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DIY Hybrid Car Kit
Hybride And The Groom writes "Building hybrids uses machinery that pollutes the environment. The solution? Ship the parts of a hybrid individually and get your customers to put the car together themselves. That's exactly what Robert Q Riley Enterprises is doing, according to a story on CNet today, with its XR-3 hybrid. It'll cost you $25,000 for the bits, plus zero dollars in manufacture, I hope. Better yet, cough up $200 for the blueprints and schematics and even build the parts yourself. It's no secret that many hybrid drivers are smug enough as it is. Allow them to brag about having built the damn cars themselves and we might be entering obscenely smug territory."
Building hybrids uses machinery that pollutes the environment. The solution? Don't build anything!
That said, though, I looked up what would be required to build an all-electric vehicle and it was about $10k not including a vehicle to convert. Not a cheap hobby, unfortunately :/
=Smidge=
Why not design the car yourself - using bits and pieces found at your local junkyard? Better yet - smelt the metal in your garage and take up blacksmithing to make all the bits. Sort of like building your own computer from discrete transistors.
My rights don't need management.
I know some people like that. Unfortunately, since there time is actually worth close to zero dollars asking them to build it for me would get me close to zero progress wouldn't it? Actually my guess is they would screw it up so bad I would have to throw it all out and buy another kit if I tried to get them to build it for me.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
So, what happens when I build this thing, and try to get it registered at my local DMV?
DMV Drone: Make?
Me: Me
DMV Drone: No, who is the manufacturer?
Me: Me
DMV Drone: (sigh). Model?
Me: Mostly done in Solidworks.
DMV Drone: NEXT!
All I want is a light, very efficient hybrid/electric vehicle, that doesn't look ridiculous. Even if its stripped down for weight, add a plastic body that has the same rough shape as a "real" car. I hope every innovation doesn't have to look like something brought here by Mork from Ork.
My wife has a Prius, and she gets about 225 MPG because most of the time she makes me drive her around in my car.
Help fight poverty: Punch a poor person.
You don't keep all 10 operative. You keep 2 operative and put your 8 organ donors in the barn. 4-to-1 seems like about the right ratio to keep an old Beetle together.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
Hmm, could you put this in terms of a car analogy?
This is Slashdot. Please stick to car analogies so we can understand.
Oh wait...
Or, one could buy 10 or more easy-to-DIY-fix old VW beetles with enough spare parts and earth-frendliness to last a lifetime.
nope. i've been through that. i used to traipse through junkyards in search of beetle parts, often finding the part i wanted to be in the same condition as the part that needed replacement.
and damn near freezing to death during the winter months while driving was never much fun.
or having the engine seize when the number three exhaust decided enough was enough because the stock oil cooler was sorta in the way...
or the accelerator cable broke in traffic in a blizzard or...
i think the earth-friendly part of this solution would be the damn thing won't be running long enough to seriously pollute the atmosphere. that's just me, of course, YMMV.
Serenity now, insanity later.
wait a second... did you just figure out Step 3)???
At least that one looks cool but, really, who has the time to do this? If they have the time then do they have the interest or the money?
Right, I mean, we all have time for slashdot, but you can't exactly build a car in your cubicle without people noticing!
Prov 9:8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you.
I put together and drive cars that look like 1950's alien spaceships. It's just my thing, you know.
Hey, everyone knows you always have parts left over when you do it yourself. You must be one of those 'safety' people who want to take power from the people. Enjoy your time in hell, communist!
Er, what I meant to say was,
I agree.
I don't like Linux. This doesn't make me a troll.
This is like building Gentoo from sources to get around patented codex and binary driver license problems.
When McCain allows off shore drilling they'll all go away again. Electric bullet dodged by auto companies... again.