Posted on 05/21/2009 5:41:31 AM PDT by CSM
It’s terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more...
The Honda’s petrol engine is a much-shaved, built-for-economy, low-friction 1.3 that, at full chat, makes a noise worse than someone else’s crying baby on an airliner. It’s worse than the sound of your parachute failing to open. Really, to get an idea of how awful it is, you’d have to sit a dog on a ham slicer...
The nickel for the battery has to come from somewhere. Canada, usually. It has to be shipped to Japan, not on a sailing boat, I presume. And then it must be converted, not in a tree house, into a battery, and then that battery must be transported, not on an ox cart, to the Insight production plant in Suzuka. And then the finished car has to be shipped, not by Thor Heyerdahl, to Britain, where it can be transported, not by wind, to the home of a man with a beard who thinks he’s doing the world a favour...
But let me be clear that hybrid cars are designed solely to milk the guilt genes of the smug and the foolish. And that pure electric cars, such as the G-Wiz and the Tesla, don’t work at all because they are just too inconvenient...
The only hope I have is that there are enough fools and madmen out there who will buy an Insight to look sanctimonious outside the school gates. And that the cash this generates can be used to develop something a bit more constructive.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
This would be one much less painful way to get to the new CAFE goal.
But don't forget the $64,000 question... is there enough diesel refinery capacity to make such a wholesale switchover from gas to diesel in a few years?
NOPE!
I was walking along the other day and saw one of these. I instinctively started pointing and laughing. After it passed, I realized how ironic it is that as a pedestrian I was still making fun of that particular vehicle.
—Really, to get an idea of how awful it is, you’d have to sit a dog on a ham slicer... —
Yikes!!
That’s not a smart car. I mean, seriously, that’s not what kind of car that is. It’s a VW CrossFox mini SUV.
He toasted the Corvettes.
Until the ZR-1 kicked ass on The Ring and on his own test track.
He picked it as his car of the year.
I loved it when he poked his finger into the flimsy plastic rear fascia of the Corvette and compared it to a “boy band”.
“Looks good at first glance, but utterly talentless.”
Yep.
Then he bought one.
And it was delivered eight months late.
And then it wouldn’t start and had to be shipped back.
And then the NASA-designed car alarm started calling his cell phone at 3am (true).
And then he sold it.
And bought another one.
And sold that.
The Ford GT was, for Clarkson, a lesson in desire, desparation and depression.
Our 98 Ford Contour 5 speed stick shift (4 cylinder) will get nearly that cruising on the freeway.
I saw one of these parked with a For Sale By Owner sign on the rear window.
I thought they ought to have a picture of that in the dictionary under "Buyer's Remorse."
Don’t confuse EPA (sticker) mileage with CAFE mileage.
They are two different animals done under different testing schemes.
Is this the future of NASCAR?
Now that’s a nice car, and I am (was) a Chevy man.
Yes, but my point is - regardless of which standard you use - you get about 75-80% of the way there, just by switching to these small, high-tech diesels.
Wow! I bet the ME had to scrape various parts of the driver off a thousand different pieces.
My motorcycle makes more HP than that. And it is a 750cc engine.
One of the smug drivers of those little tin cans (or is it a plastic can?) drove in my blind spot for 20 minutes (these toy car drivers need to realize that when your car is really small the other driver’s blind spot is comparably huge). It’s so darned small that I could barely see it out of the window of my minivan. These cars are accidents waiting to happen.
Nope, just a cotton swab for DNA to identify and then bury the whole thing at the funeral.
My boss, a huge guy, maybe 6’-3” tall and wide shoulders, commutes daily in one of these things. I think he drives about 40 miles each way. Yikes!
OK, think this through. If EVERYBODY drove the car you describe, we would just barely meet the new Obama standard. If one person bought a 12 mpg SUV, you no longer meet your CAFE requirements.
So, to meet the corporate efficiency standard, each SUV will require the car company to sell about 10 cars at 45 mpg or 100 cars at 42 mpg.
Folks, this new action by the commie has effectively outlawed any car or truck or SUV below 30 - 32 mpg. Big V8s are gone. Large 6's are gone. Most cars and trucks will have to be high turbocharged diesels with 4 bangers.
Your freedom to choose a product that you personally like, that will protect you and your family, is GONE.
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