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Car Guy
Obama Math
About as reliable as the Obama Folks Wagon.
(Page 2 of 2)
Expect the Obama Car Surcharge to go up. A lot.
We’ll pay another way, too. By prematurely throwing away a number of otherwise still-saleable new car models long before their R&D and tooling costs have been amortized. Unless there is an engineering miracle, expect anything with a V-8 (or V-6) to be placed on the endangered species list. Large sedans (excepting high-dollar luxury sedans) are already gone. Mid-sized cars will follow — at least as mass-market vehicles. So also most current pick-up trucks, SUVs and crossovers — as none of them come within spitting distance of 30 MPG, let alone 55.
We’ll just throw them away.
And who will make up the shortfall? You and I will. Either in the form of directly passed-on costs (higher new car prices) or in the form of reduced stock value as a result of the automakers’ declining profitability. We may also get to pay for a new round of bailouts as this could easily result in several too big to fail automakers going belly up (again).
There are diesels — some of which (in Europe) are capable of more than 55 MPG already. But take note that none of these cars are sold here, because our government’s screwy regulations make it too much hassle (and not profitable enough) for these cars to be sold here. It’s not that the Europeans are loosey goosey on pollution controls. They just have different ones — and rejiggering their Euro-spec diesels to comply with Uncle’s specs isn’t worth the trouble.
So nix that reasonable solution.
There will also be a conflict between the government’s fuel economy edicts and its “safety” edicts — which have already added several hundred pounds of deadweight to the average new car. And every pound of weight imposes a fuel efficiency penalty. The only inexpensive way to improve fuel economy is to reduce the curb weight of a car. But to maintain the same level of “safety,” wholesale redesigns will be required — as well as the use of costly alloys and composites. You can’t have your cake (high economy) and eat it (“safety”) too. Something will have to give.
And something will give.
You and I will give more money.
It will either be given at the pump, in the form of depreciated Obama Bucks to buy gas that hasn’t actually gotten more expensive in real terms but which nonetheless costs us more because our dollars are worth less. Or we’ll be herded into a new Obama Car and swap an extra $900 a year in gas costs for a $400-$500 a month debt albatross around our necks .
About the Author
Eric Peters is an automotive columnist and author of Automotive Atrocities: The Cars You Love to Hate (Motor Books International) and a new book, Road Hogs.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (49) | Leave a comment
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Darin| 3.14.12 @ 6:58AM
Since when did liberal reasoning rely on such archane practices as math and reasoned logic?
PecosPete| 3.14.12 @ 7:02AM
Some of us will enjoy a return to our agrarian roots. Horse and buggy anyone? Oh wait, the cost of vet care and hay might exceed our ability to pay. I know, we can walk. But, walk to where?
The answer, of course, is mass transportation. Amtrak will rise again. Greyhound will return as a darling of investors. Street cars and moving walkways.
Good times ahead as we look out the window of our government provided apartment on the 27th floor in Government City, apartment space (and electricity) allocated based on your rank in government provided jobs. Not to mention the quality of food from the government owned grocery store in the basement which, of course, will be delivered in plentiful quantities from government owned green houses on top of your apartment building.
I can't wait for ObamaNirvana.
Lee Ghume| 3.14.12 @ 7:16AM
The horse and buggy thing would not work, no one makes buggy whips anymore. Where would the big cities dump the road apples? Americans do not have enough gardens to handle all the horse by products.
David W| 3.14.12 @ 8:38AM
not to mention the dead horses. I read that in the good old days, after working a horse to death, the owner would just strip off the harness and walk away. There will be thousands of dead horses and mules. The heads of PETA members will explode.
Dick Nome| 3.14.12 @ 9:19AM
We get enough HS from the dumazz in DC. We don't need to be knee-deep in it.
Mark MacInnis| 3.14.12 @ 10:15AM
Liberals will be able to provide all the buggy whips we need....they'll just need to go into their boudoirs and get the whips they secretly hide under their beds....
ayrnieu| 3.14.12 @ 10:18AM
Secretly? You're talking about liberals. They keep the whips in their adopted Haitian child's room, for the same reason that my father kept books in mine.
