xcel
09-06-2006, 02:59 AM
Sadly, the entire American fleet is stuck in the harbor on this one. (http://www.texarkanagazette.com/articles/2006/09/02/local_news/features/features01.txt)
Bill Owney - Texarkana Gazette - Sept. 2, 2006
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/2007_TCH.jpg
2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid is tough competition for the domestics.
Note to GM, Ford, and Chrysler: You’re toast.
The American automakers this week looked down, scuffed their collective shoe on the floor and finally admitted that, um, the days of cheap gas really are in the past.
The only surprise here is the length of Detroit’s fantastic journey through the land of denial. It included countless sunny proclamations that all would be well with a product mix that relies heavily on hefty profit margins from beefy pickups and sport utilities, and sub rosa attacks on the algorithms used to compute the value of hybrid technology.
It was Chrysler chief executive Thomas W. LaSorda who nailed the bill of particulars on the church door, letting it slip that internal marketing analysis puts the price of gas in the $3 to $4 range for the auto industry’s foreseeable future-the next decade.
Every bit as shocked as Claude Rains’ Captain Renault, the New York Times checked in with Ford’s marketing guru, George Pipas, who confirmed that the Big Oval also expects gas prices to remain “high, volatile and unpredictable.”
It’s impossible to state how big a deal this is. It takes three to five years to design, engineer and tool up factories to build a new product. Chrysler at the moment has 75 percent of its product mix in Jeeps, light trucks and minivans. It would be easier to flip a 180 with an oil tanker on State Line Avenue than to turn Chrysler’s ship.
Sadly, the entire American fleet is stuck in the harbor on this one. Anchored to their big-iron strategy, the big three are watching sales-and market share-nosedive this year while Honda, Nissan and especially Toyota set new sales records with lighter, sophisticated cars.
While Detroit fiddles with even developing hybrid gas-electric cars, Honda and Toyota have had them on the American street for half a decade. Not only do they sell everyone they build, but every iteration is exponentially better than the one it preceded.
Case in point, the 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid, which has to be the best $25,900 car in the history of the universe.
We recently drove one for a week, in which we put on nearly 500 miles, added not one drop of gasoline to the 17.1-gallon tank and thoroughly enjoyed every mile we drove.
This is an attractive, whisper-quiet, powerful, nice-driving, great-riding automobile.
If Ford had a car like this in its lineup, or even in its near future, Chairman William Clay Ford could stop looking like a deer caught in a Hummer’s headlights. (Ford last year pledged his company would build 25 percent of its products with hybrid technology. At the end of the year, he dropped the idea. Last month he announced massive layoffs and plant closings as part of Ford’s “Way Forward.”)
In the meantime, Japanese carmakers are expanding production capacity in the U.S. Toyota produces 10 vehicles in North America, including the Avalon, Camry, Corolla, Matrix, Sienna, Solara, Sequoia, Tacoma, Tundra and the Lexus RX 330. By 2008, Toyota will have the annual capacity to build about 2 million cars and trucks, 1.44 million engines and 600,000 automatic transmissions in North America. Toyota will have North American annual production capacity of about 2 million cars and trucks by 2008.
Plenty of critiques have been offered on the topic of whether or not hybrids actually deliver their promised fuel economy. The EPA estimates the new Camry gets 38 mpg on the highway and 39 mpg in town. Our tester got every bit of that, despite some lead-foot driving from you-know-who.
I also slowed it down because it becomes quite interesting to watch the drive train monitoring system—the only way you can tell whether the gas engine, electric motor, or both, are powering the car. It became a game to see how far I could travel on electric power alone. I regularly hit distances of four or five miles at speeds up to 30 mph.
Gas power comes from a 2.4-liter four-cylinder Atkinson-cycle engine that generates 147 hp and is coupled to a continuously variable transmission. The second half of the Hybrid Synergy Drive equation consists of a small, high torque electric motor that produces 40 horsepower.
Anytime the vehicle coasts or slows, the electric inverter recaptures the energy and charges up the system’s batteries. Toyota is so sure of the durability of the system it puts an 8-year, 100,000 mile warranty on the hybrid system components.
Camry Hybrid comes with a long list of standard features. These include a tire-pressure monitor system, halogen headlamps with automatic on/off, a premium JBL audio system with an audio auxiliary jack and Bluetooth¨ technology, cruise control, a tilt and telescopic steering wheel, an eight-way-adjustable power driver's seat, a 60/40 split fold-down rear seat, 16-inch aluminum wheels, heated outside rear-view mirrors, dual-zone automatic climate control heating and air conditioning with a Plasmacluster ionizer, micro dust and pollen filter.
Afternoon temperatures topped 100 degrees the week we tested the car, but it stayed cool inside, even when the gas engine was off.
Air-conditioning and power-steering systems are driven electrically, rather than by the engine.
