[Cashmere]

It's absolutely staggering to me that the best they have to offer for a "fuel efficient" car is . . .



CrapMachines

Hybrids that get 34mpg are called "fuel efficient"?

My VW beetle - the original, got 32 highway.

You want to break into th 40s? You gotta pony up 22-30k for a hybrid Prius or Civic? You have got to be kidding me.

And the Yaris gets an estimated 32?

32!!!

When did gas prices start rising?

How long does it take to design and produce a car?

Or pull out the designs for cars from the past that got 35, no complicated and expensive and large footprint hybrid, on straight gasoline.

And check out the "duo" or whatever that crapbox is called.

It gets only a measly 36 and it requires premium fuel?

Who designed that? The toothy CEO from EM?

Man, my doom meter is really clocking high today.

[UncoveringTruths]

Look what the city leaders where I live near are contemplating for the upcoming election.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')What are your plans to help diversify Del Rio’s economy should Laughlin close?

Garza: “The economy of Del Rio is primarily about one-third of it is related to Laughlin Air Force Base employment and federal agencies. Another sector is related to the maquila industry and when you add in the jobs from the school district and the hospital and the city and the other governmental entities, we are approaching pretty close to the half-way mark of government-related employment.

We have a dire need to think outside the box. We need to be creative; we need to be proactive; we need to start doing something besides the traditional effort to recruit retail-type businesses. I would suggest (garbled) biotechnology and the Internet, that we market Del Rio to attract industries that have large-scale employment.

There is a media kit that is in progress, the chamber of commerce has had a media kit for a number of years, and I would suggest that we combine these two and we establish a hard-core effort to identify companies throughout the United States who would be willing to look at Del Rio as a possible site to relocate.

There are many, many companies out there, for example there is a company in San Antonio that services mortgages and loans throughout the country, and then there are credit card companies, who are basically in any part of the country and many of them are in foreign countries, but with today’s technology, you don’t have to be where the activity is going on.

I think another central and key issue to economic development is to resurrect and make sure we have funding for the four-lane proposed (Highway 90). It was proposed to make Highway 90 four lanes between here and Uvalde. That was scrapped by TxDOT, and we need to get on top of our reps and the other people to resurrect that and make sure we get that, because that is a key to economic development.

Valdez: “Well, first and foremost we should market Del Rio. We’re doing that right now. In November, we went to Denver in which we sold Del Rio and the way we sold it was, we indicated we have the number one bas fishing tournament, bass fishing lake in the world; we have the number one air training command in the world. We have more maquiladoras here than in Piedras Negras and Nuevo Laredo combined.

Now we market that, we need to think about two things. We need not only a four-lane highway between here and San Antonio, we need a corridor going north-south through San Angelo, all the way to Alberto, Canada. We are having a national conference October 2nd and 3rd, here in Del Rio. It’s called Great Plains Conference. We will include the Ports-to-Plains Corridor, which will enhance Del Rio’s economy, bring more maquiladoras.

We also have to work with Union Pacific, because we are basically the only city that do not have rail systems going across. We need to work with them.

That’s why Eagle Pass beat our contract with Corona, because we don’t have rail systems going to Mexico. We need to work with that. That’s very important. Besides the highway, the most important thing to attract businesses are transportation and like, my opponent said, yes we do need a four-lane highway going to San Antonio, but the corridor going north-south through San Antonio, the I-35 corridor is really congested, we need to look at another corridor which goes from north-south from Canada all the way to Del Rio and that’s called Ports-to-Plains Corridor.”

Briefly detail your plan for leading Del Rio’s economic development in the two years ahead.

Valdez: “Well, like I stated before: one thing is that we have to market. Now I’ve had some objectives about people saying that we spent $7,000 here, $7,000 there; we did it with Bassmasters, with did it with George Paul Memorial. But for $7,000, you get to market the city nationwide. Now, the only way people will know about Del Rio is to market it. Now for $7,000 on the return that we’re getting, on the Bassmasters last year, we had a report we generated $1.2 million for our economy. The George Paul generates about $700,000.

Now, how else can we do it? If we don’t advertise, people will not know about Del Rio. San Antonio invested $2 million to get the Final Four, but what was the return on that $2 million? You’re talking about $20 to $50 million, somewhere in that vicinity, of course, they haven’t tabulated yet. But if you don’t market your city, if you don’t go out and sell your city, if people don’t know we have the number one bass fishing lake in the world, the number one air training command in the world; we have 320 days of good flying weather, we do have the Continental Airlines that comes in here, we do have a lot of maquiladoras. People in central America don’t know what a maquiladora is. That is an American manufacturing company that does business in Mexico and then comes across. They don’t even know the simple fact of what a maquiladora is. So we need to market Del Rio, and we’re doing a very good job of it and I’m pleased to say that with that Great Plains Conference that we’re having, I think the marketing will be very good.”

Garza: “For many years the city has had efforts to market Del Rio. I don’t believe that the current effort is any greater than it’s been over the last 10 or 15 years. The chamber of commerce, through its limited funding from the state, has had funds available through the room tax fund. Mr. Valdez made reference to a $7,400 expenditure for the bullriding contest.

I can briefly tell you that we have to remain focused. Everybody supports the bullriding. It’s an excellent event. The question is not whether or not we should spend money on that, but what do you spend it from? You cannot spend tax dollars on a private entity, and you should not.

