Cash For Clunkers Success?

Cash for clunkers is a government program subsidizing the trade-in of a "clunker" for a car that get at least 10mpg mileage than the clunker. It was wildly popular and ran out of money in a week.

I'm not sure how this is different from bailing out the car industry or giving people some stimulus money back or cutting taxes.

I guess the most valuable aspect is that the government is changing the market demand for more fuel efficient cars and therefor influencing the future of the industry. In that sense, it is better than loaning car companies money and stipulating that they make more fuel efficient low emissions cars.

A free marketer might disapprove since the government is meddling, but since the government is not giving money to any individual companies thereby picking winners and losers, there haven't been a lot of objections from raging capitalists.

Better Place

Here's an interesting company working on transitioning to electric vehicles.

People at Better Place are thinking up solutions for battery charging stations or battery swapping and software for cars to make it easy and natural to save energy while driving.

BYD E6 Electric Car

BYD is a Chinese battery company, and they made a car. Seems awesome. It could be sold in Europe by 2010.

So far, all we know is that the E6 will be a 5 seater with an acceleration of 0 to 100 kph of around 10 seconds. Top speed should be top speed of 160 kph (100 mph), and the battery pack, which is located under the rear passenger seats, will be based on BYD's own lithium-ion iron phosphate technology. Range per charge is expected to be 300 km (186 miles).

But most impressive of all:

"BYD projected the battery had a life of 2,000 cycles, for a lifetime range of about 600,000 km (373,000 miles)"

Wow! Even if thats just half true, it's still pretty good.

Next Generation Cars

I thought I'd do an overview of people and projects related to cars.

We took the WTP girls to the Media Lab today for a tour. We looked at the Smart Cities Group's City Car. They have a "robot" electric car, which can be steered by joystick or whatever controller you want, really. This brings up interesting issues with putting limitations on what a user should be allowed to do in the interest of safety. Anyway,

I was surfing for other projects related to cars, and there's this other group that is working on a fully automatic steering vehicle in CSAIL. They competed and did ok in the DARPA Urban Challenge. They got beat out by Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and Virgina Tech. Tsk tsk.

Honda Fit!

my new car came in. it's awesome!!! and i got a great color, too. it turns out that "tidewater blue" is a strange color that looks different depending on the lighting. when i first saw it, i thought it looked light purple or lavender. other times it looks really really blue. when it's dusk, it looks like it's just silver. it's awesome.

Car Insurance

I went to Herb Chamber's Honda dealership yesterday and bought a Honda Fit Sport. Hooray. I don't actually have it, yet, though. I need to get car insurance first. I think I am getting car insurance from Progressive at about $800/year.

I just wanted to share with everyone some things I'm learning about car insurance from
www.dmv.org

First of all, apparently, as of April 2008, all car insurance rates in MA were about the same because they were regulated. Now there is "managed competition."

Second, here is a glossary of car insurance jargon.

Property damage liability: This coverage pays for any damage that you cause to other people's property. Your insurance will cover this damage whether you are the driver, or if someone else was operating your vehicle with your permission.

Bodily injury liability: This insurance coverage protects you against the claims for damages in an accident in which other people are injured. Most states have minimum dollar amounts for bodily injury coverage, but this limit might be fairly low. You might want to consider purchasing additional coverage.

Uninsured motorist: This coverage takes the place of the insurance coverage that the uninsured motorist should have had in effect. This may also cover you in the event that you are involved in a hit-and-run accident caused by a fleeing motorist. Uninsured motorist coverage does not protect the other driver and may not cover damage to your vehicle, depending on your state. It will compensate you for medical expenses and other losses related to your injuries if you're involved in an accident with a motorist who does not have insurance.

Personal injury protection (PIP): Under the no-fault system, this coverage will pay a minimum benefit amount per person for you and your passengers for injuries sustained in an accident regardless of who is at fault. Typical personal injury protection coverage can include things like lost wages, medical expenses, funeral expenses and survivors loss benefits.

Collision and comprehensive: Collision coverage, as the name implies, covers damage to your car. It pays the cost of repairing or replacing your car after it has been involved in an accident regardless of who was at fault. The insurance company will pay you the actual cash market value of your vehicle less the amount of your deductible.

Comprehensive covers damage caused by something other than a collision, such as theft, fire, vandalism or a natural or weather-related event. Comprehensive coverage will also pay for a rental car while your car is being repaired or if it has been stolen.

Medical payments coverage: This is usually an optional product, which pays for the medical or funeral expenses for you and for the other parties who might have been injured or killed in an accident while riding in your vehicle. This coverage will also cover these expenses if you are struck by another motor vehicle while you are a pedestrian or even riding in another motor vehicle as a passenger.

I've Decided

The Fit is Go!



We went car shopping today at a Honda dealership and a Toyota dealership, and I've decided I want to get a Honda Fit. It is a well-designed car, and I like how it drives since it is similar to my old car, which was a Honda Civic. I almost crashed into somebody during the test drive, though, but our salesman was quick to point out that the other car ran a stop sign. And I guess it was good to test the brakes. It does have a tougher time with a full load, but it was really not that bad. Toby's dad knows a lot about cars and he was helping us with our decision. He came away very impressed with the Honda Fit in terms of what you get for the price.

I may have gotten a Prius, actually, but there was a 2-4 month waiting list. That made my decision easier. We also looked the Yaris, which is either 2-door hatchback or 4 door sedan. It was ok, but in general did not seem as well-designed as the Honda Fit. It had much less space, Toby said its visibility did not seem as good, and in general, I am just more used to and comfortable with Hondas.

I am not sure what color I should get. I am trying to decide between red and "tidewater" blue, which is kind of blue-silver.

Honda Fit vs. Toyota Prius

Toyota Prius


Honda Fit

It's about $15k and mileage is 28/34 mpg

The Prius is also good, at around $22k,48/45 mpg

I'm going to be driving around 40mi/day

40mi/day*1/30mpg = 1.33gal * 4 = $5.33/day
40mi/day*1/46mpg = .87gal * 4 = $3.75/day

$1945.45/year for gas
$1368.75/year for gas

These are conservative estimates for how much I'll be spending on gas since I'll actually get driving more than 40mi/day. So I will probably try to get a Prius if I can, but Honda Fit would be good, too.