Thursday, May 28, 2009

Hybrid review

A scathing but side- splitting car review from Jeremy Clarkson, the guy who brought us car shoots earlier:

"It’s terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more...

"The Honda’s petrol engine is a much-shaved, built-for-economy, low-friction 1.3 that, at full chat, makes a noise worse than someone else’s crying baby on an airliner. It’s worse than the sound of your parachute failing to open. Really, to get an idea of how awful it is, you’d have to sit a dog on a ham slicer...

"The nickel for the battery has to come from somewhere. Canada, usually. It has to be shipped to Japan, not on a sailing boat, I presume. And then it must be converted, not in a tree house, into a battery, and then that battery must be transported, not on an ox cart, to the Insight production plant in Suzuka. And then the finished car has to be shipped, not by Thor Heyerdahl, to Britain, where it can be transported, not by wind, to the home of a man with a beard who thinks he’s doing the world a favour...

"But let me be clear that hybrid cars are designed solely to milk the guilt genes of the smug and the foolish. And that pure electric cars, such as the G-Wiz and the Tesla, don’t work at all because they are just too inconvenient...

"The only hope I have is that there are enough fools and madmen out there who will buy an Insight to look sanctimonious outside the school gates. And that the cash this generates can be used to develop something a bit more constructive."

There is a LOT more-- RTWT.

HT Iain Murray at NRO .

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The authors name is Jeremy Clarkson. For those who don't know he is one of three hosts on the BBC (and BBC America) car show Top Gear. Quite possibly the best show on television at the moment. Or ever.

Zac

Anonymous said...

Others see him as an arrogant, dismissive Petrolhead!

In the 1890's, London Hackney carriage owners thought their only problems were finding stabling for their horses, the rising cost of Hay, and getting rid of their Horse Manure. When The "Newfangled " oil burning engine was invented, their response was "That will never catch on - it will frighten the horses", and so they they lobbied hard for laws to limit the "new cars to 4 mph, even with man in a front with a red flag , to ensure "fair " competition - we all now know the inevitable consequences.

Transport is a huge, unsustainable drain on finite natural resources, and creator of unwanted,( and as yet uncharged for externalities ) and potentially catastrophic effects on our Biosphere, upon which we all utimately depend for our wellbeing

Alternative sources of energy may be in their infancy now , but if we spent as much on their development as we do on maintainin our Oil & Coal industries, there would be a breakthrough, and guys like Clarkson will have to eat their words.

JohnnyUK

C Env. MIEMA

Steve Bodio said...

Johnny, I think we'd all agree we need better green tech. But that doesn't mean it has to be BAD.

Besides, he's funny. I almost titled the post "Unfair but Hilarious".

Anonymous said...

Hi Steve

A better Title, I agree, that
would have at least put it in perspective!.

I didn't want to appear a killjoy,( or a "green fanactic !) and I well appreciate the limitations of much "new transport technology" , but guys like Clarkson don't even give manufacturers a chance - especially when making unfair comparisons over such aspects as range, acceleration , and recharging periods ( if appropriate ).

If people are not prepared to give these vehicles a try , and then comment positively and constructively on them ( like the successful Prius) then they wll be discouraged , and the "Holy Grail" ,of a sustainable vehicle will never be attained !

JohnnyUK