Cars (Part III)

Photo:  General Motors

At last we come to the end of the past week's "Cars Trilogy"...  On par with such epic adventures as, "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy", "Back to the Future I, II, and II", and "The Bad News Bears" (yes, Classics each), we find ourselves at the end of the "Cars" series of posts and we are left wondering, "How will it end?", "What happens next?", and "For the love of God, will you ever post Part Three so I can get back to reading the "OMG!" page on Yahoo!?"

Well, wait NO MORE!  The epic "Cars Trilogy" of posts ends now!!! 

Well, not exactly right now, more of as in, "Very shortly ending once I get past this bit of prologue... right now!"

This officially marks the BEGINNING OF THE END of...  The MoosRoom Cars Trilogy" (Please hold your applause 'till the end - thank you!)

In "Cars - Part I" we learned that obscure federal and state agencies are working hard to come up with innovative ways to bill YOU for the miles you drive for work and play (because you shiftless Americans are NOT taxed enough already).  

YOU have been buying Electric and Hybrid Vehicles (and collecting those Federal Tax Rebates all the while) resulting in lower gas tax revenues required to maintain our 'aging highway infrastructure'.  Yes, I know that the $866 BILLION Stimulus bill was intended to do all this and more, but turns out...  It was only kidding.  That $866B mostly went to Unions.   You don't like it, call Jimmy Hoffa and tell him about it - sorry. 
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In "Cars - Part II" we learned that the NHTSB wants EV's, Hybrid Vehicles, and Oxen-Pulled-Wagons to 'Make more noise' because they are too dang quiet, especially when the oxen are wearing PETA-sanctioned-organically-grown and environmentally-friendly footwear (a.k.a.:  Ollie Ollie Oxen Frees).  AND that since the Feds have been paying taxpayers a 'Rebate' to BUY Hybrids and EV's (okay, so I made up the Oxen Wagon 'thing'. 
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It's NOT approved yet, that legislation is held up in the Senate currently) I felt the Feds ought to pay reparations to the 2,800 Americans (their number, not mine) 'per model year' injured when stepping in front of a 'SBD' (Silent Butt Deadly) Electric Vehicle.

All caught up?  Excellent!  We now begin the official beginning of... 

"Cars  - Part III"    

For years the friendly folks in the Federal Government have been handing out tax credits (i.e.:  taking taxes from YOU to give someone else a tax credit for doing something the Feds like) to the wealthiest Americans who have the foresight (and sizable enough bank account) to buy either an EV or Hybrid automobile.  

Why do I say the 'Wealthiest' Americans ("Holy smoking gun of the Richest 1% Batman!!!")?  Because most folks can scarcely afford a new gas-powered auto let alone the bleeding-edge cost of an EV or Hybrid vehicle. I wish someone would look at an honest comparison between high mileage gas-powered vehicles and their 'environmentally friendly green' counterparts, the EVs and Hybrids.

Oh, look, someone DID...

January 4, 2013, Bankrate.com:  
Are High-MPG Gas Cars Better than Hybrids?     


If a buyer springs for a high-mpg gas car, savings in fuel costs can be substantial. At current gas prices, a vehicle getting 30 mpg will save its owner $838 at the gas pump per year and $4,190 over five years, when comparing to a car that gets 20 mpg and if the gas price is $3.35, according to the Department of Energy.
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But not all fuel-efficient cars are created equal when it comes to making up for their higher sticker prices, according to a recent TrueCar.com study commissioned by The New York Times. Only two hybrids in the study, the Lincoln MKZ the Toyota Prius, made up for extra costs in a short time (1.2 years and 1.8 years, respectively.)  

Other hybrids took up to a decade or more to make up the cost, with the Chevrolet Volt taking as much as 27 years.


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It's the Little Things


Shoppers should not only consider a car's mpg, but also smaller features that can increase fuel savings. The way we drive, such as how we accelerate, affects how much fuel our cars use. New models are coming out with gauges showing how efficiently the vehicle is being driven, with the hope that it will educate drivers on maximizing fuel economy.


"No one really recognizes how much of a difference your driving can make on efficiency," says Joe Wiesenfelder, an executive editor at Cars.com.



