mercedes benzI honestly can’t understand why some people think that everyone should own a “fuel efficient” vehicle from an Iowa City dealer. Sure, I’m all for the conservation of our resources – why waste stuff? But it’s the definition of waste that I think we’ve taken totally out of context.

Back in the late ’60s and early ’70s automakers were pretty much free to put whatever they wanted under the hood. But in ’74 came the OPEC gas crisis that the government met with emissions and fuel efficiency standards.

Here’s the deal. Fuel efficient vehicles are great, I’ve got nothing bad to say about them. But what people don’t realize (which actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it) is that people drive their fuel efficient vehicles from Dickinson dealers considerably more than they drove their “non” fuel efficient vehicles. A study done by the Heritage Foundation illustrates this and also goes on to say that since people drive these new vehicles more, it in now way offsets the amount of CO2 that’s pumped into the atmosphere.

Think about that logic for a second. If you just sold your 1995 Chevy Suburban to a Sioux City dealer to buy a brand new Honda Civic you’re obviously going to save a lot at the pump. You’re also going to drive that vehicle more because you can go so much further on the same tank of gas.

Also, another thing that people don’t think about is that vehicles that get 14 or so miles to the gallon is actually pretty good. A gallon of gasoline is considered to be the equivalent of 500 man hours of work. Five hundred all from that little milk jug. A vehicle with a 20-gallon fuel cell has the capacity of doing 10,000 man hours of work. If you don’t believe that, then try digging the foundation of a 2,000 square foot house with just you and your shovel.

At the end of the day, fuel efficiency is still great. But there are still things that we really can’t (well we could, but who wants to) replace with super efficient things.