POST American| 3.14.12 @ 7:03AM
Probable Averell Harriman stealth clone,
'BAR--Rockefeller' Obama breezes on
---while token capstone opposition, in
the figure of 'SUB-Mitt ROME--knee'
stirs in the wings.
"--and as the REAL campaign approaches,
the REAL issues 'disappear'."
Meanwhile, speaking of 'disappearing',
RED China now openly accusing
the US of accounting fraud, and is demanding
an international commission to 'examine the US
dollar' ----and, simultaneously, passes its own
law modelled on our chillingly North Korean
NDAA 1021.
In America, gun sales are already breaking last year's record.
AS we said, three years to full blown, boots
to the ground, Global Bankster 'managed'
RED Chinese receivership-----or dinner's
on us.
IN this, the 11th hour of the Rockefeller-CFR
RED China handover, sellout, TREASON,
'de--IN--DUST--realization' and
FINAL EUGENICS OP
-----ON this, the 'overlooked' 60th Anniversary
of the Globalism and EUGENICS 'unfuzzy'
------------------KOREAN WAR------------------
------------------TAKE HEED!
Moe Blotz| 3.14.12 @ 7:10AM
The wizards of smart also want large trucks of the 18 wheel configuration to match fuel mileage standards set by Congress. Average fuel mileage dropped from over 6 mpg to 4.5 mpg when EPA mandated particulate traps on diesel engines. Try trimming weight from a vehicle designed to operate grossing up to 80,000 pounds. Federal mileage standards for big trucks are proposed to be in the 10 mg range. Streamlining would help if you run west Texas on a cool day with no head wind, but when you climb into the Rocky Mountains all theory falls by the wayside. As far as Mr.Peters' reference to the debt albatross, sue the manufacturer of your new automobile when your fuel mileage does not match the advertised MPG and get a multi thousand dollar settlement. That should pay for a lot of fuel.
albert constantine jr.| 3.14.12 @ 8:19AM
"As far as Mr.Peters' reference to the debt albatross, sue the manufacturer of your new automobile when your fuel mileage does not match the advertised MPG and get a multi thousand dollar settlement."
The three way battle between the bureaucrats, the trial lawyers and the environmentalists could be fun to watch, and de-stabilizing to the Democrat base.
Appleby| 3.14.12 @ 7:12AM
Again I urge y'all to Look North. 80% of the people in Canada live in six major cities, and here in Toronto we are being crammed together in very tall shoulder-to-shoulder highrise buildings and being urged to walk or bicycle to work, or if we are not concerned about getting there on time, taking the subway or streetcars. This in a country that is virtually EMPTY! The reason? Because we are trying to emulate Europe, which is made up of small countries with expensive square footage -- countries you could cross by bicycle in a couple of days at most, without any understanding of WHY the Europeans live that way. Obama is on the same treadmill, with the same lack of understanding. And what's wrong with this? Just google "Great Blackout of 2003" and find out what happens to people who live on the 61st floor when the whole Northeast is without power.
Keg Buster| 3.14.12 @ 8:43AM
Why not relocate to Kingston? I hear the local brew pub makes a decent cider. The annual Welli Boot Chuck is just a few days away.
Appleby| 3.14.12 @ 7:27PM
I stop in Kingston on my way to Montreal; it seems a lot like Lima, Ohio to me. Although I can't remember Ohio having bresw pubs.
The place to live these days is reportedly Saskatchewan, as long as you don't care about pro hockey (and who in Toronto actually knows what such a product looks like, when we get shellacked by the Florida Panthers four times out of four this season...)
Canada should serve as a living laboratory for those who wonder why socialism doesn't work; Ontario especially has a million stories that will make the whole picture crystal clear. (Example: in an effort to squeeze money from a stone, having tapped out the taxpayers of Ontario, Dalton McGuilty is going to close "money losing" casinos (throwing one whole town out of work) and opening a big new casino in Toronto (which the majority of us do not want). Sure, people are unemployed and rapidly going bankrupt from the tax burden we bear -- so encourage us to take our remaining pennies to the Government Casino!
