Ridiculous cars.

Smart is a brand name. You could go out today and by a VW TDI. It's a VW, it's well built, I can run biodiesel, and I get 44mpg driving like a teenager...no offense to teenagers.

 

http://www.smartcarofamerica.com/

 

Well, a start is the $10 gallon of gas.
Here in Canada, we're practically halfway there.
Of course, the rich buggers will keep on driving them - but they'll stand out like a sore thumb, because millions of wannabes and imitators will have to downsize and find other arrangements.
And once we hit $10...(courtesy of scarce resourses)...which always drives a price up - then the clamor for public transit, bike lanes, walkable communities, cheap train travel - will force governments to stop subsidizing the auto-utopia.
This may take awhile...but it's coming (perhaps sooner than a lot of people think.)

You see, a lot of people drive monsters because they feel safer on the 100 mph freeways - and I can't say that I blame them.
Hell, when you're in the middle lane doing the speed limit, and stuff is going by you like you're standing still - (SUV's on the left side, and pseudo-sexy high-end jobs - the Mercedes and the BMW's and the Jags on the right side)
....and when you finally kick up the speed, well then, you're surrounded by some giant pod of 40 or so screamin' 18-wheelers....well, you see my point.
Makes one want to spill a little bacon grease on the blacktop, what?

But seriously - beyond that - many people don't drive the way they do, or drive what they drive - because they've got a raging hard-on to do so.
Many of them feel they really have no choice.
And the public domain they live in offers very little alternative.
Which is sick, I agree.

We built it (over 6 decades) and spent trillions doing so.
Now we have figure out how to turn the damned thing off without a meltdown.
In this crazy world, that takes a public will - which drives a political will.
Short of mass confusion, chaos, anarchy, revolution and all manner of shit that would probably make the Holocaust look like a tea party, they haven't invented a better way, yet.

The sad thing is that gazillions are still in serious denial about all this.
(check your tv schedule for confirmation.)
I'm all right Jack, is their attitude.
I'll just cut back on cheez doodles, lap dances and haircuts, and my gsoline habit will be fine.
Well.

Just a thought:
Have you ever watched a Hollywood movie where the young dude (some kinda hero) guzzled a quart of whiskey behind the wheel, and still is able to drive sober? (let alone slide into a coma.)
Somehow no-one who watches these things ever seems to clue in to what a pack of lies sludges outa the dream machine............

Well, I think it's kinda like that. Auto-Utopia is a scam. Somehow, it fits in nicely with a McFranchised world.
Mr Dylan once said: "Look out kid! They keep it all hid!" (and I believed him.)
Never ever doubted since.....
(and shit! that was 4 decades ago!)

Aside from all this - mucho greybeard and grizzled bastions of society back in the formative years all got together and agreed that it was a damned sporting thing, hallowed and even sacred, what - to build an economy based on petroleum (which is exactly what they did, dammit.)

Petro dollars would buy Mars (if they could drive there.)
Petro dollars find their evil little way into just about every single thing we do, eat, wear, consume....in one way or another.

And that is why, Virginia, against all good common sense and decency, compassion and humanity, the petro-powerful schmucks couldn't give a damn about the consequences.
They will implore us to our faces to be good citizens, go to school, mind our manners, support whatever national agenda suits the gameplan, help little old ladies across the street, wash our hands after.........................
and stick it to us good while the gettin' is profitable!

What to do, what to do, what to do, what to do.........

I think mama earth is going to help us out, a little, on this one.
She's only got so much oil.
And there ain't no alternative energy source that will EVER provide the cheap bonanza extravaganza we've been partying on........................
(just like how the frat party winds down when they finally run outa beer...)

Will we live to see donkey poo back on the public thoroughfare?
I dunno, but maybe better that kind of ass than the asses that have been running the show....

later-

 

You can't blame National Geographic and similar for what adverts they have in their magazine. They sell advertising space to whoever pays for it, beause they can't print a magazine and fund expeditions on subscription fees alone.

