When I write The Morning Dump I never shy away from politics, because cars are inherently political. I do, however, try not to be partisan. Car enthusiasm is one of the last, best ways we have to get people of various beliefs and backgrounds together, and The Autopian is for everyone.
It can be hard sometimes, and I usually have David or Jason around to do a read of what I write to see if I’ve done a good job of not making it seem like my beliefs are, in some way, being presented as everyone’s belief. They’re both out and the news is extremely political. I’ll do my best. I also hope you’ll do your best in the comments to keep it all productive.
Gas prices are elevated and, likely, will stay elevated for the near future. Americans will continue to pay more and more for healthcare and never do anything about it, but gas prices are somehow sacrosanct. One proposal is to reduce the federal gas tax which, on its own, isn’t likely to do much.
You know what’s great timing? The Secretary of Transportation went on a seven-month road trip with his family ostensibly paid by the same companies he regulates, and the message is basically: Gas up the car and go for a drive. Great timing, dude!
Maybe it’s the right time for an electric Volkswagen Golf? Nope! The electric Golf has been pushed out until at least 2028. That’s better than Mazda, which is putting out its first dedicated, non-Chinese-built EV until at least 2029.
Lowering The Federal Gas Tax Doesn’t Solve Many Problems, But It Sure Creates Some New Ones
My theory on the psychology of gas prices, which applies to eggs and milk, is that the numbers are small enough and seen frequently enough that human beings can’t avoid being upset about it. If the price of a hip surgery goes up by $30,000 you’re probably not getting hip surgeries frequently enough to know that’s happening. Unless you drink a truly frightening amount of milk, an extra $1 a gallon is probably not as damaging to your finances as $100 monthly increase in rent, but the milk feels worse. It feels like a betrayal.
One day you go to the gas station and it costs you $82 to fill up your car, compared to the $51 you spent last time. That’s what happened to me this weekend and it felt bad.
I remember going to a gas station in California a few years ago during the height of gas prices out there and I saw one of those stickers with the president on it and it said “I did that.” It irked me, mostly because I didn’t think President Biden was responsible for invading Ukraine. Those stickers have returned, this time with a different president, and under very different circumstances.
Clearly, President Trump is bothered by the higher gas prices, and both he and a bipartisan group of lawmakers have come out in support of lowering the gas tax for a bit, as CBS News reports:
“I think it’s a great idea,” the president said. “Yup, we’re going to take off the gas tax for a period of time, and when gas goes down, we’ll let it phase back in.”
To clarify, since the early 1990s, the gas tax has been $0.184 per gallon of gasoline and $0.244 per gallon of diesel. State and local governments, though, tend to add a lot more than that. In Illinois, for instance, the combined gasoline tax is nearly $0.85 when all taxes are added up. If you managed to lower all of the gas taxes, it would, in theory, help lower some costs. Current estimates are anywhere from $0.10 to $0.15 a gallon, which isn’t a ton, but isn’t nothing.
In practice, it’s a little harder to say what the outcome will be. Energy economist Phillip Verleger calls it the “Gasoline Tax Hoax” because of how supply and demand actually works.
One can also offer an extreme example in which, say, the state of Rhode Island decides to subsidize gasoline to bring prices there down to $1 per gallon in a world of $4.50-per-gallon gasoline. Gasoline sales in Rhode Island would surge, while gasoline purchases in neighboring Connecticut and Massachusetts would drop. Assuming suppliers could adjust the supply distribution to keep the tanks in Rhode Island full, there would be a minimal impact on national consumption, and consumers who could get to Rhode Island would see the price cut benefit.
The situation would be different, though, if the cut that brought prices to $1 per gallon were extended to all consumers. The resulting 75-percent decline in nationwide prices would boost national consumption by perhaps as much as six percent, based on the very low short-run price elasticity of demand.
However, a problem would quickly arise unless suppliers could boost supplies by six percent. If not, prices would quickly jump back to $4 per gallon. Refiners and marketers would pocket the government subsidy.
So not only might fuel prices not drop, we may also end up using roads more at time when the suspension of the gas tax means billions and billions of dollars are no longer there to fund road or transit projects. It’s good for oil companies, sure, but we’re just giving them a temporary handout while requiring either more debt or more taxes in the future to pay for roads, which just creates more problems down the line.
