Cars and the American people

I walked to work yesterday and it always gives me a chance to do some thinking. My mind usually wanders around, but yesterday I was thinking about cars and high gas prices. Strangely enough, my boss, a coworker and I had a discussion about hybrids. My boss drives a Prius and my coworker was thinking of what to get in the next year or two. He has an older Accord, but it still seems to be going strong.

People judge a car on price, looks, utility, efficiency, size, power, environmental impact and reliability. We Americans are pretty greedy and would like to maximize all of the above. However, in recent times, we would buy a car on looks, size and power alone and damn utility and efficiency. To me, a car needs to have a specific purpose: what am I going to use my car for most? Am I going to be hauling crap every day? No? Then why should I get a truck? If I'm only going to haul stuff once or twice a year then I can rent a truck without too much trouble. Do I really need four wheel drive in NorCal? Do I ski? How many times do I need to ski a year to justify the added cost and decreased mileage of 4x4? It's pretty strange to see people at work commuting from 20-40 miles away in big trucks and SUVs. I can understand if you have kids, but maybe you then get one commuter car and one minivan or station wagon or whatever.

People then say, "Oh, I need a big car in case I get into an accident." Huh. Not really. There are some accidents that you will not survive no matter how large your car is and there are some so minor that it doesn't matter. Sure a bigger car can impact more momentum, but today's cars have pretty effective crumple zones. Most SUVs are based on car platforms rather than trucks (definitely true for Lexus, BMW and Mercedes) and are therefore less stable. They are too tall for their width and are at a high risk of rolling over and that's when you can get really messed up since it is possible to have a one-car accident (maybe you swerve to miss hitting a deer).

My boss said that he wants a car with a lot of power so that he can better handle his daily commute on 101. I think what he really needs is a car with good acceleration. Out here you need to be able to react quickly in case that dumbass two lanes over decides that he really needs to take the next exit regardless of whether there is room in front of you or not. A powerful car is not necessarily agile.

With high gas prices, people are now looking to get more fuel efficient cars. Some are stupid enough to overpay for old Geo Metros, but others get sucked into the hybrid myth. Some hybrids get worse gas mileage than their equivalents because they are paired with larger engines. Some hybrids only improve the mileage by 5-10 mpg which does not justify the extra $5k nor does the emissions reduction make up for the fact that a hybrid is chockfull of lead-acid batteries the production of which is terrible for the environment. Also, the transmission and engine is fairly complicated on a hybrid so the reliability is questionable.

I think Europe and Asia has it right: smaller cars that are agile to better handle the old, narrow roads and diesel engines. Sure, diesel costs more than regular gas, but a diesel-powered car can get nearly double the mileage of its gasoline-powered equivalent. A Prius will get you anywhere between 40 and 50 mpg combined city and highway. I read a Consumer Reports or Autoweek article that said you can get 45 mpg combined city and highway with a well-designed diesel. It costs less than the hybrid, they've scrubbed the sulfur out of the fuel so it doesn't pollute as much and they fixed the problems with cold starts, etc. Diesel engines have been around the longest and are very well understood. To me, they represent a great bridge between the gas guzzlers of today and the hydrogen or electric powered cars of tomorrow.

I would seriously consider getting a diesel hybrid. I bet one of those could get around 70-80 mpg if done right which means putting the electric motors on the wheels so that there is no power loss along the transmission axle. I'm not sure why more hybrids aren't designed that way. There are less moving parts, they are more efficient and you can use the electric motors to brake.

Honda just announced production of hydrogen cars. However, where the heck are we going to get hydrogen? It is found in oil and gas wells, but I think those are pretty well tapped out. You can easily make hydrogen from water using electrolysis. However, that requires a fair amount of energy. From where will it come? How will we save the planet if we convert gas-burning cars to hydrogen-burning cars + coal-fired plants? Maybe we can use solar plants to generate the energy necessary to make hydrogen, but why don't we then just make electric cars to use the electricity directly? If you're pretty smart, I suggest you direct your brain power to creating lighter and more fuel efficient batteries and solar cells that can be spray-painted onto cars or integrated into their skin so that your car can charge all day long in the parking lot while you're at work or whatever. There is definitely a lot of money to be made there.

The US is a relatively new country so our highways are wide and can easily accomodate overly large and overly powered cars. It has taken high gas prices to get people to actually think about what they really need and that is a bit depressing.