Cement plants are pretty nasty - the biggest mercury polluter in Oregon next door is Ash Grove Cement. Or maybe you like breathing that stuff? (link)
It's been my experience that these "environmental groups" that catch so much flack are often just residents and citizens that band together to fight a specific threat. Bet you never heard of Stop Titan? Just one quicky example from a ten second net search.
Lots of these folks either have never heard of the Sierra Club or Greenpeace or blame them for stopping progress, but when something happens in their backyard, they run to them or form their own "environmental" group.
Citizen action has been around since the Triangle Shirt Factory fire to the Cuyahoga River catching on fire. That's a good thing. And like in my first link, companies can work out problems with the regulators to stay in biz and protect the public.
Saw a couple of those eco-weenies on CNN opposed to offshore drilling. Ewww, it'll spoil the sealife, it'll spoil the tourism, etc. Do you think the Chinese or anybody else gives a rip about the sealife or the tourism? Oh, it's OK for the Chinese to build a rig off our own shoreline but not us! Oh, and we all know China's blatant disregard for their own environment so to heck with anybody else's as well. I don't think I'm going to be happy until an oil speculator and an eco-weenie are hanging from every tree and lamp post! :mad:
companies can work out problems with the regulators to stay in biz and protect the public.
Some can, some cannot. If the cost to do the studies that are required get too high, why continue. I remember back in the 1960s I traveled several times through Oregon visiting family. When I would drive through Albany the paper mill stunk to high heaven. When I said something to my Uncle that worked in the mill. He told me "It smells like bread & butter to me". That always stuck with me. I watched Oregon destroy many jobs over the years. Logging became nearly non-existent. For EVERYTHING man does there is a downside. We have to weigh that and determine who is the most important in the equation.
My challenge to all that feel the Hybrid is a good choice of Automobile. Why are the batteries made elsewhere? Why are many of the components made elsewhere? My contention is they cannot be built under our EPA regulations. The list is endless of products that are being manufactured overseas due to regulations in this country. The latest and a real eye opener is the CFL bulbs. I talked to the last florescent MFG in the USA. They cannot make the CFL because of the mercury content, under EPA regulations. So our Congress is mandating we all switch to a product that cannot be safely built in the USA.
Your perception of the so called green movement is shared by many. I think this is a big part of the polarization in this country. Especially all the green wienies we see on TV that have their fancy homes, cars and boats. They just don't want the rest of us to reach their lifestyle. They don't think the planet can stand any more Oprahs or Madonnas... I say sharpen the guillotines. :shades:
Akron, Ohio used to carry the foul stench of the tire factories, but locals would say it smelled like money. Pittsburgh was so polluted from the steel mills the city would need to keep the streetlights on during the day. Heck, I'd rather tolerate some of these environmental ills for the United States to once again have a strong industrial base rather than the exponentially scarier societal ills that are a result of deindustrialization and the destruction of our economy.
Sometimes I wish I was born 50 years earlier so I could be dead before I saw our once-great nation collapse. I realize I might be among the last generation that will remember the United States as the greatest nation in the world. I really fear for the future of the really young children.
Even if you solve the battery issue, the other problem with going to electric cars is getting the power to recharge those batteries.
And if you make driving "free", people will start driving more. So all the other downsides to automobiles will just get worse. If you think congestion on your commute (well, not ours, but the "generic" commute) is bad, wait until people can cruise all week without having to go to the gas station.
Fun conversation but I'm off to drive solo over to Harbor Freight and pick up some cheap Chinese slave labor made junk from a bunch of horrid factories that will shortly be shut down so that athletes will be able to breathe for a couple of weeks during the Olympics. :P
Ewwwww!!! I've done the inventory at Harbor Freight and the quality of that "stuff" is abominable! If I were any kind of craftsman, I'd be ashamed to have purchased any of what passes for tools from that place!
I'll bet that if you ranked all the countries in the world based upon standard of living you'd find the ones at the top also tend to have the cleanest environments. Concern for the environment is a luxury that only affluent countries can afford. When/if this country decides that it's okay to sacrifice the environment that will be a sure sign of a declining society. On the other hand I think it's a safe bet that as China's standard of living continues to improve you will see them begin to place a greater emphasis on cleaning up and protecting their environment.
And if you make driving "free", people will start driving more. So all the other downsides to automobiles will just get worse.
It wouldn't be free it would just be very cheap compared to $4+ gasoline. The electricity cost would be the equivalent of paying about $1/gallon. So,do you think it would be a bad thing if by some miracle gasoline prices were to plummet to $1/gallon? I do.
Ranking the countries by SOL is fine for those in the country with a high standard. I have a high standard compared to many folks. And I live in a hovel compared to many. I am what you would call middle class. Our system is destroying the middle class so the wealthy elitist in this country can control the masses living in tenements, riding the bus to clean their homes, serve them meals and wash their cars.
