Re: [pf] GM quits Global Warming Coalition; the Bussieres' car.

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At 14:07 19/03/00 -0800, Jill wrote:
>    We will not be buying the Toyota - it is sure way out of our price
>range, but I was interested in it, because of its mileage.  Maybe one day
>...  My husband commutes 60 miles round trip to work each day - so 
>the mileage counts big time.
>  Arnie, how did you like your Geo?  Anybody else have recommendations?
>
>                        Jill

**  I agree with comments pointing to the distinction between the
transition phase and the final steady state. One of my early goals was to
see what it would be like to live in what I was guessing would be the
global average condition, in that steady state (say 25 years from now). But
getting started on the transition is the /most important/ thing.

**  Now several comments about cars, leading in different directions.

(1) You could ask a couple of local gas station owners/managers, what
they'd choose for themselves (among the small cars) for reliability, if
they were in your husband's position.

(2) Here in NZ Honda made its reputation with that Civic, back in the '70s.
You could talk to the _service_ manager at the nearest Honda dealer, about
whether any recent cars have that sort of reliability.
   Note that most of my comments rely on the car being able to stand the
conditions /where you are/, not on a South Pacific Island! My first choice
would be the smallest Suzuki or Daihatsu (with medium-sized motorcycle
engines), but then we've got good service in Auckland for these tiny cars.

(3) I thought tully had (has?) a Geo. What's she think, for Wisconsin?

(4) Don't forget the first 5-10 miles on winter mornings. Do you need one
or two block heaters, there in NE Wisconsin? We did, in Ottawa. And in
particular, getting the windscreen clear enough to see a snowy road: before
I stopped driving, I noticed that our very efficient (for 1985) engine,
plus my frugal (= 50 mph max) driving, meant that the engine hardly heated
up at all for most of the first half hour. You certainly couldn't have
defrosted a windscreen with the engine heat! VW bugs used to have a
separate (gas-powered) heater.

(5) The one distinction I've noticed between various designs for hybrid
cars, is whether they /can/ drive solely on the electric motor. One of the
two now or soon available can, the other can't. /I/ would only consider the
one that can be used only on batteries-plus-electric-motor, since I would
then be able to use solar power to charge a battery-bank, then charge the
car batteries, and drive as far as that would take me, with zero fuel cost
(except for amortization) after the initial (large) capital expense.

   The possibility of our buying a hybrid-engined car is something I have
to keep in mind, since in ~2 years we too will be out in the country with
no bus service, and while we are currently able to walk the 100 minutes
each way into town to buy our weekly groceries, within the next 10 years at
least one of us will find it too hard (e.g my knee is still sore from when
I twisted it, when I slipped on the back step in the pre-dawn darkness 6
weeks ago). Maybe we'll get a bus service up that Coromandel road during
those 10 years, maybe not.

David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/3142/Pg1-AD11.html
 or better: http://www.emucities.com.au/member/davd/
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