Matt said:
Wow, two clueless folks in a row.
Catalytic convertors and related pollution controls remove something
upwards of 90% of the pollutants that would otherwise be emitted. To
make that up with better mileage alone would require that cars get 10
times better fuel mileage without the pollution controls. You can
believe all of the gimmick ads you want, but thermodynamics precludes
this happening.
Matt
Actually, you are the one more or less, clueless, you only took into
account the local effects, not the global ones.
First, that figure of 90% is way out of real life values; it's more like
40%, most of he improvements came from better and clean gas.
Second, while in a big engine (Detroit type) the lost of power is around
20%, in a small, more efficient one it can be near 50%, a big hit on gas
use, I did owned 3 Ford Fiestas, 2 Europeans: 0.9L, 1.1L and 1 American:
1.6L with all that junk in .... result:
less power than the small euro engine, 40% more gas used .....
Third, all the emission junk add: weight (more gas to move it), more
parts to break (more money out of your pocket) and a lot of pollution in
the places they are manufactured (catalytic converters use rare metals
as the catalytic agent), while that does not affect you or me, locally
it's there in the planet, and we ALL have to share it.
In a global perspective those devices, create more pollution than what
they prevent.
Same thing apply to the hybrids, the battery manufacturing plants
generate more pollution making the first set of batteries, than what the
car will save over their life ... so what's the point ??????
Simple, it's not in my backyard, the polluting materials are made on
another countries .... well, we are Earth citizens, mother Nature will
get back to us eventually.
