Dodge Ram Vs Hummer

[quote]hedgrinder wrote:
One of the amusing parts of this argument that is rarely mentioned is actual MAINTENANCE of the car. Even though your small car may have a 1.1 liter, super-ultra-mega efficient engine, if you don’t change the plugs, oil, etc…it’s NOT going to put out decent emissions. I’ve seen a 71 challenger with a 528" hemi pass a sniff test that a 99 accord couldn’t. Why? Because it was poorly maintained, just like 99% of ALL cars out their on the road. Tuning the engine PERFECTLY is important, as is the rest of the entire package(there is more to a car than the engine, ya know?) Did your hippy ass check your tire pressure today? Or were you busy putting on another I heart mother earth sticker? If it’s too low those precious mpg start to quickly plummet. Air filter? Running lower friction fluids? How bout your driving style? Do you floor it between lights and slam on the breaks? Do you actually know how to shift right, and when? The factor between the seat and steering wheel is suprisingly important here, and rarely mentioned. [/quote]
.
(applause all around)

[quote]Headhunter wrote:
Those little fucking cars are deathtraps! My wife had a Corolla for 3 years and we finally traded the damn thing in and got a truck (domestic). The insurance bill went down. The insurance was higher on a 4 years old Corolla!

Don’t buy those little shitpot deathtraps!

Will anyone really give a shit about the price of gas if their wife and/or family is killed?

[/quote]

Study after study has shown you are more likely to get killed in a truck or SUV than in a car.

This is because cars handle better and can avoid accidents.

Insurance went down because it is one of the most stolen cars, not because it is unsafe.

Drive what you want but get all the facts straight before you make a decision.

[quote]hedgrinder wrote:
One of the amusing parts of this argument that is rarely mentioned is actual MAINTENANCE of the car.[/quote]

That could be (and I know I’m stepping out on a limb here) because proper maintenance is necessary on every vehicle.

Was the emission test on the Challenger done just for fun? I’m pretty sure a car of that age doesn’t have to pass emissions.

I know it sounds like I’m one of those tree-hugging hippies, but I’m not - I drive a truck.

[quote]MikeTheBear wrote:
The free market is what drives innovation. Once gas prices become totally insane, some smart car company will come out with a new design that doesn’t need petroleum-based fuel. (I agree with the sentiment about getting off the Arab oil tit.) So let people drive what they want; in the long run it’ll be good.

I’m holding out for the hydrogen fuel cell cars. They use the most abundant element on the planet and produce water as exhaust.[/quote]

using hydrogen as a power source will probably never catch on unless the genius’s (sarcasm) in government really push a hydrogen economy.

The problem with filling a fuel cell with hydrogen is that it takes a lot more energy to create it than you get out of it. Granted it would be the tits for the environment, it’s just not practical to make that amount of hydrogen, the facilities would have to be incredible, and have a very abundant amount of water around. Also, transporting it would be the next major problem. You’d have these big trucks driving around with enough hydrogen on board to launch a Kenmore into orbit. That’s a big problem to be driving a giant bomb through a neighborhood on a consistent basis, also, hydrogen cars don’t get nearly the range as cars running on gas do. They also lack the power.

A more realistic fuel source is an ethanol/gasoline mix. The infrastructure to get this ball rolling is almost already in place. Odds are you will be seeing this used about 20 years ahead of hydrogen fuel cells.

Here’s GM’s best hope at the moment of a hydrogen vehicle…

and GM’s homepage for fuel cells

and here’s a quick presentation of the small challenges that await fuel cells

honestly though, if it was doable and people could have a bitchin fast superefficient ride, and the environment wouldn’t get polluted to shit, that’d be awesome. Hopefully one day it’ll happen.

Till then, we can all enjoy being screwed by gas prices as oil companies continue to post record profits.

hybrids are not currently worth it if you do most of your driving on the highway. hybrids are great for inner city driving. all the damn cabs in large urban cities should be turned to hybrids and subsidized by the government. too bad american auto makers are lagging behind in that technology and the power production is too low for a people hauler.
laters pk

all you guys bitching about them being so big and gas guzzilers, arent you all big muscular weight lifters? what do you think the “normal” people think of us? they think we have needless muscle, and over eat… hmm sounds like we are just like the big SUV’s we dont NEED to be big and muscular, we dont need to eat 8000 calories a day to grow, but guess what? we do because we like it and thats all that fucking matters. if you are opposed to spending that much gas to drive around, canabolize all your muscle mass and turn into thin little twigs and stop eating so much food. sounds silly doesnt it? so does this gas milage debate

[quote]sjoconn wrote:
orion wrote:
ZEB wrote:

Lol…that is very funny stuff!