That is why the Legislature has created such items as the room tax fund. That’s money that comes from the hotels to go to the room tax fund. That is also the reason why the Legislature allowed cities to dedicate a portion of their sales tax revenue to an economic development fund. That is a tool that the city of Del Rio has never availed itself of and if we are really going to get serious towards economic development, we need to take a substantial portion of that sales tax revenue and redirect it totally to economic development.

And then, in so doing, we have to reduce the reliance of the general fund on the enterprise funds. There is no question that the Ports-to-Plains is a project that needs to come to fruition. It’s also been in the making for a good 10 years that I’ve been involved. The highway that I mentioned earlier and what I would suggest to you now is that the city of Del Rio needs to resurrect the idea of the construction of a new international bridge.

The new international bridge has generated, over the course of the last 10 years, $35 million. It is a 10- to 15-fold return on the original cost of the bridge, and that’s going to be central and key to the further development of the economy of this area.”

[Ludi]

I have a used Echo that gets 40 mpg.

Whoopty-do!

[BigTex]

It is very odd that the best mileage cars of the last 10 years or so are no longer on the market.

One of the problems with the hybrids is that they are 50%+ higher priced than the traditional economy cars they are replacing/competing with.

For example, Corolla: $14,000. Prius: $21,000.

If you are unlikely to ever recoup the extra cost through fuel savings, is buying one really a rational decision?

[Cashmere]

It makes no sense to buy a hybrid Prius with gas at 3.50 a gallon, which is why the only people you see driving them are idiot liberals who want to prove to the world what great environmentalists they are.

I read something somewhere that it was tougher for Honda to market the civic because it didn't look hybrid enough.

GHUA.

[oowolf]

When I was in college in the '60s my 1957 Nash Metropolitan got 35-40 mpg.

[gollum]

I drive an 86 full size blazer with a diesel, it gets 20 MPG. Since the truck is paid for and mechanically sound it is pretty hard to justify a replacement for 20 to 40k just to get say 30 MPG.

[outcast]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t makes no sense to buy a hybrid Prius with gas at 3.50 a gallon, which is why the only people you see driving them are idiot liberals who want to prove to the world what great environmentalists they are.

[Revi]

I just drove our Echo with an automatic transmission a thousand miles over the vacation. It got a solid 43 mpg, but it was mostly highway driving. I could not have done that with my truck, even though it gets 29 mpg on the highway. It would have cost me about $100 more in gas. Most of us drive 10,000 miles or more per year. We could save about $1000 by switching to vehicles that get 10 mpg better. Buying a more fuel efficient car pays for itself really quickly at these gas prices.

The problem is that the cost has gone up. Most manufacturers weren't making any fuel efficient small cars in the last 10 years.

We bought our Echo about 4 years ago for $8,000. We just saw one on a lot that was priced at $10,000.

If you see a used Echo at a good price, buy it.

I wish we had the manual transmission version. It gets over 46 mpg.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'I') have a used Echo that gets 40 mpg.

Whoopty-do!

[SchroedingersCat]

My 1967 Chevy Impala got 30 MPG on the freeway. Until I bought by Honda Civic in 2000, that was the worst mileage car I owned. My Civic gets about 32 on the freeway. My 1984 diesel VW Rabbit got 55 in the city! Sold it when the odometer hit 450,000. It's probably still running.

[aahala2]

Cashmere

Whoever wrote that headline for that CNN story is either
intentionally or truly ignorant. The ZENN is available in very
limited numbers in the US, has an official EPA gasoline equivalence rating(235 mpg city), so it certainly should be included within the meaning of the headline.

If the writer wanted to exclude cars powered by something
other than gasoline, or only cars that were designed for the
highway, which the ZENN is not, he should have said so.

[Cashmere]

aahala - thanks for the post - got me excited.

Then I read the car is 25MPH top speed and 50 mile range.

No good unless you live in a city, in which case why not walk or take Mass Transit.

For anywhere else, 25MPH is residential speed, and would be dangerous on any main road.

So no go.


How tough can it be to make an EV that is safe enough to meet the Gov. Regs, that goes 60MPH, and that goes, say, 75 miles?

I'd buy that for any price tag under 15k.

[eastbay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'I') have a used Echo that gets 40 mpg.

Whoopty-do!

[drew]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BigTex', '
')
For example, Corolla: $14,000. Prius: $21,000.

If you are unlikely to ever recoup the extra cost through fuel savings, is buying one really a rational decision?

[timmac]

VW is going to start selling a Deisel hybred that is to get around 65-70 mpg,, I hope it cost less than $20,000 than I might even buy one...

[yesplease]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cashmere', 'H')ybrids that get 34mpg are called "fuel efficient"?

My VW beetle - the original, got 32 highway.

[Fiddlerdave]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cashmere', 'I')t makes no sense to buy a hybrid Prius with gas at 3.50 a gallon, which is why the only people you see driving them are idiot liberals who want to prove to the world what great environmentalists they are.

I read something somewhere that it was tougher for Honda to market the civic because it didn't look hybrid enough.

GHUA.

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BigTex', '
')If you are unlikely to ever recoup the extra cost through fuel savings, is buying one really a rational decision?

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', '
')Unfortunately the car companies don't want to build these types of cars anymore.