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Hot Cars and Cheap Cars
The beginning of the year must be popular for talking about upgrading your vehicle. Recently, I mentioned the insurance discount for hybrid owners, but there are some additional stories about cars in the news. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine surveyed MSRP, service costs, resale value, fuel cost, and insurance cost to come up with a value representing the cost to own certain 2006 vehicles. Here are the cars that came out as the cheapest to own: Scion xA Honda Civic DX Toyota Corolla CE Nissan Sentra MINI Cooper On the other side of the cost spectrum, Forbes is featuring an article...


Hybrid vehicles, while efficient, cost more
Experts say the savings to be had from hybrid vehicles don't offset the cost of gas, and in the long run, are more expensive to drive. Be sure to read the related article, V2G technology allows hybrid vehicles to feed electricity into city power grids.


Lexus GS450h -- Proof Toyota Will Eventually Rule the World
I just spent the morning in the GS450h, and as expected it came off as a spectacular car. The primary point this car makes is that you can drive a hybrid vehicle with absolutely no penalty (except, of course, cost). Toyota's earlier hybrid efforts (Prius and RX400h) are fine vehicles, but the hybrid element is very apparent while driving them. For instance, when the engine fires up to assist with accleration on the Prius, you know about it. And when you apply the brakes in either car there is an inconsistant feel as the drivetrain switches from motor to generator. These issues are minor by earlier hybrid standards. For instance, in the Honda Insight you REALLY know when the drivetrain is doing its "hybrid" thing, while in the Prius you just sort of know and in the RX400h you only kinda know.


VW's Car/Bike Hybrid Shifts Like a Rocket
Responding to consumer demand for high-mileage vehicles, Volkswagen on Thursday previewed a sport car/motorcycle hybrid that goes from 0-60 in less than 5.7 seconds and gets 50 miles to the gallon. Unveiled at the 2006 Los Angeles International Auto Show, the GX3 is a three-wheeler (two at the front, one at back) that accommodates two helmeted passengers. Though only a concept, Volkswagen said the machine could go into production very soon and cost less than $17,000. Volkswagen, Europe's largest car maker, said the vehicle blends the comfort of a sports car with the speed and fuel consumption of a motorbike. Based on a four-cylinder engine driving the back wheel, the GX3 will accelerate as fast as high-performance racers, the company claimed. It will also be allowed on California's car-pool lanes because it would be classed as a motorcycle.


A great article on biodiesel from the waste stream using algae.
http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html This analysis proposes using open algae ponds to replace current oil based liquid fuels. An area of 15,000 square miles would be needed to power our present mode of transportation (that is without more efficient vehicles) at one third the cost of oil. By instead using 15,000 square miles (a park equivalent in area to a circle aproximately 120 miles in diameter)of northen prairie restoration land (as I propose here) electric plugin hybrid vehicles that use a tenth of the liquid fuel of present vehicles could be charged with wind power. That would mean that algae/biodiesel farming, to match the reducxed liquid fuel needs,could be contained in solar cogeneration facilities mounted on roofs and over parking lots. These collectors would use present power plant emmissions and recycle waste water into clean water and fertilizer and provide the needed biodiesel as well as other biofuel byproducts (alcohol needed for biodiesel processing, m