Obama Says He’ll Save Average Family $8,000 in Gas

neptunechimney wrote:

JSG wrote:

Martin Ent Inc wrote: “If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.” - Barack Obama, 2009

Of course you took the quote out of context. He was talking about TARP. Here's a fact check:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/20 ... oposition/

Also from your link:

Thanks but I actually READ the article.

Damn whoever signed TARP into law. Damn them to hell.

I forget, who was that?

How is that 55 mpg CAFE standard to be realized Z? The only way that gets done is to use far more expensive vehicles than the ones which use more fuel. The Fisker Karma is a $100+K vehicle. The Chevy Volt is upwards of $45K, the Fisker Atlantic is also running in that range, about $45K projected. $40K financed over 6 years at 4% will cost you roughly $700 a month. $14K financed over 60 months at 3.6% brings the cost to under $300 per month. How many middle class families do you know who can afford $700/month for 6 years to save themselves $800/year in fuel costs? For 5 years they will be paying an extra $4800/year to cover the cost of purchasing the vehicle to save $800/year in gasoline. That's an additional expense of $28,400 over the 10 year life of the car to save $8K in fuel costs over the same period of time. Does that make any kind of financial sense to you? Think that additional expense every decade ($113.6K over 40 years) is going to help the "middle class" buy food, clothing, shelter, send their kids to college and help them save money for their retirement years?

PrintSmith wrote: How is that 55 mpg CAFE standard to be realized Z? The only way that gets done is to use far more expensive vehicles than the ones which use more fuel. The Fisker Karma is a $100+K vehicle. The Chevy Volt is upwards of $45K, the Fisker Atlantic is also running in that range, about $45K projected. $40K financed over 6 years at 4% will cost you roughly $700 a month. $14K financed over 60 months at 3.6% brings the cost to under $300 per month. How many middle class families do you know who can afford $700/month for 6 years to save themselves $800/year in fuel costs? For 5 years they will be paying an extra $4800/year to cover the cost of purchasing the vehicle to save $800/year in gasoline. That's an additional expense of $28,400 over the 10 year life of the car to save $8K in fuel costs over the same period of time. Does that make any kind of financial sense to you? Think that additional expense every decade ($113.6K over 40 years) is going to help the "middle class" buy food, clothing, shelter, send their kids to college and help them save money for their retirement years?

Good luck trying to explain simple math.

ZHawke wrote: Could it be? Might the POTUS actually have misspoken when he said "per year" and not "over the life of the vehicle"?

That's exactly what he got wrong. It was $8,000 over the life of the vehicle. He misspoke.

03/09/2012
To be fair to the president, he has gotten this $8,000 figure correct on a number of occasions — at least four times in the past two weeks.

As he put it in a weekly radio address this month:

“Thanks to new fuel efficiency standards we put in place, they’re building cars that will average nearly 55 miles per gallon by the middle of the next decade. That’s almost double what they get today. That means folks will be able to fill up every two weeks instead of every week, saving the typical family more than $8,000 at the pump over time.”

“Over time” means the life of a “typical car.” In other words, the savings is not over a year — an impossibility unless gasoline prices really soar — but over many, many years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fac ... _blog.html

PrintSmith wrote: How is that 55 mpg CAFE standard to be realized Z? The only way that gets done is to use far more expensive vehicles than the ones which use more fuel. The Fisker Karma is a $100+K vehicle. The Chevy Volt is upwards of $45K, the Fisker Atlantic is also running in that range, about $45K projected. $40K financed over 6 years at 4% will cost you roughly $700 a month. $14K financed over 60 months at 3.6% brings the cost to under $300 per month. How many middle class families do you know who can afford $700/month for 6 years to save themselves $800/year in fuel costs? For 5 years they will be paying an extra $4800/year to cover the cost of purchasing the vehicle to save $800/year in gasoline. That's an additional expense of $28,400 over the 10 year life of the car to save $8K in fuel costs over the same period of time. Does that make any kind of financial sense to you? Think that additional expense every decade ($113.6K over 40 years) is going to help the "middle class" buy food, clothing, shelter, send their kids to college and help them save money for their retirement years?

