One part of life is dealing with problems and inconveniences. As is the case that I and my family have to endure as a result of my car being side swiped. One day I pulled out onto the street as I was on my way to work, the teen driver of Toyota SUV decided to try to fit between my hybrid and some trash containers left in the street for city pickup. Well the result to my car was a broken driver side mirror, and lots of molding damage.
The Problem:
Believe it or not, the accident is not the issue, at least not of this post. The problem is that I have to endure being with out my hybrid until the Auto body doctors can have her all patched up.
So, I had the pleasure of driving my hybrid around for one week while the parts were on order, but I soon had to give it over to the repair shop and pick up a rental replacement. I said to my self that this should be no problem because I will only be away from her for a couple of weeks and this will give me a chance to try out newer model cars from the rental place.
A is the usual case, the rental agency was low on cars at the time I arrived and a dismal selection. A quick thought passed through my mind about the weekend needs to transport passengers and gear. So that just about eliminated any small cars. I never been into driving large trucks or SUV’s and I know “pain at the pump” would follow them soon after so they were out. They had one PT Cruiser on the lot that was just dropped off and I though It would be interesting to see what all the fuss was over for this kind of car. My wife once told me that she thought they looked cute, and the deal was set.
I’m not going to use this post as a rant or to bash a product that I don’t like. Instead I’m going to complain about the features that I severely missed about my hybrid. My wife’s car is not a hybrid so most of these complaints would also be valid for her car as well. My family and I have taken my hybrid all over the place. Short hops like From Los Angeles to San Diego and San Francisco as well as long journeys like from LA to Arizona to Texas to New Mexico and back. Easily getting 28+ miles per gallon while driving 80+ mph with full passenger compliment and an additional 2,000lbs of luggage.
The first thing I noticed was that the cars engine does not turn off at stop lights or any other time unless I shut the car off. This was a shock to me at first because the engine rumble was much greater that in my wife’s car and definitely more noticeable. As I drove the car, I kept getting the since that I was wasting gas and getting 0 mpg. I tell you that its a strange feeling when you have been driving a full hybrid for years and loving every minute of it.
The second thing I noticed was how the breaks don’t work the same as on my hybrid. It surprised me when I first took my foot off the brake and the car kept moving forward at the same speed. One of the hyper-miler techniques I use is the shift into low when I’m on the surface streets. In this gear (Or mode as it pertains to the hybrid) the regenerative brakes kick in as I take my foot off the gas. Almost like down shifting in a manual transmission, This allows me to slowdown almost to a stop without needing at all or needing very much my disk brakes and give me greater control over stopping.
Then there are the other peeves, like no power on hills, no heated leather seats, no back up sensors, no moon roof, high RPM’s at relatively low speeds, overall smaller feeling interior, no fog lights, bla, bla, bla… Don’t get me wrong, there were several nice features I do like about the PT Cruiser, but they didn’t impact my everyday driving experience.
But the overall problem that I have is the MPG. For reasons that I should not go into now, I have driven the car over the last two weeks and have given it a good run. I have utilized several other hyper-mileing techniques to get the best gas mileage that I could and still get to watch the gas needle move lower on my trips back and forth to work. So far the best Ive gotten is 26MPG and with great effort, my daily average is about 22MPG. To compare, in my hybrid with minimal effort I can get 40+ miles per gallon. Being able to get 500+ miles on a tank of gas is a great feeling and lowers the burden on my pocket book.
Solution:
After more than 3 great years driving my hybrid, I’ve come to rely on several features that are present in hybrids. I love the fact that I don’t need to get oil changes but every 10,000 miles, or feeling the shift of my transmission as it goes up and down the gears, or cruising at up to 40 miles per hour with out the engine off, or not needing the standard services that most cars need, or not needing smog checks at license renewals. I can go on and on and on touting the accolades, and notice that I didn’t say anything environmental, all environmental benefits are icing on the cake.
So with all that said, patience is something that must be administered as I wait to have a pleasurable and economical driving experience again. Either that or I need to go and rent a hybrid, hmm… Maybe I should try a fast sports car.
