Japanese Mileage Maniacs

WY writes "Bloomberg reports on the quirky world of Japanese hybrid car hackers: 'Toyota Motor Corp. says its Prius gasoline-electric hybrid car gets about 55 miles to the gallon, making it one of the most fuel-efficient cars on the road. That's not good enough for Takashi Toya.' He managed to reach as high as 115 MPG. He is one of about 100 nenpimania, Japanese for mileage maniacs."

Comments

Mileage?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't they use kilometers there?

Good enough for me

[MMaestro]

In a country where gasoline costs more than $4 a gallon, at least $1 more than the U.S. price, enthusiasts tweak their cars and hone driving techniques to cut fuel bills and gain bragging rights.

Cutting down on fuel bills AND bragging rights? Where do I sign!?

Re:Good enough for me

[Anonymous Coward]

Compensating for something?

Re:Ob.

[darkitecture]

Nihon deha, kuruma ga anata wo untensuru! (i know, its bad :p)

I guess you were trying to make a Soviet Russia joke? "In Japan, car drives you", maybe? I guess it loses its funny when it's not relevant to the article, is translated into another language and written in romaji.

Re:Why only 55?

[bl8n8r]

"so wasteful to be dragging around two tons of metal to transport one person."

You must be new here. Our Hummers weigh in at much more than a measly two tons. Besides, American women with 1 or more children are forbidden to be seen in anything with four doors unless it's an SUV. (It's federal law; kind of like that big cloth bag they have to wear in the mideast). American males with premature balding, premature greying, limpdickosis and/or shortpeckeritis are also required to own at least one SUV and a Harley Davidson. The SUV must have at least 8 cylinders and you get a tax subsidy from Exxon if you upgrade to Hemi-anything. On weekends, most people take their Hummers out and rear-end anything that gets more than 25 mpg.