Gas will be $4.00 a gallon by Monday 9-05…

On Sun, 04 Sep 2005 20:57:53 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:

Shopping time may be coming up soon. I've already tried a few minivans. The
headroom on some is ok, but the legroom has been impossible on the few I've
tried. Those center consoles really mess things up. It's like the designers
have decided that people get insecure if there's too much room inside the cab.
One possible player is Freightliner/Dodge's Sprinter Van....but that one only
gets about 22 mpg and lacks certain niceties like a tilt steering wheel.

Seems like every single ****ing car designer nowadays makes those huge
center consoles. You can't get these in the US, nor can you get them
maintained, but my parent's Renault Kangoo[1] has a fairly small center
console and oodles of space. I can even set the passenger seat in a
positiuon where I would fit both in front and in the rear simultaneously,
whereas usually the person behind or in front of me would be pretzel.


Jasper

[1] Imagine, if you will, the ******* offspring of a golf-size car front
and a minivan's rear end from the rearmost bench onward. It's a lot
prettier than it sounds, but not as goodlooking as a real car. But it does
have interior room in spades, and from the outside doesn't look *that*
much larger than a real car. These cars were designed as commercial
vehicles originally, but someone got the bright idea of putting in a rear
bench and some other fittings and calling it a 4-seater car. Not
luxuriously appointed, but, Cheap. 16-18 thousand euro around here, where
an SUV would be more like 50 large monetary units and even one of the
large Espace-like cars over 30.

On Sun, 04 Sep 2005 12:31:19 -0700, Mark Janeba
wrote:
Jasper Janssen wrote:
OPEC is also not by a long shot the only
oil production that matters any more. Russia, Venezuela, the North Sea
offshore, yes, even the US, nowadays add up to a significant counterweight
for OPEC.

For what it's worth, Venezuela is one of the five *founding members* of
OPEC. (Surprised me too, when I looked it up). OPEC isn't just Arab
countries.

Yeah, but AFAICT Venezuela is also one of the most eager to break away
from the cartel and a primary cause of the near-dissolution OPEC has
undergone. They had common ground back then, as oil-producing countries,
but nowadays the arab nations identify themselves more with the being arab
than with the oil, and Venezuela's best interests aren't served much by
OPEC any more.


Jasper

Qui si parla Campagnolo wrote:

Cute, but when gas is not only expensive AND not available, I can still
get to work on my 20 gear carbon fiber wonder......


Peter,

When gas isn't available, there will be no reason for you to go to work
as nobody will be able to buy what you sell / make /repair.

I read here and in other bike fora a certain joy in the suffering of
those who are more dependent upon gasoline that we've configured our
lives to be. However, their suffering is ours and I don't mean in the
John Dunne sense of we all being of a whole.

Our economy is fully interrelated. If a large segment gets hit, we'll
all get hit. The largest segment is made up of auto mfg and oil
distribution. Curiously, the oil companies are profiteering like mad,
but the auto mfgs are being hit very hard which brings the whole down.

We can gloat a little, but the wave which hits them will hit us just as
hard - only may be a bit later on.

-paul

(PeteCresswell) wrote:


If there's anything out there that gets 30 mph and has enough leg room/head room
I'd be grateful if somebody could name it. Actually, 25 mph would be pretty
good....

Test drive a new Beetle. I'm not tall and don't like VW's at all, but my
try of one indicated to me a lot of head / leg room.

When grilled further on (Sun, 04 Sep 2005 20:57:53 -0400),
"(PeteCresswell)" confessed:

Per Chuck:
That doesn't explain needing 4WD or a SUV. There are plenty of big
*cars* out there that will get *double* the mileage of an SUV.

If there's anything out there that gets 30 mph and has enough leg room/head
room
I'd be grateful if somebody could name it. Actually, 25 mph would be pretty
good....


Try the Honda Accord Hybrid. Fits 3 car seats in the back, with room to spare
in the front. I'm 6'5", 230lbs, and it fits great.

Cheers,
Rob

On 4-Sep-2005, Jasper Janssen wrote:

Seems like every single ****ing car designer nowadays makes those huge
center consoles. You can't get these in the US, nor can you get them
maintained, but my parent's Renault Kangoo[1] has a fairly small center
console and oodles of space.

So we can conclude that the designer of the Kangoo* is celibate.

* http://www.renault-nk.ru/gallery/kangoo/kangoo-pic4.jpg
--
Sock Puppet

Per Chuck:
That doesn't explain needing 4WD or a SUV. There are plenty of big
*cars* out there that will get *double* the mileage of an SUV.

Double my Suburban's mileage would be 30 mpg.

I tried everything I could find six years ago and reluctantly chose the SUV
route as the only game in town. Chrysler's Town and Country sedan was
close.... as was Chevy's full sized wagon... but they were each about as
humongous as the 'burb and each had significant ergonomic shortcomings.

If there's anything out there that gets 30 mph and has enough leg room/head room
I'd be grateful if somebody could name it. Actually, 25 mph would be pretty
good....

Shopping time may be coming up soon. I've already tried a few minivans. The
headroom on some is ok, but the legroom has been impossible on the few I've
tried. Those center consoles really mess things up. It's like the designers
have decided that people get insecure if there's too much room inside the cab.
One possible player is Freightliner/Dodge's Sprinter Van....but that one only
gets about 22 mpg and lacks certain niceties like a tilt steering wheel.
--
PeteCresswell

Jasper Janssen wrote:
On Sun, 04 Sep 2005 12:31:19 -0700, Mark Janeba
wrote:
Jasper Janssen wrote:
OPEC is also not by a long shot the only
oil production that matters any more. Russia, Venezuela, the North
Sea offshore, yes, even the US, nowadays add up to a significant
counterweight for OPEC.

For what it's worth, Venezuela is one of the five *founding members*
of OPEC. (Surprised me too, when I looked it up). OPEC isn't just
Arab countries.

Yeah, but AFAICT Venezuela is also one of the most eager to break away
from the cartel and a primary cause of the near-dissolution OPEC has
undergone. They had common ground back then, as oil-producing
countries, but nowadays the arab nations identify themselves more
with the being arab than with the oil, and Venezuela's best interests
aren't served much by OPEC any more.


Jasper

Venezuelan (as in gas in Venezuela) gas-petrol is (was) $0.17/gal.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

If there's anything out there that gets 30 mph and has enough leg
room/head room I'd be grateful if somebody could name it. Actually,
25 mph would be pretty good....

Hmm... Pete it sounds like that road bike you were contemplating would fit
the 25 *mph* bill pretty nicely. Plus it has pretty good headroom, too.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Per Paul Cassel:
Test drive a new Beetle. I'm not tall and don't like VW's at all, but my
try of one indicated to me a lot of head / leg room.

You've reminded me. Long time ago, somebody, somewhere (Car Talk?) opined that
Beetles had the most headroom/access-egress room of any car built.

I had a Beetle sunroof when I was a kid. Actually had a '58 Chevy, and my dad
bought the Beetle for my mom to drive.

She refused - "too small" - so she wound up driving the Chevy and I inherited
the Beetle.

I paid some VW shop to weld an 8" extension on the steering post, hack sawed the
seat brackets to move the driver's seat back about 10", put a suicide knob on
the steering wheel, put an extended 8-ball thingie on the shift post and drove
it happily for quite a few years.

Considerably more room and fun to drive than anything I've owned since -
including the 'burb. Used to *love* driving that thing around at night in 6-10
inches of new falling snow.
--
PeteCresswell