Comments on: Economy Car Catch 22

By: Ford fan

Ford fan — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:46:28 +0000

Good article. I used to drive a ‘91 Ford Escort with a 1.9 liter fuel-injected engine, got 30/33 mpg & great performance. Sold it with 125,000 miles on it and no problems besides rust. Recently I test drove a 2009 Honda Fit, and I was so surprised and disappointed. It really struggled to climb a low hill. So my new car is a Ford Focus hatchback and average 35 mpg (ranging 32-38) . It can go everywhere, and holds its own on the highway. I’m not trying to sell anything, but beware of the hype, and don’t worry about the bells & whistles and you can still get an affordable efficient car. Also check out the Hyundai Accent, I haven’t but it looks decent.

By: Randy

Randy — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:09:56 +0000

My car will get well over 40 mpg if I would drive it the same as the 49 hp car he brought up in the article. I would imagine with 49 hp you would have a hard time getting up to 65 mph but then again that was when the speed limit was only 55 mph so you did not have to worry about it. If I keep at 55 mph or under and crawl ahead in the city like I would with a 49 hp car I could easily get in the mid 40s with a normal newer car non-hybrid.

By: Trains

Trains — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:17:55 +0000

Trains run on near-flat, near-frictionless rails, with slow acceleration and deceleration. And while they may get the equivalent of 476mpg compared to the same load as hauled by trucks, they are actually getting 20gpm.

By: Randall

Randall — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:41:46 +0000

Yeah we def need to legalize hemp. It will benefit us alot more than just bio-diesel. hemp wood, paper, oil, rope, food, clothing, ect. Even would help with “global warming.” Stupid gov’t ruins everything again.

By: Hubcap

Hubcap — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:50:43 +0000

That’s kind of how the Chevy Volt works; a pure electric drive train with a separate gas engine to keep the battery charged. But I really don’t believe that a diesel locomotive gets 476mpg.

By: TONY RICH

TONY RICH — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:05:16 +0000

Theres a better way to make a hybrid instead of useing an electric motor to help out a gasoline engine use a electric motor as the main drive then use a small gasoline motor to drive a generator to power it up this is similar to way a diesel locomotive works such a car would get 80mpg and because electric motors have a lot of torque it would outperform many of todays V8’s a diesel locomotive gets 476mpg also if you want to have the mileage of a hybrid and the power of a regular car get one with a V6 turbodiesel it will give you 42mpg with 300hp we can also keep the price of diesel fuel from going up too high by legalizeing industral hemp you can make large amounts of biodiesel cheaply from hempseed oil also the plants remove a lot of CO2 from the air but the government won’t go along with this because the think it will lead to legal marijuana it is the same old if you make the speed limit 65mph it will lead to makeing the speed limit 75mph kind of logic.

By: Randy

Randy — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 11:35:10 +0000

Thanks Randy.

By: Randy

Randy — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 06:26:05 +0000

But if you give the economy cars more hp then they’ll be able to break the speed limit more and kill everyone on the road. Men, women and children will be fleeing for their lives as the economy cars start going 1 mph over the limit. I mean really do you want someone behind the wheel of a 4 cylinder 2500 pound economy car barreling down the road as if gas grew on trees. How dare they speed down the road AND get 30 miles to the gallon and think that they should not get any speeding tickets or survive a crash, which will most certainly happen since they are speeding.

By: Randy

Randy — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:25:25 +0000

I like your site and the article about Toyota solving the floor mat problem with zip ties. FYI, I fix the cracked frame on my car with gorilla glue and it turns out to be a workable solution, although I need to reapply glue every few months to ensure that the frame not completely broken into multiple pieces.

By: Cool Car News and Awesome Sites #13 | Cars for Girls

Cool Car News and Awesome Sites #13 | Cars for Girls — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:34:00 +0000

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