Chrysler Suicide Watch 37: No Lease on Life

Gyzmologist wrote:
> Art wrote:
>>
>> My wife drives a Camry Hybrid and gets at least 35 mpg in city and
>> highway.... better than EPA figures.
>>
>
> I'm not impressed with the hybrids at all. I have a '94 Eclipse 2.0L
> turbo that is putting out 240HP and gets me an average of 33 MPG per
> tank. I'm an older guy so I tend to drive more reasonable, but I do like
> to punch it alot. The best I have gotten so far on one tank is 35.2 MPG.
> Pretty darm close to your Camry hybrid and it cost far less.
>
> Honda had a Civic CVCC DX in the late 70s that got nearly 50 MPG on the
> highway. So what happened? Are the car makers are milking us? Ever
> wonder why hybrids cannot be recharged using electric power, but only
> through the engine? Hmmm.

It's been suggested more than once that you could achieve what hybrids
claim to do if you just take their under-powered efficiency-optimized IC
engines, and eliminated all the weight and complexity of the batteries
and controls systems that you could at least match if not exceed the
fuel efficiency of the factory hybrid configuration. I think someone
posted that it's actually been tried and proven. But it wouldn't have
the same "feel-good" factor. If this is true, what a hoax.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
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