Before [Obama] began his run for the presidency, he used to
drive around in a Chrysler 300C packing a big Hemi V8 under
its hood. He could have chosen to drive a Chevy Aveo or
Dodge Caliber, but he went for that broad-shouldered muscle
sedan instead. It's sort of ironic that he'd be the guy
denying that choice to his fellow citizens.
Obama, CAFE and the End of Performance Cars
Edmunds InsideLine
Posted by: The Mechanic May 21, 2009, 4:00 PM
Are you like me? Did you grow up dreaming of power, the open road and individual automotive freedom? Of course you did. But the dream is over. President Obama has smashed it into a million little Tata Nano-shaped pieces.
The new fuel economy and emissions regulations proposed by the Obamanation on Tuesday won't save much fuel and won't save the planet, but they will crush the life out of the car business. From here on out, cars are going to shrink in size, shrivel in power and grow more expensive.
With a goal of a corporate fleet average of 39 mpg for cars by 2016 model year it's not just V8s that are dead, but V6s and decent-size fours. Of course all the SUVs and the Camaro, Mustang and Corvette as we know them are doomed, that's obvious, but so are reasonably size minivans, midsize sedans like the Accord and Camry, and anything fun. Think Subaru will be able to keep selling the WRX? Not while it's rated at 18 in the city and 25 on the highway. Even the Honda Civic Si at 21 city and 29 highway is likely a goner.
Freedom of choice be damned. It's of no consequence to Obama and Co. that the market in America for small cars has never developed. What you drive will no longer be a matter of what you choose, but what the government thinks you should own. Want to tow a boat? Better buy a Peterbilt.
And Tuesday's announced numbers were just a start. Just wait until the EPA starts treating CO2 like a pollutant. At that point you may as well hand GM product development over to Greenpeace. The major form of transportation in this country may soon be the hiking boot. And if you breathe hard, you may have to pay an exhalation excise tax.
Let's be direct: The future promises to be filled with gruesomely boring and agonizingly tiny cars no one really wants. I'm talking about cars with small engines, two-digit power outputs and rock-hard low-rolling-resistance tires. They'll be slow, they won't handle and they'll all be ugly. Not to mention the simple fact that they'll all look pretty much like each other; think Prius and Insight.
Every morning you'll wake up, look at the 2016 Chevrolet Pelosi out in the driveway and dread the day's commute. Sure, if you're rich, you'll still be able to indulge yourself by paying some sort of massive gas-guzzler tax, but for most of us, the days of accessible, exciting cars are coming to an end. Just buy the skanky little hybrid prescribed for people at your socio-economic level and shut your mouth.
It's simply the end of automotive choice. And without choice, there is no freedom.
Maybe President Obama doesn't remember what it was like to have that choice. Before he began his run for the presidency, he used to drive around in a Chrysler 300C packing a big Hemi V8 under its hood. He could have chosen to drive a Chevy Aveo or Dodge Caliber, but he went for that broad-shouldered muscle sedan instead. It's sort of ironic that he'd be the guy denying that choice to his fellow citizens. Come on, Barack, you don't really think anyone believes you actually wanted to buy that Escape Hybrid, do you?
When, inevitably, these new twerp buckets fail to sell, it's going to get worse. With GM and Chrysler now government-supported financial basket cases, that means subsidizing these politically correct penalty boxes down to a level where even people who detest them will be tempted to buy. It's a virtual guarantee that the American auto industry will remain a ward of the United States Treasury into the foreseeable future. And that means even if you don't want to buy these turds, you'll be paying for them.
At first I thought about organizing a protest. You know, 600 performance cars thundering down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., all running open exhausts to be extra obnoxious. Then they all gather at the steps of the Capitol and do a simultaneous burnout so massive it blots out the sun and Senator Harry Reid is left picking little balls of rubber out of his teeth for weeks. But realistically, well, that ain't gonna happen.
What is going to happen is that we're all going to hang onto our old cars to the bitter end. Used car values will shoot up, hot-rodding will flourish and the entire country will start looking like a Cuban parking lot. I'm going to start hoarding cars from this last golden age of performance. Maybe I'll pack away a Camaro SS, Shelby GT500 and Corvette ZR1. Maybe your best investment for the future is a Mazdaspeed 3 tucked away in a corner of your garage up on blocks, ready to be unpacked and driven when it's impossible to get a car that much fun anymore. If you're thinking of getting an Evo, buy two.
But like me, I'll bet you'll never buy one of the coming crapmobiles. Because life's just too short to drive crap.-- The Mechanic, Inside Line Contributor
E-mail me at themechanic@edmunds.com.
[url]http://blogs.edmunds.com/straightline/2009/05/obama-cafe-and-the-end-of-performance-cars.html[/url[tag]Link to Edmunds Article[/tag] |
