Driving has always had a rockin’ soundtrack, from the Beach Boys’ Little Daddy Deuce Coupe Took Her T-Bird Away to Steppenwolf’s Born to be Wild, or even Prince’s Little Red Corvette. But the future doesn’t sound so good, in fact it all seems to be getting a bit Simon and Garfunkelled, ie The Sound of Silence.
If the annual enormity of the Detroit Auto Show tells us anything this year, it is that petrol-powered cars have about as much future as George W Bush’s public-speaking career. Every car company worth its salt, and quite a few that aren’t worth even a pinch of salt in monetary terms, seems to have launched or proposed either hybrids or pure and simple electric cars.Now, I can see their thinking – no one is buying the cars they’ve currently got in showrooms, seemingly because petrol is more expensive than Brad Pitt’s sperm would be on the open market, so they’ve got to do something different. And electric cars may well be that future, but… God they’re dull. Indeed, electrickery cars are a lot like vacuum cleaners – you have to plug them in, and they suck. Unfortunately, compared to electric vehicles, vacuum cleaners make strident, exciting noises.
I’ve driven, against my will, a few hybrids from Japan in my time and when they’re running on battery power they make less noise than a dead man’s breathing. This is not just disconcerting – and deeply dangerous for pedestrians – but very, very boring. If you own a V8, go outside now and start it up, listen to that lustrous, hairy-chested sound, and then get ready to kiss it goodbye.
So, would you buy an electric car or, and I’ll need to clean my keyboard after typing this, a Honda Insight? Or worse, a Prius? And if so, why?
I’d drive an electric car. In fact, the sooner they get those petrol-guzzling dinosours off the road completely, the better,
Seriously, why are we paying for petrol?
Easy problem to solve, get a large subwoofer, record your favourite V8 burble/roar onto MP3 and connect the volume control of your overpowered stereo to the accelerator…
Next weeks lesson: making your Prius look like a Lambo with nothing else but cardboard and Gaffa tape.
You know, such systems are already available. I probably should have mentioned that, but really it’s the equivalent of sitting in crap car and making “brrrmm, brrrrrm” noises to yourself, isn’t it?
Will we ever give up internal combustion?
while they still sell oil. probably not.
We pay for petrol because we like the sound, smell and performance, and also the practicality.
I doubt i will ever stop hearing the sound of burning petrol compressed in cylinders in my lifetime.
You like the smell of petrol? You need to get out more, AntMan.
I much prefer the smell of burning rubber personally…
One of the blokes I work with brought in a CD to copy onto my ‘puter, so I could play it during work hours.
It consists of drag races, burnouts, and V8′s revving to the bejesus. It’s magnificent. But our workshop being next door to the Mudgee Muffler Man often means you don’t need a recording of a wicked exhaust on a ballsy V8.
(I am still getting over the Camry yesterday – yes, I said ‘Camry’ – that sounded like Victor Bray’s wildest dream. The apprentices were beside themselves with excitement & disbelief. Ha.)
An electric car? Nah. Not til they pry the petrol cap key out of my cold, dead hands…
A good friend of mine panicked when fuel went to $1.60 a litre a while ago and ran out a bought a honda civic hybrid for $38.000 WHAT – YEP 38 BIG ONES.
I have done the figures over and over but it still says buy a hyundai for a 3rd of the price and it still works out cheaper.
At the moment electric/hybrid cars are like the latest in any technology,people who are buying them now are paying the r and d costs – give it about 5 years and hybrids will be a lot cheaper (if you really want one)
Just in case your wondering – chew on this.
A standard 2.0 civic costs from $23k uses 5.9 to 6.9lt for 100ks – the hybrid costs over 10k more and uses 4.7 to 5.3lt for 100ks
(why would you ?)
Oh – and the prius is about the same comparison against a 1.6 corolla.
yOU KNOW THAT OVER 70% OF THE MODERMN CAR USES PETROLIUM PRODUCTS – bumpers door lineings all the rubber bits,electricals ETC ETC !!!!!!!!
No, make that either the 911 GT2′s noise, the SL55 AMG’s, F1, or what twin turbos attached to the Murcie LP640′s engine would sound like.
Here’s the way to do it… just buy a stuffed petrol car, rip out the mechanicals, and put in a 50 kW AC motor and controller, and a hefty set of brackets for your battery set.
