[falser]

The most amazing thing to me is there are still people buying SUV's at all. And the numbers are still huge, hundreds of thousands every month are gobbling them up even at $3/gal due to the "sale" (ie. revaluation). What world are these people living in where they completely ignore resale value and gasoline costs when buying a new vehicle? I don't doubt the numbers will come down though. And we'll keep hearing American car manufacturers whining "oh poor us, nobody wants our products anymore, please give us subsidies" when they put all their eggs in one basket at the completely wrong time while letting the Japanese own the car market.

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('falser', ' ')And we'll keep hearing American car manufacturers whining "oh poor us, nobody wants our products anymore, please give us subsidies" when they put all their eggs in one basket at the completely wrong time while letting the Japanese own the car market.

[spudbuddy]

On automotive fuel efficiency-
we basically wasted 30 good years, three whole decades
(while being too busy making goo goo eyes with the old fart from Hollywood)
No -one else did.
Except Canada-
(remember them?)

On the Chapter 13/7 thing....
doesn't really matter what chapter you read...same results, if millions lose their credit, just imagine what that will do to the economy...
(Whaddya mean, I gotta use cash to buy my toys?!)

North America lives on credit. In fact, they live on the futures of their unborn grandchildren and great grandchildren, really. How's that for peda-phobia?

But anyhow, the market behaves like a good trained poodle. The demand for fuel efficiency will become huge. Both in existing design, and renewed efforts to improve it. Consumers won't care a hoot what gives them 50mpg, as long as they get it.
Just raise your purchase price and get it back at point of sale.
I'm shocked really, at what a SmartCar actually costs....all that money for what is essentially a glorified Harley Davidson...won't carry any more than that. Only difference really is that you're more or less inside out of the weather, and it balances nicely on 4 wheels, instead of 2.
(Correct me...is a Harley not actually longer than a SmartCar?)

On being cash-strapped on a relatively good income.
I agree totally: An income without the big fat cash cow credit package seriously reduces to what hardly amounts to middle class.
The margin of credit (otherwise known by its true name as debt) is what provides the majority of middle class purchasing power these days.
Once fuel costs are removed from the family piggie bank, what replaces those funds?

It's funny- while watching tv now...everytime I flip a channel and wind up with some ridicuous show (the kind I avoid like the plague) I find myself lost in thought about the cost of energy, of fuel...
like the quintessential car chase scene in thriller movies
Business as usual.

[nero]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')hey should come try that in Texas.

[gary_malcolm]

I'd like them better if they lit campfires underneath the gas tanks. Ah well, I still need to start my own chapter ;7)
I especially like the smearing of mud on the car doors... If you can't bring the SUV to the off-roading bring the off-roading to the SUV.

[CARVER]

Yesterday they showed a documentary over here about this happening in the US. They showed some of the commercials, about how SUV drivers indirectly support the terrorists. And things like: "What would Jesus drive?". Chalk outline of a dead body on the driveway. Spray painting "polluter" and "killer" on the car hood of SUVs. Stealing and deflating their tyres. It did not seem to get those SUV owners to think about what they are doing.

One of the guys who owns a Hummer was complaining about gas prices: "Bush should come to his senses, we own Iraq, gas prices should be brought down".

Personally I think they should redirect part of the exhaust back into the SUV, since they don't mind the additional pollution anyway let them breath it themselves, let them filter out the pollution with their lungs. Or maybe dump your trash in their backyards, they dump their pollution in the air you breath. But a real solution in my opinion is a high tax on gasoline (tax income to be used to undo the damage/pollution).

[gary_malcolm]

My good friend drives the new GM Valdeez... or whatever they call it. One day after a shopping 'expedition' she was unloading her worthless plastic crap and frozen low carb dinners from the tailgate and discovered a new bumper sticker,
"I'm changing the environment, ask me how!"

