[USMA:41085] Re: Werlings' recent trip in our 2007 Toyota Prius

[Jon Saxton]

Bill: You make a valid point, and it made me stop a moment and consider my own inclination to have the car changed.  For me the motivation is quite personal. Growing up in Australia and having become thoroughly familiar with the metric system, I have no concept of how far 1200 ft is.  On the other hand I do have an idea of 400 m.  I can picture distances up to 1 km in my head but a mile is just too big to "fit".  Distance measures in hundreds of feet mean nothing at all so if my GPS tells me to "turn left in 600 feet" then the only part I understand is the directive to turn left.  So with this predisposition I set my GPS system to metric units and that works very well for me.  So I do not depend on road signs and my driving instructions and readouts are delivered in meters and kilometers.  So I find myself having to convert backwards when a speed limit is displayed as 88 or 104. For me a fully metric display would be a convenience, even living in New York.  The considerations I outlined above may not apply to those who never had the opportunity to forget miles. Bill Potts wrote: I'm not sure I understand this urge to precipitously convert odometers to SI. I would like an SI odometer as much as the next person (on this list). However, until the road signs and related stuff are converted to SI, one is faced with a constant stream of mental conversions. So I have to say, "Yes, indeed, but not just yet." A few of us doing conversions isn't going to hasten the inevitable (but excruciatingly slow in coming) switch-over. It may make your car harder to sell (assuming that's what you eventually plan to do with it).   Now, for those moving to Canada, it's an obvious thing to want to do.   I'm glad, by the way, that the inner speedometer scale (km/h) on my 1988 Acura Legend is legible. It helps preserve my sanity.   Bill Bill Potts Roseville, CA http://metric1.org [SI Navigator] From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Jon Saxton Sent: Saturday, June 14, 2008 20:59 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:41078] Re: Werlings' recent trip in our 2007 Toyota Prius Norm: Have you ever considered having the on-board display converted to metric?  I believe it can be done.  When I was living in Seattle I asked the local dealership about it and was told that it is fairly simple.  Unfortunately I found that out about 2 days before leaving and I haven't asked the dealership here in Brooklyn yet. Norman & Nancy Werling wrote: Here are the statistics for our trip to Maryland for Jacob Bullock's ( Lynda Werling Bullock's son and my grandson) high school graduation.  The trip extended to Connecticut and eventually a visit with Tom and Kathy Schwarz on the way to and from the National Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, NY.  Tom is a son of my recently deceased oldest sister, Viola Werling Schwarz.   Toyota is selling the Prius as fast as they can produce them and ship them to the US, so we probably paid full price for ours in June 2007.  As gasoline continues to rise in price,over the years that premium will probably be recouped since our payments are a fixed cost whereas gasoline prices are a variable cost which will continue to rise.    Obviously we believe in hybrids.  Why did Detroit ignore making these for so long and why are their attempts now still so lame?   Our trip was 2513.1 miles during which we bought 48.895 gallons at a cost of $194.97 which averaged $3.979 per gallon.  Dividing 2513.1 by 48.895 gallons results in 51.39 miles per gallon.  Using the factor for converting miles per US gallon, here is the conversion: 235.215 ÷ 51.396 MPG = 4.576 L/100km.   We feel that we noticed semi-trailer rigs driving more slowly during the trip.  We assume they have finally accepted that slowing down conserves fuel and wonder why automobile and pickup truck drivers haven't learned the same thing.   Nomran and Nancy