All right! The Energy Party’s moment has arrived! Roger Ebert, via Twitter, just brought this wonderful news to my attention:
G.M. to Close Hummer After Sale Collapses
By NICK BUNKLEYPublished: February 24, 2010DETROIT — Hummer, the brand of big sport-utility vehicles that became synonymous with the term “gas guzzler,” is being shut down after a deal to sell it to a Chinese manufacturer fell apart, General Motors said Wednesday….
First, Maurice lowers the Confederate flag because he can’t afford it any more, and now Detroit drops the Hummer! Maybe market forces work in favor of the best of all possible worlds after all…
Now, we won’t have to enact the more draconian measures of the Energy Party platform, such as:
* Either ban SUVs for everyone who can’t demonstrate a life-ordeath need to drive one, or tax them at 100 percent of the sales price and throw that into the win-the-war kitty.
* If we don’t ban SUVs outright, aside from taxing them, launch a huge propaganda campaign along the lines of “Loose Lips Sink Ships.” Say, “Hummers are Osama’s Panzer Corps.” (OK, hot shot, come to my blog and post your own slogan.) Make wasting fuel the next smoking or DUI — absolutely socially unacceptable.
My UnParty would have been even harsher:
Since we are at war and they are helping the enemy, build internment camps for Hummer drivers. (OK, scratch that; just make the Humvee like automatic weapons — banned for all but military use. In fact, what was wrong with the Jeep?)
Doug and my other libertarian friends will say this proves how we don’t need gummint to get good stuff done, that the market will take care of all. Let ’em say it. There’s glory enough in this moment for all of us.
Seriously, folks, this is wonderful news. The world just got a little bit more rational, and how often does that happen?
Explain, if you will, *your* choice of vehicle? There are plenty that get a whole lot better gas mileage and might even hold some of that over-sized family you got.
–Smug Prius Owner
Good news for Al Gore and his 10,000 sq.ft. house. Not to mention his smaller TX house which is only 4,000 sq.ft.
Not that it’ll make a difference to my 11 mpg daily driver (Prius squisher). I could drive my 18 mpg vehicle or 26 mpg vehicle… but they aren’t as much fun. No, none of my vehicles are Hummers.
… and how did y’all like my cool, hand-made graphics?
Kathryn, somebody in a family as large as ours needs a truck. I’m that someone. Seldom does a weekend pass in which it is not called into duty to move somebody, pick up some furniture that was being refurbished, take something to the recycling center, or pick up building materials (my daughter and son-in-law have been doing a major remodeling of their house in bits and pieces for a couple of years now).
Every one of those things would require the use of somebody’s truck. I’m that somebody.
I’m also, because I bought a four-cylinder standard shift TO MAXIMIZE MY MILEAGE, the only person who can drive it. So I can’t just hand the keys to someone, I have to make those runs myself. Not that I’m complaining, mind you…
Oh, and one other thing: I can’t afford a Prius. I’ve never in my life been able to afford a car that expensive. If I just had money to burn, I’d buy one (or some other hybrid, or, as long as I’m fantasizing, a full-electric vehicle), and park the truck until it’s needed. But things being as they are, it’s my full-time transportation. Why? Because I don’t flippin’ live in New York or Washington or Atlanta or anywhere else where I could get around on the subway, which is what I long for.
Get a YikeBike!
A baseline Prius only costs a bit over $20K new. We don’t save all that much on gas b/c we live right in town and don’t drive much–and ironically do lost of our long distance driving in our old Jetta–a/k/a the Dogmobile.Gotta take the beastie girls along!
But the Prius is so quiet and smoove. I love it. My previous car was a BMW Z3 convertible, manual transmission. Not a very peaceful car, but locally grown….
—and Consumer Reports April issue has a list of reliable used vehicles that don’t cost much and get great mileage.
Props for getting a stick–the one thing I wanted but I couldn’t get on my Prius…but shouldn’t everyone know how to drive a manual transmission? You are derelict in your parenting, son!
In SC it’s less expensive in the long run to drive a 10 mpg vehicle that’s paid for and 6-7 years old than a new, 30 mpg vehicle that is financed. I don’t have car payments, I pay less in property tax, and I pay less in insurance… I do buy more gas, but it’s not a 1:1 trade off.
I work with people who drive hybrids, and when you run the numbers it’ll take them 10 years to break even in gas savings with the same model in the non-hybrid version. By then they’ll be on their 2nd or 3rd set of batteries as well. Hybrids are nothing more than feel good vehicles.
Brad, since you don’t have a full time job and your kids are all grown couldn’t you move to NY or DC? Just asking.
Walter it’s not all about the money.
Bud you expect him to move away from grandchildren? Insanity!
Thanks, Maude. Precisely!
Walter, I already said we don’t even drive that much. It gets close to 50 mpg, btw. The battery is warranted for ten years, so even if it goes, which the newer models (everything after the first model) don’t have any issues with, btw, it’s under warranty.
I’d sure rather be idling behind a Prius, too–oh wait–I don’t idle–the car nicely shuts itself off while waiting for interminable train crossings….