I think the appeal for both Congress and the White House is that it at least gives the appearance of doing something. Oh, hey, speaking of doing something. I wonder what the Secretary of Transportation has been up to lately?
The Secretary Of Transportation Launches Road Trip Reality Show At Basically Worst Time
Full disclosure: I always seem to have a trouble with the current Secretary of Transportation, no matter who that is, and it generally has nothing to do with their politics. If you asked me to tell you the last time we had a good, Senate-appointed Secretary of Transportation (I’m excusing acting directors), I’d maybe have to say Rodney Slater, way back when I was 14. If you’re gonna argue for Norman Mineta… I’ll maybe also accept that argument.
I think we need to fundamentally fix and improve our national transportation system, which would require a kind of strong vision that helped create the interstate system we associate with President Eisenhower. In this way, I’m usually disappointed, because most of them accomplish very little.
Our current Secretary Transportation, the former reality TV star Sean Duffy, has at least found a way to make many, many people mad.
As you can see in the trailer above, the Secretary of Transportation and his TV host wife, as well as their kids, have been making a reality TV show around going on a lot of road trips for, as the Department of Transportation calls it, “an unforgettable civic experience as they rediscover the people and places defining our national identity for America’s 250th birthday.”
I’m not entirely sure that the initial instinct here is entirely bad. Road trips are awesome, and for the 250th, taking a road trip or two in order to promote American tourism seems fine. I’m dragging my own kid, via car and rail, out to various historic places and national parks.
It’s the extreme, reality TV version of it that seems to be making people mad. There is no Secretary of Transportation in history that I’d want to watch spend seven months going on road trips. Well, maybe William Thaddeus Coleman Jr., but even then it’s a stretch.
Clearly, the timing is not great, and you can see it in the comments of the YouTube trailer, which include gems such as:
I’m Retired Navy. I’m lucky I have enough gas to get groceries.
And:
While planes were crashing, air traffic controllers and TSA not getting paid, airport lines in chaos, airlines going bankrupt, and gas prices exploding, our Transportation Secretary was on a SEVEN MONTH LONG road trip with his family filming a reality show?
To Secretary Duffy’s credit, this thing has been filming so long that gas prices were probably way lower when he, say, drove out to hang out with Kid Rock, which is something every Cabinet member has to do for some reason. Also, the government did not foot the bill for this, according to the Department of Transportation. Who did? NPR has some details:
Those involved say production costs were covered by a nonprofit by the same name, The Great American Road Trip Inc. Its public list of sponsors is stacked with travel-related companies — like Toyota, Boeing and United Airlines — with ties to the Department of Transportation, raising more questions.
On Monday, the nonprofit government watchdog group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with Transportation’s Office of Inspector General, accusing Duffy of violating federal gift and travel rules, and calling on the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General to investigate.
“You have everyday Americans who are struggling with the price of gas, struggling with the costs of everyday items, and you have the cabinet secretary announcing that he is going on a trip with his entire family, which appears to have been funded by the industries that his department is overseeing,” CREW president Donald Sherman tells NPR.
The interesting conundrum here is: Is it worse to have taxpayers pay for the vacation, or worse to have companies regulated by the Secretary of Transportation pay for the vacation?
Volkswagen Confirms The Electric Golf Isn’t Coming Soon
It’s been a wild ride for the electric Volkswagen Golf. Early last year, the conversation was whether or not the electric Golf GTI should have fake shifts, and by the end of the year the discussion was whether or not Volkswagen could even afford to build it.
According to CEO Thomas Schäfer in this Autocar article, it’s gonna be a hot minute before we get the electric Golf:
Schäfer told the FT’s Future of the Car event in London this morning: “We have a fantastic line-up now that we do not need an electric Golf in 2028. We are well set with what we have in our portfolio with our vehicles.”
Volkswagen’s existing EV line-up will be joined this year by a new range of electric models that include the new ID Polo, updated ID 3 Neo and incoming ID Cross. Schäfer’s comments suggest the Golf EV’s later-than-expected launch is partly tactical to give these new arrivals some market exposure before the first electric version of its most popular and well-known model is launched.
However, another reason, he hinted, was a further delay to the SSP platform that will underpin the Golf EV. The new architecture will form the basis of the next-generation of Volkswagen Group vehicles and Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume previously claimed it would bring price parity between ICE and EV models.
