Is GM Car Czar Maximum Bob Lutz Finally Right?
Bob Lutz sounded the alarm before, during and after Congress passed new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. The cost of compliance will add thousands to the prices of new cars and trucks! Investor's Business Daily (via CNNMoney) reckons he's right. They predict that the cost of satisfying the regulators will drive-up the price of new vehicles by an average of $6K or 21.4 percent. And that means unintended consequences. "The higher prices of cars will encourage consumers to keep their older, dirtier but cheaper vehicles for much longer. So the actual benefits will be less than forecast." The paper's eds pronounce Maximum Bob a presumptive prognosticator. "The new CAFE standards, as Lutz suggests, amount to a tax– a rather narrow and inefficient one that will neither reduce our reliance on foreign oil nor curb global warming." Bob Lutz, GM's canary in a coal mine. Of course, that doesn't actually change anything…
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Eric, You implied that people who were anti government and pro US were somehow inconsistent. I responded and showed that they are not. You then bring in some sarcasm from Colbert? It was funny when he said it, but not when you quoted it. Why? Because quoting here makes no sense. You are correct about 35, but you are way off on this one. The people advocating larger government are almost always wanting to change something that is fundamental to our country. It is THEY who are anti US. The smaller government types are usually advocating a change in the government to keep it FROM changing the country. Drop the humor. It is confusing your logic. A humorous line is often funny because it SOUNDS logical, while NOT BEING logical.
I want to refer you all back to my comments in a previous thread about Zoom. Lutz is assuming that they have to keep making cars with more and more stuff and HP in order to sell them. That will likely be expensive to do with higher mileage. OTOH, how many people would buy a 220 hp car over a 180hp car if the latter "felt" just as fast, but was much cheaper? The less powerful car will win because very few people actually pull out a stop watch to evaluate a car. If when a car is accelerating it feels confident and strong, people will buy it. Even if it is a couple seconds slower to 60 on the watch. We don't all compare 0-60 times, but we do compare the feeling (including sounds) we get when we "punch it".
To Landcrusher: So who ever advocates larger government? If you see every necessary regulation as government interference we are talking about a current fad: being a libertarian. Which is about as feasible in the real world as it's mirror image opposite communism. Both are fantasy ideals that quickly fall apart when any thinking is done. In the real world all governments tax and regulate. The trick is finding the appropriate balance. The anti-regulation folks really need to spend some time in downtown Calcutta to get a good whiff of what unregulated emissions smell like. Cafe is a farce. It is the weak kneed approach that does next to nothing. As pointed out. That 35MPG is based on old unrealistic numbers so already that is phony number and they get credits for E85 compatibility which is more life support for the ethanol boondoggle. The real solution would be fuel taxes, but no one has the stones for that. And no this is not a cash grab by government, fuel taxes should be directly applied to maintaining the highway infrastructure. All the better that more of the expensive highway system come from fuel taxes and less from personal income taxes. Cafe will be irrelevant by that time 35mpg kicks in because rising fuel prices will drive us to smaller cars anyway. Bottom line though is that Bob is still completely out to lunch. When he makes bonehead statements like this he greatly diminishes belief in anything that comes from GM. GM with maximum Bob are building a new reputation for BS.
Bytor, If you think that I, or even most libertarians, advocate no emmissions regulations, you are incorrect. Lot's of us here agree on fuel taxes and that CAFE is lame, but that doesn't get us from our A to your B.