On Dec 29, 2006, at 8:42 AM, Christian wrote: > My 2000 Civic EX gets an average of 35 MPG mixed driving (see > gridlocked > Washington, DC traffic, punctuated with brief bursts of 80mph). Pure > highway at an average of 70mph will see 40 MPG without an issue.
Certainly, Christian. That is not the point. Disregarding the fact that 43.5 overall MPG is by itself a near 25% improvement over what your Civic EX achieves, the Prius and other hybrid-electric cars achieve (better) fuel economy while lowering toxic emissions output substantially, and particular in the situations where those emissions are the most harmful to public health (stop and go, in-city driving). That is the point. You get better economy and less pollutants released into the air, with a side effect of lower service costs (the ICE and brakes are less stressed and thereby require less service, last longer). This is paid for with a premium on purchase price, which is amortized by running expense reductions over time presuming you keep the car long enough. Godfrey BTW: I have always kept detailed records on all my vehicles' fuel and maintenance costs. I've owned the Prius for ~12,150 miles of driving now. That's 276 US gallons of fuel (43.84 mpg overall). By comparison, my Toyota MR2 consumed 426 US gallons of fuel in the same distance by my accounting (28.5 mpg overall) and my Land Rover Freelander consumed 658 US gallons (18.5 overall mpg). I consider that a substantial savings at today's prices of $2.70 per gallon, and a benefit to the environment as well. For the mileages stated above about your Civic, are you speaking from such accounting records or from a recalled estimated mileage average? I have no doubt that it is quite economical on fuel, but sometimes our memory tricks us. My buddy down in Texas has a similar car and asserted that he was getting "over 40 mpg most of the time due to all the highway driving" so I asked him to keep a precise log for six months out of curiousity. His actual mileage was 34.5 overall mpg, 41.2 mpg highway, for a 7,000 mile period where he was keeping detailed records and separating out the constant highway use.) -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
