Apparently America still doesn't get it

For what it is worth, this is my two cents on the subject. I am one of the few americans that got it a long time ago. I remember the even/odd days of the 70's and the green/red flags at the gas stations, along with the long lines. I remember when the wife and I got that new Pontiac Phoenix with the 4 cylinder engine in it. Everyone laughed at us until they saw the kind of mileage we got and the cost at the pump.

If I could afford it, I would have two Pri's in the driveway, but alas my car is a Nissan truck with a 4 cylinder engine in it. It does not get what the Pri does in mileage, but it still is better than what the average Tahoe or F150 gets on the highway. And the mileage justs gets better if I drive it on the highway.

My father in law and his wife drive their own "individual" Chevrolet Avalanche Trucks. They are all dolled out with chrome and such. He brags to me how his Avalanche will give him 21 on the highway. He does not discuss the cost of the fillup's and the mileage around town. This guy is 80 plus years old, but yet he still doesn't get it. Some people never will, but like other's have posted here everyone has the right to drive what they want to, at least for now. However, the way things are today there may be a time that those who drive those land barges will no longer be able to due to high cost's of fuel. I will also add this point. In the Houston area I see more and more Prius on the road each day. I figure the big car and truck will be around for a long time, but slowly and surely foks are wising up. The question is what will take for everyone to understand what many in this forum do.

One final comment. I saw a guy with a Honda Accord fill up last week. I asked him about the mileage. He said 33 kinda of bluntly. I asked him if he had ever looked at one of these pointing to my wifes Prius. He said "What is it". When I told him it was a Prius he said, "Yeah, I looked at one, but I didn't like it". So a lot of the problem with the topic is what folks like versus what folks really should use.

 

http://money.bundle.com/article/driving-car-gas-infographic-11578

He will change something, someday when he can no longer pay for his monthly gas bills.

Gas prices eat up $368 a month of your income - May. 5, 2011

 

*note to self* stop complaining about buying $85 of gas every month

 

Well, I think you have the perfect combination of cars, an Electric and a Hybrid. Some people spend more on cigarettes per month than you spend on gas.
For others, since truck sales were up last month, so we can expect average spent on gasoline per month per household to be higher next year.

 

Ok lets see the government does not get it. Most of the people employed by car companies don't get it. The media does not get it so how do you expect the rest of america to get it.

 

There are two economic ways for people to get it.

The current method would be price at the gas pump. When gas headed above $4 the first time, people were dumping SUV's like mad and trying to get into fuel efficient cars. The problem with this is that people get "acclimated" to the price and it no longer guides their behavior until the next "spike" in prices.

The second method last occurred in the 1940's (1942 - 1945 would be my estimate). It's called rationing. That would quickly "fix" people's fix for fuel by fixing the amount they get every week. Can you imagine the uproar if people were limited to 8 gallons per week (arbitrary number)? Suddenly, the guy in the 33 mpg accord is looking pretty wise and the his and her Avalanche's not so wise, unless they drive less than 120 miles per week. People would quickly resort to carpooling, highway traffic would ease up, and the black market for surplus fuel cards and counterfeit fuel cards would be vigorous.

In the 40's, people accepted this as a form of patriotism. Today, people would revolt rather than accept it.

We've gotten soft.

 

Evidentally the "City of Houston" got it. The city employees as well as the fire dept. company vehicles are (drum roll...) Toyota Prius.

Houston purchased a fleet of them and you see them every day running around town. All of them are white with the COH logo's on the doors. The fire dept's are also white, but they have fire dept. logo's on them.

So not all of the gov't doesn't get it.

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-main-forum/9413-city-houston-prius.html

 

ok well actually i do spend another $25-26 on electricity but our cost will go down. SO who does the 63 mile roundtrip commute will be going to a 4 day 10 hour shift from 5 days 8 hours starting Oct 31st.

so that will cut the gas cost a bit.

Cody; you are right. a few years ago, prices hitting $3.50 would have caused a mass exodus to fuel efficient options. but gas has bumped itself up a quarter a year and we bitch about it for a few months then accept it.

but oil companies got smart. now what they do is bump it to $4.25 a few months. we bitch, after a bit, we accept it. then price drops to $3.75 and now we have a run on full sized trucks and cars...its pathetic, just pathetic

 

Companies have tried that one in the past, converting those 8 hour days to 10. It doesn't last long. Next thing you know, they start bringing in certain pet's and pay them overtime to work on Friday an extra eight hours to play catch up due to the back log. Some of those same pets even carry on thru Saturday.

After awhlle the back log get's so bad that the whole show has to start back and guess what - it is ten hours a day, five days a week until they get caught up. Then all of a sudden it is back to 5 eights just like it was before the big change.

It has been proven through many studies in the past done by human resource groups that productivity drops off after eight hours, therefore if you shorten the work week to four days at four tens, the actual productivity drops over time when compared to five eights. I don't have any links to this, but I have heard this from many human resource guys over the years. (Just added links...)

Ok, here is a link for ya to read. It pretty much backs up what I am talking about. Actually two of them. The second one shows both sides of the coin and both views on it, and it even relates to my line of work, a machinist...

http://www.linkedin.com/answers/hiring-human-resources/personnel-policies/HRH_PPO/903399-2834544

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...sues/4-10s-vs-5-8s-whats-your-opinion-228887/

Ron

 

To resurrect an old thread... gas prices have been creeping beyond $4/gal for regular in CA again. Daily Fuel Gauge Report--national, state and local average prices for gasoline, diesel and E-85. says the average for regular is now $4.037 in CA.

