The Left Is Never Happy

Not everything I post at The Fast Report works over here - but this one does. Not only is the Left never happy, they see the down side in everything. Meanwhile, government will grab on to another reason to raise taxes.

Great ... just great!

So, let’s reason this out. We’ve endured costly, mostly ineffective regulation after regulation limiting car choices, while burdening the auto industry until many believe it’s in crisis mode today. A big part of the reason regulation didn’t work is that Americans like freedom and are also quite capable of improvising to get what they want. Yet, after shouldering all that, gas prices jump … government and the Left get just what they wanted all along because the free market almost always works better than regulation - but the usual suspects aren’t happy. And to top it off, they’ll probably be increasing gasoline, or other taxes to make up for the lost revenue and repair infrastructure Americans are presumably using less and less.

Comments

[seekeronos]

The Left never met a tax it didn't like, or want to increase.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

Hybrids and alt-fuel vehicle owners need to be taxed to make up for this shortfall.

[Totally Heterosexual Conservative]

That's some, wow, *interesting* tortured and fact-free analysis right there.

[Worst President Ever]

Yeah, its all the fault of liberals GM and Ford have been building SUVs no one seems to want to buy anymore. Brain-dead management, not excessive regulation, is more likely the cause. Toyota and Honda are subject to the same rules, they seem to be doing fine.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

Wow WPE never thought we would see you agree with Dan...Good show!

[Worst President Ever]

Yeah that terrible CAFE standard, that's right, the one on passenger cards that went over 20 years, think 1985, without being raised.

And there's hardly ANY choice in what vehicle someone can buy today. SUV, small-SUV, sedan, hybrid, compact, sub-compact, truck, pickup, wagon. Geez, hardly any choice at all.

http://www.gm.com/vehicles/results.jsp?bodyStyle=11&bodyStyle=12&bodyStyle=04&bodyStyle=05&bodyStyle=03&bodyStyle=13&bodyStyle=01&lowPrice=10000&highPrice=65000&fuel=E85&fuel=HYBRID&fuel=DIESEL&fuel=30MPG&fuel=GAS&

The major problem GM and Ford have is they bet too heavily on SUVs and trucks that people no longer want to buy. The failure was that they didn't think gas prices would rise as fast as they did, not that government regulations impeded their ability to build the types of vehicles they wanted. In fact, if CAFE standards have been raised a few times since 1985, GM and Ford would be better off. First, because conservation would probably have kept gas prices down. And second, they'd have more gas efficient vehicles that consumers seem to want not that gas is $4 plus.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

"In fact, if CAFE standards have been raised a few times since 1985, GM and Ford would be better off."

Because everyone knows that the big three would be totally uninterested in building more efficient vehicles unless the government forces them to???? I know that whenever I buy a new vehicle I think only about the monthly payment, not the actual cost (including mileage) that it's going to cost me. Just like buying a house, I just know my financial situation will be better in five years when that balloon payment is due.............God, no wonder the country is going to hell.

[Worst President Ever]

What's happening is exactly what the market is supposed to do. Ford and GM make most of their profit off low-mileage but high-profit trucks and SUVs. Consumers no longer want those cars due to the rise in gas prices and the stock of the companies gets punished. It's got nothing to do with government regulations.

Here's the chart. GM and Ford are the ones that drove themselves off the cliff, Honda, Mercedes and Toyota are doing comparatively well AND have to meet the same regulatory standards.

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=F#chart4:symbol=f;range=5y;compare=tm+hmc+dai+gm;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

[WAHOO WILLIE]

"What's happening is exactly what the market is supposed to do."

Exactly and back in the 70s-80s when the big three were building cars to last 3-4 years the others were building them for ten.....The big three came back with better quality (and their own full sized vehicles) and the market corrected itself. It will do so again. GM has a hybrid SUV now and everybody has compact hybrids. We aren't in disagreement on the point, we disagree on the delivery.

[Worst President Ever]

Here's MPG by manufacturer. GM, Ford and Chrysler / Daimler Benz trail the pack. Draw your own conclusions about management's foresight for those companies.

* Toyota – 29.69 mpg–U.S. (7.92 L/100 km / 35.7 mpg–imp)
* Honda – 29.47 mpg–U.S. (7.98 L/100 km / 35.4 mpg–imp)
* Hyundai – 29.39 mpg–U.S. (8 L/100 km / 35.3 mpg–imp)
* Kia – 28.44 mpg–U.S. (8.27 L/100 km / 34.2 mpg–imp)
* Subaru – 28.11 mpg–U.S. (8.37 L/100 km / 33.8 mpg–imp)
* Nissan – 27.64 mpg–U.S. (8.51 L/100 km / 33.2 mpg–imp)
* VW – 27.38 mpg–U.S. (8.59 L/100 km / 32.9 mpg–imp)
* Suzuki – 27.08 mpg–U.S. (8.69 L/100 km / 32.5 mpg–imp)
* BMW – 26.76 mpg–U.S. (8.79 L/100 km / 32.1 mpg–imp)
* Mitsubishi – 26.67 mpg–U.S. (8.82 L/100 km / 32 mpg–imp)
* GM – 25.16 mpg–U.S. (9.35 L/100 km / 30.2 mpg–imp)
* Ford – 25.15 mpg–U.S. (9.35 L/100 km / 30.2 mpg–imp)
* DCX – 23.97 mpg–U.S. (9.81 L/100 km / 28.8 mpg–imp)
* Lotus – 30.2 mpg–U.S. (7.79 L/100 km / 36.3 mpg–imp)