Thank Democrats for high US gas prices

Actually, American highway is unsafer

Aha!
Nice to see that facts do not really touch your opinion.

I never said they weren’t, the fact is that they would be even more dangerous if it wasn’t a requirement that most imports of vehicles to the United States meet US safety standards.

One of the few problems I have with the NAFTA agreement, is I think that trucks entering the United States from Mexico (or any other nation) be required to meet US safety standards. One of my objections is that in Mexico it is not a requirement to have brakes on the front wheels of trucks, thusly there stopping distance is greater and if they have a brake failure there is a greater likelihood of a total loss of braking and an accident.

NAFTA in regards to Mexican and Canadian trucks not meeting US safety standards.
http://www.trucksafety.org/scippa_letter.php

These SUVs are the cars you consider safe?

Did I say anything about SUVs? Once again you have perverted the context of what I was saying.

What was one of the major manufacturers that started the SUV craze in the United States with fancy commercials, could it be Land Rover/Range Rover? So you’re only showing your bigotry and hypocrisy.

The SUVs in the USA are really a big pain in the ***, from pretty much any perspective (safety, costs, environmental impact). Unfortunately, people start buying them here, too. Maybe somebody comes up with a German solution: an additional tax (while SUVs are very budget friendly: taxes on gas, sales tax, motor vehicle tax).

From pretty much any perspective? The fact is that SUVs can be safer if they are in the hands of competent people. The vast majority of the SUV accidents are from incompetence and overly aggressive unsafe selfish driving. People are selfish idiotic nuts, they will risk their lives to try to save a few seconds of travel time.

SUVs budget friendly? Some are and some are not, a lot of it is dependent on how and what the vehicle is being used for and what type of SUV. There is a broad definition of SUV and there’s a broad applications that they can be used for.

I have a SUV that is very budget friendly. It cost less because it didn’t have me to all the requirements for emissions and safety that our regular vehicle would have. However because it is a semi compact pickup truck with a small engine, it gets fairly good fuel economy. It still has foreword airbags and all-wheel antiskid brakes Would a regular car meet my needs, not really. The only way I could get a regular car to meet my needs, is if I also had a trailer. Most small cars could not handle a trailer very well, it would likely tear up the car real quick. Driving a small car with a trailer is probably much more hazardous than driving an SUV. I suspect the extra weight and drag from a trailer would be net increase in fuel consumption that would probably exceed the rate of my pickup truck. Considering that a small car would be more subject to failure hauling a trailer, that would make my only other reasonable choice to use a large industrial truck, since I have to have a reliable vehicle. I really don’t want to spend the money or burn the fuel that is associated with an industrial truck. So actually a small pickup truck SUV is the most practical solution for me.

People have a tendency to overbuy, like some people get four-wheel drive thinking they might needed in snow, when they are often located in a place that only gets so a few days a year, and is particularly disturbing when it is someone that doesn’t even need to drive in the snow, like some stay at home mother whose children has bus service, but she was to be able to drive to the store virtually every day, when more conservative and better planing they could easily use a regular car.

One of the biggest wastes is like I just mentioned people don’t plan and are obsessive-compulsive about shopping. I make a list and only go to the store about once a week. Whereas my mother went to the store virtually every day. Some households could save a lot of time and money and energy with better planing and buying a larger refrigerator/freezer. If you have the urge to buy something often it can wait. And another thing is only buy when you really need or really want instead of just doing compulsive buying. That’s where an incredible amount of waste comes from.

Another thing that is incredibly wasteful is people driving like maniacs; I see people go WOT just to get to the next block when you can clearly see that the light just turned red. So they quickly accelerate to a fairly high-speed just have to stop and wait in a light. I see a similar thing on the highway that is also a safety issue where people will go WOT and ride up into congested traffic in only decelerating when they are about to hit another car. It’s like they are a custom to intimidating other people to pull out of the way by driving like a maniac, however some people are so compulsive maniacs that they will do it even when it is clear that the congestion is so heavy that it is not possible for everyone to move out of the way. Yet they continue to put other people’s lives in danger and excessively burn fuel because they are excessively selfish and have a compulsion. People are nuts. I digress.