But still, I see crap like drive thru lines at In-N-Out burger more than a dozen cars long (when the dining room/lobby was open), w/none of them being hybrids, PHEVs, EVs or anything else w/auto-start stop systems and the insane # of monstrosity class (full-sized) SUVs running around solo or w/minimal passengers or cargo.

Today I noticed a current gen, fairly new looking Suburban circling the parking lot at Safeway a few times, driven solo, of course. I later saw that same vehicle on the road and w/1 passenger. I guess that driver didn't want to bother parking their hard-to-park land yacht and turn it off while waiting for someone and decided to waste fuel circling instead. I guess $4/gal gas is still too cheap for these folks or it's the "new normal" or they're just oblivious to their wasteful habits...

 

I also find it humorous how the "news" claims that gas is already the highest we have seen since last year... Well yeah. Gas prices are going to keep going up. Summer is more expensive than winter. It isn't rocket science!

 

The Republican party has a done a great job demonizing the Prius. Its both communist and gay to own the car.
50% of the Country mainly Red f-150 driving states don't even believe in Global Warming. Anything that has to do with energy conservation is a bad thing to that crowd. Your Un-american.

Which is kinda funny because most of these Red stater's are punching a time clock. And the last person the Republican Party care's about is the paycheck to paycheck guy. Right Mitt?
But apparently all they have to do is paint whatever Obama is trying to accomplish with the Commie paintbrush.

Look at the ACA and there non stop negative railing they do against it and again it will benefit the p to p guy the most.
It's just lunacy.

I will say I voted for Obama but very disappointed we still don't have a definitive energy policy. Make solar products 75% tax deductable with gov't incentives. Decrease electric company coal fired plants. Every roof in the south should have a tertiary solar system. Its going to be a heck of a lot cheaper for Gov't's to spend money now than trying to fix global warming 15 years from now.

Rolling Stone has had alot of really well written articles about global warming. They predict Miami beach will be under 4 feet of water and most of Miami unlivable in 15 years. South Florida will be devastated. And most beachfront property down here will be gone in 20. I can see how bad its gotten in the 25 years I have been here.

Not get it? They don't even know what your talking about.

 

I don't believe in GW. I'm not American and I'm also not gay. But there's nothing wrong if you're a gay American who does believe in GW.

I drive the Prius as I like to save money on petrol. End of.

 

I agree with GC, but I guess with our fuel prices we save a lot more money than those in America. If they had our fuel prices I would buy shares in Toyota.

John (Britprius)

 

OK its an old thread, I get it now...current average 25 MPG up from 20 MPG about 5 years ago so we are fairly quickly going up. Not fast enough but progress....

 

$20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better byChristopher Steiner - Obtain and read this book. This answers all the questions raised here. Primarily our culture substitutes oil for knowledge rather than applying the knowledge.

We are oblivious to the true cost of energy. Energy is subsidized at every level - residential, transportation and commercial. We complain if the cost of energy rises by $0.05. The Prius provides real time feed back so we are aware of what is happening. Increasingly buildings receive a HERS Index (energy efficiency) rating so they can be comparable.

 

Why are there a bunch of busy bodies that want to tell everyone what to drive ? If someone wants to drive a big SUV and waste gas , hey it's their money.

As for global warming, wasn't it Al Gore that said the coasts would all be under water by now? Of course there is climate change and global warming/cooling. But it's not because of burning gas in cars. The earth has been in warming and cooling cycles for billions of years.

Oh, and quoting morons from Rolling Stone causes you to loose credibility. It's basically a roll of liberal toilet paper.


iPhone ?

 

I've posted about this many times in many places. I don't have time to repeat everything I've written before but it boils down to consequences that stretch beyond their own money and what they can "afford". I put "afford" in quotes because of the stats at My Nissan Leaf Forum • View topic - Americans' low savings rate, in general & for retirement. If you don't want to watch a few mins of the video there, you can read the transcript at Transcript: Tuesday, March 18, 2014 | Nightly Business Report. You can stop at (END VIDEOTAPE).

The consequences include the price of gasoline that all of us pay and the transportation costs for goods that we buy to the trade deficit to national security to the safety of you, me and everything else that shares the road w/monstrosity battering rams of death.

Since I don't have time to repeat it all, see some of my posts below on this.
GM adds third shift at Texas plant, 800 jobs (produces monstrosity class SUVs) | PriusChat
MY350Z.COM Forums - View Single Post - Talk me out of buying an H2 hummer
MY350Z.COM Forums - View Single Post - Talk me out of buying an H2 hummer
MY350Z.COM Forums - View Single Post - Talk me out of buying an H2 hummer
Shouldn't there be a law mandating fuel economy indicators in all new cars? | Page 2 | PriusChat

And there's Clueless NYT reporter manages to get stranded in Model S | Page 22 | PriusChat and Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn: ‘Clean’ Cars are Patriotic | GreenCar.com, both not from me.

Did he? Source?

There's already a consensus about AGW. Even if you choose to not believe it, there are still indisputable facts unrelated to global warming that I mentioned.

 

meah ... you think that dude was clueless?



here's an out of touch person i noticed near the OC/Riverside county boarders ... but it's best to let it go ... or maybe have a hearty laugh

 

I agree. There's nothing more likely to rub your back up than some goody two shoes telling you what to do.

If I want to drive a Prius, great. If a colleague wants to drive a gas guzzler, then that's their choice. I'll just smile and grin and drop in a "doesn't bother me" whenever they complain about the cost of petrol.