An Interesting Twist

As I have stated earlier, I don't get many comments on my blogs. I enjoy the ones I do get, however--even if they disagree with me. We all have our own perspective on things and I find it interesting to interact with people with differing viewpoints as long as everyone can maintain a civil dialogue and intelligently represent their position on a given issue.

When I recently wrote The Devils In The Details--Part III, I addressed the media's coverage of gas prices and I touched on the political furor surrounding domestic oil exploration. I have received two anonymous comments on this posting, apparently from the same individual.

The first one read as follows:

"Two things ...First, the numbers being thrown around the web are that it would only take an increase of 1 to 1.5 mpg in our cars to save as much gas as ANWR will provide. We have a saying in engineering that you "go after the low-hanging fruit." I'd say mentioning that to people, and encouraging people in that direction is simple (low-hanging fruit).

Second, you may not complain when you tank up your 10 mpg SUV ... but how do you compare it to James Woolesy's Prius? Here we have a conservative, walking his talk, to reduce dependence on foreign oil. Why are you so special that you should still be driving 10 mpg?"


Seven hours later today I received this:


This news just in:

"DETROIT - Most Americans believe it is "patriotic" to buy a fuel-efficient vehicle to help wean their country off Middle Eastern oil, according to a new poll released on Thursday.

Some 66 percent of participants in the survey said they agreed that driving vehicles that require less fuel to run was patriotic, since it could help reduce the US dependency on Mideast crude."


Good comments and good questions, and here is my response.

Our country became an "automobile culture" shortly after the end of World War II. Rumor has it (I can't find proof in the form of Internet links) that General Motors and Ford financed the politicians that lead the removal of public transportation--things like street cars and trolleys--in the major cities to foster growth of the concept of one or more autos in every driveway. In fact, houses didn't need driveways until the car came along.

By the way...why do Americans drive on the parkway and park on the driveway? Oh, never mind...

I lived through the oil embargo of the early 1970's and the gas price crunch of the late 1970's, so I feel I am well qualified to talk about auto fuel economy. My first car was a 1974 Honda Civic Hatchback. I was only fifteen years old when we bought it and what a great car it was in a day when people thought foreign cars were crap. My family was way ahead of the curve. Little did we know that Honda would become one of the most popular cars in the world within the next ten years.

Our little tin box had a semi-automatic transmission, and AM/FM radio, air conditioning, and cost $2,100 brand damn new. By semi-automatic, I mean that you had to "shift" the transmission from low to high if you were going to go faster than 45 MPH. You also lost about 5 MPH when you turned on the air conditioner, but it got over 20 MPG in town and nearly 40 MPG on REGULAR gasoline on the highway. You could fill it up with $0.60 per gallon gas and not spend $8.00.

Yes I drive a vehicle that gets 10 MPG. No, I did not buy it as a status symbol. You see, being in the industrial construction business, I've owned a so called "sport utility" vehicle since 1984. I bought a S-10 Blazer as a substitute for a pick-up truck back when hardly anyone was building or driving "country Cadillacs." Chevy made the Surburban, the Blazer, and the S-10 Blazer, Ford built a couple of sizes of Broncos, and Jeep and International built a couple of trucks with covered beds, and everyone else drove station wagons.

They didn't really use the term SUV back then, the attraction for me was being to haul passengers and "stuff" in the same vehicle without messing up the girls' hair making them ride in the bed of a pickup truck.

By the time I wanted and could afford to buy a Surburban, I had to stand in line at the Chevorlet dealer behind a bunch of Dunwoody housewives who wanted to drive around with an entire soccer team in tow. I just wanted to drag my boat to the lake every week and haul a few thousand pounds of luggage and construction materials with me around the southeast US.

By April 1995, if I wanted to special order a new three quarter ton four wheel drive Surburban I would have to wait four or five months for it to be manufactured and delivered. Instead, I bought a white 2500 series XLT off of the lot in Roswell, Georgia and paid full sticker price to boot. I didn't purchase any baby seats with my truck, however.

I drove over 30,000 miles each year for the next four years. Most of the time I was by myself, but I couldn't do what I was doing in a Honda or a Toyota. I bought oil and tires and washed and pampered my truck and it never let me down. Only once did I ever break down on the side of the road and even then I didn't have to be towed to a garage because I installed a new alternator myself on the side of Interstate 85 in north Georgia.

By 1999, my beloved Chevy had over 150,000 miles on the odometer and it was still running strong. The loan was paid off in 2000 and today it has a little over 181,000 miles on the original 454 cubic inch cast iron engine. The third seat burned up in the fire that destroyed my house in 2001 and the driver's seat cover is showing a little wear, but, as I said, it's paid for and I will drive it until it won't drive any more.

I really don't mean to gloat about my truck and its low gas mileage. When my girl Pat is in town we use her Ford Mustang for transportation. It gets about 20 MPG on the road and over 15 MPG in town and is fun to drive to boot.

I feel that I have the right to be a bit smug about my choice of vehicle because I have really used it as it was intended to be used and no other form of transportation could do what I have done with my SUV.

The problem with our society is that the "fad" of SUV's has caused a whole bunch of people to buy crappy pseudo-SUV's that really don't have any capability that a car or station wagon doesn't also possess. These vehicles also have poor fuel economy because of their size.

You won't believe how many people I have seen in Jeeps and Toyotas, hopelessly stuck in 2" of snow ten feet off of the pavement. Why pay the extra money to buy and fuel a SUV when the darn thing gets stuck every time mother nature sneezes?

I drive a real SUV for all the right reasons, if there is such a thing as "the right reasons." The thing about living in America is that you have the right to be STUPID with your time and your money and if everyone wants to keep driving at 12 MPG and they are willing to pay $2.25 to do it then more power to them. Just like in the late 1970's, I personally expect to see a mass exidus to vehicles with higher fuel economy, but as for me and my Chevy Surburban, all we have to say is...

Varooooommmmmm, Varoooommmmmmmmm (guzzle guzzle)