I’m not going to debate the elasticity of gas demand.

For cars the size of a Honda Fit.

They do. But the cafe requirements are pretty low and footprint dependent.

The point of a gas tax isn’t to give money to oil companies, it’s to discourage the consumption of gasoline. If the revenue from the tax went to pay for infrastructure, there would be a larger multiplier effect in the macro economy than sending the money to oil companies which could help alleviate economic concerns.

We’ll see. A lot of people buy the Tundra for the reliability. And the last gen Nissan was as low quality as the Ram.

Maybe the V6 has better milage when not on the boost (although a DOHC V6 can have more friction than a pushrod V8) but when they’re making big horsepower and the V6 is boosting, its specific fuel consumption will be higher. Gas engines with positive manifold pressure have to run rich to keep combustion/exhaust…

The stock V6s of today give 10 year old stock V8s a run for their money and trounce the V8s of 20 years ago. Remember, the first Mustang with the 4.6 made ~220 hp.

To your point about speculation - we’re obviously in the ‘bigger fool’ part of a bubble.

The ‘soft’ environment probably slows the speed of evolution considerably.

They cost about as much the aforementioned trucks. However, the average household income of a 5 series owner is somewhere between 150k-200k/yr .

I can understand leaving the car in neutral or gear, but why don’t you set the ebrake by habit?

I’m amazed they have repeat customers. If you hang onto a Ram / Jeep you’re way more likly to have problems than if you bought a comparable vehicle from nearly anyone else. But if you sell them before they start getting problems, you take a massive depreciation hit.

It’s really amazing how more more expensive vehicles depreciate faster. A loaded GMC Sierra might cost 2x-3x as much as a 4x4, V6 Chevy Colorado when new. But after 5-7 years, I’d be floored if a loaded GMC Sierra cost more than 7k more than a V6 4x4 Colorado.

Eh. Oil will stay cheap. But America has very little reserve refining capacity. All it takes is some ‘unexpected maintenance’ at a refining plant and gas goes up 75 cents/gallon in a night.

Years ago when I was a cashier, I saw a customer pull up in a honda element and park his car by slamming it into park while he was still moving. The car made a terrible lurching sound and he got out and came inside. After a moment, the car began to roll backward and out into the road, nearly hitting another car.

You nailed it. I used to be really down on crusier then I got a chance to ride a few. And now I own one myself. I just had to find the right one - a metric crusier with an inline 4.

And got effectively the same MPGs as a Highlander and was way slower accelerating than a comporable camry.

Then why do so many short women drive large SUVs like body on frame luxury SUVs?

That vaguely sounds like relationship advice from a video game message board.

Those tax credits are available to people who buy an electric car from any manufacturer. It’s hardly a bail out specifically for Telsa.