I suppose a Smart is a pretty efficient way to get around if it's just you or a single passenger and as much limited luggage as you can cram - but I still maintain that even 70mpg is pretty rubbish "typical" economy (ie trucking about at 60mph) for a 2-seater when I have to thrash the polo to drop below 35mpg even five-up. Why not a scooter, or an Aixam?
(hey.. now THEYRE ripe for hybridising.. considering that in town traffic past 20mph i can generally keep pace with a feather touch on the throttle in top, they dont need any more than their 14hp once theyre moving - just an acceleration boost off the line)
If I could find a nice one second hand though, that I could afford, I would be all over it. For such a dinky engine they do go like stink from a standing start (maybe the reason for the "low" economy - adrenaline junkie drivers!), its got the looks, and 70mpg
is 70mpg after all. Mind you that is with a turbo, 6 speed bike-shift, and a freaking intercooler!
(hey... with the speed limiter omitted... can i get one of those powerplants (chipped..) fitted for the dub?)
Jeez, though, there's a figure there you should look at - the kerb weight for the Smart is within an Asda value rice sack of a Mk2!!
On that subject, my tripmeter, the local petrol pump, and demon mathematics conspire to tell me I managed somewhere between 60 and 70mpg myself on the trip home from Derby - with both a (unneccessary, it turned out) roofrack & ropes AND a "new" door in the back of the Polo. With the seats up and parcel shelf in tunes-blasting place
. Is this figure even possible from an over-1000cc, square-edged car?!
Anyone who might be familiar with the area - I headed north from "California" (southwest derby) on the A516 and 5111 to the A38, filling to the first click-off at Sainsburys (80p/L!) and mileage-marking the receipt, then cruised on down to north birmingham on the 38, breaking starboard to home at Bassetts Pole. Sticking mainly to 90km/h with some slowdowns, some speed-ups (peaking maybe to 70mph) and a good few miles of truck slipstream leeching. Fairly pleasant little ride home (after cruising up rather faster, 70-75... found myself a new "quiet" zone in the engine speed, though it's still uncomforably over 4000rpm). Admittedly I did kill the engine at the lights and down a couple of larger, slower hills, but I reckon the effect of that is marginal on such a trip.
Whaddya think? Is the closer-to-home pump just screwy? (and worth revisiting!) It was a little over 35 miles point-to-point, and i squeezed 2.6 litres in... though i think everything past 2.2 (half gallon) might have ended up spilt, between the expansion valve and the filler neck, as it seemed to trickle-overtop twice.
It first clicked-off at 1.86L!
And I wasn't driving in bright sunshine or driving snow either, so I can't put it down to either fuel expansion or metal contraction.
Wondering whether it might partially be down to the leads. The old ones must have been sucking so much extra current it's untrue. On turning the starter, ever since I got the stereo, it's powered itself off whenever I run the leccy motor, and fired back up 5 or 10 seconds later. Since I whacked the fresh ones in... theres an ever so slight dimming of the display, but it keeps on pumping at full power. Which I make to be at least a 150w saving on power consumption if not far more. Perhaps the old cabling overheating and melting the insulation was caused by... itself? That kind of cockup in the ignition probably isn't too good for the combustion either.
Hmmm! Perhaps I *too* can reach 110 in a 1-litre now!
Babe, why should these solutions only be valid in the 'developed' markets? If I'm thinking of attempting the mods to my own car.... which is an almost 14 year old mk3 that cost me as much as 3 months hire-purchase lease on the cheapest current Focus.... and you (who, for right or wrong i may take as a typical up and coming south american) drive a 9n
... wouldn't i be a little justified in thinking you might be in a better situation than me for such an idea?
There are several 1.3 and below cars still being made and run around... mainly it seems to be the japanese and their asian clonesters taking hold of that market now though, with a few meagre italian (Seiscento/Panda), french (..i think?) and anglo-deustch-american (ie, Corsa) holdouts. Which is a shame really - I can't argue against you too much on this front to be fair! - as a modern 1000cc engine is a far more competent power unit than many of it's 80s 1300cc brethren!
But "people" (i don't know whom! the marketing men obviously do..) are supposedly more interested in power and trading-up the numbers in their life right now than thinking of economy. Which is kind of my beef with the IMA - why not keep similar power levels and boost the efficiency lots, rather than giving the power and efficiency a small boost each?