The first SSP cars will probably be Porsche and Audi, but until Volkswagen gets the scale it needs, the math just doesn’t work.
Mazda Doesn’t Have To Take An EV Write-Down Because It Didn’t Spend That Much
Mazda, smartly, did not put too many eggs in the EV egg basket, and is now delaying its global EV plans to 2029 while it focuses on hybrids. It’ll still sell Chinese-built EVs like the Mazda 6e, but it’s seeing more growth in hybrids, so that’s where the money is going.
Also, as Mazda CEO Masahiro Moro points out (via Automotive News), by being late Mazda didn’t have to take a multibillion dollar hit to its bottom line:
“Did we have to impair or write off any facilities? We have not,” Moro said May 12, while announcing the Japanese carmaker’s financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31.
“We made the decision before we started. For battery EVs we were always careful.”
Mazda Motor Corp., a self-described “intentional follower” on EVs, trailed global rivals in developing the technology, partly because of its limited R&D budget and partly out of prudence. But being late allows Mazda to sidestep the billions of dollars in wasted investment claimed by such rivals as Honda Motor Co., General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis.
Decade of the Hybrid, et cetera.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
There are a lot of incredible MTV Unplugged performances, and it’s hard to pick out a favorite, but “Down in a Hole” by Alice in Chains is surely up there.
The Big Question
Do you have any big road trips planned?
Top photo: Deposit Photos
We’re doing some camping later in the summer. Maaaaaybe a trip down to Socal for some theme parks with the kiddos.
The big trip this year is Germany for three weeks. My wife and kids are German citizens. We went last year, and usually go every other year, but there’s a bunch of big family milestones being celebrated so we’re doing it again next month. I have mixed feelings about these trips. On the one hand I’m in Europe. On the other, it isn’t a vacation per se. It’s mostly hanging out in the same few small villages in the countryside. Lovely, but it’s basically just living life in another country. And we’ve been doing this 15 years now.
I’m concerned about getting home this time around with Jet fuel availability coming into question. I really hope flights don’t get cancelled.
I wouldn’t be too concerned about gettIng home,you may experience some delays or possibly being shuffled off to another airline,but as long as you have already booked the trip you should be fine?
I’m doing a 2000 mile round trip in June, the best part of it besides getting to see kids/grands/great grands is I’ll be driving a MINI, and expect to get about 35 mpg even with the A/C on and on the cruise control. Still, it will cost me more overall….
Road trips are the stuff dreams are made of…taking serious liberties with Shakespeare there, but the camp mobile Lexus get about 17MPG. I mean even taking unto account the 0 cost of occasional boondocking, and IF I use recommended premium that’s about 700+ to get from here on Lake Michigan Denver and back. If one factors in the psychological damage of traversing Nebraska double that cost.
“Do you have any big road trips planned?”
Not unless The Great American Road Trip Inc. will be funding it.
Starting Monday we’re on a road trip to Seattle (Edmonds) from Sacramento (Nevada City) with a day trip into Vancouver Canada (Steveston), then down to Des Moine WA. Does that count? It does to me.
“I didn’t think Joe Biden started the war in Ukraine” OK, granted, but this isn’t an opinion that he did not start that war – it’s a fact that he did not, and a fact that Russia did. Under normal circumstances it’s fine to be nonpartisan. When one party, and in particular its leader, has untethered itself wholly from facts and reality and treats them as “partisan”, nonpartisanship is not called for.Honesty is. I do find the Trump “I did this” stickers slightly delicious, but they also have the benefit of being true – he and Netanyahu *did* start this war, and did directly cause not only higher gas prices for Americans but also cause the biggest energy shock in history and cause real hardship for vast numbers of people around the globe.
This is just one example, but there’s a point when facts have to be treated as such even when an entire party treats them otherwise. This kind of thing is not exactly central to the site, but it’s impossible to avoid in TMD.
With you 100%. Facts are not partisan, they are facts.
I’m in rural Tennessee now. Every other vehicle is some full size truck. Likewise probably driven by a trumper. It’s the same across Trump country: buy the biggest truck to impress the other boys.
Well…those people are getting fucked up the rear over these gas prices. If what it takes to get these fucks to finally come to their senses I’m all for it. Bring it on.