Building a Better High-mpg Car

Vehicles are able to get more miles per gallon in part because of the materials they are now being made of. Companies are making vehicles lighter, turning to high-strength steel, aluminum and carbon fiber composites -- materials that weigh less but are strong enough to perform well in crash tests. Cars 10% lighter can boost fuel economy 6% to 8%, according to the Department of Energy.


Automakers are also making cars more aerodynamic and are investing in turbochargers, which are low-weight options for making an engine operate more efficiently and produce more power.


This emphasis on speed and power for high-mpg vehicles is a big shift from 10 years ago, when high-mpg cars relied on cheaper materials and weaker engines. Today, one can generally expect them to perform as well as their standard mpg counterparts.


"In many cases, there's no difference in how they perform," says Wiesenfelder. "It's not like the days when you were buying the smaller, weaker engine."


Huh, how about that?  In the past ten years, automakers have responded to the rising cost of fuel by building vehicles which get better gas mileage?  Who'd have thought it?  

Oh yeah, I know a few of you are shouting at your monitors, "Hey Cow Guy, but that's only because the Federal Government MAKES them do it via the aggressive CAFE standards put in place by President Obama!!!  So how about that?!?!?"  

Not so fast Buffalo Breath - let me ask you this:  How about the CAFE standards beefing up mileage requirements approved in 2007 - were they Obama's idea too?  Oh, that's right, it was President G. W. Bush in the White House - so if you're going to give anyone credit, please feel free to give it to him, okay?  AND since technology does not turn on a dime, the ramp up to recent MPG improvements to automotive design takes years, rather than months. 
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What are CAFE standards?  
(Please note the following excerpt has nothing to do with the school lunch program.  Thank you!) 
The following from Discovery.com provides a good overview:  Why are carmakers going green all of a sudden? In short, they have to, because Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards are getting tighter and tighter.

CAFE is the average miles per gallon of a car company's entire fleet of cars and trucks that each weigh less than 8,500 pounds (3,856 kilograms). Basically, these are minimum fuel economy standards that a car company must meet using its entire fleet of models averaged together.  And those standards got tougher in 2007 and 2009 with the goal of bringing the average up to 35.5 miles per gallon (15.1 kilometers per liter) by 2016.
 

The nasty part of CAFE standards is that if a manufacturer's auto line is NOT compliant with the average MPG requirement, they will necessarily produce small, cheap, shopping-cart-sized vehicles to bring the overall gas mileage of their fleet up.  Those who do not get their MPG's in line with the standard face 'Stiff Fines' from the Feds.  

These 'Stiff Fines' will be passed along to you, the car-buying public.  Oops, once again, if it feels like a 'Tax', it most likely IS a tax.  In the end - you will always pay for whatever the government demands.  Thanks for playing!

If you followed the link above, you noticed that the original article was posted on bankrate.com and re-linked by FoxBusinessNews.com.  There will be those who say, "Sure, ANOTHER Fox pack-o-lies perpetuated by the lying liars in the Low Life Lying Liars in the MoosRoom!!!"  

And to you, I say...  "Hay."

As in, "Hay, look, I found something on GreenCarReports.com that says pretty much the same thing as those wascally wabbits over at Fox Business... 


Hybrid, or Just High MPG?
The new breed of turbocharged gasoline cars will also reward you. Many achieve 40 mpg in gentle highway driving, but offer pleasing punch when you reach a twisty road. And let's face it, gasoline engines are still more tuneful than their diesel counterparts.


Hybrids perhaps lag behind on this factor, though that depends on the car you buy--there's a lot of fun to be had driving cars like the Lexus GS 450h. And the sporty little Honda CR-Z hybrid even has a manual gearshift option, for driving purists.


In the end, the market will decide (in spite of governmental 'bets') which manufacturers and vehicles win market share.  A Chevrolet Cruze 'Eco' gets roughly the same MPGs as a Chevrolet Volt on the highway.  The major difference is that there's no tax credit on the Cruze, and the cost of the vehicle is approximately one-half that of the Volt.  

So which would you buy, all things being even?  

I don't believe that the government should be in the business of attempting to pick 'Winners' and 'Losers' in private-sector enterprises.  GM and Ford (I personally don't care about Chrysler as they're not really American any longer) will make decisions based upon the market based upon feedback from consumers.  

