The car of the Future is almost here NOW!

[GeoFisher]

In most cities that do not have the infrastructure of public transport like a Chicago or New York I could see electric cars actually working for people who just want to drive to and from work everyday. If the cost of the cars were reasonable it could work. As far as replacing what we have now with any alternative fuel i don't see it happening. It will take a loooong time to replace what we have. Kinda like that big ship in the sea....gotta turn it slow and be patient and it will eventually turn.

If you think back when V8 muscle cars were the only thing around and then Japan pops up with these little no frills 4 cylinder donut tire having mini cars that were taboo to drive. Eventually people realized hey could work and sales took off. 6 cyclinders and more options on them also improved sales. The american 4 and 6 cylinder cars were around but the dependability at that point was suspect so again the Japanese car sales soared. Now look at us as a nation. Most families don't have an 8 cyclinder car unless they are into boating, fishing, contractor or hunting. If the auto makers make a good product that is affordable and meets our needs they get the sales.

Actually these foreign RUNT cars were introduced during crazy embargos. When American companies bitched that they were destroying their market, the GUBMENT stepped in and applied crazy import tarifs on the imported sub compacts. This should have guaranteed the American manufacturer had a foothold in AMERICA.

Guess what happened instead.......GM, FORD, AMC, and Chrysler raised the prices of THEIR vehicles to rape Americans even more, and presto chango, they price of a better made Foreign car and a piece of **** American made car was the same. I guess the Foreign made car won.........and is still winning.

Yep........GUBMENT and GREED created the foreign vehicle market in America.

Gotta Love it.

[Moveon]

Every car I have ever owned has been foreign but made in America. I'm still driving a Datsun/Nissan these days. I've had my truck for 28 years now and it's still going strong. Very little maintenance is required on these vehicles. I had a Datsun 240z as my first car. I had it for ten years before it was used to buy my next car. The third car I owned is the one I'm still driving. I like to keep my vehicles for as long as I can. As long as it gets me from point A to point B and hauls my boat I'm good.

Infrastructure was a problem back in the days when people rode horse and that didn't stop the model T from being sold to Americans.

Hydrogen is just as safe as Gasoline IMHO. There are ways to store the hydrogen fuel where it's as safe a storing gasoline in a gas tank. Remember the Pinto and it's exploding gas tanks?

And they make solar energy stations that can make Hydrogen out of water now. These use the sun to split the water molecule.

This will take off first in Japan which can easily put in the infrastructure. Since they learned the hard way that Nuclear Energy is big trouble they will go green before a lot of others. They are predicting that many American Manufactures will go with the Fuel Cell cars and most all of them area already playing around with the fuel cells in their cars.

But yes I have to agree with George that we will need to develop the infrastructure to make it work. But I think if we can put a man on the moon we can do this too.

But it' make take a while before American's buy fuel cell cars in mass.

Actually these foreign RUNT cars were introduced during crazy embargos. When American companies bitched that they were destroying their market, the GUBMENT stepped in and applied crazy import tarifs on the imported sub compacts. This should have guaranteed the American manufacturer had a foothold in AMERICA.

Guess what happened instead.......GM, FORD, AMC, and Chrysler raised the prices of THEIR vehicles to rape Americans even more, and presto chango, they price of a better made Foreign car and a piece of **** American made car was the same. I guess the Foreign made car won.........and is still winning.

Yep........GUBMENT and GREED created the foreign vehicle market in America.

Gotta Love it.

[HURRICANEBOB]

In the meanwhile, just for kicks, go drive a Ford CMAX Hybrid. Or even better, a CMAX Hybrid Energi that allows you to plug into 110 at off peak power time to charge the batteries, and drive 21 miles with no gas the next day.

They seat 4 adults ( 5 people total) with lots of head, leg, and shoulder room, they are quiet, peppy with power, and just darn fun to drive. A basic CMAX Hybrid SE runs in the $25k range, and Epa calls them at 43 mpg highway, and over 100 mpge (equivalent mpg) when you take a trip on a combination of electric motor and gas engine. My neighbor has a plug-in CMAX, commutes 7 miles to work each day, and has gone 4 weeks without using gas. Cost to charge it up each night after peak hours runs about $1.10 if the battery is less than half charged, and as little as $.45. Once you get home and plug it in, you can set the time charging occurs to be in off-peak electric cost savings hours.

Hydrogen will be a great turning point, but why wait decades to save gas money, save miles on the boat puller, when you can have a fun gas saver now as a second car for all the little errands, or weekend trips that would run the miles up on your favorite truck. JMHO

Just for grins, go drive one just for the experience. They are a blast.

[HURRICANEBOB]

Actually these foreign RUNT cars were introduced during crazy embargos. When American companies bitched that they were destroying their market, the GUBMENT stepped in and applied crazy import tarifs on the imported sub compacts. This should have guaranteed the American manufacturer had a foothold in AMERICA.

Guess what happened instead.......GM, FORD, AMC, and Chrysler raised the prices of THEIR vehicles to rape Americans even more, and presto chango, they price of a better made Foreign car and a piece of **** American made car was the same. I guess the Foreign made car won.........and is still winning.

Yep........GUBMENT and GREED created the foreign vehicle market in America.

Gotta Love it.

Agree that was in the 70's. But right now there are a few US automakers that are stealing market share from the foreign folks in big-time fashion. Ford is eating Honda and Toyota's lunch for total sales volume.