Re: [Amc-list] $3.00Gal. Gas? = Get my Butt out of Dodge City=

["Kelly Hardie" <ramblinguy.kelly@xxxxxxxxx>]

I've been on this rant for a while. And it's not just the American auto
makers. It's the American auto buyers, and the Japanese and European auto
makers that cater to them. I've been working for the same auto maker (Audi)
for over twenty years now. Before that, I and my family owned several cars
produced by the same company. I specifically refer here to the Audi Fox,
introduced in 1973, and the VW Dasher, which was released a year later. My
mother bought a new Dasher in 74. For the time, it was a pretty good car.
Oh, it had it's problems, a troublesome carburetor (FI came along in 77,
when my Fox was built), a prodigious appetite for front brake pads, and a
propensity for rust that only became apparent when she moved to Michigan a
decade later, but it was smart looking, roomy, comfortable, peppy, and got
mileage in the mid twenties around town and into the thirties on the
highway. With a carburetor and a three speed slush box! Seven generations of
the same car line later, three decades, and where have we got? The new
A4/Passat gets about the same mileage as my mother's Dasher.. Sure, it's
faster, handles better, is more luxurious (though it hasn't any more room)
and has a lot more gadgets (and weighs about double!). But the mileage has
barely changed. And it's not because automotive technology has remained
stagnant. There's been incredible advances in engine technology and
efficiency in the last three decades. What happened? We've squandered those
advances on more speed, more goodies, and more pork. Why? Cause that's what
the American people buy. We'll spend more money for a car that has more
power, more goodies, but not for more mileage. The Prius is a minor
exception, a technological marvel, but it gets about the same mileage as the
Chevy (Suzuki) Sprint I bought back in 84. The AVERAGE car should do about
that by now. And, speaking of the Prius, where the hell is the plug? All the
hybrids so far have it backwards. They're building gas engine cars that use
generators and batteries to make them more efficient, instead of making
electric cars with an engine to extend their range when needed. If the Prius
had a plug, most people in LA would have to start the engine about once a
month. And, why does no one build a electric/diesel hybrid? The railroads
seem to think they work just fine, since, like the forties? OK, I'll put my
soapbox away. My point is, the technology is out there. We'll get better
mileage when we're willing to buy it. The Japanese and the Europeans have
much higher fleet averages in their home territory than what they sell here.
The European makers you associate with big Bahn burners here have mush
smaller cars as their mainstay at home. And, do you think Japan is swarming
with Titans? Do they even sell them there? But, I said I'd put my soapbox
away, and I have to work in the morning. Good night...

Kelly

On 4/25/07, Swygert, Francis G MSgt 436 CES/CECM <
Francis.Swygert3@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<well, you read it, right?|>
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