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Just got back from an epic holiday to Southern California, and could'nt help noticing that a large proportion of their cars were still mega gas guzzlers, even though regular Gasoline is now about 66p a litre.
I know its still less than half what we pay but it must still hurt running something like a 5.8 V8 Chevvy Silverado or Ford F350 'Super-Duty' truck.
I have to admit they do sound like rolling thunder pulling away from the lights though !
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We hired a car in Florida a few years ago. Said we didn't need anything too big since there was just the two of us. The company leased a 3 litre Toyota of some sort to us (a Camry I think). We had to fill the damn thing with fuel again before we'd even found our way out of Miami.
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A silverado will do about 15 to a UK gallon real world combined. That's equivalent to over 30 to a gallon in terms of cost-which isn't any more expensive than running a large petrol BMW or a Subaru. Hardly outrageous.
It's no more silly than Europeans splurging £40k+ on a top of the range Audi/BMW diesel then pootling around at an obnoxiously low speed to try and tease big mpg numbers out of it.
Also, Americans don't suffer from magpie syndrome as much as Brits. Most Brits look for any thin excuse to buy a new car every two years whereas the American car fleet is much older. They spend their money on gas. We spend it on depreciation to keep up with the Joneses. I know which camp i'd rsather be in...
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When i went to the mid west 3 years' ago it wasn't so much the muscle cars and pick ups that caught my attention as the big rigs. For a diesel nut, the sound of a big Kenworth or Peterbilt rolling on the jake brake blows the gasoline V8 burble out of the water. Even heard a few Detroit two strokes screaming away. Accoustic bliss.
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I prefer the American way too, there's more to life and certainly motoring for pleasure than mincing about with some oil burning engine trying to get every last mile from a drop of fuel.
Unthrottled i had a Jake equipped Cummins engined lorry between '84 and '86/7, aural ecstasy and fantastic retarding ability.
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Was it an ERF? Presumably with a big cam III or IV Cummins 855. Great mules!
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Nope, Sed Ack 401, much higher geared than ERF's, so with that lovely 14 litre Cummins she would cruise all day at 70 @ 1100 rpm @ 38t, possible she could do 85 if one were so inclined..;)
Sad innit, i loved that lorry, and i'd have it over anything i've driven since, KISS.
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When Will the Americans Learn
I think the UK could learn a lot from the USA I don.t see the UK as a good example in any way.It just goes to show that most Americans can afford the fuel while in the UK the people cannot.
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When Will the Americans Learn
I think the UK could learn a lot from the USA I don.t see the UK as a good example in any way.It just goes to show that most Americans can afford the fuel while in the UK the people cannot.
We tend to adopt american policies not suited to our environment (such as outsoucing everything) but discard many sensible policies such as being polite to one another and having good customer services for example.
I like the USA but feel sad that they could do more to not waste the planets energy reserves.
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I like the USA but feel sad that they could do more to not waste the planets energy reserves.
Not quite that simple though is it? Scrapping serviceable cars wastes resources. Foreign holidays waste resources. Most Americans don't bother with foreign travel. Factor in their continental climate (higher energy use due to extremes of weather) and they're probably not that much more profligate with energy than we are. Also, Americans produce much more. It's easy to appear 'green' when you drive all your energy intensive industry offshore-which is exactly what has happened here.
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Not quite that simple though is it? Scrapping serviceable cars wastes resources. Foreign holidays waste resources. Most Americans don't bother with foreign travel. Factor in their continental climate (higher energy use due to extremes of weather) and they're probably not that much more profligate with energy than we are. Also, Americans produce much more. It's easy to appear 'green' when you drive all your energy intensive industry offshore-which is exactly what has happened here.
Agree on the scrapping serviceable cars bit, but have to disagree that we offshore everything and the Americans do not.
There are huge ructions in the US over manufacturing offshoring. There are whole towns in poorer blue-collar States such as Kentucky and Arkansas where the major employers have been wiped out by this phenomenon. This is leading to people quoting the 'Henry Ford principle' ie to paraphrase the man himself, you cant sell cars to people who cany afford to buy them. Meaning that if you take away the income from your marketplace, you cant improve the economy by virtue of consumer spending.
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I think only politicians and BoE think that you can build an economy on consumerism.
Yes, there are problems with US manufacturing, but their balance of trade is much better than ours and manufacturing comprises a larger proportion of GDP.
I'm not a huge US fanboy though. There are a lot of things that they get wrong.
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I'm not a huge US fanboy though. There are a lot of things that they get wrong.
Having lived there for a short period, and had a few holidays over there as well over the years, I can agree, They get a lot wrong, but HEY! who doesn't nowadays. Politicians are politicians wherever they are. However, I don't think i have met a "bad" american, just as much as I haven't met a bad brit, french or swiss, all places I have lived and worked. Most people want the same the whole world over, and that is a decent world for their children to grow up in.
The US is now doing its best to re-import manufacturing from outside and giving contacts for US work to US companies, our train manufacturing is going to Germany, except for the wings, our aircraft industry has headed south, and the steel industry is being threatened by the energy charges associated with extra payments for carbon emissions. That will console the steel industry workers when they are on the dole and the politicains here say "yes but there must be a sustainable energy policy and people have to pay."
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most Americans can afford the fuel while in the UK the people cannot.
Utter Rubbish! If you want a car, make sure you can afford to run it and service it correctly. I disagree with this sentiment that people cannot afford fuel, but they can afford a 42" flatscreen tv and all the latest electonic consumer goods. Just poor jealousy, In the USA there are many who live in greater poverty than here in the uk, where the "state" will pay your rent, council tax and generous benefits for you. And if you are getting those generous benefits will feel entitled to the above goodies. No, problem is people living beyond their means, just as the whole country has done for the past 80 years. Stop buying £20,000 bmw's , but a £10k car and you will have £10k to pay for fuel. As someone posted recently about people buying a fast depreciating asset on expensive finance and then don't service it, it goes wrong, and then stuck with paying for it for the rest of the finance period. As someone else in this thread said, they keep their cars longer, so pay for fuel.
Prefer to say When will the british EVER learn?
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I disagree with this sentiment that people cannot afford fuel, but they can afford a 42" flatscreen tv and all the latest electonic consumer goods.
It's not that people cannot afford fuel (although that will be the case eventually if the Chancellor gets his way), the issue is why would people bother going to work when most of their wage goes towards just getting there? May as well stay at home.
It's no more silly than Europeans splurging £40k+ on a top of the range Audi/BMW diesel then pootling around at an obnoxiously low speed to try and tease big mpg numbers out of it.
Also, Americans don't suffer from magpie syndrome as much as Brits. Most Brits look for any thin excuse to buy a new car every two years whereas the American car fleet is much older. They spend their money on gas. We spend it on depreciation to keep up with the Joneses. I know which camp i'd rsather be in...
Fair point. I remember on this forum a while ago we had a thread about how the average car on American roads is a few years older than here. They seem to prefer long term reliability and most of them view cars as tools, rather than status symbols. Over here people spend £20,000 on a car which does 4mpg more than their current one and many - including those on this forum - think any car over 5 years old is 'old' and will fall apart.
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