New personal record

[billvon 3,121]

>Are we allowed to have a cool car anymore?

No cool cars! All cars must be boxy, ugly and look like your mom drives them.

>It looks better and it's a lot more fun.

Hmm, the most fun car I ever owned was a Honda CRX Si; got around 35mpg. I thought it looked pretty cool. The most boring car I ever owned was a Plymouth Volare station wagon (college) - it got about 12mpg.

>Do any of the manufacturers have plans of designing hybrid sports cars?

They keep talking about it. The Honda Dualnote is one such car; no plans to market it to the general public yet.

[PhreeZone 20]

You also have the privilage of damaging the car you hit more if your bumper is any higher then stock. Pickup trucks have been cited from many insurance companies as causing more damage in an impact then another car since their bumper sits higher and is more likely to impact at mid chest height to a seated driver rather then at knee level.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[AggieDave 6]

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You also have the privilage of damaging the car you hit more if your bumper is any higher then stock

Ok, I'm going to be an asshole here for a bit...

Not my problem. On the road I'm concerened about MY personal safetey, so fuck the rest of them.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[LouDiamond 1]

Quote

Quote

You also have the privilage of damaging the car you hit more if your bumper is any higher then stock

Ok, I'm going to be an asshole here for a bit...

Not my problem. On the road I'm concerened about MY personal safetey, so fuck the rest of them.

AMEN brother....{golf clap}

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[billvon 3,121]

> do feel confident that I would be pretty damned safe if anything
> happened, though. I've never gone over the scales before (that'd
> be a fun thing to do), but I estimate my truck at just over 5,000lbs,
> and since I sit higher the a lot of the things on the road . . .

. . . you're more likely to roll in an accident. Heavier, higher-CG vehicles do better than smaller cars if you rear-end someone else dead on (or hit them head-on) but in just about all other accidents, have a much higher chance of seriously injuring you. The problem is that:

1) they are not as manueverable, therefore get into accidents more often. Some will even roll just through manuevering depending on load.

2) they tend to roll, and the top of your cab can't take as much impact as your frame can.

3) they tend to get 'launched' by smaller cars.

After a rain here, it's pretty common to see accidents where a small car is smashed up, both airbags fired - and an SUV on its side in a ditch. The small car's front (or rear) is smashed to bits, but the passenger compartment is intact. The SUV looks OK except for the passenger compartment; all the windows are shattered and the roof is crushed where it landed on its top.

It's all in how you drive. There is a pretty good argument for heavier cars/trucks for older drivers, since they are more likely to just plain drive into something, and mass helps when you hit a stationary object at low speeds (like a tree or stopped car.) But at highway speeds, most drivers with good reflexes are better off with the more manueverable vehicle that's more likely to stay on the road. IMO of course.

[AggieDave 6]

The center of gravity is still pretty low on my truck. Especially compaired to SUVs. This was done on purpose by me, the 2" lift I built for my truck gives just enough, with a couple of the other mods I've done to fit the big meat I've put under it. Thus it serves my purpose for off-roading, etc, but it still has a fairly low center of gravity.

I'm not trying to disagree with you, I'm just trying to say, my truck doesn't act like a SUV.



Sidenote: I've had my truck on some serious angles before (sideways) and never had the thought that I was going to roll.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[Ron 10]

I would like to know how long these last.....I have thought about getting one (Once I get tired of my V8 Mustang...yeah like that will happen).

But I thought of buying another car for my travels.

But just like in skydiving...Never be the first on your block with a new toy....I don't know anyone with one of these yet, and they are not 10 years old with 150000 miles on them.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[billvon 3,121]

>I would like to know how long these last . . .

That's a good question, but isn't too much of an issue for the Honda hybrids. If the electric propulsion system fails, it still drives, you just don't get the same acceleration. Then you get the standard Honda lifetime, which is pretty good. To help alleviate some of these fears they put an 8 year/100,000 mile warranty on the hybrid part of the car.

The Toyota hybrids are more of a problem, since they need the electric-assist part of the system to work at all.

[MattM 0]

Gas mileage? My friend Droops hummer gets 8 MPG.

Matt

[Amazon 7]

Yup my thoughts exactly.. I got tired of people trying to kill me in my sports cars.... I got rearended in my Benz by an idiot in an F-250...he was doing 65MPH...MASS is good... bigger is better. Let them bounce off....

Amazon

[AggieDave 6]

The last person to hit me in my truck was in a parking lot (my truck was parked, he just didn't "see it"). He put some paint scraps on my hitch assembly and broke my hitch cover, BUT he caused over $3,000 worth of damage to his car (he ripped his bumper off, did other damage, tore part of his fender off and a few other things). So he gave me $30 for a new hitch cover and we called it even.

Still makes me laugh when I think about it...

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."