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Battery technology is progressing at a nice fast pace lately. Maybe in a few years. Problem is its going to ake al night to chargea car to drive 50 miles round trip.

Dont forget the Chevette. My dad had one and it go over 40 MPG religiously.

The Honda Insight is a cool looking ride. They should of made more!

Joe has my vote.

The government should do what I have done with my sister-in-law. I made the mistake in loaning her $500 so she could buy clothes for her kids and food for the home...she blew it playing slots. I learned my lesson.

So the next time she asked for money to buy goods for her kids...I took the kids out and bought them clothes, shoes, and then had her give me her bills. I then paid the ones that were overdue, then took her to the grocery store and we bought food for the house. I still paid $500 - 1000 that day, but, they got their needs met and she wasn't allowed to hold the money.

Same thing needs to happen here.

don't give them the money, they already gamble on the economy. So take their hand, pay off the debts that matter most, and then walk them through with the rest of the money to repair their needs.

simple, yet big business and the government don't understand simple, everything must be done the hard way.

that is why I am running in 2012

Bwcad1 wrote:Show me the safety ratings of the tango. Show me on paper the advances in battery technology that allowed us to efficiently utilize electrically powered vehicles. I like you man but your on a very slipper slope of fact and opinion. We have been working for the last few years on hybrid and electric technology for lawn mower's riders and utility vehicles , and i know for damn sure the tech, we currently have was not around 20yr's ago and what we had 20yr's ago wasn't nearly efficient enough to be worth it. I also want you to explain to me how you plan to produce massive amounts of electricity to charge your electric car's while restricting coal emissions? i want facts please not opinions or theory's Everyone seems to have idea's and plan's none of them are though out or give proper consideration to the facts. Do your research and come back with informative factual information and then we can carry on about how electric is far superior to internal combustion.

Bill, I really do not want to start our feud up again, but I have to strongly disagree with you here. We had a viable electric car made by GM within the last 10 years called the EV1. It was s mall sample test car that was available in CA only. It did not get much press here, but it was a decent little 2 seater that all of it's owners loved to drive. On the battery tech that GM decided to use on the original units (flooded lead acid) it only got about 60 miles. On the second version, they switched over to NiMH cells and it went to 300 miles range. They had charging stations that you have in your garage and they also had some installed in common parking areas. The public charging stations were all solar powered. People who owned the EV1 were also the same type of people who had solar panels at home already as well. So in the end, there were zero emissions. So where is that car today? Well GM decided that a Hummer was a better selling product and scraped the EV program. The EV1s were rounded up and crushed out in the AZ desert. Soon Honda and Toyota followed suit with their EV cars. Then all of a sudden fuel cell cars were introduced as the alternative to EVs. Guess who sells the H gas for those?



And just before the fuel cell cars were introduced, Bush announced a big government incentive for fuel cell vehicle producers. That is what killed the electric car.

If you would like to research the subject and have some time, you can view a good documentary online if you like. Here is the first of 10 clips:

VIDEO LINK

You know batterys so explain the memory Effect on NIMH battery's. While solar works for a small percentage of vehicles provide me with facts about how we could produce enough solar energy to power the 62 million registered vehicles in the united states. (approximate) Electric car's are not the answer either. We would be going from one non renewable resource to another. Do some research on Brazil and its current state of energy independence. We need to find an alternative that will work with the existing infrastructure. Now this is about the big 3 not energy back on topic lol.

Secondly y would there be a feud? this is an intelligent debate. between 2 intelligent people. Emotions cause feud's, If im wrong i would gladly admit to it.

The real reason that the EV1 didn't make it wasn't because of Hummer, but, rather the cost of ownership with the EV1...it was well over 100K to purchase, and, greenhouse awareness was not as popular as it is now.

EV1 was ahead of it's time, and cost more than the Tesla does now, which is over 100K as well.

OnYrMrk wrote:The government should do what I have done with my sister-in-law. I made the mistake in loaning her $500 so she could buy clothes for her kids and food for the home...she blew it playing slots. I learned my lesson.
So the next time she asked for money to buy goods for her kids...I took the kids out and bought them clothes, shoes, and then had her give me her bills. I then paid the ones that were overdue, then took her to the grocery store and we bought food for the house. I still paid $500 - 1000 that day, but, they got their needs met and she wasn't allowed to hold the money.
Same thing needs to happen here.
don't give them the money, they already gamble on the economy. So take their hand, pay off the debts that matter most, and then walk them through with the rest of the money to repair their needs.
simple, yet big business and the government don't understand simple, everything must be done the hard way.
that is why I am running in 2012

I agree!

Jon wrote: The issue is the retirees and guys with 20+ years already in. How do you go to those guys who counted on either staying retired or close to retiring and say, sorry, you are not going to get your money. It is not their fault that they were given promises that are too good to be true. It was the unions and GM that gave them that deal. It would be devistating for them to lose their benefits. Heck, just a few years ago, GM asked them to start paying for their medical coverage that had always been free. They accepted it. Now they are going to lose their pensions as well?

Try to keep in mind though that cut backs in pensions are better than no pension... If these companies go under all those people with pensions get stuck with zip, zilch, nada, zero, nothing.

Joe's idea is best where if they need to be bailed out... fine! Take them by the hand and do it for them... While you're at it since they have been bad little boys and girls take away their toys and auction them off to help offset some costs.

Technologies for all electric are increasing but not the final solution as of yet, but as previously pointed out higher mileage cars have been around for a good long time and could easily be made again with some newer modifications... I had a 1989 Honda Civic Hatchback 1.5ltr that averaged 38-40mpg in town 35-36mpg with A/C on full tilt with me, my wife, and the 2 kids in it middle of summer.
As for the ability of going all electric you run into a few problems:
1) Where do you plug it in at work? You think the business owner is gonna like you raising his electric bills?
2) Solar power is great, but also very expensive if everyone in the country were to try and use it... and what about cloudy/ rainy days let alone long winters with a ton of snow.
3) Did everybody forget about the rolling brown outs and blackouts in California... Let alone when nearly all of the east coast went down & that was simply from to many running their A/Cs on high

Don't get me wrong, I think there are some great technologies out there that could and should be used and combined with some of our older technologies of the Late 70's and 80's that got higher mileage.
These are all things the automakers need to look at to bring themselves back up as an industry.

So in closing of this rant and if any of you execs at the auto industries see this... Hey dumb**s's get your heads out your butts, take a pay cut, quite spending money, and get a hold of some of your older smaller cars and trucks, update them a little for the EPA and make them into hybrids and you'll be just fine.

cargodz wrote:I had a 1989 Honda Civic Hatchback 1.5ltr that averaged 38-40mpg in town 35-36mpg with A/C on full tilt with me, my wife, and the 2 kids in it middle of summer.

I agree, but disagree...

With newer cars you have all the extra safety equiptment that people demand (ABS, Air Bags, ect) not to mention the comfort items (p/s, a/c, p/w, p/l, keyless entry, bigger/heavier wheels & tires, sound deadener, ect.)

Theres no doubt in my mind that any of the big 3 could build a stripped down model with no safety, comfort, or emissions items just like the your civic was (no offense) that would get 40 mpg...

But at the end of the day what would you have???

A stripped down car that got 40 miles to the gallon that absolutely nobody wanted to drive!!!! LOL

On the other hand, I agree we need to figure out how to get cars lighter and more fuel efficient while still being safe and comfortable to drive...

My Civic actually had power windows and doors, power steering and A/C and that's exactly what I'm saying as the technology in making equipment lighter has advanced in the last 20 years so it should be able to be built easily with all of the newer safety equipment and still do 40mpg.