Hybrids....

vikingaero

Hybrids have their places. It very much depends on where your driving habits. Urban and suburban and coupled with automatic/CVT gearboxes and they make perfect sense. Regularly blatting along lane 3 at 90mph and you may as well have a diesel.

Strider590 wrote: »

I've often found owners of such cars to be whinge bags, sitting in their ivory tower looking out at the lesser more polluting vehicles (noise and emissions I guess) and having a false sense of superiority over them. It's for people who believe all the marketing sh*t and none of the facts.

The funniest thing I've heard about the Prius was a female driver of one arguing over a parking space (someone else got there first) on the basis that her car should park there because it ran on electricity..... so what creates the electricity in a Prius..... petrol!

cyclonebri1

Strider590 wrote: »

^^ This is the thing, we've heard that taxi firms use them.... But businesses only do that so as to appear "green" in the eyes of the average idiot, thus having potential positive effect and a small advantage over their competition (for which the extra money is probably worth it).

I've often found owners of such cars to be whinge bags, sitting in their ivory tower looking out at the lesser more polluting vehicles (noise and emissions I guess) and having a false sense of superiority over them. It's for people who believe all the marketing sh*t and none of the facts.

Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oSzLS0j9fY

This is the whole issue.

The company I'm talking about is UK based they are ex mining, but doing very, very well

They provide cutting /ripping and sizing machinery to the world wide mining industry. They rip the soul out of the earth on a one time only basis.

The MD is a super canny old sod and realises the issue, hence the suedo green cars, even he has a lexus hybrid, peeing in the wind is the only way I can describe it.:(:(:(:(:(

cootuk

Maybe they buy company hybrids for the lower business 10% BIK tax rate?
Or maybe congestion charge?
Maybe they can't run diesels because the DPF would clog up with city driving?
Maybe...maybe...maybe

Lots of reasons FOR buying a modern diesel - if you run it for 3yrs and 100K then dump it before you get DMF problems, and don't run in the city, and can take it on the motorway for a DPF regeneration (motorways round here too clogged unless you do a special journey out of hours).

cyclonebri1

cootuk wrote: »

Maybe they buy company hybrids for the lower business 10% BIK tax rate?
Or maybe congestion charge?
Maybe they can't run diesels because the DPF would clog up with city driving?
Maybe...maybe...maybe

Lots of reasons FOR buying a modern diesel - if you run it for 3yrs and 100K then dump it before you get DMF problems, and don't run in the city, and can take it on the motorway for a DPF regeneration (motorways round here too clogged unless you do a special journey out of hours).

No, fraid not.

They buy them because the IMAGE is that they are friendlier, in contrast to the fact that they as a company rip the guts out of the earth

GolfBravo

Trebor16

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

clarkson pitted a prius against a 3.0D bmw, the BMW came out ontop, (wasnt a race but a MPG test).

It was an M3, not the 3.0 diesel and they drove the Prius flat out around the Top Gear track and the M3 followed on behind. They then measured the mpg of the Prius flat out against what the M3 used and found the M3 was slightly more economical. But it didn't have much relevance to real world conditions.

Trebor16

Strider590 wrote: »

Correct, but let me clarify.....

The point was to drive both cars around the track at the same pace and check MPG. The M3 could out perform the Prius just at idle speed alone, where the Prius needed a good thrashing just to keep up with the M3.

Incorrect. The Prius was driven flat out in a way that is unlikely to be replicated by an owner. The M3 followed on behind and of course didn't need to be driven as hard as the Prius.

Strider590 wrote:

It's that old "horses for courses" chestnut, someone who spends their hard earned on an M3 is likely to be driving about more briskly than a Sunday driver who buys a Prius. But if the M3 were driven at the same pace as the Pruis, the difference in fuel usage would be very small.

So if the Prius and M3 were driven at 70mph there wouldn't be much difference in fuel consumption? Now that is funny!!:D

emmell

Hubby is on his second Lexus Hybrid (400h and 450h), comfortable, lovely to drive, all the bells and whistles.......he loves them. Economical they are not, but extremely reliable, never had a problem with either.
The 450h is two years old now and covered 65,000 miles so far without a problem........the reason for choosing them, the low BIK, otherwise he would go back to his Range Rover Sport
ML.

cyclonebri1

emmell wrote: »

Hubby is on his second Lexus Hybrid (400h and 450h), comfortable, lovely to drive, all the bells and whistles.......he loves them. Economical they are not, but extremely reliable, never had a problem with either.
The 450h is two years old now and covered 65,000 miles so far without a problem........the reason for choosing them, the low BIK, otherwise he would go back to his Range Rover Sport
ML.

Ah, but he's playing his part :D

There is nothing wrong with them as a car, other than the silence issue, just don't think you are saving the planet or saving money by buying one