Anyway, I don't like cars. Of course the world can't exist without them, or any fuel burning machine - without them our society wouldnt function. The only reason humanity has come this far and isn't still living like 19th century England is the invention of the motorized vehicle. However, people who live in the suburbs and own 3 SUV's, a minivan, and a car are idiots. Governments need to start promoting the use of 'green' cars (electric and biodesiel etc), but we all know that won't ever happen for quite some time.

In the mean time, hop on a bicycle or bus or subway or tram or carpool!

 

Here in the States we've always loved our autos, it's a form of independence, but up until the last 15 years, most of us practiced shade tree mechanics and kept our vehicles loved and running for years.

Now with the new smog rules and regulations, the average backyard mechanic can't meet the extensive regulations. You are forced to buy a new car. No longer can you swap out an engine, you have to apply for permits and wait months, and even then you can be denied, and it's not based on emissions, it's based on some arbitrary rules applied by the legislature.

New cars get a five year pass on smog inspection, even though they may be abused and spewing crap out a mile a minute. But swap a clean engine into your vehicle without prior permits and you'll never get it smogged.

What happenned to the electric cars, the petroleum industry didn't want them.

I for one am operating an 80 year old vehicle because it's smog exempt, and it's easy to work on. But I see a trend where parts are getting harder to get. Eventually the corporations will make it impossible to get parts for these old guys. And with anything mechanical there is eventually fatique and failure when it comes to the mechanical workings. I think only those that can machine their own parts soon will be able to keep these old fellows on the road.

 

I can't figure out how families of four can afford to own and run 3 cars. It boggles my mind. And why would you need three cars?

My life is fine without a car.

 

wow! whats the 1/4 mile time? 12 seconds?

 

who really cares what the 1/4 mile time is? Unless they do a major overhaul on the interior the cars not worth it. The new Mustangs are horrible inside.

 

what we need to do is build steam or air powered cars

 

yes, steam cars because there's more than enough water to waste and more than enough wood to heat up the water. We'll just drain our lakes and cut down mure trees.

 

Air's an incredibly inefficient way of storing and using energy. Steam's been tried before. The only potential I see for steam is in secondary, low pressure systems that use residual thermal energy from other systems.

 

the only non-rediculous car is a two wheeler with an electric motor and a battery. unless it is a people sized narrowgauge m.u. that runs on some sort of a guideway, and each self powered multiple unit wagon is not much bigger then a mini-van. i'm talking verry narrow gauge here. 30"/760mm or less. with a clearance diagram of no more then 66" in width or 80" in hight. preferable 60x60" with whatever neccessary odd projection no exceeding that 66x80inches.

even then stored energy recharged from clean sources is the far and away preferable way to go. if you're going to use fuel cells or exotic tecnologies that's the place to put them where the'll be handled by professionals and at least the passengers won't get blasted into orbit the first time some joe sixpack lights up arround a leaky filler nozzle.

nothing replenishes the atmosphere by burning it. only be growing and transpiring it. like any single source solution the problem with biofuels is one of scale. plus the minor little detail that you're still burning them.

batteries have problems too of course. but completely mechanical ways of storing and even transmitting energy and even motion itself not only exist and are proven. batteries with a very long deep recycle life, for all of what ever problems they might otherwise have, are still a major improvement on the use of combustion in any form.

using personal transportation for commutes and distances of more then a few miles consumes massive acreage of real estate. not to mention even more consumed by parking spaces.

when gm sold the world motorama, it sold the world a bill of goods.

cleaning up the vehicule itself is only half a solution, and a half assed one at that.

=^^=
.../\...

 

You guys don't have Smart Cars in the US?!?!

They're all over the place here in Europe; wish I could buy a convertible Forfour or something...
Finally something the US doesn't have and we do!! lol

As for you Greeny, do you HAVE a car??? Have you ever driven one?
'Cause I used to think like that before I started driving, but once I got a steering wheel in my hands I fell in love and could not imagine the rest of my life without the adrenaline rush I get from speeding on the highway in a powerful vehicle.

