OT: how far we've come?, 35 years of non-progress Options

[lapuwali]

Hybrids are the buzzword now, and people marvel at how the latest Civic hybrid gets 50mpg.

Autoweek had a short article on the early Civics, which got 55mpg with a carb. 1.2L, 50hp, 1500lbs. Sure, they were slow, but they were described as still being fun to drive. The way most people drive modern Civics, I doubt they'd notice if they suddenly only had 50hp.

(yes, I know emissions are much better, it's quieter, it crashes better, yada, yada...)

[Pistachio]

Dated material.

The Cornell study was published in 2001, based off historical costs of crude.

Crude oil is never returning to "historical" costs.

For instance, China has become a tremendous importer of crude in the last 5 yrs & has a 20yr projection of comsuming the equivelant of all of the crude that is currently produced worldwide today if current economic growth is sustained. (one reason they really wanted to buy Unocal & it's holdings last year, they would control all of Unocals tremendous oil production in SE Asia, which is where 78%(?) of the oil Unocal produces comes from)

In other words, crude oil is never going to get cheaper than what it is today. Use todays figures for crude oil cost in Pimintal's study and the scales tip.

Ethanol's not a long term solution, just an effective short term stop gap.

JMO