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The prius is a status symbol for those unwilling to use other forms of transit or suffer the embarrassment of driving an old Geo Metro that gets better mileage than the prius. It's a perfect demonstration of the trends shown in the two charts featuring MPG on the x axis.

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Mon Jul 7th, 2008 at 02:06:10 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Let's not go completely overboard on the anti-technology argument. The Prius meets far greater pollution and safety standards, and is a much bigger car. From the Wikipedia, the MPG ratings of the 1989 Geo Metro and the 2008 Prius are:

"Geo Metro XFi engin combined a shorter duration cam, leaner fuel map, two ring pistons, and a higher final drive gear model to achieve 43 city, 51 highway per the revised 2007 EPA mileage standards."

"2008 Prius 48 mpg-U.S. (4.9 L/100 km / 57.7 mpg-imp) for city driving, 45 mpg-U.S. (5.23 L/100 km / 54 mpg-imp) for highway driving"

As I see it, there are three options:

1.) Reduced standard of living to support growing global popluation.
2.) Technology supporting growing population and standard of living.
3.) Reduced global population to support growing standard of living, either voluntarily or by the traditional methods of famine, disease, and war.

We are pursuing a mix of the first and second options, and Mother Nature is working out the details of how to implement the third. For some reason, the voluntary significant reduction of the global population is not approved for discussion.

by asdf on Mon Jul 7th, 2008 at 09:47:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]
FYI

Looks like you have imperial gallons there.

Which makes British vehicles look like miracles until you realize that an imperial gallon is a full fifth more than a US gallon.

So that 60 mpg using imperial gallons is only 48 mpg using US gallons.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Mon Jul 7th, 2008 at 01:22:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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