Date:         Fri, 22 Jun 2007 13:36:00 -0400
Reply-To:     BJ Feddish <bfeddish@NETREACH.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         BJ Feddish <bfeddish@NETREACH.NET>
Subject:      Re: What is it with the US?  (No real van content)
In-Reply-To:  <001a01c7b4ec$6244b520$80b2d8d1@dhanson>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Don makes some good points.

I think one of the problems is gas has been so cheap up until recently. Back
in 82 or so gas was +- $1.25 a gallon. About $3.20 in today's standards.  As
gas was rising in the 70's early 80's people were getting hurt in the wallet
with their gas guzzlers so American car companies tried to catch up.
Remember the Pinto, Chevette, Omni?  Americans car companies were scrambling
to make 4 cyl cars. There was even the Chevette diesel and Oldsmobile even
attempted a diesel (disaster) automobile.  None of the small American cars
came close to quality as the Japanese or German 4 cyl on the road.

But how quickly Americans forget how much gas was in the early '80's. I
often have to explain to people why my 83 van has a locking gas cap. Because
gas was being siphoned off by thieves at night. As the 80's progressed and
into the 90's. Gas stayed at $1.25 a gallon so luckily the American car
companies no longer had to care anymore. They've spent the last 25 years
trying to get more horsepower under the hood then increase fuel efficiency.
Even the Japanese and Europeans got a little lax. The current Honda Civic
gets about 10 mpg less then the one from 20 years ago.  I drove a '65 Beetle
in the early 80's and got 40mpg (I'm also a mileage junky). That's a shame
that a car from 40 years ago gets double the mileage of today's cars. Yeah
yeah, I know all about emissions, safety stuff, etc. but with today's
technology I know we can do it.

What was I rambling on about? Oh yeah. I think if gas stays at $3 and keeps
increasing it will once again start hurting people.  I work at home so all
my driving is around town and I still burn allot of gas. I could not imagine
what I'd be spending if I still had my 50 mile a day commute. When people
start to realize that gas is not coming down then I think there will be a
shift to higher mileage cars. It will happen out of necessity rather than
forced through legislation.

BTW, my wife's A4 gets a lousy 18 mpg. I would not have gotten a 6 cyl but
we got it used. My '04 Element gets an abysmal 18 mpg city and it has a 4
cyl. It does have the VTech stamped on the engine so I can convince myself
I'm cool when I open the hood.  My 83.5 Westy get's 19-20 around town. Guess
which one I drive the most.

On another note, I get annoyed when people say things like "You should feel
lucky, they are paying $10 a gallon in <name some European country here>.
Yeah, I know, but that's taxes used to pay for health care and education,
Things we pay for out of pocket here. There is no comparison.

Bryan