A public service announcement.

Really really doubt it, there's no need. The cars will get replaced naturally as people that need a new vehicle all the time switch to electric. This isn't cars for clunkers, the contribution to emissions will become unimportant without any major effort to piss anyone off (over a 20 year period). Taxing gas more will just piss people off and no politician that wants to get elected will do it, and they don't need to. Hell, we're likely to get grandfathered into a classic car status exempt from stuff due to the tiny size of the market we're in as XJ owners. You think they're gonna start pulling 67 Chevy's off the road? Too tiny to give a crap about.



The sky is not falling is all I'm saying, at least for us.

asymptonic said:

I do plan on electrifying a YJ as an in town vehicle for a fun engineering project, and use the XJ until I'm dead.

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How far are you in to this plan? Just curious if you plan to use a "kit" (if one exists?) or piece it together yourself.

pablos said:

And it's so nice that we're forced to use gasahol...

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Ah, "Gasahol" - that name's a blast from the past.

Back in the 80-82 timeframe, my dad poured a bottle of STP Gasohol into the tank of my mother's Fairmont wagon one saturday when doing some maintenance on it.

Next morning we all piled into that car to go to church and then to my grandparent's house after. We didn't even make it the 10 minutes/2.5 miles to the highway when the car started sputtering horribly, dad had to turn us around and limp the thing back home (all uphill, or course, and it fought him all the way) so we could transfer to his car.

When he got it to a mechanic a day or two later, it turned out the alcohol in that stuff ate the diaphraghm right out of the fuel pump (78 Ford, carbureted I6) because the stuff was methanol-based instead of ethanol and he had to pay for a new pump. Back then most rubber in automotive fuel systems was not very alcohol-tolerant.

He still had a bottle of the stuff on the garage shelf (he'd bought two, had only used the one at that point), and it stayed unopened on the shelf for years afterward - he wouldn't touch it after the fuel pump incident...

There is the same issue with Bio Deisel and o-rings in the fuel pump. Also, see Porsche developing a synthetic fuel. They have a plant down in Peru. $$$ though.

Yep, remember running across that when I first joined my TDI forum after buying my Jetta, but by 2001-2002 VW seemed to have transitioned all their "soft" parts to new materials that don't have issues with Biodiesel (which is different from synthetic or renewable diesel).

The electric market is still too new to dramatically affect the tax base but what everyone seems to be missing is that the roads we drive on are primarily funded by the tax on gasoline. When the ratio of electric:gas turns, there is going to be a massive problem and I doubt that most "electric converts" understand that at some point they are either going to have to pay a MASSIVE premium for their vehicles, a HUGE tax on their electric bill or a see a jump in prices that makes it impossible for them to justify electric.


Not only are the electric crowd getting a free ride (at the moment), the batteries in their cars result in their cars weighing a heck of a lot more than a traditional gas vehicle which translates to more wear on the road system, engineering impacts to things like parking garages and lets not even mention what happens when one of them catches fire.


Full disclosure: "I am NOT a fan" but I understand why people want to move in this direction. Having said this, I also foresee that at some point the economics of this direction will be exposed and gas powered vehicles will regain popularity.


As I see it, the electric vehicle community is taking advantage of a loop-hole called "road tax" and at some point, this loop-hole is going to close making them much less attractive....

I do drive a Chevy Volt. I mainly use 'gas' power. I do pay ax 'electric' tax on it every year. Its not that much. I think some States are looking at a road milage tax. I could see a road milage and weight tax. I think the Semis and diesel are taxed as such. As vehicles are more efficient, there is a lack of funding for road maintenance.