Record profits and soaring gas prices, I dont get it

[Eomer]

Asuna Sunfires were also known as Geo Metros, I think. My buddy had one. What a shit box, wow. But it's suspension is designed by Lotus! A badge on the car even said so!

Coolest Pulsar I ever saw was this total conversion some guy had done with it. He'd put some huge motorcycle engine in the thing, it actually sat in the middle of the car, and it was all turbo'd to shit. He ice raced with it, and nothing could even come close to it when it ran properly. It would hit 160km/h easily on the straights, wheras my sweet Chevette would maybe hit 90. That was in the rubber to ice class. After each heat he'd quickly duck in to the pits and swap for his studded tires, and go out and dominate all the RX-7's in the unlimited class.

Originally Posted by Rinthea

thats bullshit, got a source?

food and energy in real terms are high worldwide

No, that's why I was asking Soriak. I read it in a newspaper article in the past week or two.

[GorestabbCoE]

Us lucky folks in the UK get proper bargain prices for fuel.

The 3 stations I passed on the way to work this morning were all 122.9p a litre.

Which give or take a few cents is roughly $11.40 a gallon.

Damn you Americanos and your $4 a gallon

[chaos]

You guys get to talk with English accents. It's a tradeoff.

[GorestabbCoE]

Originally Posted by chaos

You guys get to talk with English accents. It's a tradeoff.

How right you are, sir! What ho chaps!

[Borzak]

I can tell most of you aren't old enough to remember in the US when people would have gladly paid what we're paying for gas...if they could even get any.

I remember as a kid sitting in a car in line and eveyrone pushing their car forward when the next person got gas only to be there 4 hours and then the station shut down because they were out of gas.

I remember when blue cars got cas on monday, red cars on tuesday only and so forth.

I'll take $10/gallon over that bullshit any damn day of the week.

[Burf]

Originally Posted by ashatumar

I quoted that in haste heading out last night...

Essentially it's available only in SoCal because of the requirement for fueling and service stations. If you're in the areas they can cover, you can lease one of these for $600 a month.

The car has a range of 270 miles and the whole thing is built around the fuel cell design.

Not shilling, and I don't think this is something I could get today, but the fact that this is on the market today makes things hopeful.

Now for the bad part: The fueling stations rely on natgas to produce hydrogen. I'm not sure how much this would cost per fill, it may be a moot point. But as there's more than one way to make hydrogen, this is definitely progressive.

Thoughts?

It's interesting that they're leasing it for $600 a month. The interesting dynamic (to me) in this whole cost of gas argument is that it seems people are willing to pay a higher upfront cost in order to save little bits of money down the line. In other words, this 3 year $600/month vehicle will end up costing you $21,600...and that's just to lease it. When the lease is up, BAM!...car's gone. You just payed $600 a month for the "honor" of paying less for fuel (again, no one's sure how much the hydrogen is going to cost to fill up). Why not just buy a 4-cyl Civic and drive it for 10-12 years? I feel confident that it will cost less in the long run.

Same goes with other 'specialty' cars. We can all do the math, but if you are going to spend several thousand dollars more to buy a car that gets a few more mpg than that other car....you're willing to pay the upfront cost rather than the extra nickle and dime every week or two when you fill up.

With the two vehicles I drive (which get relatively crappy mileage), I probably spend about 3-4% of my income on gas. Double the gas mileage, now I'm spending ~2%.

As has been stated, the big impact is from the truck drivers who used to spend $250 to fill up, but are now paying $1000+ per tank. That makes milk, clothes, bread, etc more expensive.

I'd wager people spend more yearly at starbucks than yearly at gas.

I'd wager that you're right. $4 gas sucks, but $4 cup o' coffee is ok, apparently.

[GrobbeeTrull2.0]

Originally Posted by Borzak

I can tell most of you aren't old enough to remember in the US when people would have gladly paid what we're paying for gas...if they could even get any.

I remember as a kid sitting in a car in line and eveyrone pushing their car forward when the next person got gas only to be there 4 hours and then the station shut down because they were out of gas.

I remember when blue cars got cas on monday, red cars on tuesday only and so forth.

I'll take $10/gallon over that bullshit any damn day of the week.

Live another 25 years and you might get to see them both at the same time.

[Lejina Bloodbath]

Originally Posted by Eomer

Asuna Sunfires were also known as Geo Metros

Geo Metro Storm to be specific, the sporty vehicle of that shitty family of cars. Also the same thing as an Isuzu Impulse. Moral of the story: if you can't make a car reliable, brand it under three different names, that way you'll manage to sell enough of it; or something like that I guess.

[Lefazz]

Alright, so why can't they make an engine that runs off of water? Take water, H2O, and break it down to hydrogen and oxygen. Both of those elements are used in rocket propulsion. So what's the problem?

[Deathwing]

Because electrolysis isn't that energy efficient at all.

[Kaio]

We aren't using our cars to shoot up in the atmosphere? Rockets have a limited application for vehicles.

[Tuco]

Originally Posted by Kaio

We aren't using our cars to shoot up in the atmosphere? Rockets have a limited application for vehicles.

Yes. Limited to awesome!

[Eomer]

Originally Posted by Lefazz

Alright, so why can't they make an engine that runs off of water? Take water, H2O, and break it down to hydrogen and oxygen. Both of those elements are used in rocket propulsion. So what's the problem?

You really, really, really need to take a basic chemistry course.

[Phelps]

Just use lightning for the electrolysis and...

Oh, wait. We're retarded and can't build stationary towers. Or overcome intense heat on metal.

[Lejina Bloodbath]

Originally Posted by Lefazz

Alright, so why can't they make an engine that runs off of water? Take water, H2O, and break it down to hydrogen and oxygen. Both of those elements are used in rocket propulsion. So what's the problem?

It's takes energy to break down H20.

Theoretically, said energy is regained when you put O and H2 back together, but then you face the reality that a combustion engine is hardly efficient, since what? like 10-15% of the fuel's energy is actually used for movement? Then add some more energy losses from transporting the electricity needed for said H20 breakdown from the powerplant to the house, etc.

Simply put, a hydrogen engine is an electric car using hydrogen to store the energy instead of batteries. What's moving your vehicle is the energy produced by that huge powerplant miles from your house.

To move the cars of a whole country that way, the entire powerplant structure of the country has to be redesigned and increased. It's not a bad idea, but you can't just shake a glass of water and produce hydrogen, there's a huge technical problem that isn't readily visible for the public that has to be overcome.