Trump's Dieselgate?: How The GOP/BigOil Powers Intend To Smash Efficient Cars Again

[Staidhup]

Is it not eventually the right of the consumer to dictate demand based on purchase price and cost of operation? For the government to dictate the market, product selection based on politics is blatant interference in the free market which promotes inefficiencies and skews the power and rights of the consumer to affect change. Price and cost dictate markets and motivates innovation and change. Manufacturers adjust to the market or fail on their own not government interference or mandate.

 

[Silhouette]

Is it not eventually the right of the consumer to dictate demand based on purchase price and cost of operation? For the government to dictate the market, product selection based on politics is blatant interference in the free market which promotes inefficiencies and skews the power and rights of the consumer to affect change. Price and cost dictate markets and motivates innovation and change. Manufacturers adjust to the market or fail on their own not government interference or mandate.

Purposefully stonewalling a product consumers want on our shores is not free market enterprise. Forcing them to only be able to buy big, clunky, overstrapped with emissions, underpowered gas guzzlers when they want efficient high mpg diesel commuters is NOT freedom or liberty. It's tyranny.

 

[Silhouette]

From Seven Reasons Why Your Next Commuter Car Should be a Diesel
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Seven Reasons Why Your Next Commuter Car Should be a Diesel

Fuel Economy

A diesel engine is more fuel- efficient than a gasoline engine. A diesel will add 20 to 30 percent per gallon of fuel than a comparable size gasoline engine.

Power
At lower gears, diesel engines give more torque. This gives a diesel-powered car more accelerating power. Additionally, many diesels are turbo-charged, providing unbeatable passing power. Even small diesels are fun to drive as they pack up to 30 percent more power than comparable gas-powered cars.

More Towing Ability
The reason most heavy-duty trucks have diesel engines is that they can haul and tow heavier loads. SUVs and pickup trucks equipped with a diesel can tow more than a similar gas-powered car.

Better Resale Value
Although you will pay a premium of up to $700 for a diesel model, a study done by AlG showed that compact diesels held 63 percent of their value after three years of ownership. For gas cars, the resale value was only 53 percent and for hybrids, it was 55 percent.

Quiet Ride
Not too long ago, diesel cars rivaled their big brother trucks in the noise department. Not anymore. Engine technology has advanced so far in the diesel arena that today’s diesel cars are nearly as quiet as a hybrid.

Clean and Environmentally Friendly

Do you remember when diesel exhaust was black and sooty? It is not that way anymore. The same technology that quieted the diesel engine cleaned it up. In fact, they call this modern technology “clean diesel technology.”

Easy Cold-Weather Starts
Many Americans remember that diesels had a reputation for difficult starts in cold weather. Without a spark to ignite the fuel, diesel engines have to build up ambient heat in the cylinder until it reaches auto ignition temperature. Some cold places even provided plug-in heaters for diesel engines to keep the glow plug warm enough to start in freezing weather. Today, diesel technology provides built - in glow plug warmers and diesels start as easily as a gasoline car.

Clean diesel technology makes a diesel engine a sound alternative to a gasoline-powered car. They are powerful, clean, and quiet and get great mileage. When it’s time to trade, a diesel holds its value. Maybe those Europeans are on to something!

*********

Maybe the Europeans are on to something? Funny how clean their air is compared to many of our cities. Maybe it's all that LESS fuel they're burning to get from A to B?

If Trump wants to "Make America Great Again", let's start with what made her great in the marketplace in the 20th Century: her dominance in automobile production. Hard to be dominant in European 21st Century car markets when you're producing the equivalent of the horse and buggy and telling the world it "has to only buy horse and buggies". Trump needs to bring our country's engineering and fuel-type standards up to AT LEAST what our European allies are doing.

And speaking of allies, do we really want to alienate Germany by industrial sabotage and high tariffs on their nice little commuter diesels? Or should we get smart and produce better ones than the jetta here at home and compete with Germany and other countries who wisely have stepped into the 21st Century way back in the 1970s. Trump might first start in accelerating several decades we are behind, from clamping down on manufacturer's production of clean small diesel commuters.

