Re: Are electric vehicles better than gas vehicles?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Wanderlust</div><div class="ubbcode-body">That's why I have a motorcycle. Better economy than a Pious (Prius) and better performance than a Porsche. Winning. </div></div>
What he said, although since it's cold and icy the KTM is in the garage for a few months. My Chevy truck gets 12.5mpg, which is pretty crappy. Had I known that I would not have bought the 6.0L engine. On the bright side, it 'forces' me to ride the bike whenever possible.
I don't think the current state of hybrid technology makes sense, ecologically. Waste stream during the making and scrapping of hybrids is colossal and long-term.
The following rant is not mine, I got it from MichaelN a while back, and I agree 100%.
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">
“Muscle Cars vs. Hybrids: A Guide to Saving the Planet”
Every “Earth-conscious” environmentalist knows that to own a hybrid, such as the Toyota Prius, is to have arrived at environmental enlightenment. Or do they? You see, there is a common misconception out there, no doubt perpetuated by the hybrid technology industry, that owning a $30,000 hybrid car will help “save” the planet through a reduced consumption of fossil fuels and “save” you money on fuel in the process. As if spending $30,000 could actually “save” you anything, least of all the heart ache of handing over your $500 monthly payment to the bank instead of to the gas station. Sure, your shiny new silver robot car will cost you less every time you do go to the gas station. And you will go there less often. But even only spending $30 every 400 miles will not offset the fact that you’re spending $500 per month for the privilege to do so.
But, no, you say, it’s not about saving money; it’s about saving the planet! Oh, “the planet”. I see. Well tell me then, what does “the planet” plan to do with the toxic battery of your shiny new hybrid once you are finished using it? It is a little acknowledged fact that the nickel mining required to manufacture the battery for your “environmentally conscious” car, is actually detrimental to the very environment you propose to save with its use. This is not only due to the extremely earth-destructive process of mining itself, but also due to the difficulty of recycling such toxic substances at the end of their shelf-life. You will, in essence, be trading a little petroleum consumption for the much greater evil of eternal toxic landfill cancer-causing sludge.
But, no, you claim. You will own your hybrid forever, and by the end of forever some clever person will have found a way to more effectively recycle the environmentally toxic battery that propels your “earth-conscious” car. No, you won’t. Don’t kid yourself. You’re an American, and you will own your car for an average of four years. Then you will move on to whatever else is bright, shiny and new, compelled to do so by the very same automotive industry that got you into that bright shiny new hybrid to begin with.
Assuming, that is, that you get that far with your hybrid. Because, God forbid you should get into an accident while driving that golf cart over five miles per hour. The very same ultra-lightweight nature of your hybrid, which contributed to that ultra-light gas consumption, will crumple like a recycled can of Coke at even the slightest of impacts. An impact, which frankly, you can’t afford. Assuming you survive your five mile per hour brush with death, the mechanical implications of such an impact will surely bankrupt you. If you’ve ever peeked under the hood of a hybrid then you already know there is a giant piece of plastic preventing you from viewing any of the cars mechanical components. The hybrid engine isn’t really an engine at all, not in the traditional sense of simple carbon combustion, anyway. No, the hybrid’s engine is really just a giant anti-social computer that doesn’t want you touching it in the first place. Only highly specialized hybrid technicians can poke their highly specialized tools into the complex computer components of the hybrid engine. Laymen need NOT apply. So be prepared to take out that second mortgage because repairs are NOT gonna be cheap! But, you say, there is a warranty and all of that will be covered. Perhaps...for a little while.
But let me just reiterate that you will be driving the automotive equivalent of a golf cart. And you will be looking less than cool, sneaking up on deaf old ladies in grocery store parking lots with your silent tin can. And how will you feel when you cause some elderly person’s cardiac arrest by arriving noiselessly behind them and startling the life right out of them with your futuristic non-car? I bet you didn’t think about that, did you!
For all those would-be environmentalists who are now beginning to see the light, fear not. I have a solution for you: the muscle car. You may think you have misread that last line, because muscle cars, as everyone knows are “gas-guzzlers”, and thus not an environmentally conscious choice. You have not misread. Muscle cars are, in fact, the most over-looked friends of the environmental movement.
