1993 Ford Festiva
111,200 miles
Some body rot
Needs upholstery
Back seat bolts broken
Smells like a wet cat
Gets 43 MPG
Current market value: $ 29,500
Priceless!
Posted on 07/08/2008 2:44:53 PM PDT by traumer
The nation of road movies, freeway freedom and dreams of endless horizons is waking up to the reality of soaring fuel prices. Paul Harris in Riverside, California, reports that people are leaving their gas guzzlers in the garage
It is known as the Inland Empire: a vast stretch of land tucked in the high desert valleys east of Los Angeles. Once home to fruit trees and Indians, it is now a concrete sprawl of jammed freeways, endless suburbs and shopping malls.
But here, in the heartland of the four-wheel drive, a revolution is under way. What was once unthinkable is becoming a shocking reality: America's all-consuming love affair with the car is fading.
Surging petrol prices have worked where environmental arguments have failed. Many Americans have long been told to cut back on car use. Now, facing $4-a-gallon fuel, they have no choice.
Take Adam Garcia, a security guard who works near the railway station in Riverside. Like many Inland Empire residents, he commutes a huge distance: 100 miles a day. He used to think nothing of it. But now, faced with petrol costs that have tripled, he is taking action. He has even altered the engine of his car to boost its mileage. 'I have to. Everyone does. I can't afford to drive as much as I did,' he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Schadenfreude
I think designers of the smaller “green” cars have it right: you can’t love an ugly car and you will avoid driving it in public whenever possible.
As long as he "alters" it back to spec come smog check time!
“America’s love affair fades as the car becomes burden of suburbia”
...I don’t know who this putz is talking about, but don’t include me. I just bought an ‘09 Acura TSX and I LOVE it! I also have a big ass Toyota Sequoia that I’m quite partial to.
Oh please. We LOVE to drive. We hate the price of gas.
Maybe the Brits have lost THEIR love of driving considering those b***-ugly boxes they call autos.
But us? No.
I bought a full sized van right after the start of the first gulf war. Got it really cheap.
Maybe it is time to trade in the Scion xBox for a Hummer! ;)
Global warming is real
Well known conservatives are supporting Obama
Americas love affair with the car is ending
yawn,,,,
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Today’s press...
Finding that one wingnut in a sea of “normals”
Instead of buying petrol, Adam now purchases gas.
I drive 160 miles a day (1 hour each way) in a 12 year old salvaged vehicle that still gets pretty decent milage.
Our love affair with $4 cups of coffee may be over. Our love affair with $100 haircuts may be over. Our love affair with 350 channel cable and satellite TV may be over. But our love affair with cars will never be over!
LOL! The love affair remains strong, it's just moved into the "nip & tuck" stage!
“I still drive. But the burden ain’t too much when all I need is about a mile’s drive from home.”
....that’s a good point...many company offices have moved out to the suburbs...there’s really little reason to go downtown in lots of metro areas....home, office, groceries, banks, movies, malls are all out in suburbia.
this article is full of supercilious, contemptuous and arrogant language. it was written by an environmental wacko, i think.
More blame the prosperous citizen news: It is Liberalism that has become the burden of those who live in suburbia.
Just means I’ll work closer to home... But I’ll still hump my car whenever I need to rekindle my “love-affair.”
By the way, britains love affair with freedom past about a decade ago. They make the CCCP look like a land of freedom.
On the other hand, maybe what is really happening is America’s love affair with the environmental whackos has come to an end.
Drill here, drill now!
I suppose if you live in a country small enough to bike across before your beer buzz wears off (I'm looking at you England) then the thought of owning a car may seem bourgeois.
Oh yeah, here's a gem buried in the main body of drivel.
'Suburbia has been unsustainable since its creation,' said Chris Fauchere, a Denver-based film-maker who is producing a new documentary on the issue called The Great Squeeze. 'It was created around cheap oil. People thought it would flow easily from the earth forever.'
I suppose this is to be expected from a people who are subjects, not citizens. They love to find and herald like minded fools.
