Just Plain Bad Advice

President George W. Bush asked Americans on Monday not to drive if they don't have to, and he said the government is prepared again to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to ease pain at the pump. (read more here)

Umm… OR Mr. Bush could have told people just to not drive their big huge gas guzzling SUV’s that they got tax breaks on from the Fed. The United States government needs to recognize and provide incentives for vehicles that get over 50mpg instead of vehicles that get less than 18! Ugh, this sort of thing makes me mad. The only bright side to this is that this advice is just plain lousy and will not stop gas prices from rising. As urbanites see gas prices going up they will do what Business Week suggested and get a scooter as their second vehicle. That is exactly what we do in my family, one car (Nissan Sentra that’s good on gas) and one Vespa. Ideally I want to upgrade our Sentra to a hybrid to get about 50 or 60mpg and upgrade my Vespa ET4 that currently gets 60mpg to a Vespa GT that gets 80.

Comments

[BoyG]

The oil crunch reaches far and wide. We here in the Philippines are reeling from the effect. Gas prices have gone sky high and people are now taking to the streets on two wheels as a solution. The number of scooters and motorbikes have nearly tripled in the parking lot of my office alone. I have had to get a pass to park on the 2nd level to escape the chaos.

And it's no real mystery as to why this is happening. You can be holed up in your gas guzzling suv, complete with bling, burning precious fuel as you crawl along at round 10-20kph due to the rush hour traffic. Or you can be zipping in and around such stalled vehicles at around 40-60kph getting to work a clear 30 minutes before the poor guys you passed at the last traffic light.
Plus you get to look cool doing it too (only applicable to Vespa riders ;) ).

[trudy]

Just a quick questions, does the GT REALLY get 80 miles to the gallon?? Pretty impressive, considering the engine size......heck, I thought I was doing well with my ET2.....

[Andrew B.]

Remember it is NOT Bush's fault that gas is so high, but the Oil Cartel...OPEC. We are only costumers of OPEC and they have us by the balls. Until we open up new refineries and lift pollution restrictions (because of new refineries) none of this will change. you can blame all the Republicans you want, but the fact is that we (Americans) rely on oil. I wish we all had hybrid cars and scooters.

People in this country have free will. Some people, like ourselves choose to drive scooters or light vehicles that get great gas mileage. Some in this country choose to drive the bling bling stuff with chrome parts and 29" spinning rims, etc...

That is a cultural issue, not a Bush issue. These are issues that we need to change.

Andrew

[Karl Sooder]

GT Fuel Economy: My Vespa GT will easily achieve 60-80 MPG depending upon city or highway driving conditions. The GT was designed for over-the-road crusing/traveling and is a real 'gas miser' at 55+ MPH. On the straight, level county and state roads here in Florida, I generally move at the posted speed limits of 55-60 MPH with outstanding gas savings. It's a real 'head trip' to FILL my GT with only two [2] gallons of gas while I observe all of those SUV's and big trucks loading on 30-50 gallons with a tab often exceeding $100 during my short stop at the gas station. I try not to look 'smug'!!

[Hayes]

I've been reading this blog for a while, so here is my first comment.

I drive a new px and I know it's not the most 'clean' vespa, but I get 65 MPG and it's still new, so when it's a few month sold it shoul dget 70 MPG easily.

Two wheels good
four wheels bad