Petrol price to jump in the weeks ahead

In aus.motorcycles on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:25:33 +1100

some of that's manufacturing decisions.

Look at the new Mini next to an old one. I bet the new one is just
the same as all the other smaller cars built on the same line. THey
could have built it smaller, but why?

I suspect one reason why not is they think the customer wants a lot of
interior room.

Zebee

 

A modern mini is _much_ bigger than the original!

Sorry Zebee, but I don't understand what you are getting at.

The modern mini is, IMHO, an ugly, over priced, wank-mobile.

The original mini was a brilliant bit of automotive design.

It was small, light, handled well and cheap, none of those virues seem
to have carried over to the modern mini.
(Note..."handled well" is viewed as a comparative, "at the time", measure.)

Modern mini is aimed at a totally different customer to the original mini.

Original was for poor people, modern is aimed at well heeled wankers.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

Nuclear power and hydrogen cars.

 

In aus.motorcycles on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:05:56 +1100

Exactly. It's an average hatchback with different bodywork. Because
average hatchback assembly lines and assemblies are available.

Yes and yes. But to make it again means a hell of a lot of retooling.

Yup, because poor people buy Hyundai.

So why build a car that they can't afford anyway?

You might manage to sell something like that SmartCar whatsit, but how
many people bought that?

Honda made small cars like the Z, again I dunno they sold.

Zebee

 

you are wrong there too,statistically.

 

Remember that statement of yours Nev
It may come back and bite your arse in a couple of years

 

About fucking time I see someone else advocating nuclear power
but I would bet that there would be not many know they have possibly more
than one nuclear powered objects in their houses
and they even go out of their way to buy them

If they can make a submarine which can stay submerged for yonks and doesn't
need refuelling for 25 years, then they can do something like nuclear power
stations to power houses and get rid of all the smog and carbon emmissions

 

That surprises me. Which EPA? Have you got a cite? Have I been asleep?

 

Missed this the first time around. I'm wondering what you mean, "Two
engines"? Are you counting electric motors? If so, that would add up
to three in most hybrids.
The fabled environmental kick in the pants is not the hybrid system
per se, it's the manufacture and eventual disposal of the battery.
FWIW, a hybrid system can run quite happily and very efficiently
without the battery (Wabco scrapers among other things have been doing
this since the early 50s) but they are a bitch to drive. The battery
is needed to smooth things out and ensure the computer stays on line.
That's where the development path is - cheaper lighter more powerful
batteries with an acceptable environmental footprint. Of course this
will also makes true plug ins increasingly more viable, so there
should come a point when hybrids will become obsolete. That will be
some time in the future, though. Until then Hybrid is the only real
game in town, unless fantasies about hydrogen and nuke suddenly become
reality.
So there ya go, the bleeding obvious in a nutshell - small weak and
fuel efficient IC engines followed by more efficient hybrid followed
by electric plug ins (maybe backed up by on the go collector systems
like electric trains).
Our kids are not going to have a lot of driving fun methinks.

Absolutely.

 

Yah... but this is the wrong place to start.

Small turbo-charged diesels use almost as little fuel in city running as
a Prius, less fuel in normal suburban running and much less fuel in
highway running.

A much better place to start putting money into developing more
economical cars.


G-S

 

I have driven one, although not the absolute latest version which has
just been released. The one I drove was about 18 months old.

I found it bland, boring and typically toyota competent.

I also found it got worse fuel economy and had less performance than the
Golf turbo-diesel I'd had the previous trip.

I was... under whelmed.


G-S

 

I googled, found a list that was labelled April 2009.

It's possible that the web site were fibbing about the date... no idea
to be honest.


G-S

 

EFI on bikes was forced by emmissions reasons not for being 'better' or
'worse' performing than carbies.

In any case in almost all cases it's still worse performing these days
(from a smoothness perspective).


G-S

 

If the intent is to create a car with low emmission levels then they are
comparable.

Size isn't relevant to every buyer.


G-S

 

Lack of car fuel is unlikely to be a problem for anyone currently alive,
if (and it is a big) we run out of oil there will still be lots of gas
to power IC engines.


Daryl

 

No point developing an economical car unless it's a car people *want* to
own and drive.

When they crack that, the floodgates will open.

 

So I should buy a wrecked VE and put the running gear in a VB... : )

 

Yup. But that's using current technology. Why not look for something
different? I'm not saying hybrids or even electrics are necessarily
the way to go, but maybe they are. Diesel engines and turbos have been
around for ages. I guess so have electric engines and batteries, but
we haven't tried powering cars with them much. It's still first gen.

Personally I'd love them to get electric engines working well, be it
hybrid or pure electric. They put out full torque from zero revs. If
we can get the battery weight down, the things should bark off the
line.

Fuel cells? Who knows, early days yet.

 

Electric cars were developed very early on,
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarselectrica.htm

In my view the new Chevrolet Volt is a step foward in design and superior to
the Prius

http://www.chevrolet.com/pages/open/default/fuel/electric.do

 

Thanks for that Nev.

I didn't know the numbers for a "traditional" Ozzie car.

I did know that a P76, V8 of the seventies, is slightly lighter than a
currant model Corrola.

regards,
CrazyCam