Would you drive/purchase a hybrid car?

[Norseman82]

I just visited the Ford website and compared the “starting at” prices for the hybrid vs. non-hybrid Ford Escape. One will pay about $7,500 more for the hybrid.

But again, in the past, there was a tax deduction or credit for purchasing hybrids - I don’t think that alone would make up 100% of the difference, but it certainly helps, so if cost is the factor check to see how much the deduction or credit is and factor that into your decision.

 

[Norseman82]

Ilroy,

If you ride, check out this thread (if you haven’t done so already):

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=115322

Actually, they make small trailers to hook up to motorcycles for the groceries and sidecars for extra seating…one for you, one for the ole man, each with a sidecar and trailer and you can probably fit the whole family…and, if you’re in the right state, you can have the wind rushing through your hair whilst riding…

I actually saw this at a gas station once - a doghouse trailer attached to a motorcycle:

 

[whatevergirl]

We may see a lot more bicycles on the road by summer if gas keeps going up. Now if we can just get someone to build Bike Lanes on the road for us.

LOL

You know, I am not sure if we were ever meant to be this spread out. Back in my parents’ parents’ days…people could pretty much walk everywhere…you lived across the street from your employer, etc…it seems like we travel a lot just to get to and from work…to and from the grocery store…it’s a little weird, no?

 

[whatevergirl]

Ilroy,

If you ride, check out this thread (if you haven’t done so already):

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=115322

I actually saw this at a gas station once - a doghouse trailer attached to a motorcycle:

hey that looks like it would fit all my groceries…that attachable thingy…yeah…i could have a box sit on top of it, and put all the groceries inside:thumbsup:

 

[AHapka]

for the person who said there might be a plug in to charge the batteries, that would be absolutely defeating the supposed environmental benefits. How do you think the electricity for charging the batteries comes from? There has to be something making that electricity and that something is almost always causing polution and using some kind of fuel source…that’s why electric cars are just something to make the owner feel good about themselves…they have no actual benefit to the environment.

Plug in cars would be a great concept if we would build a lot more nuclear power plants to power them. If every 2 car family transitioned just one of those cars to plug in electric (still had the big car for long trips/towing/whatever, electric for to/from work), i’m sure it would help with our oil problem immensly.

All we need to do is get the goverment to dig the big hole in Nevada to put the nuclear waste in. Heck, even paying 1000 soldiers to be standing guard round the clock around the hole is probably a lot cheaper then spending what we do now to secure foreign oil sources.

As for safety of nuclear plants, the navy has them on ships and subs and has never had a major incident…plus, the number of lives lost to nuclear is way less then the number of lives lost in coal mines digging up the stuff… Speaking of coal, look at the emissions from coal plants…the advantage of nuclear is that all of the waste can be placed in one location and contained. Can’t do that with air pollution.

Just my opinion

Andy

P.S. I would not buy a hybrid. I just don’t think the cost/benefit analysis is right for most people. A plug in hybrid would be a different story because electric is cheaper then gas per unit of energy. Also, my Audi A4 can get up to 35mpg highway. They just don’t make a hybrid car that drives and handles like cars that some of us enthusiasts drive…

 

[whatevergirl]

Plug in cars would be a great concept if we would build a lot more nuclear power plants to power them. If every 2 car family transitioned just one of those cars to plug in electric (still had the big car for long trips/towing/whatever, electric for to/from work), i’m sure it would help with our oil problem immensly.

All we need to do is get the goverment to dig the big hole in Nevada to put the nuclear waste in. Heck, even paying 1000 soldiers to be standing guard round the clock around the hole is probably a lot cheaper then spending what we do now to secure foreign oil sources.

As for safety of nuclear plants, the navy has them on ships and subs and has never had a major incident…plus, the number of lives lost to nuclear is way less then the number of lives lost in coal mines digging up the stuff… Speaking of coal, look at the emissions from coal plants…the advantage of nuclear is that all of the waste can be placed in one location and contained. Can’t do that with air pollution.

Just my opinion

Andy

P.S. I would not buy a hybrid. I just don’t think the cost/benefit analysis is right for most people. A plug in hybrid would be a different story because electric is cheaper then gas per unit of energy. Also, my Audi A4 can get up to 35mpg highway. They just don’t make a hybrid car that drives and handles like cars that some of us enthusiasts drive…

with more nuclear plants though–wouldn’t our pollution problem grow?

Regarding your ps–My dh wonders that too if hybrids are compromised in any way. (mechanically)

 

[Ilroy]

Plug in cars would be a great concept if we would build a lot more nuclear power plants to power them. If every 2 car family transitioned just one of those cars to plug in electric (still had the big car for long trips/towing/whatever, electric for to/from work), i’m sure it would help with our oil problem immensly.