The Chinese environment is paying the price for our cheap goods. Is that right? I say if it cannot be made here in a clean manner, don't allow it to be sold here. I am glad that Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Hyundai, BMW, Mercedes etc are building cars here. The question is how much is built here? How many parts that pollute the Chinese environment are built there and shipped here for assembly?
Just cleaning our environment and manufacturing the dirty stuff overseas is not being "GREEN".
Our system is destroying the middle class so the wealthy elitist in this country can control the masses living in tenements, riding the bus to clean their homes, serve them meals and wash their cars.
Well, those wealthy elitists also better be paying a lot of top-drawer security folks megabucks to watch their backs or the former middle class will also be burning those elitists' homes, poisoning their meals, and bombing their cars.
Should make it pretty easy figuring out who to vote for this November. It will be interesting to see just how smart 9 out of 10 voters are. Gas prices have doubled since the 2006 election. We know how they voted that time. Have they learned their lesson? I doubt it.
Who, Mr Inexperienced or Mr Neocon in disguise? There's no connection between gas prices and the 2006 elections. No matter who you vote for in 4 months...the same shtick will remain. Voting for the neocons and their idiots like Bernanke will not help anyone.
The quality of the cheap Chinese junk at Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. already is bad. I refuse to buy any Chinese tools and will go out of my way to buy American. I recently bought a U.S. manufactured digging shovel after much ado.
The crap at Harbor Freight is in a class all by itself. Soon I'll have to buy antique power tools if I want anything good. My girlfriend's father left behind a lot of high-quality U.S. manufactured tools after he passed.
>There's no connection between gas prices and the 2006 elections.
Yes there is. The California group promised they'd reduce prices; instead they've almost doubled since their campaign. Boxer et al are still promoting feel good legislation to "fix" something that can't even be measured but will have nearly terminal effects on the economy--some can "feel the pain" already, to use another old campaigner's quotes. Even our liberal Sherrod Brown didn't vote to pass the CA group legislation
I remember when people said the same thing about Taiwanese junk, and Japanese junk before that. And VW bugs were laughed at for being glorified lawn mowers.
Give it another generation and we'll be talking about cheap Ugandan power tools.
Meanwhile, the easier way to ease your gas pain is to use less. (CNN). "How fast people drive and how quickly they accelerate is responsible for 10% to 30% of fuel consumption."
How can that group fight the way the neocon opportunists have mismanaged the dollar (a key reason for increases) and the economy? How can one be responsible for an increase when simply failing to meet an unrealistic promise? How would the neocon oligarchs do anything different or better?
No one can go into office and reduce gas prices. The world oil market could give a rat's patootie about who is the Congressman from the 12th District.
Nothing Congress could do would reduce consumer outlay for fuel costs. Even eliminating the gas tax would just mean they would have to hit us someplace else.
Who, Mr Inexperienced or Mr Neocon in disguise? There's no connection between gas prices and the 2006 elections.
We are doomed on the Presidential vote. I was referring to Congress. GET RID OF ALL INCUMBENTS. That is how to tell Congress we don't like the way they are running the country. As was pointed out. The hue and cry of the Party to the left was tired of high gas prices vote for us. Of course it was all lies. So the best thing to do is vote ALL the liars out of office.
Gotcha - instead of Harbor Freight I should buy my cheap Chinese junk at Home Depot, Lowes or Ace, right?
I would bet it would be easier to return it to the big dealers than Harbor Freight when it breaks. I shop now at the little ACE hardware store that is 2.8 miles from my house. Costs a bit more than Home Depot or Lowes. When you factor in the extra 12.2 miles each way it seems like a bargain. At the current $4.65 per gallon it costs about $7.75 more to go to Home Depot than the local ACE Hardware.
"At the current $4.65 per gallon it costs about $7.75 more to go to Home Depot than the local ACE Hardware."
I wonder when people will start doing that calculation - makes driving around for a bargain no bargain, real quick! And it makes that $3 latte a bit more $$ :sick:
I wonder when people will start doing that calculation
I think it's starting to sink in that clipping coupons and driving to 4 or 5 stores to try to save a few bucks is going to cost more in gas wasted.
There's a Depot 2 miles from me but I'll often go to the Ace another .5 mile away since it's locally owned and usually cheaper anyway. H. Freight I save for days when I have other errands to run out that way.
I don't shop that much anyway, and half the time I'll just find what I need on the net and let UPS deliver it. Saves time and gas.
Yeah, if the CostCo is more than 4 or 5 miles away, driving all the way there to save a dime a gallon really isn't worth it any more when the gas is up to $4.50 or $5.
A LOT of big box discount stores aren't going to be worth it unless they are right next door, which big box rarely is.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
I think it's starting to sink in that clipping coupons and driving to 4 or 5 stores to try to save a few bucks is going to cost more in gas wasted.