Environmentalists, as everyone knows, are often fond of recycling. Buying a car that has been used and re-used since at least the 1970’s is, in fact, the ultimate form of recycling! And you can find a recycled muscle car for a fraction of the cost of a brand-new, environmentally unfriendly hybrid. It is, in fact, a return to the moral fortitude of a bygone era. You work, you save, and you buy what you can afford. You eliminate the modern day “buy now, pay later...with 18.24% APR” mentality that has led to this indebted nation of bank bail-outs in which we find ourselves today.
So, you’ve spent your $3,000-$12,000 (cost and quality vary greatly) on your fire-engine red with black racing stripes, ’70 Chevelle SS, with a rebuilt 402 big block hydraulic roller motor. You own it. It belongs to you, not to the bank. So climb in, take in the deep and satisfied breath of independence. You have just taken your first important step toward saving the planet. You have bucked the trend of buy now, buy new, and pay later. You have recycled not just an American classic; you have recycled the American dream! God-bless you, you patriot...I mean, environmentalist.
Now, you will have to fuel this fine piece of American craftsmanship, and I’m not going to lie to you, this will cost you. If you are truly dedicated to the environmental movement, than this is a good thing. The sizeable amount you will have to spend on gas will no doubt keep you off of the road and further protecting the environment from hazardous emissions. You will simply cut back, way back, on your driving. I recommend this. At about $45 per 180 miles, you will probably realize what a frivolous driver you once were, before you joined the environmentalists’ movement. There were probably a lot of unnecessary places to which you were driving. You can now cease all of those superfluous visits to your mother-in-laws house. Your significant other will understand. It’s for the environment.
The hybrid’s compact nature, no doubt, meant several trips to the grocery store per week. Now, with trunk space that would impress even the Mafia, you can cut your grocery outings to perhaps once every two weeks. You can finally cleanse yourself of your earth-killing addiction to such follies as “fresh” produce. The countless gallons of petroleum required to ship such luxuries from the hands of child laborers in South America all the way to your greedy face, are now saved. The environment thanks you.
And every time you slide down into your earth-mobile, you can rest easy. While you are thoughtfully protecting the planet, your muscle car will be protecting you. Your muscle car is built of solid steel, with solid craftsmanship, and will encase you within its protective womb of chrome and iron every time you venture out. Should you happen to be involved in some kind of collision, do not be surprised when someone else has to inform you of this after the fact. You will not have noticed if someone driving a plastic Prius has rear-ended you on the highway at 60mph, as the impact will have been absorbed entirely by the Prius’ collapsible, plastic design. Where-as the Prius and its callously non-environmentally aware occupant will no doubt have been obliterated, you will be hard-pressed to locate even so much as a scratch on your shiny chrome bumper.
The mechanics of the muscle car will also fill your environmental soul with joy. When constructing this masterpiece of engineering, real people used real parts to do so. As this was before the invention of computers (and subsequent downfall of society), in a time when mere mortals could still perform the necessary adjustments in order to keep an automobile in good working order. Lift the hood, look inside, and try not to be too surprised when you see that this car contains an actual combustion engine. It does not repel your lay-person hands with computerized mumbo-jumbo, but instead invites them in to feel around. Now, I suppose I should have prefaced this by saying that automotive mechanics are by no means simple. But with some instruction and practice, and of course the “can do” attitude that built this great nation, these things are easily within your grasp. And the burgeoning environmentalist within you can sleep soundly at night knowing that none of these cars’ parts and pieces were produced at the hands of over-seas child laborers.
All that aside, I must now mention the “cool” factor. In a muscle car, you are large and in charge. You are solid, yet thrifty; shiny and beautiful to behold, yet low impact on the environment. You are loud and powerful. The whole neighborhood can hear how much you love the planet in the roar of your recycled, rebuilt big block engine. A boisterous and proud statement to the world that you are pro-earth! You are classic, yet forward thinking. You are an environmentalist!
And one last word to those backwards minded hybrid pushers that still do not believe the gospel of the muscle car revolution. When you’re coasting around silently on your environment-killing battery-propelled car, spending thousands just for the privilege, hoping and praying you don’t get in an accident going over 5mph, while smiling your smug smile, with your moral superiority complex, just think, “Foolish gas-guzzlers. When will they learn,” and kindly coast out of the way, there’s a muscle car comin’ through.</span>