Even my mother has gone, in the last decade, from a 1000cc baby fiat (great) to an 1100cc Peugeot 205 (poor!), 1275cc mid-size Fiat (ok..), and a pair of 1400cc Rover 25s (first one 3 door and 84hp, the next 5 door and 104hp - both bought mostly for warranty and a super-cheap workers' family deal)... despite the fact she mostly takes cross-town trips and sedate motorway journeys (rarely above 75mph, unless she forgets - as ever - to keep check) and never carries any luggage that would have overtaxed even that old 1000cc fiat. Her driving needs and speeds are much the same (except for a current desire for a warranty - i'm trying to convince her that "buying 80s/early 90s vw" counts as one), just now she's paying more tax (for the high capacity) and more on fuel. For some reason she has the idea she needs the power - whether just for status, i dont know - of the larger engine and doubtful extra flexibility of the larger car (dont seem to be much that'll go in hers won't go in mine - it's just chubbier)... and then likes to tick me off for driving too quick and accelerating too hard in the dub
Well, the higher fuel prices should see that off.
The 1.4 to 2.0 litre cars aren't really the problem though, I don't think. A student friend of mine doesn't seem to be financially crippled by the running costs of his old 1.8 Sierra (he does get into 5th at about 25mph though). What of all those 4x4s?
I wonder... with the line of thinking you proposed - ie people not taking smaller cars and engines... If they were still offered for sale, would people maybe still buy them? The mk4 and 5 engine ranges spanned 1.0 to at least 1.6 litre, but i see plenty of them with 1.0L badges on... and we're talking almost up to 2000 there, when the SUV binge had definately set in. The fiat cinquencento and seiscento sold solidly. There's many Daewoo Matizes and the like fizzing about, and they (along with the fiats) are arguably smaller than Smarts. 4 rather than 5 passenger cars!
Problem probably is - you can't turn a profit off that ickle a car any more, as the likely customer for them has a buyer's market in the second hand area, with many very cheap, efficient, well made small cars that have got up to 10 years life left in them - for example, the housefly-like 1989 Ford Fiesta popular..... on a side note, my used car guide says it'll return 40-65mpg! ..... The selling price for such a vehicle made brand-new has to be so low to be competitive against even the later machines in this category (viz - the mk5?) that the manufacturer either has to make it a very "cheap" car (seicento/matiz) backed up by a mental warranty they hope most drivers wont need or bother to use, or make a decent car that ultimately sells at a loss (the lupo?
)
Which turns to the unfortunate situation of the big boys saying "sorry, our toys are too good for your common type, you can't play with them" to the hungry consumers in developing nations.... who as you say should be acting maybe as a testbed for more cost effective ways of integrating safety and economy technology (because, now it's been invented and developed, can't honda and toyota suck up the cost of the hybrid stuff as a "public service" and make it cheaply available to those who need it most? the company implodes the same way, but leaving a legacy of kindness and a world that runs on cleaner energy with the oil left for plastics and medicines, rather one of corporate greed where they died because suddenly there was no fuel for their products anywhere except a small segment of the developed world, and no-one left alive in the developing markets to drive anyway as they're all dead from accidents).
It's a very callous thing and i can back you all the way on it - it's a bit odd to not sell your product to all those who want it, instead soldiering on using the old designs when it really wouldnt make so much of a dent in your fortune to make an extra couple copies of your fabbing equipment and send it to the local factory, ditching the old design & melting down rather than selling the machinery to e.g. china - or even, just export the goods direct from the existing factory. Do sony still sell betamax and 8-track tape players in your electronics stores? Of course not. It's obsolete, inefficient, low quality (well, except for the advanced beta tapes), probably has safety issues.... and we have recordable DVD anyway now for chrissakes, you can get a drive for your computer for less than the price of a tank of petrol.
(wow, when you look at it that way - the beetle/sedan production stopping in brazil might have been a teary-eye time for some amercian/european hippies, but people were dancing in the streets of the southern continent at the thought of ditching that noisy, inefficient, unsafe dinosaur!)
