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damned67 said..
I looked at hybrids when I replaced my last car (written off before the first damn service!).
What I understood of the hybrids was that, yes, can run electric up to a certain speed, then it's running on fuel.
Great for city driving, less good for highway driving. Small diesels were getting much better fuel consumption on the highway than hybrids.
I'm currently driving a 2L diesel 7 speed auto- I average about 4.9L/100km (VW Golf Wagon).
Before that, a 1.6L diesel with 6 sp auto at about 4.5L/100km (Audi A3 hatch)
And before that, a 1.6L diesel with 5 sp manual at about 3.9L/100km (VW Golf hatch). I put 350,000ks on that car and sold it to my mother-in-law nearly 5 years ago, and it's still going strong..... mechanically. Paint and body work? Looks like she drives by 'feel'.

sounds like you had a good and perhaps lucky run out of the Hitlers revenge.
Even when they won car of the year a lot of the testers said they wouldn't own out of warranty. Clutch problems etc.
I hire a lot of cars per year and lots of them are hybrids. They are nice but the fuel savings aren't really that great. Some of the larger suv's etc still what I consider normal (approaching 10l per 100) city driving. The engine comes on fairly often even at low crawling speeds. Some you can press a button for EV mode (if you are creeping around sub 40klm in city) but with AC going etc they don't last long and invariably engine starts for a quick charge.

Those euro small diesels have always been very economical. My friend had a pugeot that would have been late 90's and it was amazing. But would have been costly to fix sooner or later

v8 clapped out commy 17L/100km is on the cards for a good purchase atm

For a side gig I am looking to convert my latest weekend toy/resto project to all EV.
Its a 1977 Escort Van with a few mods, still undergoing bodywork ATM.

Theres a Mk1 Cortina thats been done in in Brisbane ()
You keep the gearbox and diff, and basically ditch the rest. Motor is a Netgear Type 9, a permanent magnet AC, weighs under 50kgs, and uses Tesla battery packs. Range ideal range is normally about 200 kms, in a light car.

You need a vac pump to run existing brakes, but get regenerative braking as a bonus.
We need to cool batteries in Aus, so theres a liquid cooling pump, and a few odds an ends. But no injectors, carbies, fuel tank, head works, exhausts, mapping, fuel pump etc etc etc, plus 0-100 in around 5-6 seconds and pure torque.
Watch the Cortina take off from the lights in the vid.








(^^just turn your monitor upside down) :)

I thought u had it on the rotisserie for chassis work

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Ian K said..
Why don't they just tax the tyres?

50,000 km per set. If they want 2.5 cents a km that's $1250 tax on a set. Tax at 100% should do it. A small car using a less expensive set doesn't wear out the roads as much.

This would cost me a fortune the way my family insist on scrubbing out front tyres by constantly hitting the kerb and ruining the front wheel alignment.

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Harrow said..

Ian K said..
Why don't they just tax the tyres?

50,000 km per set. If they want 2.5 cents a km that's $1250 tax on a set. Tax at 100% should do it. A small car using a less expensive set doesn't wear out the roads as much.

This would cost me a fortune the way my family insist on scrubbing out front tyres by constantly hitting the kerb and ruining the front wheel alignment.

It would cost you twice as much in tyres. But big hits are more effective than regular little hits at correcting bad behaviour. Look at coffee! 2 a day is normal. But if you were required to stump up $3000 once a year baristers would be outta business.

Starbucks has a successful coffee prepayment system, they apparently have so much money loaded into their coffee cards that they are hold more money than many banks.