[Vision2020] Conserve precious Oil

[Tbertruss at aol.com]

All:

The suggestions offered to conserve oil are all wonderful.  But the bottom 
line is the efficiency of the vehicle you drive.

If you commute by yourself or with one other person, and don't need a lot of 
carrying capacity for your daily commute, we should be using vehicles that get 
over 50 mpg!  For heavy hauling, use a more powerful vehicle.  But how many 
American's commute in gas hogs to do nothing but carry their groceries and 
themselves to and from work?

A few years ago I drove the Honda Insight hybrid with a friend who had one on 
loan from an environmental organization, and was amazed at how sporty and 
fast it was, though this is a two seater with a cargo weight limitation.  Still, 
for most commuting, it gets the job done, and has surprising acceleration for 
those tense freeway moments.

Europe sells a 60 mpg diesel two seater.  And of course the hybrids (Toyota 
and Honda) now on the market are increasing their sales as gas has gone up in 
cost and does not appear to be going back down.  Info below on the 60 mpg car 
sold in Europe:

Will Smart's weird cars make it here? 
    
We give the Smart ForTwo a workout on American streets. The verdict: "What 
the...?"
September 14, 2004: 12:02 PM EDT 
By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN/Money staff writer
    

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - If you've been to Europe in the past few years, you 
may have seen people driving around in small cars that look like giant insect 
heads. 

 You weren't hallucinating -- and you may be seeing these 'Smart ForTwos,' or 
cars like them, on roads in this country in the next few years. 

The Smart ForTwo is built in "smartville" in the town of Hambach, France. 
Smart, a subdivision of DaimlerChrysler, sells the ForTwo in Europe, where 
gasoline commonly costs about $5 a gallon and city streets are old and narrow. In 
that environment, driving a car that gets about 60 miles a gallon may be, well, 
smart. 

Instead, the folks at Smart are working on some cars that maintain the sporty 
looks but with attributes American drivers want. 


Manhattan meets ForTwo
I recently spent a day driving a ForTwo around New York City. The experience 
revealed plenty of interest in the car. 

At stoplights, people rolled down their windows and shouted questions. On 
Manhattan's 8th avenue, a bicycle messenger yelled out, "What the hell is that?" 
In a supermarket parking lot in Queens, a small crowd gathered to ask 
questions. 

One couple even followed me home to find out how they could buy one. 

The first question everyone asked -- actually the second one -- was "Is it 
electric?" or "Is it a hybrid?" 

Given the car's cutting edge looks, it was an easy assumption to make. (The 
car's design has remained largely unchanged since it first rolled into 
production in 1998.) 
    
No, I informed them. It's just a diesel. 

Inside the car, that fact was unmistakable. The tiny three-cylinder engine, 
situated just behind and below the seats, raised a racket reminiscent of a 
groovy 1960s VW Beetle. In 21st century terms, however, the noise is not so 
groovy. 

To keep up with traffic, I had to wring out every bit of the engine's maximum 
41 horsepower. According to the spec sheet, the Smart ForMore cdi I drove 
could go zero-to-60 in 19.8 seconds. 

The gasoline engined version, with its 0.7 liter rear-mounted in-line 3 
pumping out 60 horsepower, would presumably blow the diesel's doors off in the 
quarter-mile. 

Well, it would win, anyway. 

Aside from its slowness and interior noise level, the ForTwo would face a far 
more basic hurdle in the U.S. market. The average American consumer just 
won't buy a 2-seater that isn't a sports car. Take away the back seats and that 
thing better go zero-to-60 in six seconds or less. 

Since the car is designed to fit two-abreast in a parking space designed for 
one, there isn't a whole lot of room for luggage, either. 


ForMore
For the United States market, Smart has something entirely new in mind: an 
SUV version of another one of its cars, the ForFour. 

        
Smart ForMore: DaimlerChrysler sketch   
Starting in 2006 the Smart ForMore will be built in a factory in Juiz de 
Fora, Brazil. The company plans to sell 30,000 ForMores in the United States, and 
an equal number elsewhere around the world. 

Aiming to compete against the Toyota Rav4 and Honda CR-V, the vehicle will be 
equipped with a 1.8 liter 4-cylinder engine or an optional 3-liter V-6. 

If your heart is set on owning one of the original ForTwos, a California firm 
wants to give you the chance. But DaimlerChrysler doesn't endorse the effort. 


Zap, a Santa Rosa-base company that sells a variety of electric cars, is 
working to import ForTwos and hopes to sell as many as 15,000 a year. The company 
already has contracted with an importer, said Alex Campbell, a Zap spokesman. 

Once here, an automotive conversion company will beef up the car's bumpers, 
add more side impact protection and make a few other changes to meet U.S. 
safety regulations, Campbell said. Right now, Zap is waiting for approval from the 
Environmental Protection Agency. 

Zap will concentrate on "luxury" versions of the cars with cabriolet tops and 
leather interiors. Prices will range from the teens to as much as $23,000. 
    
DaimlerChrysler is not involved with Zap's effort and warns that it will not 
provide dealer support here for the cars. Zap says its dealers will be trained 
to service the cars. 

The cars is importing will be a shade quicker than the model I tested, said 
Campbell. At any rate, customers looking at a Smart ForTwo are probably 
interested in something besides speed, he said. 

"Zero to 60 doesn't matter as long as you can get where you're going and get 
there safely with minimal impact on the environment," he said. 

He'd better keep those prices down, though. At $23,000, upper-end models 
would have to compete against the Toyota Prius, a muscle car by comparison, with 
room for four adults and luggage.  
    

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