No more gas hogs in LaLa Land

Waco Tribune-Herald ^ | Rowland Nethaway

[dubyagee]

No gas hogs in LaLa Land
ROWLAND NETHAWAY Senior editor

Californians are strutting about congratulating themselves for their new state law requiring higher automobile fuel efficiency.

They believe that California's new state law will force car manufacturers to stop producing gas-guzzling vehicles responsible for global warming.

The logic behind the new law requiring greater fuel efficiency from car manufacturers is a faith-based belief that the automobile industry is involved in a giant conspiracy to deny the public fuel-efficient cars.

Ford, General Motors and the other car manufacturers, according to these anti-big business addicts, have the secret to 300-miles-per-gallon internal combustion engines locked away in a safe somewhere. The car industries make immoral profits by keeping this information from the public.

These urban-myth conspiracy theories have been around since the invention of automobiles.

Since I was a boy I've heard stories about the invention of new spark plugs, carburetors or fuel additives that could allow cars to run for hundreds of miles on a gallon of gas.

Generally, the stories included specific details about how the inventors of these miracles had been paid off and threatened to keep their mouths shut, if not simply murdered. Their supposed inventions were guarded more closely than the Coca-Cola recipe.

Same conspiracies, different era

Fifty years ago, these fanciful tales were voiced by run-of-the-mill drug store and pool hall conspiracy buffs.

In recent years, it has been the greenies, environmental groups, anti-globalists and Californians who think that government laws can force General Motors et al to finally release these secret fuel-efficient technologies.

It was cockamamie nonsense in 1952 and it remains just as harebrained today.

Car manufacturers wouldn't have to offer zero percent interest rates to sell cars if they could build cars with the size and power that buyers want and also get hundreds of miles per gallon.

Every car, SUV and truck owner in the nation would line up to buy such a vehicle.

The oil industry might not be pleased with 300-miles-per-gallon cars and trucks, but, hey, that's the breaks. There will always be uses for oil.

Since no knowledgeable person expects revolutionary efficiency breakthroughs on the venerable internal combustion engine, about the only way to increase fuel efficiency is to decrease safety by making cars and trucks smaller and lighter.

Anti-SUV acolytes may want to see everyone in scooter cars and public buses, but that's a hard sell to motorists who don't feel better about themselves driving around in lightweight, cramped, underpowered vehicles.

The last I heard, the car manufacturers said they would contest the new California fuel-efficiency law.

I suggest that the automobile industry simply ignore the California law.

Californians think their state law will force the car industry worldwide to build cars to California's standards.

Instead, car manufacturers should notify all the car dealers in California that they will be out of business on the day the state's new fuel efficiency standards go into effect.

If Californians want to own a new car, they will have to move to another state.

After a while, California would look like Havana, Cuba, where the cars are caught in a 1950s time warp.

Californians want the rest of the nation to pay to subsidize their lifestyles, which includes a gluttonous appetite for oil, electricity and water taken from other states.

There will be a lot less self-righteous strutting in LaLa Land if the auto industry simply ignores California's new fuel-efficiency law.

Rowland Nethaway's columns appear on Wednesdays and Fridays. E-mail: RNethaway@wacotrib.com

[medved]

I'm about 6-4, 240 or thereabouts, and have no difficulty whatever driving my own Dodge Neon, most Hondas, most Toyotas... The only Japanese cars I really have problems with are the ones with sunroofs. The Dodge Neon is particularly tall-friendly due to the cab-forward design; a lot of tall people including basketballers up to and including 7-footers claim to be driving Neons without difficulty.

Used Neons can be bought cheaply due to one or two known problems which they had but which I do not regard as serious. The 94 (year 1) models are simply to be avoided. Prior to the 99 models, they ALL had to have headgaskets replaced around 80K miles. What that means in practical terms is that with any luck, you might could buy a 96 or 97 with 70K miles for $2000 - $2500, immediately take it in for the new type headgasket and the timing belt, and you'd be set for a very long time for around $3000.

The 5-speed Neon can cruise all day long at 75 or 80 and get 38 mpg doing it, and it doesn't waste time getting to cruising speed.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

Zieg Heil. You will be assigned the small car by the UN commission on automobile distribution. Next thing you know you'll be calling for food rationing, travel restrictions and other communist state policies.

