How high do you think prices will go before the overwhealming majority of people change their lifestyle, espescially in the US? Sure some people have made the change to hybrids, but not many. Predictions are that Americans will drive more miles this summer than ever before. SUV sales aren't decreasing either since their prices are. I live a half hour away from NYC. I think that in this area, prices would need to reach $6.00 per gallon for people to change their cars and driving habits for more efficient means of transportation.

They need to improve the alternates.

Hydro is dangerous in a moving vehicle, It's very dangerous to refuel, and what are the sources ? Supply couldn't keep up with demand.

Electro is getting better but still quit expensive.

Evereyone is going to make their buck whether it's for oil or ??

Although the alternates are better for the environment.


Make available a porsche kind of ride with the balls of a viper and the style of a ferrari and I will by one or maybe two !

for a lot of people "choice" is not realy an option. amuseingly as per norm in order to save money one needs to be able to spend money. i know at least here transit is more expensive then the cost of gas, then add on the insanely higher travel times it takes to get most places that i for one want/need to go. a hybred van would be nice but even if they were to start selling one tomorow i and many people i know still would not have one, not that we wouldn't love to own one but the cost of ANY new vehicle is not something that can be afforded.

personaly i would love to own a car that is reliant on neither petrolium products OR electricity for fuel, but so far that is non-existant. and honestly it would be typicaly at least ten years before i could afford to buy one anyway. THAT is something that one must considder when whineing about people driveing fuel-inefficiant vehicals, COST. sure gas is becomeing prohibitavely expensive but most people don't realy have much of a choice. so while the ritch can buy these nice little hybreds for everyday back and forth to work and have a differant vehicle that is of a decent size when needed, not to mention just being able to afford a hybred, quite a few people don't realy have a choice in the matter.

now if they had a decently built and sized vehicle available for say about $1000-$2000 i would try to pony up the cash to buy one (even that would be hard, but at least realistic for me). other than that it looks like i'm stuck driveing vehicles built in the 80's.or earlyer. it's a shame that a person needs to be ritch to be able to afford efficiancy, save money and be better for the enviroment, but the way things are. welcome to corprate america where proffits drive everything and the poor just have to suffer along as best they can.

I'm not saying that the alternative needs to be a hybrid or hydrogen. Especially in the states, do you expect to see a change for the more efficient car types we see in Italy and the like (as opposed to Hummers, and other SUVs) ?

i'll agree that most suv's esp hummers are prety much useless in most regaurds. but after being in a fairly bad accident on the highway i am gratefull that i was driveing a van, i did get pretty badly injured, but i am here to talk about it and hopefully the pain will soon be gone. i don't think i would have gotten off this easy driveing one of those small ecno-jobs. i am all for efficancy but it also has to be a usefull and safe vehicle to drive. this foucus over the last 30 or so years of makeing most vehicles smaller/lighter is actualy what has driven most people to drive suv's. bothe out of concern for occupant safety as well as room inside the vehicle for both passengers or cargo. also the fact that rear wheel drive is almost always now an suv or sports car is not conductive for people who have a habbit of pulling trailers of a decent size.

if it wre up to me i would be concentrateing on working with the efficiancy of medium to large vehicles in the hope of actualy produceing a vehicle that is both better for the enviroment as wel as of a decent size so that families would be able to proffit from it instead of vehicles where if there even is a back seat is not even too small for children to ride in. not to mention that it would need to be structuraly strong to protect the occupants as well as decently heavy so that it doesn't get tossed in a collision like these small cars.

We will not do anything even if gas reaches 6 dollars a gallon. Look at all the other countries right now who already pay the equivilant of 6 dollars a gallon. I may be incorrect here, but I remember reading a thread in which someone from the UK posted that they already paid that much per gallon.

To say that US sales of SUVs haven't been affected by high fuel prices simply is not true. GM basically has had to resort to giving away their vehicles by offering employee discounts to everyone and the company is already on the verge of bankruptcy. Ford's Expedition and Explorer SUVs haven't been selling well at all, either, with sales of both down over 20% this year.

