Recent Comments:
A Subaru Outback that gets 40.6mpg? Welcome to diesel Subies! {Autoblog Green}
Jun 3rd 2008 9:48AM Subaru makes a good vehicle - I've had 2 Outbacks and loved them. However, I am greatly concerned about the price of diesel fuel as well as the extra premium cost added to the purchase price that any diesel engine vehicle will command. At this point the US public has a major hunger for higher gas mileage vehicles ensuring that, at least for the next couple of years, the more efficient vehicles will be expensive and mean a wait in line to get.
More troublesome yet is that if the price of oil continues to escalate at it's current pace, in 2 years we could very well be looking at $8/gal gas in the US which would make even 40mpg vehicles look as bad as SUVs do today... While I think diesels are great - I'm through buying any vehicle that depends entirely upon oil as a fuel... come on mass transit, super efficient hybrids and electrics!
Friedman: American energy policy is going to require some hard truths, and $4 gas {Autoblog Green}
May 29th 2008 11:17AM If only this sentiment had been around in 1974 the US might not be in the oil pickle it's in today. However, even $4/gal oil probably won't be enough to get people to kick the oil habit.
Carter tried to lead the American public off oil during his term but facing up to reality has never been a winning political strategy in the USA. it was the why worry, head in the sand (of the Middle East) mentality of Reagan era that won out in the end. It's so much easier to ignore the hard choices and start wars for oil than to get the American public to admit and do something about their excessive energy use.
Toyota may jump into heavy-duty truck market with 7.0L diesel {Autoblog Green}
May 29th 2008 11:04AM Toyota is not only late to the diesel party - it seems that the party (in the US) is already over anyway. With diesel prices hovering between $0.60- $1.00 above gasoline in most markets (and no decrease in sight) as well as the sure to be included "diesel engine premium" on the purchase of these trucks I think Toyota is in for tough time trying to sell very many.
As a one time diesel advocate, and for the reasons above, I have now written diesels completely off my list.
VIDEO: Kia viral pits Nadal against tennis alien. And then it gets weird. {Autoblog}
May 24th 2008 5:11PM it got me to watch - they win.
So just why is diesel so much more expensive than gasoline now? {Autoblog Green}
Apr 16th 2008 10:12PM I've been a fan of diesels but the premium at the dealer and the pump is killing my fondness fast. Diesels look good financially only if there is a source of cheap biodiesel - which could happen. Algae is looking very promising but it's vapordiesel at this point...
Chicago 2008: Volkswagen unveils the newish Routan minivan {Autoblog}
Feb 7th 2008 1:24PM Well there's one thing that's clear from this new van introduction by VOA - they're now leading the US market with the best bad ideas.
Someone else has already pointed out the 300lb glaring gorilla question; why would anyone want to pay more for a VW re-badged Chrysler product and get less vehicle and have to put up with VW's well deserved terrible service and hard to find dealerships??
What's also insane to me is that the old Westphalia campers (last imported in 1991) are actually in huge demand. So much so that entire companies have sprung up around refurbishing them and some are even going so far as to be dropping Subaru engines in these ancient vans in an effort to bring them up to speed.
VOA = DOA with this monumentally stupid idea!
Spirit of the VW Camper van goes Element-al {Autoblog}
Feb 6th 2008 2:43PM This is a small and rather pathetic step in the right direction. I agree with the other posters - no way this $5k tent can replace the VW Westy for efficient camping comfort and utility for outdoor enthusiasts. The perfect Westy replacements are all over Europe but (still) nowhere to be seen on the American continent. Yo automakers wake up! There's a LOT of money that your missing out on by not going after the true outdoor enthusiasts market - a typically affluent group that is currently paying BIG BUCKS to drop Subaru engines in 1990 vintage VWs in a frustrating effort to have a vehicle that meets their outside needs.
Nissan confirms the "Cube," a 37 MPG, hybrid, Scion-look-a-like, is coming to the US {Autoblog Green}
Feb 4th 2008 1:15PM The Cube could be my next vehicle. I want a small AWD van with good MPG - a long hoped for vehicle that has been non-existent in the US until now (or...soon). BTW, 37mpg beats the hell out of most all current US autos on the road. I'll take it and I LOVE the e-4WD idea!
Way to go Nissan and heads up Toyota - your Xb had solid potential until you "Americanized" it by making it just another fat, overweight loser...
Would you eat milk and meat from cloned animals? {Green Daily}
Jan 17th 2008 11:40AM Thanks for the reference to the NAIS article. I found it very informative and wonder if this is yet another example of how the Bush Admin has used hyped up fear (in this case, involving diseased livestock) to further promote corporations over citizens?
To me the single most scary aspect of animal cloning is exactly what was brought out in The Nation article; a potential disastrous disruption of the genetic diversity of livestock. It is well known that monocultures of farm animals or any agricultural product automatically increases the risk of pan-epidemics. If all of the cows in the US are of one strain, a single, drug resistant cow pathogen could essentially wipe out the nation's beef supply.
Other than this frightening potential side effect of mass produced cloning, as a consumer I have no real problem with eating cloned food products. Cloned animals or plants are nothing more than exact copies of their donors and are only an innovative short cut to the more traditional forms of livestock enhancement via selective breeding practices that have been used by farmers for thousands of years. A cloned cow does not (necessarily) mean a trans-genetically manipulated animal - a completely, and more controversial type of beast.
Jared Diamond's Consumption Factor Challenge {Autoblog Green}
Jan 3rd 2008 1:15PM I'm READY! But the big question remains - are the politicians in the US who continue to refuse to allow this country to become a leader in the effort to decrease consumption ready? Under the Bush Admin that answer is clearly NO.