[ALBY]

All this anger towards SUV owners is unhelpful.
It obscures the The fact that EVERYTHING you consume or buy has been trucked and is virtually made of oil. More efficient car choice would have a negligible effect on oil consumption in this modern society. It is really how society is organized that is the question. You will not be able to save your 'easy motoring' lifestyle with a hybrid car. Deciding between Driving a Prius or a Suburban is a false choice, and the Prius drivers make me laugh with their holier than thou attitude.
On a more practical level, vandelizing SUV's in the USA will get you hurt, maybe shot. it's funny, i get dirty looks from the neo hippies, but never get confronted. could be because my 3/4 ton suburban has one of these on the back window (and several gracie jujitsu decals). [url]http://www.lifelibertyetc.com/Images/Products/ptsf_ammo.jpg]ammo photo[/url]

[EnemyCombatant]

Most 'hippies' don't care for violence. You are thinking about the anarchists.
You can't achieve peace through violence. It has never worked and never will. You are using intimidation as a means of security. And that works for so long. Jesus, Martin and Ghandi taught us the path to peace but we choose not to take it.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he floggings will continue until morale improves.

[elroy]

Maybe in rural areas of the USA a SUV has some merit to it, but over here there's absolutely no reason to own one. The netherlands is flatter than a pancake, most of the population lives in the west, the 'randstad' which means asphalt from north to south. Nobody needs a SUV since there doesn't exist any rough terrain. Yet the rich want to flaunt their wealth, they parade their status symbols up and down the expensive shopping streets so much they've been dubbed 'PC Hooft tractors'. (PC Hooft street is a very expensive shopping street in Amsterdam). Recently the government has been thinking about banning these SUVs or some other thing to do about it.

[wsims]

I quess what they're doing is attaching a bike pump to the stem and leaving the scene... A bit later they return to retrieve their pump.
A ball bearing placed in the valve stem cap will do the trick also.
I tested it out on one of my bikes and it works perfect. There hasn't been any field tests, however, there are a few vehicles in the hood that may qualify...
Idiots who speed, run stop signs and otherwise endanger others may get some extrajudicial remedy, especially those who pilot those asinine, jacked up monster trucks with mudders, etc.

[something_awfull]

*confession time*

I used to own a Jaguar XJ6 (4.2L), nice car and it was the only car I have owned that you could visibly see the fuel guage go down as you were driving, fuel economy was not one of the design criteria's. Due to my expanding family, I sold it and brought a modern wagon (estate), with almost the same size engine (4.0L) with the fraction of the fuel usage, thanks to engine management. We try keep use of it to a minumin, so we get by on $35AU a week for fuel.

[EnemyCombatant]

Tonight my husband is trading in his lexus for a Jetta TDI (diesel).
But he's happy to do so. Can't wait till he gets home. It gets 38 mpg city.

[lotrfan55345]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('something_awfull', '*')confession time* I used to own a Jaguar XJ6 (4.2L), nice car and it was the only car I have owned that you could visibly see the fuel guage go down as you were driving, fuel economy was not one of the design criteria's. Due to my expanding family, I sold it and brought a modern wagon (estate), with almost the same size engine (4.0L) with the fraction of the fuel usage, thanks to engine management. We try keep use of it to a minumin, so we get by on $35AU a week for fuel.

[jmacdaddio]

I vote for a bleak Christmas retail season which pummels Wal-Mart. If you're working somewhere for $9 an hour while your wife takes home $6.50, you're getting hit hard at the gas pump and your kids won't get much for Christmas, not that they got very much to begin with. And just think, winter in the US doesn't begin in earnest until late December anyway .... I can't imagine how those who are close to the edge are going to make it through without going bankrupt.

[Eli]

Wal-mart will do well as a discount retailer or at least fare much better than the big fancy department stores those who normally would go to Macy's will instead be shopping at Wally World. Wal-mart aint dead yet.

But I agree with the forecast for a bad retail season.

[something_awfull]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lotrfan55345', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('something_awfull', '*')confession time*I used to own a Jaguar XJ6 (4.2L), nice car and it was the only car I have owned that you could visibly see the fuel guage go down as you were driving, fuel economy was not one of the design criteria's. Due to my expanding family, I sold it and brought a modern wagon (estate), with almost the same size engine (4.0L) with the fraction of the fuel usage, thanks to engine management. We try keep use of it to a minumin, so we get by on $35AU a week for fuel.

[ALBY]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnemyCombatant', 'M')ost 'hippies' don't care for violence. You are thinking about the anarchists.

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ALBY', 'i')'ve never met anyone that identified themselves as an anarchist.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ALBY', '.')........ More efficient car choice would have a negligible effect on oil consumption in this modern society. It is really how society is organized that is the question.
..........