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Reasonable. I drove almost 10,000 miles between March and Nov....a rediculous amount esp for some who works at home. Sure, there were a couple of vacations in there but nothing that would warrant that many miles. I resolved to reduce my miles by trying to group errands to at most, one trip a day. Works for me!
Exactly. Allowing people flexibility in how they reduce their consumption is more likely to gain voluntary positive effects. It accommodates different types of locations, different needs, and creative solutions.
In 2008, gas hit $4 a gallon and there was panic. People couldn't afford to get to work and their used pickups and SUVs were almost worthless. Here we are 10 years later and we haven't learned our lesson as we continue to drive massive pickups and SUVs. What will it take for people to stop buying oversized gas-guzzling vehicles? $10 a gallon? $25 a gallon?
Don't look at me, I drive a small sedan and live 2.5 miles from my job. I'm not like the idiots who work in the City of Albany and drive the Northway in their SUV's to and from homes up in Clifton Park or Saratoga, 15-20 or so miles one way from their jobs.
You are completely ignoring that gas fell back to $2.50 or so not long after, and has stayed there,
"proving" all those who believe gas will be cheap f'rever right.
I suspect the next jump to the $4-5 range isn't far off and will be far more permanent. The glutted market of pickups and SUVs going unsold at a third their purchase price should be quite amusing.
It took several years for the price to drop down that far. When prices were at their lowest, in 2015-2016, I wasn't able to take advantage of that because I was driving 16 miles one way to my job, having been displaced from my apartment due to a building fire. Now at least I've shortened my commute back down to 2.5 miles, and my Focus is smaller and more fuel-efficient than my old Cruiser was.
Its always ego, that came from trends. People buy SUVs because everyone else buys SUVs. Ego trumps practicality. They dont know or dont care that most of the SUVs are on car platforms, or that the big SUVs are gas guzzlers. Doesnt matter.
They also get the same reason from everyone else. Everytime I ask someone why they bought an SUV, they say "I like sitting higher".
But no one will say that they bought it because they want to fit in with everyone else. Especially since they can haul the same things in a station wagon. But station wagons arent cool. (for the most part people in this state dont drive in the snow in their SUVs, they arent that confident)
I also think people dont know that the chances of a SUV rollover from a side impact crashes are extremely high because of the higher center of gravity. I wonder if people would still buy SUVs if they were afraid of a rollover. The amount of rollovers I see in crash videos are staggering, but its physics, what canya do?
Heres one thing I do not know. Ive never owned an SUV in my area because Im not a lemming for fitting in.
Theres no denying that you have better visibility in an SUV on the road, but is that still true if the majority of the vehicles on the road are SUVs? I know most of the vehicles I get stuck behind on the highway are SUVs and I cant see sh$t.
It appears you don't even know the difference between an SUV and a CUV.
I buy the opposite of what everyone buys.
That's how you get good stuff cheap.
When gas is cheap, buy a sipper.
When gas is expensive, buy a guzzler.
When VW poops the diesel bed, buy a diesel.
When everyone wants an SUV, buy a sedan.
Location: San Ramon, Seattle, Anchorage, Reykjavik
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TimtheGuy
Have you seen the reports on how much oil has been found??
A lot of oil has been found. But it will most likely stay in the ground because of 2 things - 1) it will take $100-200/barrel to make in economical to produce and 2) We will have cooked the planet by then and it won't be needed.
-haven't read this thread, so please forgive any redundancy--
Back in the early '50s, an average salary was $2500/yr and gas was 15cents/gal. Today the numbers are $45,000/yr and $2.50/gal. Gas has never been so cheap on an "hrs of work to pay for a gal" basis.
Driving an average of 12,000 mi/yr, a gas guzzling 14mpg pickup with gas $2.50/gal only uses ~$1000 more per yr in gas than a pip-squeak popcorn machine getting 28mpg-- but no cargo space to speak of-- something those of us who drive pick-ups usually make use of on a regular basis.
A Dual-lee probably is a poor choice for a yuppie living on the 87th floor in a NYC condo, but an SUV is a good one for a suburban Mom who needs to cart $400 worth of groceries once a week and 3 kids and their bikes home from a rained-out soccer practice regularly or get 'em to school when 12 inches of snow just fell in an hour.
BTW- I recently moved to WI. I'm average size, but I feel like an malnourished midget when I'm around these WI farm boys. They don't get INTO an Acura-- they PUT IT ON like a European suit.
The difference between a car that gets 15 MPG and one that gets 25 MPG, at $2.50 vs $4.00, is $85/month more driving 15,000 miles a year. If they economize or park the truck for one trip a year, they go a long way to recouping that cost.
No, people won't rush out and buy brand new ones at the same pace, but nor will an F150 or Suburban lose half its value.
How do you KNOW about what "most" use it for? Do you see the same people every day?
if you looked at me in my Suburban 2500 on one day's trip to the garbage dump, you would just see me in the driver's seat, but not be able to see IN the truck to tell what I'm hauling. So you could be of the mistaken opinion that I'm just wasting all that space. Not knowing that on the weekends I'm also using it to haul a 9500 lb travel trailer all over the east coast.
Exactly.
It's nice to have the ability but not everyone uses it 24-7. For years, we were a 2-sedan household and anytime we needed to pick up something large, we'd have to beg, borrow or steal a truck. We had three kids in car seats for a while and would sometimes take BOTH sedans on vacation with us simply because there wasn't enough room to pack everything we needed into one sedan.
So we traded the wife's car in for a Traverse. Now we can pack all three kids plus 3 adults in the car when we go do kids stuff on the weekend, as well as have the ability to put a roof box on it to have additional storage. We can also tow the jet ski, and when we get 24" of snow, it handles it quite confidently enough that it's our go-to vehicle in the winter.
Just this past weekend I used it to go pick up some drywall and insulation from Home depot to redo my garage. There was no way I was getting that in my Sedan. Can't tell you how many times i'd see something pop up on CL but unable to pick it up because I needed to borrow a truck.
But today, my wife took it to work alone. Just her in a Big Traverse wasting gas. Yup, SUV/CUVs must be for the image only.
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