New Bill for higher gas efficiency, great cooperation between Dems & Repubs!

[animal]

Those who want a free market are opposed to any legislation like this.

Conspiracy theories about the big auto makers became rampant during the gas crisis days of the 70s and continue to this day.

I once met a man with a whole file cabinet full of "secret " documents pertaining to UFOs(including plans). Really! I had a fun conversation with him but the whole time I made sure no one was between me and the door … and that no one was behind me.

There’s nothing mysterious about the engine in the Mazda RX-8. Called the 13B-MSP Renesis, it is essentially the same concept as all the other Wankel Rotary engines that Mazda has produced commercially since 1967. Their development and experiments began in the early 60s. Rotary engines still suffer from comparatively low low-end torque. Gas mileage is generally worse than piston engines due to lower thermodynamic efficiency (most of this problem is because of lower compression ratios). It is also harder to build a rotary that meets emission standards. The rotary design is theoretically more efficient than a piston engine but the concept requires more research and better materials(especially in the rotor seals). Every rotary engine ever built burns oil because of combustion chamber sealing problems. Mazda is the undisputed leader in rotary engine technology simply because they were the only manufacturer willing to pour money into its development.

Comparing a VW bug to a Ford explorer : Consider weight, wind resistance and power-to-weight-ratio. Obviously, the bug wins on the first two out of the box … the final consideration is that your explorer has much more "ready power". You have to pay for that with decreased fuel mileage. Cadillac’s concept to get around this is the Northstar system which allows cylinders to "cut out" when they are not necessary.
BTW: If the bug is only getting 22mpg. highway, it either needs a tune-up, has engine wear, or been tweaked up in hp.
My big ’99 Buick Park Avenue gets 21mpg. in town on regular or premium and 30 mpg. on premium (27 on regular) on the highway…. 3.8l. V-6

What has this got to do with guns ?

 

[JuanCarlos]

What has this got to do with guns ?

Legal and Political (20 Viewing)
Round table discussions range from the Bill of Rights, to concealed carry, to general political issues.

Good post otherwise, though.

Did they factor in how many additional deaths will result from smaller lighter cars?

Maybe, maybe not. One thing to consider, though, is that often smaller and lighter cars aren't that much more dangerous unless they collide with larger cars/trucks. They might be marginally more dangerous if you hit a tree/guardrail, but really if everybody drove smaller and lighter cars it's conceivable you'd end up with less traffic fatalities due to less collisions between Mini Coopers and Hummers. Yes, this still holds if everybody decides to switch to full-size trucks and SUV's as well...but given lower fuel economy it seems like that wouldn't be the preferred choice of the two.

Though it seemed to be the direction we were headed before gas hit $3.50 a gallon.

Really, small cars versus big trucks seems like a pretty good example of the "Prisoner's Dilemma" to me.

EDIT: Almost forgot...

What I wanna see are incentives for telecommuting to work. Reduces oil use, cuts down on rush hour traffic, everything people want. The software they're coming out with for it is getting better and better. Tax incentives mean more people do it, means more money for software developers, means further improved software, means further demand, means ability to remove incentives. Boom: Happy time.

Incentives for telecommuting (including incentives to businesses to allow telecommuting where possible), incentives to carpool, incentives to use mass transit...I can see all kinds of areas that incentives could be offered to achieve much the same effect. On the other hand, I don't think the carrot and stick are mutually exclusive; though I'd say that in this case the "stick" may well be asking for too much, too soon. Plus I'm not seeing a whole lot of "carrot" here.

 

[animal]

JuanCarlos:
Hey thanks !
I had always assumed that it meant general political issues involving guns. There have been many times that I wanted to spout off about something but held back because it wasn’t gun related.

 

[JuanCarlos]

I had always assumed that it meant general political issues involving guns. There have been many times that I wanted to spout off about something but held back because it wasn’t gun related.

Naw, you can generally "let loose" here.

And going back to what you said, I'd agree that about the biggest "conspiracy" going on among auto manufacturers is that there has been little economic incentive to put much effort into fuel economy improvements, so they've all pretty much decided not to.

Seems to be changing a bit now...like I said, an increase in gas prices spurred a lot of people to look long and hard at their car's gas usage. Which means an increase in demand for more efficient vehicles, even those with AWD/4WD and greater clearance (for those of us in northern climates that actually need them).

I think this legislation is largely a knee-jerk reaction to the current focus on climate change. Not necessarily a bad thing (less pollution and less dependence on foreign resources is preferable either way), and I'm not against fuel economy standards in general, but as I said I think perhaps this asks too much too quickly. And I think there are a lot of other options we aren't fully exploring (offering incentives would help this) that could produce results as well.

 

[Long Path]

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Closed.