Electric Cars: Chev Bolt seems to be the first practical one.

[davrow]

Until a truly decent solution to power the grid is put into place, electric cars will remain a stupid environmental disaster to own or operate. They are idiotic to say the least and only someone who knows nothing of physics would ever allow themselves to be hoodwinked into buying or owning one must less operating one. If it weren't for subsidies paid for by us taxpayers electric cars would not exist and every company producing one would be bankrupt and out of business as they should be. Electric cars are nothing more than an idiotic ruse played on ignorant people who are devoid of common sense.

Someday I'll tell ya what I really feel about electric cars.

Just call me an idiot. :laughing: I've been driving electric for 15 years, and both cars performed flawlessly, required zero maintenance, and saved me significant ownership dollars. :thumbsup:

 

[California]

No fair citing real-world experience to counter that rant.

You aren't the idiot ....

 

[fidowanttobe]

Just call me an idiot. :laughing: I've been driving electric for 15 years, and both cars performed flawlessly, required zero maintenance, and saved me significant ownership dollars. :thumbsup:

15 years?? Tell me more! I know less than nothing about them.
What are they, cost, cruising speed, payload, range, etc. etc.
My wife and I each run 35 miles round trip each day. I need a truck, she drives a car. Now she is hinting HARD that she wants an ultra mileage car like a (gag, swallow, swallow) SMART CAR! (insert bullet to my brain here) But, its HER car. Would an electric work for her? Gets cold up here ya know.

 

[California]

As somebody mentioned above - if there is a real risk of freezing to death stranded on the road then an IC engine reduces that risk.

Smart Car doesn't seem like a highway car to me.

 

[dickfoster]

Just call me an idiot. :laughing: I've been driving electric for 15 years, and both cars performed flawlessly, required zero maintenance, and saved me significant ownership dollars. :thumbsup:

How does that have anything to do with net pollution or sucking up taxpayer dollars at someone else's expense? Maybe it would be considered smart if I drove down and burglarized your home. After all I would be money ahead and since that seems to be the only thing that counts it would be good and considered the right thing to do.

That's the trouble in a nutshell. The deluded are intent on continuously deluding themselves in order to maintain the delusion.

Try looking into the facts, physics and true economic issues involved.

 

[dickfoster]

As somebody mentioned above - if there is a real risk of freezing to death stranded on the road then an IC engine reduces that risk.

Smart Car doesn't seem like a highway car to me.

The so called Smart car is a highway car only for those who have a death wish. :laughing:

 

[reb]

... If the motor uses 50 kW and has 97% efficiency there is 1.5 kW of heat that can be used to heat the car....

My arithmetic says 50 kW is about 67 horsepower. I doubt the car uses that much power when cruising down the road. As I recall, about 1/10 of that is required for the typical car.

 

[newbury]

The so called Smart car is a highway car

The Smart car was built and designed for Europe so it could be parked perpendicular to the curb where all longer cars had to park parallel.

 

[Redneck in training]

We owned three Buick Regals with 3.8 l V6 of various vintages. The first two were the least troublesome cars we ever owned and we gave them away for free at more than 240000 miles. The last one (1999) has 140000 and is not as good as the older models.
I rented LaCrosse hybrid about six months ago and I was quite impressed with the car.
We owned several Japanese cars such As Nissan Sentra, Honda Accord, and Subaru Outback. All of those were OK to about 150000 and then just fell apart. Nissan had transmission noise and later on suffered complete tranny failure, Honda Accord rusted and had engine issues the dealer was not able to fix, Subaru was $100/month in repairs such as leaks, sensor failures etc. We were quite happy to get rid of it after my wife reaerended a pickup truck.

We bought our first used Buick (in 2000) after I got a contract job at Buick assembly plant and saw how they were made. Even the powerhouse (that is usually a mess in car assembly plant) was nice, organized and clean. Here is a story I heard: The plant got new manager who came from military. The first thing he did he took away golf cars from the foremen and supervisors. Reason being they just cruised trough the plant and didn't talk to their people about issues.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

How does that have anything to do with net pollution or sucking up taxpayer dollars at someone else's expense? Maybe it would be considered smart if I drove down and burglarized your home. After all I would be money ahead and since that seems to be the only thing that counts it would be good and considered the right thing to do.

That's the trouble in a nutshell. The deluded are intent on continuously deluding themselves in order to maintain the delusion.

Try looking into the facts, physics and true economic issues involved.

Regarding you second paragraph: Please tell me you can see at least the potential for extreme irony in this statement.

I'm not asking you to admit that you are the deluded one; but if you were, you wouldn't know it would you?