EV's, Gas/Oil, and The Future- another swerve split from- JT Hints Boosting Canada’s Military Spending

[Colin Parkinson]

I had a Hyundai Kona with the "terrible" 2.0L engine. Never had a single issue with it, but I stayed on top of oil changes +/- 500km of the recommended intervals.

Also, exceptions don't disprove the general rule that cars are better and more mechanically reliable than before. There were lots of bad cars in the 90s through 10s, it's just that people latch onto the memory of the exceptionally good ones.

A Civic or Corolla motor might run on neglect and distain, but the Neon/Protogé/Malibu/Focus/Golf didn't. For every reliable car, there were 10 worse than what we get now.

I know several people who got burned by Hyundai on those engines. We almost bought one and glad we went for a used Honda instead.

 

[RangerRay]

Ever wonder why with gas prices so high that you can’t find new Hyundai Accents, Honda Fits, Toyota Yaris’s or Ford Focus’s? I’ve read that although there is demand for cheap, small, fuel efficient ICE cars, automakers have been removing them from the North American market because they make very little money on them. By concentrating on EVs, pick-ups, SUV’s, hybrids and performance cars, they can charge premium amounts and maximize profits. Now, the cheapest new ICE car is a compact crossover SUV that starts at $25-30,000, that doesn’t come close to the mileage of an Accent or similar.

So much for supply and demand…

 

[Furniture]

Ever wonder why with gas prices so high that you can’t find new Hyundai Accents, Honda Fits, Toyota Yaris’s or Ford Focus’s? I’ve read that although there is demand for cheap, small, fuel efficient ICE cars, automakers have been removing them from the North American market because they make very little money on them. By concentrating on EVs, pick-ups, SUV’s, hybrids and performance cars, they can charge premium amounts and maximize profits. Now, the cheapest new ICE car is a compact crossover SUV that starts at $25-30,000, that doesn’t come close to the mileage of an Accent or similar.

So much for supply and demand…

It's not so much that car companies hate small cars, it's that the CAFE regulations make producing a small cars too expensive. The fuel economy standards are higher the smaller the vehicle's footprint, and SUVs/trucks have separate fuel economy standards that are far more achievable.

Turns out, when government makes rules too hard to follow, people find ways around the rules.

If we adopted Thailand's vehicle standards, you can bet Ford, GM, Toyota, Suzuki, etc., would flood our market with small and cheap vehicles.

 

[ytz]

I had a Hyundai Kona with the "terrible" 2.0L engine. Never had a single issue with it, but I stayed on top of oil changes +/- 500km of the recommended intervals.

Also, exceptions don't disprove the general rule that cars are better and more mechanically reliable than before. There were lots of bad cars in the 90s through 10s, it's just that people latch onto the memory of the exceptionally good ones.

A Civic or Corolla motor might run on neglect and distain, but the Neon/Protogé/Malibu/Focus/Golf didn't. For every reliable car, there were 10 worse than what we get now.

This. I feel like people really forget how much maintenance cars took before the 2000s. Go far enough back and you might need an oil change to get across the country. That's how low maintenance intervals were. Rosy retrospection is high here.

And rust. Holy hell. Getting a vehicle to actually do 200k without rusting? That used to be an actual challenge. Thanks to material Science, we now take this for granted.

 

[ytz]

Ever wonder why with gas prices so high that you can’t find new Hyundai Accents, Honda Fits, Toyota Yaris’s or Ford Focus’s? I’ve read that although there is demand for cheap, small, fuel efficient ICE cars, automakers have been removing them from the North American market because they make very little money on them. By concentrating on EVs, pick-ups, SUV’s, hybrids and performance cars, they can charge premium amounts and maximize profits. Now, the cheapest new ICE car is a compact crossover SUV that starts at $25-30,000, that doesn’t come close to the mileage of an Accent or similar.

So much for supply and demand…

Do you blame them? Look at Civic and Corolla sales in Canada. People keep buying pickups and SUVs. And desire models like the Civic and Corolla getting bigger, they can't sell as many as before. It is indeed supply and demand.

Consumers have only started worrying about fuel costs with the war. Will they care when the war is over?

 

[Furniture]

Do you blame them? Look at Civic and Corolla sales in Canada. People keep buying pickups and SUVs. And desire models like the Civic and Corolla getting bigger, they can't sell as many as before. It is indeed supply and demand.

Consumers have only started worrying about fuel costs with the war. Will they care when the war is over?

Again, it's unfair to put this on consumers. Governments created the incentives for larger vehicles with the CAFE standards.

It's cheaper for Toyota to make a larger RAV4 hybrid, than it is to make a modern Yaris.

If we want smaller and more efficient cars, we need to push governments to make regulations that don't punish small cars.

We also need to be careful to not to punish those who need a larger vehicle... which is why our rules are the mess they are.