The auto industry is tanking, gasoline has its limits, and I don't have the money to have fun.
I know you guys don't really care about cars that much, but I'm going to rant anyways. The Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) standards are going to rise to 35mpg across all cars and trucks by the year 2020. While this is an amazing thing for the environment, it also shows a sign of the death of exotics and sports cars. And to me, the death of a certain fun. The way the industry is now, it shows only a little promise for fun electric/hybrid cars in the future. While the effort is there, right now I just don't see it happening. Also, the styling for much of these cars (right now all concepts), look futuristic but so much so that they aren't really pleasing to the eye. Why do they have to be so over the top? I don't get it.
I haven't had much change to toy around with a really fun car (the Biz's being an exception), but I hope to have my chance with something fun before I die, or gasoline is no more (if that happens in my lifetime). I would kill for my chance to drive a 1970 Dodge Challenger or a Ferrari F430. Hopefully someday I'll be able to own one and have some fun before its basically extinct. Kids of the 60s and 70s who grew up with my some of my favorite cars can't have all the fun, that's just not fair.
I do hope I'm wrong though. 2020 is a long way away. I hope there's some genius out there making a 500hp engine that gets 40mpg.
Well, no one cares but me.
Now get off my lawn.
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I gotta say Hock, I think you're overreacting a little by saying that the rising Corporate Average is going to mean the death of sports and exotic cars. The aesthetics of these new cars are for sure going to change, but if there's one thing that I know for sure it's that there's always going to be a market for cars that are way nicer than the average. Car makers realize that the need right now is for the industry standard to change so that purchasing a car can be lucrative for the average American person, but a car company will always spend at least part of their time developing dream cars. The last time in history that an economic crisis really had an effect on the production of cars was during the great depression, and even that was not as far reaching as many expected (yeah it's a shame Auburns and Dusenbergs went away, but it hardly meant the end of the industry).
And the other thing about this? The vast majority of people's taste in vehicles has not changed just because the economy is suffering. I would imagine that you're not going to see a lot of new SUVs in the next 10 years, but at least some vehicles are likely to stay moderately similar in style and scope. Auto companies are not going to release a new line of Homermobiles and tell the American public to fuck off :)
And you thought nobody cared about this? I talk car stuff with my Mom ALL the time. Trust me, I'm more into cars than you'd probably expect. It's just I'm way poorer than you and thus never have as nice of cars. I'm still hoping some day I get super rich and can by a TVR. But I ain't holding my breath (and speaking of a company that's likely to go under because of the economic crisis. sigh...)
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