All we need to do is get the goverment to dig the big hole in Nevada to put the nuclear waste in. Heck, even paying 1000 soldiers to be standing guard round the clock around the hole is probably a lot cheaper then spending what we do now to secure foreign oil sources.

As for safety of nuclear plants, the navy has them on ships and subs and has never had a major incident…plus, the number of lives lost to nuclear is way less then the number of lives lost in coal mines digging up the stuff… Speaking of coal, look at the emissions from coal plants…the advantage of nuclear is that all of the waste can be placed in one location and contained. Can’t do that with air pollution.

Just my opinion

Andy

P.S. I would not buy a hybrid. I just don’t think the cost/benefit analysis is right for most people. A plug in hybrid would be a different story because electric is cheaper then gas per unit of energy. Also, my Audi A4 can get up to 35mpg highway. They just don’t make a hybrid car that drives and handles like cars that some of us enthusiasts drive…

I have to agree with much of this…problem is all those tree huggers aren’t gonna let up build more nuke plants. Instead of moving all the nuke waste from where it is currently being stored and infesting my state with it, we need to put up many solar and wind power plants in NV. The south has solar galore and the north and east has wind out the wazoo…we also have some geo-thermal which is another nice clean source of energy.

I still like my original assertion that motocycles are the way to go…with maybe a car at the house for hauling stuff. And the teensagers can ever ride mopeds or scooters that get seriously good mileage up to 100mpg on some of them.

 

[AHapka]

with more nuclear plants though–wouldn’t our pollution problem grow?

Well, any method of producing energy is going to produce some pollution, somehow (if not directly, then indirectly…i.e. manufacture of solar panels).

The big advantage of nuclear is that nearly all of it’s pollution (i.e. radioactive waste) is solid. The big towers on a nuclear plant are simply cooling towers, and all that comes out of them is water vapor. Solid waste can easily be contained (compared to gases), and while there is chance of leaching into the environment, that can be minimized.

Now look at a typical coal plant. Unlike a nuclear plant that can go years between refuelings, you have to have trains running at least twice a week (or they do with the coal plant a few miles from me). This creates pollution and uses fuel. The burning of coal is not clean (though much better then years ago). Coal plants emit mercury, sulfer, and other not so nice substances. Because they are gaseous emissions, they can’t be contained very easily and spread throughout the environment.

While both plants pollute, I think that the nuclear option creates pollution that is far more containable. I think part of the reason people are scared is because nuclear is far more mysterious. Let’s face it, we all know what burning is. How many of us have seen a nuclear reaction? People are nervous about what they do not know. I think that mercury and sulfur air pollution will hurt far more people overall then the risk of a radioactive release, it’s just not as dramatic. If there is a radioactive release, it only affects a few people but generally significantly.

Some people talk about clean natural gas. The disadvantages there are that 1) we have a lot less of that, 2) a great number of us use it to heat our houses, and 3) the price is highly volatile. It’s bad enough that the volatility impacts my heat bill. To have both the heat portion and electric portion subject to that volatility would cause many people trouble in being able to afford utilities.

I would say more but the post would get so long that most people wouldn’t bother to read it

Andy

 

[whatevergirl]

Well, any method of producing energy is going to produce some pollution, somehow (if not directly, then indirectly…i.e. manufacture of solar panels).

The big advantage of nuclear is that nearly all of it’s pollution (i.e. radioactive waste) is solid. The big towers on a nuclear plant are simply cooling towers, and all that comes out of them is water vapor. Solid waste can easily be contained (compared to gases), and while there is chance of leaching into the environment, that can be minimized.

Now look at a typical coal plant. Unlike a nuclear plant that can go years between refuelings, you have to have trains running at least twice a week (or they do with the coal plant a few miles from me). This creates pollution and uses fuel. The burning of coal is not clean (though much better then years ago). Coal plants emit mercury, sulfer, and other not so nice substances. Because they are gaseous emissions, they can’t be contained very easily and spread throughout the environment.

While both plants pollute, I think that the nuclear option creates pollution that is far more containable. I think part of the reason people are scared is because nuclear is far more mysterious. Let’s face it, we all know what burning is. How many of us have seen a nuclear reaction? People are nervous about what they do not know. I think that mercury and sulfur air pollution will hurt far more people overall then the risk of a radioactive release, it’s just not as dramatic. If there is a radioactive release, it only affects a few people but generally significantly.

Some people talk about clean natural gas. The disadvantages there are that 1) we have a lot less of that, 2) a great number of us use it to heat our houses, and 3) the price is highly volatile. It’s bad enough that the volatility impacts my heat bill. To have both the heat portion and electric portion subject to that volatility would cause many people trouble in being able to afford utilities.

