MrFedEx
Engorged Member
The Volt is an excellent car, and sales are up. Electric and hybrid cars are the future, so why skewer Chevrolet for being forward-thinking?
Time For Teamsters
- Thread starter MAKAVELI
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The Volt is an excellent car, and sales are up. Electric and hybrid cars are the future, so why skewer Chevrolet for being forward-thinking?
Sales are up due to Defense Dept sales and giveaway leases. $250 down and $199 a month for two years? GM has acknowledged they lose about $49k on each Volt sold. True figures are about 925 a month truly sold. It may be a heck of a good car but it costs a lot more than a Prius. And Ford's C-Max hybrid will further dampen sales. I'm all for hybrids and saving money. If I ever buy another car it'll be a hybrid. But it's got to be affordable to buy or it becomes a niche vehicle.
National average for gas when Bush left office was $1.78 gallon I think. Blame him for a lot of things, but you'd think a bad economy and millions out of work would keep prices low. Not if you restrict drilling on Federal lands and in the Gulf while the Middle East blows up.
Again. You can't take that average price per gallon in abstract. You could probably have $1.78/gal again if you are willing to take dow at 7000 and an economy losing 800000 jobs a month. We are considerably better off now.
So did you google Ford's fleet sales to compare? I know in years past, that was how thee Taurus remained a sales leader.
Sure you can. The price under Bush was lower inspite of a very strong economy for several years. It's not a weak economy that's keeping prices up. It's gov't intervention coupled with Mideast uncertainty. Bush would have never denied the Keystone pipeline for example. Romney is right to want to achieve energy independence. FedEx would have to do better by it's employees because not only would it's profits be higher with cheaper fuel but it would have to start competing for employees again in a better economy driven by lower fuel costs.
Just did, overall sales are down, including fleet. Should go back to another point made that govt's around the country are buying GM cars. I'm talking strictly Federal gov't fleet sales. Not local sheriff offices or police or county ag bureaus. If the Fed's bumped up purchases in an election year it's to keep voters in Michigan and Ohio happy with work at their car plants. And to be able to point to how the gov't "saved" GM.
That "if" is a stretch. Fleet vehicles are generally bought with price being the big factor. If GM is selling at a cost lower than Ford and Chrysler, then it is a corporate pricing strategy at work. What would be indicative is sales to other fleets like Avis or other rental companies. Are they also purchasing more GM vehicles? I would guess they are based on pricing and not a shady attempt to re-elect the president.
It is not intervention. It is global demand, plain and simple.
Europe is in free fall, China is starting to struggle...how does that justify high gas prices? Europe has high prices due to very high gas taxes. We on the other hand have a Federal gov't throwing up roadblocks. If you watched the debate you saw Romney rightly reply to Obama's saying we have more drilling now than ever by pointing out it was no thanks to Obama. All of it is on private land. Vast amounts of public land aren't being allowed to be explored for oil, let alone drill on it. The fact is Obama has only worked on healthcare in his first 4 years, not on what it takes to turn this economy around.
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
We are a net exporter of oil. Drill, baby, drill is not the answer. Eliminating subsidies to Big Oil is. Let the free market dictate the price.
Gas prices could come down if domestic supplies were sold here. Know why they don't? Because it is more profitable to export. That has nothing to do with government regulation. That's just profit driven. As long as Americans will pay $4/gal, that's what they will charge.
Those subsidies are actually tax breaks. And most of those are for small wildcat firms to explore for oil. You do know that for every gallon of gas sold more goes to the gov't in taxes than to the oil companies in profit? Drill baby drill is the answer. Flood the market and watch prices drop.
You can flood the market and companies will sell to the highest market, domestic or foreign.
It's more profitable to export the oil than it is to pay high gov't taxes as well as high refining costs in the U.S.. Environmentalists have used the courts to block new refineries for decades resulting in a bottleneck. If the extremists would get out of the way we'd have much cheaper fuel. Let's start with the extremist in the White House Nov. 6th!
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
Consumption is down. Flooding the market will do little to lower the prices here but will lower them overseas. As bbsam said, as long as Americans are willing to pay $4-5/gallon, the oil companies would be foolish to increase production.
I can drive about 400 city/500 highway miles on one tank of fuel in my Altima. If I drive just locally I fuel up about once a month which costs me about $70 for gas and a carwash. Would I prefer lower gas prices? Of course but truthfully I don't worry that much about them as I don't do a whole lot of personal driving.
I can drive about 400 city/500 highway miles on one tank of fuel in my Altima. If I drive just locally I fuel up about once a month which costs me about $70 for gas and a carwash. Would I prefer lower gas prices? Of course but truthfully I don't worry that much about them as I don't do a whole lot of personal driving.
You really have no concept of global markets, do you?
Americans don't have a choice but to pay high gas costs between gov't taxes and regulation. And plenty of domestic supply gets sold here too. Americans will gladly pay $2 a gallon and the extra money in their pockets will only help the economy.
I've spent years following the futures markets. It's the real world, not liberal spin. I've had arguments with you and others here about European socialism where you thought all is well while they were going into the tank trying to afford their massive social programs. Give me a break!
menotyou
bella amicizia
I think we deserve $2 a gal gas for protecting the world.
