laughing at the pump today!!!

Funny, I always see prii on the road, but never at a gas station I drove for 2 hours yesterday, and I didn't even use up a gallon.

 

HAHA! Mine is coming by this upcoming Monday! I can't wait. I will be selling my current car, a Chevy S-10 Blazer, which by the way, has HORRIBLE mileage! I'm sure I will be laughing as well very soon!

 

How could anyone not be thinking about getting better MPG in this situation. I bet the waiting list for a Prius will grow as the price of gas grows. By the end of summer we will think $3.00 gas was a good deal. This is going to affect everything we buy, travel, ect. So glad I am drivng a Prius!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I had a good laugh today waiting for the light to turn green. I noticed lots of pickups filling up at $2.76 a gallon. I haven't gotten gas since March 30th (when it was $2.35) and I still have four bars left at 318 on the tank!

Suckers. B)

 

We have two also and have saved $2432.30 in the last 14 months based on the avg med size car (21.4 MPG). It is even more of a savings if you consider our old cars (F250 - 15 mpg, and Honda Civic 28 mpg).

hahaha I tease my coworkers that I go to the most expensive gas station and still do not break $20 to fill my tank. The 3% cash rebate CC also helps.

 

As gas prices go up, so it seems, does the perceived smug factor.
Am I the only one noticing more aggressive driving behavior by those big gas-guzzling trucks and SUV's?
Even at $3.00/gallon they zoom around me as I coast up to the red light, only to slam on their brakes a moment later. Are they just taking out their frustration by burning even more gas?
The best part - sitting side by side at the light, the truck rumbling and guzzling away, the Prius sitting quietly.

 

Just because we're perceived as smug doesn't mean we aren't.

I'm feeling pretty smug.

A year ago when I bought my Prius my family shook their heads and figured it was just another eccentric choice from the family square peg geek. I'm sure my Dad and my brother thought it was stupid and I'd be sorry when I had to replace those batteries in a few years. Good thing I don't have to go up hills. uhuh.

Of course now it looks like I was extremely astute in predicting the future. I made a "smart" purchase. And gee, the car is better than they thought. Whoda thunk.

And I think my family is one of the ones that is changing their mind about hybrids. Where before none of them would have considered it....my sister is hoping to purchase one in a few years when they can afford to replace their car. In fact, she'd love to get rid of the van right now but they can't afford it. And neither my Father nor my Mother would have considered a hybrid. Although he says that the next car won't be a Caddy, but will be a Lexus. I'm trying to talk my Mother into a Hybrid Camry as she's the one that handles the money.

So let the gas go up and up. I'm sure my Dad will come around to a hybrid Camry around $4 to $5 a gallon. Especially if my Mother says that's what she wants.

My sister already knows that when the 2009s comes out in fall 2008 I'll probably buy one and be selling my current Prius. But the resale value will be a lot higher than the Saturn she bought from me when I bought my current Prius.

Yep. I'm smug. I have a right to be. I saw the writing on the wall and I acted early. Time for the next level of buyers to embrace change and hop on the bandwagon. As long as gas continues to climb those that would never have considered a hybrid or a foreign made car will be reconsidering their positions.

And that's a good thing.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Boxster...WRX...Prius? @ Apr 24 2006, 06:06 PM) [snapback]244609[/snapback]</div>

I have 35,000 miles on our Rav4EV, and haven't yet visited the gas station.

Double suckers.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(huskers @ Apr 24 2006, 05:26 PM) [snapback]244585[/snapback]</div>

Ah. Easy one. For some of us, the Prius is the worst gas mileage vehicle in the fleet. Our main car gets infinitely better gas mileage than the Prius. How can anyobdy not be thinking about driving a car that uses ZERO gasoline?