The European will never understand what it is to be free.
Let’s see...
‘68 Camaro Check
‘72 El Camino Check
‘95 4x4 Pickup Check
‘98 Camaro Check
‘06 Trailblazer Check
‘95 Sportster Check
‘06 Big Dog Working on it
Yep, I’ve lost my interest alright!
“America’s love affair fades as the car becomes burden of suburbia”
But our elite masters still love their private jets.
Let us remember that this is the Guardian newspaper. Having lived in the UK for a number of years, it was the newspaper to get for the “facts”. All one had to do was read it, invert whatever was being preached, and one could be 99%+ sure that they were on the road to truth. The Guardian hires the same quality of reporters that are produced by our journalism schools...little knowledge of history, less of economics, and none of science.
Few are retiring their pickup truck as yet. Went shopping today and couldn’t spot my SUV right away as it was hidden behind a forest of pickup trucks and those Hummer sized SUVs, including a Hummer.
I produce the same amount of work output, have the lab gear here at the house for field testing setups, and get paid via paypal.
I didn't want to go back to engineering, but it pays the bills, and I don't have the drive that I did to the restaurant.
/johnny
from the article:
‘The Chinese have spent the Bush years starting to build their own version of America. A key question for the planet is whether they still have time to build a version of Europe instead...’
At least if China ends up like europe they won’t be a military threat to anyone.
I think the idea of "loving" a car is peculiar in itself, whether the car is "ugly" or otherwise.
Cars are a necessity not a love object.
“
America’s love affair fades as the car becomes burden of suburbia
“
Bunk.
The love/nostalgia will only grow exponentially as we’re all forced
by economics to ride the bus/train.
Or drive a Woody-Allenesque “Sleeper” car.
Not a Burden for Me!
I can walk up on the deck at my house and see the building were I work in downtown Austin. Most days I ride my bike to the office, other days I work from home.
No long lines of traffic and few visits to the gas pump.
This hoary cliche needs to go. Now, it is all-consuming is it? I would think the love affair would be only partly consuming, but no, it is all consuming-- whatever that means.
You wish.
Isn’t England about as big as Delaware?
Wrong!
I love my 300 bhp, 18 mpg, SUV!
I HATE the liars and the fear mongers, peddling “Global Warming”, and “Peak Oil” nonsense!
First, we march on Washington with “pitchforks” in hand!
If that doesn’t work, we get serious with a second “tea party”!
Eurosocialist discovers free market, is puzzled.
Film at eleven.
Absolute BULL ROAR!!! If anything it is a hatred of the affair that GovernMental EnvironMentalists have put upon us with their only success being to make all energy cost prohibitive!!!
Well thank God for little favors!!! It has become the reunion of "Church & State!!!"
Remember, Jason Blair, the gay maggot infected reporter, who got fired by the NY Slimes for creative writing.
This writer is as guilty of creative bs fraud passing as journalism as Blair was.
1993 Ford Festiva
111,200 miles
Some body rot
Needs upholstery
Back seat bolts broken
Smells like a wet cat
Gets 43 MPG
Current market value: $ 29,500
Priceless!
Between my kids (3), myself, and even my ex (which I paid for), I've got 5 (FIVE) SUV'S ON THE ROAD. And I'm thinkin' a sporty, fast and sleek little thing fer my girlfriend is in the cards real soon.
The friggin' GREENIES can WISH I've lost my "Love for the Automobile". But they can suck my tailpipe and fart greenhouse gas afor I'll quit enjoyin' de love of de road.
It’s true that oil is the highest price in constant dollars that it ever has been.
So are a lot of other things, including our GDP and per capita income. We can generally afford these prices, but we don’t like them. There are exceptions. Truckers are being especially hurt.
The silver lining to this situation is that it might wake America up to the fact that we need to allow more drilling. Mexico’s fields are in rapid decline. It’s a slap in the face, and even if it’s not as hard as we think it is, it could have some positive outcomes.
We cannot conserve our way into prosperity. We will always need MORE energy.
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