Are You Ready To Make Due With Little Or No Gas.??

[ORChick]

I think that is less true than in the past. There is a huge push for fully electric cars now (Prius electric, Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, etc.). But the most fun is my friend's fully electric Tesla Roadster -- that thing accelerates so fast it feels like a roller coaster. I heard that diesel cars may also be making a comeback here too (they are already popular in Europe). I think they get close to the mileage that hybrids get.

I bought a hybrid last summer and I'm getting an average of about 52 MPG, which is double what I was getting in my VW Jetta. Depending on traffic, I can get as high as about 75 MPG in a trip to work. If I lived in an area with fewer hills and stop signs my mileage would be better.

Diesel cars are very popular in Europe, as are smaller cars in general; they have some very nice little cars that I would be happy to drive ... if they sold them here. In September DH and I were in Spain, and had a rental car. It was a small Audi, 2 door, diesel (don't ask me the model; I haven't a clue about cars, but I know it isn't sold over here). We picked this car up in northern Spain (with a full tank), drove around southern Spain for 9 days ... and filled the tank twice! (+ a small top off before handing it back). I can't say how many hundreds of kilometers we drove, but we drove (and saw) a lot on less than 3 tanks of diesel. It was a nice little car too; DH and our friend in Spain both agreed that it drove nicely. It was a new model (smallest Audi they make, I think), and so the guys were oohing and aahing over it.

 

[Lady Henevere]

What car did you get Lady?

I got a Prius, since the gas mileage is so good (better than most--all?--other mainstream hybrids), and they have been around for a while and have proven themselves to be reliable. I have found that it's a pretty decent car for driving the kids to school and commuting into the city.

 

[AnnaRaven]

What car did you get Lady?

I got a Prius, since the gas mileage is so good (better than most--all?--other mainstream hybrids), and they have been around for a while and have proven themselves to be reliable. I have found that it's a pretty decent car for driving the kids to school and commuting into the city.

We love our prius. Drove it several times to Portland (from SF Bay area) and to Grand Canyon and etc. It's a great car.

 

[FarmerChick]

the mileage per gallon sounds very nice!

 

[Toulle]

Peak oil - that is a sound theory by Marion King Hubbert that states there will be a point at which oil supplies will be at a maximum. After that point, we aren't out of oil per se, just the supplies will dwindle from that point onwards. Dr Hubbert predicted US oil would peak around 1970 - he was right. He also figured a date for world supplies, which was revised somewhat after his death to something like 2005-2007. I believe he was right.

Big Oil - what is that? Some vision of some Dick Cheney looking guys wearing pin striped suits, smoking big Cuban cigars and laughing about how they got the "little man" bent over an oil barrel? I just don't buy it. That is just a popular and safe Boogie Man we can blame our troubles on.

Oil prices are rising because of supply and demand. We passed Peak Oil, so supplies are slowly dropping. Demand is still rising. China and India want oil, too.

Drilling for oil in the US? We have some un-tapped resources, still. The question is why would we? If we started today, it would take years before the first gallon gets to your local gas station. After that, there are only so many years worth of gas in these US sources. What then?
Right back where we are now, only with a few more natural areas (ANWR for example) destroyed.

What happened to the Geo Metro and other such cars? Did the Boogie Man (big oil) send around the Men in Black to do away with them, as well as the fellow who converted his VW rabbit to get 100 mpg or run on cat pee in his garage?
What happened to the Geo Metro is easy to find out: ask around who wants such a car. Most people I meet will tell me all about how such cars are "unsafe" and how they "need" a Dum-vee. Supply and demand kills every one of these cars. Most Americans are just convinced that bigger is better, and that is that.
But - when gas gets to around $5/gallon and stays there, people will start to make some changes.
Food prices will go up, as will everything else.
The SUV will begin to disapear.
People who previously moved out to the country and live in a 3 on 3 house (3000 sf on 3 acres of grass) will find their lifestyles are now un-sustainable. They will probably move back into town.
People will generally be able to buy less luxury goods.

