Are hybrid vehicles losing their appeal?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveinOlyWA @ Dec 16 2006, 08:31 AM) [snapback]363110[/snapback]</div>

Gas prices around Spokane seem so station dependent. In Cheney, they vary between $2.549 to 2.599 (this was two days ago and may have changed by now). Just 10 miles away I can find a station 20 cents cheaper. It's well worth the 20 mile drive for a fill-up.

Who knows a reasonably priced gas station near SeaTac? I need to fill up the rental I'm using before returning it. And the rental isn't a Prius.

Dave M.

 

gas prices in and around Tacoma, Lakewood are historically lower than the surrounding area. a bit south of Sea-Tac but between there and Olympia. there is an Arco station just off the Gravelly Lake exit (125 or 126) that is pretty cheap.

 

Hey Priusguy04-
The cool guy you were speaking with....was he by some chance the CEO or on the board of directors for one of the so called "Big 3" in Detroit? Because his head-in-the-sand mentality is excatly why GM, Ford and the likes are continually losing their share of the market to Toyota, et al. THey havea 20 year lagtime to make market corrections and provide the options and needs of the American consumer.

 

Just wait.

All that it will take is some sort of terrorist act against the Middle Eastern Oil fields.....or some natural disaster where refineries are affected (hurricane, local terrorist act...), or some hot head over in the Middle East delcares war on its neighbor....something like that....

Gas will spike up over $4-$5 a gallon.....probably even higher. Then watch out! We had all better have a Lo Jack system in our Prius's! They will become the most popular cars on the road to steal!

It's only a matter of time anyway. Read up on the Peak Oil theroy.

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/


The days of getting oil out of the ground cheaply are just about over and done with. Any new oil reserves that are found will take more effort to extract, driving up the cost.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusguy04 @ Dec 15 2006, 12:16 PM) [snapback]362847[/snapback]</div>

Hollywood could help on this.

Why doesn't more shows typecast people like this to question their values? Illustrate realistically their debt problems and their obsession with how others see them....and maybe there are so many people doing it hardly anyone pays attention. Imagine the lampooning Saturday Night Live could do...

Some people will hang on to their gas guzzlers even if the price of gas goes to $4-6. If attitudes changed so driving one was unfasionable instead of cool, it would be more effective. Just go into a toy store. You might find a toy Prius - and about ten Hummers and Esclades.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Delta Flyer @ Dec 18 2006, 09:58 AM) [snapback]363717[/snapback]</div>

Totally! I'm working on an architectural model of the Bixby Bridge on Highway one, to be part of this giant routed-track slot car set. I really want to put together a 1/32 Prius slot car for my client, but even plastic models in that scale aren't super prevalent!

It's like when I go into a hobbyshop, and there are all these fighter planes and whatnot...but just try to find a plastic model of a Cessna 210 or King Air...no way.

Power and force are glamourized in our society and the Prius provides neither...too bad some people are so myopic.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Dec 21 2006, 11:46 AM) [snapback]365260[/snapback]</div>

wow... sounds like a very very cool job

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveinOlyWA @ Dec 21 2006, 04:17 PM) [snapback]365348[/snapback]</div>

Well, actually, I'm in the 'business' part of show business by profession, but have fantasies of leveraging dormant skills as an industrial model builder into something which pleases me more personally.

No plans to quit the day job anytime soon!

The project itself is amazing; I'll be routing this single-lane track through the fully landscaped "hills" of "California" overlooking the "Pacific Ocean," using copper tape from a stained glass supply store for the conductors and this nifty old variable volt power supply and controller (it's all remarkably, wonderfully old school). I'm also adding remotely controlled switches and electrically isolated "blocks" (again, like an old fashioned train layout). That way, a series of cars can be on the layout and be parked and driven as desired.

The time period is the mid-60's, and I've also been asked to produce a 1/32 scale model slot car of the Batmobile from the 60's TV series. I was able to buy an old Aurora 1/32 plastic model on eBay ($$$$!!) but now am facing the task of fabricating a custom chassis for it...

Fun!!!

Currently, I'm routing a proof of concept model of a particularly difficult section of the layout, with lots of blocks and under the table switches that facilitate parallel "parking" for a series of cars beside a scale model of the "Pigeon Point Lighthouse"...

The success or failure of this will dictate where the overall design of the model goes from here.

I'm afraid that somehow it won't work, and will force changes which neither of us really want to make!