fuel economy in car commercials

"The Office Jet" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> I agree that raising gas prices will change people's thinking. I'm
> wondering if the increased gas prices over the last year or two have
> translated into higher sales.
>

Yes, but it's not a 1-1 correlation. I can see with the Prius some
people will just not like the car. I didn't care for the rear seat headroom
at all (or lack of it), and the controls and instruments were very
unconventional. The engine/motor noises also don't always seem to
correlate to any speed, which can take some getting used to. At 28,000
dollars, it was also ridiculously overpriced. Gas will never be so
expensive that buying a Prius at that price would be worth it.

The Honda Civic, especially the 2006 model, looks to be a better bargain
than a Prius. Sure, it doesn't have as high gas mileage but it also costs
alot less. Some dealers are selling them with a discount too. And it
actually looks and drives just like a regular car (except for the CVT- but I
found it "sounded" more like a regular car than the Prius). Rumor is in
2006 it will have a regular 5 speed auto transmission and upgraded safety
features as standard (side curtain airbags standard, possibly stability
control), and also is said to have a fuel economy improvement as well. I
have heard rumors that Honda is not satisfied with the CVT's, the economies
of scale are better for the regular auto transmissions, and actually a CVT
is not necessarily more efficient (especially with engines with wider power
bands, and the fact that a CVT still has a torque converter).

Volkswagens diesel sales in the US have also increased in the last couple
of years, even while their gas engine sales have not been great. Honda may
come out with a diesel-engine Civic in a year or two in the US; if so they
could likely cut into VW's sales. I went the diesel Jetta wagon route
because the car was only 16,500 dollars, had side curtain airbags, and of
course was diesel, and I was also interested in biodiesel (of course, it's
hard to find in Florida but not impossible).

> And they can't make them fast enough. I know a couple of people that

> had to wait several months for a Prius to come available

An additional driver for hybrids' popularity is a controversial
movement, differing in status and exact nature from one state to
another, to allow some or all hybrids into the High-Occupancy Vehicle
aka carpool lanes regardless of how many people are on board.

This pits the states against the federal government, which wants only
pure electrics and alternative-fuel vehicles to solo in the HOV lanes
(presumably wielding highway funds as its enforcement weapon). Thus
there's a controversy- within- a- controversy about whether this sort
of thing should be up to the Feds or decided by each state.

(Check with your state's transportation or motor-vehicles department
before diving into the diamond lane alone, as violations can result in
a ticket about the size of Rhode Island.)

Back to the original question: come to think of it, I can't readily
envision a recent TV commercial that explicitly brags about mileage.
Or maybe I only pay attention to the ones that tell you how fast,
classy, or likely to make people think you're a cowboy the vehicle is.


Perhaps they figure that people who are highly motivated by gas mileage
and other factors in operating cost are less likely to be swayed by
advertising, so big-ticket adverts in costly media are steered toward
the people who make decisions based on image rather than data? Just a
guess.

--Joe

"Magnulus" > wrote in message
. ..
>
> "The Office Jet" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
>> I wonder how the sales of hyrbid cars have been affected over the past
>> year. Is there anyway to find out something like that?
>>
>
> Interest in hybrids goes up when gas prices go up, but that doesn't
> always
> translate into sales. People, though, are now more interested in fuel
> economy than horsepower, that has to be a record of some kind for recent
> history.

Not really, interest in more fuel economical vehicles always increases as
the relative price of gas increases.

On Tue, 22 Mar 05 13:22:20 GMT, (Lloyd Parker)
wrote:

>But diesels can't be sold in 6 states right now.

I didn't know that.
Which ones?

--
Bill Funk
Change "g" to "a"

"Lloyd Parker" > wrote in message
...
> How so? It has as much room as a Camry, sells for about Camry prices,
gets
> much better mileage, and qualifies for a gov't tax credit.

28,000 dollars vs. 20,000 dollars for the Camry. And the rear seat in
the Prius has less headroom, even though it's a hatchback.

> > Honda may
> >come out with a diesel-engine Civic in a year or two in the US;
>
> Doubtful. Honda buys diesel engines for its cars in Europe from GM, don't
> they?

