Sunday, June 5, 2011

Spotting a Rabbit

Since I am pretty caught up in other things right now, including building a new house, it looks like bus trips are on hold for the time being. Before I devolve into a self-pity session over that fact I have to back up and remember that the primary reason I bought a bus to begin with was so that we would have a place to live while staying in Nova Scotia in the summers after retirement (a state that I have apparently not quite reached yet). So with no trips on the horizon and no scheduled maintenance on my plate, keeping quiet on this blog might be wise; but quiet is seldom my MO, so here we go.

I was on my way to the dump this week hauling our trash (yes, since we live in the boondocks we have to haul our own trash), and I noticed a little car in front of me that looked familiar. It appeared to be a 1970s era Volkswagen Rabbit, but it looked awfully small to me, so I was not sure of its true identity until I got closer. This particular vehicle was painted the same color as a Rabbit my son Scott once drove when he was living with me in California in the 80s, a light blue that was pretty popular at the time, so I was pretty sure of what I was seeing. As I rounded the corner to enter the dump the blue car also entered the gate and I pulled in next to it.

This model was quite popular back in the day and was about the same size as other popular small car makes and models of the 70's. So why did it look so small to me now? There could only be one reason; cars since then have gotten progressively larger and larger. I had really noticed that trend with regard to pickup trucks more than in sedans but here was the proof that the same trend had occurred in cars, because the car parked next to me was really small in comparison to more current models of about every make. By this point I was quite curious and struck up a conversation with the car's owner.

I mentioned to him that I rarely saw a 70s VW Rabbit on the road these days and he said that gasoline-powered models were indeed rare, but this one was diesel-powered and he said that quite a few of them are still around. He is a mechanic and had recently rebuilt the engine and installed a 5-speed transmission, which was not available in this particular (1977) model. He said that if he holds his speed down to 55 mph he is able to get more than 60 mpg while with the 4-speed transmission that was stock in this model the best he could manage was about 45 mpg.

These numbers boggled my mind until I remembered that yes, the mileage of compact cars and trucks back then could indeed be much better than anything we expect today.  I cannot think of any currently available vehicles with mileage numbers that approach 60 mpg. Even the Toyota Prius, which costs an arm and a leg, does not get mileage nearly that good, even with a smaller engine, a highly complex configuration, and a bunch of batteries that are not only expensive to buy but are also full of heavy metals that will ultimately have to be recycled and will have to be replaced in a few years. The tiny Toyota Yaris can get only about 36 mpg on the road and the much hyped Smart car that looks like a glorified golf cart gets barely 41 mpg. But here, parked next to me was a 40+ year old 60 mpg vehicle. The obvious question is "How did we get to this point?"

The history of CAFE standards is more than troubling. The US auto industry used the light-tuck loophole to a large extent to sell the public on huge gas-guzzling SUVs that were exempt from any standards. The industry also lobbied congress ever since CAFE standards came into being in 1975 to reduce the mileage requirements based on their story that compliance would be "too hard to meet and therefore too expensive to the consumer". As a result, the average vehicle in the US gets around 25 mpg while the average vehicle in the EU gets over 45 mpg.  Do the math yourself to decide which option is too expensive to the consumer. Also consider the fact that through the years these huge gas-guzzlers have had a lot to do with the ever increasing demand for gasoline and the resulting price increase (see supply and demand in economics 101).

So while I am a self-admitted conspiracy theorist, here I was parked next to proof that I might just this once, at least partially, be right!