green cars only

[Sebastiaan56]

The main issues I have with the prious:

1. It didn't have to be such an awful car. The pius greenie stuff has nothing to do with the seats, ergonomics, wasted space, nil rearward visibility, dangerous brakes etc etc. It's just a pig awful car. Drive one, you'll see real quick.

2. It didn't even save any fuel.

Ummm, I get 4.4L/100km. I do about 40k per year and motorway twice a day. Ive carried pallets of paper, 4 mountain bikes, etc, etc. It sits four adults better and has more boot space than my wife's Forester. It is quiet enough to enjoy real music. But I am biased, its my third. Its completely reliable and the battery scare stories are total b&llsh*t. There is a recycling program for the beastie once its out of its life. see Recycling the new Toyota Prius | Car Advice | Reviews

There is a bit too much of that offensive pommy oaf Clarkson in some of the criticism about Prius's. For us high mileage urban family guys its a much better solution than the other offerings out there. It is lousy off road. Yes, Ive done over 250,000k's in Prius's, when there is a better option I'll take it.

[damian]

I am glad you like your car, but as I say my experience is based on 7 days in each back to back in NZ.

I was genuinely shocked at how awful it was to drive, and equally shocked at how good the corolla was. I've had toyotas all my life and love their strengths but comfort and a rewarding driver experience was rarely part of the package. The corolla was stunning.

The prius was bigger in the cargo area and the hidy holes were useful. The steering was adequate. That's all I can think to praise.

The slanted split rear window meant virtually no rearward visibility in rain, glare or dew on the glass. I couldn't see any of the front beyond the windscreen so parking was not as easy as it should have been (not unique to the prius). I got sore after about 1/2 hour in the car because of the odd relationship between the seats dash and roof. Instruments are scattered all over the place. The brakes scared the ^&*( out of me. Power delivery was adequate but uneven.

My partners mother has a golf diesel. I suppose it must use more than 4.4, I really don't know, but as a car it's utterly spectacular. They do mamoth miles before needing scrapping, it'll tear your head off accelerating and pull a trailer, lots of space, comfortable and a truely delightful car to drive. It simply does everything well.

The little corolla was a real shock, comfortable, rewarding, adequate power and as I say with me driving both cars the corolla required slightly less fuel per mile.

I am happy to accept your experience is different, I can only report on my own. If it's any use I get about 8.5 - 9 in the forester in mixed driving and got about 12.5 in the fairlane. The boss does 9.5 to 10 in the forester. I can't remember the figures for the NZ cars but I've got dockets at home so can probably find them and do the sum. I do about 15k a year.

[Avery]

I can't see any dishonesty here. Shopping centres are businesses providing shop space to retailers and therefore parking for its customers. As some customers of these shops may need green type parking spaces they provide some, similar to disabled places, or spaces for shoppers with prams.

That they charge a fee for overstayers is appropriate to ensure spaces are available for the customers of these shops all day not just first thing in the morning.

I could ask you if you would make over your garden to provide free all day parking to commutes as you want shopping centres to do.

After all that would be the environmental thing to do.


Peter.

Why would anyone NEED green parking spaces? Remember rechargeable cars are really not an item as yet. The centres have these green spaces purely to cater to the populist claptrap - to make people think that they care.

If you drive past my place on just about any day of the week you will see three cars in the driveway. They all belong to commuters that have taken the bus to work.

[Bushmiller]

[QUOTE=Avery;1386213
If you drive past my place on just about any day of the week you will see three cars in the driveway. They all belong to commuters that have taken the bus to work.[/QUOTE]

I think the time will come when the "park and ride" philosophy will come to Oz. Clearly your commuters are already on this theme.

People will be unable to enter the inner city areas by car without paying a huge price for the privelige. Look at central London.

Regards
Paul

[ian]

I think the time will come when the "park and ride" philosophy will come to Oz. Clearly your commuters are already on this theme.

People will be unable to enter the inner city areas by car without paying a huge price for the privelige. Look at central London.

Paul

absence of Park and Ride -- one of the many myths about commuting to work in Sydney.
the 2006 Census data (data from the 2011 Census wont be available to some time next year) shows that for people who work in the Sydney CBD, nearly 70% travel by public transport -- and 6% walk !
14% of the Public Transport journeys involve Park and Ride (or Kiss and Ride), the other 86% involve walking to the station or bus stop.


anecdotally, the public transport percentage for journeys to work in Sydney CBD has been increasing over the past 5 years, and it may now (2011) be as high as 75%

[Bushmiller]

Paul

absence of Park and Ride -- one of the many myths about commuting to work in Sydney.

Ian

Specifcally I was refering to the dedicated parking lots situated on the outskirts of the cities, which also incicdentally attract a parking fee, and the scheduled bus services from these parking lots to the city centres.

Perhaps some of our cities do have these now.

Regards
Paul

[damian]

We have two problems. The first is that all the accessable commuter carparks are full by 6 am. The second is that the traffic in brisbane is worse than sydney so it can take half an hour to drive 5 kms to a carpark near a bus or train station.

I'd much prefer to drive to indooroopilly and catch the train, but I did some tests and the easiest solution along those lines is for me to drive OUT of town between 10 and 15 kms, park and take the train back in. Ridiculous. I tried living at home, driving 10 kms to Ipswich and training it from there, but there is no direct pedestrian access from the commuter carpark to the station, so you either go about 600 meters out of your way or risk getting killed crossing some dangerous roads (again I cite my knees). That option ended up 1 1/2 hours each way.

The system in Brisbane just doesn't work very well.

As I've said before though the government isn't the root of the problem. As long as you have disengaged voters, or people more interested in persecuting others than really addressing issues (you can't have a gun, 4B or whatever - get a pushbike, use the green product etc) then we aren't going to improve the situation.

I've railed a fair bit against enviromentalists/socialists here, but be aware I've railed just as vigorously against the conservative/capitalists, especially when governments around the world are tossing our tax money at failed businesses and deregulating corporate psychopaths to pillage our society and damage peoples lives. Nationalising debt is no more about stabilising the economy than enviromentalism is about helping the enviroment, it's all nasty agendas.

Green car spaces are about corporations managing public perceptions. Suck them in, take their money and spit em out...

[ian]

Paul
I can't comment much about Bri-vegas, but I occasionally get out into Sydney's commuter land during the week. Every time I do I find the commuter car parks full if not overflowing -- including the multi storey ones.