Ultra effecient combustion cars, under 1.5 litre, thoughts, pics, comments, designs, concepts Options

[pete-stevers]

Given todays economic climate, possible scaricity of fuel, and of course just the raw challenge of building a car with high mpg,
we should have a thread on cars of this nature, in production,prototypes,homebuilts, concepts and pictures.
( I wish i had the time and energy to build a car with a sub 1 litre engine, and maybe one day i will)

but lets keep it to combustion power, for now

[Dave_Darling]

Interesting about the diesels in the UK. And I did not mean to imply that taxes were the only reason to go diesel in Europe; I thought the fuel economy benefits were obvious.

Ken, diesel is cheaper than supreme unleaded gasoline in some areas of the US. But unless the diesel fuel is 20%-30% higher cost than the gasoline, the dollars-per-mile still favors diesel due to the superior economy.


I, too, tire of the electric car hype. It is not the answer--it is an answer, but there is no one answer. Ditto the hybrids; they have their place but they are not the be-all-end-all.

The alternative-fuel and high-MPG worlds are pretty interesting places when you look around...

--DD

[zymurgist]

Ken, diesel is cheaper than supreme unleaded gasoline in some areas of the US. But unless the diesel fuel is 20%-30% higher cost than the gasoline, the dollars-per-mile still favors diesel due to the superior economy.

Dave, I don't doubt that. But when I took the purchase price of the vehicle into account, also considering how long I keep my cars (with very low residual value due to high mileage), all that factored into my calculations. It's the same kind of analysis that caused me to decide that a hybrid would not be a good choice for me.

I'm not saying that a diesel wouldn't make sense for other people... I couldn't make the numbers work for me.