Maybe we should get on to the UN about setting minimum standards for vehicles sold* in "developing" nations by "developed"-world country manufacturers. In terms of emissions, safety, etc. I suppose there's little realistically that can be done about content, economy or performance unless you b***h like crazy to your dealer that you wont buy your car without air con and a TDi in it, and they will of course adhere to the minimums and nothing more, but those minimums could be set pretty high. Say, the same as they are for the nation the vehicle is built in
* I was going to say exported to or some other word like that, but of course, there are loopholes around such a suggestion. Like building the thing locally - with local, underpaid labour. Now there's another discussion and a half.
*looks at renault dacia feature found through google*
Man I hate it when I come over all precog like that. Apparently now it *will* meet euro emissions and safety standards (like, the minimums?) but it looks a rather messed up thing. Something the site of a Polo sedan, with only 1.4 and 1.6 engines (of indeterminate power, economy, source), an ugly body shell, rather spartan interior (let's guess... it features instruments, controls, and lights as major selling points?).... and an unashamed nature of a car being built down to a pocket money price. Produced in developing nations scattered across the globe as the labour and land is cheaper (and, i wouldnt like to think, the industrial pollution regulations are more lax) - truly a multinational miracle! - and designed with the somewhat troublesome aim of being sold "outside of western europe as the primary market". Why not just sell it worldwide?
If those engines aren't so crap as they're cracked up to be, though, it could be what those countries need - not only some much needed financial investment, but a replacement for knackered old smoke-belching rust buckets (Ladas... 1970s Toyotas... and whatever the hell you find in Mumbai! ... all seeming to be part of the landscape in many broadcasts from such states) with something that is at least halfway decent, wouldn't look *too* out of place on the streets of Marseille, and is actually sort-of affordable as a replacement to that smokey 2-litre, 30hp toyota.
Its market seems to be places with pretty run down economies that havent quite yet totally collapsed. Ex soviet block and central asia, etc. Might be a bit of a kick in the face for those who seriously can't even afford 5000 euros (i know i couldnt without a loan - or, i could save for a year), and be just another insult to the more sophisticated economies that have flourished (brazil etc).... hmmm.
oh wait.. i just re-read something that gave me pause
which leads to things like Fiat being able to sell a car like the Stilo without any airbags or ABS for the same price as the fully-featured Italian car in Europe
man, i just don't know any more. think i might give up.
Electric cars could be a good idea in large cities, but you'd have to know where that electricity came from. It'd be of no help if it came from fossil-fuel-burning power plants, would it? Again, that'd be a good solution in a place like Brazil where more than 90% of the electricity comes from our water reserves with the help of hydrelectric plants. But even those have certain environmental costs related to the flooding of large areas. And besides, nobody would be able to afford electric cars here anyway at the moment.
Well... for a hybrid... it would still ultimately come from fossil fuel, but you would be making far better use of that fuel..
For electric cars - well, i quite like the idea of an american electric vehicle experimenter (who has almost completely ditched internal combustion, except for an insight "wilderness long distance" backup) who has a roof covered in photovoltaics for trickle-charging their car. Because it may be slow to charge, and certainly totally impractical to run a car directly off solar (better to attach a mast and sail), but it gets there. With a normal kind of lifestyle but some actual thought and pre-planning, it's actually working. Their main car (again, polo sedan sized) is totally workable off solar energy - using it up a lot faster than it's put in, but of course, you can't spend all day in your car unless you're a delivery worker (and then, you can have fresh cells swapped in from a charging bank instead of filling up).
In truth, it sometimes ends up charging off the mains grid, but the solar panels are also hooked into this grid and feed power back when it's being generated from sunlight exposure but not being used (i.e. car and spare pack both fully charged). Amp-hour meters attached to the whole caboodle show the setup being mainly in energy *credit* even when a fair bit of driving is done, in winter. (not counting the power used by their home of course).
What's the environmental impact of manufacturing solar panels, I wonder? It can't be totally harmless. To examine a photovoltaic it looks like some kind of liquid crystal set hard, which much involve some fancy chemicals and lots of energy.
If that's not available of course, well... take whatever you can. At least you can still reduce inner city pollution even if it's running off a fossil electric plant (and that plant can use coal, natural gas, whatever). Nuclear would be good, if only you can find a safe place to put the stuff for a few hundred thousand years. Hydro, if the flooding can be justified, also great.
