Afternoon Coffee and News

As I sit here at my desk sipping my afternoon cup of coffee scanning the day’s news headlines. It was somewhat of a shock to see that GM and Ford are planning to scale back production of their pickups and SUVs and indicate closure of those plants.

Ford has trimmed back overhead by selling off a couple of divisions, Land Rover and Jaguar, and now General Motors is considering selling off the Hummer brand. Is the automotive industry finally sensing a need to change and influence the market to better serve our society? Will they promote responsibility, creating a demand for smaller more efficient vehicles? Or will they continue to support our lust for vehicles of a much larger capacity than our needs actually require?

I’m hoping that they take the road of being responsible for both our environment and turning our society around away from its gluttonous habits of over consumption. To use a popular quote “Americans have been stuck on stupid for too long.”

Our rising gas prices are nothing when compared to many other nations. In fact our whining about them falls on deaf ears. Those nations have been paying double what we are now paying for quite some time. We’re just beginning to feel the pain they have endured for so long at the pump.

As in other countries they love their vehicles as much as we do. Yet they don’t drive vehicles beyond their needs such as those here that drive Suburban’s when a Subaru would meet their real needs. One of our neighbors does need a Suburban or a large passenger van, they have six kids! Another neighbor drives one as well, yet he is the only occupant 99% of the time. He drives it back and forth to work, at 14 mile round trip at most. His rationalization is he needs a four wheel drive vehicle to traverse the roads in the winter months…again a Subaru or other all wheel drive vehicle do as well.

Example, in the state of Montana, Subaru’s is one of the top most registered vehicles. Why, because of their ability to handle the extremes of Montana’s roads and weather conditions. They’re practical and durable in such conditions, so why is it then, there are those who still believe they must have a large four wheel drive pickup or SUV to drive in winter? Sounds to me like it is a pure case of choice, one governed by vanity.

Auto manufacturers have marketed to us a lifestyle beyond our needs, having a utility vehicle capable of off road exploits. Yet, very few are actually ever driven off our streets and roads. Back in the late ‘70’s smaller more fuel efficient cars were built and the automakers marketed them to use as the answer of higher gas prices. We bought one and stayed small until vanity (and marketing) convinced us to upsize to a pickup truck.

Then practicality came into play and we downsized to a small SUV. When it was perceived as being too small and impractical we upsized yet again, and then downsized when the cost of operating was taxing our budget. Later, we again upsized for sound practicality purposes, while also adding in a second family vehicle due to both spouses working away from home. Now several years later we find ourselves reducing to one vehicle, the older of the two because of its low operating costs and better gas mileage.

As American's cringe at the gas pumps, a valuable lesson can be learned. We'll see if it is or if this is history repeating itself as it did in the seventies. Stay tuned!