| Author | Message | ||
     Kenm123t |
too bad the car cant live up the woman FALSE ADVERTISING How was Hot Lips Houlihan Described by Hawkeye ? | ||
| Chadhargis |
Keep the Volt and I'll keep my Jetta TDI. | ||
| Aesquire |
I'm a TDI man myself, I find the '09 Sportwagen ( with GTI suspension ) to be a fine handling little car. I assume the multi-link rear suspension Jetta sedan version Is as good, ( 5th and 6th generations ) and the plain rear end cars... not. TDI = Torque Rules. Small cars with power are fun. The stock Fiat 500 gets 101 little ponies. The Abart gets 160, and total reprogramming with nice suspension. I'll have to go scare a salesman with a test ride when I get a chance. I have no idea how good a car the Fiat 500 is. Fix it again Tony? But! Fiat has Multiair. variable camshaft profiles in real time with electro-hydraulic followers... Wow! http://www.fptmultiair.com/flash_multiair_eng/home .htm This one's really cool for the retentive among us. http://www.fiat.com/ecodrive/us/default.htm Back to the topic... The Volt can further be dissed by the fact that the Cruze ( same Chassis? ) gets better mileage on long runs ( even figuring the electric range in ) for far less money. Still it's a technological tour de farce. The Heart of the Volt isn't the batteries, ( ooops! there goes another one! ) but the transmission power splitter. Cool beans. I can't help but wonder if the programming could be changed to make it more like the Prius in operation, Or if serious hardware changes are needed to recharge the battery while driving at highway speed. A "Prius" style mode of operation would get better real world mileage... ok.... MY real world, where a 100 mile day is common. If you're a city dweller and only drive 10 miles a day, Then a Volt might be for you. The Volt's a far saner choice than a pure Electric if you ever want to leave town or go on vacation to Wally World. A Leaf would be awesome for small range urban/suburban living, but suck cross country. Plus you have to build all those new power plants to even have a lot of Electric cars. Simple fact. | ||
| Xdigitalx |
I want a tiguan TDi 6spd 4x4. | ||
| Froggy |
Remains to be seen, but I have faith that they are just as good as anything else on the road these days.
I assume you mean fuel economy? The Cruze Eco gets 38MPG highway while the Volt does 40MPG in the same conditions. They both are of the same chassis.
It is software limited mainly to get classified as an electric car. Allegedly this also extends the battery life, as you aren't exercising the battery as much with charges and discharges. I'm sure someone will figure out how to override it and provide that functionality. The car uses some cool tricks like if the GPS sees you are almost home, it will prevent the gas engine from kicking in to save you a few more cents.
Even with 100 miles a day, you still are going to run one fifth to half of your driving on battery alone depending on conditions. It would cost you around a dollar to recharge it each night, vs $3-8 for a gallon or two of gas for that same distance. I personally feel 100 miles is the cutoff before it doesn't really make sense to get the car anymore and you would be better off with a loaded Cruze. My daily commute is 70 miles round trip, I could easily make it to work without drinking an ounce, then depending on the weather I would make it home on half a gallon. The 9 gallon tank would last me 18 commuting days, which is 3 weeks, pretty neat to fill up less often than I get paid.
Lets get cracking, I just got an electric snow blower, and I'll be picking up an electric mower in the spring. Gas is dead to me  | ||
| Aesquire |
I was basing the mileage numbers on the Chevy website. Cruze eco - 28/42 & Volt - 35/40. Also the Consumer reports testing that showed real world 32 mpg on the gas engine. Few people drive the EPA loop. I'm glad? to hear that programming is all that's needed to charge the battery from the engine, and understand that it's partly battery life that keeps it a plug in. You are absolutely correct that the MAIN reason the Volt is a plug in is to make it an "Electric" and not a "Hybrid". Politics, and religion. I've wanted for years ( and never quite got up the ambition and money ) to have/make a full sized van with a small diesel charging a battery pack and all electric drive train. ( Serial/locomotive style Hybrid ) Mother Earth news reported on one way back in the 70's, with a Kubota tractor engine, and the electric motor hooked through 1 u-joint right to the rear end. With proper development and modern control electronics, I think that would get superior mileage and actually sell. ( lots of vans go to fleet sales ) I also recall a car magazine test back in the 70's that tried to make a full size van more Aerodynamic with air dams and spoilers and they ended up concluding that taking off the mirrors was the best performance boost. That was prescient, as the next gen of cars will have cameras and rear view screens to squeeze out the best efficiency. A lot of the tech for high mileage cars was developed and available back in the 1970's. Most of the safety improvements in cars since WW2 was from a Fairchild program run by Dr. Paul Stapp, most famous for his rocket sled testing for ejection seat and human g-tolerance research. Padded dashes, collapsible steering wheels ( without pointy stabbing bits ) etc. The Fiat Multiair thing is a major deal IMHO. By using mechanical cams the power required to actuate the valves hydraulically is near eliminated. It may just be an intermediate step to electric vlave actuation, but is still a big step for production cars. At this point I believe the only politically permissible source of new power is to capture the hot air from Washington. NIMBY is always an issue. Have they finally approved those off shore wind farms near the late Ted Kennedy's mansion that he blocked while pushing them for others? | ||
