Comparing three efficient hybrid cars from Toyota and Ford

| March 1, 2013

An automotive enthusiast friend of mine, Wayne Gerdes, is a noted “hypermiler” and posted a well documented write-up comparing three of the top selling hybrid cars for a CleanMPG report. His efficiently conclusion is about what my gut would have told me when looking at the car profiles in his photo above … Toyota Prius […]

How long before all cars are hybrids?

| December 24, 2012

After catching up on a bit of automotive reading, I realized that improvements propulsion for cars is moving us toward hybrid vehicles and that there will come a day when “almost” all our day to day vehicles will have some sort of hybrid drive … be they battery electric or some other booster technology. Mentioning […]

Stylish design highlights the 2012 Ford Focus EV

| November 3, 2011

I’m at traditionalist when it comes to cars and am attracted to the rumble of an internal combustion engine and tactile sensation of shifting gears, preferably manual. But the world is changing and new cars have sophisticated automatics or are going gearless (CVTs) … and expect more and more cars with tiny engines to include […]

Testing the WebM video embed

| April 14, 2011

Testing an embed after encoding a HTML5 WebM video of the JFK Airport Airbus A380 spinning a CRJ700 commuter jet. EDIT 4/16/2011: Uninstalled the WordPress plug in as it messed up all my previous audio and video embeds. Waiting for more universal acceptance and less intrusive plug in. EDIT AGAIN 4/29/2011: After the uninstall I’m […]

Toyota Prius v looks like an impressive family hybrid vehicle

| March 11, 2011

Truth be told, I could see myself driving the 2012 Toyota Prius v (Versatility) … but don’t tell any of my Volkswagen TDI diesel friends!   42 MPG City, 38 MPG Highway, 40 MPG Combined Second row seats slide, fold flat, and recline 45 degrees for comfort 34.3 cubic feet of cargo volume First-ever resin […]

What engine/fuel option will you consider for your next car?

| September 15, 2010

Earlier this month, the folks at TFLcar ran a non-scientific test where they compared three different fueling options in three different cars. All three vehicles are known to offer good fuel economy … but only one is fun to drive. 🙂 Unfortunately, the test doesn’t offer any high degree of accuracy due to the small […]

Volkswagen Jetta TDI meets the Toyota Prius ad

| May 27, 2009

I’ve been wanting to include this Volkswagen Jetta TDI ‘clean diesel‘  television commercial for a few weeks now —  the “What’s your hybrid sound like?” answer makes me smile every time.

The VW Jetta TDI or the popular Toyota Prius

| March 2, 2009

In my circle of diesel loving friends I have rarely heard that people have difficulty in deciding between the well equipped 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI or 2009 Toyota Prius, but that isn’t always the case for those listening to all the media hype praising hybrid cars.  In case you are one of the few looking […]

Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

  1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
  2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.
My Desultory Blog