Had a similar thing happen when an older lady ran into the back of my Dodge Ram 2500 4X4. I was at a complete stop waiting at a Red light when she ran right into me at 30+ mph...She never even touched her brakes. Don’t know if she was lighting a cigarette, trying to find a song on the radio, or talking on her cell phone….but I do know she was not paying attention.

My truck didn't move an inch...hers bounced back 15 feet after hitting square on my trailer hitch bar from behind. In fact, the impact was so slight from my perspective, that I didn’t even know what had happened at first. .I heard a noise…but didn’t even see the car back there until a few seconds latter when the steam began to rise out of her car. The impact didn’t even break the filaments in my tail lights.

This was no “smart car”…She was driving a Cadillac Seville...and to look at her vehicle you would have thought she ran head on into a Caterpillar front end loader. The front of the car was totally destroyed all the way to the windshield. Her air bags deployed which is probably the only thing that saved her.

While she was being checked out by the EMT's the police officers were laughing privately and shaking their heads...they commented to me "Please don't take this the wrong way, any accident is serious and we don't mean to make light of it....but look at your truck and look at her car...LOL"

Her insurance company later called me to make arrangements to pay for the damage to my truck (I had them pay for a new trailer hitch assembly just to be on the safe side) and the adjuster told me that they had to total out their insured’s car.

the 2 accidents i had (both under 3mph, slipping on ice) with my hyundia were over $3k in repairs.

both times i found a crazy little spring on the ground (i am positive it SHOOTS the corner panels OFF in any minor accident) and i am almost positive the aluminum corner panels said "Budweiser" on the inside....

Jake, we still have our 1990 Honda Civic, runs like a top, burns no oil, and gets 49 MPG around the Keys. Why did cars stop getting such good efficiency?
Rick

Beats me...but I bet there is more than one opinion about it. The question on my mind is; why aren't they building that today? With the automotive market like it is, a better-than-40mpg car running on unleaded would stand out nicely.

You mean like hybrids? The bottom has fallen out of the hybrid market...

http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/daily-news/090504-Hybrid-Sales-in-Heavy-Slump/

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/17/business/fi-hybrid17

there are more :P

Here's one for the conspiracy theorists out there. During the last great (also fake) oil shortage in the mid 80's, I heard a story about a guy who "invented" this diesel powered little Ford car. I think he took a small marine diesel out of a sailboat, turbo-charged it, swapped it into some small Ford car (Pinto maybe?) and it got...get this...60 MPG!

Now for the "Conspiracy". The word was EXXON bought the patent rights from the guy and buried it, deep in some vault, never to be seen again.

The last thing Exxon wants is some Ford getting 60mpg.

You guys in Europe have some very nice, small, diesel powered cars, I've seen them on layovers and was amazed how quiet they are sitting at a stop light. What kind of gas mileage do they get?

Back in the mid 70's oil embargo my Mom bought a VW Diesel Rabbit that got 50 mpg. It couldn't get out of it's own way, took about 10 minutes to get up to 60mph, but it would go 500 miles on a 10 gallon fill up.

I don't know if it would pull a light cat, maybe an A cat! I do know you could put it in 1st gear, engine off, let out the clutch and turn the key. From a dead stop it would lurch foreward and then drive off at 5mph, motor running and in 1st gear.

Don't ask me how I know, and don't tell my Mom. ;^)

i think it was covered here before, but if not..

i heard that hp, fuel efficiency and better lightweight materials has improved dramatically over the past, but peoples demand for more features (gps, power everything, video, 8 speaker systems, etc) and heavier cars negate all the advancements made

60 MPG - I'd own one of these in an instant:

http://www.campagnamotors.com/T-REX/specs.html

For what it's worth, VW and Audi have some exceptional turbo diesels out right now that are amazingly efficient yet with decent performance and towing capacity. The Audi A3 can top 50mpg and the Audi Q7 can top 30mpg--superb for a 7 passenger SUV that can tow a ski boat!

Yeah, well...they're expensive and the batteries they have in them will eventually cost a fortune to maintain. I considered one for a while but it just didn't make sense long term. A 40+mpg gasoline car is apparently pretty low tech and should be low cost now...Rick's is how old? and I bet it's still pretty maintenance free.

I was trying to find the MSRP of the '09 Q7 so I could relate it to the FJ... the only TDi model I could find was the "premium" model, which was like $58k. Thats a lot of bank to be spending. How much money am I spending on the car payment versus the gas card if I buy the Q7 vs. a "normal" midsized SUV?

Here's what I want to build:

http://www.rqriley.com/xr3.htm

Jake,

I'd LOVE to build a three-wheeler commuter car. Its fuel efficient, reliable, SPORTY and FUN!

If the T-rex wasn't damn $48k before import/taxes....

its just too much to spend on a vehicle with little utility other than going from point A to point B.

The only way to see real change is if gas hits something like $7 a gallon in the US, and, more importantly, stays there. This happened long, long ago in Europe, which is why the cars are so different.

Americans really, really, really like their SUVs and this won't change until it actually becomes too painful financially.

Obama came right out and said this right after the election, we were getting there when gas was above $4 a gallon, but we very quickly return to complacency when gas becomes cheap again.

As for the Cadillac vs. truck, I'm not an expert, but I've seen enough Discovery channel to know that modern cars are designed to self-destruct to absorb as much energy as possible in an impact, in an attempt to reduce injury to occupants.

EDIT: Wait a minute, wasn't this thread about beach access???

Mike

if you're going to go green, at least do it fast and in style!

If you get a T-Rex, get this one, 3 wheel Lambo LOL

Aero 3s


Photos
Doug

Rick,

Is that the HF model Civic? Those little cars had the best little engines. My sister's Civic CRX HF model used to get 50 mpg highway, but you really had to get a running start to make it up big hills.

So, I think we all want cars with bigger horsepower and lots of little gadgets (like heated seats, GPS, etc.). All that stuff saps energy, reducing fuel efficiency...

Cool car. What's it rate (to quote Ding)?

Against a Ford Excursion?

The solution, obviously, is to take all the SUVs off the road and crush them.

(I know, but it's raining and I can't get into the garden.)

Umm, don't you work from home?