Well you guys know the worlds natural fuel will deplete by around the year 2030 right. So in other words if you live on a farm get a truck, if you live in the mountians get an suv, if you live in the city you don't need a black whole gas sucking car, I'm not a hippie but comon if you have no need for the car you drive except the fact that you want to be the biggest most toxic person on the road then drive a car or better a hybrid or even bette a electric car. Ok my bitching is done. Oh and post whatcha think about this...
what about suburban families that need the extra room for their kids and the safety of a big car (for collisions and 4X4 in snow and rain). My family had a minivan before we got an Explorer and it was nice except it couldn't do crap when it was icy out...would spin out a lot coming out of the drive way! And my parents never felt it was able to go their "normal" speed when it was wet out. Now with the SUV, we are able to tow a trailer (and bring my mower around the neighborhood, and we use it for long vacations, and for transporting something too large to fit in the car...also for college moving). Coming out of the drive is no problem when it icy. Yet it gets about 13mpg....on highway trips it can get up to 18mpg. I don't know how minivans with AWD (all-wheel drive...same as 4X4 but its on all the time and changes the ratio of power from front to back when needed) fare with their milage. It's the large engines that are the problem. Those mighty V8's. But your right. SUV's in general do burn too much gas. Until they can sqeeze enough power out of something more efficient and earth-friendly to power a large car...you ain't gonna see SUVs disapear. The problem is really the cost of the engine and the materials to make the car lighter.
Yup...SUV's are menace. I'm not only concerned with their poor fuel economy and resulting damage to the environment. (They are considered TRUCKS, so they aren't subject to the same standards as automobiles.) I'm also concerned with the damage they inflict on other cars when they're involved in accidents. Picture that bumper plowing through your side window. Should bumpers not be stadard heights to lessen damage in the case of accidents involving contact with other vehicles - not to mention pedestrains? Is this not why we have bumpers?
true, but electric cars use power from polluting power plants... so, until we have green power, no one is safe
OMG ok i dont know ur SCV's but i DO know 4 weel drives problem one- THERE BLOODY RIDGIED, people crumple zones r there for a REASON, rather the car takes the impact than u or ur familly 2- think about the hight of a camry, corrola, commodor, falcon and then the hight of a 4x4, which will roll easer? 3- how many people in the city actully GO 4x4 driving? 4 - HAVE U SEEN WHAT THOSE THINGS DO TO A PED? or even another car 5- see how far u get with no petrol, after all how easerly do those convert to gass? FORD have an electric car out for production soon i think and they already have a gass only car 6 - so what u servive a crash and EVERYONE dies of carbon manoxide posioning YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! arnt they better
If someone cad a cheap photoelectric paint we would have green power. Paint the side of a building, a roof, or even a parking lot or road and watch it produce power. Of course you would need fuel cells to store that energy but some good ones now exist in laboratories. Oh i wish the internal combustion engine never caught on with the general public.
clockwood, Could you explain this, please? I understand that the paint would absorb the light, but how is this different from the plates that are currently used with solar power? Would it be used for cosmetic purposes, or is it more effecient? Thanks
As well as do whatever it normally would do something covered with photosynthetic paint would also produce electricity. In fact it could produce the same amount of electricity as a solar panal of equal surface area. The difference is it would have negligable bulk, not be fragile, and be repairable by just adding another coat. The problem with modern solar panals is that they are expensive to produce, break way too easily, and are bulky. With a paint you just coat something like a driveway with some, hook it up to the power grid, and watch the watts come rolling in. All you have to do is plow it and maybe repaint it every few years. Its big plus is you could just ignore it and still reap its benifits.
Flexible Fuel Vehicles There are alot of trucks, minivans & SUVs out there that are "Flexible Fuel Vehicles", which means they can burn gasoline or ethanol, or any combination of the two fuels. The US Department of Energy publishes an online Buyers Guide for people who might be interested in using renewable fuel in their vehicles, as well as maps to find the nearest refueling station. Many people drive FFVs but aren't aware of the capability. Of course the benefits of driving an FFV are only realized when using ethanol as a fuel. Ethanol is a renewable fuel. Read more about ethanol in the "Renewable Energy Transportation" section near the bottom of my Starship Generations website.
Oh, SuccessMachine. I wanted to give you these addresses. They comment on a very hardy and productive food plant. Gotta love google. http://www.ars-grin.gov/ars/MidWest/Ames/Crops_New/Amaranth.html http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MV006 http://www.eap.mcgill.ca/CPAT_1.htm
i own a 4x4 turbo diesel hilux that is around 1.5 ton in weight(thats aussie tons tho) i had a 4 cyloinder 1.8l holden camira(petrol) the hilux is about the same milage in town-and is actually cheaper on long trips ok it has the potential to rollover easier-but driven with that in mind(ie dont try and take corners at twice the posted speed) is much safer it also handles the `roads' here a lot better-goat tracks would be a better way of describing them-repair costs have gone way down-thus saving resources as well as my wallet all in all it works out a lot cheaper bitch to park tho lol
no bullbar yet-got to get one tho as i have no intention of hitting a roo and being left with $100's dollars damage btw i live in rural australia and have hade 2 cars written off completely due to roo damage crumple zones are a bit sus in my books-they make b/a difference in low speed crashes,and in high speed unless you have an ltd or the like-there isnt any room to crumple anyway and they add big $$ to repair costs as well one thing i do like about the lux is its wading ability in floodwaters btw there was a crash involving a mazda 131 recently here-despite all its touted crumple zones etc-the driver and passenger had to be cut free and taken to hospital they hit a roo that wouldnt have even made me bother to stop so which is safer??
no probs even in a city tho i can see some people having a use for them (my brother lives in the city) and uses both a 4x4 and an ltd(ford) however the whole family is into horses so tow vechiles are ness the ltd is his classic rebilt,the 4x4 is the tower after several times the ltd got bogged at shows dunno about elsewhere-but here in nsw-any vechicle towing a horse float(about 1.5 tons)is required by law to be either a light truck or comercial and his 4x4 fits the bill nicely altho it is rarely used in 4x4,it is required for towing legally
his 5.8l v8 isnt allowed to pull the float(1.5ton-1500kg) legally because its a car his 2.4l 4cyl rodeo can-cause its a 4x4 despite the rodeo being a lot less safer as a tow car cause its too light so not everyone in a city who drives a 4x4 is a w%$^r-they might just have a reason to do so
u ever been near a primary school at pick up time? i have the miss fortune to LIVE near one the amount of mums who drive those is stagering it has a lesser view because ur so high so some little 5 year old runs out in front of it and if a roo wont stop it what will a kid do?
it has a lesser view because ur so high so some little 5 year old runs out in front of it and if a roo wont stop it what will a kid do? actually as you are sitting so high-u actually have a better view (btw i also drive semis ) plus most modern 4x4 have just as good visibility as smaller cars due to sloping bonnet design etc when a car of any size 800kg or 15000 kg hits a 5 yr old the kid loses-size of car has very little to do with it-driving SENSABLY has btw sit in a high set 4x4-or va,or truck-whatever-then look out over the cars in front-you will see the diference in visiblity-most(not all ) are actually better
um u DO know that if ur short and struck by a 4x4 ur likly to be sucked under the wheel? and would u even FEEL a child hit?, i can garentiee u do on a carola because i WAS hit at school
