ALT-3 Are Hybrid Cars Cool or Uncool – Uncool
Green is in but there's not much cool about a car going down the street under electric power and without the growl of a powerful engine. It takes much more than trying to lessen your carbon footprint on the world to be "cool". Again, it's a nice thing to do for the environment and it does show big oil the finger which in itself is good for the rebellious soul. As time goes on the cool factor will become increasingly closer to being such with the onset of hybrid sports cars. Part of the initial uncoolness began when Honda unleashed it's first Hybrids in a skin akin to a land-going George Jetson runabout.
When seen as an overall money saver Hybrids only serve to conserve gas but they are on average about $4,000 more expensive than their normally aspirated, non electric cousins. When considering the numbers, one could stand to save $50 a month in gas with a 100 mile a day drive at 3 bucks a gallon with a hybrid. But in contrast, the financing of an extra $4,000 for the Hybrid would run about $75 per month, that's a detriment of $25 a month to your wallet.
Saving yourself money while helping the world can be considered cool but it has to be done in the correct way and with the right vehicle. Hybrids are amazingly expensive for car manufacturers to produce and in fact they don't make any money when they sell them to the public considering the technology that goes into them. The batteries are not proven to last over the five year mark so it makes no sense to buy one of these vehicles for the long term. But oddly, the long term is the only way a consumer will recoup the investment, until the batteries need replacing that is. There is one way, although inconvenient, to achieve the same goal of the Hybrid in a vehicle you may already own, if it's a diesel engine. There are cheap conversion kits available that will allow a diesel engine to run on used vegetable oil. I hear it even smells like french fries when it passes you. This is actually not a new concept as the original inventor of the diesel engine knew his engine would run on the stuff.
But have no fear my fellow car enthusiasts, GM and other car makers are experimenting with cool versions of Hybrids, and they are fast as well. These cars will be in our future no doubt and things are heading in a direction of battery life improvement and other forms of electronics and magnetics will pave the way for the next era of cars. There will always be the purists among us that wont take an electronic or magnetic car over gas powered muscle and I will likely be one of those die-hards. But like anything else, even improvement can start out in an uncool way, we have a way of getting used to things...even change.
