I’d agree with this statement if there was a genuinely competitive market for oil, but you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to work out (1) that the petroleum sector is subject to heavy manipulation from national governments, including taxation in importing countries and production quotas in producer nations, (2) that upstream exploration and downstream processing/value-added is strongly influenced by a handful of oil majors that have a proven track record of collusion, and (3) that the full social cost of your average tank of gas (including the cost of pollution, the long-term cost of depleting a finite resource, etc) is not/cannot be represented in the ticket price. If we had an efficient market for oil then I too would be indifferent to who uses it and how. We clearly don’t, so ipso facto the who and how questions matter.
I have not located any of these so I’ll ask.
Do any Ford stores have Explorer in the window?
Are there any Hummer shops in Taipei or Taiwan?
Would the Jeep Cherokee hold it’s value in Taiwan?
How about Escalade, have not seen it in windows or on street.
Rover seems a bit overkill for the streets of Taipei. Lexus and Infiniti too small as is Escape, CRV, etc.
[quote=“wudjamahuh”]
As far as the moral issues are concerned, I’d say that if you’ve got the money to spend on the car and the gas, you might as well be free to use it. When all is said and done with the internal combustion engine and there isn’t a drop left of oil on earth, it won’t matter who used up more of it and the ratio of emissions/driver will also be a mute point.[/quote]
I think “If I don’t, someone else will” is more a pragmatic than a moral argument. Certainly it isn’t a VERY moral argument. It reflects the way things are rather than the way they should be.
It assumes that the best thing you can do with a cheap, convenient and complex hydrocarbon soup is to burn it, (quick, before someone else does) and that the only issue is that one day there wont be any left to burn. This is, of course, a partial and inadequate view, but its the one reflected by, and in, market forces.
Observations (particularly of ice coverage) now seem to indicate that earlier climate change predictions were rather conservative. Some of the potential consequences (eg, the “methane clathrate gun” hypothesis, to take an extreme example) are very bad indeed. Perhaps not HIGHLY probable, but how probable do you want your armageddon?
One of the higher functions of society is to protect us from ourselves, a tough sell in a democracy.
[quote=“tango42”]I have not located any of these so I’ll ask.
Do any Ford stores have Explorer in the window?
Are there any Hummer shops in Taipei or Taiwan?
Would the Jeep Cherokee hold it’s value in Taiwan?
How about Escalade, have not seen it in windows or on street.
Rover seems a bit overkill for the streets of Taipei. Lexus and Infiniti too small as is Escape, CRV, etc.[/quote]
Full size SUV, huh?..how much your budget? if no limit, try Lexus LX470, VW Touareq, Porsche Cayenne or Audi Q7…those SUVs quite common here and got official dealer…
[quote=“tango42”]I have not located any of these so I’ll ask.
Do any Ford stores have Explorer in the window?
Are there any Hummer shops in Taipei or Taiwan?
Would the Jeep Cherokee hold it’s value in Taiwan?
How about Escalade, have not seen it in windows or on street.
Rover seems a bit overkill for the streets of Taipei. Lexus and Infiniti too small as is Escape, CRV, etc.[/quote]
My former bushiban boss bought an Explorer from one of the Ford stores here in taipei abt three years ago for NT$1.8 million.
As for the Hummer, I don’t think there’re shops here. But I’m certain u can find used ones from local used car dealers. 7-11 sells Used Car mags, u can check them out.
[quote=“tango42”]I have not located any of these so I’ll ask.
Do any Ford stores have Explorer in the window?
Are there any Hummer shops in Taipei or Taiwan?
Would the Jeep Cherokee hold it’s value in Taiwan?
How about Escalade, have not seen it in windows or on street.
Rover seems a bit overkill for the streets of Taipei. Lexus and Infiniti too small as is Escape, CRV, etc.[/quote]
My former bushiban boss bought an Explorer from one of the Ford stores here in taipei abt three years ago for NT$1.8 million.(He bought a brown one…yuk)
As for the Hummer, I don’t think there’re shops here. But I’m certain u can find used ones from local used car dealers. 7-11 sells Used Car mags, u can check them out.
Looked at the Lexus, VW, Porsche, etc. but all too luxurious and more like old-man or soccer-mom rides. I am looking for something more off-road capable preferrebly new.
The Lexus LX470 is a very offroad capable vechicle. It’s a land cruiser with extras, basically.
Just cant imagine driving a hummer on the narrow roads of taiwan? OR a navigator for that matter. 12mpg?? on a good day? gee. Why?? The question has to be why?
p.s. I think the Range Rover is the best looking SUV out there. And I see tons of different SUV everyday here in the bay area. The Range Rover is THE BEST looking. But same lousy 12mpg.
No beating a live rear axle and a traction control system that actually works.
Skip the Brit stuff, especially Freelander. It has about as much suspension travel as a mid-70’s American Buick, and is about as off road capable. It also lacks low range, and is disgustingly overpriced. Ford Explorer is only marginally better, with the older ones being more offroad capable than the new.
Your only real options new at this point are the Jeep Liberty, Jeep Wrangler(extended wheelbase), Jeep Grand Cherokee, Suzuki XL 7, Mitsubishi Challenger, Lexus 470 and the Tourag (It is by far the most capable of the "I wannabe 4 wheel independent suspension SUV’s).
