Fight OPEC? Vote with your wallet

Apparently the new 3 is pretty good. But the old 3 was noisy, and wasn't that fuel-efficient for a small car. I don't know why it did better than the Corolla and i30 for so long.

What amazes me is that no-one did a spoof, with GM workers in China and America and Thailand and Korea saying "We're here" in their own languages. The ad was extraordinary: it basically said "We might not be employing you any more, but we're still here to take your money." The backlash was huge.

 

Yep. Sometimes I think that most adverts just do not move the consumer dial very much, but a bad one can destroy a company. I would not care to be the PR firm that came up with that jewel, let alone the employee.

Fwiw, the Holden message did kinda sorta come through: lots of Holden related employment remains in Oz, like mechanics and dealerships.

 

Oh, I see the message: there's what you said, and there's sports sponsorship and stuff like that. But they'd still have been a lot better off saying nothing: the anger this fuelled was really quite full-on. They need their adverts to focus on the cars now, and not the company.

 

Was the advert sanctioned in Australia or from outside? I'd wonder if it was someone from GM HQ in Detroit, rather than someone in Sydney who knows what Aussies are like .

To me I could see both sides to it. One being we still employ people and two, the blackmail side. Don't buy our cars and you make people unemployed.

 

Yep. If you want to see more rankings, see 2013 U.S. Vehicle Sales Rankings By Model - Top 270 Best-Selling Vehicles In America - Every Vehicle Ranked - GOOD CAR BAD CAR.

Hybrid take rate in the US last was still under 3% (December 2013 Dashboard - HybridCars.com).

From the above, you can see that the HyCam only sold ~44.5K units in 2013 in the US.

But from http://media.gm.com/content/dam/Media/gmcom/investor/2014/jan/Deliveries-December-2013.pdf, if you add up all variants of the Escalade, Tahoe, Yukon, and Suburban (all battering ram of death class SUVs), GM sold over 210K units! These beasts are sub-17 mpg combined (Compare Side-by-Side) and even worse you choose AWD or 4WD versions and extended length versions (e.g. Suburban, Escalade ESV and Yukon XL).

 

People here (in the USA) are already used to $3.50-$4.00/gal gas so life goes on with 15mpg vehicles.
What we need is sustained $8/gal like Europe already has- then maybe you'll see some changes.

 

And whilst it's unpleasant, life doesn't end. You've seen the specs of those cars that get 70+ mpg UK. I specifically chose some of the models that you get in the US; the Civic and Mazda 6, so that you can see that with a little tuning here and there you can have the same car that gets double the mpg your model does. Emissions are the same now with Euro 6 compliance.

 

If IIRC, median household income in the US is about $50k/year. Merkins start to really pay attention to car fuel economy when fuel costs rise over ~ 5% of their total budget.

 

Where I live- Long Island NY, IIRC the median household income is $87K so $3.50/gal gas is still cheap.
Right now with $3.50/gal gas it cost Joe-six-pack and his redneck buddies $80 to fill his pickup, make that $185 ($8/gal gas) and just maybe he'll start driving close to the speed limit- rather than 75mph on 55mph roads, and maybe he won't punch it at every traffic light and stop sign like it's the start of the Indy 500.

 

The article gave some good stats, the new 54.5 CAFE MPG should reduce US crude oil demand by 2 million barrels/day by 2025 (out of ~18-19 million) presumably the reduction increases as we get to 2030 and beyond as more and more car owners buy the newer higher MPG cars.

Bob- If the show ever talks in detail about why they think the US automakers might not meet the 54.5 CAFE, I'd like to hear what they are saying about it.

 

YES

The Ford F Series, namely the F-150 pickup.

And it drives most of the profits at Ford, so next time the gas prices spike, they may be in for another rough ride.

 

Which is why they are taking the big step on an aluminum body for the next generation to improve fuel economy.

 

Ironically, their latest F-150 will have an aluminum body and chassis like my 2000 Honda Insight.

I'm all for using light materials and improved aerodynamics as they are the low-hanging fruit to improve fleet fuel economy, but around one out of three drivers use pickups as a personal vehicle...pickup sales declined by one third in the past recession.

I might get a 2nd-hand pickup truck to haul stuff every couple of months, but that's it.

Just too many Americans that regard vehicles less than four liters as girly mopeds...anybody that can figure out how to change that almost hard-wired mentality would do more for the environment than all hybrids and EVs on the road to date and should be a slam-dunk for the Nobel Peace Prize and Time's Person of the Year.

 

For those that scorn any kind of efficiency mandates from the government, imagine or economy if the average US car got 14 mpg like it's 1973, instead of around 24. Add to that homes, commercial buildings, and appliances not having to improve in efficiency. Things would probably get more efficient, but maybe only half as much. Point is we would still be importing oil and definitely remain in recession.

 

Even with $8 gallon gas, some may switch, but the truck sales will still dominate because people will get use to it and immune from the initial price shock.

 

Tesla is working hard to change that mentality. They have a bunch of people buying that don't give a rip about OPEC or oil.

 

^ I hope Tesla succeeds.

 

Some will, but my experience here indicates many will moan, many will grumble and many will find an alternative or question if they REALLY need their expensive vehicle.

Less than ten years ago petrol here was probably the same cost as yours is today, though yours ten was probably 20c a gallon

At that time I drove a 4 litre Jeep and thought nothing of its 15 mpg fuel economy. Sure it cost a little more to fill up than other cars but I liked it. There is no way I could afford to run one today. Similar vehicles exist here today, but instead of 4 litre petrol engines, they have 2 litre diesels. Same car, double the fuel economy - though with the increase in fuel costs it's probably no different

 

I'm pretty sure $8/gal gas would trigger some major changes.
If the median US income is $50k- that's probably $750/week take home. Now take out mandated medical insurance and car insurance, homowners insurance, mortgage payment, car loan, then food, utilities, cable, property taxes, non covered medical, etc... and you're left with a couple hundred a week (if you're lucky). $180/week in gasoline expense (just for one car!) would be a major hit for a $50k/year household.

 

$8 a gallon gas will hurt the US. It will shrink the middle class and slow the economy in general. And a number of the people shouting it will make no difference will get hurt.