The typical SUV that everyone envisions has a tendency to be much more expensive and use more fuel, then a little two wheel drive pickup truck SUV.

A little example of the safe cars:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/297315/suv_roll_over_caught_on_tape/
I promise you will never ever achieve such with a Golf (or comparable), no matter which version.

What’s that supposed to prove? I can’t identify the make and manufacture of the vehicle, it looks a little like it could be an Izuzu or Range Rover.

Regardless of what manufacturer or nationality the vehicle is it probably passed US safety standards, the vehicle clearly handled the rollover well, the driver walked away virtually on injured.

I don’t see any indication that there was a safety problem with the vehicle, the safety problem that seems to have caused the accident is the driver. That type of vehicle has a higher center of gravity, drivers should know the characteristics of their vehicles and drive appropriately.

If you’re trying to imply that the type of SUV shown in the vehicle is dangerous by design; then you could say that Volkswagen is more dangerous for designing their Volkswagen van which can rollover easier. So using your logic I should be a bigot and say that Germans are irresponsible and Volkswagen manufacturers unsafe vehicles and market them to the US.

If you are really so concerned about the safety of rollovers, how come you’re not concerned with the economical three wheeled vehicles that easily rollover? Could it have anything to do with that they are prodominantly manufactured and used in other places besides the US? Once again you show your bias.

some cars get a higher US than EU safety rating, & comparison of exactly what tests are done suggests that the USA lags a little

That doesn’t seem to apply to the buggy style vehicles I am talking about. There are some safety standards in Europe that are higher than the US, for the most part the Autobahn style safety standards exceed US standards.

A scrawny cheap built car can’t carry as much as a good old pickup truck.

I bet this man’s house gets more miles per gallon than your house.

Off-road motorhome.

Off-road sports car.

Another reason that our vehicles have less fuel economy is because of the US safety standards. A lot of these little midget buggy style cars would not hold up to the US crash safety tests standards.

Aha!
Nice to see that facts do not really touch your opinion.

The highways of this country are filled with dangerous lightweight cars, still death toll is declining each year. Pretty much any car (even these tiny ones) you can buy here makes confortably (means without afterburner noises) 100mph, often more. As you can drive that fast legally, you would expect thousands of deaths. Actually, American highway is unsafer.

In 2005 nearly 5000 people were killed in SUV roll over crashes. These SUVs are the cars you consider safe? Please note: these crashes do not involve another car. (google: rollover deaths or SUV rollover)
I don’t think any car that can be rolled over at reasonable speeds would sell here.

The SUVs in the USA are really a big pain in the ass, from pretty much any perspective (safety, costs, environmental impact). Unfortunately, people start buying them here, too. Maybe somebody comes up with a German solution: an additional tax (while SUVs are very budget friendly: taxes on gas, sales tax, motor vehicle tax).

A little example of the safe cars:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/297315/suv_roll_over_caught_on_tape/
I promise you will never ever achieve such with a Golf (or comparable), no matter which version.

…
Another reason that our vehicles have less fuel economy is because of the US safety standards. A lot of these little midget buggy style cars would not hold up to the US crash safety tests standards.

I doubt that, since comparing those few models which sell in both the USA & Europe, one finds that the crash test ratings seem to be similar, suggesting that our crash tests are as rigorous as yours. Indeed, some cars get a higher US than EU safety rating, & comparison of exactly what tests are done suggests that the USA lags a little, e.g. IIRC it adopted side impact tests later than Europe.

…and keep insisting on blocking our crossings with the trailers.
I wonder where they hide them at home though? You never see any !

Those trailers are rented out to Belgium for the duration of the year…

…and keep insisting on blocking our crossings with the trailers.
I wonder where they hide them at home though? You never see any !

