Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 19:41:30 -0500
Reply-To: Jim Felder <felder@KNOLOGY.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jim Felder <felder@KNOLOGY.NET>
Subject: Friday: Gas price war / costs of road trips
In-Reply-To: <200604211048.AA142934226@zorck.dk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed
Jens,
It would be big news to most Americans that what they drive and how
much they drive it would have anything at all to do with the price of
gasoline.
In this country, here are the reasons that Americans hear that
gasoline is expensive:
1. The oil companies are ripping us off (they don't know what traders
are, so they are not told to blame them)
2. China's economy is growing and they compete for "our" oil, driving
the price up
3. The output of the Gulf of Mexico hasn't recovered from hurricane
Katrina.
4. There have been problems shifting over from MTBE to methanol
5. There is political instability in the world that tightens the
supply of oil and drives up the price
Nowhere, not one single time during a day, a week, or a month of
American headline-reading or TV-viewing will you see anyone, from the
government or private sector, say to the American public "you are not
suffering from the high price of gasoline, you are CAUSING it."
Also, most Americans would be incapable of assessing their needs and
going down and buying what they need from a car dealer, even if that
dealer were to have such a car available (the lack of a modern-day
people-and-stuff hauler like the vanagon is one example, the lack of
a cheap, durable car like the original beetle is another). They can
only think about buying something that "expresses their personality."
So you get some old guy on viagra in a Corvette, you get a young
redneck in a monster 4X4 so expensive he would never take it on a
gravel road, you get engineers who fancy themselves the rugged type
and drive a pickup truck to their government job four miles from the
house.
You get people who wouldn't be caught dead--and I mean it, they'd
rather walk--in a station wagon because it has too much of a "family"
odor to it. So they buy an SUV, which is of course a station wagon.
Of course it has all wheel drive, is tiny inside compared to it's
outside bulk, and still has a hatch in the rear, but they can
fantasize that they're not driving a station wagon, but some
adventurous tool that everyone is afraid of. I don't know if you ever
see American SUV ads where you live, but intimidation of nature and
other drivers is a common theme in them.
So now I see that the manufacturers realize that if they don't play
to Americans' styling fantasies they may lose their buyers to
practical cars, and they can't let that happen. So they are now
calling their new station wagons "tall cars" and "crossover cars."
The former name is self explanatory, the latter refers to "crossing
over" to a car that is an SUV in body style but 2WD, lighter and more
carlike.
Anyway, this is not a diatribe against the American car buyer, but
just a way to explain that things are different here. We (not me, but
many, or most) don't think rationally about what we drive. We think
of them as expensive clothing to tell other people what we're really
like. We get told to think that by the people who sell them to us,
and we are helpless to think any other way. We will begin to drive
"crossover cars" as soon as we're told to (just wait a month or so)
and will continue to drive them until gas is $5.00 a gallon and then
we'll be told to want something else.
I wonder what the euphemism for the 2008 version of a Renault 2CV
will be? How will Americans react when they find out they're part of
the gas price equation? Stay tuned.
Jim
On Apr 21, 2006, at 3:48 AM, Andersen wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Being from Europe, one thing we dont understand, is why the US
> doesnt do something drastic about their gas-guzzlers.
>
> We cannot understand the american car, huge, heavy, big engine,
> guzzling gas.
>
> Can someone explain why the market isnt shifting - and why people
> still buy suburbans, explores, F150/250 etc?
>
> I agree, some have the need for such a vehicle, but most americans
> could do with a Peugot 107?
>
> Guess that a move from giant gas-guzlers to mini-cars, would be the
> biggest environmental benefit the US could do?
>
> Happy driVWing
>
> Jens Jakob
> From Denmark, where gas just have crept above 1.95$ - pr.
> LITER!!!!!!!,
>
| 
