Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Whitmer
15 MPG from the truck? Roof, this is old Dave you’re talking to. My truck gets a steady mid 24 in the winter with dense air and half my aero mods disabled. I get high 26s in summer and may get 30 with this years mods. In fact my last three tanks averaged 26.0. 15 MPG my foot!
My Valkyrie (a naked Gold Wing with six carbs) gets 28-33 MPG and seems resistant to most of the stuff I do to my truck.
Have any of you seen what really fuel-efficient cars go for these days? A junk yard Insight will set you back $3500 and then you’ll have to fix it. When people let go of these they are wrecks.
Mass-transit would require completely restructuring how people live. People are used to going where they want when they want to go there. It seems the mass transit goes only where it wants to go when it wants to go and in any case it goes slowly. Mass transit is an eighteenth century solution to the way cities were set up then. Mass transit would be nearly impossible given today’s diffuse land-use. I don’t think Americans want to accept any more regimentation than what they endure now.
Have you looked at natural gas prices lately? $12/DTh on the NYMEX this morning.
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I feel more than blessed that I have a company car with all my Gas and Insurance covered.
Checking out rates for Natural Gas from my local utility shows them to be at $1.08 per therm "delivered" I.E. including a $.30 "utility charge" per therm.
So thats $1.08 per 100,000 BTU's with Diesel containing something like 140,000 BTU's per gallon @ $3.90 a gallon -$.55 for taxes = $3.35 a gallon makes it about $2.39 per 100,000 BTU's or natural gas the equivalent of a $1.50 a gallon Diesel.
Soooo....$1.50 VS $2.39 for the same amount of energy
On Edit: I see average west coast Diesel prices are $4.30 a gallon so adjust the numbers accordingly.
And then of course for good measure, assume Diesel Engines do 20% better than an NG-burning vehicle at extracting that energy.
You're still quite a ways ahead with the natural gas and far less complexity and maintanence on the vehicle compared to a Diesel.
I am always wowed by the fact that motor oil with 10,000 miles on it from an NG or LPG fueled vehicle looks just as clean as the day you put it in.
