Reply #12: The US manufacturers aren't ready for fuel efficient cars just yet [View All]

[Coastie for Truth]

The market place is fickle, and to say that "The market isn't ready for fuel efficient cars just yet" is to be guilty of the "Sin of Rick Wagonerism - Bob Lutzism" with a very severe "NIH Syndrome" (Not invented here).

The issue is not that "The market isn't ready for fuel efficient cars just yet" - the issue really is that "The North American Automobile Manufacturers Association isn't ready for fuel efficient cars just yet"

After the 1980 gasoline price "aberration" - AMC died and Chrysler needed a Federal Loan Guarantee Bail Out and ultimately had to be purchased by Daimler Benz -- and Flint and Pontiac became ghost towns. Of course - "imports" increased in market share -- and steel and vendors never really recovered.

What saved the American manufacturers was the "Special Purpose Vehicle" loophole in the Clean Air Act -- that created the SUV market. It also killed the AMC Eagle, the 4WD Tempo-Topaz, and the 4WD Corsica-Baretta (before they even rolled off the production line). So, we are back on the ever higher gasoline consumption treadmill.

But, now with "Peak Oil" - and China and India competing to buy a shrinking supply of (light, sweet) crude oil, and light sweet crude for September delivery at $66.85, and self-serve regular just over $2.60/gallon locally (and over $3.00 in parts of Los Angeles and San Francisco) - the buyer's mood may well change.

Corrected for inflation, $3.00/gallon is very close to the inflation corrected $3.12/gallon that drove Jimmie Carter from office, gave us Reagan, killed AMC, put Chrysler on life support, and gave GM its worst decade in history.