http://www.autowired.co.uk/news/arti...?storyid=16881

 

This is the first time I've seen a luxury car that I would really like to have. I already know hybrid smoothness and quiet power. Here is a car that should have it in spades. What a nice ride!

Bob Wilson

 

Any hybrid car (note: does not apply to trucks/SUVs) that can't beat a non-hybrid Vette for MPG by a fair margin is not worth owning IMO.

 

hahahaha Well said lakedude, can't argue with that.

The small steps Toyota(Lexus) is making towards computerized driving are really fascinating. They won't let the Parallel Parking option into the US but this one, where it brakes for you to prevent a crash, doesn't sound to have that limitation. Smart inroad. Maybe they'll keep tip-toeing their way towards a fully automated driver, by adding small amounts of assist over time to test the hostile legal environment here - and maybe even improve it.

Toyota rocks man.

 

Lakedude, compare this vehicle's mpg to other vehicles in the same class. You know, full sized Benzes, Bimmers, Caddy's and Lincolns. This car is a monster, lousy aerodynamics (relatively speaking), heavy (wouldn't be suprised if it weighs as much as a lot of SUVs). And how many of these cars have AWD (that's important to some of us living in the upper midwest)?

Toyota will undoubtedly use the info they gain from this car to, unintentionally or not, impact the whole market. Picture if you will, 20 years from now, the Hummer H12 (hahaha). It might be running a 5.0 ICE with a plug in motor for a total of, hmmm, 700 hp. Burns cellulosic ethanol and get 500+ mpg of gasoline becuase it doen't use much gasoline. Or ethanol either. And it drives itself so it almost never gets into accidents.

Point is, its doesn't look like much at first glance. But if you are thinking that the whole market will move toward small cars, I think you're wrong. I agree with Soopah Man, Toyota rocks. And don't forget Honda.

The U.S. govt. and automakers and public gives lip sevice to economy and ecology for 30+ years. Honda and Toyota just shrug and 'git 'er done. We will know we are making progress when Ford offers a plug in hybrid F150 (the #1 selling vehicle in the world for what, 20 years in a row?) I can't help but think that a lot of F150 buyers wouldn't mind buying a vehicle that 1) gets good gas mileage and 2) doesn't use (much) foreign oil.

Big hybrids are a great idea!

 

Lakedude, compare this vehicle's mpg to other vehicles in the same class. You know, full sized Benzes, Bimmers, Caddy's and Lincolns. This car is a monster, lousy aerodynamics (relatively speaking), heavy (wouldn't be suprised if it weighs as much as a lot of SUVs). And how many of these cars have AWD (that's important to some of us living in the upper midwest)?

Toyota will undoubtedly use the info they gain from this car to, unintentionally or not, impact the whole market. Picture if you will, 20 years from now, the Hummer H12 (hahaha). It might be running a 5.0 ICE with a plug in motor for a total of, hmmm, 700 hp. Burns cellulosic ethanol and get 500+ mpg of gasoline becuase it doen't use much gasoline. Or ethanol either. And it drives itself so it almost never gets into accidents.

Point is, its doesn't look like much at first glance. But if you are thinking that the whole market will move toward small cars, I think you're wrong. I agree with Soopah Man, Toyota rocks. And don't forget Honda.

The U.S. govt. and automakers and public gives lip sevice to economy and ecology for 30+ years. Honda and Toyota just shrug and 'git 'er done. We will know we are making progress when Ford offers a plug in hybrid F150 (the #1 selling vehicle in the world for what, 20 years in a row?) I can't help but think that a lot of F150 buyers wouldn't mind buying a vehicle that 1) gets good gas mileage and 2) doesn't use (much) foreign oil.

Big hybrids are a great idea!

 

The LS 460 weighs 4244 lbs. The hybrid 600h will likely be 4600 lbs. That's really heavy, especially compared to a ~3000-lb Corvette. Plus your Corvette is manual and you probably drive it gently to maximize fuel economy, lakedude.

The EPA estimate for the 2006 Corvette is 21 mpg combined. EPA for the 600h will reportedly be around 29 mpg or so. Which do you think would get better mileage? If you get 29 mpg in a Corvette, you can get 35+ mpg in the 600h if you drive it as grandmotherly as you must drive the corvette.

 

Hey now... let's keep it clean... .

And "driving grandmotherly" isn't a good term to throw around on a forum about maximizing fuel efficiency - "hypermiling," perhaps.

 

Yeah but c'mon, it's blasphemous hypermiling a sports car!

 

Its only a little bit of a sin to hypermile a sports car, CGame! Let me give you a "for instance." I drive to Chicago 3 or 4 times a year. That's a 425 mile drive. If I am gentle and don't have any weather to contend with I can get 30 mpg. By gentle, I mean obey the speed limit, and don't use the air conditioning. Its a long drive so usually I cave in and drive 75 and use the air so my mileage drops down to ~26.5mpg.

My Volvo S60R has 300 hp and AWD. The aerodynamics aren't all that great either, relatively speaking. It is a fun, fast car. And the milage on the highway is 95% as good as my last Accord that had half the hp. Sometimes better, as I could never get more than 29.5 mpg with that car.

Nontheless, and this is my point, I would love to be able to trade some of that hp for mpg when I'm making a long trip, or just driving to work. And I suspect, so would anyone drving either a large car, SUV, and yes, a sports car. That's the potential of new technologies, whether its cylinder deactivation, hybrid technology or other.

Hypermile most of the time, have fun once in awhile! I would have gladly paid another $10k to get a plug in version of the car I have. Or another $3k just to get something like similar to the current crop of hybrids as an option. I think that's when hybrids will really take off: when you can buy a car you need and want and get what's good for the environment too