On Hysteria

[lonewolf]

like Bill said a gallon here is 4.5 litres but everyone says 5 litres as a round figure.
over £5 per gallon and 80% of that goes in tax of one sort or another.
still at the moment my little car is only doing winter journeys and I fill up with £20 worth every 10 days to 2 weeks.

 

[BillMasen]

May I remind you that you said:

American readers don't use Imperial gallons when buying gas.

I said nothing of the sort, That was Big Paul. so commonly its reffered to as 5 litres to a gallon

 

[DrHenley]

I said nothing of the sort, That was Big Paul. so commonly its reffered to as 5 litres to a gallon

Sorry for the mixup.

 

[Brent S]

No wonder there are so many tiny cars in europe. You guys can’t afford to drive anything else!

 

[BillMasen]

No wonder there are so many tiny cars in europe. You guys can’t afford to drive anything else!

Its the size of the streets in many huge urban areas that is the driving factor dozens of cities street systems originate in medievil times and were only 6ft 6 inches wide, A survey some years ago listed about 40 cities in europe that US size vehicles simply could not drive along, it was part of the Cold War traffic movement plans, they fast realised that most US military vehicles simply could not manouvre in many European cities.

 

[DrHenley]

My brother in law in Taiwan bought a Buick. He made room for it, LOL
He sometimes scraped the cars on both sides as he drove down the narrow streets.

 

[Brent S]

Its the size of the streets in many huge urban areas that is the driving factor dozens of cities street systems originate in medievil times and were only 6ft 6 inches wide, A survey some years ago listed about 40 cities in europe that US size vehicles simply could not drive along, it was part of the Cold War traffic movement plans, they fast realised that most US military vehicles simply could not manouvre in many European cities.

I went camping recently and my mileage went from 17 mpg normally to 9 mpg pulling the camper. I would camp locally if I lived there... or staying in a motel would be cheaper!

 

[BillMasen]

I went camping recently and my mileage went from 17 mpg normally to 9 mpg pulling the camper. I would camp locally if I lived there... or staying in a motel would be cheaper!

if any european motorists except for heavy hauler Trucks of 44tons were getting only 17 to 9 mpg they would be calling the breakdown services I get 59 to 63 mpg out of my van, my wife gets over 50 mpg out of her car and my sons BMW does over 40 MPg.

 

[Codokaktus]

and btw. Europe has no own oil (Nothern see fields are close to exhaustion) and no need for long distance driving since every country is similar the size of one or two US - states only and heavely packed with people. No need for big cars.
But in Japan it is even harder, they have Kei-cars. Max 660 ccm engine size and 64 Horsepower max. To buy a car, they need a certificate, that they have a parking lot available.

 

[Brent S]

We still have gas guzzling tanks all over the place here. Gas being cheap hasn’t given any motivation for cars to become smaller or lighter here. When the technology improves some more I’d love to remove the gas engine out of my FJ and put an electric drive train in it. I love the 4wheel capability of this vehicle but would like to be greener too. Not to mention the power you can get out of electric is way more than an engine.

 

[TexasFreedom]

if any european motorists except for heavy hauler Trucks of 44tons were getting only 17 to 9 mpg they would be calling the breakdown services I get 59 to 63 mpg out of my van, my wife gets over 50 mpg out of her car and my sons BMW does over 40 MPg.

I really don't care about fuel economy. Let's look at this another way. Let's say you want to drive a 1000 mile trip? What will it cost to drive that far? In my smallest vehicle (seats 8 or 6 comfortably), it'd cost me about $80. In my least efficient vehicle (RV, rated for 25k lbs +), it'd cost me about $275.

 

[BillMasen]

I really don't care about fuel economy. Let's look at this another way. Let's say you want to drive a 1000 mile trip? What will it cost to drive that far? In my smallest vehicle (seats 8 or 6 comfortably), it'd cost me about $80. In my least efficient vehicle (RV, rated for 25k lbs +), it'd cost me about $275.

I do care about economy and range, on one tank full I can go 750 miles without refuelling, thats a massive plus for survival.

 

[BillMasen]

and btw. Europe has no own oil (Nothern see fields are close to exhaustion) and no need for long distance driving since every country is similar the size of one or two US - states only and heavely packed with people. No need for big cars.
But in Japan it is even harder, they have Kei-cars. Max 660 ccm engine size and 64 Horsepower max. To buy a car, they need a certificate, that they have a parking lot available.

Wrong on all counts I'm afraid, Europe has oil, plenty of oil in the North Sea, Baltics, Sub Artic, Eastern Europe, Russia etc, and the north sea field are far from depletion they are just harder to get at. And we also have huge amounts of Shale oil and gas but the greens are stopping us from extracting it.And its only certain Japanese cities like Tokyo than have kei cars rules, You can buy super high performance cars and luxury vehicles in Japan. Like the Lexus range of the Nissan X and Z range of super cars.