Barnacle_Bill
Admiral
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2004
- Messages
- 6,469
This pretty much sums it up.
"http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977067637"
"http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977067637"
US automakers had the same problem in the 70's when people were also demanding vehicles with better gas mileage.
Here's the real problem, US automakers are actually making their "high gas mileage cars" LESS fuel efficient. I know you're thinking I'm nuts now, but consider this. I had a 1995 Chevy Caprice with the big V8 engine in it. It got 32 miles to the gallon. Now it managed that while still weighing close to a ton, and being much less aerodynamic. Today, I can buy a new car that barely weighs 400 lbs, and is 5 times more aerodynamic, but yet it only get 35 miles to the gallon.
More than 10 years later, less than half the weight, and at least twice as aerodynamic, and all we get for it is a lousy 3mpg? No way. There's no way these engines today are as efficient as those from 10 years ago. If I did nothing else but drop half the weight from my old Caprice, it would get over 40.
OR, I can go buy a Toyota that gets 45mpg.
And that's why US automakers are losing so much money? I'm sick and tired of them advertising their supposed high gas mileage when it's the same as last year and the year before, and a decade ago. If gas was as cheap as it was a decade ago, we wouldn't care, but it's not, so we do.
As I like to say, oil companies and US automakers are friends with benefits. While on the one hand the oil companies are benefiting from the automakers making less efficient cars than they could be. On the other hand, the oil companies are screwing our automakers.
US automakers had the same problem in the 70's when people were also demanding vehicles with better gas mileage.
Here's the real problem, US automakers are actually making their "high gas mileage cars" LESS fuel efficient. I know you're thinking I'm nuts now, but consider this. I had a 1995 Chevy Caprice with the big V8 engine in it. It got 32 miles to the gallon. Now it managed that while still weighing close to a ton, and being much less aerodynamic. Today, I can buy a new car that barely weighs 400 lbs, and is 5 times more aerodynamic, but yet it only get 35 miles to the gallon.
More than 10 years later, less than half the weight, and at least twice as aerodynamic, and all we get for it is a lousy 3mpg? No way. There's no way these engines today are as efficient as those from 10 years ago. If I did nothing else but drop half the weight from my old Caprice, it would get over 40.
OR, I can go buy a Toyota that gets 45mpg.
And that's why US automakers are losing so much money? I'm sick and tired of them advertising their supposed high gas mileage when it's the same as last year and the year before, and a decade ago. If gas was as cheap as it was a decade ago, we wouldn't care, but it's not, so we do.
As I like to say, oil companies and US automakers are friends with benefits. While on the one hand the oil companies are benefiting from the automakers making less efficient cars than they could be. On the other hand, the oil companies are screwing our automakers.
