Obama's new rules will transform US auto fleet

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Obama will use the CAFE standards to make car companies produce cars that consumers don’t want. They will have higher gas mileage, but be smaller and less safe. To ensure that people will buy them, he will make gasoline prices go up, through taxation.

At some point in the future, after the country is inundated with little cars that nobody wants and high gasoline prices, the trend will reverse. The market will drive gas prices down, and U.S. customers will get rid of their little cars and start demanding real cars once again. But in the meantime the country will have been impoverished with taxes, cap and trade, and government intervention into markets.
 
JimG said:
Yeah–I can see driving this little thing from KC to Garden City–NOT!
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I don’t think a Smart Car is necessary to get better fuel economy. The Drudge Report is simply doing a bit of editorializing.

I average 30 - 31 mph in my 4 cyl. Hyundai Sonata. Hyundai makes a 6 cyl. version, but why get a larger engine if I don’t need it?
 
It was my impression that he was also aiming at the hybrids, like the Prius by Toyota.
 
35 mpg isn’t that much of a leap for a 4 cyl car. Ford has some technology to get that in a 6 cyl car as well.
 
Personally, I think this is a good thing. I drive a Nissan. When I bought it new back in the 90s, I was looking for a dependable fuel efficient compact car. The US automakers had nothing to offer me. Here in Southern California folks drive a lot, many of us have long commutes. While many folks drive large vehicles, SUVs and such, the small cars that are on the road are 90% imports (though many, like my Nissan, are made in the US). Hondas, Nissans, Toyotas, a lot of hyrbids. My car is not expensive to drive or maintain and it meets the toughest emissions standards in the country - and it was VERY reasonably prices, even cheap. Last year gas got up to $5 a gallon here. It was tough for everyone, but wtih my good mileage, it was way less painful for me than those Expedition drivers. Folks can be so short sighted. Gas drops in price and they buy big cars again - I know single women with SUVs. But gas could go up any day now - and in the long run, I’m sure it will. And the bigger vehicles do pollute more - and climate change issues aside, pollution is still a big concern. California’s made great strides in reducing our smog problem, but we can do more.
 
The new GM (Government Motors) proudly introduces the 2010 Obama…

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
gilliam said:
http://www.drudgereport.com/sc.jpg**
**Obama’s new rules will transform US auto fleet… **
President to set standards of car emissions…
Consumers face higher prices…
Safety could suffer… **
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I’m right behind you, Barry.

When YOU start driving one of these, then I’LL drive one of these.

Can’t wait to see you in one of these at your next Presidential motorcade, all shiny black with the Presidential Seal on the door and flags on both fenders.

If that doesn’t happen, and you don’t want to take the first step to “set an example” for us poor average citizens out here, well, then I guess you know what you can do with your little pregnant roller skate, there.
 
wapsi said:
I average 30 - 31 mph in my 4 cyl. Hyundai Sonata. Hyundai makes a 6 cyl. version, but why get a larger engine if I don’t need it?
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b/c a larger engine equals more horsepower and more horsepower equals more fun. 😃
 
Two thoughts:
  1. Another blow to large families who already have a hard time finding ample and affordable vehicles.
  2. The final straw for Texas to secede may be to threaten Texans’ F150s and SUVs. 😃
 
Corki said:
  1. Another blow to large families who already have a hard time finding ample and affordable vehicles.
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and dont think for a second they didnt consider that. the ‘green’ crowd is one of the loudest callers for population control wanting us to have 1-2 kids max per couple. do you think you could get 3-8 in one of these things?
 
Swan said:
Personally, I think this is a good thing. I drive a Nissan. When I bought it new back in the 90s, I was looking for a dependable fuel efficient compact car. The US automakers had nothing to offer me. Here in Southern California folks drive a lot, many of us have long commutes. While many folks drive large vehicles, SUVs and such, the small cars that are on the road are 90% imports (though many, like my Nissan, are made in the US). Hondas, Nissans, Toyotas, a lot of hyrbids. My car is not expensive to drive or maintain and it meets the toughest emissions standards in the country - and it was VERY reasonably prices, even cheap. Last year gas got up to $5 a gallon here. It was tough for everyone, but wtih my good mileage, it was way less painful for me than those Expedition drivers. Folks can be so short sighted. Gas drops in price and they buy big cars again - I know single women with SUVs. But gas could go up any day now - and in the long run, I’m sure it will. And the bigger vehicles do pollute more - and climate change issues aside, pollution is still a big concern. California’s made great strides in reducing our smog problem, but we can do more.
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Why is this a good thing? Why is it good for the government to limit the liberty of car manufacturers to produce the vehicles people want? Do you like giving up your liberty? If not, why do you think it is good for others to give up theirs?

Also, highway fatalities will climb with these lighter cars. But as any good enviromentalist will tell you - it is better to care for the earth and than to save lives which would be a burden on the planet anyway.
 
