Aaron Naparstek

» Thursday, March 30, 2006

Detroit's Steroid Cars

Today the New York Times' Matthew Wald asks the question that I ponder every time a late model muscle car rips through my neighborhood at 50 mph just to get to the next red light a little bit faster:

Why have US automakers spent the last twenty years pouring their R&D resources and brainpower into improving performance, acceleration, and exterior design when they could have been working on fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions reductions? From the Times:

For two decades automakers have been developing technology that could make vehicles go farther on a gallon of gasoline. But instead, they have chosen pep and size — making vehicles like the new Murano accelerate faster than cars like the old Mustang, and making them bigger.
Because Americans have not insisted on better fuel economy, "we can take the technology in the cars and turn the knob toward performance," said Karl H. Hellman, an automotive development expert who retired from the E.P.A. two years ago. Improving mileage now would be easy if drivers sacrificed some zip in new cars, he said, "but in this country, we don't sacrifice for anything."

Do the American people demand muscle? Or do the automakers billion dollar marketing budgets make the American people think they want muscle?

10:21 AM | Link |

Comments

Americans have been accustomed to cheap gasoline for many decades now. I used to drive a car back when I was in high school in the suburbs in the early 1990s. Fast acceleration is fun. It gives a kind of euphoria to the driver (if not the passengers, and certainly not to anyone outside the car).

A teenaged buddy introduced me to driving with these sage words: "There's a speed limit, but no law against acceleration." So he always accelerated as much as possible up to the speed limit. The more power you have in your car, the more fun it is to drive. That fun, like suburbia itself, was a luxury enabled by cheap gasoline.

Posted by

AD @ 3/30/2006 6:20 PM | Link

The answer is: What is cheap gas?

See this, though: http://downshift.blogspot.com/2005/07/relax-according-to-new-york-times.html

Your semi-anonymous friend Sean.

Posted by

Anonymous @ 3/31/2006 12:41 PM | Link

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