Hey wait a minute.....Ford OWNS damn near 50% of Mazda! and all of Jaguar.......and Range Rover........and Volvo.......and about 1/3 or do of Pininfarina (basically FIAT)
My Ebay bought '98 Ford 2WD Ranger short box with a topper with 97K (now107K) on it gets 20-22 MPG (most anywhere), drives like a roller skate, hauls stuff, does OK on snow and ice, has just liability insurance and keeps my thirsty 10 MPG '99 Chevy Crew Cab Big Block in the garage with just comp insurance until its time (rarely) to pull the enclosed trailer. Saves me money and miles on the big truck cuz I'll never buy a new one again.
You're kidding! Makes perfect sense, but I never thought a manufacturer would have the balls to put a "reset button" on the firewall! Unreal. It's like a PC vs. a MAC. LOL!!!!!
My 2.8 Celebrity Wagon will turn 20 years old Dec 1st with 161,000 miles now. It got 30 miles per gallon on the trip home from Spring Carlisle. Around town it averages about 21 mpg. When it was new it got 24 city and 32 highway. Lets see: I could buy a new car at around $20,000 or so. I would be hard pressed to find one that could haul as much and still get that mileage. Why would I want a new car? Prestige? Who cares! I got a compliment today on the Celebrity. Picking up an electric motor and the shop owner said: "I had a 2.8 Celebrity. Great car. Sold it at 136,000 miles to a guy who said he could fix the few things wrong with it. Bad computer caused a lack of converter lockup and no A/C. The engine still ran good! Your wagon looks good! I wish I still had mine!" I think the "economics" of the Prius don't let the owner break even over a standard car until about 100,000 miles. Who (beside HAMBers) keep a car for 100,000 miles!!!! The alcohol made from corn will just pump up the price of food.
i did a v-8 swap on my 90 astro work van that had a 336,000 mile 4.3 v-6 i installed a highway milage was a best of 15 per gal. now the 305 version gets 19 per gal and is a whole bunch more fun.!
because the prez is in the oil co.'s pocket! to attack the oil co.'s is to attack the great "W",To attack him is unpatriotic and the "patriot act" make it a federal crime to say anything bad about him. "excuse me Mr. President, you need a breath mint" "Secret service agent! send this terrorist bastard to Guantonimo for enhanced interogation techniques!" Okay! Rant over! back to our regularly scheduled mayhem.
You guys that are like me and appreciate high horsepower and gas for your "toys" need to watch this movie: http://www.amazon.com/Who-Killed-El...0-4552820?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1179372715&sr=8-1 I drive less than 20 miles round trip to work per day. I would consider this electric car for a daily, and nothing less. Keep the hotrods and pickups in the garage for "occasional use". The guy from Troy, MI (close by) developed the battery technology GM was looking for, 120+ miles before requiring a recharge. Guess what happened? He sold out his patent to GM, they shelved it, and then claimed they couldn't come up with a reliable battery that would get people where they wanted to go, despite statistics that said something like 80% of people drive their cars less than 45 miles per day. All the owners of the GM EV1 cars staged a protest as their cars were recalled and crushed. The technology is out there. Big brother is watching you. We can put a man on the moon in the 60's, but we can't make a car go 60 MPG reliably? Big Oil isn't in the automaker's pants? We're all sheep for continuing to buy gas and not demanding that technology get stepped up... The sad thing is, if more people abandoned Big Oil for more fuel-efficient cars, the demand for gas would go down, and the price to fuel up our "toys" would go down as well! Everyone bad-mouths the "alternative" vehicles, but we as hot rodders should praise them! Ultimately if enough people buy them the price of gas will go down. Am I not thinking correctly?
Gas will never go down and stay in price. If people started using less, they'll just raise the price for those who still need it. My girlfriend has a 96 ranger, the thing is bullet-proof, it's been a wonderful truck. It has a 4cyl, 5spd, and is a SLUG. You really have to wind it out sometimes to keep up with freeway traffic. That brings me to this point... I have a suspicion that underpowered vehicles don't get as good gas milage as one with decent power. I'm not saying compare a 85 mustang with a stock 4cyl to one with a blown 460. But I mean something that has a motor that is able to keep the car up with traffic without having to wind the thing out. Anyone ever seen anything to back that up? I can't think of any real world examples, but i've wondered if it made a difference.
i had a local electric vehicle builder give me an guess on how much i`d save if i switched to an e-car conversion, my 70 chevy pickup cost me $3500 a year in fuel to travel back and forth to work, an e-car would cost $125 a year for the same trip, battery replacement worked out to another $1000 a year, i still think a smart car new for $20,000 loaded and gets between 60 and 75 mpg is the answer.
