[SunRescue] OT: CA: It's Our Turn

[Chris Byrne]

At least we're sensible enough to have the same length of a mile as the rest
of the world ;-)

Honestly I do wish we were metric if only for the fact that it would make
life easier when dealing with the rest of the world. But 350 some years of
tradition dont get changed overnight.

Hell officially the UK has been metric for more than 20 years and still most
people I know of think of things in miles, pounds, and ounces. And how long
did it take to switch from shillings to new-pence?

And we in the US are a lot more stubborn about the government telling us
what to do. Under the Carter Presidency (jan 1977- jan 81) a law was passed
requiring all highway signs to be metric within five years. 20 years so far,
and very few metric signs out there.

Anyway US gasoline powered cars are gnerally as or more efficient than other
wolrd market cars of the same weight and transmission type. Unfortunately
most dirvers here have automatic transmissions, and relativley heavy light
trucks and SUV's are the most popular vehicles.

I personally drive a Saturn 1999 SC2M which weighs in at 2400 lbs, has a 1.9
liter I-4 outputting 124 hp (us sae rating, stock. SAE are a little lower
than DIN ratings used in europe)and a five speed manual transmission with
overdrive. I get between 24 and 32 miles per USG depending on how I drive,
and the local traffic conditions.

My wife on the other hand has a jeep Cherokee sport 2 door, which weighs
3300 lbs (very light for an SUV), has a 4.0 liter I-6 outputting 190hp, and
a four speed automatic with overdrive. She gets between 15 and 20 miles per
USG

So on a good day, I get twice the fuel economy of my wifes jeep.

The most gas guzzling stock vehicles sold today in the US are fullsize
"light" trucks and/or SUVs. The worst of them, the Ford Excursion, weighs
almost 7700 lbs and get around 7 miles per USG (officially they get
something like 10 mpg, but I know people who own them)

The most efficient gasoline powered vehicles sold here (not including
hybrids) get around 50 miles per USG, but can barely maintain highway speed.


Chris Byrne




-----Original Message-----
From: rescue-admin at sunhelp.org [mailto:rescue-admin at sunhelp.org]On
Behalf Of Peter Joules
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 13:56
To: rescue at sunhelp.org
Subject: RE: [SunRescue] OT: CA: It's Our Turn


On Tue, 3 Apr 2001, Chris Byrne wrote:

>
> the current exchange rate is about 1.44 USD to GBP, there are 3.785 liters
> in a US gallon, and the current price per liter in your area according to
> www.petrolbusters.com is under 80p a liter.
>

Apologies, I miscalculated in 2 directions.  First, I usually work by a
rule of thumb conversion at 1.60 USD/GBP  as it used to be fairly near to
that until fairly recently.  I also forgot that you only have 3.7 litres
to the gallon as we have 4.54.  I suppose that is one reason why American
cars always sound so uneconomical, after all even my bike only does 45
miles/US gallon.  Which leads me to ask... are there 1760 yards in an
American mile or is that different as well?

--
Regards
Pete

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