Who is really responsible for the high cost of gasoline? Who are the “Bad Guys” ? The popular answer is, “the oil companies”, or “the Saudi’s”. (Meaning the countries who actually pump the oil out of the ground). Sorry, neither is correct: both of these ‘entities’ are on the ‘supply side’ of the oil business, it is their job to get as much money for their product as they can, not to supply it as cheaply as they can. Normally, I would say that the “Bad Guys” are US, the consumers, as we are the ‘Demand’ side. But in this case we are off the hook! Why? Because after the last Oil Crisis - In the 1970’s - our government actually got the political will-power to do something about the problem. Rather then let the marketplace solve the problem, meaning the price of gas goes up until the demand for gas goes down, (Our current situation), the government Mandated that the automobiles had to be more fuel efficient. This would decrease the demand for gasoline, and keep the price of gasoline from skyrocketing. When Congress was crafting this legislation, they realized there were a few problems: one was Pickup Trucks. Pickups were not designed for fuel efficiency, they were designed for work - so they were exempted from the new rules. Another problem was the Jeep. Jeeps were neither cars, nor trucks - they were sort of a utility vehicle- so they got officially defined as a truck, and were exempt, also. Neither of these two exemptions were important, as trucks were not a ‘mass market’ type of vehicle (who wants to drive a nasty old truck around, unless you have to) and there were very few Jeeps, and the people who would want to drive a Jeep were few and far between.
So - What happened? What happened is Ford, GM, and Chrysler realized two things, one was that a small fuel efficient car would be somewhat cheap, and therefore not all that profitable, whereas a huge, heavy, gas-guzzling truck would be exempt from the fuel rules, and also be quite expensive, and therefore quite profitable. All the ‘Big Three’ automakers had to do was make that nasty old truck into a nice, plush, fancy truck, that anyone, even women, would be happy to drive. Which they did. Neatly replacing a 30 to 40 mpg car with a 10 to 20 mpg truck - worse mileage then the cars used to get.
The second thing that the “Big Three’ realized, was that while they could not seduce everyone into a truck, (too big), they could all build their own “Jeep”- a utility vehicle that was not as big as a truck, but was exempt from the fuel efficiency standards, just like a truck. Thus the Sport Utility Vehicle ( SUV ) was born: a giant car, or maybe a shrunken truck, very nice and plush inside, just like driving a car. But it got what? 8mpg to 16 mpg? Oh sure, they could have made both the SUVs and the Trucks more fuel efficient, but why bother? They were both exempt from the fuel efficiency rule.
Eventually even the foreign automakers had to start building trucks and SUVs, to some extent. But the bottom line is: Who is to blame? Who are the “Bad Guys’? Ford, GM and Chrysler ! As the result of their use of this ’loophole’ in the law, we are in the situation we are today. And as another result of this typical display of shortsightedness: Ford, GM and Chrysler are all in deep trouble because they make most of their money from selling Trucks and SUVs, Which, of course, are not selling anymore.