A variation - I used to live near a pumped-storage hydro plant in the welsh mountains - that was cool. It basically acted as a giant reverse IMA system for the electric grid. There was a natural large glacial lake up the side of one mountain, and some clever soul noticed how it sometimes filled high with rain (but not over-running), sometimes almost ran dry, and how high it was from a very close almost-sea level lake. A short bit of drilling, a couple pipes, a few turbines, some wiring and a control room, and a set of fish-filters later... ta-da... llanberis electric mountain. Surplus energy from when the power stations are effectively "idling" goes in (or from wind farms, people's solar panels
) and pumps water up from the large, lower lake to the smaller, higher one. When there's a demand surge that the turbines can't spin up quickly enough for, just open the floodgates a bit and let gravity do the rest. And of course, the extra weight of water added fairly consistently by the weather in that area doesn't hurt!
Unless the arabs come up with some really crazy sh*t to get oil prices to explode, things will remain the same for while
Saw an interesting edition of "Question Time" this evening... amongst the issues covered was petrol pricing. A good point raised by someone was... how high will it have to go to shock people into getting out of their cars for the most mundane trips (and i can confess to being guilty of that - it's comfy) and maybe walking or cycling, taking public transport too.
Quite high, I would think. Like double the prices at the start of this year.
Because then it would become cheaper to take the train than to drive at the same speed with twice as much gear! (Or even higher, if you're car sharing)... and paying a pound-fifty per litre would be just a nasty thing to watch, you'd want to go to the pump as seldom as possible.
Not to mention the public transport system in this country is bobbins - it rocked me a little to hear that it's development doesn't actually benefit from all the fuel duty that must be headed to government. (First of all there's the actual fuel tax, fixed at a certain amount per litre, which at current prices is at least 2/3 of the total cost - as much as 3/4 in cheaper areas... then there's the 17.5% VAT / Sales Tax on top of that, which means the more the fill costs "raw", the more that is taken after that!). If it wasn't actually cheaper, quicker, and easier for me to take the car and find a space to park than public transport (bus, train, whatever) in most cases, i'd be more compelled to put up with waiting 10-15 minutes for a ride to arrive when i could be
already there.
Impatience and love of comfort has a lot to answer for...! but mainly cost. The only cost effective train journey I can currently go on is on the local cross-city line, and it's just fortunate I live less than 10 minutes walk from the station and the service is uncharacteristically frequent. When it hasn't been knocked out by a points failure
the other side of the terminus at a station over 20 miles away!
It's a certain small amount for a return ticket (£2.60?) and a very, very reasonable £1.50 for a 'cheap day return' at off-peak times. Considering that parking in the city centre starts at 80p for a half hour and barely offers any kind of economy of scale, it's the best choice.
All other train (and pretty much all bus except the budget carrier) journeys are off though!
Diesel-guzzling cars - i'll take biodiesel please. Well.... i guess... what's the skinny on the agent you have to add to "clean" the oil?
I'll follow you on the divide bridging. It wouldn't be good for the developing nations to not learn by others mistakes (then who are we to deny them the opportunities even so?) and go overboard like the "western" nations did from... well.... basically the mid 1800s through to the present day, though there are definate peaks. You bring yourselves up, we if not blinded by hubris (i dispair of my fellow western man i'm afraid) shall "fall" a little (define falling!) and we'll meet you in the middle.
Current low energy (in)action plan:
Keep low capacity car, try to drive it more frugally and less, where possible and practical. Attempt to do some kind of Havana-style hybridisation to it.
Try to cycle/walk more (lose some of the weight!). I'm more active than many of my peers but that doesn't exactly make me fit.
Compact flourescent or LED lighting everywhere!
Desktop PC to laptop
Minimise the TV use (see more films at cinema instead) - get news etc from radio.
Try to get more in synch with daylight hours.
Solar panels and warmer clothes...
Eh monkey la
and if you read all that, you can have a child of the sun medallion
)
, before they (and Europe, which loves to pose as an innocent bystander to all of this but in fact is just as bad as the U.S., just not as rich) decide to do something about gas-guzzling cars (or diesel-guzzling cars, take your pick).
, my eye's hurt now. Interesting debate there...