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Those who know me well, know that my dad is insanely committed to keeping his Volvos running. They're all 740 series, mostly diesel.
He's been known to spend $10K on chassis rebuilds to eliminate rust-through. It's kind of insane. Yes you can keep them running, but it's hard to find parts that aren't used, and sometimes you have to fabricate a replacment yourself. Certain parts had design issues...
he just hates the planet earth, and all of us that live on it. Hes a murderer!!
or something like that :)
Wed Feb 22 2023 10:45:29 AM EST from LoanShark
. They're all 740 series, mostly diesel.
2023-02-22 10:56 from Nurb432
he just hates the planet earth, and all of us that live on it. Hes a
murderer!!
funnily enough, there may have been a time when you could say those particular diesels were less polluting, but not now.
last year Volvo imported diesels to the US was 1986. Comparing the 740/760 stickshift, same year, gets us:
gasoline 20/22/26 mpg, annual fuel cost $2300
diesel 22/24/27 mpg, annual fuel cost $2800
they were just crappy to begin with. the marginal mileage increase does not proportionally reflect the increased energy density per gallon of diesel, nor the increased price. CO2 emissions are unavailable for a car this old, but surely that's also greater than gasoline.
my dad likes these because they are supposedly simpler to maintain and rebuild. but there's no denying that they are underpowered and uneconomical even when compared to something similar from the same year.
2023-02-23 17:32 from Nurb432
i was just being sarcastic..
Oh I know. You can always rely on me to be the straight man to your funny guy.
So Ford is planning to rig future cars to where if you miss a payment, things like the AC stops working. Miss 2, it waits for you to get out, locks the doors and drives itself back to the dealer leaving you stranded wherever you are.. And people wonder why i have always said no computers in cars.
I want a car.
Unfortunately, the car I want does not exist.
I want a car that has the propulsion system of a modern EV. Those things have got some impressive acceleration, but I don't want an EV. Give me the propulsion system but keep your big pile of lithium batteries and your charging stations and your EV infrastructure that will eventually collapse the power grid. I want four deep cycle lead-acid batteries.
Charging those batteries will be a small, slow-turning diesel engine with a nice generator. Yes, a hybrid. But not a crappy joke of a hybrid like the Prius. Those are built towards govern-mental fuel efficiency standards and they resort to cheap tricks like regenerative braking and constantly starting/stopping the engine. I want my hybrid built like a locomotive is built. Run the engine constantly at an efficient speed while the vehicle is being operated.
It will be fuel efficient. Not "ban gasoline by 2035" efficient, but very efficient. And such a design would last practically forever.
This is my proposal: shut down the EPA and give me a car factory. I will solve everything.
You want a small gas turbine.
A few years ago I went on a slimilar search. You're just gonna have to build that car yourself. Fortunately, there are enough dead EVs at scrapyards you should be able to find a drive motor fairly easily.
You can either build or convert a car body to the EMV (electromotive) system, or you can just adapt an EV to EMV.
Electromotive is what they call those trains, the ones pushed entirely by electric motors but use a burnatron to make the power.
I want a car.
Unfortunately, the car I want does not exist.
I want a car that has the propulsion system of a modern EV. Those things have got some impressive acceleration, but I don't want an EV. Give me the propulsion system but keep your big pile of lithium batteries and your charging stations and your EV infrastructure that will eventually collapse the power grid. I want four deep cycle lead-acid batteries.
Charging those batteries will be a small, slow-turning diesel engine with a nice generator. Yes, a hybrid. But not a crappy joke of a hybrid like the Prius. Those are built towards govern-mental fuel efficiency standards and they resort to cheap tricks like regenerative braking and constantly starting/stopping the engine. I want my hybrid built like a locomotive is built. Run the engine constantly at an efficient speed while the vehicle is being operated.
It will be fuel efficient. Not "ban gasoline by 2035" efficient, but very efficient. And such a design would last practically forever.
This is my proposal: shut down the EPA and give me a car factory. I will solve everything.
Last week, on Star Wars Day (May 4), I traded in my 2013 Scion xB for a shiny new 2023 Ford Escape. It is the one I custom ordered.
It has 4 drive modes, each of which completely reconfigure the entire drive system.
Normal: balanced for city driving, opportunistically uses electric-only.
