Forum Discussion
- That writing has been on the wall for quite some time. It's pretty intriguing to see how FCA will deal with this issue. Chrysler appeared to have some pretty good electric tech on track before being picked dry by Daimler and Cerberus.
- The success of Ram trucks will hurt them. Seems silly, but that's the way it goes.
They have to build and sell more small cars. The new Chrysler 200 is a good start. - Hmm. the Gov tell car companies what kind of car they have to sell. Not a good thing, I think
- I'm not sure why more young people are not all over those darts. they are way above a cruze or focus and the features per dollar are really good but I see way more cruzes on the road for some reason. Reminds me a car grandma would drive.
Terryallan wrote:
Hmm. the Gov tell car companies what kind of car they have to sell. Not a good thing, I think
I agree. Governments should stick to governing their countries and leave the consumer to decide the products. In today's world of technology consumers are very savvy and the openness of media is better at keeping companies honest with their products.Terryallan wrote:
Hmm. the Gov tell car companies what kind of car they have to sell. Not a good thing, I think
Remember when Ford made the comment that fuel prices need to be much higher and everyone lambasted him saying he was advocating high fuel taxes and prices. He was merely stating the obvious. The government is cramming down high CAFE standards but no one is buying the cars it requires to get corporate averages up.PackerBacker wrote:
Terryallan wrote:
Hmm. the Gov tell car companies what kind of car they have to sell. Not a good thing, I think
I agree. Governments should stick to governing their countries and leave the consumer to decide the products. In today's world of technology consumers are very savvy and the openness of media is better at keeping companies honest with their products.
I too would love to see government stick to just governing the county.... wonder when it will start:h IF the government DOES MAKE a company build a certain vehicle...I have a name for it....I'd call it a "GRIDLOCK", ie the Dodge Gridlock....huh, come on...gotta admit...that's a good name for it if the GOVERNMENT is involved with what an Auto manufacturer has to build.........:B- Assuming we accept that the govt has a right and a role to mandate efficency standards (not that I neccessarily agree with that):
They've done it this way for decades and all it's done is make the econo-box a "poor persons" car. As a result, no one really wants to buy them and manufactures really don't want to sell them or put effort into making them high quality cars.
Recently (totally unrelated to cafe standards), we have seen what market driven processes can do when gas prices jumped from the old $1.20/gallon to the $3-4/gallon. People demanded efficency and it came in nice packages.
The fair and more effective solution to companies and consumers is to apply penalties and rewards to the individual consumer. It makes no sense to let Ford or Toyota have a major advantage in selling smog inducing trucks just because they have a line of efficent cars to offset the penalties.
Instead set a target efficency for cars and light trucks at the individual consumer level (you pay for it either way but at least this is transparent).
- If you don't meet or beat that average, there is an efficency tax you pay. Maybe $500 for each mpg over the target.
- At the end of the year, they total up the amount taken in and cars that beat the average get a percentage of the efficency tax rebated based on the amount that they beat the goal by.
This creates a capitalist incentive for people to demand fuel efficent vehicles because they save on taxes or get a rebate. Because people are demanding fuel effienct vehicles, manufacturers will produce them at a profit and they can outfit them to be more than econoboxes.
Now back to the debate of if the govt should even be involved in the discussion. - There is a name for an economic system in which the govt does not own the means of production but controls what is produced and it is not capitalism.
- I guess the story really is the government sucks.
chevman
