with gas at $3.00 a gallon, and that includes maintenance and new tires.

Now, with this being a full hybrid that recharges itself the more you press the brake pedal, the more you can brake in stop and go traffic, the better off you'll be.

You must learn to drive in a different fashion than you may have before to maximize the mileage on a full hybrid.

You must train to lift off the accelerator at double the distance you normally would and at least coast until the point where you would normally begin braking. At that point, press the brake pedal down slowly until you come to a normal, full stop. That will generate as much electricity as possible and shut down the ICE when the system recognizes that it's no longer needed at the beginning of your stop.

Also, you need to accelerate in a gentle, easy fashion. Jack rabbit starts eat up lots of gas. Press the accelerator imagining yoou have an egg under the pedal and you're trying to roll the egg out, not make omeletes.

Doing those two things will maximize the mileage in every vehicle, from big diesels to Prius.

I average 53.7 in a mix of highway at 65 mpg and city driving of 25-40 mpg. That's with the auto temp on at 68-70 and the stereo running the XM or iPod.

Your mileage will go down in the winter, just like it will for every vehicle, because of the higher rolling resistance of your tires on the slush and the ICE will run continuously to produce heat for the cabin. The air conditioning is only run by the electric system, so it runs independent of the ICE running, which is the opposite of a regular vehicle.

As far as the safety factors go, the Prius is a mid-sized vehicle that weighs 2985 pounds with full tanks of gas and fluids. It comes standard with four wheel, independently controlled ABS, which means that it controls each wheel separately of the others, so it will only apply the brakes to an individual wheel that is locking up. Not all systems do this.

Also, the Prius has a full-speed traction control that applies the ABS system to either of the front pulling wheels if either of them slip on acceleration at any speed. Most systems are either a low-speed or a mid-speed only traction control.

The Prius comes with self-adjusting dual-stage front airbags that automatically reduce the size, or even shut off, the front airbags depending on the size and position of the front occupant, or whether there is even someone in the front passenger seat. The Prius also comes standard with side seat airbags, full side curtain airbags, and seat belts that automatically pull you up into a correct seating position so you are away from the airbags and then relax slightly to reduce bruising, called pre-tensioners and force-limiters.

Check any other vehicle you are looking at to make sure it has all of these features standard, at least.

Beyond that, my advice is to take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. On one side, place what you need your vehicle to do and on the other, place what you want your vehicle to have. Then leave that sheet alone for a few days and come back to it. See how your answers may have changed or evolved and correct accordingly.

Thanks for reading this far.

Answer 8

The may be valid if you do 90+% of your driving in a big city, spending much of your time in traffic queues, but if you do a mixture of motorway, A or B roads, small towns and suburbs driving, they are heavier on fuel consumption than a modern diesel

Answer 9

I think you spend too much time judging people more than you know the facts. I also think you have issues, maybe your getting high off of your own farts.

Answer 10

I disagree.