Eco: uses battery power as much as possible. also increases the strength of regenerative braking.
Sport: fucking terrorfying! I was on I-35 with cruise control set to 75mph, was behind someone doing 60mph. I move over into a clear lane and I was doing 75 in less than a second. 0-60 in 2.29. always uses the engine, and uses the electric part of the drive system for extra torque.
Winter: sets AWD to send equal power to all wheels
I can achieve epic fuel economy of 40mpg while Ubering on Normal mode. 50mpg average in Eco mode. I have made some short deliveries using only the battery, in which case it says the trip was something insane, like 57.9mpg.
Oh yea, when I turn the car off the dashboard shows a Trip Summary screen. With adaptive cruise control and lane control both turned on, she basically drives herself.
its good that you have what you like, but ill stick with my (mostly) mechanical jeep and fiero.
While its a minimal influence on these cars If i could practically de-computerize them i would ( especially for the transmission in the jeep. known issue with that.. lots of people have had to have their Computers reprogrammed, including me )
I hope you are wrong.
Mon May 15 2023 09:13:47 AM EDT from IGnatius T Foobarbut I figure an electric or hybrid is probably in all of our future at some point.
I would never go for an all-electric car. Those things tip the scales at 6,000lbs and some as high as 8,000lbs, because the battery has to be freaking massive to move a car its rated 200 mile distance. There's also the thing with the power grid can barely handle what's already here, adding a bunch of cars to it would cause total societal collapse as we see in California. I've seen EVs charging at INSANE rates. Sure, it can recharge to 80% in an hour, but it's sucking down 75KW to do that. Most residential grid connections can only handle 7.5KW (read the rating on your power meter!), so trying to speed-charge your car at home is likely to start a fire. Not to mention how basically running a second house is going to affect your electric bill.
Being a hybrid, my new Ford Escape doesn't link to the power grid at all, and gets all its energy from explodey juice being processed in the explodatron. 600-700 miles per tank is damn good. I finished an entire work week and only filled up ONCE, versus going through 3-4 tanks per week with the xB. The money savings is real! That's why I got the hybrid, to spend less money on explodey juice. I didn't expect it to be this good, tho. I don't see a problem with all new cars being hybrid, it's an ameowzing system to drive, and certainly less expensive to opurrate. Pushing everything to the power grid, that's a disaster in the making.
I might be ok with a full electric, IF... and a big IF
I had a nuclear battery, no larger than a 5 gallon bucket. And be removable so its 'mine'.
it could be done, using nuclear waste so low cost. Tho not zero, it has to be encased in something like synthetic sapphire, and of course the peltier modules to turn the heat into power. It would be safe, eliminate waste,actually be green, bla bla... And will last long enough to pass down to your grandchildren. I did a paper on it back in the 80s when i was still into nuclear physics. I was told off-record 'you cant publish this, do you have any idea the chaos in the energy industry this would cause' and got ignored. I have heard others talk about it some lately, but they tend to be pushed aside too.
Wont ever happen. "they" dont want that.
( oh and minimal computers.. just enough to make it go.. and NO freaking network connection )
Nuclear power is the greenest form of energy. No pollution, very little waste, good fuel economy, and the fuel is literally green.
distance. There's also the thing with the power grid can barely
handle what's already here, adding a bunch of cars to it would cause
total societal collapse as we see in California. I've seen EVs
Yeah, that's the big deal. The govern-mental wants to force everyone into all-electric cars and all-electric houses way faster than the power grid can handle it. Here in the People's Republic of New York they just banned gas and oil hookups to new construction homes for heating and cooking. Get ready to shiver while eating cold oatmeal, I guess.
What's the battery system like in a hybrid? Does it cost megabucks to replace like in an EV, or will it be reasonable when you get to that point?
Nuclear power is the greenest form of energy. No pollution, very
little waste, good fuel economy, and the fuel is literally green.
Yes. This.
It is plainly obvious and anyone who is still anti-nuclear at this point is either stupid or corrupt. Or both.
it could be done, using nuclear waste so low cost. Tho not zero, it
has to be encased in something like synthetic sapphire, and of course
the peltier modules to turn the heat into power. It would be
oooooooooohhhh
I never did quite figure out how waste-into-energy was supposed to work.
Is that all it is? Capture the heat with a peltier module? That sounds way too sensible and obvious.