By the way, it cost me $29.00 to top off my tanks in my gas guzzling SUV and I didn't mind it one bit. And it works great for tailgating. Only a Commiefornia nutcake would try to stuff 4 grown men into a Neon to go tailgating at a football game.

[medved]

its a free-rider problem in economics. If some people work hard to curb energy consumption to reduce the Arabs' grip on our society, there will be others who will take any modest excuse to use more energy. You would think that the SUV driving gas wasting idiots would maybe see the fact that we are in a war over this issue as a sign that something is wrong, but apparently not.

The issue doesn't appear that complicated to me either; glad at least one other person here sees it.

[dubyagee]

Gray D. Antionutte says, "Let them drive Kia's

That would work. Too bad we can't bring AMC Pacers back. ; * )

[wattsmag2]

Or Gremlins.

[Eva]

I don't know whether my husband has driven a Neon or not. He has driven most small rental cars, but he really prefers a safer, heavier car for all the distance driving that he needs to do, especially in bad weather in the Pacific Northwest. I don't think that Neons are known to be particularly good in the snow. He also frequently needs to carry more than two or three passengers with luggage and gear.

Cars are simply not a one size fits all item, and I really don't think that it is anyone's business to try to dictate what I drive.

[Eva]

I should have added that my husband's Expedition is a company car and that he works for an oil company who pays for the gasoline.

[medved]

I'm recommending that people who need SUVs also own something more rational for the 70% - 90% of their driving which does not require the SUV.

Other than that, there are few things much less safe than SUVs; I mean, I don't really enjoy rolling in vehicles that terribly much myself...

Moreover, I've always favored the approach which says that the factors which keep you out of wrecks in the first place are your best safety features. A guy my brother used to work for once told me the Alfa Romeo was unique amongst the cars he'd been involved with in that he'd never had a customer die in one. The handling and response were so good that there was invariably some way out of situations which didn't involve hitting another vehicle or a tree, or going off a cliff. Neons and othre Dodge cab-forward cars, and a number of current Japanese cars share that trait.

In fact, the old (pre-graduate) Alfa had heavy-grade steel and curved surfaces with the structural strength of Roman arches at all exterior points. My father once got to going down the road sideways in an Alfa Spyder in a freak snowstorm and ran into an Oldsmobile which weighed more than twice what the Alfa did. It put a $70 dent in the passenger door of the Alfa and destroyed the Olds. The cop who came to investigate could not believe what he was seeing and radioed all his buddies and there were 30 cops standing there staring in disbelief.

[babble-on]

I hope you have little Saudi Arabian flags flying on the corners of your hood as well.

[medved]

Forgot to mention, Neons and the other cab-forward cars are spectacularly good in rain and snow.

[medved]

I should have added that my husband's Expedition is a company car and that he works for an oil company who pays for the gasoline.

Not all of the price. Some of the cost of oil being used in America over the last decade was paid by Christians in other countries, with their lives. That's the problem. I keep thinking about those Bosnian Christians getting bombed three days after the Saudis signed the big contract for military aircraft. That's part of why I have such a hard time sympathizing with SUV owners.

[TC Rider]

Instead, car manufacturers should notify all the car dealers in California that they will be out of business on the day the state's new fuel efficiency standards go into effect.

I always said that this should have been the response of the tobacco companies.

I wish the auto companies would really do this. California's pollution would then go UP. Since the fleet of cars in CA would continue to age and pollute more.

Worse yet, maybe they didn't include scooters. With a lack of cars, zillions of kids would start buying scooters as their first car. Then LA could have an atmosphere like Bankok or Rome or Paris or..

[medved]

One other thing I'm leaving out here; internet sources say the 3-speed automatic for the Neons has been reasonably good and new Chrysler products will have Mercedes transmissions, probably starting with the 03 models. As a general rule, however, you want to avoid Chrysler products with automatic transmissions which have been made over the last decade or so.

