Obama to mandate higher gas mileage standards (aka trading blood for oil) (wages, healthcare)
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Hello, do you not remember the vehicles of the 70s and early 80s? Congress, NHTSA and the EPA enacted emmissions, fuel economy and safety standards that couldn't reasonably be met with available technology. We have better vehicles than ever now, but it took 30 years for the technology to catch up with the arbitrary government demands. With modern fuel injection and computer controls, those standards are met. With the band-aids applied back in the 70s and 80s, cars met emmissions, with medicore gains in mileage and terrible performance. Remember 305 and 350 V-8s getting 130-140 HP? Remember the maintenance nightmares they were? Remember when the US auto industry was the dominant force in US industry? GM alone used to have something like 70% of the market...and now they have gone through bankruptcy. Not that all of GMs issues were due to the government.
The automakers do have significant resources, but they are not what they used to be. Margins have been cut to remain competative, leaving less money for R&D than was the case 40 years ago. Even back then, the auto industries resources are not what many would believe. They aren't the government, they don't just print money when they need to do something. They have to balance profits with investments.
Hopefully Obama and his EPA don't get into the act and further restrict auto emissions. Car emissions have been reduced by ~98%. How much further do we have to go, and at what cost? We're long past the point of diminishing returns for every dollar spent.
Thank you, Toyman, for refreshing this thread with some historic reality.
Yes, I remember the garbage GM produced in the early 80s when they were forced to make Toyotas rather than the great cars of the previous generation that were their forte....many of which are extremely high value classics today. That's when the US auto industry began to die a painful death. The story is so sad that it wasn't even a major event when we lost Pontiac and Oldsmobile....because they hadn't made anything worthy of either name for 20+ years.
As you say, they're doing a better job building their Toyota clones now than before, but they're still a far cry from the classics - the great US cars that made hearts beat faster with each new model year. I wouldn't take a front-wheel drive transverse-engined car as a gift and my stance on that hasn't wavered since my first regrettable weekend driving a brand new Chevy Citation loaner car while my Monte was in the shop.
The public does vote for the types of vehicles that they want simply by opening their wallets---period.
If the government mandates electric cars with absurd MPG rerquirements, there is NO guarantee that we will buy them, and as evidenced by the whopping 481 Volts and 1,142 Nissan Leafs sold in May of this year, they simply do not meet the needs of the marketplace, starting with their nosebleed-inducing pricetags.
CAFE standards have always been pointless; more mindless micromanaging by the 'experts' in Washington DC.
Americans have been voting with their wallets for decades about the types of vehicles they wish to buy, and the undisputed fact of the matter is that the Ford F-150, Chevy Silverado, Accord, Camrry, Civic & Corolla have dominated the sales charts for well over fifteen years, and with no gotta kiss up to Al Gore battery powered tree-huggermobiles anywhere in sight!!!!!
My Prius gets 50 mpg. FIFTY. Take your big vehicle, fill it up with hundreds a month. Go for it. I fill up for about $35 every two weeks. And that's with gas at $3.50/gal.
You're basically flushing your money down the drain, do you know that, right? Very few people actually need vehicles that big.
New standards won't kill "any" jobs.
Last edited by CaseyB; 08-02-2011 at 08:12 AM..
Reason: off topic/rude
The OP focus was about KILLING JOBS. Let's hear some specifics about that. I am concerned if jobs will be lost.
The original article cited was trumped up by a Fox contributor hoping that people wouldn't see through his smokescreen. It was a political piece. Check it out!
Of course... it does not surprise me at all. Obama and Liberals want higher gas prices. If people can't afford to put gas in the car then people will cry and beg for green energy. It's pretty simple really.
And if people can't afford to put gas in the people car they will cry and beg for green energy.
Yea green energy will save us all. And if you believe that as Rodney Dangerfield once said in the movie back to school "Why don't you stick in Disney!"
No bigger polluter or consumer of fossil fuel than the fed guv/pentagon.
Maybe scale back the empire and leave us little people alone.
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Obama Proposes Tighter Fuel Standards----Thank you Mr. President For Giving Us Higher Gas Prices
