Frustrated Massachusetts drivers try to sell their gas-guzzlers - The Boston Globe

Over the past decade the SUV became the symbol of the American car culture. It is synonymous with suburbia. The heavy duty, four-wheel drive auto has been the private family tank able to plow through heavy weather and bad roads. It took us everywhere with power to spare. The problem, of course, is that the SUV literally guzzles fuel. That was no big deal as long as gas was $2 a gallon, but it became a huge burden as the pump prices zoomed past $3 and may zip past $4 on the way to $5+ per gallon.

Shifting from the SUV to light, compact cars is more than a matter of changing the car you drive. It is literally a pivotal point in how we think about the future. Downsizing is becomming the trend of the future. It signals a tipping point in our long-range expectations and a growing willingness to face the fact that endless economic growth may be a thing of the past.

These kind of predictions have generally as a rule always been wrong. . .

When your box is shrinking around you. . .maybe its time to think out of the box and the jump. . .

Nice to see the ugly trucks with campers built into them finally disappearing, I always thought of it as a foolish (and ugly) fad.

gotta love the free market at work and I always chuckle at articles like this. People want to dump their SUVs and huge pickups but expect to get top dollar and for someone else to want to buy it????????

next up are the 10-15 foot (3 -5 meter) high ceilings in Mcmansions that cost a small fortune to heat and cool because of the volume vs 8 foot high ceilings in traditional houses. I'm sure that will be the next article of the folks figuring out that they don't need 1,000 sq feet for every person in the home

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For 20 years he did not hear; for 20 years he did not see

OK, I'm waiting for the hybrid (or H2O) SUV.

This is good news. first come SUV's, then come power grids, trucks get replaced with trains, etc. We're using too much gas. And the main reason is that driving has been subsidized and nuclear power has been over-regulated for years. Gotta love the free market at work.

It amazes me, though, how liberals can bitch about the environment and gas prices, all at the same time.

-Dr House

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Libertarian/Authoritarian = -7.08
Economic left/right = 6.62

"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant." -John Stuart Mill

Ah, if only it were that simple. Nuclear will not solve the energy problem. Insofar as transportation is concerned the issue is liquid fuel. Nuclear plants will not power the fleets of trucks, cars and aircraft that are critical to our economy and life in general. Believe me, the free market is not free.

You seem to blame "liberalists" for the energy problem. This is not a "them against us" issue. Like it or not we are all in this together. If you want to point fingers I suggest aiming at the nearest mirror. We are all to blame. This situation should not surprise anyone. Warnings about energy limits have been heard since the 1950s. Carter was the first president to tell us the truth about oil, and we chose to ignore him - and vote him out of office.

This isn't true or fair, Carter got voted out of office cause he sucked at everything. Oil wa just one of his deadly flaws. The fact is it can be blamed on liberal environmental movements as they became the oil companies patsies by stopping any new refineries or drilling in the US. This is why we have an "artificial" shortage that we are getting raped by atm. That said its better if we just move on from oil anyways, and I'm willing pay for it as a human being.

They can have my SUV when they pry the steering wheel from my dead, cold hands.

I will tell you why. Because I paid it off eight years ago. Eight years without a car payment and its attendant interest rate more than makes up for some piddling four dollar a gallon gasoline.

As for hybrids, if you do the math you will find that you need to own one for about five years before you realize any savings. They cost a lot more than a regular gasoline powered car of the same make and model.

Of course not. Liquid fuel is used to the extent it is because driving has been too cheap for decades. I suggest transferring the cost of road use from taxes to tolls. That way people will bear the full brunt of the cost and will do what's cheapest for them, which is in the case of private individuals to drive less (move closer to the workplace, carpool, use public transit, etc) and in the case of commercial carriers to use trains and ships instead of trucks (thereby reducing their fuel consumption by a factor of 5). Of course, even if we don't take that wise course of action, rising fuel prices will do it for us.

I know. I blame environmentalists for putting the kibosh on nuclear energy when it coulv'e bought us energy independence. I blame the government in general (and those who demanded it of them) for heavily subsidizing road use and liquid fuels. Roads are choked and Americans are going into debt because driving has been way too cheap for decades.

-Dr House

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Libertarian/Authoritarian = -7.08
Economic left/right = 6.62

"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant." -John Stuart Mill

We are in agreement on most of the above, although your formula would seem to strongly favor the rich and punish the poor when it comes to driving. I would be inclined to spread the pain more evenly.

I believe you are wrong re: environmentalists preventing the U.S. from being energy independent. Most electricity in the U.S. is produced by using coal and nuclear power. Environmentalists have not measureably suppressed the production of electrical generation. The real issue is energy intensive liquid fuels, particularly gasoline and diesel. Nuclear energy has virtually no influence on the production of oil. Nuclear energy will play a bigger role in the future, but it will not avert an oil supply crisis - which we are already seeing take place.