I used to run up to a discount liquor store after work, which is about 7 miles away, and sort of the opposite direction from home. So basically, I'd drive 14-15 miles out of the way to save a few bucks on beer. As gas prices started going up, I quit making that run if I was in my Intrepid, but if I was in one of the older cars, I'd do it sometimes just to give them a run.
Nowadays though, I go to a store that's about 2 miles from my house. I have to actually pass by my house after work to get to it though, so it's still 4 extra miles. Still, I figure that's saving me about 10-11 miles per week. In one of my old cars, that's about a gallon of fuel right there, and even in the Intrepid, close to a half.
Plus, back then, I'd usually hit the liquor store twice per week, so I was driving even more. Nowadays, I just go once per week, and double up the order.
My roommate has a Costco membership. I think that store's about 15 miles away. He still goes up there, but he buys enough stuff that it's probably worth it. Plus, he'll often try to time it so that he's going up that way for other things, anyway.
The quality of the cheap Chinese junk at Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. already is bad. I refuse to buy any Chinese tools and will go out of my way to buy American
You just typed it on a computer made almost entirely made from Chinese made components. Talking about junk, GM made plenty of them since 70s right here in America. If you want to buy American solely for patriotic reasons, that is fine.
Funny, I had THREE 1970s GM cars and NONE of them were junk: 1975 Cadillac Sedan DeVille, 1979 Buick Park Avenue, and 1979 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency.
If there was an American-made computer alternative, I would have purchased it. Many times you have no choice. It's sad :sick:
This brings up an interesting point that had not yet occurred to me: it must be expensive keeping an old fleet running with these gas prices, huh? Back when I owned almost as many as you own now (but never more than one under the age of five years), I would make sure to take each one of the oldies out for a good long run at least once a week. Nowadays, doing a cumulative 100-150 miles a week in an aging fleet that didn't get very good mileage to begin with would be painful even for me, and I have so far weathered the gas price storm without much personal impact. Do you run them all at least once a week?
On a completely different note, someone in the government accounting office must have taken notice of the gas prices, because effective tomorrow everyone getting mileage reimbursement will get an unprecedented mid-year bump in the rate per mile, which goes to $0.585/mile as of sunup. The old rate, ending as of now, is/was $0.505/mile.
I get mileage reimbursement working for the county, and this will be appreciated.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
This brings up an interesting point that had not yet occurred to me: it must be expensive keeping an old fleet running with these gas prices, huh?
Yeah, it's starting to get there, especially since in the mostly local driving I do, it's not hard to get most of them down into single digits! Sometimes, I'll actually drive the long way to work, just so the cars get a better workout! Plus, as gas prices have risen, I've found myself driving the older cars less and less, which isn't good for them. I really should try to run them once per week, but I don't. Both my '67 Catalina and '76 LeMans had the batteries die on them this year. I put 'em both on a trickle charge, and when I took the LeMans up to the GM show in Carlisle, I used the Catalina's 1000 CCA battery, but brought along the LeMans's little 750 or so CCA battery, plus a battery charger, just in case. But fortunately, the LeMans behaved perfectly. I was even impressed with its fuel economy...about 16.1 on the trip up, which also included a lot of local running around, and 17.4 on the trip back, which was pure highway. I tried to drive gently going back, but it's kinda hard to keep that car around 60-65 on the open road. So about 40 miles from home, I just opened it up a bit like it really wanted to be, and it seemed sooo much happier at 70 or so. I wonder what kind of economy it would've gotten on that return trip if I'd kept it slow? I guess the Intrepid would've done around 28-29 on the first part of that trip in similar conditions, and maybe as high as 32 on the trip back.
I'm going to try to force myself to start driving those two more often. I figure especially the Catalina, being a convertible, really needs to get used this summer!
My Intrepid will get around 20-21 mpg in mostly local driving, if I'm gentle on it. My roommate, who's been borrowing my old pickup to get back and forth to work, only gets around 10-11. One thing I've been doing lately, is that if I'm off work, and he has to work, if I know I'm not going anywhere, I'll let him drive the Intrepid. The truck usually gets filled up every 12-13 workdays, and that'll usually eat $50-55. I've actually been able to get a month's worth of driving out of the Intrepid. I think the last time I filled it up, it had gone 16 days.
ffective tomorrow everyone getting mileage reimbursement will get an unprecedented mid-year bump in the rate per mile, which goes to $0.585/mile as of sunup. The old rate, ending as of now, is/was $0.505/mile.
That mileage reimbursement rate really helps. I remember back when I delivered pizzas, it was only around 27.5 cents per mile. Which actually paid for most of my gas at the time. I figure in my tax bracket, that was really saving me about 7 cents per mile, while the old cars I usually drove with probably averaged out to around 8-10 cents per mile. Still though, that reimbursement rate hasn't shot up as much as fuel prices. $0.585 is a bit more than double the old $0.275, but gasoline has shot up from maybe $1.00-$1.25 to $4.00+.
