So, I’m driving up I-95 yesterday and this guy has a “sign” in the back window of his Jeep Cherokee,
SUVs SUCK GAS.
HYBRIDS JUST SUCK.
But it’s not a bumper sticker. It’s those “cut out” letters that you apply to the window. So, he took the time to spell out and apply this sentiment. I’m taking suggestions on what battles you think he’s fighting there. I don’t really know what he’s getting at. Did he leave out the preamble which might have said, “if you’re considering the purchase of a new vehicle which must be a SUV or a Hybrid, here are the salient points”.
Here’s the funny part. . .on the rearmost side-windows, he has more letters applied in the same fashion.
So, apparently if you want to decal some glass at the office with something politically incorrect, this guy will do it for you.
No word on if he’ll do the job if I want something not Politically Incorrect. I wish I got the number so I could call and ask. Google turns up nothing.
Sometimes, I just feel like others are on a different planet than I.
Or his message is, “I don’t care how much gas my SUV sucks, at least it’s a better car than the hybrids, except, of course, in any way you can measure it, so never mind.”
How so? About a year ago I was thinking about buying a new car and did some test-driving. My experience was that it wasn’t any better or worse than the car I now drive (it was a bit different, but not in a bad way). Admittedly, I currently drive a 4 cylinder compact, but I like it just fine. What am I missing?
Hi, {b]Dog**. I don’t know much about the technical side of cars. What does “for the same engine displacement” mean --for the same space used up by the size of the engine?
Isn’t diesel fuel a pretty bad pollutant? (I live in an area where we are surrounded by hills. Everything gets trapped in the air.)
How many miles to the gallon or liter does diesel fuel get?
Um, so you have to have a “micropenis” to desire a vehicle with torque and horsepower?
Maybe the sign in the OP was a backlash to the constant attacks by people against the SUV’s and other “gas guzzlers” out there. Every vehicle fills a certain function and/or need, SUVs included. Disliking smaller, underpowered vehicles does not require a “micropenis” any more than hating SUV’s requires a penchant for interior design, track lighting, and show tunes.
What I was getting at was the chest-thumping Neanderthal attitude that the gas-guzzling SUV is a “MAN’S” car while the hybrid is the pussified girly-man’s car. It always strikes me as a transference of anxiety.
And what, those attacks only come from hybrid drivers?
I agree; that’s why I have both an SUV and a hybrid.
No, but loving an oversized, unwieldy gas-guzzler while having contempt for other possibilities often does.
Well, I only have one of these. Can I still keep my hybrid?
Hybrids are a solution to a problem. They’re not the best solution to a problem. My problem with hybrids are, firstly, they’re a bit half-assed. It’s a way to put off finding a solution. Secondly, they have a very large weight penalty by carrying those batteries around. Thirdly, as of… mmm. January of this year, the EPA mileage claims and the actual MPGs returned were off by as much as 20 MPG, thanks to the benefits of hybrids creating flaws in the EPA tests. The Insight and the Prius were both affected by this. Fourthly, they are expected to have severe issues with resale value at the ten year mark, as the cost of replacing the battery will be more than the value of the car, creating even faster planned obsolescence.
Gasoline is an amazingly efficient fuel. I wish we had something better. Slowly, we’re getting there. Hybrids are… how shall I say this. The equivalent of Cro-Magnon Man. An offshoot, possibly with some features that will be bred into the main line, but they’re still a dead end.
Oh, and not a problem, but an amusing comment: The only car, proportional to frequency of population, I have seen crashed on the side of the road in the snow, more than SUVs, are hybrids. Low rolling resistance tires plus massive battery weight means it doesn’t turn so good on slick roads.
These problems will all be dealt with in one way or another, but they’re not fixed now. I find hybrids to be a very important testbed, but personally, I’d rather drive the equivalent of a Caddy V-4-6-8, where cylinders not in use are shut off. My Matrix XRS behave in a similar manner, by having variable valve timing. 120 horsepower at cruise, 185 horsepower at full throttle. Hauls more than many small SUVs, and still returns 26 MPG on a very heavy commute. It’s not perfect, but it’ll do.
I just spent the weekend attempting to remodel my bathroom with mixed results. Now I’m back at work with nothing to do, so I can blather on the SDMB again.
Just to pick one at random:
If a hybrid fits your needs, by all means buy one.
As far as I can tell, though, your needs must be restricted to good fuel economy, and Dog80’s point about diesels bears repeating. By “every other respect” I meant things that can be quantified, and hybrids just don’t perform very well.
Hybrids are too small for me to fit into comfortably, and I’m not a particularly large man. Cargo capacity is miniscule, and by “cargo capacity” I mean you’d have trouble fitting a single suitcase in there. Performance is dismal. I don’t need Saturday-night-at-New-Lebanon-Dragway acceleration out of a commuter vehicle, but I do need to pull into traffic from a stop sign without getting smeared. Frankly, hybrids aren’t good for much beyond getting back and forth to work, provided you have an easy commute. If you want to go grocery shopping you might want to invest in a trailer.
I’ll admit for the record that personal preference plays a big role in this for me. If you prefer a hybrid, for whatever reason, go ahead and get one. They don’t meet my needs in any way, shape or form, and I’ll stand by my statement that by any objective standard other than fuel economy they don’t measure up. Just look at the numbers.
I’ve gone the wheezy little car route before, and I won’t do it again. I will never again drive anything with fewer than six cylinders, and anything I buy will have eight. I won’t tolerate a unibody, either.
I like cars. I do not like motorized roller skates.
Thanks, Exgineer and E-Sabbath, for your well thought-out posts. Both of you have proven that you’re not the embodiment of the Neanderthal stereotype that I tapped into earlier. That is, you both are giving valid reasons as to why you don’t like hybrids, as opposed to merely grunting “Big car good; small car bad.”
In Exgineer’s case, though, I’m having a hard time buying all of those reasons.
Too small? I’m six feet tall, just shy of 300(!) pounds, and I fit into my 2005 Prius just fine.
Cargo capacity minimal? I fit in eight brown paper grocery bags with room to spare (and no, they weren’t all stacked up on each other; each was standing upright).
Performance? Hmm…got me there. I’ve always been of the “a car’s a tool; as long as it gets me from A to B, I’m happy” camp, so I’ve never really tried to push the Prius to its limits. But I’ve never noticed a problem getting off the line, and I routinely cruise on the freeways at 75MPH, periodically hitting the upper 80s, and have never felt like the car is straining to do so. It’s hardly “wheezy.”
E-Sabbath: I routinely average about 52MPG. Right now the on-board computer is showing that I’ve gone 58 miles since my last refill, and that I’m averaging 57.1 MPG.
Good for you. Where do you drive? What sort of terrain?
I will try to find the counterpoint study, it was about six months ago, but this is the day of the week I have no access from work, so it’ll have to be this evening.