Mothertruckers

[digitaldiscipline]

jabber wins the second round of "Make Rafe Stab Himself In the Face Due To The Stupidity Of Others" for today by sharing the news that SUV & Truck Sales Spiked in October.

Go, read. The article is as snarky as anything I'd say on the subject.

Props (and a hearty "Welcome Back!") to xany_hellion for ditching Optimus Prime's Dodge Workboot in favor of a Prius. I'm edging up towards 33MPG in Zim these days myself.

Comments

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Gas prices dropped a bit right before October, neh?

[etcet.livejournal.com]

From pushing $3 to down into the $2.15 range, aye. Maybe, as Jabber suggested, the auto industry could cozen up with OPEC to keep prices down for a couple more months, so they can move that huge backlog of trucks that didn't sell for the last ten months before ratcheting them back up.

Sadly, I find it all to easy to believe that this is exactly the sort of thing that has crossed their minds.

[ladysoleil.livejournal.com]

SUV's annoy the bloody hell out of me.

I have a difficult time understanding how it is that in my neighborhood where many folks are on public assistance and there is little to no available street parking, so many people still manage to afford to drive the newest Dodge Behemoth. Add in the fact that then it causes the lovely residents of my town to then start shooting each other, presumably in disputes involving stealing these stupid trucks from each other, and this crap just makes my day.

Did I mention that we all live on paved roads out here and have a solidly good mass transit system? Yeah. We need trucks to survive the ever harsh conditions in New Jersey.

[tomakins.livejournal.com]

My Corolla has treated me well. Runs at 32/38, sometimes higher.

[ms-cantrell.livejournal.com]

i have a jetta tdi. biodiesel is more expensive, but i'm keen on the low-guilt aspect of it. and, it helps me feel superior to the chicks driving hummers.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

it also allows you to dodge them.

[ms-cantrell.livejournal.com]

which is good, as the cell phones and lip gloss they're often using cause them to drive erratically.

[mighty-man.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiosity, why the apathy towards SUVs? Can someone give me a single *good* reason why not to have one?

Don't give me any crap about how much gas it guzzles. You drive *any* car, it drinks some gas.

Don't give me any crap about how big they are -- how many of you have not *evah* used a large vehicle to help move something or someone?

Frankly to those of you who have any fiscal sense -- a few months ago was the time to buy a new truck or SUV. With zero percent financing and the massive rebates and sales they were having, you'd save enough money up front to pay for the gas and insurance difference between say a Tahoe and a Prius over the average projected lifetime of the vehicles.

Don't get me wrong, I've loved my Corolla, Camry, both small pickups, the Maxima and my current Impreza...but I'm pretty darn happy with my Murano.

Also, I should point out, Hummer H1s should be excluded from just about any discussion because they a) run on diesel (including biodiesel) and still get up to 23mpg (hwy) and b) because I like them. H2s and H3s of course, you're welcome to make fun of at any time.

[mighty-man.livejournal.com]

P.S. If you are all that up in arms about it, my advice to you: buy some oil stocks and get some extra bucks when the gas prices go up after the election.

P.S.S. I *don't* recommend Exxon because it's already overvalued.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I think VICEX has holdings in them, so, at one remove, I have. Heh.

Fine.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Anyone who wants to own a hummer needs a fucking CDL and has to obey commercial traffic laws, because it's an outsize vehicle as defined by the DOT's GVW standards.

Sixty-five hundred pound vehicles are unnecessary and wasteful for a single passenger with no haulage.

Re: Fine.

[mighty-man.livejournal.com]

Fine, getting a CDL isn't that much harder to get than a regular drivers license. And if it would get a lot of people who shouldn't be driving in the first place off the road, then I'm all for it. For that matter, let's make it a requirement to have a driver's license to even *own* a car. And as for obeying commercial traffic laws...sure, why not? =8-)

In what fantasy world are you to say that 6500 pound vehicles are unnecessary or wasteful for a single passenger with or without haulage? Why draw the line at 6500? Let's lower that -- anything over a motorcycle or perhaps a quad is unnecessary and wasteful for a single passenger with no haulage. Don't say that's too low -- the technology exists to do it and you damn well know it.

Let's eliminate SUV, station wagons, mid-size sedans, mini-vans, luxury sedans and pretty much everything except an economy sub-compact with a hybrid engine. Your Zim is unnecessary and wasteful for a single passenger with no haulage. So was your Audi, the SVX and even the "icebox." (how heavy was that?)

While we're at it, let's eliminate school buses. And sport cars too, I mean hell, they guzzle gas like you wouldn't believe. Might as well drop the speed limit everywhere to 30mph or less.

If you want to make a *serious* dent -- tax the hell out of gasoline like they do with cigarettes in NY. If you've got the money to buy and maintain the vehicle and you can afford the gas, drive whatever makes you happy. Tax the crap out of the gas -- Exxon can make profits still and the government gets a chunk to help maintain the roads, pay for fuel research or what have you. (for what it's worth, that's how it's done in singapore -- heavy import tax on cars, certificate of entitlement to own a car for 10 years, annual road tax and super expensive fuel).