285 MILES TO THE GALLON!!! ~ US $600.00

Forgive me if this has already been posted.

http://www.holistic-helper.com/articles/article285mpgcarVW.htm



It's a one-seater and probably more save than a motorcycle, but watch it be banned in this country.

The big problem I would have with it is all it takes is one idiot in a honking big SUV that has no clue how to drive and it's instant death. And my area is well populated with big SUVs owned by people that must have bought their passing grade on the driver's test.

If it weren't for fear of SUVs, I would love to own one of those! That is a cool little car.

where traffic barely creeps along city streets and parking is miserably difficult.

Out here in the wild west, the Kia I'm driving was the smallest I'd want to go, although there are now 2 brave souls in my part of town driving Smart Cars.

I do avoid the interstates after dark. That's where drunks in SUV and monster pickups like to drive the wrong way at 90+. While it would be quick, it would be messy.

I think we ought to let people decide for themselves whether they want a car like this one.

Drivers of micro cars tend to drive very defensively and avoid accidents. I'm weary of every small car introduction being poo-pooed over the "SUV" nonsense.

and frankly, while I have had people almost hit me, more than not they were not in SUVs anyway. Also, on the scooter, because they are not as ubiquitous as motorcycles or cars, people tend to notice me (more than they did on my bike!), and I always make it a point to be very aware of everyone around me.

But yes, small cars and bikes tend to be able to react more quickly. Frankly, I'd be more than happy to take my chances in one of those, and the more people that drove them, the more visible they'd be.

some advice. What he said was that if I wanted to survive, I had to adopt a thinking pattern. The pattern was that every other vehicle on the road is driven by someone who doesn't see me, and that it will probably try to kill me.

I adopted that thinking pattern, and rode many tens of thousands of miles without a single accident.

And, sure enough, he was right. The car in the cross intersection pulls out as you approach. The SUV in the left turn lane will turn across in front of you. The guy parallel parked will either open his car door or swing out into traffic as you pass by. The trick is always to be ready for those drivers to do those things and plan accordingly.

It works for car drivers, too. I have over 45 years of driving and zero accidents. Zero tickets, too.

That guy was my father.

And low low low insurance rates.

That would be a cool car for small town driving, if A/C was not an issue.

The government has the power to do that.

Then there are bicycles.

It's odd that we permit those risky modes of transportation but balk at cars like this one. I just don't get it.

mileage and you have protection from the weather.

K&R

There is turbulence. It's quite manageable.

Since this concept car is even lighter (don't know by how much), I'm wondering.

A motorcycle has a different profile so the effect of a semi would be different on it (better or worse, I don't know).

Anyone with an aerodynamics background want to hazard a guess?

I wouldn't drive or ride on a motorcycle, scooter, or moped, so it's not a selling point to compare to them! On the flip side, I am hoping gas prices will reduce the number of SUVs on the road which endanger people in smaller cars.

a semi in the next lane on a two-lane road. Hands at 10 and 2 and it passes quickly and nothing happens to you. As for motorcycles, the turbulence can be quite strong. Both hands on the bars and it passes quickly and nothing happens to you.

It's all part of driving. I drove a 1959 Mini for a long time. About as small as cars came at the time. Under the conditions you mentioned, there was some turbulence. Then it was gone and the car was still going straight down the road.

This little car would be much the same. You'd feel the turbulence, but if you had your hands on the steering wheel, nothing would happen, except that you'd feel it. Then, you'd continue to drive down the road.

If your Yaris doesn't blow off the road, neither would a little car like this.

You don't have to buy such a car, of course.

And presents much less surface area for the draft to wash over. Hell, it may be more stable than your Yaris even though it is so light simply because of it's size and shape.

200+ mpg is only possible on closed circuit, constant speed cruising. real world conditions would be lucky to break 100 mpg. Also, look at motorcycle prices and explain to me how you could build and market this car for less than many thousands of dollars.

The testing conditions were set around ~70 mph, which isn't far off from what you'd be doing on the interstate. So 258 mpg at 70 mph in closed circuit conditions would still amount to 200+ mpg on the interstate. The difference between interstate driving and city driving also isn't 50% in fuel consumption. At most it's 25-30% on bad days. No matter how you look at it, this car is easily going to get over 150 mpg in pretty much all conditions if it clocked in at 258 mpg in controlled conditions.
I mean do you really see a 50-100% error between the listed mpg and actual mpg when you buy a car?

Also, to everyone nay saying this car for safety reasons: just think of this as a motorcycle with better mpg and weather proofing. If you don't think motorcycles are safe, fair enough, it's your call, but it makes no sense for this car to be banned from US highways when motorcycles aren't.

NOW!

useless a lot of the time.

And have fun!

The passenger sits behind the driver.

It isn't a production car, and VW has no plans on producing it. It was a concept that VW did and it carries only 1L of gas.

but this one I'm not so sure about. It looks okay to drive around the neighborhood and for close-by errands with no need to drive on the freeway, but beyond that it doesn't look safe.

highways. At just under 65mph it would be the cause of accidents on highways where traffic is running at 70-80.

and the Carnot Cycle discarded

VW's 1 liter car was a concept car not meant for production. It only had a 1 liter fuel tank. Apparently they reconsidered it being concept-only and are now planning a limited production run for next year, hopefully with a bigger fuel tank.

Your linked article is somewhat bogus - I seriously doubt the car will cost $600, and it will probably sell in Europe, not Shanghai.

Here's some real information:

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/volkswagen-world/futures/1-litre-car

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_1-litre_car

http://gas2.org/2008/05/07/vw-confirms-1l-concept-will-become-reality-in-2010/

Still - it's pretty cool... hope they do bring it to the US.