The hybrids I've seen around Portland aren't worth the cost diff and I
wonder how they're planning to sell them with end of life cell issue which
will common in a few years.

I did find a sweet, very good condition, '91 Jetta a few months ago which
got 43mpg highway and cursed myself with this Westy (here's your blessed
Vanagon content) instead.

On 4/21/08, Don Hanson <dhanson@gorge.net> wrote:
>
> With my 1.8 Rabbit inline gas motor, I honestly do get 23-24 mpg and I
> always have for about 39k miles of hard driving.  I keep track of my fuel
> consumption rate as a way to monitor the tune of the motor. I faithfully,
> on
> every fill up, divide the miles traveled by the amount of fuel using a
> calculator right there at the pump.  Takes about 30 seconds.  If I were to
> see a big change in my fuel consumption, I'd be looking for the
> problem.  So
> far, my gas mileage has diminished less than 1 mile per gallon since I
> installed my extra interior...So my motor IS getting a little worn, a tiny
> bit less efficient, but not by much..But I bet, with a modern sequential
> fuel injection system and a bit more sophisticated engine management it'd
> do
> a heck of a lot better..
> I did once see 19 miles per gallon, humping through the eastern Sierras
> with all my tools and camping gear aboard, bucking a very very stiff storm
> wind..but even here in the Columbia River Gorge, where it's often VERY
> windy,  not often does it ever use more than a gallon to go 21 miles and I
> have seen  a tankfull give me 27mpg  once..All this is at my normal
> highway
> speeds of 60-75 miles per hour.
> So for about what you'd likely pay for a set of tires, when my gas mileage
> falls into the teens, I'll go to the wrecking yard and get another fresher
> Rabbit motor...Or maybe by then someone will have an even more frugal
> choice.
> In my original post, I was curious about motors like..oh, some of the
> small Toyotas and Hondas that are around 100-150 hp and sip fuel at nearly
> 50miles per gallon.  One of my Canadian buddies just sold his diesel
> vanagon, so slow it was scary but an honest 36 miles per gallon and
> replaced
> it with some non-descript Toyota sedan, a few years old with 50 miles per
> gallon fuel rating......
> What about motors like that, never mind the Hybrid technology..Those cars,
> the hybrids, are for the wealthy, or at least for someone other than a
> worker-bee like me..
> Don Hanson
>

--
Neil
'82 Diesel Westy
Me other car is Swedish