I would say more but the post would get so long that most people wouldn’t bother to read it

Andy

Yes! I was starting to doze off. hee hee KIDDING!

Seriously, I enjoyed reading this, because your reasoning takes into account so much more than a mere gas to auto problem. I now live in Florida, and only have electric service in my home…for everything–stove, oven, washer/dryer, a/c/heat…so I forget about heating prices. That used to be a concern of mine in PA. I really don’t like worrying about these things–I have done a good job not feeling angst over rising gas prices, but one can’t help but at least THINK about what the future holds…

 

[Norseman82]

Speaking of coal, look at the emissions from coal plants…the advantage of nuclear is that all of the waste can be placed in one location and contained. Can’t do that with air pollution.

Interestingly, there is a new type of coal-fired plant in which the emissions are pumped into the ground instead of the atmosphere. The federal government initially voted to fund the building of one in Illinois a few months back, but changed its mind.

 

[arsenius]

i’m no expert, but i have heard that hybrid vehicles are actually worse for the enviroment b/c of what the battery’s consist of… lithium? …i’m not sure,- i’ll look it up if i get hammered too much for posting this…, but the entire process: mining for the whatever, then it has to be shipped to japan, then china, by the time they actually hit the road they’ve done more damage than several hummers combined… anyway, if i were ever going to purchase one, i’d check into this…

 

[davy39]

I will purchase one of those cracker box cars when Al Gore and these movie stars and backers of the global warming theory, get rid of their private jets, and limosenes, and drive more energy efficient cars every day, not just for show for the media. These small cars are nothing new. We had a flood of these back in the 70’s from overseas. They were nothing but death traps on wheels. Somebody mentioned that the smart car gets 30 mpg. Big deal!! I had a 1993 Lumina with 185,000 miles that averaged 29 mpg during most of it’s life. So count me out.

 

[Potato1]

I read once that a majority of people drive hybrids because of what it say’s about them… Well that is exactly why I cant do it. I like the concept just can’t handle the metrosexual, mac lovin, I phone wearin, obama momma, green, treehuggin pot smokin, elitist, misunderstanding , falling for any type of liberal propoganda, college proffesor, coffehouose poetry readin, non gun toting peacenic,steryotypes that go along with the wimpy machines. Plus I need something to pull my boat which uses more gas than 50 prius’s just to cruise the lake
Other than that I like the concept

 

[whatevergirl]

I will purchase one of those cracker box cars when Al Gore and these movie stars and backers of the global warming theory, get rid of their private jets, and limosenes, and drive more energy efficient cars every day, not just for show for the media. These small cars are nothing new. We had a flood of these back in the 70’s from overseas. They were nothing but death traps on wheels. Somebody mentioned that the smart car gets 30 mpg. Big deal!! I had a 1993 Lumina with 185,000 miles that averaged 29 mpg during most of it’s life. So count me out.

I have often thought it ironic that they really don’t practice what they preach.

 

[whatevergirl]

I read once that a majority of people drive hybrids because of what it say’s about them… Well that is exactly why I cant do it. I like the concept just can’t handle the metrosexual, mac lovin, I phone wearin, obama momma, green, treehuggin pot smokin, elitist, misunderstanding , falling for any type of liberal propoganda, college proffesor, coffehouose poetry readin, non gun toting peacenic,steryotypes that go along with the wimpy machines. Plus I need something to pull my boat which uses more gas than 50 prius’s just to cruise the lake
Other than that I like the concept

haha That was funny!

 

[lampstand]

If I could afford one, yes. I would like to get one in a few years.

 

[andrewaa]

Not sure if this was already mentioned but purchasing a hybrid car is just as if not more expensive in my opinion when it comes to the price of the car then replacing your $3000 battery when it goes out.

 

[Norseman82]

Not sure if this was already mentioned but purchasing a hybrid car is just as if not more expensive in my opinion when it comes to the price of the car then replacing your $3000 battery when it goes out.

At the same time, it is possible that if hybrid cars become more prevalent, the costs will go down like many other new technologies often do once they are mass produced.

 

[GratefulDad]

LOL

You know, I am not sure if we were ever meant to be this spread out. Back in my parents’ parents’ days…people could pretty much walk everywhere…you lived across the street from your employer, etc…it seems like we travel a lot just to get to and from work…to and from the grocery store…it’s a little weird, no?

That is a very good point. I think all these big suburban house lots and strip malls have spread us out, but their are a lot more people these days. As for using bicycles as a transportation mode I would much rather invest in that, than public transportation. Public transportation is good to a point, but boy is it expensive. Either way todays life style was built on relatively cheap transportation.

 

[dprewett]

as gas goes up in price people will move closer to work.