I don’t need an SUV and I drive one. I drive one because I can afford to drive one and I wanted one.

Since when does anyone have to justify their purchase of any vehicle?

You could try to explain that to an American soldier who was killed in a conflict that in part began because of Americas “need” for oil.

Oh, that?s right…

You can?t.

He?s dead.

I am an American soldier and drive an SUV. I know many that drive trucks.
I think that the right to drive what you want, say what you want(even if I disagree), and live the way you want are covered in that document that we (including those who have died) have sworn to protect and serve.
[/quote]

THAT was one of the best smack-downs of one of these guys that I’ve ever read!

And, thank you for your service and dedication to our country. We owe men like you more than most could ever imagine.

[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
Those little fucking cars are deathtraps! My wife had a Corolla for 3 years and we finally traded the damn thing in and got a truck (domestic). The insurance bill went down. The insurance was higher on a 4 years old Corolla!

Don’t buy those little shitpot deathtraps!

Will anyone really give a shit about the price of gas if their wife and/or family is killed?

Study after study has shown you are more likely to get killed in a truck or SUV than in a car.

This is because cars handle better and can avoid accidents.

Insurance went down because it is one of the most stolen cars, not because it is unsafe.

Drive what you want but get all the facts straight before you make a decision.[/quote]

If we ever ‘meet by accident’, you be in one of those little toy pseudo-cars; I’ll be in my new Ram truck. I’ll bring the spatula.

[quote]sjoconn wrote:
orion wrote:
ZEB wrote:

Lol…that is very funny stuff!

I don’t need an SUV and I drive one. I drive one because I can afford to drive one and I wanted one.

Since when does anyone have to justify their purchase of any vehicle?

You could try to explain that to an American soldier who was killed in a conflict that in part began because of Americas “need” for oil.

Oh, that?s right…

You can?t.

He?s dead.

I am an American soldier and drive an SUV. I know many that drive trucks.
I think that the right to drive what you want, say what you want(even if I disagree), and live the way you want are covered in that document that we (including those who have died) have sworn to protect and serve.
[/quote]

It doesn?t work with you the same way it would with Zeb because he constantly reminds us that all our lifes are connected and that the choices we make have consequences for other people.

That is why, according to him:

Gay people are not allowed to marry.

Smoking weed should remain illegal.

I?m not completely sure about Nipplegate , but I don?t trust him there to leave other people alone either.

But, when it comes to his cars or his taxes he turns 180? on us and remembers that he is a free citizen that does not have to justify anything and wants the government of his back.

As to the SUVs itself, if you have to spend that amount of money, see picture above, Aston Martin DB7, page 2 of this thread…

Burn gas with STYLE…

[quote]TheBige wrote:

“Don’t ever say it was unfair, I signed up for it, I knew this could happen and I’m sorry it did”
[/quote]

I think I answered that in my previous post, and just because someone has accepted that his profession might get him killed does not mean that I automatically have the right to raise his chances of being killed.

If I come across a burning building with firemen in it, what am I if I throw a few canisters of gasolin in it, just to make their lifes more interesting?

[quote]Headhunter wrote:

THAT was one of the best smack-downs of one of these guys that I’ve ever read!

And, thank you for your service and dedication to our country. We owe men like you more than most could ever imagine.

[/quote]

You don?t read much, huh?

Milton Freedman “Capitalism and Freedom”

I promise it won?t hurt you ideologically and it is a start…

[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
Headhunter wrote:

Study after study has shown you are more likely to get killed in a truck or SUV than in a car.

This is because cars handle better and can avoid accidents.

Insurance went down because it is one of the most stolen cars, not because it is unsafe.

Drive what you want but get all the facts straight before you make a decision.[/quote]

That is only true in single car accidents. If those two vehicles meet on the street you had better be the one in the truck. You can’t rewrite the laws of Physics.

My truck was rear ended by a drunk driver in a corolla. The impact bent my frame but I could still drive away. His engine was sitting in the front seat of his vehicle. If I had been in my sisters sunfire like we had planned, I would be dead.

I agree that many people driving SUV’s don’t know how, but that doesn’t make them unsafe in the right hands.

[quote]orion wrote:
Headhunter wrote:

THAT was one of the best smack-downs of one of these guys that I’ve ever read!

