Steve, you are saying , verbatim, what was said in the 70's other than the
change in price from $ .50 to $ 2.00. It is NOT the government's job to
mandate better fuel efficiency in cars/trucks/dirigibles. In Europe, a car is
a luxury and EVERYTHING is closer. Shorter distances mean better use of
public transportation, absurd taxes on cars making less fuel economy mean that
folks only buy cars that are very small, underpowered, basic .. and I mean
BASIC, transportation.
You can NOT compare American and European situations. Period.
Fred has a good point and other than the conspiracy part everything he says is
dead on, SAAB , for example, has a nice diesel that gets 40 mpg (IIRC) with
great torque that meets all safety standards over here but is NOT allowed to
be sold. I owned a Honda Civic in '84 and could get 55 mpg with it on a carb.
But it didn't have to be as safe. The CAFE standards instituted in the '70s
are well met *IF* you remove all the safety stuff that has had to bee
instituted since then.
Americans do not like small cars, present company excepted of course. Safety
standards do not allow small, lightweight, fuel efficient cars. Yes the Smart
car comes to mind but imagine how much better the fuel mileage would be
without the safety stuff, and they are not, I repeat, NOT being sold in
droves.
If this cycle follows the others, manufacturers will make several fuel
efficient models which will sell well for a few years and then the expansion
will take place making that model less efficient, larger, and more in line
with what Americans really want.
Just my $0.02.
Lester
On May 9, 2011, at 7:47 AM, Steven Guterman wrote:
> derf,
>
> The conspiracy is that we have a lower price for gasoline than most of the
> other developed countries. When gas was $2-$3 bucks a gallon we did not
> give a S__T about how poor the gas millage was in our cars. This was at the
> individual level buying big heavy cars and the government level that did
not
> force increases in fuel economy.
>
> In Europe gas or diesel costs 1.5 to 2 times as much and European earn less
> on average then we do. They demand higher efficiency so they can drive
> around and not bankrupt their savings or economy.
>
> Regrettably the only time this gets press is when gas prices go over $4
> bucks a gallon. When oil was $15 a barrel in early 2000s we should have
> added loads of taxes to fuel to stop everyone form wasting. Hindsight is
> 20/20.
>
>
> Steve
>
> On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 12:02 AM, derf <derf247@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I think you are a little off.
>> Diesel electric locomotives move huge amounts of stuff daily.
>> Electric forklifts do work daily. The technology is here now for
>> electric vehicles to do real work.
>> All we really need is a little advancement in batteries.
>>
>> Right now I'm leaning toward Diesel. For some stupid reason people in
>> other countries have choices of Diesel vehicles that we don't get
>> here.
>> Call me a conspiracy theorist but I find it criminal that our
>> government mandates things like ethanol and at the same time makes
>> auto makers produce more fuel efficient vehicles. With Diesel
>> vehicles getting 40-50 MPG regularly I don't see why people are so
>> taken with current Hybrid offerings. In contrast with 1988 Honda
>> CRX-HFs getting 50+ on gasoline with carburetors I find modern Hybrids
>> to be lame.
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