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I have several in my house as replacements for the incandescent 3-ways.
But, I did do exactly what you suggested by buying 2 cases of clear 60 Watt bulbs for existing fixtures that just look wierd with CFC bulbs.
It won't last forever, but I'm hoping that I'll be de-sensitized by the time the last one burns out....LOL!
Not an issue at all with NiMH batteries. You could bury the whole battery pack under a raised bed garden and it would never do harm to the environment.
You can't say the same about the lead acid battery in your car, which is basically a HAZMAT and needs to be handled with care.
Nickel Metal Hydride are totally harmless. The only loss would be opportunity cost - Toyota pays $400 for a used battery pack. Do you really think they will sit there in
junk yardsrecycling centers unclaimed?I'm not sure about Lithium Ion and the newer Lithium Polymers, but I doubt any other battery is as bad for the environment as a lead-acid. Merely touching them without gloves is hazardous.
Actually we should replace ALL lead-acid batteries with NiMH, the only problem is cost.
According to the show, lead rivals gold as the most re-cycled metal is use today. Overall, at $5 core charges per battery, there is enough residual value in lead-acid batteries to keep most of them from the landfill.
Regarding Lithum batteries, I'm no chemist, but a co-worker who has a relative in the automotive-battery manufacturing business once told me his company wasn't interested in making lithium batteries for autos, due to the liability constraints relating to the disposal issues.
He may have been full of hot air, but there may be something to it. I may do a little reading on the issue to find out more.
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/23215/
Prius' NiMH batteries are safer.
Sound like Li-ion has its own set of concerns. To be fair, Toyota has so far held off on implementing those, though GM will with the Volt.
They pull no punches:
When an automaker is forced to issue a recall, the defective part or feature is generally the fault of the automaker or of an OEM supplier it contracted to. In the case of the Toyota Tacoma – part of a 110,000-unit recall in 2009 – the problem appears to have been traced back to the supplier. And now the supplier is forced to pay for its mistakes.
In the medical field, the source that produces the potential contaminant is the one ultimately responsible for its proper disposal, so it seems to me that, unless the fault lies within the way a part is misued in its application, the originator of the part should be held liable.
Dana certainly knew the frames would be exposed to road-salts and other agents that cause rust, and unless they can produce some documentation clearly stating the end user (Toyota) gave them clear instructions on exactly how to manufacture the item (orders to disregard that issue)....then, they should be the ones to pay for its remedy.
Funky headlights, but the sub 2000 lbs curb weight sounds nice...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfuric_acid
From the link...
Sulfuric acid is used in large quantities by the iron and steelmaking industry to remove oxidation, rust and scale from rolled sheet and billets prior to sale to the automobile and white goods (appliances) industry. Used acid is often recycled using a Spent Acid Regeneration (SAR) plant. These plants combust spent acid with natural gas, refinery gas, fuel oil or other fuel sources. This combustion process produces gaseous sulfur dioxide (SO2) and sulfur trioxide (SO3) which are then used to manufacture "new" sulfuric acid. SAR plants are common additions to metal smelting plants, oil refineries, and other industries where sulfuric acid is consumed in bulk, as operating a SAR plant is much cheaper than the recurring costs of spent acid disposal and new acid purchases
Going off-topic for a second, what do you do with the fruit? Moreso, what do you use to fertilize thet thing?!?
Lemonade, anyone???
But a $5 core charge isn't exactly going to make everyone run out and yank batteries out of those old cars in rural pastures. If not, eventually the battery could fall on its side and the acid would pour on the ground and contaminate the local well water.
Remember - Toyota's core charge for the Prius is a few hundred bucks! Not too many of those will be missed!
Pic for inspiration:
Looks great, wow! Make lemonade!
I use granular citrus fertilizer. And water with Miracle Grow.
Too bad about those shotgun holes in that door eh? I'm sure someone somewhere restoring one of those would have liked to have it unadultered.