Saw NBF (Novo Biodiesel fuels) and wondered what the cost/difficulty it would take to convert over from a regular diesel car engine to use biodiesel. Not sure if this is right, maybe there is an expert on the subject. You have to heat the oil and change the way the engine combusts this cleaner burning fuel (compared to regular diesel), is that right? With all the vegetable oils we use in the restaurant industry, we could recover the used oil for use in this area, seems like a good idea. What do you think ? Apparently the Germans during WWII invented and used this since oil was being conserved at the time. No reason we can't use this if it is available in large quantities, what are the advantages and disadvantages, opinions anyone?
When I took my 1989 Cadillac Brougham to Carlisle I was amazed to see I actually got 22.8 MPG in it. I swore the gas gauge was broken because it wasn't moving. I stopped at the gas station and it actually only used about 4 gallons.
If I get pizza delivered, I give the guy an extra generous tip because I know how hard times are.
Funny, in my house the old car is driven all the time while my new car languishes in the garage for weeks on end - the opposite of what it was like a year ago. Strange days indeed!
I read an article about what the Connecticut State Police considered the dangerous and illegal aspects of hypermiling. Some of the practices were overinflating tires to lower rolling resistance, shutting off the engine to coast downhill, coasting through stop signs, and drafting big rigs. It said that by using these practices, some people have claimed 70, 80, or even 90 MPG. Is this possible?
>junk, GM made plenty of them since 70s right here in America. :sick:
The tired stereotype of GM cars as junk is ready for the junk heap itself. :sick: I've had MANY GM cars, I won't list them all, and they had few if any problems beyond maintenance. I won't list the problems of rusting away of the smaller, foreign cars which made the inroads in the form of econoboxes into the American economy in the 80s and 90s, nor will I mention the continual problems in drive trains of certain car models and brands like transmissions and sludging.
Currently I've driving a 10 year old GM car with 160,000 miles that I'd drive to California today without additional prep and a 6 year old GM car with same comment. No worries. In fact, I'm having trouble justifying buying a 4-cyl model additional car because my two are economical, especially considering the torque they have and the 22 minimum around town and 30+++ miles on highway driving.
Indeed I'm looking between some several years old midsize GM models with 4 cyl. or new 4 cyl for a third car to free up a car for the kid who'll need one due to his responsibilities of his position at school through late summer and fall. :shades:
So let's put the GM reputation back to the level it deserves; treat it like the sludging of the popular foreign make that everyone wants to forget about...
Funny, in my house the old car is driven all the time while my new car languishes in the garage for weeks on end - the opposite of what it was like a year ago. Strange days indeed!
In my case, the "new" car, if you can call it that, gets driven the most partly because it gets the best fuel economy, but also because partly, in my mind, at least it's the beater of the fleet. My '76 LeMans only has about 78,000 miles on it, while the '79 NYer 5th Ave has about 92,000 and the '79 NYer base only has about 65,000. I have no idea how many miles my '67 Catalina truly has on it. The odometer only read 44,000 when I bought it in 1994, and the seller tried to swear up and down that was the original mileage. No way in hell, though. The engine and transmission had just been rebuilt before I bought it, and the vinyl on the driver's side of the front seat had been replaced. The pedals looked good, but there was a box of extra parts in the trunk, and I found old, worn pedals in with those parts. I bought the car, just presuming it was more like 144,000.
I'd rather keep the needless wear and tear off the old cars, since I want to keep them around and prolong their lives, whereas I just look at the Intrepid as a tool to get me back and forth to work, to use up and then replace when it's no longer feasible to keep it running.
I'd say 22.3 mpg was pretty good fuel economy for that Brougham, Lemko. Especially since you probably weren't driving it like an old lady, and I imagine you had the air conditioner running. Plus, isn't that actually a mix of highway and local, rather than pure highway?
"some people have claimed 70, 80, or even 90 MPG. Is this possible?"
It's possible in the old Honda Insight -- the little 2-door, 2-seat hybrid that Honda discontinued a few years ago. In the Prius and Civic Hybrid, it's possible for short distances, not for long-term averages.
Be wary of anyone who says "I get 70 mpg in my Prius." He doesn't. He MIGHT have achieved that number on one trip, one time, across western Kansas with a 20 mph tail wind. But he doesn't "get 70 mpg" all the time.
Some hypermilers post photos of their mpg readouts on greenhybrid.com. The numbers for the Insight are amazing, but that's not really a practical car for most people, and it's not currently in production. For a day-to-day useable car, the best long-term average I've seen on a Civic Hybrid is 64 mpg by "Kenny." He inflates his tires to 50 psi, accelerates at 2 mph per second, and goes 50 mph on the highway. That's what it takes to get "hyper" mpg.
