green cars only

[Avery]

I wish I still had my smoky old Range Rover.

I would park it there.

It was green.

[ian]

I'm inclined to go to a Toyota or Lexus or Honda service counter, buy a "Hybrid" badge and turn my car into a hybrid

[skot]

Are they going to be fair and have Car Parks for:

"Cars that DO NOT need BANKS OF EXPENSIVE ENVIRONMENTALLY DAMAGING BATTERIES REPLACED EVERY 5 YEARS"

Green Cars are a Furphy..their Environmental Cost is just as high as "Non Green" cars when taking whole of life costs , both financially & environmentally into account. Electric Cars need coal fired power stations to recharge them if you do it at night after you get home from work.

I purchased a Peugeot Van 2 years ago with a 1.6lt Turbo Deisel. The pollution control is fantastic and I have driven from Brisbane to Sydney, fully laden, on 1 tank of fuel. I only fill up about once a month...the fuel economy is great.

[Avery]

Are they going to be fair and have Car Parks for:

"Cars that DO NOT need BANKS OF EXPENSIVE ENVIRONMENTALLY DAMAGING BATTERIES REPLACED EVERY 5 YEARS"

Green Cars are a Furphy..their Environmental Cost is just as high as "Non Green" cars when taking whole of life costs , both financially & environmentally into account. Electric Cars need coal fired power stations to recharge them if you do it at night after you get home from work.

I purchased a Peugeot Van 2 years ago with a 1.6lt Turbo Deisel. The pollution control is fantastic and I have driven fom Brisbane to Sydney, fully laden, on 1 tank of fuel. I only fill up about once a month...the fuel economy is great.

If we changed all of the vehicle fleet in this country to rechargeable electric vehicles, we would need to build a bunch more power stations to fuel them. If these were coal fired beasts such as we have now, the level of pollution would go up very dramatically.

Your trip from Brisbane to Sydney in a rechargeable electric vehicle would probably have taken about 5 or 6 days, cost 3 times as much and produced much more pollution

[damian]

Original 2004 MkIV R32

Still a great car, not so green though.

woodbe.

So jealous, so very very jealous.

I think the thing about the prious batteries requiring replacment every 5 years is an urban myth. I suppose it's possible in some circumstances but I know of people who own them and 8 years in no new batteries.

That doesn't change the fact that they use as much fuel as a normal car, cost twice as much to buy, require much pollution in manufacture and disposal AND ARE ONE OF THE MOST AWFUL CARS I'VE EVER DRIVEN.

Seriously, I'd rather drive the herald coupe I had when I was a kid than a prious. I'd rather be broken down at the side of the road in my old MGB or X1/9 than drive a prious. I'd rather crash my LC torana than drive a prious...I'd ra...well you get the picture.

[woodbe]

I'm not quite so bent about the Prius as you. I see them as a necessary step in the development of EV manufacturing and acceptance. That said, I wouldn't buy one in a fit. Reason being, I cannot see the benefit of replacing an internal combustion engine vehicle with a vehicle running both an IC engine and EV hardware. Best and worst of both worlds in the one car - madness.

People get defensive about their chosen IC cars, and quote things like how many days it would take to do a road trip that can be done in a day with a normal car. Reality is that most of us use our cars in ways that an electric vehicle would be ideal for: a couple of short trips a day.

In the IC vs EV green discussion, you're either burning coal or burning oil to run a car. Doubt that there is an awful big difference in efficiency or emissions between them. Invest in a solar array to offset the EV power and you're in a pretty good space. On top of that EV servicing amounts to tyres, brakes and suspension. I was chatting to the Nissan EV product manager a while ago, and he said their research showed long term running costs way below half that of a comparable petrol vehicle.

I think, when they come and the realities become apparent, there will be a queue. The big question is will our run-down power infrastructure be able to cope?

woodbe

[damian]

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.

You can build a low tech electric car for not that much money. Get an old commuter car with a dud engine, stick in an electric motor and a bunch of lead acid batteries. Most people only drive 30 - 50 kms to and from work in slow traffic, plug it in the wall at night and roberts your fathers brother. Meanwhile keep a proper car for the weekend. I think there was a mob in victoria or somewhere doing something similar a while back. The trouble with the nissan and the other one (mitsubishi ?) is they are poisonously expensive. Your paying for the Lion batteries, and that it's a brand new car...

OR:

Build a steam car that runs on timber, perfect CO2 circle

Clever thing them trees...

[woodbe]

The trouble with the nissan and the other one (mitsubishi ?) is they are poisonously expensive. Your paying for the Lion batteries, and that it's a brand new car...

The Nissan isn't released here yet. I think they said next year 2013.. will be dearer than the Prius, but a lot more car also. The Mitsubishi iMIEV, I agree with you - they're tiny city cars for $50k that sell for way less than that elsewhere. (US is $27k, Canada $32k) Like most markets, EV pricing will settle down when there is competition.

New cars and new tech is expensive. Yep, noticed that.

woodbe.

[Bushmiller]

The local shops have been adding building faster than car parks, so there is always congestion down there. They added some oversize spaces and marked them "4WD/Minivan only"

On a particularly busy day, I parked my Golf in one of those parks under the glare of a snarly mum in her monster toorak tractor. As I walked past, she protested loudly through her open window that I had taken 'her' park, but was somewhat deflated when I replied: "that car has 4WD" (it has) haha. The teenagers in the back lost it with laughter, probably got bread and butter for tea!

woodbe.

The supermarkets around here don't stretch to such a level of sophistication, if you can call it that, and I have never owned a road going 4WD, but I might consider it just so I could do that!

Regards
Paul

[jimbur]

I think one of the early hybrids had heating problems. If you weren't running the petrol engine you had no heating which wasn't too good in the uk in winter.
Cheers,
Jim

[kraits]

[ quote=damian;1382878]
Build a steam car that runs on timber, perfect CO2 circle

Clever thing them trees...[/quote]




build a car that runs on a uranium fuel rod.

[Bob38S]

I see Chermside shopping centre in Brisbane is going to "solve" its parking problems by charging to park - apparently some small time period for free then you pay - word is it could start as soon as the end of this month.

[ian]

I see Chermside shopping centre in Brisbane is going to "solve" its parking problems by charging to park - apparently some small time period for free then you pay - word is it could start as soon as the end of this month.

Here in Sydney the "standard" for shopping centres is 3 hours for free, then you pay.

The idea is to discourage people who want to park all day while they take the bus to work

[Avery]

The idea is to discourage people who want to park all day while they take the bus to work

Which would , of course, be the environmentally friendly thing to do.

Thereby proving, beyond any shadow of doubt, that shopping centres are not about being friendly to the environment , as their "GREEN PARKING SPACES" may have suggested, but they are about getting as many people as possible through the door to maximise profit whilst paying some lip service to populist causes that may help to MAXIMISE PROFIT.

Not that I have a problem with any of that.

It is just the dishonesty...

[Sturdee]

Thereby proving, beyond any shadow of doubt, that shopping centres are not about being friendly to the environment , as their "GREEN PARKING SPACES" may have suggested, but they are about getting as many people as possible through the door to maximise profit whilst paying some lip service to populist causes that may help to MAXIMISE PROFIT.

Not that I have a problem with any of that.

It is just the dishonesty...

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.