GM, oil, and SUVs -- chickens coming home to roost

http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/001577.html

Why are GM sales tanking, sending the Dow into a tailspin today? It's because they're selling too many cars. Huh? The key word is "cars," and not SUVs and pickup trucks. They make 80 percent of their profits on gas guzzlers. And oil is at $56 a barrel today. Coincidence? I think not.

that they would lower estimates. BMW is holding, not raising or lowering. The trade deficit is sending the markets down too, and the dollar. If the dollar isn't stopped OPEC might just go for the a basket of currencies which could put the dollar in crisis. Rates would have to raised to keep it stable. In other words full blown inflation.

even remotely stable, and that's due to a lot of convenient holes in which to fill the dirt.

How many holes are left, before we see the piles building up?

SUV sales have been a tad softer the last year or so. People are slowly starting to wake up.

Really, for 99% of the people buying them, they are an absurd mode of transportation.

Theres some who can make valid use of one. Will they be buying a pimped out land ark like and Escalade? Probably not.

If there's some mud and dirt on it, it the owner might have a practical reason. If its showroom clean, with ArmorAll'd tires they probably don't. ;->

I drive a 1997 Jeep Cherokee Sport, with a six cylinder engine and 4-wheel drive, because I actually do need a rugged vehicle in remote country (including Baja WAY off of Hwy 1). It's a great vehicle, I've driven it all over the west, never had any problems, and I've lived out of it for weeks at a time. It's still going strong with 140K miles-- my neighbor has one with 270K miles on it that's still going. It suits my needs better than a small truck because I don't haul bulk cargo so much as camping and field research gear. I don't commute with it if I don't have to-- most of the time I can bicycle or use public transportation.

But when I park that Jeep beside virtually ANY SUV made today it's dwarfed. They've become heavy monsters that would likely self destruct after a single day on Baja backroads. But what's the point of driving something like that on urban and suburban streets and highways? It makes no sense at all. They're not much good for real backcountry access and they're overkill on the road.

The Lord said, "Vengeance is mine." These companies all seem to have gotten enough rope to hang themselves, though, without help from the Lord or anyone.

purpose and to placate the California Air Resource Board -- with no intention of really marketing the car.

And, after a law suit in the mid - 1990's GM has had the right to clone Toyota hybrid technology in the US (at the Fremont CA GM-Toyota NUMMI Plant). Have you seen any American made Priuses with a Chevie "bowtie" ? Neither have I.

With crude over $56/bbl, and people beginning to realize that something akin to "Peak Oil" is not "End of the World Rapture" talk - but real geology, and GM's total and complete failure to address the technology and manufacturing issues that "Peak Oil" raises -- GM stock is tanking and GM's sales are dropping.

I feel sorry for the workers, and for the good people of Michigan -- but not for Waggoner of Lutz (of Harley Earle Buick ad fame).

Actually, Lutz's "Harley Earle" ads were a signal of major problems for GM.

It's not the end of the world.

It's the end of million of lives. Ultimately billions unless another way can be found to quickly sow and reap the lands to be vacated of gas-using combines and other farm equipment.

we will muddle through and survive without massive loss of life or an apocalyptic war.

My Car Gets 50 MPG
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Anyway, here are some comparisons for you:

Hummer- 11 MPG
Mercedes G55: 12MPG
Land Rover: 12 MPG
GMC Yukon: 13 MPG
Cadillac Escalade: 13 MPG
Lincoln Navigator: 13 MPG

Source:
http://www.fueleconomy.gov