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Comments
And the dealers are laughing I think.
"Folks who get on the waiting list can expect to, well, wait.
“Right now it’s about a year-and-a-half wait,"
Smart cars coming (Cincinnati Enquirer)
So an hour or so later idling with the AC on full the mpg takes a nose dive "
Don't you feel ashamed to say that your wife will park and idle the car for an hour while waiting to pick Johny up from school? Doesn't anyone find this to be problematic?
I know you're not the only one - there are cars lined up at just about every school idling to pick their kids up. At my kids school there's maybe 1-2 bikes in the rack.
It's no wonder the glaciers are melting while our kids are having problems with obesity.
What will it take for us to change our way? I guess alot more than just $4.00 per gallon.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Well not ashamed..but it does strain my reasoning center.
I'm not opposed to 'waiting' gas...but from my perspective I should be pushed back in my seat and the tires should squeal...she's waisting the country's racing fuel
If the vehicle is at least 21 years old, there are no EPA compliance requirements upon importation. The age of the vehicle is determined by subtracting the calendar year of manufacture from the calendar year of importation. If the calendar year of manufacture is unavailable, the importer may substitute the model year or year of first registration. For instance, to qualify in 2001, the vehicle must have been manufactured in 1980 or earlier. The vehicle must be in its original unmodified configuration. Vehicles at least 21 years old with replacement engines are not eligible for thisexemption unless they contain equivalent or newer EPA certified engines.
There are several websites that have pre 1987 Land Cruiser diesels to be imported from Canada. You can bring them to CA as well.
I rather like them too. Make my smart a plug in please.
Here's the car that saves gas by having no door handles to interfere with the air flow that I hinted about the other day:
Weber Sportscars Faster One (drill through to the Gizmag link for the gas saving reference).
It's no wonder the glaciers are melting while our kids are having problems with obesity.
Nobody in their right mind would allow a grade school kid to ride his bike to school in this day and age. All you have to do is look at your local police predator map. In 3 square miles around my grandson's school in CA there are literally 100s of registered sexual predators. My daughter has my grandson wait for 10 minutes in class after the bell and then the parking lot is near empty. Waiting an hour or even 20 minutes seems excessive to me.
In CA they think they are smart enough to reprogram a sexual deviant. So they send them to class and turn them back loose on society. After 3 convictions they have to stay in Jail.
I thought Mercedes was selling them. It is too bad that ZAP lost out after priming the public for them all those years.
Now in the mean time, we want a 2.0L diesel turbo offered in the Sebring and other cars for now to compete with the VW Jetta as they enter the market. We want you to develop the EcoVoyager concept car and bring it to production ! We know oil will not be available in 100 years once China and India fully develop. Time to change.
I would support actions to ban idling. A complete waste of resource just to keep one's Xss heated or cooled.
I would recommand to park the car in an appropriate place and walk to the picking zone.
'Plugless Plug-In' Retrofit Features Portable Batteries (Green Car Advisor)
For Want of a Saddle, an EV Was Lost (Green Car Advisor)
Some people have difficulties walking long (or even short) distances...especially with an aging population.
Not really. I suspect the hour is a bit of an exaggeration. If you want to see some people "waste" fuel you should visit a couple of the oil patch towns in ND. Last year I saw and heard, mostly heard, the young oil workers and their pickum up trucks. You have these young kids making $80,000 a year in salary and getting $260 a day per diem to work the oil fields. And what do they buy with all that money? The biggest, baddest, loudest truck they can get.
One person told me that he knows a foreman that hands a worker $100 cash each day if they show up for work! Not sure how true that is, but the $80k salary is accurate. These young guns could care less if gasoline or diesel was at $4 or $10 a gallon.
It's really just a gimmick instead of giving an additional rebate. And the best thing for Chrysler is they don't have to pay the rebate all at once. Who knows with the way things are going - Chrysler could be bankrupt or dead in a year! And then the card is worthless, and you're out the money.
The most eco friendly solution to cutting grass is to just not do it and let it grow. Downside to this are laws in many municipalities requiring cut lawn. If one is not inhibited by law, another downside would be the need for a rakeout or controlled burn in early spring to get rid of previous year dead growth.
Another solution to not cutting grass in yards is to strip away grass and topsoil. Then, put down plastic fabric to keep weeds down and then put on a finish layer of nice washed, smooth rounded, colorful gravel to coordinate with house colors. Absolutely no maintenance and rain can percolate right through the gravel and go down to the aquifier. Don't they do this in Vegas area? Wonder if any laws against this in midwest, east of US.
With gravel rather than a lawn, gasoline for mower is not required, and the lawn mower can be sold or sent to the recycler. Also consider the annual savings on fertilizer and weed control. Not having to apply these products also is very eco friendly.