Actually yeah. I have some Pontiac 455 powered rides, one in particular has been interesting. Its a 70 GTO that has been used as a DD for quite some time. It makes around 500ftlbs between 2500 and 4000 rpm, and around 400 hp at the peak. Its mildly cammed for a 455, just a 224/230@.050 hydraulic cam, with a stock intake and Qjet, inexpensive headers, and mildly ported 5C smog heads from a 75 400. About 9:1 compression and timing set so it will run on 87 octane, usually around 34 total. It had an Olds rear end with a 2.93 posi and 28" tall tires out back. that 4100 lb Goat would run 13.50@100 all day long like that. Well I had to make a road trip from Hastings Nebraska to Charleston South Carolina back in 2000. So I put in a junkyard 2004R trans that I knew worked. rebuilt the Qjet, packed up the car and headed out. That big engine was clickin over around 1700 rpm @ 75 -80 mph, it had plenty of power to pass and didnt need down shifted to climb hills, even the big ones by Asheville NC. I got behind a truck through the last part of Tennesse and got a rather surprising 25mpg from it, because of the lessened wind resistance. Without a fast moving truck it was getting 20-22 consistently the entire trip. The combination of large engine making prodigious torque in the lower RPM range, the od trans, and the highway gears was nearly the perfect combination for a long distance cruiser. An added plus was I had about $5000 in the entire car over a period of 6 years prior to that trip. No it wasnt pretty but it worked and ran flawlessly. In a lighter car such as a roadster or early coupe, and even a lightened 50s ride, it would do even better mileage and also in the ET department. We also put a Buick Stage 1 455 in a 75 Vega Kamback. that sucker would get 21 with a 3.00 gear too. It didnt hook very well and it was a completely stock engine, so it could have done much better. Did you know that the 4th gen F bodies with the LS1 V8 get better mileage than the V6? the 98 Formula I have gets 28-31 highway, same principle, enough torque down low to move the car, and highway gears (2.73) with an overdrive. It ran consistent 8.8s in the 1/8 mile stone stock. Build power down low, keep the cruise rpm as low as possible, and even large engines can get decent mileage. After the rebuild of the GTO, it will get a newer 455, one with light rods and pistons, turned down mains and rod bearings, a hydraulic roller cam, and more efficient aluminum heads from KRE. Knock down some parasitic losses inside the engine, keep the OD trans, Qjet, but run 3.42 gears so it does a bit better in city driving. It was getting 15 city provided I didnt get into the secondaries. That and get my still up and running so I can make my own ethanol. screw the oil companies, I am keeping my hotrods.
Just the opposite. Ford builds the truck and Mazda powers it, under both names. Earlier V6 was ford made, though. In any case, i'd be surprised if any 4 cyl. truck really gets 30 mpg. My Honda Element does well to get 22 and my '03 Jetta only got 28. Trucks are not aerodynamic enough.
Had the same thing happen in a Volks Rabbit a few years ago. Dealer couldn't find the problem either. After a week the regional rep came there, looked under the hood and said try it now. It fired right up. Turns out those German engineers put a button on the firewall you have to push every several thousand miles when it's time to check your egr valve or the friggin thing kills your ignition to stop you from polluting. None of those so called Factory Certified Mechanics knew about that little white unmarked button on the firewall. I like the older stuff. If I can't fix it, I probably know someone who can.[/QUOTE] I bet the US goverment told the german engineers to do that. We never had/have that option over here Michael
ya know, i thought i KNEW ugly( owning a 46 chevy coe at one time) but YOU own an element. YOU have become the king of ugly! all hail the king!!!
The 3.0 and the SOHC 4.0 are all Ford. The 2.3 DOHC in them is, I believe, all Mazda. And a good one to boot.
Sorry if this sounds like a few of us are trying to push everyone into a Prius. That is totally not the point here. We have just been trying to defend someone that does choose that type of purchase (or any purchase of a commuter car that would save some gas/money -- such as a 4 banger Ranger). We are a free country and we all choose what we want to drive. What is bad is when someone so hates the environmentalists that they lie about the true impact of the choices, so as to defend their choice. As a hotrodder I have made my choices, I have fun cars that waste a lot of gas and I have a commuter that is easy on gas -- but that is only my choice, because I believe that the supply of crude oil is not limitless. It is true that it takes several years to recoup the extra cost of the hybrid. The exact number is in flux because it is mostly related to the price of gas. But in reality the guy that buys a Prius would spend the extra cash on the techology rather than always filling the pockets of the Saudi Terrorists. Nobody here said we should all trade in our current cars, just for a couple of miles per gallon. We are only responding to a guy that already wants to replace his current vehicle and might buy a 4 cyl. Ultimately it will be his decision and he has to weigh the power issues and the intented use. If he chooses the 4 instead of the 6 and only gets 2-3 MPG more he has still saved something for use in the rods and should be applauded not demonized for his choice. Others have to make their choices based on what they do with the vehicle, if you are always hauling cars or tools ect you may NEED more, but don't criticize me for choosing something small that works for me -- thats all I ask (Model A I am sorry if this rant sounds like it is directed at you -- it just an in general rant you were just one of the people that it sounded like we were telling you to trade in your car)
And you have never seen any other make or model of car dead in traffic. I don't understand why guys always use this type of excuse for a car not being a good one. I would highly doubt that any model of car from any manufacturer has never had a break down.
