On Wed, 28 Sep 2005 23:31:48 GMT, "Gary H. Lucas"
wrote:


wrote in message
roups.com...

John Scheldroup wrote:

Hybrid Cars Gas Mileage Impact Calculator

Interesting Site, but it has easily identifiable flaws.

I put in my Astro Van vrses Prius. Sure, the prius won, but that was
because they listed the Astro at 15mpg, verses Prius at 56mpg.

The Flaw here is my Astro does NOT get that low ball 15MPG on the
highway. The Prius reference of 56MPG IS their Highway MPG's, and is
supported by discussions in Newsgroups (actually, I have only seen 55
mentioned as a high)

I make 400 mile trips a few times a year with that Van. Running
anywhere from Chicago traffic to 85MPH, Air Conditioning on and with a
slight tailwind, I will get 24-25MPG.
The Van will NOT get better mileage at slower speeds. It has 253,000
miles on and climbing.

Run those numbers and the perspective changes.

Next, I load my Wifes Late model Monte Carlo. I had to Chuckle as
again, the Prius MPG was up at 56, and they placed the Monte at 22MPG.
HA ! I have NOT gotten less than 30MPG on the highway doing the same
trip above !

Finally, the references to the Cadillac are inaccurate as well. I KNOW
owners... You can find casual data in other newsgroups, heres one
comment:

Our experience echos this, we routinely get 18.5+ mpg around town and
upwards
of 27-30 on the highway when cruising at 70 mph...

So they have that wrong as well. Looks like the Prius is always given
the highway MPG numbers, but they do not use highay MPG for other cars.
I did a couple others as well in which I know what they really get.

Myself, I guess I would expect exactly that from a calculator on a
webpage called Hybrid.com, where the uno numero priority objective is
to make hybrids look really really impressive. Too bad a lot of people
fall all over crap like that without getting accurate data.

Grummy

I also drove an Astro for 140,000 miles and the second one for 40,00 before
someone wrecked me. In the family electrical business we had our own gas
pump, and CAREFULLY logged every fill up and every mile for years and years
of data on all kinds of vehicles, from a Ford Escort and Datsun pickup to an
all wheel drive digger derrick. The Datsun pickup got 25 Mpg, and the
digger got 2.1mpg. Yeah you had to fill the 30 gallon tank on that sucker
at about every gas station you passed! I can honestly tell you I don't
believe your mileage figures, because the numbers we have gotten on well
maintained vehicles is far less than what everyone else has claimed. Also
back in the gas crunch of the seventies the truck drivers all claimed their
trucks were more efficient at 65 than 55 because they were geared for that
speed. Basic physics says that wind drag and efficiency will be less as you
go faster. In test after test with the truck driver driving his own truck,
using a calibrated cylinder of diesel no truck driver ever got better
mileage.

Gary H. Lucas

Gary,
You seem to have missed the "slight tailwind" used in the Astrovan
calcs. I think a 30 mph tailwind is slight. I mean, it could be.
Though some people might consider a 50 mph tailwind slight. Besides,
he was probably drafting semi trucks. I tried that on my bike years
ago. Really saves on gas.
Eric