Nugent 1; French 0

[DaMadman]

Originally posted by Wahnie
Haha, so true. Go Ted. But he is in no way "Heavy Metal".

Sorry Wahnie but Ted Nugent was a BIG part of all that was the Original Heavy Metal Music

[DaMadman]

Originally posted by fabsroman

Does anybody remember the gas mileage of the first tiny little Civics? Were those anywhere around 60 mpg?

Wondering about what happened to the European countries with colonies? What happened to Rome? What happened to the USSR?

I am wondering if during my lifetime people will be saying "What happened to the USA?".

Sure seemed like those little Civics got 60MPG, compared to the big American boats that were on the market back then.

In reality though they were hitting mid to high 30's....35-40MPG


I remember every mornng at the bus stop, one neighbor would roll by in her Buick Rivera, and a few minutes later the other neighbor would roll through in one of those civics, Talk about a difference in size and mileage and all around everything. Those two cars were about as far end of the spectrum as they could get. But you know, both of those people got to work just one did it for a lot less money in a bit less luxury.

and BTW Go Uncle TED.... tell'em like it is

[BILLY D.]

iirc those civics were pocket rockets and they got over 40mpg. no they weren't the size of a '55 lincoln continental.

we have to keep our expectations realistic.

[Rocky Raab]

Like gunpowder, there's only so ,uch energy contained in gasoline. Most of the energy gets thrown away as heat (in both instances). So there's a limit on how much mileage is even possible.

High mileage cars would be little, cramped tinfoil boxes that crept along at 30 mph, carry nothing as cargo and have no "wasteful" options like air conditioning. We could have those - but we wouldn't want 'em for long.

[Skyline]

Rocky Raab...................man I really wish you had not made that post. Now Fabsroman will have to give us a long dissertation on how we should all sell our trucks and buy hybrids, alternate fuel vehicles, battery powered dinky toys, etc. Even though the only guys who could afford it and actually use it are those big city lawyer types. (He always nicely avoids the "How do I haul my cows and horses or grain to market with them?" question.)

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

[larryours]

Back when I was a teenager, I had a 69 Plymouth , slant 6 cylinder. I'd pull up to the gas pumps put in $3.00 and run around all weekend, but then gas was about .35 regular/gallon.
Hell, now if you pulled up to the gas pumps and put $3.00 in, you couldn't pull away from the gas pumps.

[Mil Dot]

Ted's the man! I may even have to go see him at Thunder in the Rockies Labor Day Event that's coming to town.

As far as little, high mileage cars, you folks ever look at the street layout in Europe or Japanese cities? There's hardly room to park a bike let alone a F-350. When US population density gets as bad as those cities, in other words when there is no suburbs just high rises, gas prices reach 7 to 10/gal the necessity and demand for the little compacts will get the results.

I'm no historian( watch some History Channel ) but it seems to me that most of the "Great Empires" fell because they conquered and began to tax or extort monies from the locals. Problem was they kept expanding leaving only small contengients of true Romans, Spainish, French behind. They ended up getting spread to thin and then the conquered figured out that they only had to take out the local garrison to reclaim their land. This is probably a gross over simplification of reality, but it appears to be the end result.
I may be mistaken but most of the folks, our ancestors, in the New World at the time of the revolution were Europes outcasts and oppressed regardless of nationality or the children of same. It was in the best interest of both France and Germany to assist anyone who could twist the thorn in the "Big Dogs' (England)"
paw and create a new ally for the future and they didn't want those folks moving to Paris or Berlin if the New World became unattractive due to British rule.

[Brithunter]

Hmm as to cars with good fuel comsumption well both Ford and GM has them but as has already been stated they are smaller in size than the US car is or was. I remember laughing at a US programme which showed Fords new concept car which was all alloy construction. What they showed was an Alloy bodied Ford Mondeo .

The 2.0 Litre Modeo will give around 40 MPG and is quite capable of cruisijng at 100mph the STi sports version does about 140 Mph and a bit less per gallon. As for trucks which I am assuming you mean pick-ups ..................................... well Ford makes the Transit which in the 35 Cwt (20 Cwt to the Ton so a 1 3/4 ton truck) this will give about 30-35 mpg and is available as a van, pick-up, and tipper, with single cab or crew cab and is also made in all wheel drive. The 35 Cwt has twin rear wheels like what you call a Dooley.

Now as to the Asian stuff being more eficient well not all of it is. I have a few friends who run or ran the Daihatsu Sporttrack which is a 1.6 litre petrol small 4WD vehicle they get about 26mpg and are cramped in the back. Less than a month ago I brought a 1993 Jeep Cherokee 4.0 Litre Hi-output auto and last week had to go down south. On the journey down I got 26 mpg and on the way back towing a 4 wheeled trailed with a car on it just over 21 mpg. The car is a 1977 Truimph Dolomite 1500 HL 4 door saloon. It has twin SU carbs and wood dash and door cappings. This too will cruise at 100mph and I have done so before in it But it's been parked up since 98 and now I have to sort it out and do her up a little.

Since new it's done 48,000 miles . OK it's small by US standards but this old car will give quite confortable 35-40+ mpg . Yes the UK is crowded by US standards and on some of our old back roads the 1970's US cars have serious problems getting down them as the roads are too narrow. Yes we need to get rid of the Illegal Immigrants that are here thenw e would not need to cover more land with houses for those who should not be here in the first place. The polititions tell us it's for our children but you would have to be really stupid to believe that the fact is that the Illegals for some reason get priority over the natives of these Islands. Mr lair and his Scottish cohorts have a lot of explaining to do!

