Gord's Green Z28

Alan Greenspan said that a $3/gallon fuel tax phased in over several stages would solve the US gasoline problem. Not popular. But with something like that, I could see the need for CAFE standards to disappear. The market would be begging for 40 mpg vehicles.

D80

DING-DING-DING! You are CORRECT and have summed things up nicely. Inflation/devalued US currency has eroded buying power at a dizzying rate and is deteriorating further based on our increasing debt in the last year.

guionM

Actually, the global recession actually has stablized the power of the US dollar (and increased it's value) the past year. Other currencies have been falling faster than ours, therefore increasing the value of the US dollar.

December 29th last year, the US dollar was .70 Euros. June 1st this year, it was still about .70 Euros. Today the Dollar Euro rate is about where it was back at the end of 2007 (.66 to .68).

In 2001, the Dollar Euro rate was stable at about 1.10 to 1.15.

The dollar clearly took a far greater bloodbath annually during the 6-8 years prior to this year, than it's taking this year.

The dollar has been plunging into the toilet since 2001 or so, when the US surplus was wiped out by a combination of a grossly misguided tax cut (instead of using the surplus to pay off our debt and buy back those bonds...basically loans... held by other countries), the cost of waging a war that continued well past the goal of capturing Saddam Huessin, and a 2 term President who never vetoed a single spending bill.

By the way, although the silver dimes analogy is pretty close, it doesn't take into account the fact that in global economic recessions the price of precious metals (including gold and silver) tend to go up tremendously due to investors buying them up as a hedge against inflation and.... unstable or uncertain currency exchange rates.

Fbodfather

Interesting read --

a couple of things -- 35mpg is a law - and we have to hit it earlier than 2020.....

I do believe there will always be 'muscle/performance' cars - however -- I don't believe that they'll be 'free-flow' or bargain-priced. The reality is that unless technology (i.e. Volt) becomes more economically feasible, 35 is a big number to hit -- esp. when you realize that not everyones' needs can be met with a compact sedan. (.....pickup trucks.....)

Interesting times...........

AdioSS

I still wonder what kind of fuel economy numbers that proposed 320hp/520tq half-ton diesel truck would have put out. Heck, the 250hp/406tq V6 version would probably helped a bunch.

SCNGENNFTHGEN

There is no better atomized fuel than vaporized fuel. Cleaner burn, extremely high mpg is possible! But that wouldn't make those who own DC happy!!!

King Moose SS

I was looking back at this thread... gas is still around $3-$4 a gallon and we still have a sufficient amount of pony and muscle cars to buy new. However back in 2007 if someone told you we had a new player in the car market (Tesla) I don't think many would believe it. It will be interesting to see what occurs in the next 7 years to everything (gas prices, muscle cars, and electric cars).

mdenz3

It is 2014 and you can buy a 10 second car for less than $80k with a factory warranty. Good times.

guionM

Yeah, I came back nosing around here too.

Sure, back in 2007 if you told someone about Tesla, and that it'd be popular in it's price class no one would believe you......

.....but go back to just 2009 when many people here believed that the Feds propping up GM meant they'd produce nothing but electric golf carts and Chrysler would be nothing more than Real Estate facilitating the dumping of Fiat 500s. Then tell everyone here that in less than 5 years, the quickest, fastest factory production cars mankind has ever seen would be coming out of those 2 companies in less than 5 years and you'd be driven from this site.

Imagine going back 4 or 5 years and try to say that a US government financed General Motors would develop and produce the nearly 600hp ZL1 Camaro....or a Corvette that goes from 0-60 in 4 seconds. Or that not only would Chrysler actually produce great cars again, and that the Dodge Ram would end up being a Consumer Reports favorite and threaten Silverado sales volume, but that the SRT Charger and Challenger which was making something like 420hp at the time would be in a few years making more than 700.

Just as I pointed out when I started this thread, it's the public and the ability of a car maker to make a profit that drives the market (especially performance cars), not some imaginary legislation that outlaws them. In the early 70s you couldn't give performance cars away, so they went extinct....before the energy crisis (started at the end of 1973), or emissions regulations (kicked in 1974 and jumped again in 1980), or fuel economy standards (CAFE's first year was 1978).

Nowadays, there's a whole set of new regulations involving CO2, fuel economy, and the like. Yet even in the face of this, there is still a strong market for stupidly powerful rides. What we have are GT500, ZL1s, and Hellcats. Camaros and Mustangs didn't die, and infact have been redone. Dodge Challenger will have a new generation year after next. And as long as car makers can make money in the process (even if they have to restrict sales and jack prices higher) we will see these cars as long as people are willing to spend money buying them.

SCNGENNFTHGEN

For the life of me I can't figure out why we're still burning raw fuel in our cars instead of fuel vapors...?! It can be done, and can save us a ton on gas.

SCNGENNFTHGEN

CAFE, along with the EPA, needs to go the way of the dinosaur. Nothing but an attempt to hurt the big 3, and help foreign brands which has been quite effective. ALL of it needs to GO. We NEED those tariffs on foreign garbage as I have said forever.

King Moose SS

Looking back now that it's been a while since my last post. The decade of cheap gas looks like it has been broken. Gas has nationally surpassed $5 a gallon in the states.

That has not changed the make up of performance car choices we have... Mopar has 700hp+ coupes, sedans, and trucks. Ford has 700hp+ GT500 and Raptors and has brought back the Ford GT. GM has a mid-engined Corvette with soon to be whatever power-train you want (and can't even keep them in supply). There's even a 1000hp Hummer and despite it being a EV... it certainly isn't "eco friendly" at 10,000lbs.

Speaking of EVs... they are everywhere and they are quick.

Will be interesting to see what this spike in gas prices will do. If it prolongs... is this the end of another era in muscle cars? Or will this trend continue on until every brand has 1000hp muscle cars... I don't know. But will happily watch from the sidelines.