ok fellas im in need of your help. a member of my auto club at school who is a big foreign car guy and he is causing a big scene because of some talk on boards about the facts that hybrids are often over priced for their actual gas mileage. so please just tell give me some more reasons to use about why hybrids arent all they are cracked up to be

IF YOU DONT AGREE THAT HYBRIDS ARENT EVERYTHING THEY CLAIM TO BE THAN PLEASE DONT POST

i dont usually like to confront people but this guy is just being arrogant and rude

Edited February 15, 200619 yr by 99camaroSS

wow no love on this valentines day

One reason is depending on your driving preferences you may not get the full benifit of the hybrid itself such as if you roll the stop signs like many people do then you don't get the free energy of regenerative braking. Its not much but the people who don't come to complete stops will end up with bad MPG. Plus cold weather can decrease efficiency up to 35% so here in detroit in the winter it wouldn't do too good.

Edited February 15, 200619 yr by reeferman

The Prius' battery is over 300 volts. I believe like 20 or so are lethal.

Though the battery has a 100k mile warranty, it costs approximately $3000 to replace (when not under warranty).

Those are two good enough reasons for me.

The Prius' battery is over 300 volts. I believe like 20 or so are lethal.

Voltage does not kill... Amperes do.

Think of Voltage as the size of the car and Amps as the speed it is driving when it hits you, in other words a motionless Hummer will do less damage than a Mini Cooper at 30mph.

You could probably live through 100,000,000 volts if the amps were nearly non-existant.

That being said Hybrids suck... anyone who does the milage comparison between a Cobalt/Civic/Focus 5-speed and a Prius and does a realistic breakdown of milage/maintenance & real world fuel economy savings will NOT buy a Prius. People buy them to pad their Egos & advertise their Liberal Propaganda.

The simple fact is that they don't perform as advertised - that's enough in my book not to buy.

Many will never make up the cost differential through fuel savings vs. the standard version of the same car - that's more than enough not to buy.

This technology is still experimental and in its infancy - again enough reason not to buy.

Hybrids are not the answer. Diversification of fuel sources is. What is needed is the infrastructure to make the increased use of ethanol,propane,natural gas,hydrogen, etc. available for existing internal combustion technology while research into fuel cells and hybrids continues. Pinning our hopes on ANY single source is just foolishness.

And don't forget the environmental impact of replacing the $3K battery. Those things don't just vaporize after you take them out of the car, you know. And what happens if you get into an accident, and the battery gets damaged and starts leaking on the ground?

Slight hijack due to thread title:

"Gimme back my bullets put'em back where they belong. Aint foolin around cause I done had my fun. Aint gonna see no more damage done. Gimme back,Gimme back, Gimme back my bullets"

Hybrids like the Prius and Insight are image cars. You will never see you fuel savings surpass or even match your cost of entry (higher MSRP and 'market adjustments') unless fuel prices utterly skyrocket or you keep the car well beyond the normal 4-8 years.

Virtually all hybrids for sale in America today get well below their advertised MPG ratings. You can blame Honda, Toyota, the EPA, Hirohito, whoever, this is still a fact. I'm making an educated assumption that this is due to their country of origin; Japanese sit in gridlocks and stop-n'-gos while Americans highway cruise. We also use a/c and accessories more frequently and we treat the throttle like its going out of style.

Note one thing about the latest hybrids from Honda and Toyota - they focus on performance benefits and cutting-edge powertrain technology over raw fuel savings. They treat hybrids like Buick and Mercedes treated superchargers and Subaru, SAAB, and Audi treat turbos. They offer the performance of an 8/6 with the economy of a 6/4. People have stopped making pie-in-the-sky economy claims because they know they won't materialize. You don't see a commercial with the RX hybrid in a lush green meadow with fieldmice and Bambi; you see it colliding with an electric car and mixing technology.

The best way to save gas is still to drive less, share rides, combine trips, cut down on a/c use, don't cruise on friday nights or at the very worst, buy a new/used economy car to complement your nearly-paid-off vehicle, which probably isn't that much of a guzzler in the first place.

Slight hijack due to thread title:

"Gimme back my bullets put'em back where they belong. Aint foolin around cause I done had my fun. Aint gonna see no more damage done. Gimme back,Gimme back, Gimme back my bullets"

Mama, put my guns to ground. I can't shoot them, anymore. That cold black cloud is comin' down. Feels like I'm knockin' on heavens door, hey, hey, hey, hey yeah.

ok...sorry. I'm done.

Mama, put my guns to ground. I can't shoot them, anymore. That cold black cloud is comin' down. Feels like I'm knockin' on heavens door, hey, hey, hey, hey yeah.

ok...sorry. I'm done.

haha turbojett, its a great song gotta love lynyrd

Whoa! Wait a minute here.

We are talking two different songs here.

My quote is Lynyrd Skynyrd.

TJ's Quote is Bob Dylan.

whooooooops my bad, ur quote is the song im thinkin Camino

Voltage does not kill... Amperes do.

Think of Voltage as the size of the car and Amps as the speed it is driving when it hits you, in other words a motionless Hummer will do less damage than a Mini Cooper at 30mph.

You could probably live through 100,000,000 volts if the amps were nearly non-existant.

Wow, that's an over-simplification!

Voltage is the pressure and Amperage is the flow. Problem is that a higher pressure easily overcomes resistance and the result is greater flow.

Your skin and tissue is the resistance, and at 20 volts on dry skin there is not enough "pressure" to overcome the resistance and therefore the "flow" is minimized. At 100 volts however, the resistance is overcome and enough flow ensues causing electrocution.

Consequently, at 100,000,000 volts, an arc would be drawn through your body vaporizing your skin and then ionizing the gas vapor.

Ohm's Law:

Volts(pressure)=Amps(flow) x Ohms(resistance)