Hey don't get me wrong though, I'm worried about the environment and wish I could do something about it, but it's not like you can stop by your local dealer and have a wide range of eco-frienfly cars to choose from! I drive the car my parents provided for me, not much I can do 'bout it!
The government is a major factor in promoting solutions for the environmental problems we now have but they don't give a rat's arse as long as money keeps flowing in, they just limit themselves to advertising Recycling mostly to give off a good image.

 

762 mm

But there's nothing wrong with "burning them" as it's puttin' less carbon back in the air than what was taken out by whatever plant life is bein' used. It'd be a constant reduction.

 

A Texan's response to a Smart Car:
It's a motorcycle for weenies -
same carrying capacity, same gas mileage, only with a roof
(sort of...)

But seriously:
For tons of good info on this subject - check out PeakOil.com -
good forum on all related issues.

Mostly I don't think cars are worth the energy of loving or hating (sometimes I think there are actually people out there capable of being more in love with their car, than with another live human being...)
They are just a tool, a means to an end...a way of getting around that fits, as far as it goes.

I think one day not so very long from now, the cost of fuel will make it necessary to provide alternatives to auto-based transportation. (like the train grid in England, and much of Europe.)

America did a real dumb thing - getting rid of its trains. Rail is a whole lot cheaper and far more fuel efficient, in the long run. Was a time when any urban centre of any size had its own network of light rail....streetcars (that ran on electricity) and short inter-urbans that ran between neighboring towns and cities.

The problem now is the urban (suburban / exurban) design that offers nothing but a lifestyle of constant motoring - with no other alternative. The majority of North Americans live this way (and that includes inner city and small town dwellers.)

This design promoted earnings for car makers and oil companies. In that way, we have an oil-based economy - which is rather stupid and irresponsible, seeing as it is a non-sustainable finite resource.

In the meantime, fuel efficiency should become a major issue - not only to put the brakes on consumption - always a smart move - but also to sustain affordability for people who still have to drive (because of where they live) but don't have huge resources to ramp up their consumption costs.

The other big thing we're going to have to address is sprawled communities. They made perfect sense when gas was cheap. It may never be again.
Lots of pollyannas out there dream of alternative fuels...which is about the equivalent of a corporate boardroom full of one-armed bandits.
Simply put: If it costs you as much, or even more energy to produce the alternative fuel - as the energy this fuel itself provides...you are stuck with a model of unsustainable economy.
To illustrate: sweet light crude gave us an energy co-efficient of approximately 30-1.
Which means that it cost one barrel of the stuff to give us 30 barrels worth of fuel.
There is still lots of oil left - just not the cheap stuff.
We used the cheap stuff to create a world economy that depends on it....the average plate of food in North America travels 1300 miles, for instance.

But my biggest issue?
Well, sociologists have recently discovered that children here are becoming alarmingly obese, unhealthy...in terrible shape. Much of this is blamed on junk food - which I don't have a problem with. But I think they miss an important point.
The suburban and exurban sprawl has taken away the public domain (replacing it with supermalls, giant box stores and strip-malled arterial roads. Main Street is gone.

When I was a kid (child of the sixties) I grew up in a small city (25,000 people.)
My father had a car, which remained parked in the driveway most of the time.
Except for family vacations, out-of town fishing trips, etc. - there is exactly ONE time I remember ever being chauffeured somewhere. Once. That's it.
(that was to family court to get my wrist slapped for breaking and entering a tumbledown abandoned old lodge down by the lakeshore...when I was fifteen years old, and all to impress some girl.)
I walked everywhere, until I was 10, and then I rode my supercycle everywhere.
What this provided - was a term that is like a religious thing to me:
Independent mobility.
Wherever I wanted to go - to do whatever I wanted to do, and hang out with whomever - I got there under my own steam (as did all my friends.)
No waiting for rides. No nosy parents to negotiate with as to the wherefor or the why of it. I just went.

