Why cheap gas is bad for America

[paddlenbike]

I thought this was an interesting article:
https://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/why-cheap-gasoline-is-bad-for-america-054906623.html

How many of you feel compelled to go out and buy a vehicle that gets worse gas mileage just because fuel is temporarily less than the ultra-high prices we paid last year?

[Kryptoroxx]

Ummmm....nope. I have never made a vehicle purchase base off of gas mileage and quite honestly I never will. Right now I'm just happy that it was 28 bucks to fill my wife's scion from gas light to full and it was 18 bucks for half a tank in the runner....or that's what my gas gauge said lol.

Without wading off into political views I feel the article, while interesting, was more than a little off base. The author made some enormously large assumptions about both the economy and shipping industry that are more acidic than anything else. In addition to the assumptions he has a very biased view of fracking, drilling, or any other form of oil mining.

The technology being developed is awesome and it's getting better but it isn't a direct replacement for fossil fuels yet. I think another decade and we will be transitioning into another power source. Hydrogen is my favorite although there needs to be a lot of development there as well. Who knows what type of power is going to win out.

Personally with the recent crashes with the economy (last 8 years) I feel that a good portion of America is being smarter about their credit and paying down what they owe rather than dropping cash on new vehicles. I also believe the worst is yet to come sadly. I think a lot of economic problems come when the majority of the population over-extend themselves with credit and the government feels like it can do the same on a much much larger scale.

[paddlenbike]

I keep wondering if personal debt is going up or down. I have no idea. But if you believe what you see on the 5:00 news, everyone they interviewed at a car dealership (except for one couple) said the low cost of gas was causing them to look at trucks and SUVs rather than fuel efficient cars. I'm sure that was the statement the news wanted to make that night and probably (hopefully) does not represent reality for most people.

I never shopped for gas mileage until recently. (Clearly, as my vehicles have been trucks, SUVs and modded sports cars.) When gas hit $5/gal here in California I started looking for ways to cut my fuel bill. I bought an older Volvo sedan for not much money and put a ton of work into it to make it a nice little commuter car. It was a huge money pit and did not get any better mileage than the 4Runner, mostly because my drive to a park & ride was short and the Volvo took longer to warm up than the 4Runner and thus mileage suffered. So strike 1.

The Nissan Leaf was a no-brainer because I was interested in the technology and the fuel savings alone meant I could drive a brand new car for roughly the same as what I previously paid for gas + bus pass.

If I had to pair down to one car, I would take the huge depreciation loss on the new cars and just keep the 4Runner. It's our lowest gas mileage vehicle by far, but it does lots of things the other cars don't.

The reduced cost of gas is affecting the sale of efficient cars, which I do find unfortunate from an environmental stand point. But this is America and people are free to do as they choose, and I'm certainly okay with that too.

[Kryptoroxx]

I think the new tech is great and is amazing compared to the first failure of electric vehicles in the late 90s.

I think one of the reasons that people are looking at the suv market is because of the tangible value for the dollar.

With an suv or other gas guzzler they are comfy, spacious, accommodate families better, and have other physical advantages.

With the little cars I think their major disadvantage is that they haven't effected enough of the public for long enough. The people who bought huge suvs and just paid them off a year or even three years ago did not want to extend their credit again on a little car with great mpg. If people bought strictly by their needs I think a lot of these little cars would sell but that wouldn't eliminate the suvs from the family garages. It would just reduce the amount of use they received.

[Good Times]

As much as I would want to buy a new vehicle (ES/GS/LC comes to mind) but I just can't justify the financial impact it would have on my family. Not saying I couldn't afford it but just isn't financially the right decision. Regardless of what the current fuel prices are looking like that isn't going to justify owning another depreciating boat anchor. I'll continue to drive my 11mpg Land Cruiser and be happy =). I did just pass my smog test with flying colors! (though I know it ain't the best for the environment) but it does drive nice! ha! (though it needs new suspension parts cuz they're all worn and the tires are getting kinda bald too) - bah!

The whole notion of people suddenly buying gas guzzlers because of the cheaper gas really doesn't surprise me. I feel that our society only looks at the immediate "happiness" and doesn't look at the long term impact on these "impulse" buys. We are a society of "impulse" buys and unfortunately whenever we see fuel prices go down we only look at what's right in front of us and make immature decisions and later regret our purchases.

[paddlenbike]

The ES & GS thankfully have not received Toyota/Lexus's ugly mug--yet. (The IS got the ugly face downgrade this year.) If I were buying a car in that class, I would probably go straight to the Infiniti Q50:
http://www.infinitiusa.com/content/dam/infiniti/vehicles/2015/q50/gallery/photos/exterior/13-zoom-hd.jpg/jcr:content/renditions/cq5dam.web.950.535.jpeg
It's a really sharp car in person.

The other car I really like is the new Acura TLX, but it's a front-driver (so is the Lex ES though).

As far as the 100-series, it's on my very short list of vehicles I wish I could shrink wrap for later.

[Good Times]

I'm with ya on the "fugly" factor of the new IS. However the ES and GS definitely has a big "sexy" factor in em. I'd get the ES on the budget end but wouldn't mind splurging on the GS AWD.

The new TLX (SH-AWD) is definitely pretty sweet. I like the size of the sedan but did wish they had a wagon version. I think that'll make it a really sexy ride.

I dunno on the styling of the new Q. The front end fascia really doesn't sit well with me.

[paddlenbike]

The TLX is nice but it's supposed to replace the TSX and the TL, and I'm not sure it can accomplish that. We wouldn't trade our TSX wagon straight across for the TLX because we really like having a wagon. We're kind of sad they stopped selling them a couple of months ago.