4 Nov
2003
4 Nov
'03
8:20 p.m.
Cameron:
> > Ron, give him a break, he's driving one of these big useless
> > Toyota SUVs, and I'm bugging him every time I'm over when he
> > finaly get's rid of that fuel sucking monster and gets himself
> > a nice roomy and economic station wagoon.
> I'm still waiting for the SmartCar to appear
in the States...
Argh. You don't mean that little two-seater deal?
They were a plague upon
Rome (just got back from vacation), although I can't argue with their
fuel economy.
Maybe, the Italians always loved to drive small stuff. The
Smart is a perfect example for an emotional car. Either you'll
love it or you hate it. there is no indifference. I love it.
you got a better seat feeling than in an E-calss Mercedes.
Shure, the car ends right in front of the windshield and just
two feet behing your heed, but you don't feel it (most cars don't
let you see the hood anyway, and who turns around while driving).
Fuel Economy isn't as good as it may seam, since AC and all the
little gadgets need their power, so gasmilage is only between
50 and 70 mpg (city/highway).
Nonetheless its extreme fun to drive it. Due the low wight and
relative high powered engine (50+ HP) it drives like a cart.
And it's even a great ClassicComp vehicle, at least if you
collect small stuff. The 'trunk' (as i tried) is good for two
PETs, two 8050 dual drives, two 3022 printers and a bunch of
manuals, diskboxes and so on :)
And best of all, the new Roadster is a blast ... finaly again
a new super small fun car, like the old 60's britisch cars...
Ron:
> Then again, gas is so damn cheap in California
....
Yikes! I escaped CA, and one of the reasons was the
prices!
But I guess CA is cheaper than most of europe ;^)
At the moment it's acceptable in Germany: about 1.10 Euro
per liter regular or 1.20 for premium), so make that five
bucks a gallon. And Germany isn't even the most expensive
place in Europe. If I remember the British prices correctly,
which are quite higher, I don't understand why there was
still oposition to Blairs heroic support for the war ... *G*
Prices in CA are high because there is an artificial
monopoly.
Only about 5 companies make "California" gas with MTBE. That
and the extra taxes the environmentally aware Californians
put on.
Are you shure that there are more companies in the US at all
doing gas? I'm not talking about the label, since refineing
business and selling are not connected in any way.
Gruss
H.
--
VCF Europa 5.0 am 01./02. Mai 2004 in Muenchen
http://www.vcfe.org/