Brian Mc| 3.14.12 @ 8:02AM
It is a shame that I'm allergic to horse dander. But, that's OK...Obamacare will cover the cost of my medication...or, might be that such cost will not be a viable solution and I'll be 'put out to pasture' as the saying goes.
albert constantine jr.| 3.14.12 @ 8:21AM
Perhaps a pain pill will ease that time in the pasture.
Indy| 3.14.12 @ 8:31AM
Nothng to worry about folks, algea fuel powered cars are coming...thanks Barack!
numbatdog| 3.14.12 @ 8:42AM
Don't strain your brain trying to make Obama's math work. Whatever platitudes he mouths, the object of the exercise is not to make your life easier. It's to get you off the roads and highways and into his algae powered supertrains and buses.
You, the individual, and your comfort means nothing to nothing to the socialists.
JimH| 3.14.12 @ 8:46AM
I am always surprised to see someone with rigerous scientific or mathematical training who believes in the doctrines of the Left. You’d think this training would force a reality on them which is not required of their fellow lefties of humanities or voodoo (social) science background. Ignorance of math and physics allows you to believe in the possibility of 55mpg semis.
Another, but related point, Eric, maybe you or another poster can say, when the government does it’s mileage numbers for a car, is the fuel used of the 10% ethonal variety?
Louis Jenkins| 3.14.12 @ 8:57AM
It will never happen. Cars that get 55 miles to a gallon of gas? Unless the curb weight comes down a lot, and there's some miracle break through in engineering. Plastic cars aren't the answer either. They're not crash worthy. I would be ashamed to be seen in public driving a car that gets that kind of gas milage. Obama doesn't know math. In fact, he ignores it, and he has an even less idea of what works.
Mike Hawk| 3.14.12 @ 9:09AM
Congress will have to repeal the first two Laws of Thermodynamics before they can institute these standards for mpg. That may be difficult since they were established by a higher authority than Obozo. (is that possible??)
Stan REdmond| 3.14.12 @ 3:31PM
Thermodynamics... Children and minorities hardest hit.
Wash Magic| 3.14.12 @ 9:11AM
Government malthusianism over energy and water has given us highly electronic front load washers, depositories of mold and mildew, and the once-yearly repair compared to your mother's Maytag that lasted for 25 years without a repair visit. The same goes for anything that trades tried and true technology for savings of any kind via electronics, which is the face of the Prius. No longer does your car go for years without a repair. The future sees you bringing in your Windowsvistamobile to be fixed because some tiny little wire broke, a fuse blew, or the software needs rebooting, and you have to bring it to the dealer because nobody else knows how to work on it. Something that I don't read anywhere is the future resale value of a hybrid once the warranty expires. I would never, never, never want to own such a complicated piece of machinery if I had to pay for the repair. Thus, the resale value really is closer to ZERO.
DIck Nome| 3.14.12 @ 9:16AM
Hybrid resale is in the crapper because of the high cost of the huge heavy battery that quickly becomes more expensive than the value of the vehicle. Pronounce them juck in short order. WHo is going to pay the cost of the salvage of the highly toxic battery pack anyway??
Dick Nome| 3.14.12 @ 9:17AM
Shall I say JUNK or is it Junque.
Mac Jehoff| 3.14.12 @ 9:48AM
Youse were discussing high tech junque for sure.
Stan REdmond| 3.14.12 @ 3:33PM
The taxpayers. Surely another 10k to go with the 10k subsidy is worth it.
Hope-n-Change| 3.14.12 @ 9:19AM
Eric, you forgot an important part of the Obama math equation: The newly extended payroll tax deduction that he says will give American families an extra $40 to spend on gas. Problem solved!
rjh| 3.14.12 @ 9:23AM
My old Ford Expedition is paid for and runs great. Accounting for my driving habits, gas will have to reach $10 per gallon before I even think about buying a new car.
Mr. LeMans| 3.14.12 @ 3:44PM
Ditto. I drive a 1994 Cadillac. 19 feet long, 4,000 pounds 300 horse power, runs on premium. Bought and paid for since 1996. I'll never give it up. Runs great. 56K miles in 18 years. That's when I'm not driving the '65 LeMans, of course......
