http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... ets_oil_dc


Yeah, like Texas refinery's would have any incidental or accidental "issues".

How about more likely, they are dicking around on purpose to jack up the prices.

. I really want a 100% electric car please .

http://www.sparrowelectriccars.com/

http://www.eagleemb.com/Sparrow%20-%20body.htm

I should have bought one of these when I had the chance. Damn it.

c-

General Motors are planning to start producing hydrogen powered cars. That's what we'll be driving in the not very distant future.

Hydrogen is just another form of storing energy. You still need energy which means you still need oil to create that energy. When trying to get off oil the last thing we need is another user to join the market. The infastructure of hydrogen alone would cost to much to convert. So while I wish another form of energy would be great, this isn't it.

If you want to drive those cars:

You better move to a warm climate where it never snows or rains and has nothing but flat surfaces without hills.

And make sure you weigh less than 105 lbs.

Oh, and don't run into anything unless you want to instantly die.

Or we can use nuclear power. That works just great, but I get the feeling you would frown on that...

dont make hydrogen cars available yet.

it'll put me out of my job.

Can't they make an electric car (or hybrid) that looks at least halfway cool. Those are the goofiest looking cares I've ever seen. Why do economy & ugliness have to go hand in hand?

I agree with you on the electric cars, but the hybrid cars I've seen aren't bad at all.

Honda Civic hybrid



Or the Accord hybrid



Or the Ford Escape hybrid



Or the Lexus RX400h

My problem is not so much the design as it is the compactness (although that's starting to change now, woo hoo).

I'm not sure I follow you. Maybe you know more about hydrogen cells and could explain it to me, but from my understanding you dont need oil at all. Hydrogen exists naturally in chemical compounds (water, natural gas, etc). Where does the oil come in to the picture? I'm not seeing it.

Back to the original topic, if you think $53 is high for a barrel of crude oil just wait. We are talking $100+ a barrel in the next few years. Getting to the "easy" oil around the world is pretty much over. Unless some new technology can reach the oil reserves deep within the earth, oil will stay expensive for a few years.

I believe GM is slating 2010 for hydrogen car production.

I remember driving around in college, refusing to pay $1.01 for a gallon of gas b/c we were certain we could find it for under a dollar.

The Lexus RX400h isn't due to hit showrooms until April 15th, they are supposidly going to get about 30 miles per gallon, and the starting price is $45,500-ish. I sort of want one, but I don't want to pay that much money for a car when it's essentially a 1st issue; I wouldn't want to spend that kind of money as an 'early adoptor' only to find out that it's buggy or just crap. Also, I think you're forced to get leather interior and all sorts of electronic sensor extras relative to the drive/stability of the car, and I prefer to not have a car computer take over things like traction control if I can avoid it.... just seems like one more thing that would just break or draw power away from the engine. Anyway, too expensive, the Lexus model. Handsome car though, from an SUV standpoint. I think its the triangle-ish back side window that caught my eye when I saw the standard RX model on the road recently, they have a really nice ice blue color one....

As far as The Sparrow goes, the company went out of business not for lack of demand but because the owner was dishonest with investors and got himself sued out of business. Given where I live and the climate, the comments above regarding that particular car other than that of safety are null. But since the car isn't available anymore its all mute.

I wish Toyota would do what Honda did and just drop the Hybrid engine into the Corolla or Camry body-style and dump the Prius - its damn ugly and the visibility out the back and the sides is horribly poor.

c-

when I first saw this I read it as "bullshit underlying fundamentals."

I have a Prius and I absolutly love it. Although I'm a practical person myself, so the design doesnt bother me one bit. It was designed to be light weight and with as little resistance as possible to improve mileage (to reduce fuel cost) which is the whole point of the car. If you "dumped" the hybrid engine into another car, it wouldnt be as efficient. Needless to say, hybrids are starting to become much more in demand, so you will likely see all kinds of styles and options in the upcomming years.

Wow, those hybrids aren't bad at all. They look pretty identical to their conventional ancestors. But I know there's an ugly hybrid out there somewhere...maybe it's a Toyota? I think it was the first true hybrid released to production...and it was butt ugly.

I agree. With all the lightweight composite materials that are common nowadays, you'd think they'd be able to stretch those cars out just a little bit without adding an unreasonable amount of weight. There's no way me, my wife, my daughter, and my dog could ever fit into one of those electric things. Those electric cars must have like a 250 pound weight limit.

I have no problems routinely transporting 5 people around in my Prius.

chopped up in bits in a garbage bag does not count

And guess who I found on the same page I found the above photo of the truck?