BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

Just a few snaps while I was gassing up at Fairfax and Sunset on my way home (a cent or two cheaper than in my neighborhood!).

Caught one or two RTS's still alive.

BTW; I know the last photo is off topic but that's my next car! (yeah - right! I'd bring a thing like that home and get hit over the head with a frying pan!).

Enjoy.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY





IMG]http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa193/MISTERLINSKY/IMG_0232.jpg[/IMG]

[timecruncher]

Ahh yes! But the Crown school bus actually is a classic bus in every sense!

Yeesh! $2.21 for regular -- out here in civilized America it was $1.929 this morning on my side of the river (Indiana) and $1.869 over here in Kentucky for regular.

Thank heavens we don't have that many enviro-whackos here!

timecruncher
Schedulers give you the runs!

(...Environmentalists can be converted: we feed 'em White Castles and good Skyline Chili and it reveals their inner souls while cleansing their digestive tract!!)

[Mr. Linsky]

T.C.,

That $2.219 a gallon shot was taken a few weeks ago - now we're back to $2.399 and climbing! (I'm going to sell at $3.00!).

The Ed Begley, Jr. 'green' group out here is pushing these little tiny cars that get 40 and 50 miles to a gallon!

Here's my question though on the 'micro' jobs; is it worth the couple of gallons in fuel savings to jeopardize your life in one of these rolling coffins especially when you consider going into combat with the loads of monster trucks we have here in L.A.?

Talking about micro cars (that's one step below 'Mini'); Jay Leno told a funny one the other night about the new $2,500 TaTa NaNo being mass produced in India (see below).

He says that the cars are so cheap that they come with nothing in them - no air, no power steering, no electric windows - no nothing - in fact, if you're in a crash you have to blow up your own air bag!

As far as the Crowns go; they're tough built and stand up pretty well - the only thing I miss about them is the sound of the 4-71's and mechanical shifts they used to have before they were upgraded.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[Cyberider]

Nice photography, Mr. Linsky! Too bad we didn't have these digital cameras back in Old Look days. Nice to see the Crown still in service. Looks like the School District recognizes a good thing.

Dave

[Hart Bus]

To my dear friend WCA:

Kudos on the pictures. Any pictures taken around the Fairfax Ave pictures brings back nice memories of my recent trips to LA.

I see that bus 7726 is pulling out of what appears to be a depot and heading south based on the topography. I don't think that is Fairfax Ave.

If it is pulling from a depot, is it the same depot that has an entrance on Santa Monica Blvd just west of a store that has (as of 2005) displayed a lot of S&M stuff in the window?

Gas prices here on Long Island are about $2.20 a gallon

I wonder what kind of limo Ed Begley drives around in....Usually its a case of "do as I say, not as I do" hypocrisy. Having been rear-ended by a Mack Truck on I-95 in Connecticut about 4 1/2 years ago and walking away without a scratch in an Impala, I will never buy or ride in one of those rolling coffins. And to think we made fun of the YUGO, which was probably larger.

One question to ask Jay Leno, the car buff. Does the Nano come with brakes or is it another Flintstone-mobile, where you wear heavy work boots and put them through the floorboards to stop the vehicle???????

[B53RICH]

I recently seen one of those 2 door mini cars, "Smart Car" I think it was called......on the Long Island Expressway! The way people drive these days, I don't always feel safe in my Jeep.

[timecruncher]

Nothing smart about the 'Smart.'

Its a Mercedes -- you must use premium fuel, if I'm not mistaken, it costs at minimum a bit over $22k for the base model, if you can find one. And the EPA ratings aren't as good as you'd think -- 31/37 or something like that.

For $5k less you can get a Corolla that seats four in reasonable comfort, gets 35mpg on the highway and will last forever as long as you change the oil every few thousand miles. The Hyundai Elantra is every bit an equal to the Corolla and has a better warranty.

