I am not a "green" person

Where's choice #4?

"I needed a generator for my house and decided that if I got a Prius, I could use it for transportation as well."

(So far it's worked very nicely in both applications.)

Richard

 

What size? If you can use your Prius as a whole-house UPS please post some details.

 

What originally led me to The Prius was the following.

I investigated The Honda Fit. Nice little hatchback. But I found that if I loaded it with all the extra's I wanted, it easily approached $20,000. Once I reached that threshold for a small automobile it just made sense to at least look at The Prius. A base Prius is loaded with many of the things I would pay extra for in a Fit or other econo-box. For 2-3 grand more, I'd get a hatch back that gets considerably better mileage and offers more room and comfort. I could drive a mid-size hatch, get better gas mileage and not really be paying much more than I would for a fully loaded Fit Sport with Nav. That was my "hook" for considering The Prius.

Then you discover websites like this and REALLY get immersed in Prius. But that's Chapters 2-3-4 in a larger book.

 

All the details are at PriUPS-getting electricity FROM your hybrid vehicle

If your destination is really the eschaton you're going to need far more relativistic time dilation than the Prius can provide!

Richard

 

I would have preferred another choice that was somewhere in between 1 and 2.

 

I voted the third option, although the first option also applies. It's just that I'm a capitalist, I think that new technology should save money and save the planet.

 

Then I'm a full life cycle capitalist.

I think removing from the capitalist equation costs to dispose properly of stuff (of byproduct and products themselves) is naive and dangerous (especially if I'm inside the test tube in which we're doing some experiments).

Put another way, as an example: Bring in a CO2 exchange and I'll become a true capitalist.

 

As usual, I can't vote anything relevant. Yes, I try to be green, and go to great lengths to do so. I didn't buy the Prius to save money or reduce my pollution. Buying it costs me MORE in fuel, the car pollutes more, and gets the worst gas mileage of my last three cars. I bought the Prius because it was the best new car that I could buy - but certainly not the car I wanted to buy.

 

Just because you brought it up... can we also infer that it may also be harder to pick up trash where you're from?

 

While I think the jury is definitely still out on global warming, global cooling or whatever the buzz phrase is this week, the math for this car is definative, impersonal and compelling.

I'm very conservative politically, and that is driving a lot of my reasons FOR the Prius. I have strong beliefs that this government is going to do more and more to drive up taxes and other expenses on working people, including taxes on gas and diesel. They have floated trial ballons on taxing just about everything BUT gas to pay for their social programs or government bailouts. It only makes sense that they are leaving gas alone.....for now.

Personally, I expect gas taxes to be proposed or crammed through Congress sometime after the 2012 presidential elections. They will claim they have no choice; that they MUST do it to bail out Social Security, Medicare, Obama-care or some other gotta-have entitlement. When, and not if, they do this, the lines for a Prius, Insight, Volt, Leaf or other hybrid, electric or alternate fuel car will be long, and it will cost you dearly to get one. As the old Mobil oil commercial used to say, "Pay me now or pay me later...."

So, I will keep waiting for my sloooooow dealer to give me an expected delivery date, pay for it in cash, and wait for the craziness to start sometime in the near future. And, when the Ford F-350 or Dodge 3500 is costing $170-200 to fill up for a range of 350 miles, I will gladly pay $40-55 to fill up the Prius for a 500-600 mile range.

The stories of people spending $700-900 per month for fuel last summer just to go to work and do the basic essentials of life are still very fresh in my memory. So, rather than cripple my lifestyle, vacation plans or other choices later due to the whims of a few greedy OPEC oil shieks, or a handful of Wall Street speculators, I'll pony up the bucks now to have more freedom later.

I know some people will have drastically different views. My wife, for example, says she isn't ready to be "Jane Jetson" in my techy car. But, her commute is longer than mine. When gas spikes, I suspect she will want to 'borrow' the Jetsons car (Prius) for a few days.....which will turn into months once she drives it.

Joe

 

Well said Joe! Hope your wait is not too much longer.
Peter

 

I'm jumping in without reading all the thread, but I have a few observations.

Why do so many people associate being green with being part of GreenPeace?...might that include T. Boone Pickens?

Lowest common denominator: The American economy (or should I say world economy?) depends on cheap energy. Every recession that has hit the US was preceded by a spike in the price of oil. Most of that oil comes from nations unfriendly and/or unreliable. We pay them $700B annually and have to borrow that from the Chinese - what is going to happen to America in the long-term?

While I can add other reasons, this one is sufficient.

In light of this, the Red/Blue bickering is pretty assine.

 

There is always going to be bickering but the point is, nearly everyone here IS doing something (because we have a Prius or other hybrid) about it "green" or not.

Peter

 

Your absolutely right on that. True, total cost of ownership should be revealed to the consumer.

 

The trash referred to here:
"I don't bike, walk, save grocery bags, pick up trash, buy carbon offsets, plant trees, etc.

My point is only that you mention a bunch of things that you (purposefully, happily?) don't do to demonstrate how not green you are. And when recycling was questioned, you responded to mind the assumptions, and that it might not be as easy to recycle where you are (never mind that "recycle" doesn't just mean to take a container to the recycle center and that true recycling or reusing is on the same scale of "easiness" for everybody). I just wonder about the others on your list, is all. Are they all harder where you are? I ask so that I don't make incorrect assumptions.

 

What price do we put on human health? On human life? On the health and life of other living things? There's the bugger in creating the "true total cost" of using something that harms just about every living thing on the planet.

 

Later this century: "Lions, Tigers, and Bears" may be limited to just bears outside of zoos.

If these species go extinct from habitat destruction, should be be so sure life for the rest of us will be unaffected?