Alpinestarhero

I share your sentiments there. I too have found many prius drivers to be arrogant and unreasonable road users, often driving with more blinkers than your average caged monkey and they seem to be profoundly deaf too (they dont seem to hear when I am alongside...)

I had a conversation with maria a while back, arguing the point that the amount of energy it must take to create a prius must be more than for the average car; I also figured that it is far more energy-saving to maintain your 5 year old yaris than for toyota to make you a new prius

I'm all for energy saving, but I think its small changes (like not taking short journeys in the car as said in the OP...I know many people who will drive rahter than do the same journey, on foot, and take 10 mins instead of 2 mins) that will help reduce our emissions. keeping a vehicle well serviced and maintained will also help reduce emissions. I like the technology being peddled by BMW and VW, incorporating low-friction materials and other things to get a good efficent vehicle.

As a side-discussion, motorcycles - whilst somewhat efficent, have a long way to go to match the efficiency of a car. Our oil needs changing more frequently, for the engine size we use alot of fuel, our tyres don't last as long. I was wondering how possible it would be to have direct injection motorcycle petrol engines, as this can improve efficiency. 2-stroke engines lend themselves to this wonderfully...the orbital 2-stroke engine is really efficient and realyl clean. I just wonder when the technology will be applied to the manufacture of large capacity engines

matt