On 4/12/2010 2:27 PM, Wes wrote:
Mark wrote:

My 10 year old French 7 seater MPV does 33 miles per US gallon on the highway
and 27.5 around town and will happily do 95mph, when needed. What's typical in
the US?

My 2001 Saturn SL1 gets 35-36 mpg summer, 32-33 mpg winter and it will go over 95mph. I
also pull a trailer at times but limit my carrying to about 500# for the trailer and 500#
for the load.

Currently the daily commute, round trip, is ~90 miles.
Wes


Here's an analogy that describes where we are right now when it comes to
the use of fossil fuels. Remember the P51 Mustang fighter plane from
WWII? It was the peak of what a propeller driven fighter plane could be.
It was a great plane. But it was a propeller plane so it had its
limitations and it had reached as far as it could go. Then jet planes
were invented and the great old P51 became a museum piece.

We're at that point with fossil fuels. We've gone just about as far as a
modern society can go with them. They provided the energy we needed to
get us to this point but the limitations of those fuels is now holding
us back. So now its time to find a new and superior way of doing things
the same way jets replaced propeller planes. The problem is that old
farts can't imagine anything better and never see the future but only
the past. Which is why some guys here can't see that the end of the days
of fossil fuels is coming, and soon. It may take a couple of decades but
you can be sure that we won't be using fossil fuels like we do now 20
years from now. Some kind of breakthrough will come. It may be in
batteries or fuel cells, or hydrogen, solar, bio fuels, or something we
don't even know about yet. But it will come and it will put petroleum
based energy in the museum. It's always the conservatives who can't see
the future coming and do nothing but whine and complain and say it'll
never work when younger, smarter people come up with the new ideas. It
seems like America is becoming a country of old farts and teabaggers and
that the only way we will advance is to follow the Europeans and Asians.
Have we fallen hard, or what? My advice to you old farts, shut up, quit
your whining, and get the hell out of our way.

Hawke