It won't drop much further, however, and the reason is that there are no truly viable alternatives. The econo-box has only one advantage over a typical SUVs, that being fuel economy. For many, the loss of passenger room, cargo capacity, resale value and overall utility mean that a small vehicle just isn't an option.

A few months ago, I was in the market for a new vehicle. Cars? I live on a gravel road. Its not too bad 8 months out of the year, but I've seen what the other 4 do to an average car. Aside from that, I'll probably be starting a family in a few years and want something that is both safe, has passenger room and also has some cargo carrying and hauling capacity. And given that an average car isn't worth anything in 5 years in this area (where an SUV or light truck may be worth $10-15 thousand), it was no contest. I went with a truck. I bought a fully loaded 2004 4wd crew cab F-150 with only 4,000 miles on it for basically the same price of a brand new fully loaded mid size passenger car. In some ways I would have rather purchased a mid-size truck, but again, it would have cost the same amount of money, so why bother?

So I ask, where is the incentive for me to buy the car at the same price? My truck has more room, its safer, and I can actually carry something larger than a golf bag in it. I get about 21 mpg on the highway, about 12 in the city. With 80% of my driving on the highway, is that extra 6-8MPG from a car worth it? Considering that I'll quite likely get $10,000 more out of it than the car 5 years down the road, its not much of choice.

The point I'm trying to make here is that attacking SUVs and light trucks isn't the proper course of action. The only way to solve this particular problem is to offer the SUV/light truck buyer a realistic alternative, which they don't have right now. For many, it makes no sense whatsoever to buy a small car. Many consumers won't buy them because they're useless to them. Instead, we should be pressing for government and the auto industry to *improve* SUVs and light trucks, particularly in terms of fuel mileage.

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Intelligent people who keep their finger in the wind are probably already beginning to adapt,

The majority of people are either too busy or stupidly ignoring the facts of life comming down the petroleum track.

It only takes buying a smaller vehicle at your next purchase rather than a monster, barely-fits-in-a-lane, tipsover-at-20mph, gas hog, SUV.

Also, How stupid do you have to be to buy a vehicle with unstable high-center-of-gravity without a frigging roll bar?
Do you love your kids?
Do you love your own life?

Passive energy reduction, puts you ahead of the game regardless of what happens. Why not put more of your own fate in your hands rather than in the hands of others with unknown motives?
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What will it take to make American's change their habits?

P-Diddy or Paris Hilton showing up at clubs in tiny alternative feuled cars. Sports stars and pampered actors doing celebrity interviews touting the benefits of alternative fuels. When it becomes popular it will become necessary to change. You are talking about a seriously 'fad' driven culture here. Gas would hit $8.00 a gallon but as long as having a popular gas guzzler was 'in' most of us won't change.

Sorry if I make Americans seem shallow, but honestly, you could walk through our entire culture without getting your feet wet.

If you don't drive like it like its a sports car, you aren't going to tip an SUV or light truck. I've yet to see one spontaneously fall over on its side while driving down the highway. If you try to take turns in the thing like its a sports car, yes, you'll run into trouble, but if you operate the vehicle responsibly and within its design limits, you won't roll it unless you have an accident with another vehicle (and lets not forget that passenger cars can and do roll as well).

vor, I didn't want to judge SUVs just on the GM market....they have problems of their own (and offer an inferior product in comparison, so I will never get one again). But looking at other manufacturers, the Ford, F-x50 trucks have higher numbers this year and import SUVs, especially the luxury style have great numbers as well.

and slank, as for the roll over statement, the majority of SUVs and pickups built since 2000 have anti-tip over technology built in. It is still theoreticall possible for the vehicle to tip over, but the vehicle sences when a tip over is likely to occur and shift stearing and a weight mechanism to counter the effect. For people who know how to drive the vehicles safely, it's not needed, but for the kids who burn rubber coming out of the local high school near me (where I've seen several flip overs) it's a good feature.

[edit on 4-7-2005 by carlwfbird]