Mr. LeMans| 3.14.12 @ 3:47PM
And, of course, the added benefits of being able to take 6 (yep, count'em six!) adults to the golf course, including clubs. I also don't have to worry about my split second reaction time to hit the brakes if I get cut off by a prius, or some other such itoo-boo-boo mobile.........
wukong| 3.14.12 @ 4:14PM
My 1960 El Camino has a 409 and chromed steel front and rear bumbers. It does not fear any of those squishy things in traffic.
Mike 3/505| 3.14.12 @ 8:15PM
Yeah...but it sure is a pain in the butt to hose out all those Pri-i from the grill on my F150.
Curtis Rasmussen| 3.14.12 @ 7:30PM
Careful. The government can always legislate or Obama the king can mandate that older cars can no longer be registered, forcing you to buy something newer. I wouldn't put it past that socialist a-hole.
God help us if the useful idiots that voted that tool into office don't pull their heads out and see the light.
Petronius| 3.14.12 @ 10:20AM
The fact is, we have to put up with the GD CAFE law just so the liberals can prevent the oil industry from making Money. The question is, can Mitt, Rick and Newt take a hint and get a clue? Repeal it now and let us drive what we want. The weenies can still buy a dinky toy. I want a V8 that runs the big blocks of the late 60's.
Anthony| 3.14.12 @ 10:39AM
This is the diabolical and corrupt American left at its best. Not content with market forces that they dispise, distrust, and don't understand, and that includes Princeton's own Paul Krugman, the autocratic Obozo will force bogus green energy down our throats.
The world has well over 250 years of fossil energy and related sources that would allow technology the time to develop "green" alternatives.
But the left have never been patient nor reasonable. It's their way or the highway, err, subway.
The left's religion of Anthropogenic Global Warming is just another way radical enviornmentalists get to set world progess back to the 18th century.
I wish simply defeating these people at the ballot box would surfice, (see Blackwell's piece) unfortunately, it will require much more drastic action.
Jack L.| 3.14.12 @ 12:53PM
Fine article, excellent comments by all. What bugs me is prospective maintenance on hybrids. Intermet searches of "hybrid car maintenance" produce all hits of glowing optimism about costs. I don't believe it because hybrid sysyems are complex and that equates to breakdowns. Are there any real costs out there?
SuzyB| 3.14.12 @ 1:45PM
New, fuel efficient, "green" cars also mean SMALL. That means anyone that needs to carry more than four people will have to take more than one car to get anywhere...big families, carpools to school or sports, etc. How is that going to save anyone money? Defeats the purpose of mandating 55 mpg when we're going to need more cars on the road to make up for lack of passenger/cargo capacity.
snipelee| 3.14.12 @ 4:07PM
In California the child safety-seat law now ensnares kids less than 80 lbs or younger than 9. (Somehow if you are older than 9 but still less than 80 lbs. {many Asians} the standard seatbelt now magically fits!) So, if you have 3 kids - say 3, 5, 8 years old - no current hybrid will hold your family - at least not legally.
K Cunningham| 3.14.12 @ 3:19PM
Let's not forget the cost of up keep and repairs on these Obama supercars. Anyone who has ever worked on or paid someone else to work on a vehicle ( or nearly anything else) that pushes the envelope on being efficient knows just how costly that can be. That space age crap is neat- cool if you are traveling to the moon wit NASA's budget, but the averarage consumer just cannot afford such silliness. Sign me simply: "Tired of $1000 cooling fans and $600 alternators!"
cicero| 3.14.12 @ 4:28PM
In as much as we have the price of gas going up right now, we can't wait for 2025 to reap the savings. We can buy a Volt! We can pay $47,000.00 right now for this wonder of modern, ecologically correct machinery, receive a $7,500.00 subsidy from our fellow taxpayers (of course, we will be charged our pro-rata share), and absorbe our share of the $220,000.00 government subsidy to the producing car company. Let me see, how long will take me to recover the additional $80.00 per month in additional gasoline costs? And how to factor in the possibility that the American people will actually elect a President who was not from Never-Never Land?
e track from saq| 3.14.12 @ 6:23PM
The business bottom line for fleet intensive industries will force the layoffs that the dummycrates fear.Although they give big money to Verizon and similar just to prevent the dreaded labor reductions,not even funny money from the fools in DC can make those balance sheets clear red.