I better go check for batteries in those old cars in that field next to us. They were probably dumped there 50 years ago. I don't think it is a Toyota, not enough rust. :P
"Miracle Grow" always strikes me as one of the most appropriately named products on the planet.
I agree with the durability statement. In the late 1980's I restored a 1941 Dodge Luxury Liner Business Coupe. When I removed the interior fire-wall insulation pad, the unpainted steel behind it was still as shiny as the day the car was made.
If I hadn't seen it myself, I would not have believed it at all...
Still, I'm 56 now, and during my lifetime I have seen the steady decrease of old cars just sitting abandoned in old fields, as well as in junkyards.
Shoot... Even junkyards are totally different nowadays. When I was in high school, it wasn't uncommon at all for a kid to find a 55-57 Chevy or Ford in a junk yard, tow it home, and then bring it back to life by obtaining used parts personally collected by the owner from frequent junkyard visits. Most of the 55-56 Chevy's were all painted some tint of metallic blue, and my dad used to make jokes about the kid having more money in the paint job alone than the rest of the car.
I think he was probably correct in his assessment.
Nothing like that happens now, except in extremely rare cases.
If you have one near you, try Lowes.
I have purchased 3-way CFC's from them with a max wattage "equivalent" of 150w.
Walmart shows them...
http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-3-Way-CFL-Light-Bulb-12-23-29W-50-100-150W-Equiv-2-- - Pk/5684722
This link shows a picture of one...
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=U- TF-8&rlz=1I7SUNA_en&q=3-way+CFL+bulb&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=7738154501044307623&ei=oo- g3Td2JIcGB8gb8oY3fAw&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCwQ- 8wIwAQ#
While very skeptical (to be honest) I actually couldn't deny that my arm was noticeably better in less than 2 weeks. After 3 weeks it was even better still! And after 4 weeks I simply wrote off any chance of it being a coincidence. Now over 2 months later I am pain free in that arm, even though I have been typing like a wild man lately.
YMMV, but i sure wish someone had told me this back before I bought any of them.
Now factor in the recycling issues, and remind me again the dollar equivalent of their so-called advantage? Even the electric companies here in Cda were sponsored by gvt to offer rebates to switch over. Anything to save a kilowatt. ANYTHING.
As I age, I am learning that if gvt is promoting something with rebates and tax breaks etc, that causes my caution flags to wisp more than an actual breeze.
The fact has been proven. toyota has lied, suppressed, bought off people and organizations many times, and not just in the US but around the world.
I stay put in my opinion that toyota has worked with the courts to squash Biller and cover up the truth. It has happened several times and this will not be the last.
You can say Biller is greedy or what, but toyota is even WORSE ! Think about it, they have billions already but yet they still play with recall agendas to save money (remember the " Wins for toyota " secret document ?)
And they fought the small change due to the widow of the deceased overworked toyota Japanese employee remember ?
Who is more greedy ? You tell me ?
For those who have not seen the document, here is it :
http://download.gannett.edgesuite.net/detnews/2010/pdf/0220toyota.pdf
Seeing is believing. Say what you want abt Biller.
And those toyota wrecks are taken from the scrap yard to rig the show ?
Prove to me which one of my sources is BOGUS.
Pray that when they invade earth one day, independence day style, they will be less ruthless and cunning than toyota !
Don't put us on the spot. I would not trust a single thing the Main Stream Media broadcasts. All lies, even the weather report. You just have to research yourself. It would seem you have and don't like Toyota. Well I have held a grudge against them due to the problems I had with my 1964 Toyota Land cruiser. It was always getting stuck on vacation trips. I do wish I had it now. It would be worth about 10 times what I paid for it new in 1964.
PS
I was on assignment for 4X4 and Dune Buggy News. The editor got a real kick out of me being stuck. This was the famous Tierra del Sol run of 1965
The reason I bring this up is the news today is interest rates in Brazil have been raised to 11.25%. The Brazilian Real has gained 100% over the dollar in the last 8 years. Sounds like a robust economy to me. Probably smart that Toyota is building a second factory in Brazil. Will it be on the same scale as the state of the art Ford plant? Ford is currently in 4th place with 12.5% of the Brazil market.