On my HCH, I keep the tires at 36 psi, accelerate normally, and drive 65 mph on the highway. My long term average is 48 mpg.
A co-worker who owns a Prius drives 75 mph on the highway, and averages 42 mpg.
The A/C in that car and the Park Ave are better than any new car's system. I'd be confident of keeping ice cream in the car in the middle of July with the car parked in the middle of a blacktop parking lot with the A/C running.
The first leg of my trip was about 30 minutes of getting out of the city and its suburbs onto the turnpike. I'd say I buried the speedo in a few spots when the turnpike was wide open and there was no sign of state troopers.
I finally heard the explanation of what's wrong in the speculation market. Despite the efforts of media and politicians to explain away the high price as due to demand which raises the price at every little drop in the bucket problem (a group in Nigeria is thinking about picketing a pipeline--raise the price, e.g.), yet every time drilling for oil now and 5 years into the future here "won't have any effect on the price of oil" is their mantra. The problem is that the speculators don't have to take delivery of their contracts; they can roll them into new future contracts. That's why there are 12 or 17 times as many contracts as there is oil.
Someone finally explained it and referred to the Hunt problem years ago with speculation. They had nearly cornered the silver market and the price until the government started governing (novel idea there) and required delivery on the contracts.
Our problem is lack of control in the speculation market along with poor value of the US dollar. Our government needs to act to increase the value and that will lower the price of oil even further.
Bernake can start by raising the interest rate for one. No bail out for housing speculators and home debtors either! Check out a site called HousingPanic for more info on the mortgage mess.
Currently I've driving a 10 year old GM car with 160,000 miles that I'd drive to California today without additional prep and a 6 year old GM car with same comment. No worries. In fact, I'm having trouble justifying buying a 4-cyl model additional car because my two are economical, especially considering the torque they have and the 22 minimum around town and 30+++ miles on highway driving.
I've occasionally thought about trying to find a used LeSabre or Park Ave to replace the Intrepid when that time comes. For their size those things get very impressive economy. I always forget though...which years had the 3.8 intake manifold problem? Was it 1997-2002 or somewhere thereabouts?
Bernake can start by raising the interest rate for one. No bail out for housing speculators and home debtors either! Check out a site called HousingPanic for more info on the mortgage mess.
Actually, I kinda hope they hold off on that one. I have an HELOC, rather than a regular mortgage, so that would make my rates go up. There's a piece of land, just under an acre, that adjoins my property that is going up for sale that I'm thinking about buying. I was thinking about tapping into the HELOC to fund that property.
When the Fed dropped its rates, that actually had no effect on real mortgages, such as 15 or 30 year fixed, or even ARMs. That's because those are tied to longer-term rates, such as the T-bill rate, I believe. So while the interest rate on my HELOC has dropped by 3.25 points over the past year, I think the traditional 30-year mortgage actually went up slightly over the same time, from around 6.1% to 6.7%.
Most of the people who are in danger of losing their homes right now are the ones that got into those 3/1 or 5/1 ARMs, or similar adjustable mortgages that get you in with an ultra-low teaser rate. As those things adjust upward, it puts increasing pressure on people that bought way too much house to begin with.
Yeesh! The range is bigger than I thought! I looked it up and it says that model years 1995 through 2004 are affected!
Uh-oh, that's kinda scary, as my Dad's Regal is an '03 model. I saw him the other day and asked him about maintenance and such, and found out that he has at least changed the coolant. I think that might be a part of the issue, is when people leave that 5 year/100K mile coolant in the car for too long.
I'm not sure how long ago he had the coolant changed, but the car's just 6 years old now (6/02 build date), and he bought it in 9/03. It had about 19,500 miles on it when he bought it, and I think he has about 45,000 on it now.
I've heard that the intakes usually don't fail until around 90-100K miles, sometimes even more. So at the rate my Dad's driving, it could be a decade before he hits that kind of mileage! And I guess if he goes a little overboard on coolant changes, that might reduce the chance of him having that issue.
Comments
It's been my experience that these "environmental groups" that catch so much flack are often just residents and citizens that band together to fight a specific threat. Bet you never heard of Stop Titan? Just one quicky example from a ten second net search.
Lots of these folks either have never heard of the Sierra Club or Greenpeace or blame them for stopping progress, but when something happens in their backyard, they run to them or form their own "environmental" group.
Citizen action has been around since the Triangle Shirt Factory fire to the Cuyahoga River catching on fire. That's a good thing. And like in my first link, companies can work out problems with the regulators to stay in biz and protect the public.
