Hummer > Prius - NJFBOA - Home of New Jersey's Camaros and Firebirds

BigAls87Z28 · 03-22-2007, 11:03 AM

Jeff...time to caress your tree and cry tears of pain...

http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/edito...asp?NewsID=188

Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage
By Chris Demorro
Staff Writer
The Toyota Prius has become the flagship car for those in our society so environmentally conscious that they are willing to spend a premium to show the world how much they care. Unfortunately for them, their ultimate ‘green car’ is the source of some of the worst pollution in North America; it takes more combined energy per Prius to produce than a Hummer.

Before we delve into the seedy underworld of hybrids, you must first understand how a hybrid works. For this, we will use the most popular hybrid on the market, the Toyota Prius. The Prius is powered by not one, but two engines: a standard 76 horsepower, 1.5-liter gas engine found in most cars today and a battery- powered engine that deals out 67 horsepower and a whooping 295ft/lbs of torque, below 2000 revolutions per minute. Essentially, the Toyota Synergy Drive system, as it is so called, propels the car from a dead stop to up to 30mph. This is where the largest percent of gas is consumed. As any physics major can tell you, it takes more energy to get an object moving than to keep it moving. The battery is recharged through the braking system, as well as when the gasoline engine takes over anywhere north of 30mph. It seems like a great energy efficient and environmentally sound car, right?

The Fixer · 03-22-2007, 11:16 AM

Put THAT in your tailpipe and smoke it, Toyota! Nice article!

BigAls87Z28 · 03-22-2007, 11:19 AM

Combine that with the Tundra failing to get a 5 star front crash rating, and the big GM Memo going around that destroies that "See-Saw" Tundra commercial, its tough aiming for #1.

slugger27nj · 03-22-2007, 12:10 PM

I hate that stupid commercial, and the one with the cliff, too!

Teds89IROC · 03-22-2007, 01:54 PM

Very nice article!

Anti_Rice_Guy · 03-22-2007, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teds89IROC

Very nice article!

qft

that's great haha i should send that to the hippies I know.

Squirrel · 03-22-2007, 04:07 PM

owned...

firehawk1120 · 03-22-2007, 04:19 PM

I've been saying that for years about the cost effectiveness of Gas vs. paying more for the hybrid. Figure an avg. person spends about 30 bucks a week in gas and that's driving alot. that is $1,560 a year round it up to 2 grand. Most hybrids are 6-10k more that means 3-5 years minimum to even out the higher price, and if you finance your payments are even higher so it truely takes longer then that even.

Good job TOYOTA intelligent company. LMAO

trashman01 · 03-22-2007, 04:21 PM

30 a week? i spend 60 and up a week

Rich189 · 03-22-2007, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 88ta5spd

30 a week? i spend 60 and up a week

me too... normally a full tank in the truck (40 bucks) and a half tank in the ta (15 or so)

trashman01 · 03-22-2007, 04:56 PM

thats with one car(my alero, driving 300 miles a week sucks!) with my t/a i can be over 100 easily

JL8Jeff · 03-22-2007, 07:32 PM

Ha! You wouldn't catch me dead in a Prius. Overpriced POS. As far as the article, it's about as lopsided as you can get. Apparently the Hummer doesn't need a battery, hmmmm. But if it did, it would probably cause the same environmental damage, duh. And of course they don't mention anything about the cost and env damage done while getting the steel ready to build the Hummer body. Please, that article is a joke. And we all know an average Hummer won't come anywhere near 300K miles so their cost calculation goes up drastically when you put a realistic mileage on it. Electric cars are not our friends. But who spends more than $20 a week on gas? Dam, where do you guys drive to every day?

qwikz28 · 03-22-2007, 08:48 PM

i've spent already 60 this week on gas and will probably have to fill up again this weekend.

its about time this hybrid phase died out. those cars are wasteful and heavy. they don't get their claimed gas mileage either. what happens in an accident and the victim needs to be helped out of the car? what if the fireman strikes one of the power lines going to the battery pack in the back of the car?

