Official Luthiers Forum!

as a matter of fact most consummers are demanding MORE horsepower. Thats why the car companies build them. They build what people want to but so they can make a buck. I agree, use the technology that excists to build highly effiecient engines with less horsepower and save fuel. Oh for those of you who pull a 4000K lb trailer with seven wild horses and a couple tones of feed, sure those vehicles need to be available, or you will get dragged away. But the vast majority of Americans do not need 300hp hemis.
By the way, electric cars do NOT save fuel, they just consume a different fuel which as stated above was created with fossil fuels. Thats why hybrids are so tempting, the braking action generates a recharge to the batteries. No need to plug in. Personally, I have been looking at a Honda for a while now and am just about sold. 18mpg jeep liberty, which I needed to pull my boat, see ya later.
I agree with Charliewood, I'm glad gas is going through the roof. Its about time the car companies make a change, and they won't do it is they won't make a buck.
Besides, this kind of thing usually gets a whole bunch of musicianns together and they have a concert to highlight it. Some of you fine craftsman will get your instruments made famous, which has got to make you for quite some time and the guys like me will just get to hear great music..
Mike

Well, There's always the Tango
http://commutercars.com/

0-60mph 4.0 sec's
130mph top end
And it's battery electric! You can charge it from a dryer outlet in 3 hours.
it has a 60-80 mile range.

Only downside 85,000 as is! If he get enough orders he can get the price down to 20K, which is reasonable!
This Bad Boy screams though!

Oh! and $4,000 worth of photo voltaics on the roof and you don't use any long dead flora and fauna to drive around on!Mongo Lloyd38842.201412037

Newly dead flora and fauna is appealing though... They are thinking about using an oil producing algae for the bio diesel, it still needs some R&D, but it sounds very exciting.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

[QUOTE=Mario] We are going to look back on this and say... I remember when Gas used to be $3 a gallon

, we were saying that 15 years ago.

Premium is $5.55/gal here right now. $3? Haven't seen that in 15 years.

Kwitcherbellyachin'...[/QUOTE]

Mario, how much of that $5.55 is tax? I steam when the newsreaders make point of comparing UK and Europe fuel prices to the USA without mentioning that fuel is a tax base and in the UK (I believe) 67% or more of the cost is tax. You got bigger gallons than us, too

Then there's that pesky dollar conversion thing. Oh yeah, premium in the states is much,much higher than $3..more like $4      

Larry Davis38842.4481365741

I have a Dodge 2500 4wd P/u and a 2005 Landrover LR3 and I new going in that they were not good on gas. The dodge is about 12 and the LR3 is 16ish. I don't like the gas prices but I just buy it and don't complain because I knew it would cost me extra to have what I wanted..
Gary

[QUOTE=GCote] I have a Dodge 2500 4wd P/u and a 2005 Landrover LR3 and I new going in that they were not good on gas. The dodge is about 12 and the LR3 is 16ish. I don't like the gas prices but I just buy it and don't complain because I knew it would cost me extra to have what I wanted..
Gary[/QUOTE]

Hi Gary..long time...how ya been?? How's your cousin Bo?

Doing good Larry... Restaurant keeping me busy...
Bo ????
Maybe my mind is going...
Gary

[QUOTE]I steam when the newsreaders make point of comparing UK and Europe fuel prices to the USA[/QUOTE]

2/3 Larry!! 2/3's of the price of gas is tax!!!!!

    Gas is cheaper in England than in the USSA without the tax! Our news media types stink!(or at least hav'nt looked into this well) Before the Eurpies feel, too much, like we got it great!

[QUOTE]Newly dead flora and fauna is appealing though...[/QUOTE]

    Electric Is Now, brother! We just have to get into mass production so the price gets down!! There's also a car named the T-Zero made by AC propulsion that is in exactly the same state. No money to tool up! These were the people that designed the GM "Impact", or EV1 as they changed it.

    I agree, but the difference is the CO?. 98% of American transportation is within 60 miles, this leaves a car like the Tango covering most of transportation needs.

    No it doesn't eliminate fossil entirely but at that kind of rate, fossil would last for centuries, and we would eliminate our need for products from very unstable parts of the world, like the Middle East and even more unstable, Oil Corporation board rooms.

As one can tell, this is one of my favorite subjects.

[QUOTE=GCote] Doing good Larry... Restaurant keeping me busy...
Bo ????
Maybe my mind is going...
Gary[/QUOTE]

Bo Cote.............. Sorry, couldn't resist

how much of that $5.55 is tax? ///snip//// Then there's that pesky dollar conversion thing

A lot of that is tax, for sure. Who was it a while back that said the (relatively) low prices for my guitars were because of "free" health care? <bg> It ain't free, folks....

I'd already converted the abpve to your US gallons, BTW.

The dollar exchange is pretty much a non-issue. Your greenback is nearly the same value as our dollar these days. Lowest it's been in 28 years.... But for the sake of fair comparisons, with today's exchange it comes out to $5.02/gal.

I wasn't complaining, actually. I was just trying to make y'all see that in reality, you still have it good.

Your low dollar sure makes a big incentive for us to go shopping south of the border, though <g> Expect more sales while our dollars are on par!

[QUOTE=Larry Davis]
Bo Cote.............. Sorry, couldn't resist [/QUOTE]

Dang, now that is funny! (and quite clever)

Good one Larry.

Jeff

Today as i waited to get across the highway after filling my jeep with gas I took notice. For about 4 or 5 minutes I sat and watched, 3 and 4 suvs to every single car. This went on the entire time I sat there!!! And the vast majority of them had 1 person on board. We are so wastefull. Get one if you need it, otherwise downsize the next time around.
mike

I really like your guitar, Lance.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Ya got me Larry.....
I should have seen it coming but some days i'm a little slow in the old brain box...

Gary

[QUOTE=mikev] Today as i waited to get across the highway after filling my jeep with gas I took notice. For about 4 or 5 minutes I sat and watched, 3 and 4 suvs to every single car. This went on the entire time I sat there!!! And the vast majority of them had 1 person on board. We are so wastefull. Get one if you need it, otherwise downsize the next time around.
mike[/QUOTE]

I live in Santa Cruz, Calif., and since the middle of last year I've taken to counting the number of hybrid's I see during my daily stroll around my block. The number has steadily increased, and I recently counted 5 in 1 minutes time. Sometimes, I count several at intersection traffic lights.........motor's not running, of course. Don't know if the program's still alive, but Calif. had a state funded rebate to offset the higher hybrid price. Here, at least, folks are buying those hybrid Prius's like crazy, and not to mention we have the highest gas prices in the country. Not generally known is the fact that Honda offers the hybrid power train option on 6 different models. As battery technology improves, the efficencey of hybrid's will get even better. A few people have added rechargeable battery packs, and gotten 100+ mpg.
A related, puzzling note, for me anyway, is the price of diesel fuel. It used to run about $.10 less than regular gas, now it is $.10 Higher, at least here. Why? I wonder?

CrowDuck

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Chris Nielsen
Soquel, CA.

Diesel output's dirtier, I gather; Diesel vehicles are banned from a good number of European cities. Over here, it's still cheaper, but in many other (European) countries it's more expensive. The increased efficiency more than offsets the higher price, though.

Bio Diesel (B100) is actually much cleaner -- extremely clean. (If you can't tell) I am really jazzed up about this stuff for the near term fuel for infrastructure (trucks, ships etc.) I just ran into a group of guys starting a business to refine this stuff commercially and it is very exciting.

_________________
Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com