If we're not buying something (go visit you local Chevrolet dealership and check out his inventory of 2012 Silverado trucks - oh yeah, they got them - they got LOTS of 'em in stock) they'll reduce production - well, in this case, they SHOULD HAVE reduced production sometime back in August based upon their current inventories in 2013.

I was sooooo close to finishing this post when I received a link which, I believe, will be the perfect epitaph for this one. 

Obama Administration Scaled Back on Electric Vehicle Purchases in 2012 -- January 14, 2013, Plugincars.com
In 2011, President Barack Obama's administration set a goal of purchasing only so-called alternative-technology vehicles for its fleet by 2015, but in 2012, the administration reduced its purchases of hybrid and electric vehicles by one-third, following a trend that's been ongoing for three years straight.

The statistics were reported last week by Detroit Free Press, which obtained numbers under a Freedom of Information request from the U.S. General Services Administration.

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In 2009, the federal government purchased 8,139 hybrid or electric vehicles. That figure dropped to 6,467 in 2010—and fell to a disappointing 2,645 units in 2011, before dipping to 1,801 in 2012. That is a 32 percent decrease in 2012 (compared to 2011), representing only 3.6 percent of the 50,114 vehicles purchased by the federal government last year. Overall, vehicle buying by the federal government dropped by 8.6 percent in 2012.

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If the Obama administration intends to follow through on its plan to purchase only alternative-technology vehicles for government fleets by 2015, then this downward trend will need to be reversed in 2013.

About 54 percent of the 1,801 alternative-fuel vehicles purchased by U.S. government agencies last year were built by Hyundai, Toyota, Mitsubishi and Honda.   


Oh President Obama, yet another promise broken to all those 'Greenies' out there - they're not going to like that.

Just another "Do as I say - Not as I do" from the friendly folks of the Federal Government.

Boom.  Done.

An appropriate end...

Cars (Part II)

Photo:  Associated Press

We learned yesterday in "Cars (Part I)" that States are scrambling for revenue to maintain their aging infrastructures (roads, bridges, etc.).  As a result, they're working on innovative ways to collect additional taxes (from you) based upon how many miles you drive annually.  These 'new' (and improved?) taxes will presumably be dedicated to fixing the aforementioned highways, doing bridge maintenance, and perhaps filling in the roughly 11,697,001 pot holes in our highway system.  The 'last 001' pothole referenced here appears in the street at the end of my driveway. 

The reason that the States (and Feds) find themselves in such financial turmoil regarding highway maintenance is two-fold:  

First, with the 'Hope and Change U.S. Economic Recovery' on life support, people aren't driving as much as they used to, and, 

Second, those people who are driving are buying more fuel-efficient vehicles since gas prices have been flirting on and off with historical high prices for YEARS.  

In the end, it turns out that the Federal Government is guilty of meddling in the free market (hard to believe, isn't it?) as it has been giving financial incentives for people to buy EV's and Hybrid vehicles. 

The logic here is that with more vehicles getting better gas mileage, people are buying less gas, and...  There is less revenue to maintain the Nation's roads via gas taxes.  Once again we have proof-positive that the Law of Unintended Consequences is alive and well, and is nestled comfortably in Washington, DC.  
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Today's post is a bit different, yet related, to the situation with EV's and Hybrid vehicles.  This is the spawn of a post I found on the Huffington Post which discussed another bit of regulation 'necessitated' by the proliferation of Electric-powered vehicles.
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About the Detroit Electric Vehicle:  Production of the electric automobile, powered by a rechargeable lead acid battery, began in 1907. For an additional $600.00, an Edison nickel-iron battery was available from 1911 to 1916. 

The cars were advertised as reliably getting 80 miles (130 km) between battery recharging, although in one test a Detroit Electric ran 211.3 miles (340.1 km) on a single charge. Top speed was only about 20 miles per hour (32 km/h), but this was considered adequate for driving within city or town limits at the time.
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In actuality, the Detroit Electric Vehicle has nothing to do with the remainder of today's post, but I just thought it is an interesting that the Federal Government is subsidizing the sale of vehicles (to the wealthiest 1%!) based upon a premise approximately 105 years old.  

What technical innovation is next for Federal Subsidy?  Windmills from the 1600's re-packaged as the NEXT BIG THING(!)? 

Oops sorry, I didn't mean to make you sad...  I'll move on now.