Not with gas headed north of big 5.00$.
matt | 3.14.12 @ 9:10PM
This is the dumbest article I have read in quite some time. Did the writer just say, I want to bash the President, let me rant and not worry about actual structure of an argument, evidence, or even understand Obama's quote accurately.
Augusta| 3.15.12 @ 1:53AM
I think leftards will soon mandate that all cars and trucks give out the refreshing scent of Lavender in lieu of exhaust, and of course fly, by 2015. If they write it down and Obama signs it, it will certainly come to pass. Fuzzy dreams and feelings matter more than math and other yucky real stuff.
POST American| 3.15.12 @ 2:01AM
---------------------FINAL WORDS----------------------
In this, the 11th hour of the CFR-RED China
handover
--------------and bare weeks from the
--uh-- 'natural' death of Andrew Breitbart
---------------------as RED China passes
------------------------it's own NDAA 1021
------and as Rockefeller USURY &
EUGENICS front op, Angelina Jolie, stirs
the mass ass for pan-global siezure of
ever put upon Africa
-----------while YOU there
---------------------sit on your rectum 'bennies'
------even as, in some Manchurian lab,
your 'bye bye' shot's already being cultured--
----------------------TAKE HEED------------------------
POST American| 3.15.12 @ 3:26AM
----------------BOTTOMLESS LINE--------------------
"This Soviet Russia represents
nothing so much as a giant collapsed America.
One must ALWAYS prefer the OLD Russia.
For all its cruelty and brutality ---it
had, undeniably, its streak of splender.
---A streak of splendor redeems it ALL."
D H Lawrence
(1922)
"We now must regard China's experiment
under Chairman MAO's leadership has been
one of teh MOST suck-cess-full in HIS-story
---whatever the cost."
(90 MILLION exterminated in 'peacetime')
-David Rockefeller
(1973)
"The US better watch it or in a couple
of decades we're going to be a minstrel show
---for RED China."
-Gore Vidal
(1985)
"Soon you will be hearing communism is dead
---DON'T believe it---"
-Mikhail Gorbachev
(1990)
"When we get through with you
---you'll WISH you were a tree."
-Maurice Strong
RIO Earth Summit
(1992)
"PEACE is the absense of ALLLL dissent."
-H G Wells
-V I Lenin
-Leon Trotsky
-Joseph Stalin
-Joseph Goebbels
-Julian Huxley
-Aldous Huxley
-the state of mind of Globalism itself
'KONY 2012'
AGAIN ---------NUREMBERG 1934? --or 45?
And BTW ---ANYONE heard ANYTHING
from 'UN critic' John Bolton lately.
HE hasn't made a PEEP about ANY of this.
WHENEVER YOU'RE READY
-------------------------------BUT MAKE IT FAST
Pete| 3.16.12 @ 8:28AM
Mr. Obama has a lot of trouble with mathematical and scientific concepts. Yesterday.. during his speach to the Junior College students in Maryland... He cited the US consumes 19% of the worlds energy production. (Note this is a consumption rate.) However, the US only has 2% of the worlds proven reserves. (Note this is a volume.) Mr. Obama appears to be confused by the concepts of rate and volume. I understand that the US fuel reserves in the form of natural gas, coal, coal tar and other forms of fuel contains enough energy -at the current rate of consumption- to last us hundreds of years. However, Mr. Obama's policies wants to makes these fuels either illegal or place them beyond the reach of the market. Mr. Obama's speach indicates he is either ignorant of these concepts or demonstrates his desire to mislead these students - and the average taxpaying citizen- with his mendacity.
Mark Twain| 3.16.12 @ 1:41PM
What can one expect from a guy who sat in Math and Science class high on cocaine?
Mark Twain| 3.16.12 @ 1:42PM
Notice Obama's cocaine usage is never mentioned by the GOP.
jbd2| 6.24.12 @ 9:17AM
The ancient Greeks had a word for all the statist left wing nonsense. "hubris" Obama and his gang have the worst case since Napoleon. One way or another, they will have a similar fate. Unfortunately, they may well drag the rest of us down with them.