Snicker. You guys think YOUR'RE smug... well here's what it looks like from the other end.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Apr 24 2006, 11:47 PM) [snapback]244682[/snapback]</div>

I understand your point, but what you fail to see is that 100,000 plus Prii on the road makes a bigger impact than the (insert number much lower here) RavEV's out there. As I have told my Daughter about theatre....it doesn't matter how relevant and uplifting your play is if NO ONE WATCHES IT!!!!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Schmika @ Apr 24 2006, 08:53 PM) [snapback]244685[/snapback]</div>

Failed to see? Not quite. With my glasses on I have pretty good vision. What you say here is true, yet I'm afraid that you managed to steer right around my main point.

It was suggested that the people who drive cars that got worse mileage than the Prius should be outraged, and should be doing something about it! Getting 40, 50, 60 mpg equals full-on smugnitude, apparently. And my point is that people who are driving ANY car that requires gasoline should be out doing something to change that. I fully understand that there aren't many EVs on the road - and that right there is the travesty that I would like to see corrected. But of course it also allows my smugness to know no bounds. I hear people talking about the daily price of gas... but I only fill the Prius about once every other month even though we drive about 1,400 miles/month total. So I usually learn about the price of gas from others.

Yes, be happy in your decision to not be driving a gas hog. Yet also realize that if the politics had swung a different way ten years ago, you'd have a choice today of driving a vehicle that consumed NO gasoline.

 

Darell, please allow me to blow a small breeze into that cloud of smug surrounding you.

Yes, the Prius uses gasoline (regular unleaded). It's a very low emissions car.

Your RAV burns coal, adding to global warming, adding to particulate haze in the upper atmosphere, and adding to acid rain. No, you don't actually put lumps of coal in it, but most of the electricity generated in the US is from coal. And most of the energy in the coal is wasted when electricity travels thousands of miles from the coal-burning generators to your outlet.

I don't have any quantitative figures: it costs a lot of energy to refine and deliver gasoline to my local station, but the cost to fuel your RAV must be measured in more than your electric bill. I suspect that the cost (including environmental degradation) per mile in a Prius may be even lower than in your RAV.

We have infrastructure to handle liquid fuel and electricity, at present. Gas (H2, CH4) still isn't widely available, and may never be. With our present technology, we need dense energy (volitile liquids, high-energy batteries) power sources. For practical purposes, for the next 30 years or so, that means nuclear-generated electricity and bio-fuel liquids.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bill Merchant @ Apr 24 2006, 10:50 PM) [snapback]244742[/snapback]</div>

Bill, if I may be so bold. *cough*BS*cough*

I'll assume that you haven't visited my site. I'll also assume that you are not aware that I generate my own PV electricity to power my car and my home. And I'll point out a few more little items that you might not be aware of:

1. An EV powered by the average US power mix is cleaner than any other type of car on the road. And an EV gets cleaner ever year, as our grid gets cleaner. Every mile an ICE drives, the dirtier it gets.
2. "Most of the electricity" is NOT wasted in power line transmission. The average is about 8%. Be generous and call it 10%. A far cry from "most."
3. My electricity travels about 12' from my roof to my car. When I'm not using it directly, my neighbor is - thus minimizing THAT line loss.
4. biggie here, so I'll put it in bold A 25mpg gasoline car uses as much electricity per mile as my EV does
5. Go back and read 4. again, because I'm sure you didn't believe it the first time. The oil industry is the single biggest electricity consumer in the USA. If we remove the electricity component of drilling, pumping, distilling, distributing, and filling your car tank with gasoline, then my EV creates NO extra pollution. Why do we always ignore the upstream pollution of gasoline, but INSIST on including it for EVs? You speak of a clean Prius - but that's just the consumption part. Total up how much pollution is created in MAKING the gas, and level the playing field. You want to count distribution losses for electricity... how does gas get to the gas station? Does it magically appear there? Or do we count the losses and pollution from the tanker trucks that deliver it? The electricity used to pump it into your car? Sorry for the obvious frustration that I'm slinging your way - but I hear this about every day. Most folks choose to ignore the nasty birthing process of gasoline until it is in the tank. Yet they're Johhny-on-the-spot when it comes to pointing out that electricity doesn't just magically appear in my batteries. *sigh*
6. You can well suspect that the cost and environmental degredation per mile in a Prius is lower than in my Rav. But you'd be wrong. A vehicle that burns gasoline can NOT be cleaner than a solar-fueled EV. There are MANY ways to cleanly make electricity, and ZERO ways to make clean gasoline.
7. With our present transportation mix, we do still need some dense. liquid fuel. But we sure as hell don't need it for our daily commute.

