The lack of the foregoing is ONE of the reasons we have folks commuting sixty+ miles in "pickemup" trucks. The other is government interference. Until government stepped in, the "sine qua non" of the suburban set was the station wagon. It was built on a car chassis.
EPA CAFE regs killed them. But didn't "kill the need" .
OMG this is almost sickening enough to make me puke.
Come on Mech, why is it that you only see the ONE side of everything? The station wagon could have been saved numerous ways, and I know this because there are two surviving examples, no THREE I just thought of a third, and it's a domestic one!
1) They could have done what Mercedes did, develop a reliable DIESEL version, which would have gotten 40 to 50% better fuel economy. No-o-o-o-o-o! Instead they insisted that station wagons had to have 460 cubic inch four barrel gassers and they wouldn't even stop bitching long enough to try fuel injection.
Jesus Christ on a bike Mechie, the station wagon died at a time when the US auto industry was so damn cynical that the only company with the guts to try an alternative design was forced to use a Renault engine...and we got AMC PACERS as a result.
The Ford Fairmont could have succeeded if they would have been willing to try an up-engineered version of the 2.8 liter Ford V-6 instead of the 250 or 300 cubic inch straight six, which they refused to outfit with fuel injection ONCE AGAIN.
Bullcrap, I call bullcrap.
2) Yeah I am on a roll! The next surviving example comes from SWEDEN, the Volvo wagon. They're everything the American wagons weren't, safer, better looking, roomier, more powerful but still efficient, because the Swedes, those damn socialist bastards, they engineered the crap out of em.
3) FINALLY today you can now get a decent station wagon again, and the best of them costs a pretty penny but it's powerful, good looking and it's efficient. The Cadillac CTS wagon.
It'll smoke a lot of the sports coupes and still get 25 mpg on the freeway.
And what we now call "sport touring" is a station wagon my friend. The Chevy Traverse, the Dodge Magnum, the Caliber and Nitro all fit the station wagon category.
And still no diesels. And please, don't even try to tell me it's because our smog regs are too tough. They're tough but it just requires something our automakers refuse to do, DOMESTIC research and development.
Hence the emergence of the SUV. (Which, BTW, weren't subject to "car safety regs" so mfgs, happily embraced the SUV and loaded it up with all sorts of "gee whiz" features attractive to the suburban set. Never mind the CG and ride height meant truck handling and "enthusiastic driving" meant dead bodies. The consumer - and most importantly government was "happy" !
Yeah okay whatever, not like Republicans don't have a aching desire for a large surrogate penis on wheels. That's what killed the station wagon, it's a Mom car while an SUV is compensation for.....
America is awash in energy ! We've got trillions of units of NG in proven fields.
Oh yeah sure.
USGS slashes Marcellus Shale estimate 80% The USGS are the factual end, the party poopers.
I am so used to hearing rosy projections...we're AWASH IN ENERGY, so much it will too cheap to meter!
Remember that projection? Yeah sure Mech, we can just hook up a port in every garage and charge a flat rate. Too cheap to meter!
I'm waiting for the next downgrade, first it was 410 trillion cubic feet, now 84 trillion, next they'll say 21 trillion.
And most of it will be on a slow boat to CHINA!
You like for us to forget that there is NO requirement that these benevolent bastards sell all that energy to US. They can sell it to anyone they want.
So like I said, the era of CHEAP AND READILY available fossil fuel IS OVER Mech. You can have cheap, but it will mean long lines and reduced availability, you can have readily available but it will mean expensive. You can have one or the other but not both.
Like wise billions of barrels of oil in proven fields. But there is one "holdup:". The Obama Administration ! Its halted development of inshore, shallow water development in the Gulf,
When they stop destroying those shallow waters we'll talk.
They seem to have a distinct disregard for that sort of thing.
blocked terrestrial development of the Baakken Field in the midwest
I would LOVE to engage you in a discussion of the costs involved in shale oil development, but I am waiting for oil to once again top 150 bucks a barrel. Once it does, and it has staying power at 150 for oh...say at least a decade, that discussion will not be necessary and whatever obstacles are currently present will be worked out, because at 150 a barrel it will make more sense to approach shale oil development than not to, and then the only problem will be whether or not the principal players want to pay attention to environmental quality or go in like usual rapers and pillagers they've proven to be.
Over my dead f**ing body, and I am not alone.
Notice how they suddenly came up with a new frack water formula the other day, one which isn't quite as toxic?
Know why? I think you do know why.
and done everything but declare martial law to slow development of Marcellus Shale ! One must wonder what the "objective" of the Obama Administration is, since its "estimates" of the efficiency and impact of its touted "green alternative energy" schemes aren't proving out in reality and killing a lot of wildlife along the way.
Spare me, please.
Republicans have BLOCKED almost EVERY SINGLE effort to develop alternative energy proposed since 2008 unless it benefitted China.
But not of this is going to help the plight of the OO trucker ! It appears he's going to get slammed on his punkin with yet another in a long litany of federal mandates favoring the unions and the ATA. And, as usual, the consummer will have to pay.... >Mech
And as usual, the consumer has to pay when the magical "invisible hand of the market" is allowed to work too, so what the hell is the difference, please tell me!
