Ridiculous cars.

It's quite different here in NC. There are hybrids available here. Most of my co-workers wouldn't even know what a hybrid vehicle is, and these are educated people. I tell ya, NC is 10 years behind the rest of the US.

 

Meh. I still want a Porshe.

 

Hard to believe muscle cars are coming back in a time like this. The gas crunches of the 70s are part of what ended muscle cars.

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We socialize our kids into wanting big cars. Funny. I couldn't find any toy ride-on car that was an energy saving green car.

Hummer:



SUV:


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there are a LOT of things you have in europe we don't have in the u.s. that make more sense then a lot of the things that we do.

i HAVE owned cars, and two wheelers too. the so called freedom they give is a very big illusion. and it certainly isn't free. more of the cost of them is paid at tax time then at the pump and most americans are ignorant of this being the case. sure it's fun to be able to drive places there isn't any other way to get to. but a lot of those places the only reason there isn't any other way of getting to is because people have been sold the bill of goods of indenturing themselves to the automobile. at any rate the oil will someday run out. until it does of course we have the choice. but we ARE paying for our cars in more ways then an awful lot of people, possibly yourself, realize.

every car i've ever owned, sooner or later prooved to be a pain in the ass with four wheels on the bottem. i don't own one now and as long as i have to live where i don't have to own one i have no intention of ever again doing so.

=^^=
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I'm happy driving my nice sturdy 19 year old car.

 

I couldn't believe my ears when I heard for an advertisement (I think GM vehicles...correct me if I'm wrong) that says if you buy one of their stupid SUV's they will pay for your gas for a year! D'oh! Suuure lets ENCOURAGE people to waste gas like it's coming out of their butts. Seriously. If they need to resort to this kind of advertisments they should step back and realize why suv's are going out of style to begin with. Our pockets as well as mother earth can NOT afford this!

 

Umm, you may want to read the fine print in the ad. There are often restrictions in the amount of "free" gas based on yearly averages of consumption and lunar cycles and so on.

 

umm..i still think its a bad idea.

 

this is very disturbing makes me wanna puke..its so sad they do this shit with cell phones and everything else..i saw alittle 10 year old girl at the grocery store the other day talking on a cell phone, dressed in one of those mini-cheerleader skirts t and you could tell the mother thought it as all too cute. we need to stop this these kids are the future of our society.

 

Yeah the new McDonalds toys are Hummers now! It's so crazy.

 

i don't drive, nor will i ever drive. i think driving is disgusting. i walk everywhere i need to go, fortunately it keeps me in pretty good shape!

 

I'm sort of like clementinexo on this one. I don't drive, nor do I even have my licence.
I can't see going my whole life though without driving. I guess it will depend on where I live in the future.

Currently I ride my bike everywhere (and I mean everywhere) that I need to go.
Or on occasion I'll walk. Last week when I went out to get my new PC, I walked it back home.

And I do find 99% of the new cars behond hideous also. Cars back in the 50's,60's &70's IMO had style to them.

 

i hate people who drive those ugly ass cars that look like a rhino ass in the back. i don't remember what they are called but everytime i see one i think "oh my gawd, who buys a car that fricken ugly"?

dannayelli

 

Sounds quite appropriate to me.

 

I like cars and trucks.
Though I agree with the dissent concerning the stupidity of soccer moms and white collars rolling in suburbans, hummers and the like; Cat's pimping detailed fullsize pickups without a scratch in the bed.. etc.

However:
I've owned 4x4s

The difference is I actually use such vehicles for what they're designed for.

The problem is the eschewing of practicality for some imagined status.


I've also gone a long period without a vehicle of any kind save my own two feet. I really like walking, I walk alot, but let me tell you it's not really practical as a transportation method around here. There's a public bus system, but it's next to useless in this state unless you're going around the major city or a couple points in a couple major suburbs. The buses stop at 8. The hitchiking sucks too if you're just trying to get from A to B in-state, believe me I've done it.

The fact is you need a motor vehicle if you intend to participate in society on any significant level in the majority of the united states. And personally that's OK with me. What we need is a modicum of common sense concerning them. I don't see that happening any time soon.

To add to this little novel I'd like to bring up a point that someone else mentioned: Hybrids.
It's a great idea in theory, but the battery technology just isn't there yet.

Do you all have any idea of the energy and waste that goes into producing current gen batteries used in hybrids? The chemicals and heavy metals used in the production and end product? NiMh Batteries that have a finite life, and a rather short one at that (propaganda notwithstanding).

a single example: here
^^This isn't Toyota's fault as-such all other companies batteries are manufactured in the same way with the same huge environmental impacts.

Assuming we come up with a new clean ultracapacitor or another more environmentally friendly power storage technology from a pure envrionmental standpoint straight electric cars seem the best answer. I'll never be giving up my internal combustion, but would certainly dig a pure electric for day to day.

But there's also caveats here. In addition to the battery technology problems, the power distribution networks, as they stand today wouldn't be able to handle the load. Not to mention with today's primitive generating plants we'd just be localizing the pollution problem.

So we need to completely revamp our current infrastructure. A rather tall order, exponentially easier said than done.

The ultimate answer, and I'm likely to attract a few flames, is nuclear power, a better distribution grid, electric light rail and electric vehicles.

 

i also aggree with a lot of what easo is saying. a lot of people really don't have the choice of not driving. but no one lacks the choice of not perpetuating HAVING to when it comes time for voting! the interstate is still corporate welfare, from our tax pockets to the wealthiest sector of the economy, that can damd well afford to build and maintain its own rights of way as other modes of transportation are forced to.

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.../\...

 

Personally I'm not sure I'd consider the interstate system to be 'corporate welfare' per se. It's more a unitarist federal stranglehold on state rights. One that also had the unfortunate and perhaps unintended effect of trashing the nations heavy rail system. (You wanna talk corporate welfare - take a look at Amtrak (and the major US passenger airlines))

Though I do agree with what you're saying.

I would like to see a dissolution, or atleast a severe curtailment of federal control over the highways and transportation systems, returning that power to the local people that live around them where it belongs.
Maine might be the first step towards that if they've enough fortitude to stand up for the full ride regarding this REAL-ID nonsense.

We shall see, I for one am not holding my breath.

 

I say cars are okay, but we have to use them as less we can because cars pollutes... That is a real problem, but maybe we someday find a car what dosen't pollute...

 

I hate cars. I really do. They're evil albeit necessary. I'm all for a ban on cars that don't meet certain fuel efficiency standards.