If you don't already know how to drive 5-speeds, it's a good skill to acquire. Gas mileage and performance are better with 5-speeds than with automatics, often significantly so. The 10 mpg difference in mileage which the 5-speed offers in many small cars translates into an extra 100 miles per tankful free, for a fairly simple skill.

[AmericanCompatriot]

Instead, car manufacturers should notify all the car dealers in California that they will be out of business on the day the state's new fuel efficiency standards go into effect. This response is a little harsher than what i thought. The manufacturers should just send them all the Geo Metro's and their clones to California. Let them drive these crappy little cars that even High School kids don't want.

I think this would be perfect justice. I'm all for selling California to Mexico and putting up a Berlin Wall so we can keep those fanatics AWAY from the rest of us. If you don't want the cancer to spread you better section it off. =)

[dubyagee]

I keep thinking about those Bosnian Christians getting bombed three days after the Saudis signed the big contract for military aircraft.

Your heart is in the right place medved, I just don't agree with your methods. Ridding the U.S. of SUV's wouldn't put a dent in our oil demands. But it would put a dent in our freedoms.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

Have you ever been to Saudi? I have. If so, you would agree with me and the Rand report that we should glass the place and take over the oil wells since we did all of the work in building that resource up in the first place. So no, don't rate me a Saudi fan. I'm just a plain good old fashioned laissez-faire economic system fan. It's meddling by the government and do-gooders that have caused this problem. They, as apparently you, do not understand the cause and effect of the enviro-communism of the last twenty years. We have not built a new refinery in 25 years. No exploration in ANWR even though we've proven enviromentally sound drilling is possible elsewhere in Alaska. Just now we are opening up the gulf coast of Florida for exploration. The NIMBY mentality of this country and the radical socialist agendas has caused this problem. SUVs were an inevitable backlash against the tiny POS cars being bandied about in this thread. If the market demands and people wanted econodeathtraps, they would buy them. But the market has dictated otherwise. So the automkers have to cut back shipments of SUVs and Pickup trucks to Commiefornia. No big deal. They have a huge market here in the south, and we really don't give a flying you know what about what the rest of the nation thinks or cares about it. If you think that something like this would ever pass in Texas or Florida, you're on more crack than medved the neon tree hugger.

[Eva]

My present car is the one of the few automatics that I have ever owned. We don't like standard transmissions for driving in Seattle. There are too many stop lights in the middle of very steep hills. Combine that with ice and some cobblestone type roads and you can see the problem. It's mostly just tiresome to have ride a clutch in a traffic jam.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

"its a free-rider problem in economics. If some people work hard to curb energy consumption to reduce the Arabs' grip on our society, there will be others who will take any modest excuse to use more energy. You would think that the SUV driving gas wasting idiots would maybe see the fact that we are in a war over this issue as a sign that something is wrong, but apparently not."

Arab's grip??? Try the communist's grip. We in a war because people hate us and want to destroy us. We support Israel, they don't. We support not having people fly planes into our buildings. DON'T EVEN TRY TO USE THE BLAME THE USA BOVINE SCATTAOLOGY FOR THIS PROBLEM WITH THE ARABS!!! That doesn't and will not float on this board. Just because you hate the free market and approve of communist and Nazi-like policies, does not mean the 90% of sane people in this nation ever will.

As I've said in earlier posts, if the market wanted those little econodeathtraps, they would be selling like wildfire. Guess what. People don't want them. They want comfort and horespower. Just because you love to hug a tree and save Southwest Oregonian farting flies, doesn't mean the rest of us do. And just because you can't afford a nice vehicle like my gas hog SUV, doesn't mean I can't. Too bad. Quit flipping burgers and get a real job then you can afford to buy an SUV also.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

Don't worry Eva. The United Nations auto assignment bureau will be coming by soon to assign the transportation that they have decided you need. Don't resist or you'll be sent to the camps. </sarcasm off

[Old Professer]

There are all kinds of safe vehicles between the extremes of a Geo and an SUV. In my estimation, the idea of large numbers of people driving vans and SUVs in traffic is endangering MY life and the lives of others by reducing visual range on the highways, i.e. by preventing other drivers including themselves from ever seeing further than the SUV two cars in front of them

Maybe if you tried standing on the seat of your "bicycle" you could see over those nasty SUVs.