It seems Fiat and VW have placed them selves well in emerging markets, while Toyota plays catch up. The US and Japan are diminishing markets, China, India, Brazil, etc are growing.
I would have oiled it every year. There is an 84 in the area. Wagon. I think they were 5 speeds then. He oils it every year as it seems to be fairing well. There is something very cool about seeing the same very rare sight of him and his family on the same road as I am for about 20 years with him in the same daily driver.
I had a chance to buy an 87 six, but it was a 4 speed auto, so i passed. I never regretted that decision. I did go for a drive with him on a hwy trip in the winter though as he had to run an errand. We checked his mileage. It was thirstier than I would have guessed given the 55 mph cruise. It did 24.9 if memory serves. So 20 mpUSg. They were big heavy vehicles and the six made it that much heavier.
The 82 i bought I had actually 'settled' for cuz I kept missing out them in the past. Originally i had a line on an 84 like yours, with the 3.4, 5 speed std and was in wonderful shape. The problem was tho, he raised his first asking price 3500 bucks when he found out they were sought after. I was preparing to buy it on the Monday when I could access the bank, but over the w/e he discovered it didn't depreciate as fast as he had thought. So i said no thanks. I did offer him a thousand more dollars though as I had been looking for ages, but he declined. He put a for sale sign on it and it sat and sat and sat! I guess I should have popped in and shown my face again, but was perturbed by his sales practice. Eventually he sold it, (or dealt it?) in which case the dealer would have been the one who won out out.
So then a year later I had a line on an 83 Wagon down in the city. I called, sounded good (it needed a fr U joint that was a bad wobbler when engaged) but when I got there I had only just started to look it over in the garage and another guy shows up. The owner was not there, just his son. They had oiled it since new and you could tell. I basically wanted it, but we had decided to go for a drive. The son, me and the 2nd guy who showed up. The reason I didn't say I'd take it was cuz we had not driven it yet anywhere. Well 10 minutes in to the drive (the other guy practically pushed me out of the way to get behind the wheel first) he said "I take it". And the son never gave me first dibs. It pissed me off I tell ya. The son didn't know what to do and said so, and i said to him that the first person to arrive should get first dibs, but he said his Dad said to sell to the first one with the money. Well neither of us had the entire amt to pay it out on the spot, so I said well i'll give you a dep now and buy it the next day at the bank. But he squirmed and wiggled and said he had already said ok to the 2nd guy. So #2 LC failure.
That is why I say I settled when i bought the rust bucket 82.
And while the six drove nice, it was a thirstier than what I wanted (my 82 got 30mpg! even with a direct gear tranny) and of course it was the auto, so i decided I was not going to settle any more. So of course during that time they only became more rare and more rusty, so I never did find one. Toyota had abondoned the diesel in 88, and had gas guzzling inline sixes. Earlier they had abandoned that wonder 4 cyl in 86 I think it was. So they became rarer and rarer. It actually got very ridiculous, lol. I recall a couple years later doing a random search in the states without salt and asking prices were almost as much as they were when the trucks were new! But with 'some rust' and 250k miles! ! I figured the cults took over so let 'em have 'em at that kinda money..
I wouldn't say its ALL lies, but if one needs to confirm how suspect the news can be, simply Google "Bush+Dan Rather+CBS News+National Guard Service".
It would seem you have and don't like Toyota.
Ya think???
All owners will get free headlight replacement + warranty extension. :shades:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-0120-toyota-prius-20110120,0,6131579.story-
A review of the NHTSA database shows that 49% of all complaints about 2006 to 2009 Priuses were related to lighting, headlamps or visibility. That far outnumbers complaints of sudden acceleration or braking issues in the vehicles, both of which have led to recalls.
