So, the Honda Clarity, according to Top Gear the most important car for 100 years. What do you think?

Matt

Craig. wrote on Dec 14^th, 2008 at 5:09pm:


They did say that H2O was about the same price as a gallon of petrol (in California). It would depend on the profit margin I would have thought.  At the moment there is no tax on zero emission cars...............we will have to wait and see. I know Top Gear knock the Prius, but as a car just to go back and forth to work, If I had the spare cash I would have one..........nothing to do with the environment but all to do with no road tax and a couple of quid to charge it. Right now I am paying about 300 ponds a month to fill up and that is for diesel which here in Germany is somewhat cheaper than the UK. There is still a place for electric cars, mainly for the drive to work, the school run and other short trips, but this looks it could cover real distance providing that the infrastructure is put in place.

Matt

Excellent, but sadly I suspect the billions behind the oil giants have too much political influence to allow it to be developed in a fair market. No doubt even if they allowed hydrogen to be allowed widely at petrol stations, the companies would ensure it was uncompetitive.

Shame, as it's brilliant.

eno wrote on Dec 15^th, 2008 at 2:49am:



The false thing the Prius does is masquerades as an eco car. As far as your or my pocket goes it is a saver. OK, it still requires some petrol but far less than the average car. The less a car costs to run the better.

Matt

Mushroom_Farmer wrote on Dec 15^th, 2008 at 2:05pm:

This is where I find the American reference to petrol as gas confusing. Sounds like the UK equivalent of LPG. http://www.go-lpg.co.uk/AboutLPG.html
This is another alternative fuel. It's still a fossil fuel but much cleaner & cheaper to run. I don't know the percentage of cars that run on it compared with conventional IC engines.

Back in the 1970s a friend of mine set up a business converting conventional cars to run on liquid gas or LPG as it's called now. He converted all the taxis in Brighton to run on it & it was quite successful for a while. Not only far cheaper to run but much cleaner combustion with very little waste products.. The lubricating oil remained as clean as a whistle & retained its lubricating properties for much longer. The drawback at the time was the large gas cylinders fitted in the boot (trunk) which didn't leave much room for luggage. Refuelling stations were also few & far between so it could also be run on petrol if the gas ran out. Apart from the taxis that presumably had their own supply I don't think it was too successful & the only local LPG station I knew about closed down many years ago. Things might be different now but I don't know anyone that runs one of these cars.

Mushroom_Farmer wrote on Dec 15^th, 2008 at 4:17pm:

Thanks for clarifying that. As for the tax, I doubt that a private supply of natural gas would be allowed in this country so the occasion would not arise.

Okay, so here in the colonies we are currently on season 11, one season behind concernining Top Gear. It should have been the 3rd episode of the current season, but instead tonight's show was a repeat of a show from season 10. In next week's show the boys race the bullet train and it is new (to us). Since you lot have already seen it, does this sound right?