Auto Makers A Several Part Explosion.

November 13, 2008 at 5:09 am (Uncategorized)

So this is going to be a several day expose’ and I hope to rant enough to fill the room with. So over time more and more news stories are being posted on the hard times for auto makers. However, most of them seem to be on whether or not the government should bail them out… though most recently it seems to be more of the case of how much the government should bail them out for?

I being person of side duality wants to find healthy medians to most problems… I have never and most likely will never be an all or nothing mentalatied person when it comes to politics. Automakers are now facing the consequences of several bad decisions when it comes to legal battles and car types. So, the first part of this ongoing posting will be some of their mistakes…in my opinion.

1. Bigger is better.

In the early 90′s car makers in America decided to go the bigger and better the more gas we guzzle the more consumer will pay. Often times America saw big vehicles as being a symbol of safety or wealth. In fact I have heard on many occasion that my female friends family members saying, “I want my babe in a big car so she will be safer.” Safer for her, not for anyone she hits or the gas the cars eats or the environmental footprint that it crushes into the earth.

In fact here is a article stating that very thing. (Notice most of the cars noted as safe are from the 90′s.

So, the point is… yes they are safer… if you are driving a tank and you run into a mailbox. Tank 1 Mailbox 0   So stating the fact that a car is safer based on size is silly, because if you go head on with a bigger beast of a car then the one you are in…. the safety ratings go down fast. So what I am getting at is… a bigger car is a safer car… only for the person in the bigger car… if we all drove smaller cars then size wouldn’t be what made the rating seem better or worse.

Also, another article showing how cars have become bigger and heavier… but yet more fuel efficient. However, if you look at the data… they really haven’t become more fuel efficient… they have stayed relatively constant… yes size has gotten bigger… if the cars had stayed the same… would we have around 30+ mpg? Oh. one last thing before I draw this session to a close. The car featured in my previous article was a Honda… an Asain car… and according to The Fuel Economy Guide (Linked several years) Honda is considered one of the best/ if not the best of all car makers for fuel economy. Which leads me to my next topic. Fuel Price and the American Demand.