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On TV they were talking about the oil crisis of 1973-1974. I can remember that during a four month period in that era it was nearly impossible to get gasoline and many stations had long lines and odd even license plate requirements. Of course back then most stations had only 3-4 pumps per station.
During that time Congress passed a law that said we would be energy independent within ten years. They invested millions into cars that would use alternative energy sources.
Now 35 years later not much has been done!
Why? The cost of oil went back down and people moved on. Maybe a good reason for the prices to go up not down so we have to put a fire under people who will produce a car using alternative (to gasoline) energy.
There was lines in 1977 (or '78?) if you could find an open station. I think it got up to 75 cents. I don't remember the prices of everything else being affected because of it like today.
I drive a 1988 car that gets 18/27mpg. I don't notice much difference today and sometimes not any or not even as good unless it's a hybrid of some sort. We can't rely on our govt. for anything. Private citizens are making some headway:
I was involved in that alternate fuel challenge in college. We settled on a gasoline engine for the contest because it was practical and a VW dealer gave us one. I also owned a couple of GM Diesels of that era. They worked fine until the head bolts broke and the engine sized. They would go about 80 k miles and die. One engine was in a pick up and the other in a wagon. The wagon got over 30 mpg on the expressway at 65 mph. The pick up engine was replaced with an Olds gas engine and is still running! Not bad.
In this day of 4 – 5 $/gal gasoline I would suggest a few year old Corolla or the equivalent unless you really need a pick up truck. Personally I would never spend the money to buy a new car because I would never recover the initial depreciation. Buy transport, not ego.
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Why? The cost of oil went back down and people moved on. Maybe a good reason for the prices to go up not down so we have to put a fire under people who will produce a car using alternative (to gasoline) energy.
Yeah, the economics slowed investigation into alternatives but the is not the primary reason...
Gasoline/diesel is an amazing fuel that packs a great deal of power in a small volume that is cheap, easy to store, transport, and use. The inconvienient truth is that there are no alternatives yet identified that can compete.
In 1977 GM began downsizing their cars. The 1977 Caprice/Impala/Bonneville/Le Sabre/Delta 88 were smaller and lighter than the previous years.
Then in 1978 they did the same thing with the A body line. Malibus, Monte's, Grand Prix's, Regals, Cutlass....all were down sized.
Then come 1980 the first FWD cars by GM were introduced. Chrysler had already done that 2 years earlier with the Omni and Horizon.
Add to that the 55 mph speed limit.
All of these acts I figure was due to becoming more energy efficient after the gas crunch.
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