Some can, some cannot. If the cost to do the studies that are required get too high, why continue. I remember back in the 1960s I traveled several times through Oregon visiting family. When I would drive through Albany the paper mill stunk to high heaven. When I said something to my Uncle that worked in the mill. He told me "It smells like bread & butter to me". That always stuck with me. I watched Oregon destroy many jobs over the years. Logging became nearly non-existent. For EVERYTHING man does there is a downside. We have to weigh that and determine who is the most important in the equation.
My challenge to all that feel the Hybrid is a good choice of Automobile. Why are the batteries made elsewhere? Why are many of the components made elsewhere? My contention is they cannot be built under our EPA regulations. The list is endless of products that are being manufactured overseas due to regulations in this country. The latest and a real eye opener is the CFL bulbs. I talked to the last florescent MFG in the USA. They cannot make the CFL because of the mercury content, under EPA regulations. So our Congress is mandating we all switch to a product that cannot be safely built in the USA.
Sometimes I wish I was born 50 years earlier so I could be dead before I saw our once-great nation collapse. I realize I might be among the last generation that will remember the United States as the greatest nation in the world. I really fear for the future of the really young children.
And if you make driving "free", people will start driving more. So all the other downsides to automobiles will just get worse. If you think congestion on your commute (well, not ours, but the "generic" commute) is bad, wait until people can cruise all week without having to go to the gas station.
Fun conversation but I'm off to drive solo over to Harbor Freight and pick up some cheap Chinese slave labor made junk from a bunch of horrid factories that will shortly be shut down so that athletes will be able to breathe for a couple of weeks during the Olympics. :P
Funny how this affects so many supply chains now!
Regards,
OW
It wouldn't be free it would just be very cheap compared to $4+ gasoline. The electricity cost would be the equivalent of paying about $1/gallon. So,do you think it would be a bad thing if by some miracle gasoline prices were to plummet to $1/gallon? I do.
The Chinese environment is paying the price for our cheap goods. Is that right? I say if it cannot be made here in a clean manner, don't allow it to be sold here. I am glad that Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Hyundai, BMW, Mercedes etc are building cars here. The question is how much is built here? How many parts that pollute the Chinese environment are built there and shipped here for assembly?
Just cleaning our environment and manufacturing the dirty stuff overseas is not being "GREEN".
Well, those wealthy elitists also better be paying a lot of top-drawer security folks megabucks to watch their backs or the former middle class will also be burning those elitists' homes, poisoning their meals, and bombing their cars.
http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/business/20080630_ap_apyahoonewspoll9in10h- ithardbygasprices.html
Gotcha - instead of Harbor Freight I should buy my cheap Chinese junk at Home Depot, Lowes or Ace, right?
The crap at Harbor Freight is in a class all by itself. Soon I'll have to buy antique power tools if I want anything good. My girlfriend's father left behind a lot of high-quality U.S. manufactured tools after he passed.
Yes there is. The California group promised they'd reduce prices; instead they've almost doubled since their campaign. Boxer et al are still promoting feel good legislation to "fix" something that can't even be measured but will have nearly terminal effects on the economy--some can "feel the pain" already, to use another old campaigner's quotes. Even our liberal Sherrod Brown didn't vote to pass the CA group legislation
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Give it another generation and we'll be talking about cheap Ugandan power tools.
Meanwhile, the easier way to ease your gas pain is to use less. (CNN). "How fast people drive and how quickly they accelerate is responsible for 10% to 30% of fuel consumption."
We are far less important that we think we are, globally.
No one can go into office and reduce gas prices. The world oil market could give a rat's patootie about who is the Congressman from the 12th District.
Nothing Congress could do would reduce consumer outlay for fuel costs. Even eliminating the gas tax would just mean they would have to hit us someplace else.
Suck it up, SLOW DOWN, and carpool.
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Please notify the majority in the House and Senate with your statements. They're the ones who ran on that platform.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
We are doomed on the Presidential vote. I was referring to Congress. GET RID OF ALL INCUMBENTS. That is how to tell Congress we don't like the way they are running the country. As was pointed out. The hue and cry of the Party to the left was tired of high gas prices vote for us. Of course it was all lies. So the best thing to do is vote ALL the liars out of office.
I would bet it would be easier to return it to the big dealers than Harbor Freight when it breaks. I shop now at the little ACE hardware store that is 2.8 miles from my house. Costs a bit more than Home Depot or Lowes. When you factor in the extra 12.2 miles each way it seems like a bargain. At the current $4.65 per gallon it costs about $7.75 more to go to Home Depot than the local ACE Hardware.
I wonder when people will start doing that calculation - makes driving around for a bargain no bargain, real quick! And it makes that $3 latte a bit more $$ :sick:
I think it's starting to sink in that clipping coupons and driving to 4 or 5 stores to try to save a few bucks is going to cost more in gas wasted.
There's a Depot 2 miles from me but I'll often go to the Ace another .5 mile away since it's locally owned and usually cheaper anyway. H. Freight I save for days when I have other errands to run out that way.
