Ford Focus Hated. Who did not see this coming?

[two_bit_score]

How dim does one need to be to fail to appreciate the difference between a technical discussion and pure politics?

Evidently you don't make the cut.



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[two_bit_score]

Don't know if anyone else noticed this, but in the photo with the article it appears to me that there is nothing to stop anyone from unplugging the charge cord after you walk away.

So you pull in the parking slot and swipe your credit card in the charging meter; grab the cord and unwind it; and plug it in to your cars' charging port. Now you head off to the mall or work or where ever thinking your car is getting juiced up while you are off having fun or working. Only to come back and find that kids playing around have unplugged the cord and left it out so you did not get a charge or worse yet someone pulls in to the slot next to you; takes the cord out of your car; and plugs it into their car. From the looks of the length of cord on that charging station in the photo there would be enough to reach to the adjacent parking slot, not good.

I think these vehicles need a way to secure the cord in the receptacle while charging (lock it in place) AND at the same time, there needs to be an immobilizing interlock between the plug inserted in the charge port and operating the vehicle such that someone could not drive away with the cord in the charge port. Maybe they have this feature I don't know, but my first impression looking at the photo does not give me that impression.

You well point out that the emperor's chariot has no wheels. :thumbsup:


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[5030]

Evidently you don't make the cut.



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[Monster5601]

Americans for Fuel Efficient Cars

I can't think of any modern cars that don't have that protection. The larger vehicles Pickup, SUV's are more dependent on mass and limited crumple zones.
Read the link and find out why more deaths and injury's result in SUV and pickup crashes. Midsize cars actually have less fatality's even though there are many more on the road.
SUV's and pickups that rollover are only 3% of accidents but they cause 30% of fatality's each year.
Having been a Firefighter/Paramedic for a number of years in Rescue/Ambulance/and Hospital and Mortuary I have seen the results of more that one-thousand accidents. I know what death looks like and where it comes from.

I'm not sure what your post has to do with the Prius's crumple zones but I can tell you this about opinions and references.

For every published opinion you find saying this, you will find another saying that, for example:

It's Official: SUVs Are Safer Than Cars (Well, Mostly)

I make every effort to find and cite a credible source of information (a left over practice from my college days) and not the opinion of a special interest group. Take the above link, it presents information from a credible source, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Take a look at this one, a study done by the University of Michigan:

http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/teepa/pdf/TRB_Safety_1-03.pdf

My point is if you are going to reference to support an opinion, then please reference a credible source. It doesn't take much more effort to find credible information.

Both of these links provide credible study data but neither supports your opinion or the claim of the detroitporject which is lacking references to credible data to support their opinions.

I thank you for your public service and I realize it takes a special person to deal with the tragedies you see but you do only see the worst of it and not the typical.

 

[Barnone]

I drove a '97 Dodge 1500 4x4 pickup for a few months recently and much prefer my Volvo (quieter, more agile, easier to park, more comfortable, probbaly safer, etc), but I have no issues if someone wants to drive one.
Aaron Z

Aaron Z,
That statement doesn't make a lot of sense.
I drive a pickup because I need a pickup at my ranch business not because I want to drive one.
I usually ride my 60 mpg motorcycle if I don't NEED to drive my pickup.

 

[Redneck in training]

If you are ever in an accident you better hope your in the Z71.

HS

Unless you are hit by another Z71. To be safer you need something bigger. In fact you need the biggest vehicle legal for public roads. Only then you will win in every accident.

 

[aczlan]

Aaron Z,
That statement doesn't make a lot of sense.
I drive a pickup because I need a pickup at my ranch business not because I want to drive one.
I usually ride my 60 mpg motorcycle if I don't NEED to drive my pickup.

My Volvo was in a buddies shop from Thanksgiving to mid Jan for a head swap after it lost the timing belt tensioner idler pulley on the way to his place for a timing belt change (probable cause is that the shop who did the first tbelt ~40k miles ago only replaced the belt, not the tensioner).
He was working 60-80 hours per week at work for Dec and the first part of Jan so he didn't have time to get to my car.
As such, I was in the pickup for that time period.

Aaron Z

 

[SPYDERLK]

Are electric cars essentially coal fired? In most areas, yes. However, electrical power is far more efficient than any other technology we have (electric motors have efficiency ratings starting at 90%). [ And for the most part go down from there]There is no question about it, we have a lot to gain by developing electric cars.

I think your wrong about electric cars. They will never be as efficient as using the source of power right on board. An electric car can never be efficient as an internal combustion engine. When you consider the power lost in every stage of electric production from the plant to the substations from 10000volts to 440v to 220v to the battery to the motor the lost power is gigantic. The same gallon of energy burning in the cars engine moves the car further. It's simple physics and no electric car will ever be as efficient as a burning the energy directly. Than add all the other inefficients into the problem, like hauling hundreds of pounds of batteries around and scale tips even more toward the ICE, it's a fantastic machine, and it's not going away. Since the pollution standards for the car are so high compared to the power plant the pollution factor goes to the car too. Think of it this way electrics only advantage is they don't pollute locally, and that maybe important in places, but they use more energy and that pollution happens somewhere else where the electric power is being generated. Electric cars are the most inefficient and use more energy than ICE cars, always will.

HS

Physics is never simple! Without getting into the gruesome details, electrical power is transmitted over long distance at very high voltages to increase efficiency. Substations use transformers to decrease the voltages to safer levels for more local distribution. Then, finally there is a transformer by your house that takes the power from 7,200v down to two legs of 120. The transformers used for power distribution are about 98% efficient.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want an electric car either. I am just explaining why our country should not completely rule out electric cars as an option in the future. Obvously, the big ??? is the how to make good enough batteries.

Gas cars are 25% efficient and Diesels 45%. Power stations are in the 95+% efficiency range. [No Way!] Power loss at substations is negligible. There is loss in transmission. Every generating station in the USA puts out less emissions than any vehicle per fuel used/kW-hrs just because it is easier to extract pollution at the stack than at the tailpipe. Don't forget it pollutes to make the gas you burn as well as the blood and treasure we expended over the last 10 years to keep crude flowing to Big Oil.

Woah. I've seen people abuse and mangle physics in my time, but this is a new record.

First statement: Voltage is NOT Equal to Power
When you look at a 3v power supply plugged into a wall socket, do you see the 3v as "all that's left" from the original 10Kv line?

Second statement: Flat-out wrong.

I could get into why, but I feel that it'd be water of a duck's back.
EDIT: and looking though this, it seems as though others have had a good crack at telling you why.

Lets try to keep this in the correct range. Houstonscotts point is good. You have 0.5 tops for power plant x 0.97 distribution x ~0.85 tops charge-discharge x 0.98 internal car dist x 0.9 tops motor = ~36% That, and were using best figures. Power plant efficiency is in the mid 40s Ill bet. This leaves a very small advantage to fossil electric indeed.
larry

 

[houstonscott]

Volkswagen Cross Coupe concept updated for Geneva motor show - Autoweek

131mpg and it's an 4x4 SUV. Prius is why behind. The question is will the democrats with all their regulation let them sell it here? Lots is possible without regulations.

HS

 

[SPYDERLK]

I question that mileage unless their test loop is downhill.
larry