A federal hybrid income tax credit of $2,600 is available for Camry Hybrids purchased through September 2006, but in the long run, that’s small change. How much better would your budget look if your gasoline bill was cut in half?
Bill Owney - Texarkana Gazette - Sept. 2, 2006
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/2007_TCH.jpg
2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid is tough competition for the domestics.
Note to GM, Ford, and Chrysler: You’re toast.
The American automakers this week looked down, scuffed their collective shoe on the floor and finally admitted that, um, the days of cheap gas really are in the past.
The only surprise here is the length of Detroit’s fantastic journey through the land of denial. It included countless sunny proclamations that all would be well with a product mix that relies heavily on hefty profit margins from beefy pickups and sport utilities, and sub rosa attacks on the algorithms used to compute the value of hybrid technology.
It was Chrysler chief executive Thomas W. LaSorda who nailed the bill of particulars on the church door, letting it slip that internal marketing analysis puts the price of gas in the $3 to $4 range for the auto industry’s foreseeable future-the next decade.
Every bit as shocked as Claude Rains’ Captain Renault, the New York Times checked in with Ford’s marketing guru, George Pipas, who confirmed that the Big Oval also expects gas prices to remain “high, volatile and unpredictable.”
It’s impossible to state how big a deal this is. It takes three to five years to design, engineer and tool up factories to build a new product. Chrysler at the moment has 75 percent of its product mix in Jeeps, light trucks and minivans. It would be easier to flip a 180 with an oil tanker on State Line Avenue than to turn Chrysler’s ship.
Sadly, the entire American fleet is stuck in the harbor on this one. Anchored to their big-iron strategy, the big three are watching sales-and market share-nosedive this year while Honda, Nissan and especially Toyota set new sales records with lighter, sophisticated cars.
While Detroit fiddles with even developing hybrid gas-electric cars, Honda and Toyota have had them on the American street for half a decade. Not only do they sell everyone they build, but every iteration is exponentially better than the one it preceded.
Case in point, the 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid, which has to be the best $25,900 car in the history of the universe.
We recently drove one for a week, in which we put on nearly 500 miles, added not one drop of gasoline to the 17.1-gallon tank and thoroughly enjoyed every mile we drove.
This is an attractive, whisper-quiet, powerful, nice-driving, great-riding automobile.
If Ford had a car like this in its lineup, or even in its near future, Chairman William Clay Ford could stop looking like a deer caught in a Hummer’s headlights. (Ford last year pledged his company would build 25 percent of its products with hybrid technology. At the end of the year, he dropped the idea. Last month he announced massive layoffs and plant closings as part of Ford’s “Way Forward.”)
In the meantime, Japanese carmakers are expanding production capacity in the U.S. Toyota produces 10 vehicles in North America, including the Avalon, Camry, Corolla, Matrix, Sienna, Solara, Sequoia, Tacoma, Tundra and the Lexus RX 330. By 2008, Toyota will have the annual capacity to build about 2 million cars and trucks, 1.44 million engines and 600,000 automatic transmissions in North America. Toyota will have North American annual production capacity of about 2 million cars and trucks by 2008.
Plenty of critiques have been offered on the topic of whether or not hybrids actually deliver their promised fuel economy. The EPA estimates the new Camry gets 38 mpg on the highway and 39 mpg in town. Our tester got every bit of that, despite some lead-foot driving from you-know-who.
I also slowed it down because it becomes quite interesting to watch the drive train monitoring system—the only way you can tell whether the gas engine, electric motor, or both, are powering the car. It became a game to see how far I could travel on electric power alone. I regularly hit distances of four or five miles at speeds up to 30 mph.
Gas power comes from a 2.4-liter four-cylinder Atkinson-cycle engine that generates 147 hp and is coupled to a continuously variable transmission. The second half of the Hybrid Synergy Drive equation consists of a small, high torque electric motor that produces 40 horsepower.
Anytime the vehicle coasts or slows, the electric inverter recaptures the energy and charges up the system’s batteries. Toyota is so sure of the durability of the system it puts an 8-year, 100,000 mile warranty on the hybrid system components.
Camry Hybrid comes with a long list of standard features. These include a tire-pressure monitor system, halogen headlamps with automatic on/off, a premium JBL audio system with an audio auxiliary jack and Bluetooth¨ technology, cruise control, a tilt and telescopic steering wheel, an eight-way-adjustable power driver's seat, a 60/40 split fold-down rear seat, 16-inch aluminum wheels, heated outside rear-view mirrors, dual-zone automatic climate control heating and air conditioning with a Plasmacluster ionizer, micro dust and pollen filter.
Afternoon temperatures topped 100 degrees the week we tested the car, but it stayed cool inside, even when the gas engine was off.
Air-conditioning and power-steering systems are driven electrically, rather than by the engine.
A federal hybrid income tax credit of $2,600 is available for Camry Hybrids purchased through September 2006, but in the long run, that’s small change. How much better would your budget look if your gasoline bill was cut in half?