What truly alarms me - is that millions of parents these days don't consider this an important freedom for their kids to have. They will yell in a New York minute that where they live is too dangerous. Say what? um....why? Who made it that way?
The kids sure didn't.
They will scream in an LA second that they NEED to have that kind of control over their kids.
Well.
So the kids, in their great wisdom - decide the hell with it. They'll just stay home and entertain themselves with all their electronic toys.
I'll tell ya - it burned a lot of calories, cruisin' around the public domain. I could easily put in 10-20 miles a day, running around my little town.

Not only that - as the years went by, I became adjusted to and familiar with the social spread of where I lived and what I lived in. I knew a lot of people - talked to tons of strangers...saw the life of my city unfold before me. This was part of an adolescent adjustment to the social fabric where I lived. It wasn't field-tripped or learned out of textbooks - I just went and found it.

The idea that a suburban "child" waits until the age of 16 before they are old enough to drive, and thus old enough to access the social sphere un-escorted - is entirely abhorrent and repugnant to me. It effectively infantilizes their development and cancels much of any meaningful role they can play in society.
Much of how this happens comes through car-dependence.

Kids grow up fast these days - in a very strange way. Unsupervised, they can bounce into the most "adult" of websites...yet they can't walk to the corner store for candy.
I think we'd do very well to consider just why that is.

Sorry - I just can't bring myself to discuss new cars. They are nothing more to me than cookie-cutter blobs that look like they've been squeezed out of a cake-decorating tube. They may provide endless luxury - but they just don't look, feel, drive, or even smell like a car to me.

I own a micro van that looks like it would be very happy in Paris. It's funky and old.
I use it to visit my sisters and friends out there on the suburban donut ring - a place I couldn't get to, or get around in, without it. Downtown here - everything I need and do is walkable.
(new car?)
I must admit....I sneak over to the garage a few blocks from where I live, and stroll amongst the funky old classics they work on there (stuff from the 40's and 50's.)
I love the designs. Sort of like how the Empire State Bldg. is still a piece of architecture to me (as opposed to the McSquared glass and steel chocolate bars of the modern era.) But that's another issue......................................................

 

We "want" the cars that are presented to us by the auto companies and their marketing firms. We buy what were told to buy. How many things can you think of that you'd like to buy (wholesome food, for one example) but in order to do so you have to leave the "main stream" and go to some co-op or "granola stroe". What's up with that?? People believe what they are told by the mass media and forget to think about what other options might be available to them. It's like, how can you want something that hasn't been designed yet? If potential consumers respond by telling the companies what they want, maybe the companies will respond. If we just keep buying shit, shit is all that will be available...

 

The US is waaayyy behind Europe in recycling and conserving efforts. The US mantra is still "bigger is better; more is better".

REAlly, how long is it going to take the US to get it???!!!
And the state I live in seems to be way behind many other states in the most simple things like recycling.

 

It's not just the US. The Smart Car is available in Canada, and their energy consumption per capita exceeds that of the US.

 

It's not that a lot of Americans don't get it, they aren't widely available. Put them on the lots and they will sell, and sell out. The mini coopers they sell now in my little town barely have a chance to leave the trucks before they are purchased.

It's only the old Yuppies that are trying to impress people that feel the bigger the more impressive they are.

 

I think vehicle manufacturers must have their heads in the sand. I mean the latest Hilux has a 4L engine. Not so long ago they had half that capacity.Infact the 2Y and 3Y engines were excellent engines so why change a good thing? Minis now have a 1.6L engine. I had one with a 998cc engine that had more than enough performance but was good on fuel. The whole thing about a Mini is to make a virtue of frugelness, it was born at a time when there was not much oil being produced. BMW seem to be losing the plot.There again the senior management probably thinkin terms of consumption equalling fulfilment. When petrol started becoming expensive a few months ago downunder, the Toyota Corrola became the biggest selling passenger car.