Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2007 08:27:47 -0700
Reply-To: mike <mwmiller@CWNET.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: mike <mwmiller@CWNET.COM>
Subject: Re: Smart Car..Wow.. NVC
In-Reply-To: <e5dd010d0707200646p32ec9fe3qedb5e4f292c3b440@mail.gmail.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Yeah. Some years ago Caltrans figured the freeways would not have
compression [too many vehicles] traffic jams ever if the average passengers
per car went from 1.1 or 1.2 to 2.2. Probably still true.
Sigh.
Mike
On 7/20/07 6:46 AM, "Karl Ploessl" <karl.ploessl@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> On 7/20/07, Kenneth Wilford <kenwilfy@comcast.net> wrote:
>> What I don't understand is why VW didn't bring their Lupo (RIP) over to the
>> US? If the Smart Car has a market then surely the Lupo would have as well.
>> It was a three cylinder TDI that got around 78 mpg! Take that "not so Smart
>> are we now Car"! To me much of the debate over fuel economy could be handled
>> effectively and easily by a really old technology, diesel. Hybrids aren't as
>> frugal. Maybe plug in hybrids are more frugal but they are ten years away
>> (battery costs). Electric cars (battery), E85 (gets less mpg in most flex
>> fuel cars), etc. Diesel has been around since day one. The modern TDI
>> engine is clean, efficient, reliable and can be serviceable for over 300k
>> miles. Oh did I mention quiet and powerful (added bonuses for the Direct
>> Injection technology). My parent bought a 2006 Jetta with the TDI engine.
>> It seats four comfortably, it has all of the bells and whistles that you
>> would expect on a modern car and gets between 40-50 mpg. So you get your
>> fuel economy, and
>> an actual car that is fun to drive to boot! I would much rather drive a
>> Jetta than a Smart Car any day. And as we have noted several times there is
>> a false economy of driving a two person car over driving a four place or
>> larger car. You need to factor in not just mpg but also how many folks you
>> are transporting at that mpg. If a Smart Car is only moving two people
>> around town and getting 60 mpg and a Jetta is moving 4 and getting 45 mpg,
>> the Jetta is actually more efficient and is getting almost double the mpg of
>> the Smart Car!
>>
>
>
> but...I look around and I notice that instead of two or four
> passengers there is mostly one person in the car......
>
> --
> Karl
> '81 Westy "Jenny"
> Wilmington, DE
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