Rotator Pursuit

OK who is the doofus who downgraded this thread from 4 to 3 stars?

Cowardly buffoon....:rolleyes:

As for alternative trans.....with 3 Porsches, a work truck, a boat, 2 motorcycles, and a couple landscape trailers......where would I put it?

I guess my R90/6 is my 'alternative' transportation but hard to carry plants and tools in it! ;)

List your 'alternative' transportation - Hybrid, EV, LPG
 

Does a 1967 Cessna 150G Commuter count? It only chews up 4.5gph and costs less to insure that a 95 GMC truck w/270k.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/06/u6upa3u5.jpg

My wife is juggling the volt with a prius. Whatever.


Sent via Jedi mind trick.

Just knew you would have a Volt Foxy :p

We were seriously tempted, but in the UK they are a crazy price. When we looked at a lease deal it was even worse.
Guy near us had one and I think they are a brilliant design.

A guy renting commercial space from me has a Leaf, and asked if he could add an electrical outlet at his parking space, as he is not getting the range expected. He has a couple locations, and travels back and forth sometimes. Must be a problem only when lots of heat and/or lights are necessary, as it is parked there quite frequently not plugged in.

Now that he has had it a while, I'm going to ask him if he is happy with it.

I love diesel vehicles - especially when you make your own biodiesel - really cool.... Vespas and bikes and planes, oh my!!!!

The Volt was a good fit for me and my commute - I would imagine it wouldn't work well for others (plus, adding in the tax incentives, GMs friends and family discount, a screaming deal on a '13 'left-over' and charging at work - really a no-brainer for me)... I sort of glanced at a Leaf - and actually if I was only commuting with it, it would have worked really well... but I think I would like to drive sometimes over 80 miles and not worry about charging. They say that Leaf owners get 'range anxiety,' since the Volt has an internal combustion engine, I can drive it as far as I want, as long as there are gas stations along the route.

One of the things I hadn't 'factored' in was the very small amount of maintenance that is expected on the Volt - I will only change the oil once a year (unless for some reason I pile up the miles on the engine). It is anticipated that over 10 years the engine will get fewer than 20,000 miles on it... basically a new engine even then, and the electric motors aren't expected to need much maintenance either.

'Alternative' solutions don't work for some people, but I think that as the technology advances there will be more and more 'alternative' vehicles on the road, and I think we all like options (even Hummers are options sammy).

herr_oberst - I will try to come in with an update occasionally - right now I am getting over 250 mpg (I know that doesn't factor in the cost of electricity). But here in Colorado with our rather cheap KWH cost (.0406) charging is running about $.55 per charge - that is about a 40+ mile range, so less than $.014 per mile 'fuel' costs. And actually, it is a decent car to drive - the instant acceleration is really amazing - extremely quiet, decent handling. The thing I have to get used to is the brakes - the regenerative braking is certainly different feeling.

I'd like to bring horseback.....back. I only have a five mile commute, it would work. They'd have to put in a trough or something.

List your 'alternative' transportation - Hybrid, EV, LPG
 

Electric vehicles in colder climates can't be all that great - electric resistance heaters plus degraded battery capacity? Not likely to be viable in places where they could make a real difference (big northern cities)

Be curious to know how engine-dependent the hybrids are in such places. Probably quite a bit.

report from volt owners around here, is that its about 30% less range.

so, bad, but not unacceptable. esp for the way these cars are used.

We had a couple of cold mornings since I have owned the Volt - the engine does come on but what it does is not run the car, but warm the batteries and motors... I probably used far less than a quart of gas on those mornings... Another thing they do is have heated seats - cheaper to heat your butt than the entire cabin. And I found that I lost about 20% range - but, it was only in the low 20s, high teens - When it gets closer to zero I imagine I will lose significantly more...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1398707105.jpg
I am in the process of restoring one of these.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1398707176.jpg
I had to fabricate some new wooden levers and some brackets to hold the shaft they pivot on.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1398707263.jpg

My other drivers are a 99 Powerstroke diesel 4x4 F-250 (average about 18 mpg), and a 97 Saturn SL2 with the dual cams (33 mpg) My wife drives a 03 BMW 325 convertible (28 mpg).

Baz, the question was couched in a mildly insulting manner, which I suppose should come as no surprise. People are funny. When you insult them or are condescending to them, they sometimes are insulting or condescending right back at you.

I have one vehicle that runs on premium gasoline. I wish they sold 98 octane here, preferably without any ethanol, but the nearest place that sells ethanol free fuel to me is in a different state. My alternative transportation is bicycle or feet. I would be commuting by bike 80% of the time if my back were not jacked up.

What the heck is the hotbed topic on a Volt forum? Longest lasting hard rubber tire? Extension wire gauge debates? Driving w windows down versus using the AC?

Nice car foxy. :)


Sent via Jedi mind trick.

Oh lordie. I looked. They have a 50 mile club : D


Sent via Jedi mind trick.

Interesting - actually sounds like they'd be more or less viable. Certainly moreso than straight electrics (like Tesla for example). I'm not in the market and likely I won't be living in this climate for more than another few months, but I was just curious whether they were a real choice for less-than-ideal climates and it sounds as though they've gotten good enough where they could be. Certainly no EV1.

Thanks for the info - pretty cool choice in all. Enjoy it!

I wouldn't mind driving a hybrid or pure EV if a company started making them look like they have some soul (and not for the crazy money like Porsche or Tesla). I can't understand why the big car companies have to make thier alternative fuel vehicles so damn ugly...

It's not just their alternative fuel vehicles. Most vehicles today are horrid in their styling, with a few notable exceptions.

I think 90% of the cars sold today are completely un-noteworthy in any way in their styling. Automotive design today has all the appeal of British cooking.

2 TDI's at my house.