How someone can take the second generation Focus platform and dumb down the handling so much is slightly beyond me.

i think fitting a regular toyota yaris with a minuscule engine, and lightweight construction, plus low resistance tires plus a an aero kit will make it a much more efficient car than the prius.

i think Hybrids are a good idea, but they are not The IDEA, i stand strong by saying the future belongs to the electric car, once they crack the battery technology…there’s only one snag, by the time they do crack the tech, there will be so much toxic waste that even if the whole world switched to the prius yesterday, it wont be enough to counter….

So are you saying that the marketing of automobiles is fanciful? I can’t believe it. Here I was thinking that all commercials were entirely realistic depictions of how vehicles are actually used instead of idealized narratives meant to evoke emotional responses leading to purchase decisions.

Does this mean I can’t drive my new BMW on a giant canvas and paint a giant picture with my tires?

What’s next? Are you going to tell me Santa Claus isn’t real?

50mpg+ means nothing at some point – the marginal returns on trying to extract EVERY LAST MPG out of new tech get way too expensive. A car getting 70 mpg (which is nuts and sounds awesome) still uses about half of the gasoline I do, .014 gallons per mile). The jump from an SUV getting 14 mpg to a modest, non-hybrid compact sedan saves MUCH more gasoline than going from a medium sedan to a hybrid.

Well, it depends. Last year, during the four-dollar gas times, I found myself shutting off the motor in drive-through lines and while waiting at the traffic light when I could see it would be a long cycle. Now we are fast approaching three-dollar gas; I may start doing that again. Maybe I can save enough money to get a big coke instead of a small one.

Yeah…people talk about efficiency gains. Best way to actually do that is to combine trips. Plan a little, don’t get stuck going to the store for a cube of butter or a bottle of wine. Go to Costco, and get gas while you’re there. You’ll need more storage room in the house but you’ll spend less time and money driving. (Of course this doesn’t work so well if your living circumstances are such that you’re a good Zip-car customer.)

I would suspect that just planning and combining car trips would save more money for most families than driving a Prius instead of an Accord or Camry. If you’re dedicated enough, of course, you can plan/combine trips and drive the Prius.

Seriously, all of this stuff is damn obvious when it’s put together. Sure, the car is slow, but the base cars are slow already anyway. Here in the US the diesel is not going to fly, but even with a gas engine it seems they would see a significant gain. Why isn’t everyone doing this? Hell, GM had stop/start tech going for a bit (mild hybrids they sold as Saturn’s Greenline), combine some aero bits with it and you might actually see something impressive!

This car is strangely embarassing because it points out how simple efficiency gains are to get. Everyone should be doing this.

It also makes one wonder why Ford isn’t bringing this thing over here.