Don't blame OPEC for our shortsightedness and stupidity.

We could have made the switch to more efficient and sustainable transportation starting when Carter was president but we preferred to listen to snake oil salesmen telling us it was "morning in America" and that it was our birthright as Americans not to conserve but to waste as much as possible. Hummers, Excursions, Escalades, Navigators..

Well, we went on a twenty five year plus binge and now we have a monstrous hangover and no money left.. Binges tend to end like this.

Party like it's 1929!!

Don't you mean dinosaur oil salesmen? :D

They say a new car is the worst investment you can make.

But I could see trading up to an HX.

We don't need more efficient solar cells. We need CHEAPER solar cells. At this time, photovoltaics need massive subsidies to be even REMOTELY affordable. What good is 40% efficiency if it is going to cost, say, $10-$20 (or more) per watt? All that more efficiency can do is make for less roof area covered in order to get a certain output. But it is NOT going to make solar ANY more feasible for most of us. I personally would MUCH rather see 10% efficiency at $0.50-$1 per watt. That would be MUCH more beneficial in terms of making solar power a REAL option for the masses.

I don't blame OPEC. If I was the leader of an OPEC country I would be quietly amassing a huge amount of wealth to support my nation when the wells ran dry.

Since the US is dumb enough to offer international police for free I would let them at it as long as my countries soverignity was not threatened.

I sure as #$%^ wouldn't support radicals that would kill the goose (US) thats laying the golden egg to the tune of close to half a trillion dollars a year.

On solar cells. Most of our automotive advancements (the pitiful few we really have seen) are the results of deficit spending financed NASA and military programs. I just watched a video of the B2 crash, 1.4 billion up in smoke, due to a false humidity reading!!!!!!!!. I live very close to NASA Langley and there is no way I could ever convince them or the US govt to spend a couple billion on building a real efficient car. Nah let them spend money putting a backhoe on Mars!

We do need more efficient solar cells, as well as 100 other applications where we can extract energy from the effects of solar heating of the planet. If our geniuses in Washington are going to finance their greed and stupidity with your childrens as yet unearned income, they could at least finance the development of solar cells and lease them to people while ensuring the financial security of the entrepreneurs that risked their wealth to develop them.

What will people think of us 40 years from now, when the opportunities to invest our national treasure to really make a difference, have been squandered for another 20 or more years. I have watched shoreline disappear here, one brother lives on the water. I am not a liberal or an environmental fanatic, but I know facts whem I see them. In 1968 our senior class party was 1 mile down a spit of land with vegetation growning on it about 100 yards wide. Today 25% of that 1 mile spit is gone, the water is 5 feet deep where I walked 40 years ago. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize something is amiss.

In many low lying areas around the Chesapeake Bay people are watching their land disappear. Many generations of property owners loosing land that a family has owned for hundreds of years.

A pitifully small investment would generate an unbelievable return so our grandchildren could look back and say we did the right thing before its too late.

Of course that means you have to care about your grandchildrens planet. Our legacy in that respect is pitiful.

regards
gary

It is COST that is holding back the use of photovoltaics, not efficiency. Current cells are perfectly efficient enough, but they are just MUCH too expensive to be affordable by most people - even with massive subsidies. Having them leased by the government? I can see a disaster happening right there. Seriously, we need to get the price down to reasonable levels. And trying to find ways to make them more efficient is, at this time, a distraction from that goal. So although increased efficiency IS a worthwhile goal, it should NOT be the primary goal. The primary goal should be to make them more affordable.

Yes!!!!!
 

Actually, I'm saying that from a somewhat selfish position. I very much want to buy a VX. Where do you live. I live in the Baltimore area.

Bob

Bob,

I reside in the metro Detroit area. Kind of far for anything other than a cherry VX which I'm sure mine once was - oh let me see - around 12 years ago LOL!!!

I'm sure you'll find one eventually. I see two other VX's regularly and others occasionally.

There is another Milano Red VX 2 miles from where I work. The woman who owns it apparently works at the Ponderosa Steakhouse next to the Mickey D's I get lunch from. Her VX has over 250K on it. She was leaving the same time as me today. Her VX has worse Honda rust above the rear wheels than mine but she still looks good - the VX that is!

And still another Milano Red VX by my dentist's office with over 220K on it. That VX lost its original alloy wheels but otherwise is in good condition.

My 1999 HX is perfect, and modded! Best nonhypermiled tank 44 mpg 80% hwy at 65 mph. Long distance road trip, 1st 143 miles all hwy at 65 mph A/C on/off every 5 miles - 46.3 mpg!

But the 01 to 05 HX M/T is better. But you just can't find a used one for sale! The 96 - 00 ones are more available!

only reason to truley get rid of a car is

A burns more oil than gas
B parts no longer available anywhere
C its so rusted out that you fear the rear axel will rip off on the next bump
D a very costly repair is worth more than the car

we run our cars till they pretty much explode or rust apart...(hence why our youngest is 11 years old :D)