| Chauly |
" I also recall a car magazine test back in the 70's that tried to make a full size van more Aerodynamic with air dams and spoilers and they ended up concluding that taking off the mirrors was the best performance boost. That was prescient, as the next gen of cars will have cameras and rear view screens to squeeze out the best efficiency. I did something like that for my Senior Lab back in college. Wind tunnel testing of a Dodge van and a VW Bus. You are correct in your recollection: removing the West Coast Mirrors gave us the single biggest improvement in drag coefficient, followed by belly pans, followed by making the windshield and side glass flush. We got the coefficient of the Dodge down to .32 (from .68!); the VW started at .40 (!) but only got down to .38 no matter what we did. I applied some of that stuff to an '82 Colt and boosted it's mileage from 30 to 39 mpg. It's a bit more difficult to do with my Prius, however. | ||
| Sifo |
Audi Chief Calls Chevy Volt “A Car For Idiots”
| ||
| Blake |
Gee, Merry Christmas there Jahan. | ||
| Blake |
>>> Gas is dead to me. Will be interested to hear about your electric mower and how it performs. What a great achievement from the standpoint of noise, pollution and ease of use/maintenance! That said, I have you beat. My mower requires even less maintenance and also helps keep you healthier...  | ||
| Blake |
The same goes for the replacement for my old gas powered blower...  With the money we save, we figure to get Michele some new clothes. | ||
| Guell |
ill stick with my self propelled gas mower and my 2 stroke weedeater and blower. from what ive seen of electric yard tools, ill pass. | ||
| Froggy |
Yea, because making the Audi E-Tron, a god knows how expensive electric sports car is the best thing ever.  | ||
| Aesquire |
The latest electric yard tools ( with cord ) are pretty darn good. battery powered ones are getting better. If your gas stuff serves you well, keep them. When they wear our, look again, things will have changed. Again. I think most small 2 stroke engines yard tools will be replaced by Propane in the very very near future. Pollution laws. | ||
| Blake |
Tough crowd. | ||
| Kenm123t |
Blake your introuble when your wife figures out how far beneath her she married | ||
| Aesquire |
That's the new Roomba? I like! | ||
| Sifo |
Chevy Volt Costing Taxpayers Up to $250K Per Vehicle  With that kind of subsidies I would expect more for my money! | ||
| Fast1075 |
I have a Roomba. Haven't had to manually sweep my floors for two years. It' magic. I come home from work and my floors are clean.  | ||
| Hootowl |
More news on the true cost of the Volt. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/09/electri c-car-subsidies-transferring-wealth-from-poor-to-r ich/ And as we (mostly) all suspected, it gives tax credits to people who don't need them. Can the government do ANYTHING right? | ||
| Ourdee |
I need an electric bike with a 70 mile range in 32 degree weather at 50 miles per hour. It needs to weigh less than 250 pounds with a seat height of less than 28 inches. Did I mention it has to be as good looking as the Fiat Abarth girl? | ||
| Cataract2 |
I need a diesel Adventure Motorcycle. To bad they just don't seem to be being worked on. | ||
| Aesquire |
Until the antimatter generators are invented, you may need to give up a little range, or suffer with more mass on that electric.. I thought they did indeed make a Diesel version of the Kawa 650 for the military, with an eye towards civilian sales. It's not, perhaps, the fastest thing on Earth, but.... http://www.hayes-dt.com/ http://www.gizmag.com/go/4272/ But, alas, not in current production.... Or if in Europe... http://www.bikeexif.com/diesel-motorcycle http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/17/4639/Motorcycle-A rticle/Track-T800CDI-Diesel-Motorcycle-Quick-Ride. aspx | ||
| Moxnix |
http://www.neander-motorcycles.com/shortversion-ne u/main_en.html | ||
| Mikef5000 |
I need a diesel Adventure Motorcycle. To bad they just don't seem to be being worked on. Track Dutch Diesel; available in Europe for several years now: So, now that Chevy is advertising the hell out of the 42 MPG Cruise Eco (for $16,800), do you think they will even continue to produce the Volt? | ||
| Hootowl |
Love the exhaust on that Dutch bike. Functional. Utilitarian. | ||
| Swordsman |
"So, now that Chevy is advertising the hell out of the 42 MPG Cruise Eco (for $16,800), do you think they will even continue to produce the Volt?" Yeah, and selling them to those "intellectual elite" Jahan was laughing at. And of course GE and the Fed.} | ||
| Sifo |
The Cruze Eco actually starts at $19,325 to get 42 mpg. Still a bargain compared to the volt though! Wasn't there a bet Froggy had going about how many Volts were going to be sold at the beginning of 2012? Wasn't is supposed to be like 5,000 per month or something? | ||
| Cataract2 |
I've known that they have diesel ones in Europe, but being I'm American and stationed here I won't be buying one because I can not bring it back to the states. We need them to come to the states with a reasonable price. | ||
| Strokizator |
Wasn't there a bet Froggy had going about how many Volts were going to be sold at the beginning of 2012? That was with me. Here's Froggy on Aug 3 of last year "$100 that they can sell 45k US and 60k globally in 2012? Its a deal." I'm willing to let him off the hook if he concedes defeat now. |