Iroc-z86 · 03-22-2007, 10:45 PM

when will people learn, recycled cars dont pay.

chummmma · 03-22-2007, 10:50 PM

a buddy of mine who works at philly car share (a pretty big eco friendly car rental thing in philly) was telling me about this mind you he drives a h/c GTO.
They are ditching all the prius's they have and buying vert miatas/minis and bmws etc. The replacement batteries that fail on the hybrids are on national backorder too. And another thing is if the battery fails the whole car cant be used since the hybrid system runs everything.

and i usually spend roughly 80-120 a week on gas.

trashman01 · 03-22-2007, 11:04 PM

im going to work and skool. this week sucked cuz i had to use my own money to go get my dads tbird(junked that bitch, poped a headgasket and cracked the head) with my JOBS flatbed

Teds89IROC · 03-22-2007, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by firehawk1120

I've been saying that for years about the cost effectiveness of Gas vs. paying more for the hybrid. Figure an avg. person spends about 30 bucks a week in gas and that's driving alot. that is $1,560 a year round it up to 2 grand. Most hybrids are 6-10k more that means 3-5 years minimum to even out the higher price, and if you finance your payments are even higher so it truely takes longer then that even.

Good job TOYOTA intelligent company. LMAO

My dad is an adjuster for Geico and he was telling me they were thinking of providing the adjusters with prius's but the cost of buying the car's plus maintaining them was way more then they would spend in gas. Instead they have malibu's and stratus's lol

maroman88 · 03-22-2007, 11:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by qwikz28

i've spent already 60 this week on gas and will probably have to fill up again this weekend.

its about time this hybrid phase died out. those cars are wasteful and heavy. they don't get their claimed gas mileage either. what happens in an accident and the victim needs to be helped out of the car? what if the fireman strikes one of the power lines going to the battery pack in the back of the car?

us firemen have had in-house training for dealing with hybrids, we had a demo ford escape at our firehouse and we went thru it, basically everything u cant touch has bright orange flex hose around it, and you hafta basically get the hood open and pull every fuse u can find BEFORE even trying to cut a person out

Mark B · 03-23-2007, 07:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maroman88

and you hafta basically get the hood open and pull every fuse u can find BEFORE even trying to cut a person out

Wow... talk about killing precious seconds during a rescue. What if the car was on fire?

How about water? I wonder what would happen if the car drove into a lake?

maroman88 · 03-23-2007, 07:52 AM

lol if its on fire, i dont remember what they told us, i would choose one of two options, let it burn cuz its totaled once its on fire anyway and protect surrounding cars/buildings, or stay at home under my warm covers cuz i want nothing to do with it lol

drive into a lake, good luck

qwikz28 · 03-23-2007, 08:32 AM

someone explain me this: i just heard a commercial on the radio saying a toyota prius can save someone $13k over a 5 year span on gas.... since i drive alot and have a suv, i assume i would be the target audience. allow me to elaborate.

i estimated that i drive about 600 miles a week on average(rounding up). that is about 30k a year. so lets assume my car gets about 20mpg(rounding down), and gas is about $2.50 (rounding up) throughout the year. thats about $3750 a year or $18750 over 5 years.

now a prius lets say gets double the gas mileage (for simplicity purposes) so lets say that number gets halved, $9375. (13k? really?) thats a savings of $150 a month over an SUV with gas prices at $2.50 for someone who drives more then twice the national average, rounding in favor of the hybrid. and on top of that i have a roomier car, towing capabilities, more horsepower then a shopping cart, and 4WD.

its easy math, do it for yourself for someone who drives a normal sedan at the average 12k a year; the savings diminish rather fast. and then you have maintanance, higher vehicle cost, blah blah. exactly who benefits from a hybrid?

BigAls87Z28 · 03-23-2007, 10:26 AM

Yeah, you must drive a lot of miles in a H2 to maybe see that type of savings.

WildBillyT · 03-23-2007, 10:57 AM

Eh, I think hybrids have their place. It's warming society up to alternative methods for power and transportation, and for people that treat their car like an appliance it's one step closer to making that a reality.

New tech typically is expensive until it becomes more common. My first real computer was a 33mhz 486 DX with a 13" SVGA monitor- For $2200.

jola · 03-23-2007, 11:54 AM

Quote:

The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it.

Is that true? I don't know many hummer owners. 300,000 miles is an awful lot of commuting.