BigOil is afraid someone will figure out that waste biological farm materials can be made into bio fuels to cut with diesel. Oh m'gosh! Cutting into their profits!! They should just get the jump on the bio-diesel and charge the same rate with lower overhead in production of the fuel overall. That's what's called "smart business investment keeping up with the times". Why should we take it on the chin just because BigOil doesn't want to modernize its monopolies? They know how to corner markets. Why does that ALWAYS have to include poisoning the planet absurdly?

 

[danielpalos]

Postal box fleets could be "migrated" to diesel until electric becomes more practicable.

 

[Silhouette]

Postal box fleets could be "migrated" to diesel until electric becomes more practicable.

If they can, why can't regular consumers access diesels like the ones described in my last post? Why just fleet vehicles?

 

[danielpalos]

Postal box fleets could be "migrated" to diesel until electric becomes more practicable.

If they can, why can't regular consumers access diesels like the ones described in my last post? Why just fleet vehicles?

i was speaking from the point of view of fuel efficiency in stop and go situations.

i didn't know those diesels weren't being sold in the US.

 

[Silhouette]

Postal box fleets could be "migrated" to diesel until electric becomes more practicable.

If they can, why can't regular consumers access diesels like the ones described in my last post? Why just fleet vehicles?

i was speaking from the point of view of fuel efficiency in stop and go situations.

i didn't know those diesels weren't being sold in the US.

Here's what BigOil has done to hamper the everyday American consumer from purchasing a clean small commuter diesel

1. Industrial sabotage at ground zero for these types of affordable cars: VW in Germany.

2. Continued to "allow" the production of high end diesel commuters that nobody can afford here in the US. and

3. They will attempt to use "environmental concerns" to push gas guzzling trucks even when they know heavy working machines like a truck are only efficient in diesel form. They are in the process of doing that now as we speak. And hence the sudden about face the GOP is doing on climate change. They'll pitch gasoline as "better for the environment" than diesel; which it isn't because you have to burn vast quantities of gasoline to get from A to B compared to diesel, and, you cannot cut gasoline with bio-fuels which are better for the environment. (but not good for BigOil profits). You can cut diesel with biofuels however. And hence why the masses are not allowed to buy them, essentially.

 

[danielpalos]

Postal box fleets could be "migrated" to diesel until electric becomes more practicable.

If they can, why can't regular consumers access diesels like the ones described in my last post? Why just fleet vehicles?

i was speaking from the point of view of fuel efficiency in stop and go situations.

i didn't know those diesels weren't being sold in the US.

Here's what BigOil has done to hamper the everyday American consumer from purchasing a clean small commuter diesel

1. Industrial sabotage at ground zero for these types of affordable cars: VW in Germany.

2. Continued to "allow" the production of high end diesel commuters that nobody can afford here in the US. and

3. They will attempt to use "environmental concerns" to push gas guzzling trucks even when they know heavy working machines like a truck are only efficient in diesel form. They are in the process of doing that now as we speak. And hence the sudden about face the GOP is doing on climate change. They'll pitch gasoline as "better for the environment" than diesel; which it isn't because you have to burn vast quantities of gasoline to get from A to B compared to diesel, and, you cannot cut gasoline with bio-fuels which are better for the environment. (but not good for BigOil profits). You can cut diesel with biofuels however. And hence why the masses are not allowed to buy them, essentially.

with diesel, bigger is better. gas simply performs better with smaller vehicles and lighter loads.

 

[Care4all]

As soon as you start guzzling gas again with these big suv's and box cars, the price of oil/petrol will sky-rocket...more demand, higher the price....

and you will screw the rest of us being energy conscious

And screw the environment, and citizen's health.

Way to go righties!

 

[there4eyeM]

The efficiency comparison of the antiquated internal combustion engine with the electric automobile is stunning.

 

[Silhouette]

The efficiency comparison of the antiquated internal combustion engine with the electric automobile is stunning.

It's true.

Today's the big day. Trump meets with the scant few major car manufacturers. Today's agenda: how to design the latest series of heavy, big, flat-nosed, underpowered gas-guzzlers that "greenly" reburn unspent fuel in the tailpipe instead of in the combustion area to push the car forward....forcing the consumer to buy (& burn into our failing atomosphere) more fuel to "meet emissions standards".

