November 20, 2008--Priusing
We were headed south again yesterday down the Jersey Turnpike in our rented Prius. Since it came equipped with a satellite radio, we were able to listen to CNN. They were broadcasting the House of Representatives bailout hearing with the CEOs of the formerly Big Three automakers.
It was quite a show. Our favorite parts were when GM’s Richard Wagoner, challenged about the company’s leadership, had the chutzpah to say that he is very proud of their record of achievement; and when all three were pressed about why, considering the state of their finances, they flew to Washington in their corporate jets. Their companies, they responded, require them to—for security reasons.
I couldn’t help but think that their companies would have had a better chance of getting $25 billion of our money if they had been kidnapped on route. No one would ransom them and there would be the change at top all say is required if these companies are to survive.
We also thought that if they had been in the car with us instead of the cocoons in which they live and travel and looked around at who was on the road and what they were driving they would maybe “get it.”
To distract ourselves when we are taking a long and boring drive we often play the license plate game: we keep track of how many cars we spot from around the country—with Hawaii and Alaska before Sarah Palin yielding the most excitement.
This time around, considering what we were listening to, we kept a rough count of how many foreign and domestic cars were on the road.
Even including SUVs well over 60 percent were imports.
We also kept track of the number of car transporters we encountered—those rigs on which precariously balanced there are a dozen new cars being schlepped to dealers.
Usually, we would have expected to see a few dozen considering that our round trip was 143 miles. But we spotted just four—one hauling Mazdas, another BMWs, and two loaded with Toyotas.
(Though we did see, at Port Newark, thousands of imports sitting on the docks gathering dust—as reported in the New York Times article linked below.)
But the best lesson in what’s going on with cars was from the Prius itself. For $22,000 list it’s quite a piece of gadgetry, with my favorite part the data that’s available on its onboard LED screen as you tool along. Especially the information about your second-to-second fuel consumption, the highlight of which, when you’re running on the batteries, shows you topping 100 miles per gallon!
The future that the Detroit execs boasted about yesterday for 2010 and beyond, when it comes to Toyota, is now.
One final thing. With a rental car, in order to avoid the exorbitant refueling charge, before returning it you are wise to fill up the tank. In our case we did at the Holland Tunnel.
We knew we wouldn’t need much gas to top us off. From the data screen we had seen that we had averaged 47.9 miles per gallon and so Rona took only six dollars from her wallet. She got 25 cents change.
Not available on the screen, however, was how much gas GM’s Wagoner would need to be chauffeured back to his Gulfstream.
It was quite a show. Our favorite parts were when GM’s Richard Wagoner, challenged about the company’s leadership, had the chutzpah to say that he is very proud of their record of achievement; and when all three were pressed about why, considering the state of their finances, they flew to Washington in their corporate jets. Their companies, they responded, require them to—for security reasons.
I couldn’t help but think that their companies would have had a better chance of getting $25 billion of our money if they had been kidnapped on route. No one would ransom them and there would be the change at top all say is required if these companies are to survive.
We also thought that if they had been in the car with us instead of the cocoons in which they live and travel and looked around at who was on the road and what they were driving they would maybe “get it.”
To distract ourselves when we are taking a long and boring drive we often play the license plate game: we keep track of how many cars we spot from around the country—with Hawaii and Alaska before Sarah Palin yielding the most excitement.
This time around, considering what we were listening to, we kept a rough count of how many foreign and domestic cars were on the road.
Even including SUVs well over 60 percent were imports.
We also kept track of the number of car transporters we encountered—those rigs on which precariously balanced there are a dozen new cars being schlepped to dealers.
Usually, we would have expected to see a few dozen considering that our round trip was 143 miles. But we spotted just four—one hauling Mazdas, another BMWs, and two loaded with Toyotas.
(Though we did see, at Port Newark, thousands of imports sitting on the docks gathering dust—as reported in the New York Times article linked below.)
But the best lesson in what’s going on with cars was from the Prius itself. For $22,000 list it’s quite a piece of gadgetry, with my favorite part the data that’s available on its onboard LED screen as you tool along. Especially the information about your second-to-second fuel consumption, the highlight of which, when you’re running on the batteries, shows you topping 100 miles per gallon!
The future that the Detroit execs boasted about yesterday for 2010 and beyond, when it comes to Toyota, is now.
One final thing. With a rental car, in order to avoid the exorbitant refueling charge, before returning it you are wise to fill up the tank. In our case we did at the Holland Tunnel.
We knew we wouldn’t need much gas to top us off. From the data screen we had seen that we had averaged 47.9 miles per gallon and so Rona took only six dollars from her wallet. She got 25 cents change.
Not available on the screen, however, was how much gas GM’s Wagoner would need to be chauffeured back to his Gulfstream.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:57 AM
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