Good Job Phoenix

Part, well, most of the reason I don't like living in Phoenix is how much pollution there is here. Phoenix sits in a huge valley that fills with pollution from all the cars driving around here. Sure, part of the problem is all the dust from the desert.

I applaud Phoenix for planting all those new trees with the new road construction. I personally feel that every highway should have a large median filled with trees. It would be an attempt to immediately alleviate greenhouse gasses. So good job there.

But seriously Phoenix, what on earth were you thinking when you decided to put the new light rail system on street level, and on busy streets. Why did you spend so much money on a system that is certainly not better than busses. Because these rail cars run on major streets they have to stop for traffic lights, for stupid cars that will always be there, for pedestrians.

If you want a light rail system to work, and for people who own cars to ride it, you can't put it on street level. It is extremely inefficient. If money was an issue, why not just build specific bus lanes and have electric busses like in San Francisco and Seattle?

Seattle was even brilliant enough to build a sort of underground bus subway system. Like a subway, but with busses. This means that the drop off next to the platforms are very short, and it's much easier to repair their busses since they are nearly identical to the street level busses. It's also an excellent and efficient way to get across Seattle. Oh, and it's free.

Imagine how many more people would take public transportation if it is free.

Built Ford Tough

It bothers me every time I see one person, or even just two people riding in a Ford Excursion, Ford's largest and most extreme SUV.  It's way too extreme, such an enormous vehicle for just one person.  I don't like it.   I also don't want for to kill off the Excursion because of it's massive gas guzzling persona.  There is a market for huge SUV's.  There are people whose perfect vehicle is the Excursion for what they do.  But just because you want a large vehicle? No.  

(Don't think of larger vehicles as being safer.  Bigger cars are more dangerous.)

So Ford should make the Excursion more expensive.

Make it cost way more money.   But with that extra cost, be sure the Excursion is extremely durable, able to take huge amounts of abuse, with a bullet proof drive train and immense towing capacity.  Sell them with unparalleled customer support.

Make it amazing, but at a price.

Gas Mileage

I usually drive a 2000 Toyota Corolla with a manual transmission.  With lots of effort it can achieve 40 miles per gallon.  With very little effort it will get around 33mpg.    That is a car designed ten years ago, so why is it that car companies are bragging about the great highway gas mileage their cars can achieve at only 33mpg?  It's 2009!   Six months ago when gas prices were enormous everyone seemed to be crying for better gas mileage, and it seemed like car manufacturers just stared calling their current gas mileage better.  Did it change? No.  They just used their marketing teams to make you think that 25mpg, which was horrible before, is now amazing.  

Yes, cars are getting safer, heavier, larger, and have more powerful engines.  But why do I need a more powerful engine?

In Arizona the open highway speed limit is usually 75 mph, in other parts of the country it is as high as 85.  So why would I want a car that can go 140 mph?  Where am I going to go that fast?

Why are there an extremely few amount of cars with engines under 2 liters?

Now with gas prices lower than last summer (but still quite high), people are not as concerned  with gas mileage.  But instead of thinking about miles per gallon, why not think about the fuel range of your car?

If you double the gas mileage of your car, you would double the range, meaning you would fill up less often, could take longer road trips without needed to find a gas station, or pay inflated fuel prices at gas stations in the middle of no where.

auto bailout?

How will an auto bailout help?

How will giving a failing business a loan help?

The american auto business has not been doing well, they have not been making exciting cars.  The big three are no longer the three largest auto makers in the United States.  

Toyota and Honda are Japanese owned, but they employ a huge amount of Americans.  

Is the real reason for giving the American auto industry bailout money because they employ such a large amount of American Union Workers.   

What plans will they have to make a profit in the future?  In a future that right now isn't looking so good for the auto industry.  For really any auto industry.  Maybe Ford will switch to making bicycles, and GM will start manufacturing solar panels.

Also, Mercury is a useless car brand.   Plymouth was  a useless car brand that is doing just now under the brands Dodge and Chrysler.    Is there any Mercury car that would not sell as well as a Ford?   Mercury is supposed to be a slightly nicer version than a Ford, but really, they aren't fooling me.  It's a Ford that is slightly uglier and has a different name.

So could Ford save money by eliminating Mercury?   

GM owns:

Chevrolet

Buick

Pontiac

GMC

Saturn

Hummer

Saab 

and Cadillac

I never understood the point of Buicks.    They are large and ugly, and look extremely heavy.

Saturn started out all nice and good as a new car company, but now they are all European models with American names.

GMC is a utility brand.   Which basically means that they are Chevy vehicles, but are more likely to be bought as company cars because the name GMC evokes more of an idea of an Utilitarian vehicle, and Chevrolet is a more masculine brand.

A huge fan of the original Hummer, now known as the H1, I am upset with the H2 and H3.  Why did they need to make a good car worse.

An H2, for those of you who haven't noticed, is a Chevy Tahoe with more Angular body panels, they share nearly everything that you cannot see like the chassis, gearbox, engine, and so on.  So why would you pay more money for something just as good?   I could cover a little MG with Ferrari body panels, it wouldn't make the car any faster, better, or more expensive.

Recently Garage 419 pointed out that there have been very few new vehicles from American Auto makers.   There have been new models.  But they are not anything new.   What happened to the future vehicles?  To the fresh ideas?   The retro ideas are old.   wanna go super retro?  Bring back the model T.  Bring back the crank start.  Bring back bench seats in sedans.   

Okay, it would be nice to have full size spare tires back, seriously.

Oh, and two spark plugs in each cylinder would greatly improve gas mileage.  What happened to all those cars from the 70s that got over 50mpg?  Why did we get rid of those?