Hybrids a waste of money??

[Wizzo]

Nearly £1million of public money is being “wasted” by the Govern­ment on hybrid vehicles, it was claimed this week.

Campaign group the TaxPayers’ Alliance says such “green token­ism” has little environ­mental benefit, and the Govern­ment could save £888,000 by switching its 110 hybrids to 1.4-litre petrol Ford Focus cars.

According to the TPA’s figures, the dual-power Toyota Prius is £8,555 more than the Ford and the Honda Civic Hybrid £4,163 extra. Both cars are on the fleet. Policy analyst Matthew Sinclair said: “The money would be better spent on planting trees. There’s only a marginal difference in carbon emis­sions saved from switching to hybrids. But trees breathe in 730kg of carbon dioxide over a lifetime.”

The TPA said the money saved by switching to the Focus could buy 74,028 trees, which would remove more than 54 million kilogrammes of CO2 from the air. Sinclair added: “You would have to drive a hybrid car nearly six million miles before the carbon saving would equal that achieved by planting these trees.”

[Chameleon]

The TPA is obviously a bunch of morons. Trees take in carbon dioxide during the day and release it again during the night.  And that's apart from the fact that they haven't factored in the cost of repairing the Ford Focuses every time someone drives one.  They're not called Fix Or Repair Daily for nothing, you know. 

[johnbull]

The TPA is obviously a bunch of morons. Trees take in carbon dioxide during the day and release it again during the night.  And that's apart from the fact that they haven't factored in the cost of repairing the Ford Focuses every time someone drives one.  They're not called Fix Or Repair Daily for nothing, you know. 

I hadn't heard that one before.

[cosworth151]

Having owned Fords all my life (I have several at this time) I found out long ago that Ford stands for First On Race Day!

[Chameleon]

We had a Ford Focus until recently (not my choice - I deny all responsibility, having sworn off Fords after my first and last one thirty years ago).  This is an incomplete list of the things that went wrong with it:

The key stuck in the ignition and refused to come out.  This is apparently endemic in the model but the dealer denied it and failed to fix it.

The right wing mirror fell off.

The interior mirror fell off.

One of the rear doors started flying open while the car was moving.  This stopped when the door finally refused to open at all.

The other rear door tried not opening but became bored with that and then started refusing to shut once open.

The glove compartment handle came off in my wife's hand.

Sometimes it would refuse to go into Park.

The final straw was when the steering started locking if you drove through a puddle.  We decided then that it was a death trap.

Ford make good engines but do not understand that a car should last longer than six months before bits start to fall off it.  It is no wonder that they are in deep financial trouble at the moment.  If you want a free Ford Focus, keep following them and pick up the pieces as they drop off.  Eventually you will have enough to assemble a complete car.

I give no guarantees as to how long it will last, however. 

[romephius]

I am a proud Ford Focus owner, I have driven almost 80,000km in 3 years.  I have only had 2 problems with this car.

1. the cd player stopped playing cd's, Ford replaced it immediately at no cost.
2. the catalytic converter broke a filter.....warranty.

Other than those 2 things this car has been a dream to drive.  My previous car was a Holden (Vauxhal (I think that is right)) and it was never fixed properly, everytime it rained the damn thing would misfire....

that's my 2 cents worth.

Rom

[johnbull]

The only Fords i've had have been work horses. Ford Transits. We have a company one that's used daily, sleeps out, gets just minimum maintenance - oil and filters etc.

I have to say that the last 2 Transits I have had have been absolutely first class. My first was a Mk 1 with 2.4 V4 petrol engine. I bought it in UK with 96000 miles on the clock, drove it across the continent to Malta in 48 hours non stop, loaded, then ran it here for many years before retiring it.

My next one I bought new in 96 so it's now 11 years old. Used daily to distribute DUNLOP tyres all over the island, used weekends either with model car stuff to race meetings or towing a trailer with racing car. In 11 years it's had 3 sets of tyres, 2 batteries and a new brake master cylinder. Other than that just straightforward servicing. Oh yes, and I recently changed a couple of door locks as the central locking WASN'T !

As this one's getting a bit tired now, I'm looking at getting a new works van but have heard so many horror stories with modern Transits that I'm looking elsewhere.

[Chameleon]

Okay, so I got a Friday car.  It happens.  Funny how it happened to me twice and they were both Fords... 

[Ian]

I've had 3 Fords and had no problems at all, liked them all as well

[cosworth151]

I've got a 2 year old E-150 van with 170,000 miles on it. The only problem I had was when the sidewall blew out of the left rear tire while I was doing about 85 mph up I-35W south of Dallas. The van was only a few months old. Michelin replaced all 5 tires free of charge.

[Dare]

I've got a 2 year old E-150 van with 170,000 miles on it. The only problem I had was when the sidewall blew out of the left rear tire while I was doing about 85 mph up I-35W south of Dallas. The van was only a few months old. Michelin replaced all 5 tires free of charge.

see,Michelin was right about Indy

I've got Michelins on my Ford 150 work truck
and their the best tires I've ever owned.

Ford 150 pickup ain't bad either

[johnbull]

EEErrrr........can I put in some
DUNLOP
advertising here.