[dubyagee]

Will this include Limousines, do ya think?

[dubyagee]

Common sense bump!

[Betty Jane]

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.

[medved]

There are legitimate uses for vans and SUVs, and occasionally you see somebody using one in a rational manner. The guy who uses a van or SUV to commute or drive around in, which, near as I can tell, is 90% of van and SUV owners, is a pig. That guy and california deserve eachother.

[2banana]

I think the lawmakers should give up their SUVs and drive around in Dodge Neon first (to set the example)

[Falcon4.0]

Yea, lets see Jenifer and Brad pull up to the red carpet in a Geo Metero.

[NorseWood]

There are many, many SUV's and pick-ups on the roads in California. The drivers don't fit any particular ethnic classification. Families and individuals from all elements of the poplulation have chosen SUV's for their own reasons. Many of these are leased and now purchased. There will be a lot of unhappy campers dissatisfied with Grey Davis for pushing the legislation to penalize SUV's. The SUUV drivers need to voice their anger at the polls!

[Mr. Mojo]

Thank God this new law doesn't apply to older vehicles, so I can continue driving around my monstrous '68 Cadillac Fleetwood while observing the horrified looks on the plastic, tightened faces of the ultra-leftist West L.A. crowd.

[cogitator]

Federal Fuel Economy Standards Program Should Be Retooled (National Research Council report Press Release)

Quote 1: "Some technologies already in existence today could significantly reduce fuel consumption of new cars over the next 15 years, with light-duty trucks having the greatest potential reductions. These technologies, which would increase the purchase price of new cars and trucks, include engine advances that reduce friction, such as variable valve timing, and more efficient powertrains, such as five-speed automatic transmissions."

Quote 2: " The committee also noted that there is a marked inconsistency between pressing automobile manufacturers for improved fuel economy from new vehicles on the one hand, and insisting on low gasoline prices on the other. Higher gas prices would create a demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles and an incentive for owners of existing vehicles to drive them less."

[marvlus]

Hat happened to medved? Looks like a bunch of you scared him/her off! LOL!!

[alloysteel]

Stop buying the gas hogs, and the manufacturers will stop making them. Buy up the econo-boxes, as an alternative, and the manufacturers will make more and more of them. Of course, you would have to buy only the models that are all tricked out, so the manufacturers may maintain a decent profit level, and continue to subsidize the sale of their low-volume lines. You can have economy, but it won't be cheap. You will pay in dollars, you will pay in additional numbers that will die in small light-weight vehicles, you will pay in an overall drop in productivity. But you, too, may do your bit to end the "threat" of SUVs.

[Born to Conserve]

It's no wonder people believe this conspiracy theories . . . anyone remember when the car makers bought up the trolly companies and tore up the tracks?

I would not mind paying more tax on my pickup's gas, if I could trust the feds to spend it on good transportation programs. Dream on self, dream on.

The government, do we fix it or replace it?

[RightOnline]

The hubris of these IDIOTS in the Democratic Party of California never, ever ceases to amaze me.

[Henchster]

Does this mean my top-of-the-line 2000 California emissions Ford Windstar is going to start going up value?

[Saundra Duffy]

DUMP DAVIS ping

[coloradan]

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.

I have the secret right here:

Suppose you want to do 300 mpg, in a vehicle that goes 60 mph. Then a gallon's journey, 300 miles, takes 5 hours. A gallon of gas contains 115000 btu of energy, or about 121 megajoules. This energy is burned in 5 hours, for a rate of 24 MJ/hr, or about .00667 MJ/sec = 6.6 kJ/s =6.6 kW. One horsepower is about 750 Watts, so a 100% efficient 6.6 kW engine would be about 9 hp - about the actual power delivered by a small riding lawnmower.

Now lets consider a man on a bicycle. 10 mph is not too hard to sustain for a rider, about 200 W output. Air resistance goes as the cube of velocity, so going 60 mph would require 6³, 216, times the power. 200 x 216 = 43200 W or 43.2 kW. Our hypthetical vehicle needing only 6.6 kW do 60 would have to be about a sixth as hard to push as a man on a bike. Have you ever pushed your car?

The "secret" to such a vehicle is that it would have to have less air resistance than a man on a bike, and not much heavier. Such a vehicle would be extremely light, fragile, and especially unsafe at highway speeds, and would be blown off the road in a good crosswind.

This is the secret that the Big Three have locked up in their safes ... that a vehicle with a lawnmower engine weighing less than a moped and with much less air resistance than a man on a bike, will get 300 mpg.

[robertpaulsen]

Even in the rain, sleet, ice, and snow, medved's bike is the way to go. And watch out for that SUV bearing down on you!

[Nuke'm Glowing]

I agree. Just ship econodeathtraps and small sedans to them. Everyone one painted white so they don't offend anyone out there or the color blind. Let the rest of us keep our SUVs (which we will) and let them drive the mini-death cars. And eat their tofu. And rename their state the "People's Republic of California". The hell with all of those commies out there. If there really was any true opposition to this kind of idiocy, the politicians would be voted out of office. It's quite apparent the sheeple out there are just content to bleet. Screw em.

Oh and not to mention, HELL would have to freeze over 5 times before I ever consider taking a vacation out there. Vegas is as close as I'll ever get to that land of nuts and fruits.

[jimkress]

Next step for California politicians will be to pass a law againt gravity so their girlfriend's breasts won't sag.

[Grampa Dave]

Here is the auto approved by the Car Nazis of Kali, and that includes a lot of phoney conservatives on this board:

[biblewonk]

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

All Californians are strutting? I keep wondering how the average Californian feels about this. I know a lot of Iowans that hate waste and dependence on foreign oil.