Corki said:
Two thoughts:
  1. Another blow to large families who already have a hard time finding ample and affordable vehicles.
  2. The final straw for Texas to secede may be to threaten Texans’ F150s and SUVs. 😃
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  1. Not just large families but average sized families as well. There is no way you can get 4 people in those little bitty cars. You can not even get 3. Another thing just how safe are those cars for infants and toddlers? Can you even get a carseat in there? Infants, and other children for that matter, are not supposed to go in the front seat of a car because of the airbag. Has this matter been looked at? If the cars that are going to be made are not practical for the average family then they simply won’t buy them. Instead they will hang on to their old cars. That will in turn hurt the auto industry even more.
  2. Not just Texas, ever been though Oklahoma? We have a large number of trucks and suvs in this state. Seems like just about every other vehicle is a truck. The auto makers will still have to make trucks because there are somethings you simply can not do with a car. Trucks are not called workhorses for nothing.
I think this is going to be one of those things that will be passed but never fully implemented. Either that or it will be another law that is simply not enforced.
 
JimG said:
Obama will use the CAFE standards to make car companies produce cars that consumers don’t want. They will have higher gas mileage, but be smaller and less safe. To ensure that people will buy them, he will make gasoline prices go up, through taxation.

At some point in the future, after the country is inundated with little cars that nobody wants and high gasoline prices, the trend will reverse. The market will drive gas prices down, and U.S. customers will get rid of their little cars and start demanding real cars once again. But in the meantime the country will have been impoverished with taxes, cap and trade, and government intervention into markets.
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LOL… there won’t be any oil then, it is a finite resource. The CAFE standard will not make cars less safe, each year they get more safe, bigger doesn’t always equal safer.

The auto industry will make cars that will sell. The Gov is bailing…ok WE are bailing these guys out. Toyota, Honda, Nissan etc… all make smaller cars yet they aren’t the ones asking the Gov for our money now are they? Detroit has known for years how to get better mileage out of their autos but why do so when you have a “Oil man” abet one that all he did was bankrupt companies like he did the nation, at the helm.

Quit looking for the negative all the time in everything the President does. Our Statewide Catholic paper has done a GREAT job of raking him over the coals were we disagree with him, but they have also done a GREAT job of showing that programs are already being put into action regarding the poor, immigration, etc… which our Church has pushed for since they were abandoned.

Joe

PS - I drive an 4x4 F150 and my wife has a Dodge Minivan so I’m all for American Cars. I personally look forward to what will be out when my sons are old enough to drive.
 
Sabda said:
  1. Not just large families but average sized families as well. There is no way you can get 4 people in those little bitty cars. You can not even get 3. Another thing just how safe are those cars for infants and toddlers?
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Not a problem. As I mentioned previously, my current car gets 30-31 mph and as a family sedan it is rated at 5 persons. Okay, five adults would feel squeezed, but a family of five wouldn’t have any problem. Its not an itty bitty car… in fact, I feel much more squeezed in my mother’s Mercury Mountaineer (an SUV which gets far worse gas mileage).

American car companies should have no problems adapting to the new fuel economy standards. Granted, they won’t be muscle cars, but how many people need them?
 
Look for plug-in diesel-electric engines (what locomotives use, sans plug-in) in all sizes of cars, trucks and SUVs. There are several that are in the development process. They will leave the Prius in the dust gas mileage wise.
 
wapsi said:
Not a problem. As I mentioned previously, my current car gets 30-31 mph and as a family sedan it is rated at 5 persons. Okay, five adults would feel squeezed, but a family of five wouldn’t have any problem. Its not an itty bitty car… in fact, I feel much more squeezed in my mother’s Mercury Mountaineer (an SUV which gets far worse gas mileage).

American car companies should have no problems adapting to the new fuel economy standards. Granted, they won’t be muscle cars, but how many people need them?
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It isn’t a matter of need, but a matter of want. If I want to buy a big block V8 and there is a market for one, an automaker should not be stopped by the government from making them.
 
JimG said:
At some point in the future, after the country is inundated with little cars that nobody wants and high gasoline prices, the trend will reverse. The market will drive gas prices down, and U.S. customers will get rid of their little cars and start demanding real cars once again.
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You have high hopes that have no foundation in reality. Lets say that the United States becomes completely energy independent and lets take a look at the amount of oil we have to work with.
  1. The Bakken Formation contains 3-4.3 Billion barrels of technically recoverable oil.
  2. ANWR contains approximately 4.3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil.
  3. The total amount in other proven onshore reserves is 21 billion barrels but I haven’t found anything which estimates how much of that is recoverable.
  4. Offshore oil reserves are estimated to contain approximately 66 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil. But these are as yet undiscovered which means no one really knows if these oil reserves actually exist.
The United States currently consumes 20.6 million barrels of oil per day which translates into 7.519 billion barrels per year. Even if we magically could tap all of our proven reserves at the same time the Bakken formation and ANWR would dry up within 1 year. Even if every drop of our remaining proven onshore oil reserves (21 billion barrels) is technically recoverable it would only last for 2 years and 7 months. Even if 66 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil actually exists offshore it would dry up within 8 years and 7 months. (Of course, all of this assuming that our consumption neither increases or decreases.) So, in short, the United States only has enough oil within it’s territory to be completely energy independent for 3.7 - 12.4 years. Alternative fuels and energy are the only way. Why delay the inevitable?

Further, you don’t have to drive a tiny compact car. Larger cars which run on alternative fuels are in development and there are all sorts of kits available to convert vehicles which run on gasoline and diesel to run on alternative fuels.
 
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