A NHTSA probe launched in April 2009 determined that there were more than 2,250 complaints about failing headlamps lodged with the agency or Toyota, and that Toyota had completed almost 28,000 warranty repairs of the HID system.
Hmmm a 10% headlamp failure rate? And, NHTSA doesn't think that is sufficient to be a "problem"???
While its good Toyota has agreed to do something positive, seems to me that a recall of ALL the vehicles with the HID lights in the 06-09 model years would be much more appropriate. After 5 years, you're on your own...
So much for our federally financed regulatory agencies.... Your tax $$$$ at work.
Here you go:
http://www.alien-ufo-pictures.com/absolute_proof_aliens_exist.html
NASA's Alien Anomalies caught on film - A compilation of stunning UFO footage from NASA's archives:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlLN_Jcg1pc
Sure all the media put Toyota in the headlines when accusations were flying, they even gave Biller the spotlight in a televised interview.
How many networks showed the real follow-up story with Toyota winning 2.6 million from Biller? Here it is:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/01/toyota-biller-ruling.html
Face it, the media is in business to make money, they'll print whatever sells papers and brings in hits to their web site.
Corrections are often buried on the back of page 6 in fine print. Or not mentioned at all.
Cool story, Gary. Were you a freelance editor?
That terrain looks pretty intense, I'm not surprised you got stuck.
The Real is strong - TOO strong. When I trade my dollars indeed I'm getting half what I used to get (peak was 3.5:1, now it's 1.8:1), not to mention there has been ~5% annual inflation. So everything there is expensive.
Example: Shaving Cream? $11 USD.
Why? Because imports are taxed like crazy.
Same rule affects cars. My brother just bought a Honda CR-V EX for about R100,000, or about $55,600 USD. The reason it's a bit more than double what it costs here? Import duties.
So you have to build there to sell there in volume.
Fiat, Ford, Chevy, and VW have been there the longest. Honda and Toyota built plants there only in the 1990s. Renault and Peugoet as well.
The plants can actually be in any Mercosul country:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercosur
FWIW, in Spanish it's Mercosur, but Brazilians call it Mercosul. Think of it as the South American version of NAFTA.
So US brands can't, say, build a Fusion in Mexico and sell it in Brazil without paying the 100% plus import duty. The result? $60,000 price tags on the Fusion.
Brazil will be a tough nut to crack. Flexible manufacturing, and LOCAL manufacturing will be the key.
Fusion V6: R$96,273 ($53,485 US dollars)
Fiesta Flex: R$32,105 ($17,836 US dollars)
So the Fiesta costs about the same as it does here, maybe a smidge more.
The Fusion is double after the 100% import duty.
That's why it's tough for any of Toyota's imports to do much volume.
Toyota's prices:
Lexus LS460: R$426,000 (!)
Lexus ES350: R$228,500
Land Cruiser Prado: R$166,960
Hilux 4x4 diesel SW4: R$160,633
Camry XLE V6: R$128,466
RAV4 2.4l: R$105,167
Hilux 4x4 diesel: R$91,800
Corolla 1.8: R$63,500
The Hilux is the pickup, previous generation though. The SW4 is an updated previous generation 4Runner, live axles for toughness. The Prado is the previous Lexus GX, updated.
As you can see, STICKER SHOCK! The only one remotely affordable is the Corolla and you're still talking over $35 grand US.
Divide by 1.8 to get the figures in US dollars, but you get the point. The LS costs more than my brother's beach front 5 bedroom condo.
I drive a ES350, so I'm curious to see if the new CT200H can win me over - definitely going! Anybody want to tag along?
That terrain looks pretty intense, I'm not surprised you got stuck.
I was a freelance photographer. Mostly covered the desert runs. Tierra del Sol is still run every year. I was following a CJ that made it through the spot. I had the only Toyota on the run.
Sure, I can do Boston in about 16 to 17 hours!
I wish I had your ES to do it with tho..
That's ok, I'm glad I was able to help out all those Prius owners. :surprise: