Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Gas pumps hate us.

I have been watching the olympics. The trade off for having short commercial breaks is the frequency in which they have them. I have been stuck watching lots of commercials, or rather, the same commercials over and over. Being somebody who doesn't really buy anything, and who doesn't really aspire to own much of anything, they are all lost on me. Amy gets to hear my ranting about most of them, but the worst of them all is the new Chevy commercials, and it is so bad that I will rant here.

If you have not seen it yet, you aren't missing much. Some overpaid "creative" type thought about who would benefit the least from a few extra MPG's attached to these cars. Not the evil gas corporations who are posting record profits, not the death squads that shell hires to kill the natives (not being dramatic), this person came up with gas pumps. Assigning feelings to an inanimate object... funny, cute quirky.

Anyway, I just thought they were dumb until I saw the one about the Chevy Tahoe, then I became somewhat outraged. GM is bragging that the Tahoe gets 20mpg HIGHWAY. According to fueleconomy.gov it gets 14mpg city. They are bragging about this. They are taking something really bad and calling it good, and then trying to sell it to people. Are people so dumb that they are believing it? Maybe the person that I made fun of above is actually a genius and knows exactly how to get people to believe total bullshit. Maybe I have too much faith in the average car buyer's IQ.

"Hey look 19mpg is REALLY BAD, but 20 is AWESOME. Forget about the fact that cars made 20 years ago were getting 40mpg highway (9er the whiner's ford escort from the 90's recently did this, as does Chew's mom's geo metro from the 80's), forget that you could have double this, buy the one that gets 1 mpg extra and feel like you have won something."




Just to check myself I looked at the 89 geo metro at fueleconomy.gov. 51 highway and 43 city. I guess progress is making something 3 times as big and only halving its gas mileage.

9 comments:

Matthew Ruscigno said...

Whoa, is this a political post?

Anonymous said...

A few years ago I did a 30 page paper on fuel economy policies. funny stuff:

hummers and ford excursions are so big that they don't fall under government fuel economy standards.

A PT cruiser (and a lot of other "cars") is considered a truck, and trucks=lower fuel economy requirements.

You wouldn't know it, but a bunch of cars (in the past 10 years) that run on gasoline can run on ethanol, because it allows a company to lower their overall fuel efficiency, but there is no where to fill up on ethanol. BUT, there were never any extra allowances to companies who made bio-diesel or electric cars.

Benjamin said...

I did a quick check on:

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/byMPG.htm

In 2008 only two cars got more than 40mpg (Prius and Civic hybrids) and both were less than that 89 Geo Metro. Sad.

Did you see the dude that cut his Geo in half to reduce win drag and got 75 mpg?

http://1989geometro.com/

Adam Denison said...

Well, you have to look at what you're comparing the Tahoe too. The Tahoe is a full-size SUV. You're comparing its MPG to small cars. I should note here that the hybrid version of the Tahoe posts a 50 percent increase in fuel economy compared to the non-hybrid. That means it's getting fuel economy comparable to a midsize car, but it can seat more people and tow more. A Tahoe may not be for everyone, but for those who transport a large number of people or need to tow trailers, it's a good fit.

Adam Denison
GM Social Media Communications

David said...

"A Tahoe may not be for everyone, but for those who transport a large number of people or need to tow trailers, it's a good fit."

So is a bus, for people. or a few bikes.

i think you're missing the point tho. you're probably towing your boat, which you can't afford to gas up, either. last i checked, not many people were using there Tahoe to tow a trailer full of chickens to market or something.

Chris Mayhew said...

Seriously, you get paid to read blog all day and cut and paste stuff in the comments? Damn, that's a job.

Anonymous said...

One of the first cars I ever drove was a late 70's Volkswagen Rabbit Diesel and that thing got about 45-50 mpg. Great car for a teenager on a budget. Then we got a Golf that was much faster and more fun to drive but it still got around 40 mpg.

Jason said...

I design car ads for a living (my cross to bear) and you would not believe the amount of times i've had to type (in a burst for dramatic, look at me, attention) that an SUV gets 14 MPG. 14!!!!!!!!!!!! WTF?? UG!!! Whatever. It pays my bill, I leave work, ride a bike and go to bed. Idiot car peeps.

Unknown said...

thanks, adam, for your unbiased insight.