[thechat] Traffic Light Cameras

Martin Burns yumyum at easyweb.co.uk
Tue Aug 17 07:01:30 CDT 2004


Lauri wrote:

>Martin,
>> You're exempt if you drive a dual-fuel hybrid btw.

>Hmmm, that's cool. So if you drive a Toyota Prius, for instance, then
>you don't have to pay the fee? Or what?

Yep. Also if you have an LPG conversion.

>Isn't Toyota Prius just hype?

Now, where's that trollometer..?

>When I open the technical specification page, however, it says that
>Toyota Prius uses 4.2 liters of gas per 100 km driven and that the
>emissions are 104g/km (!!).

> Now, when I go to Honda's webpage and look
>at the data of a Civic, which is a car of roughly the same weight, I see
>that the 1.6 model uses 5.5 liters of gas per 100 km driven and that the
>emissions are 154 g/km (!!).

The Prius has a 1.5l petrol engine, so compared with a 1.6 of the similar weight,
it's already ahead. Now compare it with a car of similar performance: a 2l car.

>The Toyota Prius only has a third less emissions when compared to a car
>that has approximately its own weight.

Not insignificant, and lower emissions do very nice things to your road tax and (in my
case) company car tax.

>Plus the Civic gives you ... a higher top speed
which you'll never use.

>That Prius has 89% less emissions than the average car seems to be a
>piece of twisted information. Granted, the Prius has a bit less
>emissions, but only by 30 percent.

Depends on what you class as 'average', and whether you're comparing apples with apples
- what would people buy if they weren't getting a Prius. And 30% less is hardly 'a bit'.

> that revels in Clarkson having bought a car whose range (about 70
> miles. Yes, seriously) is 4 miles short of his daily drive into the
> office.

>Yeah, the Ford GT. But if you listened to it carefully and thought about
>it, then that's what they said but it was not really true. It did 4
>miles per gallon when he was *really* trashing it around the track. But
>it does 12 miles per gallon on the highway.

woo.

Cheers
Martin
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