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Short Attention Span Theater Presents:
A Brief History of Gasoline Consumption in America
Tom Tomorrow, This Modern World, Salon
(4 June 2008)
Satire.
Pickup truck, SUV sales run out of gas
Ken Bensinger, Los Angeles Times
Demand for the huge autos drops in May as cars zoom off lots.
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A month of gasoline prices near $4 a gallon was enough to sour Americans’ long love affair with trucks and sport utility vehicles, pushing them back into sedans — and driving Detroit’s automakers into deeper trouble.
U.S. sales results released Tuesday showed cars outselling gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs by almost 200,000 in May — the biggest margin since 1996. That was bad news for U.S. automakers, whose lineups are heavily skewed toward large, inefficient vehicles, but a boon to their car-focused Asian rivals.
(4 June 2008)
End of the road for Hummer after sales of ‘world’s most anti-environmental car’ dive
Andrew Clark, The Guardian
Loathed by environmentalists, military-style Hummers have survived years of vandalism, arson and abuse. But the lumbering American gas-guzzling vehicles have met their match in the rocketing cost of filling a tank with petrol.
Alarmed by a slump in demand for vehicles that consume vast quantities of fuel, Hummer’s owner, General Motors, is reviewing the future of the Hummer brand which was originally a civilian version of the US military’s armoured Humvee. The struggling Detroit-based carmaker said it was considering off-loading the business – and with US sales plunging, its prospects are cloudy.
“The company is considering all options, from a complete revamp of the product line to a partial or complete sale of the brand,” GM’s chief executive, Rick Wagoner, told shareholders at the group’s annual meeting in Delaware yesterday.
(4 June 2008)
Big Vehicles Stagger Under the Weight of $4 Gas
David Leonhardt, New York Times
… you don’t buy a vehicle to leave it in your garage. You buy it to drive it. So it makes sense to consider the full costs of ownership, which include insurance, interest, repairs, taxes and, of course, gasoline. If gas remains near $4 a gallon, as many analysts expect, a big vehicle like the F-250 will cost $100,000 for an owner who keeps it for a typical amount of time (five years) and drives it a typical amount (15,000 miles a year). The gas alone would cost about $30,000, up from about $10,000 in the 1990s.
No wonder, then, that Americans are changing their driving habits so quickly. With sales plummeting, General Motors said Tuesday that it would stop making pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles at four of its North American plants.
The company is also considering selling its Hummer brand, an emblem of the megavehicle.
(4 June 2008)
It’s lean and mean, but is it green? EU plans clampdown on car ads
Ian Traynor and David Adam, Guardian
Magazines angered by proposal to require warning on climate change impact
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It’s a staple of the glossy magazine: the eye-catching spread selling the latest Chelsea tractor or high-performance German road machine. But the luxury car advert looks likely to become much less attractive under green advertising rules being drafted by the EU.
As a packet of cigarettes carries a mandatory health warning, a Mercedes C-class advert may be forced to carry a climate hazard alert within months. Manufacturers would be forced to stop supplying pollution information in barely readable small print at the bottom of ads.
The European commission is believed to be considering a “traffic lights” system whereby red dots or stars would mark out high-emission cars, and green ones low-pollution ones.
(5 June 2008)
Running on empty: With less in tank, more get stranded
AP via CNN
… With gas prices hovering at $4 a gallon, motorists like Saba are putting less fuel in their tanks — then coming up empty on the highway.
Though national statistics on out-of-gas motorists don’t exist, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that drivers unwilling or unable to fill ‘er up are gambling by keeping their tanks extremely low on fuel.
In the Philadelphia area, where the average price for a gallon of regular broke $4 on Friday, calls from out-of-gas AAA members doubled between May 2007 and May 2008, from 81 to 161, the auto club reported.
“The number one reason is they can’t stretch their money out from week to week,” said Gary Siley, the AAA mobile technician who helped Saba.
(2 June 2008)
Contributor Scott Chisholm Lamont writes:
OK, even I am guilty of running it close to the line, usually because I am holding off a fill-up until I can get to a location I know is a couple of cents cheaper. Haven’t run out yet, though…
Dallas-area motorists running out of gas as prices make fill-ups prohibitive
Staff and wire reports, Dallas Morning News
As if rising gas prices weren’t enough, some motorists are encountering a frustrating trend: They’re putting less fuel in their tanks, then coming up empty on the highway.
National statistics on out-of-gas motorists don’t exist, but there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that drivers are gambling by keeping their tanks extremely low on fuel.
(2 June 2008)
“Green” auto insurance
Darrel Ng at CA Ins. Comm. office comments on AB 2800 6-3-08 (video)
Marc Strassman, Etopia News
With gasoline over $4.30/gallon in Los Angeles, GM shutting down truck and SUV factories and agonizingly reappraising its commitment to the Hummer, Darrel Ng, spokesperson for California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, says that the Commissioner has the authority to implement the provisions of AB 2800 through regulations and previews the June 23, 2008, hearings about “green” auto insurance, which would allow auto insurance companies to lower premiums for drivers who reduce the number of miles they drive.
(3 June 2008)
Interview is rather California-specific, but perhaps it markes the beginning of a trend. -BA
