RE: Engine improvements in efficiency going to produce high powered SUVs

Dave questions the rational for car companies building SUVs and for people
buying them. I suppose companies build them as long as there is a market
for them although, in the case of General Motors, the handwriting may be on
the wall. Still, it's not just the fuel consumption that drives the choice
of cars.

Even at 1C$/litre, the cost of operating a car is still a relatively small
fraction of the overall cost of owning a car. Depreciation, insurance, and
general maintenance far outweigh the cost of the gasoline.

I've been eying up a Toyota Prius after Ken van Dellen gave us a ride in his
at the last ASA conference. However, a basic Prius is Canada lists for
37k$, including sales taxes, while the slightly larger Camry lists for 30k$
and the slightly smaller Corolla for 19k$. (I could almost buy two Corollas
for the price of 1 Prius!) The average (city and highway) fuel economy of
the Prius is 4.1 L/100 km, that of the Corolla is 6.7 L/100 km and that of
the Camry is 8.5 L/100 km.

The price differential between the Prius and the Camry is 7k$ and between
the Prius and the Corolla is 18k$. The price of gasoline in town just went
up to 1.019C$/L, so let's just set it at 1C$/L. Assuming that I drive 20
000 km/year, I would save 880$/year by choosing a Prius over a Camry and
520$/year if I choose a Prius over a Corolla. At that rate, it would take 9
years to break even in case I bought the Prius over the Camry and 30+ years
if I choose the Prius over the Corolla. Only if the price of gas increased
dramatically would a Prius become an economically viable option but only
compared to the Camry. I have not factored in a resale price because I tend
to keep my car for a long time, typically 10+ years. Neither have I
considered the cost of financing. I might be better off buying a Mercedes
Benz 'smart' that uses 4.2 L/100km diesel fuel and has a base price close to
that of the Corolla.

Suggesting that governments "double the price" by increased taxation would
help a bit, but not as much as one would hope, again, because the fuel costs
are only a fraction of the total cost. In addition, the burden of
transportation costs would increasingly be born by the poor in our society.
As to alternatives to oil and gas for energy, what is really needed is to
find an alternative energy source for transportation. One solution is to
use nuclear power to generate electricity and use an electrified railway
grid and reduce transportation by truck. Another, even more obvious,
solution is to drastically reduce our dependence of transportation. The
best option would be to make driving gas guzzlers a socially unacceptable
thing to do. Of course, Christians don't have to wait for social standards
to change; we can be radicals and trend setters. :-)

Chuck Vandergraaf
  

-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
Behalf Of Dave Wallace
Sent: Sunday, April 02, 2006 11:22 AM
To: American Scientific Affiliation
Subject: Engine improvements in efficiency going to produce high powered
SUVs

 From todays cnn
http://www.cnn.com/2006/AUTOS/carreviews/03/29/performance_everything/index.
html

"That is because technological gains in fuel efficiency, instead of
being used for better mileage -- something that American car buyers seem
to actually care little about -- were used for increased size and speed."

How sad when we should be buying time by reducing oil use so that we
might be able to find some alternative to gas and oil for energy. Since
global warming does seem to be happening mankind should be cutting down
on CO2 (and other pollutants) production not increasing it! Our cottage
is 100 miles east of Toronto and for the first time, last summer we
started to get pollution alerts for people with lung problems and I
could feel my asthma worse on those days. Something seems insane, why
does anyone need a high powered Hummer? Sure a hummer or a unimog would
have been much better than the jeep we had in Africa years ago but how
many people get stuck on the main roads between cities of America north
of the RioGrande, with all four wheels throwing mud. In Toronto?

Our 86 Volvo is on its last months of life and we bought a new Toyoto
this week. It has more power and significantly better mileage. The
salesman kept pushing me to try the 6 cyl version but the four is more
than adequate. One despairs of seeing change even with gas in the
dollar a litre range. Maybe if governments doubled the price by
increasing tax, people would start to get the message.

Dave Wallace
Received on Sun Apr 2 17:00:39 2006