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Electric conversion to mechanical energy has always been more efficient than ICE conversion. The only draw backs I see to the PML design is sealing the electric motors against water damage and keeping them cool. These are eaqsy problems to over come and the unsprung weght issue is not nealy as much a problem as one might think because it is not unsprung dead weight but a live active drive member.

Regenerative braking recoups 90% of the kinetic energy as opposed to 65-75% for current hybrids. The small ICE (2 cylinder) in the system is used just to charge the batteries when they are getting low and is tuned for optimum efficiency at one load speed.The software controls of the system incorporate 4 wheel drive , traction controm, stability control and a host of features considered a luxury in conventional ICE designs.

The current automotive industry, both foreign and domestic are so mired in the current approach to transit they cant see the forest from the trees. Rather than seeing how much this design would have saves them by not having to produce gas wasting transmissions, axels and differentials, they worry about legacy problems like union deals, head count and pension funding, so they have to contuinue to produce high margin low efficiency vehicles.

No collectively bargained agreement should be without a caveat that shoehorns a business operation into a noncompetitive position. America is after all the land of opportunity, not the land of the free lunch. I understand the unwilingness to give back somthing that you think you earned but there is a vast difference by what is rightfully earned and what is bargained for by a skilled negotiator with hardline tactics.

Such things being aside I’ve owned several American and Foreign primarily Asian makes over the years. Starting with a Jeep when they were still owned by Kaiser Willys Overland. My family swore by SUV’s before they became the gas guzzling status staples of American suburbia. I then shared a Toyota Celica GT with my brother towards the latter days of my college years. The first new car I leased was a 1984 Subaru Turbo wagon with 4WD. I wanted the inherent utility and safety of 4WD with fuel efficiency, and I felt this was an issue ignored by US automakers because they felt it was a niche. SUV’s had to be large and bulky to bring all the gear you needed into the back woods.

The major problem I see with American manufacturers is they have been reading their own press clippings and dictating automotive tastes to the American public for too long. Designing in planned oblescence rather than relaiability. They have always been on the cutting edge but wanter to extract every dollar from a blindly loyal public while giving little back in crucial years.

My current Auto is a Saturn Outlook, I started buying gthe Saturn brand about 8 years ago after a rather expensive relationship with a Subaru SVX (Yes the Japanese automakers have their duds also, great car when it was running though). I bought a used SC2 and had it for 2 years until it was totaled by a rear end accident. I firmly believed in the principals that the Saturn brand was developed to implement and I wish GM had stuck by those all those principals not just the ones convenient to them.

The only gripes i really have about my current vehicle is they could have implemented the partial hybrid concept in it as an option and my city mileage might be 19-20MPG rather than 14-16mpg. I renter a Chevy Impala last Thanksgiving and on a flat strech of highway in North Carolina averaged 44mpg in an 80 mile stretch. Now you might say that that is a remarkable abberation but it really is not.

Since leasing my Outlook I have practiced more fuel efficient driving, especially with our recent bout with $4.00 per gallon gas. I simply transferred those techniques to the Impala. To further illustrate my point, last year I drove from NY to Myrtle Beach SC. I shared the driving with 2 other friends. The Outlook only has about 1500 miles on it at the start. During my stretch of driving I averaged 23mpg over a 300mile stretch. The first of my co-drivres was a bit more aggressive and disdained the use of cruise control. He got 18 mpg over a 200 mile stretch and my second co-driver through mountainous terrain got 21 mpg. In this same car I once got 28 mpg over a 70 mile stretch. My point we often ignore our own behavior and contribition to the mileage problems we have with cars.

Before the Outlook I had a Vue which I put 136,000 mile on before trading it in. The Vue had become a tad unreliaible and was costing me $1600- $2000 ever six months in repairs and maintenance and had a faulty horn problem that would have costme $900 to fix (air bag part of horn circuit, car out of warranty). The Vue has a V6 and 5 speed auto with AWD. I once got 29mpg highway in that car. I see a few people panning the original partial Hybrid Vue which I test drove but never bought.

I was on a web site that posted comments from real owners of this partial Hybrid Nue and for the most part 80% of the comments were positive and they were happy with the mileage they got because they adapted. Far too many posters on this site state blanket comments that while have some basis in validity, they really cannot be attributed to one type of automaker foreign or domestic but in truth is endemic of the industry as a whole.

Toyota rarely leads the way unless prodded and pushed to do so. Withour the limited success of the EV1 the Piruis of today probably would not exist. Without the Pirius of today there probably would not be a redesign of the Insight from Honda. The industry as a whole needs to wake up and approach the transportation issue from a different paradigm. How much deisel would we save if thte PML approach had been designed into big rigs across the nation five years ago? We had the technology and software know how to do it but conventional thinking hamstrung the entire industry. I think an 18 wheeler getting 40 mpg would have been quite possible. Cutting demand for deisel by 75% would have probably kept the price low also. This just goes to show that improper government intervention whether passive (conservative) or active (liberal) is never a good thing. The original Saturn green line was a good stop gap measure but in my opinion it should have been extended to the entire saturn line. The new Two-mode offering still does not offer an AWD version and in the current economic climate that may be delayed indefinately and that’s a deal breaker for me.

Last year I spent a month in Indonesia. I flew on Boeing Airplanes with Garuda. Those guys have 10 Dreamliners on order for a billion and a half dollars. (90% of Dreamliner sales are leaving the country). In my Indonesian apartment I had an American Standard toilet, and the building had Microsoft software.

Across the street was a Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks, KFC, McDonalds, ACE Hardware, Outback Steak House, Toys R Us, etc.

At the supermarket we bought Coke, American peanut butter and Ocean Spray cranberry juice (yes, they really had it!!!)

I also rented a Ford automobile from the Ford dealer as well as a Toyota Kijang.

My question for you Cindy, is… If we feel that buying Asian products is unpatriotic and wrong, can we really at the same time expect them to buy ours??

Scott

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I traded in my Lexus IS 250 that got 24, 33 MPG for a Saturn Vue Hybrid 09′ and have the same exact mileage. But now with lower maintenance costs, same fuel economy, smoother ride, real leg room and a actual large cargo area. Need I say more, cheaper tires, better alloy rims, leather, sunroof. And my car payment is much lower. Oh and it’s AMERICAN. You can talk all you want about how bad the car is but how many of you “guys” have actually driven one? You may actually be impressed with it. LOL