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Automotive News & Views Has CAFE reached the end of its usefulness?
507 messages, Last post on Oct 27, 2009 at 11:49 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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don't you think that this is a horrible time to increase gasoline taxes? I mean, my wife and I are certainly in a position to pay a higher percentage, but a lot of Americans are not. I would think that this will further break people's financial spirits to up Federal fuel taxes.
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Replying to: steve_ (Apr 01, 2009 6:28 pm) Mountains and Molehills. |
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Replying to: iluvmysephia1 (Apr 02, 2009 8:20 am) Certainly the unemployment rate is the only factor that should be taken into account in terms of the timing of the gas tax. It should start out with a modest bump, with regular, small but frequent increases. If we set $4 gas as our target price floor, we have already shown (last summer) that it will be enough to begin to get people to conserve, and also to make changes in their vehicle buying habits. Then automakers can quit crying foul, they can make what they like and see what people will buy.
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Replying to: nippononly (Apr 02, 2009 7:27 am) I have no further choices except to drive fewer miles, change jobs, move domicile, etc. |
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I am not totally against raising gas taxes, I just think that if they do it now there will be mayhem in the streets. I am researching all-electric powertrains cars constantly now, planning to jump off the ghastly bandwagon as soon as the purchasing time is right. That could be years and years and years, but I am looking for that time to come. Excited about it, actually. 
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I certainly think so!
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Replying to: carfanforever (Apr 02, 2009 1:06 pm) Ove the 30 yrs that the current system has been in place it hasn't stopped the vehicle makers from making SUVs for those than want them, trucks for those that want them, midsizers for the bulk of the population and small cars and hybrids for those that want them. In addition it has saved billions of gallons of fuel and it's kept upwards of $25 to $50 Billion in our pockets that hasn't gone to oil companies and Saudi princes. So where is the 'bad'.
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Replying to: kdhspyder (Apr 02, 2009 1:51 pm) Becuase look at what this latest revamping of CAFE has done to the product plans of the D3. It has for all intents and purposes decimated GMs plans for Zeta, it's Trucks, and it's Muscle/Sports car program. Like it or not, those are the vehicles they know how to do best, and that earn the company positive buzz among car buyers, something GM could use every ounce of. It also has hurt Ford vis-a-vis their global RWD program, but since Ford is a little better at making smaller vehicles than GM (But still not as good as the Euros and Japanese) they were hit less hard by it. I think this was the plan all along, and that the haters of big V8 vehicles in Washington just bided their time to put something like this into action.
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Replying to: nippononly (Apr 01, 2009 8:20 pm) Your memory has failed you... for shame  Tata owns Jaguar and Land Rover, thus their inclusion on the list as the "manufacturer" (or, the parent firm). kcram - Pickups/Wagons Host
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Replying to: carfanforever (Apr 02, 2009 4:05 pm) Did you miss the fact that it was the price of fuel that jumped over $4 a gallon last year that was the real cause of the D3 getting out of SUVs and trucks. The new CAFE regs that you're worried about aren't going to take full effect for 11 more years!!!! It was the price of fuel and the shift of the US buying public since 2001 that put the D3 where they are now. CAFE had nothing to do with it. The old CAFE regs from the early 80s were still in effect all through this decade as GM fell apart. In the 90s GM made $Billions in profits with the same CAFE rules in place. All of a sudden this decade GM is a rotting hulk losing $Billions with the same CAFE rules in place. Nothing changed in CAFE while this transformation took place. CAFE is the easy excuse that losers search out in order to place the blame for their own incompetence. You can't make $Billions on one hand then lose $Billions on the other hand under the same rules then place the blame on the rules. The cut backs you noted were decided by the managment when they finally recognized that they had made a horrendous error by emphasizing BOF vehicles too heavily. The vehicles you noted as being the strengths of the D3 are in fact their weaknesses. The muscle cars do create a buzz in enthusiast circles. Agreed. But when those 12 enthusiasts buy their vehicles the vehicle maker is left with a near empty plant that can't be filled because the huge majority of the population has no interest whatsoever in these dinosaurs. The D3 can't make profits by being specialty boutique builders of low volume muscle cars. That was a luxury for a different time in the 70s when they dictated the market. Now the buyers dictate the market. In the meanwhile over the last 25 or 30 years we've saved billions of gallons of fuel not burned up and kept $25 to $50 Billions here at home instead of donating it to Big Oil, Saudi princes, Venezuelan dictators and Iranian terrorists. All the while during those years especially in the 90s GM was raking in $Billions in profits. Now what was bad about CAFE again?
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