Iraq has been turned over!

[videoholic]

There is very little gas savings in these new hybrids.  Sam (Oneof my hosts) drove a GMC truck down last week and got 17 miles to a gallon.  IT had a 48 volt hybrid system in it.  Batteries all behind the back seat.  

One thing that was pretty cool is it had no starter on it.  When you turned the key you could barely hear the motor turn on.  And it would turn off at intersections.  Pretty cool.

He got the bad  mostly on the highway and that is not where you get the savings.  

From everything I\'ve seen the amount they save isn\'t huge at all.  

You can get great mileage out of a diesel powered car too.

Plus when you plug it in at night, where do you think it gets the power from?  Unless you live in an area where they have a dam or wind power you are polluting the environment with the power company anyway.

[Titan]

Fuel cells will probably be the most practical car. They just need to work the kinks out. I\'ll buy one when they come out (I\'ll probably have a family so I won\'t be driving a V8 daily anymore). Hybrids are probably good vehicles to have if you drive in like a city or a town. I thought they got like 40 to the gallon whereas the gasoline of the same type would get like 30 to the gallon. I need to do more research on hybrids. I still don\'t understand how they work.

[GmanJoe]

I ain\'t buyin a hybrid until it can get the equivelant of 55mpg and recharge itself without the need of a plug. I think Prius recharges from the disc brakes (don\'t ask me how).

[Titan]

Originally posted by GmanJoe
I ain\'t buyin a hybrid until it can get the equivelant of 55mpg and recharge itself without the need of a plug. I think Prius recharges from the disc brakes (don\'t ask me how).

The friction caused by the breaks and the energy created is quite a bit. I actually found that to be pretty clever on Toyota\'s part. Hats off to them thinking that one up.