Boycotting gas on April 15, 2011?

[bphung]

J.W, average nation wide it cost about 10 cent per kilowatt. Prius is a nice concept, but as of now, they still do not know what to do with all the old batteries soon will be replaced from hybrid vehicles. They will ended up in the landfill and thus hybrid vehicles will have bigger footprint than my Chevy avalanche 1500 which will be almost entirely recycled. My commute vehicle is a Honda Civic with bare minimum options, get close to 40 MPG and alot cheaper than a Prius. Money saving from price different and battery replacement is far out weight the extra MPG.

 

[DrDave]

J.W, average nation wide it cost about 10 cent per kilowatt. Prius is a nice concept, but as of now, they still do not know what to do with all the old batteries soon will be replaced from hybrid vehicles. They will ended up in the landfill and thus hybrid vehicles will have bigger footprint than my Chevy avalanche 1500 which will be almost entirely recycled. My commute vehicle is a Honda Civic with bare minimum options, get close to 40 MPG and alot cheaper than a Prius. Money saving from price different and battery replacement is far out weight the extra MPG.

That cost is a bit more if you exceed what some beancounter thinks you should use and you get hit with a higher rate because you exceeded it. I get hit with $.21 and then $.23 per KWH as I go over the limit. You almost have to live in a cave with no appliances to meet the baseline of $.073 per KWH. So my average this past month came out to $.20 per KWH.

What do you think about fuel cell technology? It is my understanding that the only byproduct is water. I know we are a long way from having an inexpensive cell for production. I also wonder what the lifetime and recycle timelines and effects are.

Your thoughts?

 

[j.w]

Very interesting, wouldn't it be nice? We have plenty of H20 here in Western Washington
[ame]

or how about aluminum?

[ame]

 

[phillyofish]

its ridiculous that the oil companies are reporting big profits.

Exxon made over 50% profit.

we need to get more control on the price gouging.

 

[shakaho]

I've never heard of anyone who had to replace the hybrid battery. Mine is warrantied for 100,000 miles. I don't know what the warranty is on the newer ones.

What are the shortcomings of a Prius? It's not a great handling car -- OK, but not great. I think it's because of the weight of the battery in the back. The view out the rear window sucks, but the back up camera fixes that. It's certainly harder to see out the back of an SUV. My husband, who is 6'4" finds the leg room tight on long trips. He wants to get a hybrid Camry. I'll stick with the Prius. I will look at the new Prius wagon. I can carry 8' lumber and 10' pvc pipes in my car, but I wish the hatch opening was a little bigger.

 

[j.w]

They have a Prius wagon? Ohhhhhhhh, that is sounding good and I read that the new Prius will have a battery warranty for the life of the car
Hyundai or however you spell it has a model that gets around 43 miles per gallon and might be cheaper than the Prius but don't know about quality

 

[shakaho]

It's coming out some time this year. Next year they release the plug-in model.

 

[koiguy1969]

this says it all.......

 

[j.w]

Ha Ha koiguy Gas actually was down a couple cents to $3.79

 

[taherrmann4]

You need to do some calculations to see if a hybrid vehicle is really going to save you money over the standard vehicle. There are calculators out there that can assist you and show you whether it makes sense.

I waiting on Hondas FCX clarity to be the choice going forward. The biggest drawback is the infrastructure (hydrogen stations), they have been testing it out in california for the last three years.
http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/

But now that cars are getting more fuel efficient the government is not bringing in as much taxes on the gas and they are just as abusive to the roads so they are looking at charging hybrids a fee every year to make up for it. The consumer can't win!!!
http://www.dailybreeze.com/latestnews/ci_17913251

 

[j.w]

At this point I am going to use my Subaru wagon til it's too dead and not economical to fix. At that point I must make a decision of some sort. So far we have been fixing the things that keep it running which haven't been too awful much yet. I don't drive that much but when we start going places w/ our camper now that DH is retired there is not much we can do about the diesel for the Dodge truck cuz there aren't any electric or hydrogen trucks out there
Boy is it gonna cost us to drive that thing anywhere. Guess we will have to find a nice place to camp and just sit there and enjoy the sunshine

 

[addy1]

Lol jw, all my cars I keep until they die, the only one I sold "young" was the escalade.

 

[j.w]

I get attached to the cars and can't hardly bear to part w/ them. We even had the horror of horrors Ford Pinto wagon and I was sad to say goodbye to it
But right after that is when we bought the Subaru Legacy wagon and believe me it didn't take long to forget the dog of a Pinto

 

[addy1]

lol jw can understand that. In my life I have had (that I drove) 4 cars

 

[j.w]

I got ya beat by one more (5) and I'm not counting my parents cars as they were never really mine. Wish I could have hung onto my dad's red/white 56 Chevy tho. I was supposed to get that car but some kids stole it and tore it all up and turned it into a mixed up pile of junk. It was an automatic when it left and came back to the insurance co. as a stick shift..........guess you might say it had a sex change
I loved that car