I remember when 5 gallon gas can fillups for the mower rider were about $6. Today, it is approaching $19. Not chump change when having to do this about every week during rainy grass growing seasons.
I would recommand to park the car in an appropriate place and walk to the picking zone.
Wonder how much oil would be saved in the US if some how all drive-up windows (fast food restaurants, banks, drug stores, etc) were closed.
I would say that is starting pay for a rig hand working 12 hours per day, I would say on average in the Arctic, oilfield workers get more than that per year. I know I would not spend half my life in that place for that amount per year in todays market. There is a labor shortage of qualified people. For a young guy willing to work hard their are great opportunities in the booming oil industry. The smart ones save the money and head home with enough to buy a home in a few years. Seems like the most of them buy big trucks and drink or gamble their fortunes away.
As far as idling. I would say in the Prudhoe Bay oil field there are during the 12 hour work day between 500 & a 1000 diesel 1 ton PU trucks idling. That would be for about 6 months of the year. When you are out working there are no plugins. You work for 15-30 minutes at sub-zero temps and spend an equal amount of time in the truck getting warm.
Roger Penske got the US distribution rights. Some of the stores are attached to Mercedes dealerships but the majority aren't.
OUCH! That's pretty brutal! How high would you have to let it grow before they slapped you with that fine?
One interesting tidbit I found out is that where I live, if your property is one acre or greater AND there are no adjoining parcels of less than one acre, nobody can make you cut your grass. There's a fairly new house on my left that's on a 1/2 acre lot, but there's a 15' wide driveway that separates us. That driveway is part of a 2 acre parcel, so those 15 feet saved me on that side. My property backs up to a wooded, undeveloped lot that must be at least 5 acres. To my right, there are actually two parcels that adjoin me. One is something like 1.19 acres. The other, in back, is .91 acres, but it's forested and was never developed. It's landlocked, too, and the ground is low and swampy, so I doubt if it would ever get developed. So I could probably get away with not cutting my grass at all, and most likely nobody would ever complain.
On friday, I rode around on the tractor and cut my grass and my grandmother's place across the street. Took a little under three hours, total. That didn't include areas I have to get with the push mower though, for spots the tractor can't get into. I've been slowly letting parts of her yard and my yard reforest. Partly so there's less to cut, partly for the environment, and partly for privacy.
As for fuel economy? Well, I'd guess that tractor used about a gallon and a half that day.
There are downsides to that as you know. You will probably have to go into that area every couple/few years and cut down and put roundup on stumps of fast-growing obnoxious garbage young tree growth such as boxelder, hawthorne, and pesky wild shrubs.
I have pushed back some portions of our woods and let grass creep in. Even with cost of gas near $4, I will pay this and cut the grass rather than the tedious task of periodic clearing.
Yeah, our biggest pests around these parts are these thorny flowering pear trees, sweetgum (stickerball trees), and wild honeysuckle bushes. They all seem to grow quicker than everything else, and just take over. There's one corner of my yard that I'm letting reforest. I still cut a few paths through there that I can drive the tractor, but it just takes four or five quick swipes. I've planted a few other trees in there, such as oak, walnut, maple, pine, etc. I just go around every once in awhile and pull out anything that threatens to crowd out these trees.
I'm also out in a fairly rural area where you can get away with this. If I was in a housing development with tidy little quarter acre lots or whatever, I'd never dream of it. I'm on about 4.25 acres though, and of that, I'd say at least 2/3 of it is forested. We have paths cutting through it here and there, but for the most part I just let nature run its course. I'll pull vines off of a tree that appear to be choking it, or if I see some trash tree crowding out a tree that I like better, I might cut down the trash tree. But for the most part, nature seems to know what its doing.
Remember when Bill Gate's Porsche got stuck in a bonded warehouse for like a decade? Someone finally modified it (and a couple of others) and managed to get waivers or exemptions for it.
Re yards, I have gravel around my house (fire break) and a postage stamp "lawn" that's a mess. I mow the lower part of our acre a couple of times in the spring to whack back the weeds (the back part is sage). Once the heat heats, I'm pretty much done mowing.
But today .... I gotta go buy some gas for the mower and Idaho gas prices set another record. :sick:
According to the Service Manager at the Toyota dealership where I bought my Sequoia, there is a local man that collects Land Cruiser diesels. He orders his parts through them. Supposedly he came into the service center recently in a 2008 diesel Land Cruiser that was imported. He is going to find out if it is OK for me to contact him the next time he comes in.
The legality of that somehow eludes me, but I guess it's no worse than how people manage to get 426 Hemi into PT Cruisers and still drive them on the road. Unless a 426 Hemi can somehow be made to conform to modern emissions regs, which I seriously doubt.
