Recent Comments:
Ford to retool U.S. plant for European vehicles {Autoblog}
Jul 21st 2008 3:59PM In the late 80's early 90's Toyota leased the GM's Freemont CA assembly plant, UAW members included to assemble Corolas. These Corolas were sold side-by-side with Japanese manufactured cars, guess what there was no difference in quality. Management is the reason one car company has better quality than another not the workers.
Ford to retool U.S. plant for European vehicles {Autoblog}
Jul 21st 2008 3:59PM In the late 80's early 90's Toyota leased the GM's Freemont CA assembly plant, UAW members included to assemble Corolas. These Corolas were sold side-by-side with Japanese manufactured cars, guess what there was no difference in quality. Management is the reason one car company has better quality than another not the workers.
VW up! could be switched to FWD {Autoblog}
Jul 18th 2008 1:22PM Aren't these guys owned by Porsche now?
Ford considering four-cylinder EcoBoost for F150 {Autoblog}
Jul 14th 2008 9:22AM From a barrel of oil you can get x number of gallons of gasoline and y number of gallons of diesel/heating oil (they are pretty much the same thing) and so many gallons of other petrochemicals.
In the US most of diesel has been sold as heating oil, which is historically why diesel got more expensive in the winter but dropped in price during the summer. In recent years there has been an increase in the demand for diesel and heating oil, but supply has not increased. Additionally a recent factor is the requirement for low sulfur diesel, which is more expensive to produce.
The reason supply hasn't increased is that the oil companies have not invested in new refineries and have focused primarily on making existing ones more efficient, but we are at a point of diminishing returns on efficiency. The reasons the oil companies haven't built new refineries is in part political, NIMBYism and the fact that refining is the least profitable sector of the oil business.
The lack of investment in refining raises gas prices also, but some what less as we import refined gasoline from Europe who are producing an excess of gasoline as a by-product of the production of diesel.
Ford considering four-cylinder EcoBoost for F150 {Autoblog}
Jul 14th 2008 9:06AM In 1980, I bought my first pick-up, a used Dodge w/a 318 ci V8, I must have looked at 50 trucks before buying the Dodge and fully half of them had six cylinders, including several 3/4 ton models. If you drove a pick up you didn't expect it to be as fast as a Mustang nor cruise at 80 MPH when towing a 6000# trailer. I expect we're returning to an earlier mindset.
Alfa Romeo wants 2nd-gen 8C based on Ferrari California by 2010 {Autoblog}
Jul 1st 2008 2:06PM Badge engineering at six figure pricing!!!
A-Class Mercedes: Goodbye fuel cell, hello Tesla battery? {Autoblog Green}
Jun 30th 2008 1:38PM "Because of its "sandwich" construction..." It has been widely reported that the next A-Class do in 2010 will abandon the sandwich construction due to manufacturing cost and to more readily share components with other vehicles.
When the A was initially released on of the benefits touted for the sandwich construction was that it was easily adaptable for different power systems with electric being the most frequently mentioned.
Thousands take part in world-wide nude bicycle ride {Autoblog Green}
Jun 9th 2008 9:00AM I bet not one motorist said that they never saw the bicyclist.
Chevy getting new small, turbocharged car next year {Autoblog}
Jun 2nd 2008 10:05PM "just an Astra for Chevy", you may have hit the nail on the head. The Astra is scheduled to receive the 1.4 in 2009.
Badge engineering LIVES.
Former Saudi Aramco executive says oil reserves claims wrong {Autoblog Green}
Jun 1st 2008 9:02AM Often the concept of 'peak oil' and the current price per barrel get conflated in an illogical manner. It is possible and quite likely that an oil price bubble exists and will burst. What would cause the fall in the short term, the 6-18 month price of oil, would be moderation of demand and increased production, essentially pumping whatever oil we do have faster.
This can occur even if we are past 'peak oil'. Of course this is not sustainable and eventually the predictions of $200+ for a barrel of oil will come true. And remember as the price rises, known reserves that in the past were abandoned or not exploited due to the cost of extraction, might now be profitable to bring online adding to supply.
Additionally there maybe undiscovered reserves in locations that have been deemed to expensive to explore and extract that high price makes cost effective.
Historically 'peak oil' shown on a graph may appear to be a plateau rather than a jagged line or even a bell curve.
A key question for advocates of the current price of oil is a bubble is, when the bubble breaks, what will be the price of oil? The answer will probably be significantly higher than what the price of oil was when the current upsurge in cost began.
