License Plate Frame Ideas?

I'm curious as to whether all Prius buyers (or hopefuls) are so anti-SUV.

My family needs a high mileage car (primarily for my 50-mile commute, but also for trips around time) but it also needs something which can carry adults more comfortably in the back seat and/or much cargo.

We decided we need both a high-mileage car (a Prius if one comes in before our current car dies) and a larger car...for which we chose a small SUV (Subaru Forester).

So, I prefer the first two

 

I'm not anti-SUV, just anti-wrong-SUV-use. My friends who drive big SUVs have big families (2-4 kids plus in-laws riding too). What I hate seeing is single people with no kids and no extra riders driving big gas guzzlers (including non-SUVs) just for the status of it.

Victor

 

I'm not! However, now that the technology is available and appears to have been perfected, I think SUVs manufactured from this point on should be hybrids.

 

Fail to see why SUV owners get picked on all the time. Their mpg is no worse that a big Buick, Lincoln or Caddy. Conclude that this must be the bandwagon affect or many people just blindly follow what they read or see on the TV. i.e. SUVs are big thus must be bad.

2004 Salsa Red And 1994 Ford Explorer

Just me and the wife but the Explorer can carry a lot more stuff from Lowes or Home Depot and has loads of head and legroom front and back.

 

There is constant construction on our freeways, but the simplest things could yield huge differences. Just keeping the lane lines well marked would ease traffic congestion in the large interchanges - that saves gas and time. Well marked signs and routes would keep people from being confused and keep traffic moving and avoid accidents. The slowdowns on our freeways caused by accidents is a huge source of pollution. Yes, they're crowded, but traffic can keep moving when there aren't obstructions.

I don't think SUVs and the like would bother me so much if they just followed emission controls like other vehicles. That said, I don't think they're the biggest culprits in SoCal. We have to look to things like diesel motors like those on the big ships that come into port - just one of those docking, offloading her cargo and then leaving port is polluting as much as 50,000 cars does in a year. We have a hugely busy airport (several) and a single jet plane can put as much into the air one landing/taxi/takeoff cycle as a single SUV on the road for a year!

Lawn care with its gas-powered lawnmowers and edgers and leaf blowers and other small gas-powered engines contribute as much as a third of Los Angeles' pollution in a day during high use periods! Paint, paint thinners, adhesives, dry-cleaning, these are all contributors to the VOC load in our atmosphere.

So getting all the SUVs and other low mileage vehicles turned into hybrids is still not going to make a big enough dent in our smog problem. But I wholeheartedly support the change.

They should all come with electric lawnmowers.

 

Rick! so sorry your thread degenerated (regenerated?) into the age-old SUV debate.

Back on topic ... my contribution:

I Brake
for Electricity

and a more regional one:

I Love Dianne
at Carson Toyota

 

Big, Bad SUV s

 

Well, I'll hijack the thread again and try to clear up several misconceptions regarding SUV emissions, as well as diesel emissions.

Now, first. SUV's while they get inarguably worse fuel economy than most cars, do have engines that are derived off of car engines. If you look underneath every SUV has a catalytic convertor, with the exception of the ones based on heavy duty truck chassis Diesel versions will be missing this. If you put them through the emissions tests (in those states) their emissions come out pretty much right in line with the automobile that shares the same engine in car form. This is a product of modular design, and saves the carmaker money. The bonus is that most SUV's already match car emissions levels especially those based on car chassis.

Second, diesels are actually CLEANER than gasoline engines, hybrid cars notwithstanding. Diesel engines do not rely on a fixed air/fuel ratio to run. Instead, fuel is injected only in amounts needed to keep them running. This is how they get typically 1/3 better fuel efficiency for the same power gasoline engine. Fuel not used, relates to emissions not being created. To date, diesels have only to caveats - particulates, and NOx emissions. Particulates are MUCH heavier than the invisible particulates that gasoline engines create. Diesel soot tends to settle out of the air quickly, and is nearly pure carbon - benign in pollution terms.

NOx emissions are tougher. These are more of a product of our lousy fuel quality, then what the engines themselves create. Our fuel quality is so poor, that emissions control devices are quickly fouled irreperably by the high sulphur content in US diesel fuel. The US is expected to adopt EU sulphur standards in two years.

This will open the US market to the modern diesel engines that Europe is already getting to have in their cars now. They don't put out the heavy particulate content, and new high pressure common rail fuel systems with direct injection into the cylinders (vs. the old prechamber diesels common in the 70's and 80'), and electronic controls are resulting in diesels that are indescernable from gasoline engines in performance and smoothness. You only tell the difference at the pump since you are there less often. Direct injection diesels typically have lower compression ratios as well, further helping to reduce NOx emissions at the source.

As to how much pollution cars now put out today. Cars built today are 99.6% cleaner than their counterparts built in the 60's. this basically means that our hybrid cars, with their SULEV, and PZEV ratings are really only fractionally cleaner than their non hybrid counterparts.

If every car on earth was replaced with a hybrid system, our cities would still be full of pollution. Our cars simply aren't a major player anymore in the city pollution problem.

Personally, I didn't buy a Prius for the SULEV rating. I bought it for the fuel economy. The only real environmental benefit of our cars is the conservation of our fossil fuel resources. Yes it IS cool to be driving around at slow speeds without the engine running. I hope that this also equates to a longer service life for the car, where the other real environmental benefit will be less energy and resources needed to make it's replacement in the future.

 

Next gas 500 miles.....but I won't need to stop

 

10 gallons

every 500 miles


04 CAR OF THE YEAR

What are you driving?


This car is GREEN

Even though it's black


Rear Frame only:
Prius means "To go before"

That's why you're behind me


Traffic improves my mileage

What's it do for you?


Seeing is believing

Driving is better. 60MPG


Technologically advanced

Environmentally sound

 

Good job, riskable. Very clever! I really like your suggestions.

 

I combined a couple of things I liked and both my '03 and my '04 sport frames that say "Got Voltage!" (top line) and "Cool Car... Cool Planet" (bottom line). I do worry about SUV types deliberately damaging my car (I know one for sure dinged my 03' on the driver fender), so I tried to pick something that wasn't a challenge to them. In LA that is difficult to do...

Also, my '03 plate reads "MEGAVLT". Haven't decided on the '04 yet.

 

I'm anti-being-tailgated-by-cars-in-a-snowstorm. It seems that an awful lot of those cars are big gas guzzlers, including ones that fall into the SUV group.

Plus, the SUV-for-the-single-yuppie-city-driver phenomenon irritates me I have to admit.

Anyways, is somebody gonna make these licence plate frames to sell to us? I probably wouldn't buy one that targets a specific car group though.

 

How about these:

Smell that? Didn't think so!

Style AND Substance

Making Mother Nature Proud

Got Juice?

Looks Great! Less Filling!