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Never Enough For Obama

 
 


Posted by Drew458    United States   on 06/28/2011 at 12:12 PM   
 
  1. Funny in the UK the smart has a 3 cyl turbo diesel and goes like a bat out of hell and does close to 55 MPG, in fact most TD euroboxes, and dont forget the Ford and GM line are euroboxes now, do 55 or near.

    Posted by Chris Edwards    Canada   06/28/2011  at  06:47 PM  

  2. Chris, I’ve looked into that some. When Peiper sends me those newspaper clippings, there’s always an ad for some little bit of a car, and they have the most amazing mpg numbers I’ve ever seen. “52mpg urban, 73mpg ex-urban” and similar. It turns out that what passes for the EPA mileage board over there uses a highly optimistic calculation method.

    It’s bad enough with our own EPA over here; the mpg numbers are computer generated based on some super complex and wildly expensive bunch of algorithms. Apparently, just taking one of the cars and driving it around a bit to see how it does is not a workable answer, so the government creates some kind of magic numbers. The UK government is far more magical in that regard than the USA.

    I will give in on the turbo diesel though. Hook that to a little car with a plain jane standard transmission and a 6 or 7 speed gearbox, and you’ve got enough get up and go and the right gears to sip fuel while going at a good speed. Gasoline engines don’t come close. But turbo diesel cars are the last thing we’ll ever see here, because that makes sense. Or is it that the diesels smell a bit? Something silly, but it’s never going to happen.

    Posted by Drew458    United States   06/28/2011  at  08:46 PM  

  3. I drove an ‘84 VW Quantum with a turbo diesel for quite a few years.  It actually did better in town than on the road because the turbo was pushing 3-4 pounds of boost to roll down the road at 65 mph.  But I got a pretty consistent 40 mpg.  I guess the more modern TD’s are considerably better.

    That said, I find it quite instructive that over the past 15 years or so, fuel economy has not really improved all that much.  My daughter drove a ‘93 Cavalier that would do 30/36 mpg.  That’s not far off one of those “stupid” cars, and it’s a lot bigger.  Most new vehicles the size of the cavalier don’t get much better than it did either.  Maybe they run a little cleaner, but there’s no real dramatic mileage improvements.  I really don’t see what they can do with the current engines to improve fuel economy that much more.  But, there is also not a feasible alternative as of yet. 

    So, what Obama proposes is just not practical.  Of course, nothing that he says has any practicality about anything else either, so I guess he is just being consistent.

    Posted by John C    United States   06/28/2011  at  11:59 PM  

  4. My old engineer Dad used to tell me during the ‘70s gas ‘crisis’ when Opec held us hostage, “There will come a time when all these government types will slam their heads up against the laws of physics:  You can only combine so much air with gasoline, combust it and get just so much power out of it and then you’re done.  You can get closer and closer to the perfect ratio but you cant get more than 100% out of it.”

    Posted by TimO    United States   06/29/2011  at  08:10 AM  

  5. I see no problem what-so-ever with using those things in the cities as an addition to taxis & the metro - i.e. the vaulted public transit that removes private ownership, a pipe dream of the liberals - as in car sharing - you basically drive it and park it in one of their lots - bingo - you use it just as much as you need it, when you need it.

    But for people in the suburbs or rural areas, for people with children - or people like my ex & my sons (over 6’) - YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING.

    I rented one of those crappy cars (whatever the smallest chevy was in 2008) - and it was what I call a plastic car - a poc which Hertz didn’t even clean out - they are too small and at least the chevy was a piece of junk. (Aveo does that sound right?!)

    Posted by wardmama4    United States   06/29/2011  at  08:11 AM  

  6. Oh, yeah I forgot Obama’s dream in this area is to control every aspect of transportation (i.e. take away forever the pov) as just one more step in making America just like the rest of the world - Dependent upon gov for everything including transportation to and from our assigned jobs and/or death camps.

    BTW, did you see the idiot in LA (as in the Peoples Republic of Kalifornia) - who want’s glowball warning ‘deniers’ tattooed (and ‘yeah, I’m not crazy, doesn’t need to be across their forehead, maybe just on their arm’) so that they can ‘explain’ to their grandchildren WHY they were one of the people standing in the way of a solution to the problem.

    Waiting for the ‘misspoke’ non-apology apology any second now . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1

    Posted by wardmama4    United States   06/29/2011  at  08:22 AM  

  7. TimO:  Hat-tip to your Father.  Entirely correct.

    Posted by Argentium G. Tiger    Canada   07/02/2011  at  09:06 AM  

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