I snapped this photo while driving southbound on California’s Interstate 5 recently. We all know that Prius owners tend to be a bit smug, but this vanity plate takes the cake.
Click for a larger image
Now before anyone gets all bent out of shape, I’ll point out that I own and drive an electric car myself. But I don’t go rubbing other peoples noses in my wattage.
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RW
Seems entirely reasonable to me. Why would you doubt it?
Jack Simmons (08:17:09) :
“There are four isotopes of plutonium in the fuel rods. Only one, PU239 is useful for weapons. The mere presence of these other isotopes poisons the fission process in a nuclear bomb, making the use of this plutonium in weapons IMPOSSIBLE.”
Ted Taylor believed that one of those isotopes (Pu-241) could be used by a talented designer as a kind of “inbuilt initiator”. Taylor was to weapons design what Kelly Johnson was to aircraft, or Gerald Bull to artillery, so I’ll assume he knew what he was talking about.
One must be very careful with the word “impossible”.
I drive a 22-year-old Mercedes three-liter diesel. I get 30 mpg (U.S.) or 36 mpg (Imperial) on the highway. I am surrounded by two tons of steel and feel nice and secure. The life-cycle costs of my car (being steel/leather/wood) are vastly less than a Prius as the disposal of its batteries is problematic. I did read that the Prius life-cycle cost was the same as a Hummer – sorry, I don’t have the reference. I just wonder how many of today’s Prius are going to be on the road in 22 years, so cost per annum enters into the equation. Incidentally, I recently read a caution to our firefighters about using ‘jaws of life’ on a Prius, as cutting into the main cable could fry the fireman; I’m not expert enough to validate that one but it does show that emergency services may be reluctant to help in a dire situation. I’ll keep driving the Mercedes until the kids take me to the old folks’ home in it…
If the driver of the car had been expressing buyer’s remorse, the plate would probably read the singular “SUCKER” or perhaps “IMASUKR”. I think the intent of the plate is pretty clear. Of course as Anthony points out, the plate is actually as unintentionally funny as the film “The Day After Tomorrow.” 🙂
FWIW, my 2.0 turbo diesel Volvo sports estate does 50+mpg (CO2 = 140g/km) without even trying, and I drive it pretty hard (“stick shift”, naturally!). Maybe you should just give HOV stickers to European cars 🙂
Mind you, diesel here is still just over £1/litre (about $7/gallon), even with the oil price drop. But I’m happy with that, actually – most of that is fuel duty, which pays for our healthcare etc. – taxing energy use seems like a good principle to me, assuming you have to tax something.
Smokey, it is a typical response. If you can’t argue the message, you try to discredit the deliverer. It is a common tactic used by people when they don’t have any reply to the argument presented itself. They distract attention away from the argument and attempt to place the focus on the person presenting it.
The implication here being that Anthony somehow made the picture up and there is no Prius with such a plate in reality is an attempt to put Anthony on the defensive on an issue that is beside the point.
I know several very smug Prius owners. And they bought the cars to use the car pool lanes in order to cut their commute time, not to be any friend of the environment.
An interesting car featured on last night’s “Top Gear”.
A hydrogen-powered Honda.
A practical, family saloon car, 250 or so miles between refills, 3 minutes to refill, can manage around 100mph and gets to 60mph is around 10 seconds.
The car of the future?
RW: If I know Anthony he probably got an IR temperature of its tailpipe as well. This man is Tooled Up.
RW
You’re right it’s all a conspiracy paid for by “big oil” I am amazed no one else caught it.
I’m waiting to see if the Ultracapacitor technology can be made viable for vehicular use. Ultracapacitors give 300-350 mile range, 5 minute recharge
————-
5 minute recharge????
That’s at least 1000Amps. You’d need a charging cable something like 2 inches in diameter to handle that much current.
Every light in a 3 mile radius would dim while you were charging up that puppy.
Gas will probably return to $4.50 to $5.00 a gallon once the economy improves.
———–
With all the new discoveries coming on line, I would be very surprised if gas makes it back to $4/gal in the next decade. (Of course a war in the middle and all bets are off). A good economy might drive gas as high as $3/gal.
Of couirse Obama putting a significant tax on gas is always a possibility. All he needs is the backing of a couple of the RINO’s and he has a filibuster proof majority in the senate.
Why are they called “saloon” cars?
For those who think the Chevy Volt is a viable alternative, think again.
Who is going to pay US $40,000 for a relatively impractical vehicle in the real world? We all will, through tax credits and subsidies. This is the new paradigm. If government thinks something is a good idea, no problem; just print more money and choose which industry should be rewarded.
Witness Ethanol II
Mark W,
We will see higher gas taxes, guaranteed. Obama has promised it and his friends in Congress will be happy to oblige. In a Progressive’s world, low gas prices are bad for earth because it makes life better for the peasants, and that is definitely a bad thing for Gaia. Only through very high gas prices can environmentalists achieve their goals.
I guess it is an unfortunate plate choice if you are a disciple of “How to win friends and influence people”!
That said I think the Prius made a step forward.
The bigger step forward is this:
http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/
BTW I am in no way connected with Honda but I do believe this makes sense from an engineering point of view.