I don't shop that much anyway, and half the time I'll just find what I need on the net and let UPS deliver it. Saves time and gas.
A LOT of big box discount stores aren't going to be worth it unless they are right next door, which big box rarely is.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
I used to run up to a discount liquor store after work, which is about 7 miles away, and sort of the opposite direction from home. So basically, I'd drive 14-15 miles out of the way to save a few bucks on beer. As gas prices started going up, I quit making that run if I was in my Intrepid, but if I was in one of the older cars, I'd do it sometimes just to give them a run.
Nowadays though, I go to a store that's about 2 miles from my house. I have to actually pass by my house after work to get to it though, so it's still 4 extra miles. Still, I figure that's saving me about 10-11 miles per week. In one of my old cars, that's about a gallon of fuel right there, and even in the Intrepid, close to a half.
Plus, back then, I'd usually hit the liquor store twice per week, so I was driving even more. Nowadays, I just go once per week, and double up the order.
My roommate has a Costco membership. I think that store's about 15 miles away. He still goes up there, but he buys enough stuff that it's probably worth it. Plus, he'll often try to time it so that he's going up that way for other things, anyway.
You just typed it on a computer made almost entirely made from Chinese made components. Talking about junk, GM made plenty of them since 70s right here in America. If you want to buy American solely for patriotic reasons, that is fine.
If there was an American-made computer alternative, I would have purchased it. Many times you have no choice. It's sad :sick:
On a completely different note, someone in the government accounting office must have taken notice of the gas prices, because effective tomorrow everyone getting mileage reimbursement will get an unprecedented mid-year bump in the rate per mile, which goes to $0.585/mile as of sunup. The old rate, ending as of now, is/was $0.505/mile.
I get mileage reimbursement working for the county, and this will be appreciated.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Yeah, it's starting to get there, especially since in the mostly local driving I do, it's not hard to get most of them down into single digits!
I'm going to try to force myself to start driving those two more often. I figure especially the Catalina, being a convertible, really needs to get used this summer!
My Intrepid will get around 20-21 mpg in mostly local driving, if I'm gentle on it. My roommate, who's been borrowing my old pickup to get back and forth to work, only gets around 10-11. One thing I've been doing lately, is that if I'm off work, and he has to work, if I know I'm not going anywhere, I'll let him drive the Intrepid. The truck usually gets filled up every 12-13 workdays, and that'll usually eat $50-55. I've actually been able to get a month's worth of driving out of the Intrepid. I think the last time I filled it up, it had gone 16 days.
ffective tomorrow everyone getting mileage reimbursement will get an unprecedented mid-year bump in the rate per mile, which goes to $0.585/mile as of sunup. The old rate, ending as of now, is/was $0.505/mile.
That mileage reimbursement rate really helps. I remember back when I delivered pizzas, it was only around 27.5 cents per mile. Which actually paid for most of my gas at the time. I figure in my tax bracket, that was really saving me about 7 cents per mile, while the old cars I usually drove with probably averaged out to around 8-10 cents per mile. Still though, that reimbursement rate hasn't shot up as much as fuel prices. $0.585 is a bit more than double the old $0.275, but gasoline has shot up from maybe $1.00-$1.25 to $4.00+.
I'm just glad I don't deliver pizzas anymore!
Not sure if this is right, maybe there is an expert on the subject.
You have to heat the oil and change the way the engine combusts this cleaner burning fuel (compared to regular diesel), is that right? With all the vegetable oils we use in the restaurant industry, we could recover the used oil for use in this area, seems like a good idea. What do you think ?
Apparently the Germans during WWII invented and used this since oil was being conserved at the time.
No reason we can't use this if it is available in large quantities, what are the advantages and disadvantages, opinions anyone?
If I get pizza delivered, I give the guy an extra generous tip because I know how hard times are.
Funny, in my house the old car is driven all the time while my new car languishes in the garage for weeks on end - the opposite of what it was like a year ago. Strange days indeed!
The tired stereotype of GM cars as junk is ready for the junk heap itself. :sick: I've had MANY GM cars, I won't list them all, and they had few if any problems beyond maintenance. I won't list the problems of rusting away of the smaller, foreign cars which made the inroads in the form of econoboxes into the American economy in the 80s and 90s, nor will I mention the continual problems in drive trains of certain car models and brands like transmissions and sludging.
Currently I've driving a 10 year old GM car with 160,000 miles that I'd drive to California today without additional prep and a 6 year old GM car with same comment. No worries. In fact, I'm having trouble justifying buying a 4-cyl model additional car because my two are economical, especially considering the torque they have and the 22 minimum around town and 30+++ miles on highway driving.
Indeed I'm looking between some several years old midsize GM models with 4 cyl. or new 4 cyl for a third car to free up a car for the kid who'll need one due to his responsibilities of his position at school through late summer and fall. :shades:
So let's put the GM reputation back to the level it deserves; treat it like the sludging of the popular foreign make that everyone wants to forget about...
