Say hello to my little friend...

[A.K. Boomer]

JR my bro had both an 89 and has a 91 now, he was the king but as you can guess has been recently "dethroned" lol (he's handling it well)

great cars and stone simple (unlike mine)

for some reason his 91 has never achieved the same great scores that his 89 has, yeah it's slightly heavier (both did and do not have AC) but im thinking perhaps emissions rules may have gone through a change restricting nOx levels even further or some damn thing...

[danlb]

You make a good point Darryl. I've been driving a plug in hybrid for the last year, and find a small battery pack is all that's needed for daily driving. Most days I drive 10 miles or so. Because the battery is so small and the use is small it recharges in less than an hour from a 16 amp 220V source. But when I need to hit the freeway for a 500 mile drive the gas engine kicks in as needed, charging the battery while powering the wheels. When the battery is full it shuts down the gas engine and runs on battery for a few miles, then repeats the cycle.

The idea behind the plug in hybrid is that it behaves like an electric car most of the time, and can behave like a conventional full hybrid if you need to drive more than 25 miles in a day. Even with battery pack and gas engine the Prius Prime weighs 600 lbs less than the full range Tesla Model 3 or Nissan Leaf. Different plug in models have different sized batteries, so range and weight may vary.

I last put gas in my car back in February. It still has a full tank.

Dan

[A.K. Boomer]

Another added bennie to the type of car your driving Danlb is the fact that short trips like that don't effect you and yet work into the honest values of your typical hybrids by them being on the enrichment mode most of the time --- even the almighty first second and third gen prius which is a work of mechanical/electrical art and have a secondary electric water pump that stores heated coolant into a thermos of sorts and reintroduces it back into the engine block upon start up is not immune to this fact,,,

it all adds up, although --- if you lived in really cold climate you would not be able to pull it off as cheap simply for the fact of having to heat a cab and all it takes,,, starts to make the waste energies of even a hybrid look more appealing --- lots of factors to consider... my little pea-shooter uses so little fuel it takes awhile to heat the cab even with an engine that gets up to temp as fast as it can by running its header system inside the head itself --- no bolting on a set of headers on this thing - it's just a single pipe coming out of the head --- hope i never run low on coolant or that could come back to bite me in a hurry - but oh forgot - barely burning any fuel to begin with lol

[JRouche]

JR my bro had both an 89 and has a 91 now, he was the king but as you can guess has been recently "dethroned" lol (he's handling it well)

great cars and stone simple (unlike mine)

for some reason his 91 has never achieved the same great scores that his 89 has, yeah it's slightly heavier (both did and do not have AC) but im thinking perhaps emissions rules may have gone through a change restricting nOx levels even further or some damn thing...

Haaa. Maybe he got a different variant. They made 3. The HF, the Si and the standard.

I think the HF stands for High Fuel Efficiency (was king in the the day, 60+ MPG coming home from New Mexico one weekend, its down hill slightly).

The Si was the sports model and the standard was a lil nicer than the bare bones HF but not as efficient.

Wish I still had it... JR

[JRouche]

Offhand, the hybrid does seem to be the way to go. Electric assist for acceleration and hill climbing, with a small gas or propane engine for steady cruising and battery charging, power brakes and power steering. Go one step further and give it the generator capability- run your household in emergencies.

Very good point D..

Stupid me has house solar to the tune of 7kw and I dont have a hybrid.

I wouldnt need to be cobbling some wacky battery pak together. I could drive one off the lot.

I am obviously not taking advantage of my solar like I should be. You made some great points. JR

Anyone wanna buy an old 1962 chevy that has a V8. I need a hybrid

[A.K. Boomer]

Haaa. Maybe he got a different variant. They made 3. The HF, the Si and the standard.

I think the HF stands for High Fuel Efficiency (was king in the the day, 60+ MPG coming home from New Mexico one weekend, its down hill slightly).

The Si was the sports model and the standard was a lil nicer than the bare bones HF but not as efficient.

Wish I still had it... JR

I knew i made a mistake when I wrote that without clarifying ,,, both were HF's and yes it stands for "high fuel" he also did have an SI and so did I along with the first gen CRX that I bought long long ago...
BTW -- iv never had such a high speed car as my old SI,,, incredible the speed you could go with so little horsepower,,, like and honest 130 to 135 consistently ...

[danlb]

Very good point D..

Stupid me has house solar to the tune of 7kw and I dont have a hybrid.
I wouldnt need to be cobbling some wacky battery pak together. I could drive one off the lot.
I am obviously not taking advantage of my solar like I should be. You made some great points. JR
Anyone wanna buy an old 1962 chevy that has a V8. I need a hybrid

Not just any old hybrid. Different companies use different technology. Some are integrated so well that you are seldom aware that it's using the battery instead of the engine. Others are only hybrid in that they stop the motor when you are at a stop light.

If you have solar and drive a lot, a plug in hybrid makes a lot of sense. Depending on your choice, you will have 25 to 70 miles of range on battery without ever starting the engine. They are making the new plug in RAV4 available next year. It's all wheel drive and more range (42 miles) on electric than 95% of the population needs in an average day. According to car and driver, Toyota's plug-in RAV4 has 302 horsepower, stretches a gallon of gas, can tow up to 2500 pounds, and will beat a four-cylinder Supra in a few acceleration tests.


If you only drive occasionally there's not much value in upgrading unless you are already in the market for a new car. The original owner of my car drove it less than 50 miles a month**, so obviously did not get a decent return on his investment. I glad he sold it.

Dan
** The car has a mileage diary built in, and it was not cleared when it was traded in for a BMW. So I peeked.