As I was saying

I Have Seen the Future of the Automobile — and It Sucks.

It's a bleak future for car lovers for whom size does matter.

May 28, 2009 - by Stephen Green

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If your idea of a car is something bigger than a penalty box, or more powerful than a moped, or maybe slightly fun to drive, then I suggest you get yourself down to your local dealer (assuming he hasn’t already folded), pronto, and buy yourself something pretty. It might just be your last chance for a good long while.

President Obama put his signature to new CAFE rules last week, requiring that by 2016, automakers must meet fleet-wide gas mileage averages of 39 mpg for cars and 30 for trucks. This is easy enough to accomplish — build smaller vehicles with smaller engines. Although I can tell you how well that’s going to go over here in Colorado, where getting trapped behind a Prius (or an Aveo or any other wind-up toy car) on a steep incline means growing a full beard before cresting the hill.

Now imagine a Ford F-150 trying to make it up to the Eisenhower Tunnel with a full load of construction equipment and a two-liter four-banger under the hood. You’ll have facial growth like one of the ZZ Top guys before it’s all over, maybe even if you’re a girl.

If you think I’m exaggerating, think again. The anonymous “Mechanic,” writing for Edmunds, worries that the new CAFE standards

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.

And if you have even any small interest in seeing what’s left of Detroit survive, now would be a good time to look on Obama’s works, ye mighty, and despair. Chrysler’s plan is to somehow, someday import FIAT’s small cars. GM has never competed well in the small-car segment, and Ford can’t even sell its well-regarded “Euro Focus” domestically at a profit.

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Stephen Green writes, broadcasts, and enjoys the occasional lovely adult beverage at the home he shares with his wife and son in Monument, Colorado.

Kliphnotes:

• As I have said in the past, if Obama was serious about reducing our dependence on foreign oil he would be drilling here in the USA. He is not serious.
• He is pandering to the Greenophobiacs.
• The average car on the road is 10 years old.
• You could start drill of oil in 4 years or less.
• The people in Alaska want to drill in ANWR, the people that live in ANWR want to drill.
• We should be drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf for Oil and off shore. And oil sands/shale.
• No new nuclear plants and no clean coal.
• All Obama is doing is kissing ass of his left wing base. The base that wants you to drive Mini Death Trap Cars. And hates anything oil, coal or nuclear.
• The US government is going to dictate what you can drive.
• And some people think that is just fine.
  
• The bobbleheads, what ever Obama says must be right. The Obamabots.
• Obama said: "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times . . . and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK." It is coming true.
  
• This is just what Obama wanted, control of the auto industry. Now he can tell them what to build.
  
• Let me be the first(maybe) to say: Obama should be president for life. Because some of you can't think for yourself, Obama will think for you.
• California is going broke, the US is going broke, and all we do is spend more money. And nobody cares.
  

"Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?... George Orwell ... 1984