Oh yeah -- both the Corolla and Elantra have standard ABS and stability control. See how much the Benz dealership will nail you for that option on a Smart...

timecruncher

[Mr. Linsky]

[Hart Bus]

WCA:

You have to have a more creative imagination than wanting a stretch limo version of the "not so Smart car". I want the limo version that is mounted on a 4 wheel drive frame, like the moster trucks. Don't laugh several years ago a volunteer fireman with the Commack (NY) FD mounted an old white stretch Caddy limo on such a frame, with the blue light, light bar on the roof. Then he painted the sides red, like a fire chief's car.

WHen I walked past the West Hollywood Depot in 2005 and saw the S&M stores, I wish I had a camera with me because nobody would believe me that the stuff is sold right out in the open.

I am aware of the Isetta, but never saw one until I went to a Classic Car Museum in the Amish Country around 1989. For those of you who have never seen one, watch some episodes of the latter episodes of family matters. The Isetta was Steve Urkel's first car.

[Mr. Linsky]

Small Cars Rate Poorly in New Crash Tests


By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: April 14, 2009 The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Consumers who buy minicars to economize on fuel are making a big tradeoff when it comes to safety in collisions, according to an insurance group that slammed three minimodels into midsize ones in tests.

In a report prepared for release on Tuesday, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said that crash dummies in all three models tested — the Honda Fit, the Toyota Yaris and the Smart Fortwo — fared poorly in the collisions. By contrast, the midsize models into which they crashed fared well or acceptably. Both the minicars and midsize cars were traveling 40 miles per hour, so the crash occurs at 80 m.p.h.

The institute concludes that while driving smaller and lighter cars saves fuel, “downsizing and down-weighting is also associated with an increase in deaths on the highway,” said Adrian Lund, the institute’s president.

“It’s a big effect — it’s not small,” he said in a telephone interview.

Yet the institute did not quantify how many more highway deaths might be expected statistically from any increase in the use of minicars.

Dave Schembri, president of Smart USA, said the crash type chosen, a head-on collision, was a tiny fraction of accidents. He countered that the Smart Fortwo, with front and side airbags and electronic controls meant to help a driver avoid skidding, was very safe.

The institute usually tests cars individually but in this case paired the Honda Fit with a Honda Accord, the Toyota Yaris with a Toyota Camry and the Smart Fortwo with a Mercedes C-Class. (Both the Fortwo and the Mercedes are built by Daimler.)

The argument over weight versus safety is not a new one but took on greater significance when gasoline prices rose sharply last year, making minicars more popular. Consumers also seek out vehicles that burn less fuel so they will contribute less to global warming. Production of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping gas, is proportional to fuel use, and the Smart claims to be the highest-mileage car powered by gasoline on the American market.

When the institute crashed the Smart into the Mercedes C-Class sedan, the Smart, which weighs half as much as the sedan, went airborne and spun around one and a half times. The institute’s crash laboratory did not clock the speed of the rebound, but calculated that in a collision between cars of that weight, the sedan would slow down by 27 m.p.h. while the two-seater would change speed by 53 m.p.h., moving backward at 13 m.p.h.

The institute suggested steps that would further both fuel economy and safety rather than put them in conflict: cutting the speed limit and reducing horsepower. (Average horsepower is 70 percent higher in new cars now than it was in the mid-1980s, the institute said.)

But there is little support for either move. Some car efficiency experts have recommended making cars light but also large, with energy-absorbing crush zones. With several feet of car body in front of the driver, the energy of a crash can be dissipated and the suddenness of the change in velocity can be reduced, they say.

In any case, the statistical connection between vehicle weight and the risk to occupants is not completely clear. In 2002, the National Academy of Sciences said that steps by car manufacturers to reduce vehicle weight to comply with federal fuel economy standards had resulted in 1,300 to 2,600 additional deaths in 1993. But the number has not been updated.

Complicating matters, a statistical graph included in the institute’s study indicated that per million cars registered that were one to three years old in 2007, the death rate was higher for drivers in small cars than in minis, which are even smaller. One reason might be that the smallest cars are not driven as many miles on high-speed roadways, Mr. Lund said.

COMMENT

Funny how we were just discussing the dangers in driving one of these 'rolling coffins' just to save a couple of dollars in gas! (how would you like to be the 'dummy' behind one of these wheels?).

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY


Insurance Institute for Highway Safety