Days are not far off when people won't be able to give those sorts of vehicles away.
As recently as a couple of months ago I was contemplating selling my motorcycle seeing as I hardly ever use it, but I've decided to keep it, for no reason other than seeing which way gas prices are going.
I think the coming energy crisis is going to be bad - worse than the 1970s. And dumb/short-sighted consumer habits/bull-headed stupidity on the part of U.S. automakers will only exacerbate the situation - just like happened in the 1970s. Funny how ignoring problems leads us full-circle, right back where we were before. Like this wasn't predictable. . .
This will be a prolonged problem. There's no "silver bullet" other than curtailing demand and making dramatic, painful lifestyle changes to compensate for the greedy and short-sighted stupidity we've indulged in for so long. The frustrating thing is, we were aware of this problem looming 30+ years ago and did nothing, opting to pretend the problem wasn't real, beat our chests about how great we were, revel in our own supposed magnificence and pretend the problem didn't exist. Funny how problems like this come home to roost. It won't go away either.
[RANT]Whether one liked Jimmy Carter and his politics or hated them, he did one thing right - which was to at least try to encourage the U.S. to get off of foreign energy dependence and explore alternatives. I remember in the late 1970s when Carter put solar panels on the White House (admittedly this was more of a P.R. gesture than any sort of actual sustainable design initiative, but I give him credit for at least starting to make an effort). When Reagan came to town in the early 1980s, one of his first actions was to rip down the solar panels. It wasn't due to his love for the W.H. as a historic building either - it embodied his "me first, f*ck everyone else (especially our kids)" attitude. It went hand-in-hand with his run-up in the national deficit very nicely. While I give Reagan credit for doing a lot of things right, one thing he did VERY wrong was to completely ignore the fact that as a nation, we're hopelessly dependent on foreign energy supply - and such supplies are finite. His "solution" to problems was to either beat them with a stick and use America's brawn rather than its brain, or to downplay/ignore them (sound familiar?). His "only today matters" cowboy/cavalier attitude (remind anyone else of any other WH occupants you know?) and lack of long-term vision was/is a real problem.
We had 30+ years to take the good/wise aspects of the Carter administration (and admittedly of the Reagan administration too, although this wouldn't include sound/sustainable/forward-thinking energy policy) and act on them as a nation - and we did nothing. I guess it was just easier to b*tch and whine and divide ourselves along lines of petty partisan bickering and watch television and hand our money to terrorist-sympathizing middle easterners and amuse ourselves with presidential blowjobs. This is another shining example of how we talk out both sides of our mouths as a nation, saying "we love our children", while we simultaneously do everything possible to hand them the most screwed-up, disadvantaged, problem-saddled society imaginable. The whole "do what feels good today and our kids will fix the mess tomorrow" is an attitude that was spawned in the Reagan years and we still haven't realized collectively that it is NOT a solution to anything and that problems don't either go away or magically fix themselves. . . [/RANT]
I predict that (just like the 1970s), U.S. automakers are going to get slaughtered by the Europeans & Japanese (especially the Japanese) and see their market share cut dramatically due to their short-sighted obstinance in thinking that big, dumb vehicles (demanded for the most part by big, dumb Americans, ironically) represent a permanent solution to American consumer choice.
History repeats. This is going to play out EXACTLY like the 1970s. Almost scripted. Except this one will go on indefinitely.
Hmm. Wonder how long it'll be before all those stupid H2 owners start whining to government about how they were "misled" and "victimized" by those big mean dealerships and how they should be entitled to a government bailout for the unjustified depreciation in their vehicles. It'd be funny if it weren't so true. I'll wager $100 that someone, somewhere actually demands this or files suit over it. Welcome to the new America - land of the fee, home of the victim.