In a British car magazine about 15 years ago a journalist was test driving a restored 500 Abarth and said it was "like driving a bucket-full of spiders!" He had to bring the revs up to 4000 and pop the clutch to get it going from a stand-still otherwise he would kill the engine. He said he felt silly driving such a car around town but was grinning from ear to ear the entire time. It was a hand full. It must have been the SS!
Fiat's response to their cars quickly succumbing to rust was "Buy another one!"
I knew that. I just brought up the old one for fun. I think Fiat would fare much better in North America today than it did in the '70's. If they could over-come the reputation of poor reliability and rust-proofing. Always fun cars to drive, though.
My wife has a 2000 Toyota Sienna with about 68,000 miles on it, it'll keep running for years. It's paid off.
I am not given to believing everything that David E. Kelley puts into his scripts, but one episode of Boston Legal did get me thinking about this, when one of the lawyers argued that hybrids aren't as green as everyone thinks once you factor in the environmental impact of the manufacture of the batteries, in particular the nickel that goes into them.
What speed is "at that speed"? That's a humorous clip, but devoid of real information. No small car gets 17 mpg driven at anything reasonable. My 4-cy 1993 Escort got 38-42 mpg at highway speeds (65-75). My Accord V6 gets 30-32 mpg at highway speeds. The Prius is rated at 42 mpg at "Highway" driving. Their results are nonsensical.
While factually valid -- driving affects mileage -- it's an intentionally misleading and disingenuous comparison. No one gets 17 mpg from a Prius, especially on the highway. You have to go out of your way to find a driving style that results in that poor of mileage from any modern sedan, highway or no, let alone the most efficient hybrid on the roads.
