Everytime I think of buying a hybrid I go out and do a big smokey burnout.

Then I get over it.

Didn't see that info on the graph until you pointed it out Charger.

It looks like Shell Oil is posting about a 1/3 increase in profits this quarter as well.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 00,00.html

So far it looks like we have two votes no, one yes, and one undecided.

-Trevor

And here I thought for sure Khyron would be all for it.

If the assholes running Chrysler had any brains they would be selling hybrid minivans by now.

The Dakota used to be a nice size truck, now it's almost as big as the full sized truck used to be. If the full sized truck gets any bigger you'll need a CDL to drive it.

There's a market out there for a mid sized economical vehicle that's not loaded with every F.R.E.D ( fucking ridiculous electronic device) some asshole can think of.

Well...it took over $3.00 a gallon to really make us think about it. Honestly, I think it really hit me when gas hit 2.50 a gallon. I drive almost 80 miles a day, so it affects me more.

That reminds me, I heard the other day that they're gonna mandate lower bumpers on those big trucks, because they're causing too much damage to smaller cars in a crash.
Why don't they just make the trucks lower instead of lowering just the bumpers? The guys with lifted trucks are still gonna lift them beyond the bumper's area of protection anyway, so it doesn't make sense.

Here is an interesting article:

(excerpt follows):

"Thirty years before the Toyota Prius got the attention of an energy-anxious nation, a starry-eyed inventor named Victor Wouk built a hybrid gas-electric vehicle that sipped fuel at half the rate of virtually all other cars on the road.

And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tested Wouk’s vehicle, certified that it met the strict guidelines for an EPA clean-air auto program—and rejected it out of hand.

The story about the vehicle and its inventor, who died in May at age 86, is unknown among even the most diehard fans of today’s burgeoning hybrid car movement. One might conclude that in fact America was ahead of all other countries in hybrid car science—three decades ahead—but squashed it under the weight of the federal bureaucracy."

More on the "Great Hybrid Car Coverup of '74":
http://www.hybridcars.com/hybrid-coverup-1974.html



-Trevor

"If we must reduce automobile pollution and reduce automobile fuel consumption a large amount in a short period of time. The only thing you should do is use existing technologies, and as these technologies improve, you just go ahead. But nobody did anything about it until, independently, the Japanese—Toyota and Honda."

Once again, the Japanese take an idea borrowed from us, work on it until it's mostly perfected, then turn around & sell it to us & we Americans gobble it up.
We're idiots sometimes.

Thanks for that link, I think I'll go track down that Stork asshole now & bury my foot in his ass.

Well I think the market would've done in a hybrid in 1974 if the government hadn't.

Conversely, if the market had been screaming for that kind of technology back then I think the big automakers would've stepped right up and tried to produce those cars.

Strange to think it but maybe the world wasn't really ready to accept hybrids until now.

BTW it looks as if Sweden (home of Yngwie Malmsteen!!) might be the first nation to "break its oil addiction"...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,5394 ... 81,00.html

-Trevor

That's good news. Hopefully this trend spreads rapidly.
Now our country just needs to invent a "Mr. Fusion" & we'll be sitting pretty.

It's hard to say whether or not people were ready to accept hybrids back then. I agree that it would have been an easier sell during the initial gas crunch, but if there wouldn't have been so many naysayers in the political arena to keep a thumb on it all, we may have very well been world leaders in that technology & wouldn't be in the predicament we are in today.

Of course who knows, if it wasn't this predicament, it would probably be another. I guess the ragheads would probably still be pissed at us for one reason or another...but at least we could cut all trading ties without shooting ourselves in the foot, and more or less starve them into submission.

thats good becaue interest rates are fucking rediculas and it might take ya ten fucking years to pay the shit off LMAO

i think hydrogen is the way to go you can get dubble the hp and torq out of a silverado with a hydrogen setup and the biproduct is water..
if the oil companys are smart they will jump on that shit before somone els does and ccorner the market in hydrogen as well as petrolium unfortunatly their greed will be their downfall

yeah the new thing now is E85

Been awhile since this thread got started. Too bad it's still relevant.

If you feel bad about bustin' yer ass to pay for fuel then take pity on this dude - Looks like he worked himself into an early grave for the hybrids....

source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,379301,00.html

TOKYO — A Japanese labor bureau has ruled that one of Toyota's top car engineers died from working too many hours, the latest in a string of such findings in a nation where extraordinarily long hours for some employees has long been the norm.

The man who died was aged 45 and had been under severe pressure as the lead engineer in developing a hybrid version of Toyota's blockbuster Camry line, said Mikio Mizuno, the lawyer representing his wife. The man's identity is being withheld at the request of his family, who continue to live in Toyota City where the company is based.

In the two months up to his death, the man averaged more than 80 hours of overtime per month, according to Mizuno.

He regularly worked nights and weekends, was frequently sent abroad and was grappling with shipping a model for the pivotal North American International Auto Show in Detroit when he died of ischemic heart disease in January 2006. The man's daughter found his body at their home the day before he was to leave for the United States.

The ruling was handed down June 30 and will allow his family to collect benefits from his work insurance, Mizuno said.

An officer at the Aichi Labor Bureau on Wednesday confirmed the ruling, but declined to comment on the record.

In a statement, Toyota Motor Corp. offered its condolences and said it would work to improve monitoring of the health of its workers.

There is an effort in Japan to cut down on deaths from overwork, known as "karoshi." Such deaths have steadily increased since the Health Ministry first recognized the phenomenon in 1987.

Last year, a court in central Japan ordered the government to pay compensation to Hiroko Uchino, the wife of a Toyota employee who collapsed at work and died at age 30 in 2002. She took the case to court after her application to the local labor bureau for compensation was rejected.

-Trevor