You can go cheap with PB/Acid or high end with Lithium (which works out cheaper in the end). There ya go, follow the rules and double check your connections, you now have permanent motoring for 90% of your needs (well, up to 60 mph and 80 miles or so) and you’re no longer financing global warming or terrorism.
All for the cost of a Mondeo.
Simple.
Do batteries turn me on?
If inserted in the right gadget, sure.
annemarie that question was made for u! How is Spain treating you?
Spain’s not treating me at all because we haven’t moved yet, but we were there last week, looking for a house, and the old jamón ibérico hadn’t lost its appeal! All in all, I think it’ll be easier to live there than in Italy though, so my hopes are high.
We should fit right in once we’ve moved (mid-Feb, probably), as it looks like we’ll be driving Seats there. You may have heard that the German government is dishing out 2500 euros to anyone handing in his over-nine-year-old car for scrapping and buying a new one of a German manufacturer. With Seat basically being a Volkswagen, I’m looking at an Ibiza (old model)… Smelling-salts, anyone?
Seat or no seat, you’re a hottie. Not sure why the Germanic government would want to help , you being a Dutch person, leaving sunny Italy and heading for Spain but anyways, I’m learning not to argue so much. Golf anyone?
Learning not to argue so much, Little Bits? Good for you. It’s a vast improvement on your previous online persona. Keep it up. Pet.
The Germanic government is doing this because I have a German partner who bought his mum’s old hatchback Opel Astra (also known as: “green”) 4 years ago for 2000 euros, the main reason being we needed a vehicle to cart around two big dogs in case of holidays (which my man, being German, doesn’t do). If we tried to sell the Opel, we’d get no more for it than a kick in the butt off the car dealer’s premises, because it sincerely looks like it’s been carting around two big dogs for the last 4 years.
Now that mah man is going to sort out the Seat plant in Barcelona, we’ll have to drive Seats there – company policy, although they deviated from it when they started to work for Lamborghini, strangely enough. Not that a Lambo woulddav carried me two big dogs… But I would have at least tried!
Annemarie, you named your old car “green”? I named mine “Steve”.
Malibu, go and bite something.
If there was a Lambo on offer, I’d shoot the dogs. That’s quite amazing about the German government offer. Can’t see Rudd doing that for Holden or Ford.
Stephen you so would not shoot them! I think a doggy trailer would look awesome on a Lambo.
How hard could it be to fit a towbar?
(perhaps that’s a challenge for the boys?)
Stephen Corby, you DONT like the smell of petrol or burning rubber?? Why are you even on this site???
Pringa8, Mr Corby is here coz he’s the Editor of Top Gear and kind of a God to car folk(I meant that in a good way). I’m only saying this coz Mr Stephen is probably too polite or pissed to respond immediately to your sarcastic query. Oooops sorry Mr Corby, your turn. . . (Hey Corbs,see Vintage Cellars got a special on Asahi at the mom?!)
I like the smell of burning rubber all right, but sniffing petrol is, er, wrong. I know I don’t like the smell of disel, either, I drove one recently and it was foul. And yes, it’s annoying how my name just turns up like I’m one of the bloggerati, but I think it’s at the top as well. I also think “kind of a God” is a bit wrong. What are the words “kind of” doing in that post?
Little Bits, I don’t call my car green, it IS green. As in: “What kind of car do you have?” “A green one.” That’s how much I’m into cars.
Sadly, there was never a Lambo on offer when my guy’s company started working for them. They stopped implying the “All employees must drive the customer’s brand of car” policy when they were hired by Porsche.
Anyway, if there had been a Lambo on offer, I would’ve gladly prostituted myself for a convertible so that the doggies could’ve come along after all.
Malibu and Little Bits, be nice to each other for the unprintable’s sake. This is Stephen’s blog, not our home TGA Mates site. There are many other contributors here who may not understand you’re only kidding and really incestuously fond of each other.
I’ve owned a Prius for three years (I also hug trees, talk to them too). I’m all for having some sort of noise generator for those times when it’s not appropriate to scare the bejesus out of people by blowing your horn but you need to let them know you’re there. I’ve nearly killed cyclists several times when they’ve pulled out in front of me. The scariest, however, was a skateboarder obviously enjoying the great ride down a wonderful hill. I was well aware of him in front of me, but wasn’t expecting him to suddenly move from the side of the road into the middle. And he obviously didn’t know I was there because when he looked around I could see from his face he thought – no, knew – he was about to die.
