Recent Comments:
A look at Kei cars, those tiny Japanese cars {Autoblog Green}
Dec 15th 2007 2:26AM Being a Canadian and having seen a few of these imported kei cars for sale, I must say I wouldn't exactly give them a ringing endorsement. I'm all for small cars, but these kei cars just don't give one a feeling of being safe in them. The panels are thin and there is precious little to keep any vehicle that hits you from landing on your lap. While the Smart is also a small car, it has a much greater feeling of substance to it plus its safety cell. Of course, the kei cars we see in Canada are all at least 15 years old. I'm sure considerable safety improvements have been made for newer models on sale in Japan, but from what I can see that's been imported into Canada, all I can say is "yikes!". It may work in Japan where people don't drive as far or as fast, but I wouldn't trust a family member in one on our roads with the way people drive these days.
BMW 123d gets another rave review, and we still can't get it! {Autoblog Green}
Nov 25th 2007 4:57AM BMW has no intentions of selling any four cylinder engines (petrol or diesel) in any BMW branded vehicles in North America any more. The market BMW caters to by and large cares more about power and performance than fuel economy. BMW is unwavering on this. I suspect this is partly due to the Euro/US dollar exchange rate. With the US dollar tanking so fantastically they can't make a profit in North America unless they cater to the premium and performance end of the market. In Europe it is a different story because the brand is a little more mainstream there, people buy the cars in Euros, and the regulatory structure encourages more of a market for fuel efficient vehicles. If you want a BMW four banger in North America, buy a MINI....now a Mini diesel, that could have a chance here.
Huckabee tells us God is green {Autoblog Green}
Nov 20th 2007 1:59AM Hasn't America learned its lesson yet about politicians who say that God tells them to do this or that? I'd say God screwed up royally supporting a war on Iraq (why is it that God ends up supporting so many wars anyways?). Perhaps politicians should best keep God in the church and leave him or her out of state matters as the founding American fathers intended.
LA 2007: Honda shows 4th generation Home Energy Station {Autoblog Green}
Nov 15th 2007 7:24PM All other issues aside, and there are many valid issues with this....
How the hell am I supposed to fit all that crap in my garage? Perhaps I'm supposed to pave over a good portion of my back yard, or just stick it all in my front yard. By the time you get all the contractors in to do the necessary work, how much is this going to cost? It doesn't look cheap, let alone what the car must cost. Especially silly when you consider that much the same benefit can be derived from a simple electrical plug from your car to your garage with a BEV or PHEV. Heck, hydrogen fuel cell cars are just electric cars with a fuel cell replacing the batteries. I'll take the plug and batteries over all this crap thank you very much.
Survey says: We want 35 mpg by 2020! Will we buy them? Who knows! {Autoblog Green}
Nov 12th 2007 5:08AM A lot of people drive around in SUVs that don't need to. A lot of people do need to make use of larger vehicles however. If you look at the minivan market right now, there are no fuel efficient choices to be had in North America. In Europe you can get minivans with fuel efficient diesels...or with four cylinder gas engines with technology such as direct injection and superchargers. There are solutions that while imperfect, are more fuel efficient than current North American offerings. Everyone says they are on their way over here, but that promise never seems to make it onto the dealer's lot. Gas is still too cheap and throwing a thirsty V6 under the hood is still the most economical choice for the car makers when it comes to North America. Too many consumers buy vehicles thinking about fuel prices today and not what they may be 5 years down the road when they are only just finishing up their payments. That means North Americans have to suffer pain at the pump until better vehicles make their way onto dealer lots. Too many demand too little for it to be any other way.
Toyota launches "Why Not?" ad campaign, the largest in the company's history {Autoblog Green}
Nov 6th 2007 3:37AM I would venture that the hybrid Corolla and Matrix will probably come out as a mid life upgrade for Gen 10 (unless they cut North American sales of Gen 10 short and go to Gen 11 closer to when the rest of the world gets it...the Gen 10 Corolla has already been around for awhile in other markets). Those cars would probably better benefit from the more compact HSD system coming out in the next generation Prius. I would expect Corolla and Matrix to finally get their HSD system 1-2 years after the next gen Prius goes on sale. HSD takes up its a good deal of space on the Camry already, a more compact system in the Corolla would make it a much more saleable product. Keep in mind the Prius chassis is specific to HSD whereas the Corolla/Matrix chassis must be built for a conventional drive train.
Video: GM ad for Chevy Tahoe hybrid says other hybrids are "tinsy-winsy" {Autoblog Green}
Oct 22nd 2007 5:56PM Before we get too pissy on GM here, let's again remember. They are a business that is there to make money. They make money by selling products that people want....and unfortunately a lot of people still want a big ass vehicle like this. The hybrid badge is supposed to make everything better and the guilt of purchasing a vehicle like this go away.
What really needs to be done is for a large number of people who buy trucks like this to take a look in the mirror. Why does the public insist on ever larger vehicles? Because they go with their ever larger homes and just about everything else that is increasing in size unabated. The consumer mentality is ingrained in people's minds. It is seen as normal to spend everything you have, and even what you don't have on endless amounts of stuff. We need bigger houses and bigger vehicles to carry all this stuff around. The idea of living within your means or even saving a bit seems to be an outmoded one. This is the mentality that fuels the market for these vehicles.