And to the mom who won't let her kids bike to school because there are all sorts of child preditors out there - why don't you bike with them? if you have time to wait and idle your car, don't you have time to get a little exersice with them? and do you really think there are more preditors out there than when I biked to school in the 70's with most every other kid?? I mean the Catholic Church was in full force back then too. (sorry this is off subject)
America is so addicted to oil - Exxon just loves all the idling moms out there waiting in line to pick up Johny from school.
The rules appear easier if you are importing a car made for the Canadian market.
Smarts were imported here by ZAP before the new ones came along via Penske. I think they were Canadian ones though although Edmunds says they were Americanized.
I remember in nursery school, there was a rumor going around that when you get kidnapped, all they do is give you candy to shut you up until your parents come get you. :surprise:
So needless to say, we were always running around to complete strangers, begging them to kidnap us! :P (okay, so I'm making that part up, but I do remember that rumor...it's scary how a kid's mind works)
Yes, and I guess Yes.
I have two daughters, one almost 6 and the other will be 10 in a few months. They ride the bus to school. If they miss the bus (once in a great while), I'll drive them and I hate doing so. The school has a specified drop off zone, so your options are to either get there 30 minutes early to avoid the line (which they would have made the bus if we had that much time) or sit in a line waiting to drop off your kid/kids that can easily be 50-100 a hundred cars long thus I'm idling for 15-20 minutes inching my way up to the drop zone.
Sure I could ride a bike with the girls, but I'll gladly pay for the gallon of gas it might take to make sure they get there safely. I'm not really worried about preditors, but the state road we'd have to ride down w/o sidewalks would certainly worry me.
I'm sure most of us use oil/gas in a way that someone else finds wasteful. So pick on the parents if you want, but the gas being burned at the school is a fraction of that of the thousands upon thousands of semi's that idle all night long while the driver is resting or sleeping.
I burn gas in my boat, my neighbor goes for joy rides in his convertible corvette. I don't think we need to tell people how they choose to use gas. I'll use it how ever I choose and could care less about what others think. I know I get some strange stares when I'm filling up the Suburban and boat. It seems to bother some people more than it bothers me. Whatever, they can go.... well ya know:)
PS
yes kids have been snatched off their bikes, walking from school and right out of their front yards.
"gas. I'll use it how ever I choose and could care less about what others think"
I think what you write represents the majority (sad to say). Just because there's someone else out there who wastes more - then why pick on me?
I think in America it boils down to people's own definition of "freedom". Yes you're free to choose as you wish, but it would be nice if people would chose to think on a more global basis. I'm not suggesting to get rid of your boat, big SUV or gas powered lawn mower, but everyone can do better - you should be self concious how you treat the environment and consume energy. If not for yourself, think about the planet you're leaving behind for your children.
As prices increase, their choices may change. We have already seen some of that as fuel went from $1.50 in early 2004 to nearly $4.00 today. Soon we will have $5 gas and $10 will be here before most people expect it. It will be amazing how people will then consider alternatives that today are totally unacceptable to them.
When there is a line at school, we just drive our electric golf cart down there to get my daughter as do countless other parents. Our school even has a golf cart pickup area. We are quite green, I think.
TV shows have done much to make us worry too much. The vast majority of youth abuse originates not with strangers, but with people they know.
Actually they are moving from here in June. Her husband is being promoted to take a job in Evansville Indiana. I think it will be better there than So CA. Not sure where you live. Golf carts are not allowed most places in San Diego County. You cannot take one on any road posted over 35 MPH. That eliminates Most people from getting out of their subdivision. Most people seem to think that CA is so GREEN because of the repressive regulations by CARB. Far from true. I am not optimistic about any practical cars being allowed into CA because of regulations on both emissions and safety. They mandated EVs then rescinded that mandate. They just altered another law that will impact the sale of EVs in CA. CA wants to look green and keep the greenbacks attached to gas rolling in. We do have the HIGHEST gas tax in the Nation. It is now 62 cents total road tax and Sacramento is proposing raising it even higher. Probably to compensate for all the hybrids that came in here.
I agree. I don't think the percentage of bad people in our society is any greater today than 40 years ago. What is different today is we now have almost immediate access to a great deal more news and information. The media sources pander to our tabloid mentality and are far more likely to report a story of some horrific deed as opposed to a good or heroic deed. So if our perception of reality is shaped by the headlines then it will undoubtably be pretty grim.
http://www.familywatchdog.us/Search.asp
The US is either first or second in terms of incarceration rate. The US is also one the few developed countries that still has the death penalty. I'm not sure how that equates to being soft on crime. The knee jerk reaction to social problems in this country is to enact more and tougher laws. Higher more cops and build more prisons so we can throw more people in jail or just execute them. The fact that this approach has proven to be totally ineffective has somehow gone unnoticed.