ROTFLOL

Ducit Amour Hybridae
Mark Smith
Master Certifited Technician
Tempus non reparabilis fugit
"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."

Best Tank 35.0 MPG

You can drive a hybrid on the freeway? Wow. I've been missing out and taking the back roads for no reason!

I hope these people aren't making major management-related decisions!

I'd bet many are in decision making positions.

A local town supervisor, newly elected! Picked up a Smart fortwo as his "town car" to both save the town money and show he is concerned about the environment. Before this, the Supervisors got to drive Ford Crown Victorias.

The board members became furious! This car is ridiculous! What kind of image are we sending to the community? The Supervisor needs to be able to get to the town hall in emergencies in all weather conditions, how can he do this in this car.

One even went as far as to claim that driving a Smart Car was More Costly than the Crown Vic because the Smart Car requires Premium fuel.

So lets look at this:
Crown Vic: Gasoline
15 18
City Hwy
Combined 23


Smart fortwo Premium Gas (91 Octane)
33 36
City Hwy
Combined 41


Now, we can get into major calculations here, but it does not require brain surgery (well maybe for the board members) to see that the Smart Car gets twice the mpg as the Crown Vic. Therefore, on a 100 mile trip, (average miles for supervisor in a week) the premium gas would have to cost over $9 per gallon and regular currently at $4.25 just to break even!

The real issue here was that up until this supervisor stepped in, board members got to drive town cars. This supervisor took that away. This supervisor also felt that all town employees that required town cars should be driving smart cars and not Crown Vics!

This of course had people furious! Town Employees that is!

The supervisor had bought this car on his own and is continuing to drive it. Now sure the smart does not get amazing mileage, but he is on the right track. Why does the Supervisor, Building inspector, Highway chief and countless other officials, need to drive a Crown Vic?

Larry Jensen
St. Lawrence Properties
Real Estate Center

2008 Nissan Altima Hybrid
Tech Package Best MPG to date: 42.5

The solution is simple, have a fixed rate, per-diem reembursement for operation of the vehicle set to the some reasonable value, say 30 MPG. What this means is those who want to drive the big car can ... they just have to dip into their pocket and drive less. Those who want to drive an efficient car can too ... and pocket the change.

One secondary approach should be a charge for vehicle depreciation that is tied to 'fair market value.' So at the end of each year, the vehicle driver is tagged with an annual driven, capitalization cost. However, the reembursement rate is also fixed at a compact car size rate. If the vehicle operator wants to tap into their funds to pay the difference, fine by me. If they want to get a lower maintenance, better resale vehicle and pocket the difference, again, fine by me.

What I am suggesting is setup a system with known, public budget numbers at say either 50% of the market operation point let the individuals choose to either pay the premium or pocket their savings.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

Well, now for a little good news. My mother (73 yrs old) is not a unintelligent person by any means, but was uneducated when it came to hybrids. She had the typical comments when I purchased mine, "Do you have to plug it in?", "Will I have to replace the batteries?" , Special maintenance? etc. etc.

Over Memorial day weekend my wife and I went away (didn't need a car) and my daughter stayed home to work at her new job. She does not have a license to drive yet. So I asked Mom to tote her around, but gave her my car with strict orders not to put any gas in the car. I was surprised when I returned to see an additional 200 miles on the car! She was giddy when she reached 42mpg average (when I dropped off the car the display was at 39.6).

She has been on a mission ever since to trade her 05' Hundai GX350 (A nice car BTW, loaded) for a NAH. Yesterday the family got together for Father's day and there was a new 08' Nissan Altima Hybrid in her driveway.

It gets late early out there. - Yogi

hello everyone,
I agree that even my so called "educated and intelligent" friends seem to know little or nothing about hybrids!!! Here is an interesting link you may wish to send to the uniformed: http://www.hybrid-car.org/hybrid-car-facts.html

Have fun educating people around you!!

auto insurance

Obviously an Old article, but interesting to see How Many MISSED the boat.

@Steve: I just broke the 40mpg for the first time since I bought the car. I left the house today at 39.1 and had to climb over a mountain. I was sure I'd kill my all time high. I was amazed when it started to climb and not fall. It was a one hour trip each way. Hit 42.8, before dropping back to 41.9

Larry Jensen
St. Lawrence Properties
Real Estate Center

2008 Nissan Altima Hybrid
Tech Package Best MPG to date: 42.5

More things need to be done exactly the way you describe. Your method provides motivation to be more efficient while retaining the freedom of choice. Brilliant!

Larry,

I noticed a big difference in my mileage after about 3-4K miles. But I thought it was due to better weather. Although that probably had a lot to do with it, I believe that the car does "break in" after several thousand miles. I also performed an oil change at 3500 miles and put in Mobil-1 0W-20. Before that, I was very happy with anything over 34mpg. Now I average 39 or better. If I'm strictly driving around town, I can beat 40 pretty easily.

It gets late early out there. - Yogi