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Any hypermilers? And busting myths.
- Thread starter Let It Fall
- Start date
hdracer said:
I don't know perhaps!
ford falcon
Nova
Mercury comet
Those all look pretty big to me though. Very little passenger room with huge hoods and strunks
Well, not that Comet. They came with a 170 cu. 6 cyl. We had one when I was a kid. My mom couldn't really drive a 3 on a tree.
Smart cars just aren't very safe over here for anything but around town commuting, and city driving. Anything else and they're HORRIFICALLY unsafe, like highway driving and the like.
and as was stated earlier, diesels just aren't very popular over here, and the few we have are ludicrously expensive. you can't touch a ten year old VW TDI around me for less than 8K, and that's with just shy of 200K miles on the clock.
Jake Saint said:
What he said. Also I heard there unstable at 70mph on highways. Which is what most of our interstates are. I'm not sure of how Europe is but I always picture packed cities. Never been though.
In the US, very small cars are generally viewed as less safe because we have so many larger cars on the road. It's an inescapable fact that in a collision, the larger vehicle wins, and the smaller one loses. That puts many people off of smaller cars.
And on the Interstate system where one may be driving 500 miles in a day, driving a larger vehicle is a lot more comfortable than driving a small one. Small cars which are in good repair are perfectly stable at 70+ MPH - that's a crock. BUT - if a semi goes blasting past a small car going 10+ MPH faster on the interstate, it will rock the small vehicle. Physics.
As for used car prices, there is no hidden cabal driving prices. It boils down to two simple issues:
1) Supply
2) Demand
And on the Interstate system where one may be driving 500 miles in a day, driving a larger vehicle is a lot more comfortable than driving a small one. Small cars which are in good repair are perfectly stable at 70+ MPH - that's a crock. BUT - if a semi goes blasting past a small car going 10+ MPH faster on the interstate, it will rock the small vehicle. Physics.
As for used car prices, there is no hidden cabal driving prices. It boils down to two simple issues:
1) Supply
2) Demand
exactly. There is a growing demand for small diesels, and not enough of a supply, leading to absolutely ludicrous pricing.
The new/newer Jetta diesels seem like awesome cars...I was thinking about getting the wagon, but they're expensive used and not a lot around.
slaps76 said:
This is why I bought a brand new jetta tdi. I'm a cheap ass I pinch pennies never thought I'd buy a new car. I wanted a diesel jetta and after seeing the used prices :O. And the ones that were 1-2 years old, I swear on my mothers grave they were asking more than a brand new with with 80,000miles. Factor in lower interest rate and great resale it was a no brainer
Yea, they weren't much cheaper, and wouldn't be surprised to see some as expensive as new. Jeep went through the same thing for a bit...how do you like the car?
all of them from 1996/7 to now are using the same motor, with improved computers, injectors, etc, leading to better fuel economy with each gen. If i wasn't assisting my parents with our mortgage, i would be driving one right now.
We have denser cities (generally speaking, but there are many that are more spaced out than the likes of New York for instance) and a greater denisty of towns and cities, however, they still need to be linked.
Inbetween cities in the UK you can get single lane, winding 'A' and 'B' roads which have a national limit of 60mph and dual carriageways and motorways, the national limit of which is 70mph (these are the speeds for cars, it varies if you have a lorry or are pulling a trailer etc: Invalid Link Removed )
Our smaller cars are fine on those
.Or if you want some real fun, pop over to Germany and drive on the autobahns, for the most part, no speed limit ('advisory' limit is 130km/hr, ~80mph, but there is no actual limit).
German autobahns - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I'd also disagree with the flat statement of bigger being safer. The bigger the difference, the truer it is (granted), but the safety features and engineering in cars (beyond seatbelts and airbags) has really jumped on leaps and bounds in the last 10-20 years.
I remember being in a 4-5 lane highway in Miami. Lots of cars, lots of big cars, lots of horsepower but not much movement
.Not familiar with car prices in the US at all, just wanted to say that over here, even with diesels being a bit more common, they are more expensive than their petrol equivilants.
oh i know. i work in the automotive field and i've been drooling over your cars for a few years. (little itty bitty diesel that gets 80 mpg+? yes please!)
a bit more common is also an understatement. literally the ONLY small diesel here since 1997 has been the VW 1.9 TDI. nobody else has sold one here since the 80's when Mercede's stopped selling the 300D, and VW wasn't even selling one for a four year period from approximately 1993 till 1997.
Other manufacturers are finally starting to make them, but it's going to be a long time before there's actually a decent supply of diesels here.
Someone who risks life, limb, and quite a few other people's lives just to squeeze the most mileage possible out of their car, typically spending stupid amounts of money on modifications to their cars that are supposed to increase their economy.
Jake Saint said:
Wrong on all accounts.
On a side note I realized the reason I enjoy hypermiling is the technology that comes from it and the effect on current/future vehicles
actually, not quite. Hypermilers do all the things i mentioned. You are someone who enjoys getting better than average fuel economy from your vehicle, and have adopted some of the hypermiling practices. big difference.
Angus said:
Hypermiling defined Hypermiling is the act of driving using techniques that maximize fuel economy.
Corporate engineering or private
Grille blocks, electric power steering, skinny tires, cylinder deactivation, lean burn modes, fuel injector cutoff, boat tail, engine off at stop, dual clutch transmissions, low rolling resistance tires,
You are retroactively applying a very, very loose definition of "hypermiling" to encompass technologies that were created before "hypermiling" became a concept; this does not follow the assertion that this movement led to creation of technology.
Not to mention, "seeking better fuel economy" is not the same thing as hypermiling, which is a very specific set of behaviors that go beyond normal practices. Based on the definition you gave, you might as well equate being neat with having OCD.
I know for a fact that about half of those inventions were not created with fuel efficiency in mind at all. I have no idea about the rest.