And, thank you for your service and dedication to our country. We owe men like you more than most could ever imagine.

You don?t read much, huh?

Milton Freedman “Capitalism and Freedom”

I promise it won?t hurt you ideologically and it is a start…[/quote]

Did you mean Milton Friedman, by chance? I’ve read SOME of his work but by no means all. How about a link to a page, and so forth?

I’m pretty sure Friedman would advocate you having a choice , a personal freedom, in choosing what you drive. And, as was pointed out to you, a lot of good men died to give us the right to make choices.

HH

I saw a woman in one of those little foreign jobs KILLED when she pulled out into traffic and got t-boned by, you guessed it, a pickup truck. Now, I know that if she’d been in a proper vehicle, she may have been killed or injured as well. I think the truck had a few scratches.

[quote]Headhunter wrote:
orion wrote:
Headhunter wrote:

THAT was one of the best smack-downs of one of these guys that I’ve ever read!

And, thank you for your service and dedication to our country. We owe men like you more than most could ever imagine.

You don?t read much, huh?

Milton Freedman “Capitalism and Freedom”

I promise it won?t hurt you ideologically and it is a start…

Did you mean Milton Friedman, by chance? I’ve read SOME of his work but by no means all. How about a link to a page, and so forth?

I’m pretty sure Friedman would advocate you having a choice , a personal freedom, in choosing what you drive. And, as was pointed out to you, a lot of good men died to give us the right to make choices.

HH

[/quote]

You have the right to choose anything, BUT if a SUV has a little American flag on it AND the driver thinks he “supports” American soldiers, well, um , no…

He puts them in harms way, because if America was not so dependent on Middle Eastern oil, a result of your choosing the way you do, we could let them rot in their medieval ignorance and forget about, them like we choose to forget about Africa…

However, an average American citizen uses twice as much energy as an average European (with very little more quality of life to show for it), which is why American soldiers will continue to die…

Therefore:

People driving BIIIIIG cars are doing their share of putting American troops into harms way.

Little American flags on it and patriotic bumper stickers do not change that.

[quote]Headhunter wrote:

Milton Freedman “Capitalism and Freedom”

I promise it won?t hurt you ideologically and it is a start…

Did you mean Milton Friedman, by chance? I’ve read SOME of his work but by no means all. How about a link to a page, and so forth?

[/quote]

Is that good or bad if I am able to make Freudian slips while typing in a foreign language ;-)…

[quote]Testy1 wrote:

That is only true in single car accidents. If those two vehicles meet on the street you had better be the one in the truck. You can’t rewrite the laws of Physics.

My truck was rear ended by a drunk driver in a corolla. The impact bent my frame but I could still drive away. His engine was sitting in the front seat of his vehicle. If I had been in my sisters sunfire like we had planned, I would be dead.

I agree that many people driving SUV’s don’t know how, but that doesn’t make them unsafe in the right hands.[/quote]

Why would you be dead? Was the guy in the corolla dead?? If he wasn’t dead why should you die in an accident where two equal masses (small cars)meet?

[quote]Mikeyali wrote:
… I am converting over to biodiesel anyways. You want to know satisfaction? Try telling some little hippie that your biodiesel uses less oil than his crappy love bug after he tells you how heartless you are toward “mother earth.”

Mike [/quote]

Awesome. I used to have an old Mercedes 240D and always wanted to get a greasle kit for it. The idea of getting free fuel from chinese restaurants and having exhaust that smells like the food was just too tempting.

[quote]orion wrote:
ZEB wrote:

Lol…that is very funny stuff!

I don’t need an SUV and I drive one. I drive one because I can afford to drive one and I wanted one.

Since when does anyone have to justify their purchase of any vehicle?

You could try to explain that to an American soldier who was killed in a conflict that in part began because of Americas “need” for oil.

Oh, that?s right…

You can?t.

He?s dead.[/quote]

How long have you been separated from reality?

You have tried on other political threads to say that Iraq is about oil, yet you have never been able to offer up any proof of this.

You are just another wacky liberal…Thanks for the entertainment!

:slight_smile:

[quote]hedgrinder wrote:
One of the amusing parts of this argument that is rarely mentioned is actual MAINTENANCE…stuff… [/quote]

Yes, I do my own maintenance. The oil still looks almost new and has very little color. I’m also an advocate of Mobile 1.

You do make a VERY valid point about maintenace though. I would assume that applies across the board moreso than just to hippies.