5 ms·
Recently got a Toyota Verso, and was shocked to find out it averages 62.8 mpg [1]. And it really is that efficient. [1] https://blog.toyota.co.uk/honest-john-h
by bufferoverflow 8y ago
Recently got a Toyota Verso, and was shocked to find out it averages 62.8 mpg [1]. And it really is that efficient.
[1] https://blog.toyota.co.uk/honest-john-honours-toyota-verso-for-best-real-world-mpg-performance https://blog.toyota.co.uk/honest-john-honours-toyota-verso-f...
- aembleton 8y agoThat's 62.8 UK mpg which is 52.3 US mpg.
- ithkuil 8y agoTIL US liquid gallon != US dry gallon != Imperial gallon...
- Ensorceled 8y agoThat’s insane! We should really come up with some kind of standardized system, a world wide metric if you will.
- beefield 8y agoBut... all these gallons are much more easy to relate to than a standard metric liter, thus making all of them superior. If you do not believe me, ask Nassim Nicholas Taleb[1]. [1] https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=metric%20system%20taleb https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=metric%20system%20tale...
- josho 8y agoIt is a skill. And a rather easy one to learn. E.g. I’ve completed some basic carpentry projects. At the start I couldn’t have told you how much ⅛ of an inch was. Now I’ve got a good feel for that length. There is no reason why I couldn’t have learned what ½cm looks like instead as both are equally arbitrary.
- rleigh 8y agoI wouldn't describe an inch as arbitary, but it is customary. And variable before standardisation with different sizes of thumb! The basis of the metre in comparison is definitely arbitrary!
- FullyFunctional 8y agoI grew up in Denmark and have a fine-tuned sense for metric measurements (1 mm, 1 cm, and 1 meter). In my small town is more common for craft people (~ "contractors") to compete on who had the more accurate eye measurements. It's truly a sight to behold. TL;DR: any measurement unit can be learned; Metric strength in the simplicity of conversions.
- CydeWeys 8y agoA liter is the largest typically available pour of beer. How hard is that to relate to?? Contrast with a gallon, which is too much liquid for most people to ever drink in one sitting. I feel I have way less handle on a gallon than on a liter. Also, this guy's arguments come off as really shallow. To quote from what you're citing: > A meter does not match anything; a foot does. I can imagine the meaning of “thirty feet” with minimal effort. A mile, from the Latin milia passum, is a thousand paces. Likewise a stone (14 pounds) corresponds to . . . well, a stone. An inch (or pouce) corresponds to a thumb. A furlong is the distance one can sprint before running out of breath. A pound, from libra, is what you can imagine holding in your hands. These are lame ass examples. A stone is "a stone"? Goddamn, there's stones of all sizes. You can rationalize any unit of mass that way. A furlong is how long you can sprint before running out of breath?? That surely varies a lot by athletic ability (and many people don't run at all, and certainly couldn't make a whole furlong at a fast pace). A pound is what you can "hold in your hands"? Huh? Surely that depends on the density of the material in question and the size of your hands. None of these are helping me out at all. You can make better arguments by flipping the tables. 0 degrees is where the weather turns from rain to snow. 1 Liter of water weighs 1 Kilogram (compared to a gallon of water weighing 8.336 pounds). 1 Kilometer is simply 1,000 meters. I could continue but I think I've made my point. The author hasn't demonstrated that legacy metric systems are innately superior. All he's demonstrated is that it can be hard for people to switch, which is true of many people. He hasn't a lick of evidence pointing to people in SI-using countries being less able to visualize what a kilogram or liter or kilometer are. And he won't be able to, because all units are arbitrary, and SI's convenient allowance for powers of ten always allows you to pick a right-sized unit to work with that doesn't yield a number that's either too big or too far off into the decimals.
- dorfsmay 8y agoIf we do this, let's make sure we can switch to smaller and larger units easily, scaling by 10 for example.
- Ensorceled 8y agoBrilliant! Oh, oh! I have another idea! We should tie the units together some how, like maybe the unit of volume ties to unit for weight/mass by something common, like say, water.
- pmuk 8y agoAnd eventually we could even tie them to the fundamental constants of nature rather than any master reference object.
- DonHopkins 8y agoOr we could tie them to the size of our leader's hands, which is very very small, even though he tends to brag publicly about how big they are and what that means, and repeatedly sends photos of them to magazine editors.
- NotSammyHagar 8y agoI'm only going for this new system if we can periodically redefine standard units, like for weight.
- osrec 8y agoEven my newish bottom-of-the-range Mercedes e-class will do close to 60 mpg on the motorway. Compare that to the previous model from 3 years ago, which was giving around 50mpg, and from 10 years ago, giving under 40mpg. The newer models feel lighter and more nimble. Almost as if they've got rid of a significant chunk of their unneeded, inefficient components from under the hood and replaced them with something radically different.
- GoToRO 8y agoThey replace everything they can with plastic.
- Tempest1981 8y agoAnd aluminum, instead of steel, for hoods and body panels. Even rugged pickup trucks are shedding weight.
- DenisM 8y agoF150 lost 700lb in transition to aluminum structure.
- usrusr 8y agoHow much of that do you see at the pump and how much is just manufacturers gaming the reference tests even harder than before?
- osrec 8y agoThe money I'm saving is real, so I feel confident that those numbers aren't too far off the truth.
- blattimwind 8y ago(Small turbodiesel)
- therealdrag0 8y agoSome datapoints: http://www.fuelly.com/car/toyota/verso http://www.fuelly.com/car/toyota/verso