Quote:
Originally Posted by strat61caster
Three points:
1. Nobody says you can't buy diesel instead of a Prius, or a fuel efficient gas engine. Hell if I wanted to be green I'd buy a mid-80's Civic. They get 40+ mpg for pocket change. Reserve newer diesels for those that can't lose their comfort but want to be green. I honestly think Diesel is more likely than electric at this point, the infrastructure is in place and as long as organic life exists on this planet we can manufacture diesel fuel.
2. You already explained it, it's a rolling science experiment. An auto company needs to develop a more efficient vehicle, hybridization makes sense as it covers the weak points of both technologies available today. Why wouldn't you try to at least break even on that kind of R&D investment? Of course they tried to sell them.
3. If people weren't buying them, the auto manufacturers wouldn't make them. People buy them, get an increase in fuel economy and fund future technologies so we can enjoy fun sports cars while everyone else is charging their cars overnight.
Why do you take technology so personal? You have a vendetta because these things are dull. SO what? From an engineering perspective hybrids make sense in todays world, and they will for a long time. It's hard to explain why it's a good idea, I'm trying to find an article or link that covers roughly 4-6 engineering courses that I've taken. Might have to write it myself...
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Someone says we can't buy a diesel, because most good diesels don't get sold here for whatever reason
Haha, I'm pretty sure I hate hybrids because every other car in southern California is a Prius and I'm absolutely sick to death of being stuck behind them doing half the speed limit on every back road ever and then watching them careen through traffic at double the speedlimit on every freeway ever. They just seem to attract the world's worst drivers (sort of like Volvo wagons fifteen years ago). Throw in the fact that they don't really seem to do anything well (they may do well for themselves as a tech development platform, but it's hard to argue that the ones that are for sale right now offer anything particularly novel in terms of performance / capabilities over conventional cars that are already available in most markets.
At the end of the day I feel the same way about hybrids as I felt about the electrically-actuated fuel-flap on my old Golf: they're an overpriced, overly-complicated solution to a non-problem (latches with pull-strings / smaller, lighter cars both worked fine).