Posted on 09/26/2005 7:39:01 AM PDT by SmithL
Yes, my points exactly. I have to say though, I have been burning 10% ethanol/aka gasohol in my vehicles since the 80s and have never had a problem. Methanol additives are a different story and can cause damage to gaskets and seals over the long haul.
Most used deadfall wood (less smoke that way).
That's not true. It's simply a claim. The ones that buy them and don't use them to haul are a minority. That's from both the sales and repair industries. If your claim comes from personal observation, you need to realize that you didn't check the bed for evidence of being used for hauling. Most people don't load up their truck and drive around with that load 'till the truck wears out. How many flatbed trailers have you seen crusing around empty?
Here's a link listing full size cars. Toyota has an Avalon. Camry is somthing else, midsize, or intermediate.
Not to worry; the statists have thought of that, and are planning on taxing us per mile.
How big is your TV? I'm sure you can get by with a smaller one.
Ummm...because we're not socialists, and therefore we let people drive whatever they choose to drive?
Never heard of using switchgrass but it does make great sense. Switch grass will grow in just about anything out in my neck of the woods (dry sandy nutrient poor soils). You have any good links regarding switchgrass?
The externalities of Mid-East military conflicts ($300 billion and 1,900 lives spent) need to be factored into the price of high-energy usage behavior before assuming you're seeing a true free-market response. This means the true cost of oil is much higher than $60/barrel, with the rest of the price being borne by everyone who supports the government through taxes and military service.
"I don't see any real problem with just increasing the fuel efficiency of our cars."
Well, I know of quite a few people that would object to the BILLIONS of dollars involved in satisfying your emotions.
And there's no need for you to own a gun, or have the capability to post your opinion on the internet.
Quit thinking like a Soviet apparatchik.
I would like you to defend your claim that the majority of truck owners never haul anything in them. I have never meet a truck owner who never used it to haul anything. You might be taken a bit more seriously if you didn't resort to ridiculous hyperbole.
Those are mid size cars. A full size is a Lincoln...ect. What can you haul in these cars? Where does the wheel barrow and tools go? How many sheets of plywood can you fit? Can you get a 1/2 to 1 ton in your midsize
Actually, you can haul quite a lot in, or with, a midsize vehicle. I own a Ford Focus wagon. I can put my rototiller in the back, and at the same time, carry up to 200lbs of lumber on the roof rack. I have also hauled upwards of 800lbs of concrete products in the back. Over that weight or for long hauls, I opt to attach the trailer. Now, with that amount of weight, my mileage drops from 30MPG to about 25MPG or less, given the terrain I drive over. It's just a matter of working effectively and safely with what you choose to drive. It can be done.
Now obviously, I can't haul a full sized travel trailer of boat with my vehicle, nor do I use it as a contractor would, but it serves my purposes.
"IIRC, the Explorer is based on the F-150,..."
You have recalled incorrectly. The Expedition is based on the F-150.
It might take a little time to optomize all the vehicles out there.
"Why don't we bump up the ethanol percentage and it will help reduce our gasoline usage."
No, you'll INCREASE it since it uses more fossil fuel to produce ethanol than you can reclaim from the ethanol.
Think of ethanol as an inefficient battery.
Ethanol is what you get when you mix corn with tax dollars.
You're ignoring the difference between "raising fuel efficiency standards" and actually achieving, under the immutable laws of thermodynamics and economics, such an increase.
California mandated that 3% of vehicles sold in the state be pure electric vehicles by about this year or so. Where did that get them? Absolutely nowhere, and billions of dollars were poured down a dead-end rathole in pursuit of a practical electric vehicle because of their shortsighted rules. Mandates are merely ways for politicians to pretend they're doing something, as opposed to having any relationship to the real world.
Ethanol sets a lot of people apart. In the later stages of interest it even gets people kicked from public buildings such as the City Library and from quasi-public areas such as the Mall.
Your SUV is only a small part of the US demand. Commercial use of fuel is a huge factor. Whether you burn 7 gallons today or 4 isn't a big factor.
And whether you burn 7 or 4 is nothing when you realize that the big price swings you see are driven by the Asian economy. Not the US economy.
Steel and concrete are going through the same thing, being driven upward by an active economy, most especially driven upward by an increased dynamism in the Asian economy. Again, the cement in your sidewalk is nothing, concrete is being driven up by other factors. A few pounds difference in the amount of metal in your car is nothing when China is on a building spree like never before in world history.
On a personal level, though, when it costs nearly a hundred dollars to fill your SUV, people make their own decisions to get a little PT Cruiser to ride around in when they don't need to drive the SUV, and they do it without anyone telling them to. If they don't, if you see a housewife riding around in her SUV by herself, then you have to imagine that she has decided its worth it to pay the hundred dollars to fill it because:
She doesn't have the money right now to buy another vehicle;
She needs a large vehicle to carry all the kids;
They occasionally haul stuff and can't afford to own several vehicles;
They have decided that the additional safety factor is worth it to them.
They keep making laws making it difficult to have a larger vehicle, and people keep coming up with ways around the laws because people want the option of having one if they want one. Outlaw them all together and people will buy school buses and outfit them in leather and stereo systems because if they believe they need one, no one is going to stop them.
I don't need one, and evidently you don't either. But if you need one bad enough to pay the $50 grand to buy it, and the hundred bucks to fill it, that is a decision you have to make. I'm not going to make it for you.
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