Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:52:59 -0400
Reply-To: BJ Feddish <bfeddish@NETREACH.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: BJ Feddish <bfeddish@NETREACH.NET>
Subject: Gas, milage, etc (was Air Engine)
In-Reply-To: <132301c8a576$1d761120$0a00a8c0@OWNERMIKE>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>> When they rationed gas in the '70's, we were forced to do just that, by
those long lines at the pump and limits of availability. Who was controlling
that at that time? Auto manufacturer's were required to sell down-sized
economy cars. The land-yachts were parked everywhere and you couldn't give
them away! We need to return to this method of limitations, to help fix the
mess we seem to have gotten ourselves into. <<
Absolutely.
The problems is when gas hit the equivalent of $3 a gallon back in '82 it
stopped right about there for about 20 years. Yes, VW, Toyota, Datsun, etc.
were making high mileage cars in the 70's and when gas got expensive people
were abandoning their American cars in droves and buying these gas sippers.
America tried to catch up with the Pinto, Chevette, Gremlin, and even trying
to "Desielfy" a gas engine with the Oldsmobile's. All were embarrassments.
I had a '65 bug and used to laugh my way past the gas stations. The problem
was gas stayed the same price up until pretty recently. So what happened?
The US car companies went back to making gas guzzlers and the Japanese and
German cars just improved performance and let their MPG start to slip.
Nobody cared about gas again. Had we headed down the same path we were
headed in '82 we'd all be getting 60 MPG right now. So what's going to
happen next? If gas continues to rise then more and more people will have to
abandon their SUV's and car companies will have to start offering cars we
want. If they had used the technology over the last 25 years to improve
mileage instead of performance we'd be in a better place. If gas prices
fall or stay the same over the next 10 years guess where we'll be? Well have
more US build "Hybrids" that get 19 MPG.
Ration gas? I don't think so. I have a Eurovan that gets crap mileage
around town. Matter of fact my '83 Westy only does slightly better. Why does
my Eurovan get crappy mileage? Because it has a 6 cylinder (my first 6 cyl
car I've ever owned) 206 HP engine and an automatic transmission. I like
driving vans; it's not my fault that they did not sell the diesel Eurovan
here with the 5 speed manual. That's what I really want and I can't get it.
The same goes for other cars. I take no responsibly for this van getting
crappy mileage; I bought what was offered to me. Build me a 35 MPG van and
I will go buy it, I don't care how slow it is. Build me a 5 speed diesel
Routan MV and I'm there.
What's my prediction? The bottom is going to drop out of commodity
speculation (Tech Boom->Mortgage Backed Securities->Commodities->(the next
bubble)) and gas is going to level off at some point and can all forget
about gas prices and go by a Hummer.*
Thanks,
Bryan
*Sarcasm.
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