Yes, there are legitimate business uses for these vehicles, but I would take a guess that those represent the minority of purchases. You are not going to see fewer of these vehicles on our roads until the consumerist mentality comes to grip with reality. People need to wake up and see what is going on in the rest of the world.
What is really unfortunate for Americans is that this mentality has spread to Government as well. The US Government is in trillions of dollars of debt and it just keeps getting bigger every day with no end in sight. Most of this debt is owned by nations such as China and Japan. China has trillions of dollars in reserves that they are only now thinking of taking out of the bank and starting to invest. Mark my words you will see Chinese interests buy up a lot of American companies in the next decade (evidently purchasing American debt isn't seen as the solid investment it used to be).
Americans are powerless to defend against this because everybody is too busy spending and getting into debt and nobody is saving anymore. America is broke and if the country collectively doesn't change its ways soon, the rest of the world will be feasting on its bankrupt carcass before long. Of course, whether or not in light of globalization that would really be a bad thing is for a different debate in a different place.
So in short, this is the mentality this vehicle represents and why so many find it so objectionable. Sticking a hybrid badge on it isn't going to change the problem one lick.
New York Metro Transit Authority testing micro-turbine hybrid bus {Autoblog Green}
Oct 16th 2007 3:57AM Most if not all of the hybrids currently in the NYCTA bus fleet are series hybrids. They use the BAE HybriDrive system http://www.baesystems.com/ProductsServices/bae_prod_eis_hybridrive.html
While a series hybrid is nothing new for NYCTA, the diesel turbine part certainly is.
What Gore's Nobel Prize might mean for cleaner cars {Autoblog Green}
Oct 15th 2007 1:36AM I wouldn't call people concerned about global warming "faith based" and lump them into the same boat as creationists. That statement is absurd, insulting and the height of ignorance. I doubt you'll find a single creationist on the IPCC or a single credible scientist who approaches the subject of global warming on faith. Even leading figures in the skeptic movement are starting to come around and agree that there is something to this global warming thing. To try and paint everyone who thinks there is something to global warming as a fanatic is so absurd, it shows the person making the statement to be the truly ignorant one who really does not know anything about the crap they are spouting off.
That said, I'm no fan of Gore either. While Gore brought profile to the issue, he also firmly polarized the world into two camps on the issue. If Gore tries to make a run for President on the heels of this Nobel Peace Prize win he will have disgraced the award and the work of many scientists by using all this for simple political gain. "An Inconvenient Truth" was too over the top and as we now see, contained several half truths and several untruths in order to try and make its point. I'm not sure the movie has really done all that much to help the problem or bring about changes that would not have happened anyways. It glamorized the issue, and is unfortunately now starting to discredit the issue because of its approach. Making global warming a hollywood craze only distracted people from the real science and blurred the issues at hand. This is especially damaging because the science behind this is very complex. Its not like tonnes of people are going to read through all the IPCC reports.
Is global warming an "end times" issue? To some it is. No credible scientist has said to my knowledge that unchecked global warming will bring about human extinction. Humanity will adapt and survive regardless. Again, just because we survive does not mean life will continue as we are used to. There will be a lot of new realities to adjust to. The work should not be dismissed out of hand, and change is required on humanity's part in order to ensure the environment gets the respect it deserves.
Of course, we are now starting to hear that it may already too late. The latest projections are worse than previous worst case projections. We've sown the seeds, I don't think there is a whole lot of avoiding the consequences no matter what we do. To those ambivalent to change, I would ask them what sort of world they want their children and grandchildren to live in. If we are going to make the world as hospitable as possible for future generations, we will have to make some changes. We cannot treat the earth as a piece of toilet paper as we have for so long. Life on earth has developed over billions of years. It doesn't take a scientist to see that humans have engaged in more damaging activities on the earth in the last 100 years that humans have ever done in all their existence prior. We have to figure out ways to live more sustainably. In the process, we also can't bankrupt ourselves in achieving these aims either. We need to change our mind set about our impact in the world. Change will not be easy, but efforts made now will pay off in future generations.
We cannot ignore our affect on the environment any longer if we want to leave the planet in good shape for future generations. I'm sure we can all agree on at least that.
Will Americans fit into small cars? {Autoblog Green}
Oct 11th 2007 2:05AM I'm 5 ft 11 and fit just fine into my 03 Corolla, rj never gave his height. I suppose at some point, probably about 6 ft 2 where it could get uncomfortable. The Japanese don't build their North American cars to the height of your average Japanese person....that is a myth. They do market research just as all other auto makers do to try and ensure their vehicles are comfortable for their target market. In Canada the Corolla is one of the most, if not the most, popular selling car right along with the Civic. These cars would not be selling in droves if most people found them uncomfortable.
Of course, if you are a bit taller that 6 ft 2, you can still find smaller cars that fit. The VW Jetta and Rabbit both have excellent interior room, superior to the Corolla and the Civic. The problem with the Jetta and Rabbit is that right now all you can get is either the base 2.5 5 cylinder with its so-so fuel economy or the over priced 2.0 Turbo 4 banger that must have Premium. The TDIs are coming back which will address fuel economy, but they won't be cheap. They will offer plenty of room for most anyone though. You should also sit behind the wheel of a Smart car too...one would be amazed at the leg room on one of those.