DISCLAIMER: This not an anti-american slur. Plenty of Dutch people live in trailers or other semi-mobile housing, and they aren’t exactly know for their fine taste or environmentalism either 🙂

Or fine taste in anything else for that matter. Except for a fine taste in audio and video equipment, preferrably the equipment of others though. :diablo: :p

Alas, the Sierra is no more… It was wrecked last year after a total 19 years of service life, some @#$#% drove into my door with me still sitting inside. Good thing it was made from steel, concrete and re-inforced titanium otherwise I might have been hurt… Not that the Bismarck is completely dead now: it still lives on as a dirt racer. Completely stripped, but the 2-liter 4-cylinder is still putting it’s 120 hp to good use (see? Decent power and torque, while still getting decent kilometres per liter. Oh, and European cars can make turns too).

Nowadays, i drive a car from the 1990s. To be precise, April 1990 😀 No longer Yurropean, but nevertheless great fun because it’s got pop-up headlights… It’s an original, non-spoilered Honda Integra. It’s like the one on the pic, same colour and the lot. Unfortunately it doesn’t handle as well as the Sierra did (well, duh!), but still it’s great fun. And a valuable tip for everyone driving a hatchback with a hatch-release-lever near the driver’s seat: putting in a Vento-gaspiston under the hatch will make it an automatic hatch. Bit difficult to close, though 😀

And it does close to 14km per litre. Not bad considering my driving style.

Does it last that long? Remember that it’s an American car :diablo:

Funny thing is that i really get the impression that big SUVs are only to camouflage that the driver is really worthless. How else could you explain someone smashing the oil pan of an X5 on a parking lot (admittedly, she was blond)…

As long as your Sierra, I’m sure. 😀 The problem for many US cars, even if you have those big, impossible to wreck V8s with lots of horses and a consumption that would drive us bankrupt, is that they have no acceleration whatsoever. I remember when recieving an Impala last year at a rental place, being told it was a great, powerful and spacious car. It wasn’t. When I brought it back, they told me again it was a nice car, and asked how it was. I just said “it’s allright”, when I tought “I’ll never drive that piece of * again! “
At least, when I press the gas pedal on my diesel Focus with “only” 115 HP, it goes. :diablo:

…looks like someone in the trailer park won the jackpot…

DISCLAIMER: This not an anti-american slur. Plenty of Dutch people live in trailers or other semi-mobile housing, and they aren’t exactly know for their fine taste or environmentalism either 🙂

Looks like fun. But when you have to change a tyre ??? :rolleyes:

Does it last that long? Remember that it’s an American car :diablo:

Funny thing is that i really get the impression that big SUVs are only to camouflage that the driver is really worthless. How else could you explain someone smashing the oil pan of an X5 on a parking lot (admittedly, she was blond)…

Allright then, i’ll raise your Tahoe with a Denali International 7300… Any mother would love to have one of those to bring her toddler to kindergarten 😡
Big cars here are getting ever more popular here anyway, strangely enough. Cayennes and Touaregs are all too common nowadays, and the Audi Q7 (f-U-G-L-Y) is rapidly raising it’s share in emissions and traffic congestion.

Looks like fun. But when you have to change a tyre ??? :rolleyes:

Agreed, the Q7 is horrible.

Why? A Tahoe is a nice vehicle :p

I have to say that, if we didn’t get strangulated by infamous gas prices and taxes, I’m sure we’d see bigger cars here too…

Allright then, i’ll raise your Tahoe with a Denali International 7300… Any mother would love to have one of those to bring her toddler to kindergarten 😡
Big cars here are getting ever more popular here anyway, strangely enough. Cayennes and Touaregs are all too common nowadays, and the Audi Q7 (f-U-G-L-Y) is rapidly raising it’s share in emissions and traffic congestion.

Prices here in the Netherlands are roughly
E95: €1,50 per litre
Diesel: €1,00 per litre (diesel is cheaper than Germany, petrol is cheaper in both Belgium and Germany)
LPG: €0.60 per litre.

Mind you, the fact that still well over 90% of the residue gases (which is sold as LPG quite extensively here) from refineries is still torched off rather than used, is absolutely criminal. Don’t buy into whatever the oil companies claim about being “environmentally friendly”: almost than 5% of the energetic value of pumped-up crude oil is still being deliberately torched off rather than put to use. Either at the source (Shell’s still happily blazing around in Nigeria, despite having agreed to put an end to it by 1984 :rolleyes: ), or at refineries…
Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.

