[s-cars] Thought-provoking stuff.......NAC, but all Car stuff.

[Jim Fleischer]

Hey quattro fans,

Please forgive the NAC, and also posting to the three lists I subscribe to, but I saw something last night that is starting to disturb me.  Let me start by saying that I am a quattroholic, currently owning a '95 S6 Avant, a '91 200 TQ 20V and an '83 ur.  I've had a total of 8 Audis (7 quattros) in my driving career and have loved every one of them.  That said, I just watched "Who Killed the Electric Car" last night and I found it quite compelling.  I also found it quite disturbing.  If you haven't watched it yet, I suggest, even for entertainment sake, that you go and rent it.  Now, I'm not one of those "conspiracy" types, but I find it quite troubling to know that we, the car buying public, are not given the option of purchasing a different propulsion technology for our transportation that would seem on the surface to be very economical, reliable, "emissions free" (I put that in quotes on purpose....of course I know it takes either nuclear, natural gas or coal to make the electricity to charge the damn things,) etc.  The fact that the major automobile manufacturers have gone to great lengths to destroy every last EV they had made makes for some interesting "conspiracy" thoughts in my mind.  What are they trying to hide? 

My intent here is merely to provoke some mindful thought about what we, as consumers, are facing in the real world when faced with high gas and oil prices (while oil companies are enjoying record profits), environmental pollution from oil and gas spills, and not to mention Global Warming due to internal combustion engine exhaust, (I'm not even going to go into the geo-political conflicts costing American lives in the oil-rich Middle East.)  And to also inform people that there are (were) other viable options available as recently as 5-10 years ago that could possibly have kept us from the possible environmental predicament we are currently facing.  Am I willing to give up my trio of quattros at the moment?  No, but I am thinking of the possibilites of transforming a 4000 quattro to electric power sometime in the future........the technology is there to do it.

I invite all thought provoking criticism, constructive and otherwise.......

Best regards to all,

Jim Fleischer
'95 S6 Avant
'91 200TQ
'83 ur