22 May 2008

Small Cars, continued....

A couple more for the list of nice, fun, small, practical, efficient, well-built cars that are not available in the US:  the comically cute new Fiat 500 and the Seat Ibiza Ecomotive.  I saw an article about people in the US buying 12-year old Geo Metros on eBay (good god no!) because they wanted small, fuel-efficient cars. Given that level of insanity, it's hard to imagine the Fiat 500 wouldn't do well. Tell me the ladies wouldn't just love it.


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8 comments:

  1. zim23 May 2008 at 01:49

    hey, the Fiat reminds me of the Ford Ka.

    i saw that Geo Metro article; pretty ridiculous. i wonder at what point the US media will wake up to the existence of that new "diesel" technology.

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  2. pyker23 May 2008 at 07:21

    Well spotted! Ford and Fiat collaborated on it.

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  3. zim24 May 2008 at 20:49

    speaking of US gas prices...

    the media always reports the national average, which looks to be $1-1.50 cheaper than what i see in chicago.

    diesel prices are regulary $0.75 to $1 more expensive than gas. most expensive diesel in chicago is now $5.29. most prices are in the $4.80 area.

    even @40 mpg i'm feeling some pain.

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  4. pyker25 May 2008 at 00:03

    why is diesel so much more expensive?

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  5. zim25 May 2008 at 04:20

    it's always more expensive. no idea why, it's cheaper to manufacture. perhaps less demand?

    there's a separation of consumer diesel and trucking diesel. the latter is taxed differently (read as: "less") and i'm not legally allowed to use trucking diesel. ergo, less demand for consumer diesel than gasoline.

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  6. JustJoeP4 June 2008 at 18:41

    guys, the 5000 year old dinosaurs don't like to be turned into diesel as much, so that jacks up the price.

    http://www.wikiality.com/Gas

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  7. JustJoeP4 June 2008 at 18:55

    actual informative links:

    fluffy government stuff
    http://www.eia.doe.gov/bookshelf/brochures/diesel/

    actually useful relative to the 3 types of diesel
    "Ultra low sulfur highway"
    "Low sulfur highway"
    "Non highway"

    As everyone migrates to ULSD, and older vehicles suffer attrition (in years to come) the refineries will gradually begin to change over.

    As to why you Zim, personally need to pay more for your fuel, it's perhaps because Lee Raymond's enormous jowls and retirement package ($400 million) have a gravitational pull on your wallet.

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  8. pyker4 June 2008 at 22:16

    http://www.petrolprices.com/why-diesel-costs-more-than-petrol.html

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