SUV's? Huge Trucks? Hypermiling Techniques???

If "one of these days" is going to happen, shouldn't it have happened already?

When I first read him more than a decade ago, it seemed that he was already toning down the most controversial parts.

Why can't these starters be engineered and built for greater longevity? The Prius MG1 proves that it is possible.

 

Not bad for a Dodge.

 

Who says it hasn't? I doubt he'd gain many followers if he said that he's gotten in trouble for doing what he's doing. "Real life" never factors into "reality TV", even online. I had a cop tail me the other day for a couple of miles because I was going 63 in a 70 zone on a fuel economy run (and also because it's prime deer collision season). I knew he was tailing me too, because he sped to catch up to me after pulling out, and then he slowed to the same 63, in the fast lane about three car lengths behind me, and stayed there for maybe two miles. Then he gunned it up to at least the speed limit and turned around at the next opportunity.

And there ain't nothin' illegal about going 63 in a 70, especially when I wasn't holding up traffic.

Who says they can't? They simply aren't, because there's money to be made in replacement parts. Yes, the Prius powertrain proves that it's possible... but consider the Prius. A comparable car with a conventional gasoline powertrain costs a lot less, even from Toyota. It'd take a lot to convince me that that has nothing to do with there being no transmission to repair / replace, no starter to repair / replace, and an engine that runs a lot less for the same number of miles (meaning less engine repairs).

It's sort of like the Epson EcoTank printer I have. It cost $500 when it came out and the price has only gone down a bit since then. It's basically identical to one of their $75 printers, only it doesn't use ink cartridges. So they jack the price of the printer, knowing they're not going to get residual income from it later on in the form of ink cartridges. Print enough pages and eventually you do better on a per-page basis overall. Drive enough miles and eventually you do better on a per-mile basis using a Prius. But remember the Tucker car from the late 1940s. No big car manufacturer would buy Preston Tucker's design because the car was too reliable and wouldn't provide residuals to the dealerships in the form of service work and buying another new car after a few years. (Tucker had engineered it with the intent of it lasting at least 20 years, which was unprecedented in those days.)

 

He isn't alone:

Wayne advocated his driving style but at any driving contest, he would "borrow" a Prius. ICE car makers would hire him for driving stunts to turn in 2x the EPA numbers . . . for the ignorant. But Clarkson is worse because the tries to claim he is an entertainer.

Bob Wilson

 

Stealth hypermiling.

 

He had to do so on his old Accord. I think he still came out ahead, but he started his hypermiling career after 9/11 out of security concerns.

The only starter that needed be replaced among the immediate family cars was on a 1966 Mustang in the late '80s.

The Fusion has a different starter motor for the model with start/stop. they are using heavy duty starters with such systems.

A complaint I've seen from Europe about start/stop systems is batteries dying early, but it isn't for all models. the first Malibu with start/stop available in the US had a second battery.

The original Insight was the goto for such hypermiling competitions.


Wayne is the only car reviewer I know of that reports steady state MPG at various speeds, and he includes weather and road conditions for the test.

Somewhere, i saw a Popular Mechanics article posted that described pulse and coast for saving fuel.
It was from the 1950's.

 

How do we know that they aren't? Are most or all existing stop-start models already seeing early failures?

$250 at Costco yesterday, including the loads of extra ink bundled into the Costco version.

 

The Fusion has a different starter part for those with start/stop, and it has had it since 2013.