Posted on 06/22/2007 5:38:46 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Well, then you’re in the small minority of people who actually use 4WD and tow anything with a SUV.
For every drive like yourself, I can show you 100 bleached-blond soccer moms in California, (with cell phones glued to their ears, of course), who couldn’t tell you how to engage the 4WD on their SUV’s, and they’ll see a snowflake perhaps once every 10 years.
Do you think it is fine for the US government to support foreign auto workers and auto companies through tax policy and cafe standards?
>>All it really requires is some market demand for small
block turbos (rated for extended use at 100%
duty cycle in turbo mode). All the car makers
know how to do this.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
We have a winner.
The reason we don’t have the demand for those, is that people are willing to pay to own and operate bigger vehicles. Now, people are going to be forced into these other vehicles by gov’t edict. That, quite simply, stinks.
What do you mean? CAFE standard apply to both foreign and domestic production and by tax policy are you asking for tariffs?
Most everyone has a 4x4 and they use them.
Absolutely right. I own two 2002 Saturn L-Series. Decent sized vehicles with 30 mpg.
No doubt, congress will include a limo exemption.Precisely. One of the many opt-outs on this new standard is full exemption from CAFE for makes w/ under 60,000 annual unit sales. Hell, Lincoln sold only 61,000 cars last year!
Among the unintended consequences of this bill (which still has to pass the House in the Fall -- and it won't without less stringent revisions), I'd look for:
- Hummer, Lincoln, GMC, and other divisions spun off as independent makes, with CAFE exemptions;
- regulatory exemptions prevalent, especially for large trucks;
- hundreds of thousands of 800mpg street-legal golf cars given away in order to off-set the CAFE numbers for cars Americans actually want to buy;
- total memory loss of 2007 and this new CAFE regime when crude settles back under $40/ barrel and gasoline to around $1.80 a gallon. Consumers will only ask, "why have I been driving this p.o.s. 3-cylinder faux-automobile?
- carbon-offsets traded on Ebay and the gasoline pump. It will be a buyers market, and pre-2008 Suburban owners will rejoice.
What you’re describing is why the Big Three are in the jam they’re in. They market their cars to people there in Michigan.
In the 80’s, GM execs would go out to California, look around and wonder what people had against GM/Ford/Dodge cars. Then they’d go back to Michigan, look around and see few, if any, import autos. And they’d think that California was some fluke.
Well, here’s where demographics becomes destiny: Michigan is losing population, not gaining it. The “center of population” in the US is shifting southwest, away from the snowbelt of the northeast. Detroit still doesn’t understand this. Detroit could design and ship a car that gets high mileage, has excellent crash survivability, works better than the current 2WD’s in snow, and doesn’t have hokey nonsense like the current hybrid vehicles - and if they did, they could clean up in California.
Instead, they decide to turn SUV’s into pimpmobiles.
Detroit chose to retreat into building SUV’s for people who wouldn’t know a transfer case if it lept up through the floorboards and bit them in their plush posteriors. And more to the point, for people like myself, who actually use a pickup as a pickup, Detroit decided to pussify 4WD vehicles with the sort of twaddle that belongs in luxury sedans.
As far as I’m concerned, a real pickup doesn’t have:
1. Leather seats.
2. Extra trim.
3. Carpet.
4. Electronic 4WD. Matter of fact, any 4WD vehicle that doesn’t use Warn hubs is a piece of crap.
5. Any extra electronics, like a DVD player, CD player, GPS system, etc. All crap I don’t need, never mind bluetooth networks to talk to my cellular phone.
6. A V-8. An inline 6 is easier to work on, smoother and lighter.
7. An automatic transmission.
Yet auto manufactures are busy loading up SUV’s with all of this utterly superfluous crap. They’re not SUV’s any more, so Detroit might as well just create a domestic version of a BMW 500-series sedan, put in a computer-controlled limited slip diff for driving in snow, and call it done.
My idea of a SUV is a 50’s Dodge M-37 Powerwagon. Take out the gas engine, put in a Cummins B3.9 with a turbo, a six-speed tranny and call it done. Sadly, Detroit can’t seem to deliver an actual working truck any more.
Powered by Briggs and Stratton.
and
The VW’s will make more than 35MPG — 45MPG on the open road is what VW TDI owners see today.
But that incorrect EPA test is the standard automakers are being required to meet. Regardless of the mileage you actually get, their treadmill test is what counts and VW's TDI as sold in 2006 would score a 32 or a 33.
But hey, there’s a solution for the Dems there: just instruct the EPA to refine what MPG means.
They just did that, the MY2008 and onwards test reduces scores by about 15% - in other words it upped the CAFE car standard as it stood last year from 27.5 to 32.
Their limos and private jets are of course exempt.
Aw, come on, P-40. I can well remember the superlative Corvair and Valiant. True, cutting-edge technology all the way — that left Toyota and Nissan in the dust!
And, just look at the gleaming store-fronts on Woodward Avenue — the direct result of such enlightened Automotive Industry leadership and forward thinking over the past decades!
I just can’t wait to buy my next 40K Caddie. Maybe this time the rear doors will open without the assistance of a crowbar.
God, how I despise shortsighted Corporate Greed ! Pox on Detroit! Michigan deserved better, but the labor unions were as morally culpable and mendacious as their management counterparts.
Just bring back the Edsel is all I ask...
Cafe standards greatly effect US Auto makers as the US Auto makers are successful with larger vehicles SUVs, Trucks, etc. Let Americans buy what they wish without the market distortions of Cafe.
The US Tax code gives a $3000 subsidy to hybrid buyers (Toyota and Honda cars made in Japan).Let Americans buy what they wish without the market distortions of hybrid subsidies. Hybrids shouldn't need subsidies if they are so great.
2004, Jetta TDI Wagon: automatic tranny, 43 MPG highway, manual, 48 MPG highway, 36 MPG city.
http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/E-VOLKSWAGEN-JettaWagon-04.htm
I’d be very curious to see if Michigan falls into the Democrat camp in 2008 after this monstrosity of a piece of legislation....
We agree on that one. The Ford 300CI 6 was a great truck engine, they ran forever and got good mileage ( over 20 hwy).
Must be ford thought they were too good because they quit making them.
My idea of the perfect SUV type vehicle would be a Ford one ton, 4x4 cargo van with rear seats that could be easily added or removed for storage space or adding beds.
Add a HD Reese hitch, inside overhead fishing rod/gun rack and a small propane heater.
Jenny Grandstand gave everyone a preview of what to expect of a Marxist split-tail in a position of authority.
“It does mean that the White House is going to need to be controlled by reasonable people, though.”
And therein lies the rub, LOL!
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