Joe Handley

I'm guessing my plan of; 1. Aim Jeep at living dead 2. Bury tall skinny pedal in floormat 3. Hope they don't take out my radiator on the way through the hordes may be slightly insufficent

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20090428/CARNEWS/904289981 Ford Fusion hybrid hypermiles to 81.5 mpg By GREG MIGLIORE A picture of This 2010 Ford Fusion cranked out 81.5 mpg. This 2010 Ford Fusion cranked out 81.5 mpg. FordThe 2010 Ford Fusion hybrid gets up to 41 mpg--officially. But with a little effort, you can easily double that. That’s what a team of Ford engineers, a hypermiling legend and NASCAR star Carl Edwards managed to pull off this week, registering an average of 81.5 mpg in a 1,445.7-mile journey designed to show off the eco prowess of the new hybrid sedan. The crew left Mount Vernon, Va., on Saturday morning and finished on the George Washington Parkway in Washington, running out of gas just before dawn. They clicked off the 1,000-mile mark--the original goal-- Monday morning, with Edwards at the wheel. The EPA has rated the Fusion hybrid at 41 mpg in the city and 36 on the highway, besting other hybrids including the Toyota Camry. By using hypermiling techniques, such as accelerating smoothly and coasting to red lights, the Fusion drivers were able to considerably increase the car’s fuel economy. Its official estimated range is 700 miles on a tank of gas, which the hypermilers doubled. The car was not modified and drove around Washington nearly continuously for 69 hours. The drivers had hoped to get 57 mpg, but were able to easily better that. Other mileage tricks included closing the windows to reduce drag, shutting off the heater and air conditioner to cut the strain on the engine, and using momentum to help carry the car up and down hills. They broke up the drive into two- and three-hour stints. Edwards, fresh off a dramatic crash Sunday at Talladega that saw his No. 99 car get airborne, said he was excited to be a part of the drive. He noted that he owns a Fusion hybrid. Hypermiler Wayne Gerdes also was part of the team, which raised $8,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. To read more visit the AutoWeek New car news, road tests, blogs, pix and expert insight section. This article was last updated on: 04/28/09, 15:37 et

Only if a shetland pony can get lost in it

I don't know, 300hp, 320ft/lbs, 5 sec 0-60, and get's 25 on the highway sounds pretty good to me I'd just hope that I wouldn't have black and white sedans following and waiting for me to do something stupid...........................

You know I've owned 80's and 90's Chrysler products and have good luck with them, and when problems have arose, it's been because they've been 100k+ mile cars in a rustbelt climate that have been run hard. My current Cherokee currently has 127k on it and have had few quality problems with it, but nothing bad, my sister regularly ran her's low on oil, overheated it so bad that it stalled and the dang thing still ran after the waterpump and serpntine belt were replaced ans she still had over 200k on it when she bought her '06 Charger. Our father ran 2 Cherokee's over 200k as Maintenence of Way management (track repair) at a local railroad and those trucks were run hard on and off road and could do more in 2wd wiht high mileage than most anything else the road and his co-workers owned, especially those darn deathtrap TTB front/Solid Axle rear Explorers. Then I start reading about how Toyota has to buy back their Tacoma's and early Tundra's because the frames are rotting away and breaking in half, their appliance car engines that sludge up and throw parts out of the block within 50k, the first year FJ Cruisers that were having the front sheetmetal breaking if they were run off road in conditions that wouldn't give a high mileage unibody Jeep problems and I really have to wonder if Toyota is worth the extra money when if they have problems, it's big problems, not relatively minor stuff, but that's just me.

That's what I though Zuk If you get a chance, check out the movie, it's pretty good.

Didn't think the flag was a problem here......

I'm not suprised that the Cayenne sells well, I see them around here all the time, if it's priced right that 5 door should do really well for them too. Actually, I've kinda dug sporty 5 door sedans like that ever since I had that Lebaron GTS........even though that one is way over what that little Chrysler was.

I've been thinking the same about Chrysler since Dahlmer sold them off. They, under Dahlmers watch, killed the Neon and replaced it with the Caliber that really isn't all that great of a replacement for that or the PT Cruiser. Now they're talking about Chrysler not having an efficent car and needing to join with Fiat, Nissan, "any John that'll do", ect to get a fuel efficent car...why not just rebody that fugly Caliber/Compass/Patriot with a more aero body for efficency...... That would be pretty dang funny if he did do that, too bad they'd loose cutomers to Ford or Dodge if they killed one of the two off...I've seriously seen people say that they would not buy a Chevy/GMC truck if GM kills off GMC/Chevy...... I've seen that written on more than one occasion and can't figure out why since they're nearly the same dang thing! AM General still makes the Humvee for military use.......the other two Hummers are just beefed up and rebodied Tahoes and Colorados.

My sister's Boyfriend has an '07 V6/Auto Mustang and as far as I know he's happy with it. He wanted the GT when he bought it to replace his '98 Taurus and that was only a few grand more......but since he's still only in his mid-20's the insurance per year was just twice as much as the price difference between the V6 and GT. Now my sister has a '06 Charger SE with the 3.5l V6 and "touring" suspension and it's not quite as quick as the Mustang, but her mileage should be pretty close and it should hande at least as good, if not better.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...I'd be willing to offer mine up for measurements if anybody in the industry is interested! I'd buy a bunch myself!

Nice looking Grand Cherokee, is it the Lindberg kit?

Ditto on a finely done model sitting on a board near grass.

hmmmmmm, guess it should be sturdy enough for us "larger" riders then

Very pretty cars, both the real one and the model!

If it's anything like the '98 Cherokee (the little one), it's not all that bad. The only ones I've hated trying to get at were the #1 plugs and wires on the Jeep 4.0l and Chrysler's 2.2/2.5 motors with A/C since all the bracketry are bolted to that same portion of those heads. Usually those little 2.2/2.5 motors were pretty easy for me to tinker with, I did hate that stupid little Mistu turbocharger CC hung off the '88 and later turbo motors though, mine didn't seem to run as good as the Garrett they used in my '85 and the wastegate rod was held on the valve with what was esentially a body clip for a largeish RC car instead of bolting it on like Garrett did

Don't know if there has been a second one, I will own it though!

Thanks David! Lately I've had an itch to try and build "Traveler" from "Collier and Co. Hot Pursuit" (Schnieder's General without the flag, 01, and push bar) instead of the General for something "different" at some point:P

Sweet project and heck yea with the red flake, make it deep enough to drowned in!

You know David, I still can't believe somebody actually restored that car! I saw it a year or two after it was drug out of that Georgia junkyard and it didn't have a straight, rust free panel anywhere!!! BTW, anybody know what orange John Schnieder's General Lee is painted?

Looks real to me too, picture is kinda crappy though....not sure if it's the actual pic or my computer though...........

I'm going with one mighty fine model.

Wow................that looks incredible!

Thanks, I threw the lowered Impala's chassis under it for laughs and shot a few pics, I think I had one of the CSI's on when I did that.

Took this one a couple years ago, never finished the Impala in the fore ground either I didn't realize what was in the back ground of this one until after I took it, thought it was funny though. Now here's another I need to dig out and finish, the van in the back ground is stock height, the van in the fore ground...not so much