Also on today's agenda, how to produce cars that won't be attractive to foreign markets keen on aerodynamics, maximum efficiency and torque in small packages...you know..."to make America great again"...We'll just let BigOil tell us that "American emissions standards mean we need to burn more gasoline to get from point A to B"....in big...ugly...underpowered dinosaurs from the 20th Century.

The only way the "new" (old) larger SUV-type commuters will get worse mileage is if you strapped a sheet of plywood onto their 4' high snow-plow front grills...oh...shoot...damn...just gave them another "engineering innovation" for "initial quality" awards...

 

[there4eyeM]

Divide Exxon's 2015 net income by the number of seconds in that year.

$5115

 

[whitehall]

Air Force #1 uses 5 gallons per mile. Each of Obama's golf outings used more diesel fuel than a fleet of tractor trailers does in a year.

 

[there4eyeM]

It's kerosene, but point taken. And...?

 

[Silhouette]

Air Force #1 uses 5 gallons per mile. Each of Obama's golf outings used more diesel fuel than a fleet of tractor trailers does in a year.

Your strawman is nice, but this isn't about politics, it's about the environment. And I am no fan of B.Obama. We are discussing here the shitty engineering Americans are going to be forced to consume, as well as tons more gasoline, you know "to make cars greener" while our footprint in foreign markets demanding clean diesel commuters and electric cars will shrink into oblivion...

you know..."to make America great again"..

 

[Silhouette]

It's kerosene, but point taken. And...?

Thanks for pointing out that technicalities are important when discussing fuels, propulsion and efficiency. BigOil/Detroit's take on it is that consumers shouldn't worry their pretty little heads about such details.

 

[Silhouette]

With prices for gasoline hovering around $6/gallon abroad, which cars do you think Europeans, Russians, Chinese, Japanese etc. be interested in buying? A big heavy box car that's underpowered, strapped with mileage-killing emissions-control in the tailpipe? Or more svelte, streamlined hybrids & diesels who put the catalytic converter's platinum up front (instead of dead in the tailpipe) to push the car forward?

Will foreign consumers chase down 12-15mpg when gas is $6/gallon? Or will they chase down cars we make en mass that get 40-60mpg? Which strategy will relieve our debt/GDP issues the quickest? Which one will create more American jobs for exports sales of goods to other countries?

 

[danielpalos]

It's kerosene, but point taken. And...?

Thanks for pointing out that technicalities are important when discussing fuels, propulsion and efficiency. BigOil/Detroit's take on it is that consumers shouldn't worry their pretty little heads about such details.

You just need to do better market research.

8 Diesel Cars Cheaper To Own Than Gas Models | Bankrate.com

 

[Silhouette]

We'll see. Keep an eye on commercials, what they're pushing on the public. If they're celebrating big cars with snow-plow fronts and 15 mpg highway, then you can see the times to come. What they did to VW wasn't fair. I'd like to know more about the actual people at VW who gave the thumbs up to tweaking the computer to fool emissions. They made some of the best/most affordable small diesels we could get anyway.

If we're planning on using car manufacturing to resurrect our economy, we'd better make the kind that foreign countries want to buy.

 

[danielpalos]

We'll see. Keep an eye on commercials, what they're pushing on the public. If they're celebrating big cars with snow-plow fronts and 15 mpg highway, then you can see the times to come. What they did to VW wasn't fair. I'd like to know more about the actual people at VW who gave the thumbs up to tweaking the computer to fool emissions. They made some of the best/most affordable small diesels we could get anyway.

If we're planning on using car manufacturing to resurrect our economy, we'd better make the kind that foreign countries want to buy.

Here is another opinion:

Whatever doesn't kill us, makes us stronger, the saying goes. Despite the dizzying costs of its emission cheating scandal, Volkswagen is beginning to regain some of its lost market share, and it's a more efficient company than before the crisis.

In another respect, however, the scandal has been counterproductive. It may have started the demise of diesel cars and spurred the expansion of electric vehicles and hybrids, but it hasn't convinced governments -- as it should have -- that a carbon tax would work better than tough emission standards for cars.--https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-12-15/the-diesel-scandal-hurt-the-environment-more-than-vw