Comments on: Pop Politico: “Happy New Year?”

By: steve

steve — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:53:59 +0000

Although your suggestion goes against my fundamental beliefs of 'hands-off government' and amounts to a quasi “vehicle censorship”, I kinda like it Jon. Maybe a better idea would be to have either a “luxury auto tax” – since most of these wasteful SUVs also cost over $30,000 (yes, folks who buy these are doubly stupid – waste gas AND waste money on the cost of the vehicle), or make sales tax rates on vehicles commensurate with their MPG rating. So you pay little sales tax on a Honda Civic, but super-high tax on a Lincoln Navigator.

But these decisions would be difficult. It's much easier just to blame Big Oil. And then waste it.

By: steve

steve — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:53:59 +0000

But these decisions would be difficult. It's much easier just to blame Big Oil. And then waste it.

By: JonCummings

JonCummings — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:01:50 +0000

It's hard to say how those numbers are being fueled (sorry) by the outrageous deals the carmakers are offering on SUVs just to get the huge backlog of them off their lots. If an SUV suddenly seems more economical than an Accord or Camry (or whatever those American sedans are that I stopped noticing years ago)–or is suddenly the only type of vehicle on which folks can get financing — they'll drive them off the lot.

Part of the auto bailout plan should dictate that automakers do to their SUV inventory what GM did to the EV1 a decade ago–crush them into scrap.

By: steve

steve — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:54:52 +0000

I saw a piece on CNN about it, but I should have caveoted my comment – actually I meant to say that SUV sales as a percentage of overall sales are going back up. Yes – overall auto sales are still going down as an aggregate across the board, but in other words, SUV sales aren't going down as much in the past month or so, so they're going up as a percentage of overall. The report you linked to indicated this somewhat in this para –

“However, light truck sales did perform a bit better in December, narrowly outpacing car sales during the month, helped by a combination of lower gasoline prices and large cash-back offers to buyers of larger vehicles.”

The CNN piece I saw said it was SUV's overall not just light trucks were performing slightly better.

Anyhoo – my overall point to make was that the greedy, bloated, I-can-never-have-enough-stuff consumer will not learn any lessons. They will waste more gas, then blame others for their wastefulness. But at the same time they'll tell their friends how they're 'concerned' about Global Warming at cocktail parties. Then they'll drive home in their Chevy Tahoe – the one with two flat screens in the back, because one flatscreen in your vehicle isn't enough.

By: Ted

Ted — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:06:54 +0000

Maybe a good number of folks are asking themselves “How much crap do I really need?”

By: Ted

Ted — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:04:37 +0000

Yeah, it does.

By: Ted

Ted — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:00:54 +0000

I'm not sure what report you read, but this report says the opposite (even though in some categories sales were slightly up in December): http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/05/news/companies/...

By: J

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:32:18 +0000

It does sometimes feel like we are all going down…together, doesn't it?

By: steve

steve — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:43:34 +0000

Really? That's optimistic thinking Ted. The numbers show that SUV sales are up sharply and people are driving more. Ah, the American consumer. But they'll blame it on “Big Oil” or Congress when prices go back up.

What ever happened to that T. Boone Pickens guy anyway……. There are armies of suburban soccer Mom's happy to see him go away. Fire up the Land Rover honey – we need a new big-screen, there's a dead pixel in the corner!!!

By: DwDunphy

DwDunphy — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:12:39 +0000

Sadly, now that the holidays are over, retail jobs are the last thing on the minds of the economic bone-rollers.