Coal. People think about it. Coal is the NASTIEST burning fuel we can get. There is no such thing as "clean coal".
Nukes. Think Japan - Fukushima or Russia - Chernobyl. Three Mile Island? It just ain't gonna happen now. Doesn't matter if it is safe or not, the public just won't have it.
Hydroelectric. We have pretty much tapped all the resources we got. True, a lot of the old TVA dams are generating power with 70-80 year old technology and could be upgraded.
Solar. That's promising. Perhaps if the power company rented inertie arrays out to customers?

Hydrogen? I think it takes more energy to create energy with it than you get.
Methane, Ethanol? Promising. Methane can come from cow poop - we got plenty of that. Real question is: why aren't we moving towards it now?

My final thought on it - it'll be good for us.
It will be like taking some nasty tasting medicine.

 

[pinkfox]

if i had my choice id have a diesel Fiat 500...
or a diesel 2 door yarris

LOVE dinky little cars and they both get great gas milage in disel versions but disel isnt popular in the us and there both considerbly more expensive than i could ever afford...so ill probably end up going with a mule shoudl thigns get bad enough lol

the good news is my sebring will make a beautiful lawn ornament lol

 

[kstaven]

I think that is less true than in the past. There is a huge push for fully electric cars now (Prius electric, Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, etc.). But the most fun is my friend's fully electric Tesla Roadster -- that thing accelerates so fast it feels like a roller coaster. I heard that diesel cars may also be making a comeback here too (they are already popular in Europe). I think they get close to the mileage that hybrids get.

I bought a hybrid last summer and I'm getting an average of about 52 MPG, which is double what I was getting in my VW Jetta. Depending on traffic, I can get as high as about 75 MPG in a trip to work. If I lived in an area with fewer hills and stop signs my mileage would be better.

Diesel cars are very popular in Europe, as are smaller cars in general; they have some very nice little cars that I would be happy to drive ... if they sold them here. In September DH and I were in Spain, and had a rental car. It was a small Audi, 2 door, diesel (don't ask me the model; I haven't a clue about cars, but I know it isn't sold over here). We picked this car up in northern Spain (with a full tank), drove around southern Spain for 9 days ... and filled the tank twice! (+ a small top off before handing it back). I can't say how many hundreds of kilometers we drove, but we drove (and saw) a lot on less than 3 tanks of diesel. It was a nice little car too; DH and our friend in Spain both agreed that it drove nicely. It was a new model (smallest Audi they make, I think), and so the guys were oohing and aahing over it.

That was an A3 you where driving. I have an A4 and love it.

 

[FarmerChick]

Toulle I get alot of what you did when researching Hubbert but I also get things like this: Optimistic estimations of peak production forecast the global decline will begin by 2020 or later, and assume major investments in alternatives will occur before a crisis, without requiring major changes in the lifestyle of heavily oil-consuming nations.

Also when you research oil reserves it is astounding how long those reserves are into the future.

I don't think oil is over by a long shot. Obviously we need alternatives, but not, like, tomorrow. I agree though as prices increase, individual lifestyles will change. Oil won't run out but it is a matter of when 'cheap' oil is over.

 

[animalfarm]

Toulle is right about peak oil.

My hubby is a geophysicist. He works in big oil, and even big oil knows its over. Peak oil has come and gone along time ago. Heck, they finally admitted it ten years ago; just not to the general public. All of those new discoveries are in old oil fields and are being re-discovered because they were too small to bother with back in the 70's and 80's. Demand is out stripping supply and sooner rather then later, its going to become apparent to pretty much everyone and by then China and India will have it all in the bag. Sure you can make yourself feel better by touting the shale reserves, but when they start fracking those places, there is going to be some major environmental catastrophies that will make paying the piper a very painful process indeed. Its easy to forget about the BP spill when the beaches start to look clean; people should go take a tour of the Alberta tar sands and see whats in store for some US states.

Yea, the oil will keep coming for a while yet, but at what cost?

 

[FarmerChick]

that is it.
oil is there, no doubt aboutit, but at what cost to continue.
environmental and wallet