So I get home tonight and there’s a letter in the mail from my credit card company… (link). Good news, the folks I ordered the intake for my old car from, and who refused to take my return, now have 45 days to credit my account or my credit card company will credit me for them. Yay!
Passed the 1 month mark with my VW, I am still completely pleased with the car. I’ve only had one problem with it (rear wiper nozzle was clogged) but I fixed that myself. Gas mileage has averaged at 28mpg with a low of 27 and a high of 30. I’m thoroughly amazed by the fit and finish of this car. I’m sorry, but I’ve driven Dodge since I first got my license, cars which ranged from $15K to $30K brand new, which didn’t even come close. It’s hard to explain silence, but that’s exactly what my car is whether I’m doing 30, 60, or 90+mph. Only the most high-pitched noises get in. No rattles, no buzzing, just the motor when I’m on it and the whoosh of the turbo as it spools up. The handling is second to none; I thought my Neon had Go-Kart handling until I drove the GTI. The handling is un-matched, and the power is more than enough to satisfy my need for speed. I should have bought one years ago.
Funny side note, apparently while driving my old car to the transfer lot, the head-gasket blew. That’s at least $1600 to repair… And sure, while the cost of repairing the old ride surely wouldn’t approach the amount I still owe on my VW… The fact I have no stress due to, and haven’t missed any work because of my ride have been worth the investment. What’s the point of spending money on something that doesn’t satisfy? Who knows, maybe this month I’ll pay off the credit card which still has a balance due to repairing the old ride…
How about those gas prices! Couple of quick notes:
#1 Releasing oil from our strategic reserves won’t solve a gasoline refinement and distribution problem.
#2 Bush is an idiot for satiating the idiot Libs like Chuck Schumer by releasing oil that won’t solve the problem.
#3 Environmentalists should be shot with recycled bullets for being the key reason that there haven’t been any new refineries built in the USA in the past 15+ years.
#4 Repeat #3 with emphasis on the Environmentalist morons who won’t let us drill for oil in ANWR. Dependence on foreign oil is a significant problem that won’t be solved by talk about alternative energy sources. They’re up and coming, but hindering progress by attempting to force the free-market is fucking moronic. My car runs on gas. Your car runs on gas. Maybe in 10 years they won’t, but as long as we all still drive cars which run on gas, we’ll fucking need it. Got a problem? Refer to #3. I’ll be glad to provide recycled bullets if you’ll shoot yourselves with them.
The environmentalist answer on #3/4 is that a responsible energy policy would raise minimum mileage thresholds on new auto production, which would by definition reduce demand on fossil fuels.
Releasing oil from the strategic reserves *will* solve the immediate issue (or at least keep it from being nearly as bad as it could be). The biggest issue in the south right now is that NOLA is an inbound port for raw crude. There’s plenty of refinery capability in other parts of the country (Texas comes to mind, as does NJ) if they had crude to work with. Freeing up reserve oil eliminates a good chunk of the problem. Prices will still rise, but not nearly so much as they would had it not been released.
You’re right, though, that we should definitely tap ANWR, but I would tie that tapping to the increased mileage requirements. Essentially the tradeoff is “OK, you can continue to have cheap oil, BUT ONLY IF you commit to reducing your demand for it in a process of phasing that demand out entirely”.
What happens after the 60-day supply from our strategic reserves runs out? There’s no answer to that question, and therein lies the problem. We’re short by 30 million gallons of gasoline here, that oil does nothing for gas prices until refined and even then, our nation lacks the necessary refinery capacity to do anything for fuel prices, even in New Jersey. Prices will go back down when the refineries are back on-line, but a key weakness of our energy policy has been highlighted. Sadly though, it isn’t a weakness of our policy more than it is a weakness of our Government officials to put the Nation’s need above the bleeding hearts of the environmentalist movement which continually hinders any attempt to effect real positive change that doesn’t fit in their narrow viewpoint.
We bought ANWR to tap it, uneducated morons who equate Tundra to Central Park are the reason we haven’t yet. Government mandated mileage requirements are fine and dandy, but just like any other time the Government has tried to force the free-market, it will fail and cause more trouble than it is worth.
Right now the free-market system is doing more to shift the industry towards higher mpg vehicles than any new law could. People are trading in their SUV’s for Saturns, SUV sales are down across the board, when the automakers see their profits decline, they will act… They’ll have to in order to stay in business.
Pie in the sky and knee-jerk solutions sound great, and might just garner a few votes, but what this nation needs to address the energy problem is more domestic oil, more domestic refineries – essentially more gasoline.
Oh….hooey fooey.
This is ruining my parental unit’s argument that we’re over in Iraq so we can rule this market. I think that’s kind of funny. In a twisted way.
They should just….go knock down some malls on Staten Island, build a refinery, and do something with the big ol’ landfill besides letting it stink up the place. Yay!
Yup, that’s my mostly uninformed two cents there. But no one elses cents are making any either.