PS ~ I'm not going to argue the math or the financial aspects of the CAFE Standards with you. I will not dispute your figures. I'm not saying your perspective apparently geared more toward the "financial" aspects of the CAFE Standards is right or wrong. To me, it boils down to a choice each of us has to make - whether we want to keep our reliance on fossil fuels (and, by default, your reliance on Middle Eastern Oil), or whether we want to reduce that reliance and help the environment. I choose the latter. That's all.

CritiKalbILL wrote:

PrintSmith wrote: How is that 55 mpg CAFE standard to be realized Z? The only way that gets done is to use far more expensive vehicles than the ones which use more fuel. The Fisker Karma is a $100+K vehicle. The Chevy Volt is upwards of $45K, the Fisker Atlantic is also running in that range, about $45K projected. $40K financed over 6 years at 4% will cost you roughly $700 a month. $14K financed over 60 months at 3.6% brings the cost to under $300 per month. How many middle class families do you know who can afford $700/month for 6 years to save themselves $800/year in fuel costs? For 5 years they will be paying an extra $4800/year to cover the cost of purchasing the vehicle to save $800/year in gasoline. That's an additional expense of $28,400 over the 10 year life of the car to save $8K in fuel costs over the same period of time. Does that make any kind of financial sense to you? Think that additional expense every decade ($113.6K over 40 years) is going to help the "middle class" buy food, clothing, shelter, send their kids to college and help them save money for their retirement years?

Good luck trying to explain simple math.

As I'm trying to explain in my posts, if all you choose to do is focus your discussion on "simple math", then do so. I choose to try, at least, to look at what I consider to be a bigger picture than that. I don't like the idea of increased prices on vehicles any more than you do. But, the old adage, "you get what you pay for", must also be considered, in my opinion. And, by "getting what you pay for", I mean a planet, our home if you will, keeps on getting more and more polluted all the time (sorta like poopin' in your own nest so to speak). If you want to keep on polluting the environment to the extent going on today, that's your choice. I simply do not agree with that position. I'd like to see more of a focus on alternative energy sources than fossil fuels. By the same token, fossil fuels DO have their place, at least for the near term as a transition to alternatives hopefully becomes more affordable.

My opinion is that the conservatives have a shorter vision for America than the liberals do. They want what they want and they want it now........liberals IMHO want what they want for everyone, including future generations. We cannot keep pouring pollutants into the air, water, and ground and not expect a bad result, eventually. I would rather take an economic hit now, in the price of cars and even the price of gasoline, than have this all come crashing down on my grand children, or their grand children. Our country has often been short sighted like this......take care of business today and don't worry about the future. Unfortunately the future gets closer and closer and many still don't want to face the hard truths about fossil fuels and their effect on our environment.....or the fact that they may eventually be depleted.

archer wrote: My opinion is that the conservatives have a shorter vision for America than the liberals do. They want what they want and they want it now........liberals IMHO want what they want for everyone, including future generations. We cannot keep pouring pollutants into the air, water, and ground and not expect a bad result, eventually. I would rather take an economic hit now, in the price of cars and even the price of gasoline, than have this all come crashing down on my grand children, or their grand children. Our country has often been short sighted like this......take care of business today and don't worry about the future. Unfortunately the future gets closer and closer and many still don't want to face the hard truths about fossil fuels and their effect on our environment.....or the fact that they may eventually be depleted.

My Geo gets 45 MPG. It doesn't do it fast, but it does it.

How could they build a car that gets 45MPG highway according to the EPA back in 1996?

They stripped it. It does horrible in crash tests. It has airbags in the steering wheel and the dash - no side curtains, nothing for the rear seat. No ABS, minimal sensors. No electric windows, doorlocks or seats. No special attachment points on the seats for child restraints. No traction aiding devices or sensors and one computer that controls the ignition and fuel.

You can have safe, or you can have better gas mileage. CAFE standards are crap. Like it or not, it does always come down to dollars. It's all well and good to say "we need to protect mother earth", but if it doesn't make financial sense you're going to wind up with a bunch of unsold expensive green new cars and people like me driving 15 year old rattle traps and laughing all the way to the bank.

Zhawke, Archer, what's the EPA estimated MPG on the cars you drive?

If you don't know (shame shame)

look here http://www.fueleconomy.gov/mpg/MPG.do?action=browseList