Long Time

It has been a long time since I've posted here, and a lot has happened in our world since then.

The biggest event, and probably most important: In November, we witnessed our nation vote in their first black president, Barack Obama. He took office January 20th.

Now, I can't remember who I voted for, but at the time I felt that Obama was actually the breath of fresh air that this country needed. If only I could have seen what was coming in the future.

In my last post, I said that the gas prices and patterns we were exhibiting were going to drive us into a recession. Well, here we are, smack dab in the middle. (Notice I didn't say the bottom...) Gas prices have plummeted since then, but seem to be creeping their way back up. I saw 2.49 in New York today. Pitiful.

Now, all that aside, Obama has recently proposed new legislation over the previous CAFE standards set in 2007 that car companies must average 35.5mpg over their fleet by the year 2016. The previous standard of 27.5mpg by 2020 wasn't good enough, I guess.

35.5 is not a typo.

Now, lets put this into some type of monetary perspective. Car companies have been, the past few years, scrambling to develop new highly efficient engines. Chrysler, for example, has just released the "Pentastar" V6 engine. They spent hundreds of millions of dollars in research, engineering, and development of the engine alone. They spent 2 Billion dollars on new plants to build this engine and components of this engine.

Was it all in vain?

This engine was built with the current CAFE standards in mind, in which fleet average would have to bump to 27.5mpg by 2020. Respectable goal, very attainable. The Pentastar engine will make it's debut in the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee, and soon afterwards in the 2011 Chrysler 300.

We are very close to seeing the 2010 model year cars come out. In fact, 2010 Mustangs, Fusions, and a few others are already starting to come into dealerships. Realistically, car companies have 6 years to get their shit in check. 6 years to research, engineer, develop, troubleshoot, and produce a completely new engine design that will help meet this new excessive standard. And pay for it.

What was Obama thinking? Doesn't he know that he owns Chrysler and GM now?? We've given these companies billions of dollars and they were actually doing things correctly, and now they have to spend MORE money to reach these new standards. And WHY are they expected to be able to do this? Do you not know what this does to them financially??

Now, what does this mean for the general public?

One of the major impacts this could have is that car companies will have to seriously revamp their fleet to meet these standards. I know that was repetitive, but let me explain. For each vehicle that gets 20mpg average, they have to have a certain number of cars that make up for that lower average to meet the 35.5 standard.

This translates into more cars into production and less trucks and SUV's. Even though a major portion of most American auto company's sales are Trucks and SUV's, they will be reduced dramatically. Model lines will be dropped. Lines that have been around for years will be obsolete. Trucks will get smaller in both stature and engine size. Their towing and payload capacities will be dramatically reduced. And finally, their price will skyrocket. That $30,000 SUV you bought today could potentially be $50-70,000 once that happens. Boy that $9,000 car looks mighty good.

I heard a rumor that there will be a discount on a Truck/SUV purchase in the future. To meet the standards for the discount, you must own a business where it is deemed necessary to own one.

Land of the Free my ass.

I honestly feel like our government is trying their best to keep us in this recession. They spend and give away money effortlessly, they make new policies that restrict certain aspects of our lives, and they create a few more government jobs and give their employees comfy pensions.

Our tax dollars hard at work... or is it hardly working?

Newsflash, Barack: In a couple years, you'll need to hang another post on your key hook to make space for Ford's keys. You'll own them too.