Gonna have to try harder than that to poke holes in my smug cloud.

Did you notice that most of the stuff you brought up is quite similar to what the nay-sayers of hybrids use to attack the hybrid crowd? It is based on the "status quo" of thinking. It is what we read in the press. It just happens to be wrong. Shouldn't surprise anybody. But I do hope that when you realize how silly the hybrid nay-sayer aurguments sound to you... that these arguments against EVs sound just as silly to me. Hold yourself to the same standars that you expect of the non-Prius-driving crowd. Learn up on some of these *real* alternatives to gasoline.

If you are truly interested about BEVs, hop over to my site sometime and poke around a bit. Plenty of REAL ammo there to hammer me over the head with.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bill Merchant @ Apr 24 2006, 10:50 PM) [snapback]244742[/snapback]</div>

California isn't most of the US.

Most (about 45%) of the electricity generated in California comes from gas fired plants. The rest is almost equally divided between nuclear, coal, large hydro, and renewable sources. Of the electricity we buy from outside the state, much of that from the southwest comes from coal fired plants. This drives up the percentage of electricity from coal when considering all sources to about 19%.

http://www.energy.ca.gov/2005publications/...00-2005-004.PDF

Unless Darrell has gone out of his way to find an Electric Service Provider that buys mainly from coal-fired plants, I'd say his RAV4 runs mainly on natural gas, and only about 20% on coal. If he gets his electricity from a really green ESP, like City of Palo Alto Utility Company, only 4% of his electricity would come from coal. My ESP, Silicon Valley Power, got 19% of its electricity from geothermal last year.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bill Merchant @ Apr 24 2006, 10:50 PM) [snapback]244742[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'>You're right Darell, I didn't go to your site before replying.

It's almost impossible for an average person to figure total costs in any technological product. Does the manufacuture of PV cells have only beneficial effects and help clean the environment? Did you make them in your back yard to avoid transportation energy costs?

I'm glad you are treading lightly. I'm trying to as well. Everything has costs, many of which are invisible. And I'm not referring to the invisible hand of the market which is notoriously uneven-handed. The Prius is a good step which many people can and are taking; no need for you to denigrate it, particularly since Toyota doesn't make RAV EVs anymore.

You're also right, your smug is quite sturdy.

 

Darrell's smug alert is well deserved. I only discovered the Rav4 EV after Toyota discontinued sales. I was pissed! There it was, the perfect car for me and they never bothered to promote it even the slightest! I'm pretty smug in my Pious... er... I meant Prius, but I'd be INSUFFERABLE if I had a RAV4 EV.

Just like Darrell!

 

Everyone re-read Darell's post again, carefully.

I do not for one moment sense that Darell is really being smug. He is simply right.

My hat's off to you, Darell. You have actually done and are doing the things that the rest of us will be adopting within our lifetimes. Woe to us all if we don't.

The Prius is an awesome baby step. We may not ever drive pure EVs, but I hope that what we have in the future is somehow "better."

Let's not lose sight of the 50-100 year view.

 

What I like about darelldd is that he isn't preachy about his EV use... actually, a dry sense of humour about the benefits and differences.

On the thread's topic, a couple of people at work yesterday were talking about getting new cars... What were they both gushing over/.. THE GMC YUKON!!! I asked them about the mileage, and they joked, 'Oh, maybe 10-15'. BUT, it still didn't deter them from their thinking.. I talked about even the HH, but they dismissed it. One even admitted looking at the Ford Escape Hybrid, but said it was too small.