Good point! I guess I could go the other way with the logic. I have never seen a dead Prius, therefore they must be a perfect car.
Yeah, that one's kind of like the guy that told me that Chevrolets must be bad cars, because you see lots of them in junkyards! I guess it couldn't have anything to do with the fact that more Chevrolets were made than any other car......
46f1- no offense taken! I know this thread took on Prius and maybe other such cars but I was trying to also address the issue of auto makers telling us to buy new cars. There are many (maybe!) cars that get better mileage than my present DD but I can't think of one that would replace it and give me more than what I have now. Perhaps someone can suggest something. The CAFE requirements have not been raised in many years. The auto makers say it would cost way to much to get better mileage out of their entire "fleets". I think what actually happened is that they had easy fixes to get to the past requirement and now they would have to step up to make better mileage. (Though I wonder why vettes get at least twice the mileage they got in 1965 and have twice the HP. Maybe because they charge at least 10 times more now.) A big part of why they met the past CAFE was that they stopped making cars like the 75 Eldorado, at least for a while. In order to make a big profit on big vehicles they side stepped the CAFE for cars and built big trucks (SUVs) that were not as subjected to CAFE because making them get good mileage would "hurt the trucking industry"! I seem to remember 6000 lbs as being the low limit. Guess what - just make a 6000 lb "truck" that has everything a 75 Eldo had and skate by the car CAFE regs. I could go on but I'm sure we are all aware of what happened and why we build our own cars.
Thanks Model A, I do agree that the auto makers are pushy though -- in some ways thats good though. If my '46 Ford wasn't replaced back in '68 it probably would be in a whole lot worse condition than its in now (considering the salt that they put on the roads in the winter up here). As long as someone else is buying new stuff it leaves more of the older stuff for us
The reason they are pushy is to stay in buisness. If you don't buy a new car they don't survive. Hybrids and fuel economy are what they are using in their advertising because the cost of gas and the environment are topical at this point in time and are things that they feel the average car buyer are concerned with. I wounld be interested to see what all the guys on here that don't want to buy a new car because there old car is better than anything else (finances taken into account)will feel if and when one of the big three are out of business. It's guys like the people on this board who love American cars that need to buy new American cars to help solve some of their problems.
Agree on the BS thing. It turns out that "The study includes the energy put into research and development". Given that the research cost put into Hybrid's is going to be a pretty big number spread across a relatively small number of vehicles this is going to be a big disadvantage to hybrids. CNW Marketing's own web-site states that "Clients include major automobile manufacturers". What are the chances of one of them could be GM ?
If I bought a truck that only lasted 7 yrs and 110k mi. I'd be looking into a different brand. Now can someone explain to me why my 345 hp Vette gets better gas mileage than my can't get out of it's own way "economy" car. The Vette does take premium, but none the less the cost per mile is almost the same. FWIW the Prius are regulary goining 300k on the original battery, and original brake pads.
i recall reading, though i don't have a source at hand, that CNW represents all of the big 3 US automakers.
In the interest of honest reporting, here is what I have found out with the new 4 cylinder truck. #1--Although there is a noticeable difference in acceleration at low speeds, at freeway speeds, (75 MPH) the truck cruises and accelerates much the same as the V6 model did. #2--- On a 90 mile trip, at freeway speeds, the new truck got 28.4 miles per gallon. ---I am certain that at 60MPH it would probably reach the 30 MPG advertised.)---the old V6 truck got an average of 19.9 miles per gallon for the same trip at the same (75MPH) speed.----so---the difference in gas mileage is not as great as anticipated at freeway speeds, but will be greater at "around town" speeds, which covers most of the driving I do.
The difference is still 8.5 mpg. Pretty significant difference in my book. Oh yeah... thanks for the update. EDIT: The Ranger has a 19.5 gallon tank. Getting 8.5 mpg better mileage would get you 165.75 miles further on the same ammount of fuel. That tank also gives a range of 553.8 miles at your miles per gallon.
The Jalopy Journal
