My old pal Phil bailey runs a large independent service garage in Montreal. He's also an old grouch with a vendetta for hybrids. Phil has his own Web site where he vents his anger, often humorously, while flagrantly ignoring copyright rules by reproducing other people's articles, though he at least allows them an author's credit. I suspect he gets away with this because few people actually look at Phil Bailey's not-for-profit site.
Phil has now discovered that a better way of making a point is to let someone else do it. And that's what led me to an article by The Times' (of London) award-winning journalist Jeremy Clarkson which Phil Bailey reprinted.
It's supposed to be a test of the VW Golf R32 but in reality the article is a brilliant and witty discourse on hybrids, hydrogen, and environmental hippies. Try this, for example: "And it's only catching on because the world is awash with hippies who really do think that by driving around in a Prius they're saving the world's water beetles." Or his insightful comment on technology: "The world's motor industry, in a desperate bid to sound caring and kind, says that soon your car will be directed to a parking space by satellite spies in the sky, it will park itself and it will be safe if you have a crash."
While I'm not in agreement with everything Clarkson says I love the way he says it. What's Your Take on This?
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Vote for How a Brit Takes the Hype Out of Hybrids:
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"It was Sheikh Yamani, the former boss of Opec, who pointed out that the Stone Age didn’t end because the world ran out of stone. Nor did the Iron Age end because we ran out of iron. And you can be fairly sure the Oil Age won’t end because we run out of oil."
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He's a - um - donkey.
The Brits "just don't get it" with regards to hybrids. Most of the Europeans don't either.
They'd rather clatter around in their (literally) stinking diesels than have a car which is at least 17 times cleaner.
Ironic, since in the UK (and much of Europe) what you pay for your annual "road tax" is now based on CO2 output, and the Prius only puts out 104 g/km, putting it into the absolute lowest tax category in the UK - plus when I was in the UK in June 2005, "Petrol" was $6 per (US) gallon, while "Diesel" was $6.25 per (US) gallon to buy.
So - let's see. Diesels cost about the same to buy as a properly done hybrid. The fuel costs more. The mileage is better on the hybrid. The hybrid's quieter and more civilized to drive. The Prius, at least, is the lowest tax possible. The Prius is a D-class car inside (equivalent to a small 'executive' class car in Europe). It's small outside which makes it maneuverable in the Euro and Brit urban environments (the Prius has a fantastically tiny turning circle). Oh, yes, seventeen Prius cars pollute about as much as one diesel car. On the one TV news show I bothered watching while I was in Scotland in the summer, there was a piece on diesel air pollution being found to cause cancer, while "petrol" cars do not.
Yeah, but the hybrid is only for hippies, according to Jeremy Clarkson.
What a clueless doofus.