I recently clocked miles per gallon for the first time for the Jeep Cherokee I’ve had and loved for 10 years. Always a trusty friend, we’ve driven over 100,000 miles together all over the US, Mexico and Canada. I have an affinity for my Jeep and I always swore that I would run it into the ground before I traded it in. I guess it was some weird sense of automobile loyalty combined with classic consumer product personification (my Jeep’s name is Betty Sue). So what was the mpg verdict? 16 miles per gallon. “16?” I thought. “SIXTEEN?????” That means that at current gas prices of $4/gallon, I’m paying .25 per mile. Suddenly I began to eye my trustworthy Jeep with slightly less blind dedication. What will I do when gas gets to $5, $6 a gallon and higher? Clearly I’ll have to let go of my Jeep (tear). But where to go from there?
First of all, plain old combustible gasoline engines, particularly of the SUV variety, aren’t getting any kind of trade in value. And then there’s the problem of what to buy instead. Do I try for a fancy hybrid? Not anytime soon, due to the difficulty Ford and Honda are having in keeping up with demand because of a backup in hybrid battery production. Do I wait until 2010 when GM rolls out their new plug in electric? Or wait even longer for their super eco-friendly line of hydrogen fuel cell cars to get going? While it looks to me like hydrogen is the all around best choice, GM is waiting for the refueling infrastructure problems to be solved before launching a hydrogen car. Who knows how long that will be? And who knows what cool new innovations other car companies will come out with? In the meantime those of us stuck in the middle are paying out the ears just to get done what we need to get done in our day. The rock is that we can’t afford to drive our old car anymore, the hard place is that we don’t have a clear new direction.
As consumers, we take a lot of factors into consideration when we make a purchase decision, particularly big ones like automobiles. However when a big environmental shift also shifts our consumer perspective and point of reference, how do we “reground” ourselves into a workable pattern of living? How do we go about making an intelligent and well thought out decision now in light of the obscured vision of the future of alternative fuels? Who do we go to for advice when no one seems to have a reliable crystal ball? In order for any kind of gasoline or fuel alternative to work, we hear, it will require a new infrastructure. In order for a new infrastructure to be invested in by government and corporations, we will have to decide as a Culture which direction to go. Or will we? Is there more value in diversity or conformity? If diversity, will we ever have enough “buying power” behind one fuel source to justify an infrastructure overhaul? If conformity, can one alternative fuel source replace the solidarity that gasoline brought to our transportation needs? Or is the release of efficient cars an evolution of growing pains and auto-baby steps for both consumers and car companies that we’ll just have to tolerate, moving forward as best we’re able, until a clear winner emerges?
Personally, I’m going to readjust my tire pressure, change my oil, drive at 55mph, keep a close eye on gas prices, and try anything else the experts tell me will improve my gas efficiency. Maybe I can squeeze a few more mpg out of Betty Sue before I’m forced into choosing a side.
June 25th, 2008 - Posted in Behavior, Consumer Products, Cultural Trends | |
del.icio.us
| Digg it
| Furl
| reddit
| Yahoo MyWeb
| Google
| DZone
| StumbleUpon