To Boldly Go Where No Consumer Demand Has Gone Before

Is there nothing that Obama can’t do?

President Barack Obama’s new fuel and emission standards for cars and trucks will save billions of barrels of oil but are expected to cost consumers an extra $1,300 per vehicle by the time the plan is complete in 2016. Obama on Tuesday planned to announce the first-ever national emissions limits for vehicles, as well as require an overall or industry average fuel efficiency standard at 35.5 miles per gallon.

Because there’s no such thing as “too low” when you’re bringing the rest of America down to California standards.

60 Replies to “To Boldly Go Where No Consumer Demand Has Gone Before”

Look on the bright side, in a few years under Obama’s wise guidance, auto enthusiasts wishing to see classic American cars in everyday use won’t have to travel to Castro’s jewel in the Caribbean.

its easy to make the 1300 bucks payout in only 12 months in fuel cost saving. triple the price of gas through taxes.
shut down the coal companies as he promised. hook up america to the grid of high cost half time windmills.
Atlas Shrugged. he is shutting down the US economy one sector at a time and nationalizing it. first the banks. then the car companies , then the oil companies, then the power companies.
the price of obama paying the mortgages and putting gas in the po’ peoples cars.

Greta on Fox News has a great interview on the car business with a really smart car dealer. This guy hammers the poor managers who have run Chrysler and GM into the ground. He says he would help them figure out how to fix things, but they wouldn’t listen to him if he tried. This is now typical of American industry: college-educated clowns with little practical experience ignoring people with decades of hands-on experience. Both of these companies are going down I think.

Aaron, it was funny to arrive in Germany and find you can drive from one side to the other in less than a single day, and you can walk from one town to the next in an hour or two. It was funny to see a country where 80% of the people live in a dinky little apartment with no parking.
What I want to see is how Obama’s 35mpg wonder-truck is going to make out pulling my car trailer with a Bobcat on it. I have to go do that this morning.
I predict a brisk aftermarket trade in big frackin’ motors and turbo upgrades for the new Barrymobiles.
Incidentally Aaron, a VW 1600 with 60hp is an excellent engine… for a 1500lb sand rail. In a highway vehicle, not so much. Even the rail begs for a dual carb upgrade and a turbo.

One thing is obvious to me: the vast majority of Canadians are a bunch of lawless thugs. How I arrived at that? Looking at how you speed, run the stop signs, do not signal lane changes, cross solid lines etc. Argue all you want – I have footage.
Dear Aarhead;
You have the time and inclinaton to record traffic infractions by us thugs?
You were certainly a oh so popular hall monitor in school weren’t you?
All the actual problems in the world created by leftist weirdo’s like you, and this is your community involvement?
Shaddap

The vast majority of Canadians are known for their orderliness and love of order.
Argue all you want – I have footage.
What you don’t seem to have is a life.

Aaron: The US is large.
The road distance from Portland, OR to Phoenix, AZ is 1500 miles.
That’s the distance from London to Moscow.
We don’t like dippy little tiny engines because we have to drive a lot, many of us – and while you don’t need lots of horsepower/torque to move, you DO need it to safely pass another vehicle at speed on a two-lane road.
My first car was a Metro, with a 1.1L, and my current car weighs nearly twice as much with only half again more power (and it’s a German car with a 3L engine!), so I know about small engines at least as well as you, no?
Oz: Ford doesn’t deserve the bad rap it got over the Pinto. See Here (pdf).
The Pinto didn’t burn more than other cars (at the time – they’re all safer now), and the horrible “cost of fixing vs saving lives!!!” thing was… a paper submitted to the NHTSA arguing that the cost/benefit analysis of proposed regulations was unfavorable and that they should be rethought.
(And the case in question was rollover-caused fires, rather than rear-impact … and also referred to all American car production, not the Pinto.
Similarly their “a life is worth $200,000” figure… came from NHTSA standards.
Ford completely doesn’t deserve the approbation people still attach to them over this.
Thanks, Mother Jones. Progressive journalism at its best.)