Is this why America has more Prii than Europe?

I was just looking the FAQ over and it appears you don't even have to be a US citizen.

Anyway, the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Permanent_Fund"]payout [/ame]is based on a five year average of the earnings of the 38 billion account. With the market in the dumps lately it has been dropping steadily.

Yes bisco, it is Alaska. lol.

Sage, Sarah is really a cool person.

 

didn't they used to provide wives as well?

 

Nah, we have to import those. Mine is from Texas.

 

I have heard this saying when talking about a woman moving to Alaska in search of a mate: "Alaska, where the odds are good, but the goods are odd."



Tom

 

Like I said before... so true.

OTOH, after participating in this forum, I don't think Alaska is any different from any other place.

 

Not only that... but she drives the liberals absolutely MAD. It is quite entertaining I must say.

 

In the USA diesel is for truckers and isn't available in all fuel outlets. It's considered dirty and smelly too. I drive a diesel for work and when I fill up the hand-piece is almost always dirty and coated in diesel fuel, yuk!
Petrol is cleaner to handle because it dries up when spilt.
Diesel is expensive to service. Fuel filters need replacing regularly, the fuel filter in a Prius is there for the life of the vehicle.
Diesels are noisy. Even quiet diesels are noisier than petrol engines.
Diesels vibrate. You always see big diesel trucks shaking at the lights.
Diesels are often coupled to manual transmissions. Americans in general don't like changing gears.
Diesels come from Europe. European cars = unreliable cars.
Toyota have a great reputation because they don't make unreliable cars. Why would Toyota risk its great reputation on a vehicle which will not comply with this philosophy? People trust Toyota.
Product placement. Watch American TV shows and if there is a road scene there will almost certainly be a Prius in it. Toyota pay to have the Prius used in TV shows and often by the main characters. Even Myth-busters had a Prius on it and most cop shows have a Toyota Hybrid or 2. Was watching Bones I think it was, the investigators were driving a very shiny black Hylander Hybrid and a silver Gen II appeared twice in a few minutes, once in the background and later driving past.

 

pats got my point....diesels stink, and if you live where there is cold winter, you better plug them in or it might not want to start. and he's also right about not every gas station carrying diesel. that can be an issue depending on where you live.

they do make great trucks and can work much harder, but for the average vehicle, no thanks.

 

implants.

 

All the hypomanics have emigrated to America.


THE HYPOMANIC EDGE -- John Gartner

 

rich: 14 trillion in debt.

powerful? we give money we don't have to other countries. we do build a lot of weapons with the chinese money though!

 

who else has the power to be 14 trillion in debt? that's right, nobody. haha

 

well said.:rockon:

 

I'm guessing that high debt level is helping the Australian dollar in comparison to the US dollar.
1 AUD = 1.01057 USD
When I was in the USA in January 2009 the Aussie dollar was only buying about 80 US cents I think.

 

^ Glad we could help.

 

Aren't all Alaskans cool?

 

Hi All,

Just to sumarize on diesels in the USA. As people have mentioned, Diesel is mostly used by Truckers. And the Trucker lobby fought long and hard against reducing roadway diesel sulfur content, so the fuel cost could be kept lower. That high a sulfur content, in a vehicle that is driven in and round residential neighborhoods is not going to be very popular.

Only recently (last five years) has diesel fuel injection reached a point where the cars do not smoke at idle.

To get efficiency, one needs to make allot of NOx in a Diesel. And that is a nasty smell. I once looked up the Nitric Acid protection mask, as I was in an area where that was released for work. Well, there is not one. 3M does not have a cartridge for their masks for Nitric Acid, and recommends that the Nitric Acid be diluted to the minimum permissable exposure. So, any kinda of moisture in the air, and your getting exposed beyond the MPE at a stop light behind a diesel. This is the nature of the EPA restrictions. I really think Diesels should be required to have autostop, above freezing. This way people in waiting to get through along light wont be gassed by these things.

Tune to diesel to not generate the NOx, and well, its allot less efficient. This is simple Carnot Efficiency result. So you end up with an engine that is very very expensive, and you cannot use it to its best efficiency without NOx remediation. Its almost like calling a diesel the anti-synergy drive.

NOx remidation on the car is quite expensive so far. With only Honda and MB being successful at it.

And of course, Diesel is subsidized in Europe, when its not in the USA.

Lastly, allot of the USA is in a mid-continent weather system. Which means, the cars gotta start and run reliably down to -20 F. I have an aquantance who lived till his teenage years in Siberia. Although he is sensitive to fuel economy, he just wont consider a Diesel based on their startup reliability in cold weather.

The hybrid system in the Prius actually results in simplification. The block diagram may be more complicated, but each of the individual internals within these blocks are dramatically simpler devices. This especially applies to the transmission of the Prius. A traditional automatic transmission has 4 times the parts.

 

i wonder how the sonata tranny will hold up vs prius?

 

I have now read the initial article.
Doesn't change a word. Bottom line differences between EU and USA are present.