Why I think Nissan is lost

[Steve]

MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12285537/) - Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said Wednesday he feels vindicated that hybrids could be seeing a sales slowdown, since he has repeatedly warned that it is too early to fully back the technology.

I think hybrid technology is the future. Those auto companies who don't jump on it now are going to find it more and more difficult if not impossible to compete in the future.

The Toyota Prius is the standard in hybrid cars. "At Dublin Toyota, 51 people are now on the waiting list to buy a Toyota Prius hybrid, sales manager Travis Pepe said Tuesday. "They cannot make them fast enough," he said. "If I had 100, I could sell them this month." from here (http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/transportation/14323054.htm).

Why won't any of our domestic auto manufacturers wake up to this threat?

Gas is only going to get more expensive and be tougher to find.

What's your thought?

[kc2006]

Ford has been in the stages of developing a hybrid car for a long time, they were one of the first to put money into it and actually helped the japanese companies with design. GM is into the ethanol fuels right now and is also working on a hybrid, but you don't hear about it much.

I know ford is holding back because the cost to repair the hybrids is outragious and they don't want to put a less then fully tested vehicle out on the market. Japanese companies don't care, you never hear about all the recalls on the japanese hybrids because it's called "quality control" and the news media never mentions them.

[Steve]

Which do you think will be better, hybrid or ethanol and why so?

[tiedeman]

I think a ethanol. *Correct me if I am wrong, doesn't the hybrid car still use gasoline?

[Steve]

I was thinking hybrids that are electric/gas
vs.
Those which run on ethanol.

Maybe the hybrids can use ethanol as well? I don't know.

[maelawncare]

do you know that it takes just as much gas to process ethonal as it does just to put the gas into your car??

[Steve]

I did not know that. http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[kc2006]

I've never really thought about the alternate fuels when it comes to gas engines. When it comes to diesels, I'm all about veggy oil.

Last year I ran waste veggy oil through my truck and it loved it, lower eghaust temps and higher boost, from what i've read veggy oils are more effecient then diesel. I was doing it as a mix of 75% veggy oil and 25% diesel, I was just cleaning the oil and not processing it. After talking with a guy that is very smart with it, he advised me not to do it anymore because oil tests showed it was putting wear on the rings. He invented a system that starts the truck on diesel for just a minute or so, then switches over to the other tank that has heated veggy oil in it, so it's injected at 160 degree's i think, then when you hit a button and it switchs back to diesel for the last 15 seconds before you shut it off.

Potential to save alot of money in your business right there! I only spent $550 last year in fuel from running the veggy oil.