Another of those "unintended consequences" relates to the various labor laws
and "fair labor practices" designed to protect employees.... companies just
hire temporaries and treat them even worse then they used to treat their
regular employees!
Jan Eyerman
rgibbs@pacbell.net wrote:
J Arzt wrote:
snip
> There is only ONE reason manufacturers say to
> use this oil - it's water thin, and is VERY low drag. By specifying this
oil
> only, the cars tested by the EPA are filled with that weight oil, and it
> gives them a point or two better MPG. That's for their benefit, not yours.
> It raises their CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) points, and saves
them
> money.
> Jon Arzt
Jon,
This is another example of "unintended consequences". Congress passes laws
mandidating a CAFE limit, which increases over the years. The intended
consequence
is lower fuel consumption. The unintended consequences includes the example
that
you state above. Also leads to some strange economic decisions. A friend of
mine
with connections in the industry told me that Ford (a few years ago) had a
model of
the Escort that was sold slighlty below their actual cost. They lost money and
each
car sold. The purpose was to allow these high fuel economy vehicles to
balance the
highest profitable models (with poor fuel economy) in order to allow the
Corporation to meet the average mandated by law. Also leads to the situation
where
mini-vans and SUVs are listed as "trucks" and are not counted in the CAFE
calculations. Another unintended consequence: mini-vans and SUVs were (are?)
therefore exempt from passenger car safety requirements.
Congress and local agencies pass laws or issue rulings intended to clean the
air
quality by encouraging the removal of old and polluting cars from use. They
envision the 30 year old car which is buring a quart of oil every 100 miles
and is
running so rich that you can smell the unburned gas. The unintendd
consequence is
that industries which emit pollutants are able to "buy pollution credits" by
the
disposal of old cars, whether they are running or not. This practice does very
little at all to reduce air pollution, but it does act as a very effective
incentive to locate old cars and destroy them. Looking for a rust free
non-running
Alpine project car or body? Better hope it is not sold for it's smog credit
value
and then crushed before you find it!
-Roger
____________________________________________________________________
Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.amexmail.com/?A=1
|