Dubious Honor for my fair city

[mazz]

San Francisco has the highest gas prices in the country. The station down the street has posted 4.02 for regular!I'm in the wrong business! Since I'm thankfully not gigging much anymore, maybe it's time to let the van go! I saw two little Smart cars around town today. They're the first I've seen in this country, I've seen a bunch of them on my trips to Europe. Great for getting around town, probably not good in a run in with an Escalade. http://www.smartcarofamerica.com/Oh well!Mazz

[hummingbird]

Yeah, they've been selling some smart cars here too. Price of gas here is pretty high they say it will go higher by the summer. I mostly use me two legs & the bus + the occasional cab... the cost of running a car is just too much for me. Unfortunately though, I think we have to get used to this. I think soon we will find a technology that helps us with transportation that doesn't destroy our atmosphere - perhaps it's already been invented, but the current industry has a vested interest in staying the same. But cars are only really a small part of the problem. It's industry that is the big culprit, and loss of forests all over the globe. People in many countries are struggling for survival. It's pretty sobering. I was thinking yesterday how much we humans live on credit. In my parent's day, owing anyone anything was not a good thing at all. Now we mortgage our futures before we've even left school with credit cards and other borrowings. Our governments borrow from each other and lend money to other countries. And we extract from the environment what we need to make a buck today without heed to the consequences of the future. We are plowing over farmland to build resorts & subdivisions, and cutting down the last of our trees to build them. I think if our civilisation falls, it will be credit that does it. And the desperate need of those who have not for what the do-haves have, things we take for granted, like electricity, clean water, food to eat. Waterworld wasn't that far fetched.

[milfus]

i used to drive a little 84 geo metro, not the manliest car, but god do i miss it, loved that thing, could hit 50 in about 3 seconds, turned so tight i never had to make a single three point turn, and came stock 55 mpg, i put a 10 dollar optimizer in it and i really got 65 miles to the gallon

[jh]

Quote:The station down the street has posted 4.02 for regularWow, that is dirt cheap. Here it´s 1.43€/liter = $2.28 x 3,79 = $8.64 per gallon!!!1.50€/l isn´t unusual either, that´s $9.05...

[aimusic]

Don't forget there's that new car that's going to be released by TATA where it's real dirt cheap to maintain and runhttp://www.tata.com/tata_motors/media/20050507.htmCan't find the article where there was a pic, but it looks like a cool little car - not a big fan of smart cars... I think if you're gonna call a car a smart car - then atleast teach it to make coffee Take CareB

[devin]

I'm on my 3rd Honda Civic...not quite as good gas mileage as Milfus had with the Metro, but any money not going into the tank = more gear or beer.I used to have the big GMC Z71 truck with all the goodies...it would pass everything EXCEPT a gas station.Hey Mazz...I've seen video's of the SMART car in front collisions...they are really strong. The thing I don't get is, if the car doesn't crumple anywhere, is it my body that absorbs all that shock? I have two friends with SMART cars...that car is great for the commuter thing. But I doubt you could get an 88 key controller anywhere inside, so I think you might want to keep looking!!I have a couple of friends with hybrid cars...really good plan for city driving, as the regenerative braking charges the battery pack. Not as big an advantage for highway driving, as the brakes aren't used as much. Plus if you use Air Conditioning (according to the news, we all eventually will), some of the smaller motors drop in efficiency trying to run the compressor.(Thus concludes Devin's "more opinions than you wanted" rambling....)

[squids]

We've even got smart cars here. It's weird how quiet they are. They're thinking about installing little beepers or something because people are getting smacked in parking lots when they don't hear them coming!! We're at $3.50 down here and I'm not complaining, I know it's getting worse. It's got to, the oil companies need that higher profit margin for their Christmas bonuses (a private island for the CEO of Exxon, a small country for the CEO of Shell, those little party gifts of orgies and free jet rides for the kids' prom friends ...... ). We're paying more for milk and food than gas right now, since our stuff has to be trucked in, no local farmers. Milk's right around $5.08.I'm driving a Honda CRV, lil subcompact SUV that gets 28 on the highway which makes me happy cuz I commute an hour to school one way and there aren't buses here. The roads are still bad from Katrina in parts of the city where I go to class so the all-wheel drive comes in really handy. And yeah, Vikki, I got school loans up the wazoo. Good thing or I wouldn't be gettin' an education at all. School costs have risen 500% in the last five years.

[ibanez468]

Man, forget this...I'm pullin' out my bicycle!

[mewman]

Hi MazzYeah, I hear you about the van. I inherited a 93 GMC Safari from my Dad when he died and have been holding onto it for sentimental reasons. I use it to haul stuff around in, including the occasional out of town band gig, but gas hit 1.35/litre here this week and is supposed to go to 1.50 this summer so I'm in the market for a smaller, fuel efficient car.My girlfriend and I have been trying to work positive solutions into our ranting sessions and it seems that this obsession with fast and powerful cars is one of the main culprits in the ridiculously inefficient automobiles available today. The 1991 Honda Civic got close to 70 MPG. What has happened?! Now, if a car gets 30 MPG the dealers brag about the great mileage! We've decided it's time to make cars that can't go any faster than the speed limit. Maybe the government should take 400 billion dollars and offer it to the first company that can build a cheap car that gets 100 miles to the gallon. It would do a lot more for the world than waging war to secure our supply of oil.There are a lot of smart cars here in Montreal, but they are prohibitively expensive. The Tata looks cool, but my understanding is it won't pass north american standards for distribution.I'm not sure, but I think I feel better now. Thank you!Mewman

[mazz]

Apr 21, 2008, 11:34pm, jh wrote:Quote:The station down the street has posted 4.02 for regularWow, that is dirt cheap. Here it´s 1.43€/liter = $2.28 x 3,79 = $8.64 per gallon!!!1.50€/l isn´t unusual either, that´s $9.05... Yes, I don't have much to complain about compared to our European friends! When we were in France a couple of years ago, we rented a little diesel car and it got great mileage but it still cost about 65 bucks for half a tank when I went to take it back!I only commute 5 miles to the day gig which is really lucky here in the bay area where 2 hours each way is not unheard of! I used to ride my bicycle but I don't feel safe anymore doing that unfortunately. As progressive as we think we are here in Callyforniya (as the gov pronounces it) , the car is still king and bicyclists are unintentional targets.My wife drives a Prius so I feel as if we're doing our little part.Cheers,Mazz