It would be helpful to know from any expert in this field how difficult it is to produce hydrogen for use in the vehicle as I understand the cost of fuelling the car is no different from fuel of the petrol/diesel kind.
The engineering of the drive is so much more simple though that it certainly suggests this could take the automobile to a new level.
I am a fan of great companies and recently I have said Toyota has shown the way to go on excellence but this from Honda will surely be a challenge.
Audi produce the overall best range, IMHO, so this may challenge a few minds and I think it is a good thing.
Apologies to my friends in the US but Ford, Chrysler and GM are well……, companies with great histories.
“Every light in a 3 mile radius would dim while you were charging up that puppy.”
Yeah Baby! America… you gotta love it!.
“A hydrogen-powered Honda”
Seems like one of the most viable alternatives. You need power and water and the distribution systems are already in place.
Two problems:
1. If you are worried about CO2 (I’m not, I emit some every few seconds). Then you have to green the power source. Also, the increase in power usage would probably overload the supply and delivery systems.
2. There’s already a shortage of drinking water in many places. This would place an additional burden on supplies. Yes, I know water comes out the tailpipe, but I just don’t see where that equates to clouds raining it back down in my yard.
In any case the government probably won’t allow us to produce our own hydrogen, because it would be too hard to tax. They would call it a “home safety issue” to make us swallow it.
Oh Drudge Report, how I love thee. Let me count the ways….no, wait…let me count the factual errors in this one news story on My Way News from AP writers Seth Borenstein and Dina Capiello.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081214/D952LKP00.html
Pamela:
“The sucker is the person who doesn’t understand where or how electricity is generated and just exactly what it would take to generate more of it. It don’t grow on trees.”
No..but it grows in the core’s of reactors.
David Y:
“And while we bemoan the stateside fates of the big 3, why aren’t we seeing the slick 45+ mpg clean diesels of Ford/GM Europe on our roads today? ”
We have been. The environmental lobby has been MORE than successful at keeping them out of the country…they’re “dirty” cars because they burn diesel.
Steve Moore:
“Taylor was to weapons design what Kelly Johnson was to aircraft, or Gerald Bull to artillery, so I’ll assume he knew what he was talking about.”
Would you make the same assumption about Hansen?
DR:
“Who is going to pay US $40,000 for a relatively impractical vehicle in the real world? We all will, through tax credits and subsidies.”
You bet we will. It was part of the bailout package…$7500 tax cut for alternated energy vehicles. So that takes it down to $32500. And actually, no one (outside of GM) really knows pricing yet, do that? If you don’t drive more than 40miles round trip, paying $32,500 for a car “…that never needs gasoline” would be a bargain. Keep in mind…everything in life is marketing.
People would be lined up for miles to buy one if gas were still at $4.25/gal.
JimB
Jeff Alberts (11:22:04) :
Why are they called “saloon” cars?
Because they look better after a few drinks?
cdl
Very interesting energy article on seekingalpha:
“http://seekingalpha.com/article/110526-nuclear-and-coal-the-energy-dream-team-for-years-to-come”
JimB
Seth Borenstein writes for the Boston Globe. The AP wire just picked up the story. If you have an intelligent rebuttal to his (and most other journalists’) article and think it lacks credibility, you can make your feelings known here.
PaulH:
“It would be helpful to know from any expert in this field how difficult it is to produce hydrogen for use in the vehicle as I understand the cost of fuelling the car is no different from fuel of the petrol/diesel kind”
cost of fueling is no different?
Do you mean no different than $5/gal gasoline?, or no different from $1/gal gasoline?
And as for fueling in general…what is the cost of building 17,000 Hyrdrogen filling station facilities, or retrofitting existing gas stations to handle hydrogen, assuming that can even be done?
JimB
re: crosspatch,
Well said.
I call the carpool lane, “the Prius lane”. My Ford Focus would get nearly as good economy in the car pool lane as the Prius, yet I’m stuck in traffic.
Practically all hydrogen gas manufactured in the US is made from fossil fuel.
SteveSadlov (08:15:10) : ” And like the subsequent early 80s crash in price, this crash will result in low prices for decades.”
… I would take that bet. Being in Oil & Gas exploration, I can tell you that there was a real tightness in supply & demand – unlike past price spikes which were driven by artifically taking supply off the market ala the 70’s / early 80’s. Now of course you are right in that speculators articifically inflated the prices, but they are also artifically deflating prices at this point (I guess you can thank them for that). Many oil resources being pursued by industry are uneconomic at current prices & those projects are being shelved. It is a case of pay me now or pay me later. When the economy comes back, the supplies will be nearly instantly tight, prices will shoot up to at least $100 and the problem is being compounded by the current low prices which is discouraging any investment in new supplies and further compounded by the anticipated huge layoffs which will be occuring in the industry next year (the auto industry has nothing on us – but you wont see us begging for a handout). Historically, when people get laid off in the oil & gas industry, they leave the industry forsomething else. When things do come back, there will be a far more limited number of people to bring the supply to the market.
Jeff L said:
How much of that is caused by legislation artificially restricting where we can drill and making promising field unavailable?