No, it is their first diesel engine they built in-house.

"Big Bill" > wrote in message
...
> On Tue, 22 Mar 05 13:22:20 GMT, (Lloyd Parker)
> wrote:
>
> >But diesels can't be sold in 6 states right now.
>
> I didn't know that.
> Which ones?
>

California, New York, Maine, Vermont, I believe. Any state that uses
California's bull**** rules on air pollution. BTW, people do buy diesel
cars in California, they just buy them used or go to another state and pick
them up. As long as the odometer has 7500 miles, it can be registered.

And California's rules are bull****. 60 percent of air pollution is
caused by 10 percent of the cars on the road. These cars are overwhelmingly
old and in poor shape- think of the bondomobiles and rust buckets you see on
the road occasionally. Diesel engines don't significantly contribute to
pollution any more than gasoline engines do.

In article >,
Big Bill > wrote:
>On Tue, 22 Mar 05 13:22:20 GMT, (Lloyd Parker)
>wrote:
>
>>But diesels can't be sold in 6 states right now.
>
>I didn't know that.
>Which ones?
>
CA, NY, ME, MA, and VT (actually 5, not 6). These states all have adopted
CA's stricter emissions laws. When low-sulfur diesel fuel is available in
a couple of years, Mercedes has indicated it believes it can have its
diesel engines pass those laws too.

In article >,
"Magnulus" > wrote:
>
>"Lloyd Parker" > wrote in message
...
>> How so? It has as much room as a Camry, sells for about Camry prices,
>gets
>> much better mileage, and qualifies for a gov't tax credit.
>
> 28,000 dollars vs. 20,000 dollars for the Camry. And the rear seat in
>the Prius has less headroom, even though it's a hatchback.

Nope. 21,000 vs 20,000. (source: www.kbb.com)

The Prius has .4 inches more front leg room and .8" more rear leg room.
The headroom is close, 0.1" less in front and 1.2" less in rear (the Prius
has a more sloping roof).


>
>> > Honda may
>> >come out with a diesel-engine Civic in a year or two in the US;
>>
>> Doubtful. Honda buys diesel engines for its cars in Europe from GM,
don't
>> they?
>
> No, it is their first diesel engine they built in-house.
>
>

In article >,
"Magnulus" > wrote:
>
>"Big Bill" > wrote in message
.. .
>> On Tue, 22 Mar 05 13:22:20 GMT, (Lloyd Parker)
>> wrote:
>>
>> >But diesels can't be sold in 6 states right now.
>>
>> I didn't know that.
>> Which ones?
>>
>
> California, New York, Maine, Vermont, I believe. Any state that uses
>California's bull**** rules on air pollution. BTW, people do buy diesel
>cars in California, they just buy them used or go to another state and
pick
>them up. As long as the odometer has 7500 miles, it can be registered.

What about the annual emissions tests?

>
> And California's rules are bull****. 60 percent of air pollution is
>caused by 10 percent of the cars on the road. These cars are
overwhelmingly
>old and in poor shape- think of the bondomobiles and rust buckets you see
on
>the road occasionally. Diesel engines don't significantly contribute to
>pollution any more than gasoline engines do.

They do for NOx and particulates (less for HC and CO).

>
>
>

In article .com>,
"Larry Bud" > wrote:
>
>Magnulus wrote:
>> "Lloyd Parker" > wrote in message
>> ...
>> > How so? It has as much room as a Camry, sells for about Camry
>prices,
>> gets
>> > much better mileage, and qualifies for a gov't tax credit.
>>
>> 28,000 dollars vs. 20,000 dollars for the Camry. And the rear
>seat in
>> the Prius has less headroom, even though it's a hatchback.
>
>To buy a Prius just because of higher gas prices is ridiculous. It'd
>take years to pay of $28k.
>
>Now, if you're already in the market (which I think it's nuts to buy a
>new car anyway), you've spend $8k more. Save maybe $500 a year in gas,
>and it'll take 16 years to pay it off.
>
It's $1000, and there's a federal tax deduction for buying a hybrid.