It's not meant as a direct comparison in class. It's a comparison of what was selling then vs what is selling now. Gas guzzling SUV vs gas sipping economy car and also the increasing acceptance of hybrid technology. An up and coming vs a has been.

Not Toyota vs Ford or whatever. It could have been X hybrid vs Explorer. Perhaps soon I can post the Escape Hybrid sales top Explorer.

Mike

 

I understand what your saying Mike..But the bottom line is Hybrid is not in the same class as a gas guzzling SUV..

But the Hybrid Escape would be worth talking about and maybe it would be nice if you did a thread on that...

 

It shows where the market is heading and where Ford needs to look.

I'd love to do a thread on Hybrid Escapes having great sales, and believe me I will when the time comes. They are up, which is good.

Off topic-I am a Ford fan, but right now they have very little to brag about. The 08 SD and Escape Hybrid is about all I have right now. FWIW, I'm also a die hard Bengals fan.

Mike

 

The Hybrid Escape is so popular we can not even get them where we live..

And one good piece advice I can say here is like the 08 Super Duty or anything new like that comes out..I stay away from until they work out all the bugs... Same goes for any product out there.

 

Heck with the hybrids or the rice rockets...My F150 gets about 8-13 miles per gallon, and if I have to get a second job to keep rolling, I will!

 

Amen to that brother....

 

i work for a car dealer 9 franchises and small cars are NOT selling like you all might think. suvs and trucks still seem to draw the most attention while small cars draw the least.the hybrids are starting to draw alot but the yuppies seem to be the buyers because it is cool not due to the savings go figure!!
jim

 

From what I have read the Hybrids are great when you do a lot of stop and go driving. When you go out on the highway, they pretty much drain all of the batteries (no stopping or slowing, no batt recharge) so you get the same economy of a regular gasser. Am I correct?
Anyway I just bought a VW Jetta which get 30 mpg, rides good, handles good, and is fun to drive. It also doesn't contain thousands of dollars worth of batteries that are supposed to eventually go bad.

 

I have a 2003 Explorer and get 20mpg and just enough room to carry my cargo for my work

 

You are pretty much correct. Hybrids ( Escape anyways ) really shine in the city with the stop and go driving. You have to be pretty gentle on the go pedal to keep the gas motor from kicking in though. ( when accelerating ). The electric motor is good to about 35 mph and then back to the gas motor.

As for draining the batteries on the highway, I'm not too sure about that. I didn't have our Escape ( work vehicle ) out on the highway for an extended period of time.

I know on the highway they do get the same economy than the gassers. Maybe even alittle less with the CVT ( I think it's called that ) transmission.
It revs at 2300 ish @ 60 mph.

 

And wait until they replace the Batteries and where would the savings be there..

And not to mention the fact of the waste fee on those batteries...

 

So what is wrong with saving gas?

 

What are the dangers of the batteries in a major crash and even to the enviroment if they rupture??

 

Depends, I don't think NiMH is that bad, but if they are lithium batteries, it could be disasterous, the whole car would go up in a giant fireball of toxic fumes.

 

From what I have heard that they are the Firefighters nightmare..I was told that like 2 yearsago and I do not know if that has changed...


Nice question I liked it..