Don’t forget the Toyota Tacoma/Tundra crew cab pickups…Lower tax, and standard locking rear diffs.
Buying a new SUV now seems kind of silly to me, when the best performers are out there used and ready to be wheeled. Isuzu, Infinity, Jeep Grand Cherokee (can buy for a song) and the older 2.5liter Cherokees, Suzuki, etc.
There’s a 2003 Landcruiser on yahoo.com.tw
The price isn’t listed and I’m guessing it’s way inflated but a pretty sweet SUV nevertheless.
[quote=“MJB”][quote=“Mr He”]
Skip the Brit stuff, especially Freelander. It has about as much suspension travel as a mid-70’s American Buick, and is about as off road capable. It also lacks low range, and is disgustingly overpriced. Ford Explorer is only marginally better, with the older ones being more offroad capable than the new.[/quote]
What Car: [quote]It’s the Disco’s sheer depth of talent that has sealed its second victory. None of the Discovery’s key rivals can match its no-nonsense image or ability in the rough, yet it’s also as classy and refined as an executive saloon and as practical as an MPV.[/quote][/quote]
I have never heard of a LandRover/Rangerover being offroad incapable before aside from the Freelander perhaps which is a bit lame. Most people rave about most models however being the best offroad that they have ever driven. I’m from a background of 4x4s too with most of my former customers being large landowners/farmers.
The downside to the British stuff however is reliability which is very poor, and exactly where the Japanese wins hands down.
Unless it is the most serious of offroad conditions then stick with Japanese, then LandRover; American stuff like Jeep can work offroad too, but again reliability issues should be a concern.
Now, if you buy 4 wheel drives second hand, wouldn’t it be a good thing to check if they are legit?
I am not thinking about stolen, however you have to get them inspected once in a while - and a car with an extreme body lift kit won’t do.
Perhaps MJB has some comments to this?
(I will need something very spacious in the future, however I think I will go for a van, as they are cheaper on fuel, and cheaper to maintain. I don’t off road)
I didn’t mention them because of the upgraded tax bracket. It’s stiff enough already at 36k per annum but an Explorer with a 4.0liter engine will be nearly 50k per year.
Ouch.
Makes them cheap used though. You can get an 06 model for well under a million now.[/quote]
Ford dealer in Tainan tells me the last new ones are being/were sold off at 1.38 million. Doesn’t think there is any new stock left, and they don’t plan to import any more.
Out of idle curiosity I had a look on Wikipedia (must be true) and came across this snippet “The new Explorer is marketed in Japan in a left-hand drive configuration, as LHD vehicles are considered prestigious there.” Truly there is nowt so queer as folk.
I saw a feature in a Taiwanese car mag “testing” a MOWAG on Anping beach, near Tainan (which is extremely challenging in the places where its poorly consolidated pumped dredging spoil). If you REALLY wanted to go off road, one of those looks the biz. Couldn’t read the article, though, so I dunno where they got it from.
Well, I’d loooove to have one of these…
I lived in one of these in London for a while
cgi.ebay.co.uk/renolds-boughton- … RCH:GB:101
only not a tipper, not 4WD, and probably in better condition than this example. It had a bigger-than-a-studio-flat (ex British Telecom workshop) box-back camper conversion, and it made my mouth dry every time I drove it in London. Forwards wasn’t too bad (people got out of the way) but I used to hit things (like factories and blocks of flats) when reversing.
I had an idea of taking it to Mauritania, but (incredibly?) this HUGE, YELLOW object was NICKED. Guy who did the MOT said they were often exported to Africa, so maybe it made it without me.
I think a 4WD version (with someone else driving it) would be pretty good, like a simpler MOWAG at a fraction the price. The (British) army (who couldn’t afford MOWAG’s except maybe as a special treat for the SAS) ran a few, but I only ever saw one, parked in the Horse Guards barracks.
Anyway, sorry. My vehicular nostalgia has bugger all to do with Taiwan.
Edit: More apologies. All my refs above to “MOWAG” should be to (Mercedes) “UNIMOG” (as in MJB’s picture). Got the names mixed up. Often used as snowplough’s in Scotland. Dunno what they use them for here.
Nice!
[quote=“NYT”]The demand for fuel-efficient small cars and hybrids is so fierce that automakers cannot produce them fast enough.
[…]
With gasoline prices topping $4 a gallon, consumers are overwhelming dealerships with demand for the littlest vehicles in the showroom. [color=green][Gee, I wonder what how higher gasoline taxes might drive market demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles.][/color]
Mr. Libby said that the tiny Honda Fit is on a dealer’s lot an average of 11 days before it is sold, half the time of traditional quick sellers like the Cadillac CTS and Mercedes-Benz C300 luxury sedans.
“These are amazingly low numbers for a car of this type,” he said. “If gas prices stay where they are, I think we’ll see this for quite a while.”
Hybrids are even more difficult to buy. Four of the 10 fastest-selling vehicles are hybrids, led by the Toyota Prius, which sells within four days of arriving at the dealer, according to J. D. Power. The average time to sale for the industry in June, by comparison, is 57 days. [/quote]
My brother in Seattle had a fairly new VW Jetta, but he bikes to work most of the time, so it wasn’t used much except to take him up to the mountains for skiing. He realized that that wasn’t the right vehicle for the job, so he sold it and bought this four wheel drive blast from the past:
He likes it a lot.
Is that an old jeep wagoneer?