What if one gallon regular would put ya down $10?, page 1

Originally posted by hildar
Then it would be time to get back to making moon shine and fueling the car with it. Hey why not. Its cheaper and it will work.

Hilda

Polishing the moon. Now that’s a creative way to get around with a solar panel powered vehicle at night. So that’s the reason NASA plans to return to the moon for about ten years? I knew there was more to it. Great find!

Originally posted by LockwithnoKey With any luck, it'll promote more logical uses of power in our forms of transport. Such as solar as well as the many energy generating forces on a traditional car. The rotation of the tires, friction of brakes etc. Some of these technologies already exist in limited part, but they'll certainly become more mainstream.

When the fuel is getting expansive, the people with little purses, such as myself, are looking for ways to get around cheaper. This means maybe to purchase a car for economical reasons rather than purchasing an ego boost. This trend is now some time on the way over here. It is somewhat forced upon the people by overtaxing the fuels at the pump, resulting in people wanting fuel economical dinky toys. When people want fuel economical dinky toys the manufacturers are going to produce those, resulting in ever more innovative fuel saving techniques. I for one are driving such a car, built like in 2001. It’s doing (advertised) 16km/litre (45miles/gallon) using regular gasoline. I have double-checked this and it is not far of, this probably the result of my driving skills.

The latest ‘dinky’s’ burning regular are advertised doing 23km/l (62m/g) where the ‘greenest’ dieseldinky is advertised doing 26km/l (73m/g)

So yes you are correct thinking fuel consumption will become a big deal for manufacturers once the consumers demand such characteristics in there holy cow.

Steam power from water was always useful in the old days, why not today?

So many alternatives exist and more are being created all the time, we'll finally make use of them when the price for good ole petrol hits crazy digits like $10.
I foresee many things coming around again from the past when we had to be more creative to get around.

Steam power from water sounds great but the last time I checked it’s mainly generated by burning fossil fuel like coal. I wouldn’t want a car that has to boil for half an our to be ready to go, nor would I like to be in a head on collision involving two good ol’ steam boilers under pressure, for example. The main reason I think taking a step back is not the way is because I don’t see that step taken over here. Remember us poor Dutchies paying you’re craze digits already and it is not getting cheaper.

However, this is only if the world maintains some civility. Which of course is in limited supply these days. Unfortunately, I'm thinkin more along the lines that the pursuit of cheap fuel creating a war scarred planet will leave us with little need for the same form of travel that exists today. People will be partnered in local communities for both work and home. Those that wish to thrive and succeed when common world wide transport becomes quite limited will have no choice but to contribute to society.

This is a possibility of course if there are no alternatives found to cope with the problem of getting around affordable. It is however a worst case scenario to say the least. I for one think the development of ever fuel economical vehicles will result in cars that are going to steer clear of fossil fuels al together. In a way becoming the steam powered cars you did mention.
One thing I know is that ever rising fuel prises will set the consumption back but not the miles to go. The consumer dictates the market.

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[edit on 20/4/08 by D.Wolf]