Oil execs defend huge profits before Senate

[Will]

1.0-1.5L diesel w/ turbo will pull a car upwards of 2700 lbs. (1224 kg). 110 hp and maybe 130-140 lb ft. of torque should be enough. You can get 250-500k miles (4,000-8,000 km) out of it, plenty of torque, and most diesel engines are bulletproof.

[Asmodean]

1.0-1.5L diesel w/ turbo will pull a car upwards of 2700 lbs. (1224 kg). 110 hp and maybe 130-140 lb ft. of torque should be enough. You can get 250-500k miles (4,000-8,000 km) out of it, plenty of torque, and most diesel engines are bulletproof.

I'd say 1.3 liters pluss is ok. Still, I have never driven a 1.0 liter car with turbo.

There is also the question of safety. The ultra light cars can often be lacking in that area. The ones awailable today, that is.

[Will]

I'd say 1.3 liters pluss is ok. Still, I have never driven a 1.0 liter car with turbo.

Maybe 1.3-2.0L for cars, 2.0L-3.0L for trucks.

There is also the question of safety. The ultra light cars can often be lacking in that area. The ones awailable today, that is.

Think of it this way: in a world of 2500 lb cars, the 2700 lb car is a tank.

[Asmodean]

Think of it this way: in a world of 2500 lb cars, the 2700 lb car is a tank.

*converting to kg*

Well, yeah. Still, you are usually better off in a heavy vehicle even vs. another heavy vehicle.  

[Moses]

This whole thing with Oil is killing me since I have to drive all over the place for my job. We give millions away to these companies every year in direct subsidies (as if they need them). The other weird economic consquence of us taxing them more raises the cost of doing business in this industry so the price gets tagged on to the final product. On top of that the federal government has not allowed a refinery to be built in this country for over thirty years (not to mention certain regulations raise the cost of building the refinery) so we burn more energy shipping already refined gas into the country. Overall our legal structure, tax structure, and overall gas market is highly inefficent. We subsidize them which prevents more investments into other energies and we restrict expansion of supply which raises the price (of course typical supply and demand does effect this product too). We need a more coherent energy policy.

We have been artificially subsidizing this industry for so long I think the government will need to subsidize some new energy research to make up for the old market distortion it has partially caused.

[rlrose328]

I'm in a Prius for a year now and I LOVE my car!!!  I will not drive anything else.  It gets about 48-50 mpg consistently (and would probably get more if I did more longer distance stop and go, like a commute) and I love the backup camera, all digital display for temps and radio, keyless entry and start... oh, and it's red.  :-)  

Hubby has a Scion, the little tiny one.

We know that the Prius will never pay for itself... we'd have to drive it for 12 years for it to truly pay for itself and that just won't happen.  But I do feel like I'm part of the solution now rather than part of the problem.

I can't believe how many people around here drive the HUGE monster trucks (not like at Monster Truck Rallies, but HUGE trucks) and SUVs that get 10 mpg, then they sit around and complain about having to spend $100 to fill the tank.  Most of them have 3+ kids and need a big vehicle, so I have no solution for them... but still.

What about the biofuel thing?  Will grain-based fuels save us or destroy us in the end?

[Vichy]

The solution is to stop enabling these people to be subsidized and protected from competition by government fiat.  And of course the government is making a huge amount of money, why do you think they ever set a government up in the first place?

On the other hand, the idea that 'profits' need to be defended - however large or small - is pretty ludicrous.  Stop demanding that people be punished for success, and the government won't be able to get away with as much strong-arming of their competition.  It's a well known fact that anti-trust and regulatory legislation is supported and often ghost-drafted by large, uncompetitive companies who want to get in on the action of milking the American public with this legalized violence machine.