Okay, so here's the actual article I found this morning on the Huffington Post that began my wheels turning...
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DETROIT (AP) — A U.S. government safety agency wants electric and hybrid vehicles to make more noise when traveling at low speeds so pedestrians can hear them coming.


The cars and trucks, which are far quieter than conventional gasoline or diesel-powered vehicles, don't make enough noise at low speeds to warn walkers, bicyclists and the visually impaired, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Monday in a statement.


The proposed rule would require the cars to make additional noise at speeds under 18 miles per hour (29 kph). NHTSA says the cars make enough noise to be heard at higher speeds.


Automakers would be able to pick the sounds that the cars make from a range of choices. Similar vehicles would have to make the same sounds. And the government says pedestrians must be able to hear the sounds over background noises.


NHTSA estimates that the new noise would prevent 2,800 pedestrian and cyclist injuries during the life of each model year of electric and hybrid vans, trucks and cars.


The rule is required by the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act that was passed by Congress in 2010.


Summing Up:

• The Federal Government incentivizes Hybrid and electric vehicle sales to save energy, save the Earth, save the Baby Harp Seals - yeah, whatever...
• The unintended consequence of this is that people 'MAY' be run over by really quiet vehicles at their local street corner - increasing the costs for first responders AND the costs associated with unioninzed 'body part clean up crews' across the nation.  Hey, wait one minute - shouldn't states bill the Federal Government for these federally-mandated deaths and their related 'clean up' on local streets?
• AND, once the Feds mandate that silent cars make noise, they'll prevent EXACTLY 2,800 pedestrian and cyclist injuries during the life of each 'Model Year' of vehicle
• If we accept this last 'fact' as Gospel, the converse is, of course, that Federally-Subsidized EV and Hybrid vehicles are currently injuring 2,800 people (at least) per model year.  Shouldn't someone be suing the Feds for giving tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans to INJURE other Americans?  Something in my gut tells me the resounding answer to this is, "Yes!"
• You think that last one is bad?  Try out this one for size:  What if the 'Federally Approved' EV and Hybrid car 'noise' exactly replicates the mating call of the endangered Ozark big-eared bat (Corynorhinus townsendii ingens)  causing bats to drop from above and crash into unsuspecting Chevrolet Volts, startling drivers and causing them to accelerate suddenly pulling the wheel to the right toward a group of school children in uniforms being led to the library by elderly bespectacled Nuns from the local Catholic Elementary school?  Yeah, what about what THAT happens -  how will the Feds legislate, and pay for getting all those body parts off the street?   Hmm?

You see, when it comes to the Federal Government mandating or prohibiting (pretty much ANYTHING...), the process never ends.  There's always a follow-on bit of legislation that someone forgot to either add, or remove while the law is being pushed through the Congress faster than a drunken hooker leaving the Congressional Cocktail Lounge. 

Should people be allowed to drive EV or Hybrid vehicles which produce more toxic-waste by-products in the production and disposal of their 'batteries' than in the manufacture, and daily use of traditional 'gas-powered' vehicles?  Luckily for you, that's not up to me to decide.  Shoot, if it was up to me we'd all be flying around in Jetson cars (equipped with assault weapons just to tick off the Administration).

I do have an actual suggestion for the folks in DC.  Since they are allowing us 60 days to comment on what sounds should come from vehicles slowing down or speeding up at an intersection, I once again turn my eyes skyward to submit my personal favorite, the "Jetson Space Car" sound, courtesy of Hanna Barbera, 1960-something...

Here's George Jetson!

   

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If, however, Hanna Barbera won't part with the Copyrighted Jetson sound (thereby allowing the wanton slaughter of Nuns and Children across America), I have a second suggestion, from Steppenwolf...

 

Born to Be Wild

 

Yeah, you hear this "Get your motor running!" coming at you while waiting at a street corner, you'll know to get out of the way...

Happy Motoring America!  And please, help US save the Nuns and Young Catholics next time you go to the polls... 

As for those baby harp seals?  Well, we've got GreenPeace for that.  Right?   

A sincere thank you for NOT wanting to kill Nuns and children.  You're my kind of guy / gal.  You are a good person, unlike the Federal Government, which DOES want our streets littered with Dead Bats, small uniformed body parts, habits and broken rosary beads.