It’s the same out here in the Central Valley. I have a half ton Silverado but luckily also an ID4.
Guess which one is only getting driven on weekends.
Yep. I live in the Bay Area and as soon as you get out that way it turns into super-duper-redneckland, which surprises people who don’t live in California and just assume the whole state is filled with nothing but liberals. I’ve been there 26 years and I would say the majority of the actual land mass is inhabited by rednecks- using that term generically. But its the same everywhere. Leave the city and it turns right back into bros, Murican’ flags, giant lifted trucks with tires sticking out 2 feet from the fenders and so on. A sea of sameness.
Luckily my typical annual drive to NC from NY has been put on hold, so there’s a few bucks saved. Opted to make our summer vacation easy and reasonable this year, so we rented a place that’s only about two hours away. I feel validated lol.
I live on the other side of the planet to the US now. Yet, I am paying substantially more for things in my everyday life due to the wankstains in charge of the US. The interest rates for my mortgage have gone up due to the Iranian War, the economy is on slowdown putting my job at risk and we are forgoing plans for road trips.
Feels good man.
Yeah exactly. All of the people I know who live overseas are getting screwed by this.
Wankstains. Thank you for expanding my vocabulary!
About that interesting conundrum, the problem isn’t whether he pays for it with bribe money or pays for it by misappropriation of taxpayers money, it is that he isn’t paying for his own families vacation with his own money. And no, I don’t mean money made by cluing in our adversaries (not a grey area, bright red traitorous espionage hiding behind the tissue thin veil of “Internet”) with insider information fueled polymarket “bets”.
Sorry, too pissed off to form a sentence.
The Mrs. suggested we take a road trip on the original Route 66 to celebrate it’s centennial of existence. Our home state of Oklahoma is really pushing Route 66 tourism this year.
So we’re going to fly up to Chicago, rent a ‘vert Mustang and the three of us (and puppy) will take th original road to California over a span of two weeks and then fly home.
Hoping our daughter will earn some Junior Ranger National Park badges during the trip.
That sounds awesome. Love a good road trip.
Is it bad to say if you voted for the dummy you owe us all gas money?
No…as Fred Sanford would say:
“Ya big dummy!”
I’m having so much fun envisioning a carpool driver explaining that anyone who voted for the dummy has to pay a double share of the gas $.
Can’t wait for the roads to be in even further disrepair. Typical short term gain for long term loss we love so much.
late stage capitalism baby. So awesome.
Brought to us via 3rd world roads
Pairs well with disappearing sidewalls.
I drive around the Sierra Nevada for work. Yeah, I get paid to take mini road trips every day. But last week I paid $7.30/gal. What was I supposed to do, coast uphill until I could find cheaper gas?
Moving from California to Texas next week, so about a 1200 mile drive. I already moved 90% of all my possessions back in January, so I’m glad I drove the U-Haul and got my 9 MPG in it back when gas prices were normal.
THIS drive will be in my Camry Hybrid, and if I stick to 65 MPH or so, I should be able to get around 45 MPG depending on how much A/C I use. Also, gas will get progressively cheaper as I drive West to East.
Honestly from what I’ve seen, people will save a similar amount on gas just by driving 5-10 MPH slower as opposed to suspending the Federal gas tax. $0.18 per gallon is honestly almost nothing, firmly in “pissing on a forest fire” territory for me.
Oh, and my wife is currently flying between Cali and Texas and the price of tickets has skyrocketed. Fortunately, I bought her ticket before all this, but the same ticket today would cost $300 more than 2 months ago, and Delta just increased their baggage fee from $35 for the first bag to $45 for the first bag. I can afford it, but a lot of people can’t, and I would definitely rather be spending that extra money on something useful as opposed to cover a pointlessly higher cost of living.
I booked a “first class” seat on SW last week because it includes a checked bag, which is cheaper than the peasant fare + separate checked bag. So glad I’m running out of travel steam with no real trips planned in the near future. Kind of doubt I’ll plan any, anyways.
Southwest has a first class. are you sure?
I’m not sure about first class, but they have changed a lot over the past like 2 years
Road trips? Yes, Power Tour the second week in June and a music festival in southwest Virginia over Memorial Day weekend, which will be 1,000 miles on its own