Friday, January 30, 02004
The cashstrapped California assembly is deadlocked on closing the IRS's SUV tax break. Sigh. Ignoring a federal loophole as a revenue stream seems particularly braindead.
In other very much brainalive news, New York assembly member Ivan Lafayette's proposal to limit S-U-V's to truck routes will hopefully cut down on Subaruish shinnanegans.
Update: more coverage of the Lafayette proposal from Newsday.
Posted at 09:02 AM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
Monday, January 26, 02004
Hello to any visiting Metafilters. I drive a 02001 Honda Insight CVT. It's license plate is ECOZY, since it's ecological and oh so very cozy.
My lifetime mileage has leveled out at 53.5 mpg, a little less than the advertised 57 mpg for the CVT.
During the winter months, the mileage does dip down to the high 40's, but during the fall and spring, I can get over 60 mpg if I pay attention to my driving. I also get much less than the reported 56 mpg in city driving. I suspect this is because most of my city driving is actually "sprawl driving" where there aren't enough stop lights for the automatic engine feature to kick in, but the traffic is too erratic for me to just coast along. I've never seen the battery bank indicator go under 3 bars, even in winter, and when I was driving around Vermont's hilly backroads. The traction in the snow is as good as other cars I've owned. I do pay attention to the wind direction during weather reports. A strong tail wind can give an extra 5 mpg on my daily commute.
I haven't had any problems that required dealer attention, besides having to have my wheel replaced after driving into a massive pothole, but that would have happened regardless of the engine type.
I did have one bad experience when a Hummer decided to tailgate me going over 70 mph on a deserted Pennslyvania backroad, and all I could see out my mirrors was its grill, but besides that the size hasn't been much of a problem.
Posted at 01:52 PM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
