Cutting Off Their Noses to Spite Their Faces
The irony is so think you’d need the “jaws of life” to cut through it. On the same day that automakers reported their catastrophic sales slide for the month of June, the result of skyrocketing gasoline prices and inefficient product offerings, they also filed their objections to the government’s new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, claiming that improving the fuel economy of the vehicles they manufacture would be disastrous to the auto industry, to consumers and to the nation’s economy.
Are they serious? Who writes their material? Don’t they realize that their sales are nosediving precisely because Americans are rejecting low-mileage vehicles in the face of $4.00 a gallon gasoline?
Remember a few months ago when a reporter asked President Bush if he was concerned about gasoline hitting $4 a gallon, and he replied, “Oh really? Four dollars a gallon? I hadn’t heard that.”? I didn’t think it was possible for anyone to be any more clueless than that, but here come GM, Ford, Chrysler and Toyota to prove me wrong. The automakers complain that the new CAFE standards will cost 82,000 jobs and $29 million in economic activity, and will reduce industry output by 850,000 units. Guess what, guys? It’s already happening, and it’s not because of CAFE standards. You’re losing customers, market share and stock value because you ramped up production of gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs and willfully ignored the nascent market for high-quality, high-mileage cars (not to mention the market for hybrids, flex-fuel vehicles and alternative fuel vehicles). How can you seriously look at what’s happening in the marketplace today and complain that being forced to sell high-mileage vehicles will kill your business? How can you say you didn’t see this coming?
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Just more proof that market forces are more powerful than any government intervention. I have long felt (as have many others) that market forces will self-regulate and industry. Those that choose to look forward will develop the technology and surpass their competitors in sales and market share. Toyota invested heavily in hybrid technology years ago and are now reaping the benefits. Let the government stay out of it and may the strong survive.
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:20 pm
American wants Suv`s cars with 500 horse power Rv`s boats. What we do not want is five dollar gas. Wake up poeple their is no,I repeat no shortage of oil.We need new poeple in oil. Not the same world groups holding all the oil rights.We need the goverment to allow new investers into drilling. drill now,build more places to refine. This will make jobs and move things ahead. The other course is the 3 world approch, park you boat car and all your gas guzzlers and watch as america goes the way of the rest of the world. And anyone that belevies in green house gases can all sit in a tent in some 3 world country and hold hands,sing and wait for the end of the world.Long live the internal combustion engine.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Attaboy Jason! I wonder about all the bragging on fuel mileage in new hybrid vehicles. I just took a trip in my 1993 Park Ave. I ran highway speed (70-75mph) and it got 26MPG. My mother in law does not get that good in her 07 Buik LaCrosse. That is downhill thinking. The answer is a bucket of tar and a bag of feathers. Tar and feather all tree huggers and start drilling for more oil and refining more gasoline.
July 24th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Regarding the hybrids, etc., I just ran over the road from Tulare, CA to Walcott, IA Trucker’s Jamboree in my 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix, larger engine, 133,000 miles on the odometer. The cruise control was set at 65 mph., right lane running, careful fuel enhancing driving. The net result after 4,100 miles was 30.7 miles per gallon. It can be done by almost anyone.
We do not have to drive heavy fuel hogs and drive like an entry in an auto race track. Slow down, save the hybrid money, and enjoy the better mileage.
Uncle Darrell