[TML] Transportation solutions.

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 10/17/07 12:02 PM, Bruce Johnson wrote:

> Japanese and European car manufacturers are having to build American
> models wider to accommodate our ever-fattening asses.

I used to on a Geo Metro.  I got it mainly because me & my
soon-to-be-ex-wife didn't have much money.  But I kept it almost 10 years
because it did fine for me.  Many people thought it was too cramped, but I
was OK with it.  Of course, I grew up with the family owning a 68 Beetle...

I'm 5'8", about 160 lb, not fat by any means.  Nor am I claustrophobic.
But, no way in HELL am I going to buy something as small as a Mini, or that
SmartCar.  That's just way too small.

> Yes, because all they sell are the larger engined versions, and their
> market research is done by the same folks who read "Car and Driver"
> and the 'auto press' which is quick to hop on "ooh, shiny fast!" and
> dismiss economy cars as 'boring'.

I'm sure there's some of that, but in truth the American public isn't real
fond of small cars until gas prices soar.

> A smaller percentage buy Corvettes, but oddly, the US market still
> manages to struggle on supporting a car sold in such vanishingly
> small numbers.

But the Corvette is neither marketed nor priced as an "economy car".  A
certain amount of cost to make a car is per unit, not by the size of the
car.  So the price of a car that weighs half as much (comparable tech, not
comparing steel to fiberglass) is more than half the big one.

> They're already making them, at costs that allow a profit (note I
> pointed out a Volvo model that is sold elsewhere in the world;
> identical to the model sold in the US, save for the engine.)

Yes, they're making and selling them *there*.  If they tried to make them
here, the economics are different.  Here, they'd have to compete with the
models that are far more standardized, fewer options.  Few options means
easier/cheaper to manufacture.  (And I'm not even going to go into what the
UAW does to American car prices...)

> I'm not suggesting, for example that companies like Honda sell their
> very successful and highly economical diesel models in the US because
> we've shown time and time again that the American public is just too
> damned hidebound and stupid to work in their own self-interest.
> 
> No, we'd rather finance hideously expensive wars of conquest and
> drive 9-passenger 4WD heavy-duty vehicles by ourselves on the
> pavement to and from work than actually do something for our own
> benefit and stop subsidizing our gasoline habit.

Myself, I drive an Olds Alero.  4 door, seats 5 easily.  When I got it, I
lived with my sister & her kids, so the capacity was nice.  These days I
live alone, nobody else has been in my car for months.  Logically, I should
downgrade back to something like me old Geo.  Realistically, it won't
happen.  I'm probably still upside down (trade-in value would be less than
what's still on the loan), and my finances are precarious now to be
refinancing.  So that's my reason.  I'm sure everybody has their reasons.
Whether they are good, well arguing it won't change their behavior.

Personally, I was/am against the war, but the politicians were too busy
being frightened little girls to act rationally or ask me.