Of course it would also make sense to educate cyclists, pedestrians, long boarders, etc. to use their eyes and not rely on their ears. After all, we have to do this as motorists.
How about a proximity sensor, like they’re trialling to proactively trigger ABs (as demonstrated on TG!) that turns on a fake car sound when something’s nearby. But keeps the car quiet the rest of the time.
Besides, I thought that these days the tyres made as much noise as the engines at steady speed…
Oh, and re “SilentButDeadly”s skateboarder – if a skateboarder relies on hearing approaching cars over the noise of his skateboard, he is not long for this life!
I would rather dip my head in acid than buy a hybrid or electric car.
“AAAAAAAARGH!!!! IT BURNS!!!! BUT AT LEAST I DON’T HAVE A PRIUS!!!!”
If you wanna go green, wait until the hydrogen fuel cell has fully evolved. Until then, stick with the glorious V8s.
CMC, you make a beautiful point, eloquently.
I live on a little laneway in an inner city suburb, where cars go zooming up and down too fast all day long. They get up to the corner and invariably slam their brakes on hard, before turning onto the main street.
Ohhh, it got me so annoyed, why can’t people just slow down a bit?!
Then one sunny day, it dawned on me that many of the ‘fast’ cars are driven by the local mechanic, doing brake-tests for rego inspections.
So I’ve stopped growling at the cars zooming up ‘my’ laneway. But the point is that you don’t hear the cars coming, they’re mostly modern european shiny things, and even a Porsche doesn’t make much noise. So I’ve learnt to look up and visually check if the laneway is clear before hopping across to the pub.
I liked a comment made on some crappy newspaper website the other day, about how pedestrians should be encouraged to use their eyes more. After all, that’s what car drivers are expected to do!
I could think of nothing worse than owning and driving a hybrid. I have to agree whole heartedly to CMC and add that they’re about as interesting as styrofoam as well.
It will be a sad day when the internal combustion engine dies out, and i feel sorry for that generation who will never hear the glorious sound of a beautiful V8 or straight six.
Just a minute… thought coming…
*insert sound of cogs slowly grinding*
Oh yeah, that’s right. Don’t cars have horns for a reason? To attract the attention of people who aren’t paying any?
well yeah nobody gets a kick out of driving a hybrid car
but in the next few years, petrol is going to be bloody expensive, and frankly, i’d rather spend my paychecks on other stuff.
apparently the americans have this sort of device, like a little speaker that makes the revving of a car.
its for the blind.
lol
pretty clever.
Can anyone imagine the punks and westies of ten years from now? Stuffing washing machine motors and deformed dvd recorders under Toyota Prius bonnets to create the new ultimate street sleepers? ‘Hey di*khead, let’s drag’ will (Still) be the war-cry, as they race off the lights, surge protector in one hand, **** in the other.
the petrol car is allmost dead i would not buy a new one because in a year or two it will be worth nothing but scrap metal.
If I had an electric car, I would like it to sound like George Jetsons’ bubble car. That’s how the future sounded in 1965, and it still sounds like the future in 2009.
If that isn’t enough to warn pedestrians, every electric car should have a man waving flags, walking in front of the vehicle, just like they did when cars were first invented.
The added bonus is that he could help push your car home when the batteries run out.
Now that you mention it… That Jetsons’ bubble car sound would be perfect! When there is a car which is almost as cheap to run as my bicycle I’ll buy it. For now, I use a hybrid-ized mountain bike, with electric assist for short trips, and I use the family 1.6L 1996 Corolla Hatch-back for long trips.
Canberra Readers idea = Full of win.
Electric, ethanol, nuclear (?) etc powered transport are all working on the assumption that crude oil, meaning petrol, is not available. In simple terms, no crude oil = no mineral oil based refined lubricants. Unless someone can inform us about commercially available auto lubricant alternatives (at reasonable $$), that can withstand the rigours of driving with whatever power source, all of these alternate vehicles will simply seize up. A pointless argument therefore of whether we will drive hybrid, electric, or anything else powering cars. A point for Captain Slow & car manufacturers to research, if they haven’t already and just failing to tell us.
The excellent and duly message.