I’m not happy about the prices, but I’m really not complaining about it either. I am making fun of the Democrats playing politics and getting their foot stuck in their mouth. I’m also predicting that the Democrats will likely start trying to blame the high prices on Republicans. Remember a while back when they were demanding investigations on the price of gasoline? They were blaming the Republicans and big business and having conspiracy theories.:rolleyes:

I can still remember the photo opp that the Democrats had on the Capitol steps with Nancy Pelosi claiming that since they gained power they are going drive down fuel costs and they were blaming the Republicans for the high prices. It was nothing but a grandstanding event to try to blame the Republicans for the cost of fuel, however since the Democrats made their promise to lower fuel prices, the prices have spiraled upward and I suspect will continue.:rolleyes:

I do think the higher fuel prices are bad for our economy. 🙁 However I think it would be worse if we kept the fuel prices artificially low which has caused an awful lot of the problems we’re having now. I think the market should seek its natural price which will likely slowly rise, which will help ease us into changing into other fuels. I’m afraid if it happens suddenly it could screw up the economy and the conversion will be sloppy.

It is much like how I am against the fact that the US has not built a new nuclear power plant for decades. I’m afraid that were putting it off to the point where we will be suddenly forced to build a lot of them and it might be sloppy. I think it should be a slow ongoing advancement so we can learn by making small mistakes instead of rushing into things and making big mistakes.

I suspect the fuel prices will go up and as a result the US economy will take a slight dive and that the Democrats will try to blame the Republicans. When that happens remember I told you it was going to happen and remember that the Democrats said that they were going to lower the prices of fuel. So they only have themselves to blame. 😉 I find it hilarious.;)

95 pushing USD4.00 per US gallon two weeks ago on the East Coast (Yuks! Ten years ago down in Georgia it was 80 cents a gallon!).
Three weeks ago Diesel in France EUR1.20, in northern Italy 1.00, in Austria 1.15 per liter (can’t remember 95, rental car wanted Diesel).
In Moscow 95 is about 60 Euro-Cents a liter, or about USD3.00 per US gallon.
Want to see cheap gas? Go to the Gulf states!

So bensin seems to be a half cheaper in USA than here!!! For crying out loud:eek: 😮 😮

…then again we haven’t invaded any oil rich….just joking:p :p

But seriosly you shouldn’t be complaining, its about time americans starts to do their share in the battle against global warming. We europeans have to pay taxes to fund the consequenses of Kioto threaty aside the douple big gas bill…:mad:

btw, car prices are also cheaper in US.

For example, Ford Focus starting price US; $14,000 UK; $22,709

Living in the UK, we pay around $7.10 for equivalent of a US gallon.

People all over Europe are paying comparable prices, perhaps US citizens should realize how good they have it compared to everyone else.

You still get fuel cheaper than almost anyone else, and you complain it will kill the economy if it goes up to a price still much lower than EU levels. The prices here are very high, but manageable, and people in the US will adapt to cope.

I realize it must be hitting you in the wallet, and i sympathize, we all know what that feels like. I know that the US is designed around cars more than EU states, and that it is in many places less practical to live without a car.

But all the complaining about how bad you have it does you no credit when we across the pond look at how much we pay compared to you guys, you are still better off than us.

I think it is about $3.10 USD USG in my area for gasoline.

I had a Tahoe it got better fuel economy then most SUVs. I went from Ohio to Florida on less than 20 gallons of fuel. Though the fuel economy is only fair around town; on the highway it is pretty good.;)

Nitromethane costs about $65 a gallon the last time I checked. 😉

Trading in your Tahoe for something more fuel-efficient might help a bit as well.

Why? A Tahoe is a nice vehicle :p

I have to say that, if we didn’t get strangulated by infamous gas prices and taxes, I’m sure we’d see bigger cars here too…

so how much you (ATFS_Crahs) have to actually pay for the stuff?