this is true. if your main concern is cost, don't buy a prius - buy a yaris. it's about half the price and gets the same fuel economy. however, buying a hybrid does get you a tax credit, and knowing that you are investing in technology that will benefit everyone in the future.
I don't even know if you'll get the credit any more - and last time I heard the HOV lane stickers were out too...
Yeah, so I stopped bitching and moaning about the gas prices right around the time i placed an order for an S5 . I had the choice of getting a better mileage car(S5 gets a whopping 14mpg city), but i just said screw it...so I guess i really dont have any right to bitch
I say we tap our own oil, prices drop. This gives time for manufacturers to release their fuel cell cars. Then we stop drilling our own oil as soon as all these cars have been released, prices rise, and the majority of people convert to fuel cells. Thank you thank you. haha
My biggest gripe with gas prices is that we get ripped off on all our gas taxes. Everyone notes how high european gas prices are, but their taxation system primarily puts the full spectrum of costs associated with vehicular transportation right there at the pump; essentaily at the point of use. Here in the US, we have enourmous taxes on gas, but that money basically is NOT dedicated to cover vehicular transportation costs...it's available to be spent(wasted) on general government spending. This means that all major infrastructure costs for transportation related spending are typically funded by bond measures, which we then are taxed AGAIN to pay for. If we could let all the taxes charged at the pump and ONLY those monies, be dedicated exclusively for transportation, we would see our pump prices go way up, like in europe, but our overall taxes paid for transportation go down!
I was at Costco yesterday and put in 15.3 gallons of premium 91 gas at $3.96 per 9/10 of a gallon for a total of $60.73.
The price I pay for performance and a nice looking car.
And the only reason I don't mind high gas prices is because this country has bean oafish and obscene in its use of gas. For too long the car companies have designed too many family cars with shit gas mileage. We don't encourage the use of public transportation and we snicker and sneer at alternative uses of fuel sources. That all needs to be checked.
+1 I remember being stationed in Germany in 1990 and gas was approximately $1 a liter...then I realized there was like 4-5 liters per gallon!
But seriously, we've done it to ourselves...and it will take more than $4 a gallon to really make Americans change their spending habits. I expect gas prices to get to $6 a gallon or more, before you really start to see a change in our habits as a whole country. Hopefully, by then, there will lots of new hybrid (or better) all electric vehicles out on the roads, however, I highly doubt since the automanufacturers are in bed with the oil industry.
The Fed is already moving to mandate strict fuel efficiency standards. I thought the first wave of the standards was for the 2012(?) year.
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Now I'm just laid bad - G35Princess
R.I.P. MBC
and neither is increased mpgs in cars... the oil companies will just adjust the prices to match consumption...one reason why it's so much more expensive in Europe...
One of the reasons gas is so high in Europe is the tax rate.
They use taxes to alter behavior, make something more expensive do discourage it's use. Not exactly the ideal economy in my opinion!
The Fed is already moving to mandate strict fuel efficiency standards. I thought the first wave of the standards was for the 2012(?) year.
The Feds actions are absolutely laughable to date and I'll take a "see-it-before-believe-it" attitude toward anything substantive happening in the future; not to say that it isn't absolutely necessary, just that the Fed is SO much on the knob of big oil and the auto industry that it's frightening. Makes a pretty good case for who's really running this country.
One of the reasons gas is so high in Europe is the tax rate. They use taxes to alter behavior, make something more expensive do discourage it's use. Not exactly the ideal economy in my opinion!
I don't believe this is the case. I think what you're seeing is the true tax costs associated with supporting the true 'burden' autos bring to that society. In europe, we just see it ALL at the point of sale; which is arguably good to let consumers see it right there in front of them...and make a more conscious decision about how they then want to work with that...that's what subsequently changes behavior. In the US, we play this ridiculous shell game with the true costs, thereby allowing the oil companies/auto industry to rape us
The Fed is already moving to mandate strict fuel efficiency standards. I thought the first wave of the standards was for the 2012(?) year.
They have had the "CAFE" standard since 1975 that has mandated higher fuel economy.
The really funny part is a FlexFuel H2 has an mpg rating of 10 (or whatever it is) Since only 15% of that is actual gas its mpg (of the gas only) is rated somewhere up near 40 mpg.
So FlexFuel allows the corporation to put out more of the FlexFuel gas guzzlers and still raise their CAFE rating. Yet very few people actually use it because it has poorer fuel economy and is not very common to find.
No reason to develop cars like the Aveo if an H2 has the same or better rating.
E85 is an another government scam too! The food prices are now reflecting the benefit of having the government subsidize an industry.
The Fed is already moving to mandate strict fuel efficiency standards. I thought the first wave of the standards was for the 2012(?) year.
Also I thought this was a free market economy? Why should the government limit what vehicle I want to drive? If I want something that gets 2 gallons to the mile and some company says they can make it, why not?
