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Automotive News & Views How does gas at $4 and higher impact you?
2183 messages, Last post on Nov 21, 2009 at 5:13 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: gagrice (Feb 15, 2009 9:17 pm) But the key here is none of the knee jerk extreams of raising fuel till it hurts the working class by taxes or paying out more money to the manufacturers is necessary. It seems as if it never was. It seems as if many have been persuaded that the consumer needs to be the one making all of the sacrifices and the companies should skate free on this. The manufacturers "know" what the consumer wants but they have no incentive to give it to us contrary to what some people think. Admitting that we will pay more for whatever they offer will only slow down the competitive process even more. Let the market work and someone will make just what the consumer wants to buy. When that happens the major manufacturers will scramble their tails off not to lose the fish they have been picking up off of the beach for all of these years. They tried to force people into something they didn't want by legislating such restrictions on full sized station wagons and Sedans that it wasn't profitable for the car companies to make them. But the consumer knew what they wanted and we got Mini-vans. But Mini Vans couldn't pull anything and Pickups had limited space. So we got SUVs. But the knee jerk people couldn't understand the whole concept of making what we bought better. instead of working on more efficient SUVs and Quad cab trucks they expected people to give up the reasons they bought those vehicles and wanted to squeeze them into a vehicle that didn't meet those needs. If we think about it a good part of the problems we now have with vehicles are because of the government and the manufacturers in combination. Being the problem they hardly can be the solution. But toss in something like the EV I mentioned and we see that Toyota, Honda, GM and the rest of them have been pulling our chain all this time. If these things do manage to sell,and I admit I have been disappointed before, then the Land of the rising sun will be working their tails off to retool faster than we ever imagined. GM has already got egg on its face and this will just be icing on the cake. we can have clean EVs for city driving and those of us who have a life outside of driving back and forth to the city can have our tow vehicles and still save more fuel that what the manufacturers have ever promised to help us save. |
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Replying to: gagrice (Feb 15, 2009 9:17 pm) How would you like to be the first on your block with that puppy? You'd probably get more attention than a new Vette. 
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Replying to: steve_ (Feb 15, 2009 9:28 pm) Good article steve, and from NPR! I'm impressed. They didn't blame any of it on Bush. Seriously though, I've wondered why there was such a difference between NYMEX oil and Brent oil. That explained it nicely.
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Replying to: oldfarmer50 (Feb 16, 2009 6:16 am) They got it from the Associated Press.
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Replying to: oldfarmer50 (Feb 16, 2009 6:16 am) That was informative. And they placed the blame where it belongs on the Democrats 
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Replying to: gagrice (Feb 16, 2009 7:15 am) 
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Replying to: steve_ (Feb 16, 2009 7:18 am) Costco is still jammed every day from the door opening. Where it is noticeable is Home Depot and Lowes. Not crowded at all. Building here is at a near standstill. And the county just raised the already high building permit cost even higher. Our local and state politicians need a reality check. You could lay off half the civil service and not notice them being gone.
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Replying to: gagrice (Feb 16, 2009 7:30 am) I had one of those, and was upside down on the house for a while too. Good ol' Alaska boom and bust. I also remember gas shortages - if refinery production continues to fall, maybe we'll start seeing more spot shortages or worse. At least $3 gas was plentiful.
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Replying to: steve_ (Feb 16, 2009 7:35 am) Makes $4 gas seem kind of insignificant.
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Replying to: gagrice (Feb 16, 2009 8:17 am) Raising prices during that time didn't work to "encourage" the automotive industry into doing anything. The biggest boost came from affordable vehicles from the imports during Nixon and then Ford. All Carter did was allow interest rates to run wild. This recession could open the door to small companies to grow and produce in California and the rest of this country as long as we don't spend all of our time propping up the failed companies with our tax money or more of our income for products we don't want. Kindness, optimism, trust, rewarding works well with personal relationships. All it does in the business world is encourage them to stock up on KY. |
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