Now as to the British empire well the damned Liberals got all concerned for the Colonies and the natives and started making noises about home rule. Take India for example instead of hanging Ghandi they tried talking to him they should alos have shot the entire Indian National Army in 1946 as were you aware they this Seikh based army while wearing British uniform fought for the Japanese my father was in Derra Dun when they were brought in grinning their trecherous heads off wearing two badges on their turbans and there was enough ammo available to deal with them but the do gooders wouldn't let them be executed like they should have been.

Another fault was educating the natives, look where that led you have maniacs and scum like Mugabe in Ziwbawe. Education didn't help the poeple it made them slaves to terror regimes like Mugabes' as the education seems to have made them more corrupt than ever . I doubt that until there is only one tribe in Africa will there be anything like peace and then they will fight umongst themselves as has been going on since the time the blackman appeared in Africa .

[fabsroman]

Skyline,

No offense taken. If you NEED a truck, I have no issue with it, unless you also have the money to afford a small car that you can use when you do not NEED the truck. I have one client that drives 2 hours each way to work in his GMC 2500. He drives the truck 2 hours to pick up his trailer of tools at his rental house and then he performs work in neighborhoods around his rental house. In the long run, he would have been much better off keeping his truck down there and buying a Ford Focus that gets 34 mpg and using it to commute. Bought a Ford Focus for my dad recently to use as a work car and it cost $12,800. If my client gets 17 mpg out of his gas engine 2500, that would be pushing it. Most of the drive is highway mileage, so lets assume that it is 260 miles round trip. That is a little over 15 gallons of gas in the truck and a little over 7.5 in the Focus just for commuting. The difference is 7.5 gallons per day which at $3 per gallon equates to $22.50 per day. Assuming he works 5 days a week and 50 weeks out of the year, that is a savings of $5,625 per year. The Focus would pay for itself in 2 years, and if you count the wear and tear saved on the much more expensive truck, the Focus would pay for itself even sooner. However, try explaining this to my client.

Now, how about all the people (e.g., soccer moms) I see driving these huge SUV's around? How often do they need that huge SUV? They could probably rent a SUV when they need to go out of town and the rental would be completely paid for with the gas savings of the smaller car.

Sad thing is that most people are not number/money savy.

Brithunter,

Getting 27 mpg out of a Jeep Cherokee is unheard of around here. My in-laws own one that is 10 years old with 100,000 miles on it and they get 20 mpg on the highway if they are lucky and that car is in great shape.

Europe has a bunch of fuel efficient vehicles because there is a huge demand for them. When I was in Italy in 2001, gas was $5 a gallon and it cost over $50 to fill the tank. Not too far off from what I paid today to fill my Taurus (i.e., $43.50). I am truly hoping that Ford comes out with some seriously fuel efficient vehicles by the time we are in the market for a new car. The Fusion is supposed to come with a hybrid motor in 2008, so I will see what kind of gas mileage that yields. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[Brithunter]

Hi All,

Well as for the fuel consumption you must remember that in the UK we still use the Imperial Gallon which is 4.54 Litres which of course is slightly larger than the US gallon. I also drive very smoothly and gently with minimum use of the brakes and throttle most of the time I trained and worked as a bus driver so try to keep is smooth. Only rarely will the tacho climb above 2,000 rpm . My Cherokee has done 86,400 odd miles and I serously doubt it's been off road much if at all. Since I only recently got it I am trying to sort out the little things that need doing like a full service but for now it's important things like the tyres and at the tyre depot I took a look at the brake pads whilst the wheels were off and I noticed that the pads are getting down to they are now added to the to do list

We live in a very rural place shopping is a 26 mile round trip the draw back is small roads and bumpy ones at that our roads were not designed for the huge farm tractors that are now in use and 40 ton articulated lorries ( 44.8 Ton Semis) and the roads subside as a result traffic is normally light which of course helps on fuels and as the roads are small and have a goodly number of curves and bends you are going very fast. 40 mph is a good speed most of the time around here and it's quite flat as we are on the edge of the fens, in fact our place is 2 feet below sea level . In fact I am about to load up the Jeep and go off to the range for an evening shooting.

[MacD37]

Originally posted by Jack
" I am still pretty mad that none of the domestic car makers have anything that gets 40+ mpg"
?

Most American cars wont run 40 miles without breaking down. They need a magnet on the back bumper to pick up the parts as they fall off!

[Brithunter]

Hmm not sure where the Jeep was made, glass says Mexico but the rest?, I did notice that the alloy wheel have made in USA cast on the inside and they were a ***** to balance you could see the inside of the rime which is suppose to be machined true to teh rim but it was running well out and the wheel is not buckled Just poor quality control and poor workmanship

Now as for part falling off ........................ nope not in 3,000 miles done so far and we have not had the 93 model Cherokee a month yet , just some pillock scrapped down the nearside rear wheel arch in the supermarket carpark the other day I just noticed it whilst helped dad out of the car when we got home. Typical it's just my luck 4 previous owners have had this vehicle without this sort of thing and I have it only a month and someone flips up a stone and chips the screen and then this .

[Wolvie]

TED or Alive !!!!!!!

Thats All I got to say about that

Later All
SAFE HUNTIN~

Wolvie