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
In my case, the "new" car, if you can call it that, gets driven the most partly because it gets the best fuel economy, but also because partly, in my mind, at least it's the beater of the fleet. My '76 LeMans only has about 78,000 miles on it, while the '79 NYer 5th Ave has about 92,000 and the '79 NYer base only has about 65,000. I have no idea how many miles my '67 Catalina truly has on it. The odometer only read 44,000 when I bought it in 1994, and the seller tried to swear up and down that was the original mileage. No way in hell, though. The engine and transmission had just been rebuilt before I bought it, and the vinyl on the driver's side of the front seat had been replaced. The pedals looked good, but there was a box of extra parts in the trunk, and I found old, worn pedals in with those parts. I bought the car, just presuming it was more like 144,000.
I'd rather keep the needless wear and tear off the old cars, since I want to keep them around and prolong their lives, whereas I just look at the Intrepid as a tool to get me back and forth to work, to use up and then replace when it's no longer feasible to keep it running.
I'd say 22.3 mpg was pretty good fuel economy for that Brougham, Lemko. Especially since you probably weren't driving it like an old lady, and I imagine you had the air conditioner running. Plus, isn't that actually a mix of highway and local, rather than pure highway?
It's possible in the old Honda Insight -- the little 2-door, 2-seat hybrid that Honda discontinued a few years ago. In the Prius and Civic Hybrid, it's possible for short distances, not for long-term averages.
Be wary of anyone who says "I get 70 mpg in my Prius." He doesn't. He MIGHT have achieved that number on one trip, one time, across western Kansas with a 20 mph tail wind. But he doesn't "get 70 mpg" all the time.
Some hypermilers post photos of their mpg readouts on greenhybrid.com. The numbers for the Insight are amazing, but that's not really a practical car for most people, and it's not currently in production. For a day-to-day useable car, the best long-term average I've seen on a Civic Hybrid is 64 mpg by "Kenny." He inflates his tires to 50 psi, accelerates at 2 mph per second, and goes 50 mph on the highway. That's what it takes to get "hyper" mpg.
On my HCH, I keep the tires at 36 psi, accelerate normally, and drive 65 mph on the highway. My long term average is 48 mpg.
A co-worker who owns a Prius drives 75 mph on the highway, and averages 42 mpg.
So there are some real world numbers for ya.
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The first leg of my trip was about 30 minutes of getting out of the city and its suburbs onto the turnpike. I'd say I buried the speedo in a few spots when the turnpike was wide open and there was no sign of state troopers.
Someone finally explained it and referred to the Hunt problem years ago with speculation. They had nearly cornered the silver market and the price until the government started governing (novel idea there) and required delivery on the contracts.
Our problem is lack of control in the speculation market along with poor value of the US dollar. Our government needs to act to increase the value and that will lower the price of oil even further.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I've occasionally thought about trying to find a used LeSabre or Park Ave to replace the Intrepid when that time comes. For their size those things get very impressive economy. I always forget though...which years had the 3.8 intake manifold problem? Was it 1997-2002 or somewhere thereabouts?
Actually, I kinda hope they hold off on that one. I have an HELOC, rather than a regular mortgage, so that would make my rates go up. There's a piece of land, just under an acre, that adjoins my property that is going up for sale that I'm thinking about buying. I was thinking about tapping into the HELOC to fund that property.
When the Fed dropped its rates, that actually had no effect on real mortgages, such as 15 or 30 year fixed, or even ARMs. That's because those are tied to longer-term rates, such as the T-bill rate, I believe. So while the interest rate on my HELOC has dropped by 3.25 points over the past year, I think the traditional 30-year mortgage actually went up slightly over the same time, from around 6.1% to 6.7%.
Most of the people who are in danger of losing their homes right now are the ones that got into those 3/1 or 5/1 ARMs, or similar adjustable mortgages that get you in with an ultra-low teaser rate. As those things adjust upward, it puts increasing pressure on people that bought way too much house to begin with.
Uh-oh, that's kinda scary, as my Dad's Regal is an '03 model. I saw him the other day and asked him about maintenance and such, and found out that he has at least changed the coolant. I think that might be a part of the issue, is when people leave that 5 year/100K mile coolant in the car for too long.
I'm not sure how long ago he had the coolant changed, but the car's just 6 years old now (6/02 build date), and he bought it in 9/03. It had about 19,500 miles on it when he bought it, and I think he has about 45,000 on it now.
I've heard that the intakes usually don't fail until around 90-100K miles, sometimes even more. So at the rate my Dad's driving, it could be a decade before he hits that kind of mileage! And I guess if he goes a little overboard on coolant changes, that might reduce the chance of him having that issue.
Hypermiling to beat terrorists