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Backseat Driver: Blood and money equals cheap fuel

Recent studies have found that we Americans prefer big vehicles and - manna to the auto manufacturers - small cars are not as safe as big cars.

Duh.

Of course we prefer big vehicles. Gas, after all, is still very cheap in the U.S. Yes, I know it is now hovering around the $3 a gallon mark, but that is less than half the price that it is in Europe. And when you are paying $8 a gallon, you can be sure that you are not going to drive a gas-guzzling SUV.

Why is gas so expensive in Europe? Because the governments tax the heck out of it. Here such a notion is anathema to a large portion of the body politic - in addition to the auto, oil, steel, rubber and plastics industries - and for a very good reason.

Unlike the Northeast and other urban centers - where small cars do make sense - most Americans live surrounded by vast expanses of space unimaginable in Europe. Small, economic cars don't make a lot of sense in Texas, for example, where the Chevy Suburban was always referred to as the state vehicle when I lived down there in the late 1980s.

And many Americans have rural roots they revere and for them a pickup is the only way to go. Many may use their pickups mostly for driving to and from work in the nearest city, but that is beside the point. The vehicles serve an emotional role, as indeed all vehicles do.

So forget about raising taxes on fuel. It is not going to happen and even if it did it would still be a nominal amount compared to European levels.

And so we will continue to have the best of both worlds, being able to afford to run big cars and SUVs and pickup trucks and, as an added bonus, having bought them, be comforted that we are safer in them.

Only two things cast a shadow on this self-indulgent picture: If you think the price we are paying in the Mideast - the lives of our military personnel, the maiming of thousands of others, the same of countless more Iraqis, the billions of dollars to equip our forces and run the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the billions of dollars in aid we grant to Egypt, Israel, Pakistan and others to keep the peace - if you think all that blood and money is ALL about George W. Bush's war on terror and has NOTHING to do with the supply/price of crude oil and the price of gasoline you pay at the pump, then I would like to know the name of your drug dealer because you are obviously getting good stuff.

Personally, I think all that blood and money is a pretty high tax to pay for our cheap gasoline.

And the other shadow is the nebulous business of global warming which, while blindingly obvious to a simpleton like me, remains a debatable propostion in some quarters of our petro-driven administration.

- Peter C.T. Elsworth

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:38 AM to commentary | Permalink | Comments 0

Clean or Efficient? An Engine Goes for ‘Both of the Above’

FROM the outside, the dark blue Saturn Aura accelerating to a steady 50 miles an hour on the high-bank oval here at General Motors’ proving grounds looked altogether unremarkable, according to the New York Times.

From the driving position it’s another story. A laptop computer placed between me and a G.M. engineer, Jun Mo Kang, displays a graph that plots the car’s changing engine speed against the load on the engine, just colorful enough to draw my attention away from future cars and trucks in full disguises zipping by in the faster lanes of the track.

My time behind the wheel last month was the first test drive G.M. has given to a journalist of its prototype homogeneous-charge compression-ignition engine. An H.C.C.I. engine runs on a combustion process that researchers say holds the potential for significant gains in overall engine efficiency. G.M is one of several automakers developing H.C.C.I. technology.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:08 AM to Fuel economy , GM , Technology | Permalink | Comments 0

A New Chrysler and a New Marketer

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — From the executive suite to showroom lots, Chrysler L.L.C. is wasting no time in trying to persuade customers that it has come out from under the wing of its former German owners, according to the New York Times.

On Wednesday, Chrysler said it had hired Deborah Wahl Meyer, vice president of marketing at Lexus, the luxury division of Toyota, as its new vice president and chief marketing officer. She will start Aug. 28.

Her appointment came just 10 days after Chrysler’s new owners, Cerberus Capital Management, hired Robert L. Nardelli, the former chief executive at Home Depot, to run the auto company.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:05 AM to Chrysler | Permalink | Comments 0

Toyota plans new small car for India

NEW DELHI — Toyota plans to build a new small car and introduce it in India within two years, the company chairman said Wednesday, according to the Detroit Free Press.

“We are looking at several markets, but the first production will be in India,” Fujio Cho told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of Indian and Japanese business executives. Cho, however, said the company was yet to finalize the type of the small car it plans to make.

Toyota Motor Corp. currently sells three models — Corolla, Camry and Innova — in India’s expensive premium segment.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:03 AM to Toyota | Permalink | Comments 0

GM focusing resources on growth markets

Explosive growth in General Motor's Latin America, Africa and Middle East division is driving the automaker to dedicate more spending and responsibility to those regions, said the division's group vice president Tuesday, according to the Detroit Free Press.

"These are growing markets and we must take advantage of the opportunity that exists," said Maureen Kempston Darkes during her visit to Detroit. "Critical for our success is to stretch the manufacturing capacity."

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:02 AM to GM | Permalink | Comments 0

Suit alleges oil giants fixed prices for 23,000 gas station owners

SAN FRANCISCO — Nearly two dozen gas station owners in California sued Shell Oil, Chevron and Saudi Refining, on Tuesday, claiming the companies conspired to fix prices for 23,000 franchise owners nationwide, according to the Associated Press and reported by USA Today.

The case filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco seeks class-action status for the plaintiffs. It is similar to another lawsuit filed in 2004 by other California gas station owners that was thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. The new group of plaintiffs hopes the court will consider a slightly different argument.

Like the previous case, the plaintiffs in this case say chairmen of the three oil companies met privately nearly every month starting in March 1996 for the "purpose of forming and organizing a combination."

The lawsuit alleges executives destroyed documents from the meetings, and a defunct joint venture violated U.S. antitrust laws and caused artificially high wholesale gas prices in nearly every state from 1999 to 2001.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 10:58 AM to Consumer rights , Gas prices , Oil | Permalink | Comments 0

Nissan to put lead-foot gauge on all models

Nissan plans to equip all of its cars and trucks with a gauge to tell drivers when they are being gas-guzzling lead foots, according to USA Today.

The "fuel-efficiency" meter, as the gauge is called, shows up already as a horizontal bar in the instrument cluster of the 2007 Nissan Altima and the 2008 Titan pickup, Armada SUV, Infiniti G35 car and QX56 SUV.

When coasting down a hill, the meter is long and orange, meaning little fuel is being used. When the pedal is to the metal, the line shortens dramatically.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 10:56 AM to Environment , Nissan , Technology | Permalink | Comments 0

First of Chrysler's next-generation minivans rolls off line

WINDSOR, Ontario — The first of Chrysler's next-generation minivans rolled off an assembly line Tuesday as the company celebrated the launch of a product it hopes will help return it to profitability, according to USA Today.

Chrysler launched the new 2008 vans, which feature a wider look and a second-row seat that swivels so passengers can sit on two sides of a table, after investing $511 million in the Windsor Assembly Plant.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 10:53 AM to Chrysler | Permalink | Comments 0

Oil Prices Rebound As Dean Does Damage

Crude oil prices rebounded Wednesday, approaching $70 a barrel as Hurricane Dean threatened to regain strength and possibly further affect oil installations in Mexico, according to the Associated Press.

While the storm was downgraded to a Category 1 storm Tuesday, it was closing in on the Mexican mainland Wednesday, battering evacuated oil platforms on the Bay of Campeche and threatening to regain some of the force it unleashed on the Yucatan Peninsula.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 10:09 AM to Oil | Permalink | Comments 0