Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
My feelings about large cars versus tiny cars aren’t as divided as some folks might think they ought to be. My car is a “rice rocket” from another era, a 1989 Toyota Corolla GTS, built low to the ground. I drives it because I likes it. So I should be on the “tiny” side of the car debate, but frankly, a lot of the “tiny car” people are acting like complete dicks.
I think, in the parlance of my overly-simple-minded social studies teachers from middle school, it’s time to stop bickering and remember we all want the same thing.
Unfortunately, that same-thing we all want is: To drive around in a vehicle that sits way up high and has enough horsepower to rock the asphalt, while everybody else scoots around something…relatively bug-sized.
Which is quite doable, except for that bit about all of us having to live under the same laws. But it’s tough to let go of a dream, isn’t it? So the “tiny car” thing has turned into a huge squabble-fest in which much is said, but nobody really says what they mean.
And, being oh so concerned about our household budgets, we turn to our lawmakers to force us into a more economical way of life. Yeah, that’s the ticket. I think everybody understands, deep down, that if you want to have a little bit more money left over at the end of the week for your lottery tickets, you simply…decide things for yourself. But that’s it. We don’t want to decide things for ourselves. We want to keep driving things that sit way up high and have stepladders built in for the driver to climb in…and to be able to afford all that gas, we want the gas to fall back down to 58 cents a gallon, which it will surely do when the other guy drives something that looks like a fishbowl floating down the highway.
Well…GM is saying don’t forget about the extra costs involved in complying with this regulation.
GM says new fuel requirements to add $6,000 per car
New fuel efficiency requirements imposed by Congress will add, on average, $6,000 to the price of GM vehicles sold in the United States, the automaker’s vice chairman and product chief said on Tuesday.
Congress passed a new energy law in December 2007 that requires automakers to increase fuel economy across the industry to 35 miles per gallon by 2020 — up 40 percent from current levels.
“We’ve done the research and it’s going to cost us $4,000 on some vehicles and $10,000 on others, with an average of about $6,000,” Bob Lutz told reporters at the North American International Auto Show.
“That cost will have to be passed on to consumers,” Lutz, a long-time vocal critic of federal fuel regulations, said.
My car gets 35 miles a gallon quite regularly, with a fresh air filter and the tires properly inflated and rotated. When she was brand new, this was a minimum. Even with city driving.
But Lutz is right about the principle of the thing. Living in the nanny state has a cost to it.
Lutz said the law — the first mandated increase for passenger car fuel economy in more than two decades — will force GM to make vehicles lighter.
“We can make the 35 miles per gallon with vehicle size structures more or less like they are today but we will have to restrict our choices when we decide what we want to make next,” Lutz said.
Lutz said one example of the restriction in choices is that GM is now reversing its decision to make rear-wheel-drive versions of some vehicles because those models use more fuel.
“We probably have to take a lot of weight out of the vehicles. We will have to use some premium materials like more aluminum, more magnesium,” Lutz said. “Which gets you the weight savings but drives the cost up.”
“But we are going to try as much as possible to preserve the size of the vehicle the American public wants to buy.” [emphasis mine]
See, you have to read critically here. Lutz is speaking in behalf of an engineering mindset that is determined to appeal to the consumer impulses I described above. Sitting way up high. It’s tough to let go of that, and any carmaker who is careless in appealing to that vision is going to be rewarded with disappointing sales.
What’s undiscussed in this article, is that the model that results from this is bound to be compromised in other areas. It is all-but-certain to have safety issues. Meeting new requirements by shedding weight…and embracing classic dreams by sitting way up high. Zipping along at 85, no doubt. Yikes.
Hey, I got a name for these new cars that people still “want to buy” but get 35 miles a gallon and cost $6,000 more. How about the “Fustercluck”? Because that’s what it’s going to be, I think. One can only hope Congress builds in a requirement that the center of gravity can’t be any farther off the ground that it is in most cars today. Maybe it has to hug the road like my “semi-compact” wonder from the Land of the Rising Sun. And then…the Fustercluck will cost twenty thousand dollars more than you’re used to paying.
Otherwise — well, the highway death and injury statistics will be fusterclucks. I’m afraid our “first global warming deaths” are going to be happening along real soon now. Just not in the way the West Wing writers envisioned.
You know what could solve all this nonsense real quick? A “scientific study” that says excess government regulation leads to increased emissions of greenhouse gases…and causes learning disabilities in children, too.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.