Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] computer and car prices (was Re: [MLUG])

[Jonathan King <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Mon, 4 Mar 2002, Michael wrote:

> To some extent. With cars there is a lot of politics involved I
> think.

Yes, you bet.  And a lot of the politics have been about safety 
regulations and/or making the marketplace less competitive.

> They've made great progress but a good majority of the cars lag
> behind what is possible. Why do some cars get 85mpg while a
> great many of them get < 25mpg?

Um, I don't know of any 4-passenger sedans that get 85 mpg, so that
has to be part of it.  I think there are surprising limits to how
small you want a car to be and hace some control over safety, which
will push down mpg numbers quite a bit.  Another related big problem
with the naive comparison of raw mpg numbers is that different cars
hold different numbers of people in ordinary situations.  So, a lot
of sportier cars have (vestigial) back seats, but let's be serious
about how often it gets used.  If that car gets 25 mpg toting around
an average of 1.5 people, while a station wagon gets only 18 mpg but
usually totes 3.0 people, nobody should be confused about which is
being more efficient.

[snip]

> Cars are somewhat more reliable but from the numbers I've read
> from inflation reports etc they are quite a bit more expensive
> to start and repairs cost more.

I'd like to see where those numbers are coming from.  Everything I
have seen suggests automobile *prices* have basically tracked the
CPI since the 1960s, while the cars themselves last almost twice as
long.  Total expenditure on cars probably has not reflected these 
changes because there are many more cars in circulation per person 
than their used to be.

Now there are other ways of looking at historical changes in car
prices.  Check out:

   http://papers.nber.org/papers/W5035

> I'm not sure I'd agree cars are safer. They replaced metal with
> plastic and I've known way too many people who've died in car
> crashes due largely to faulty vehicles.

OK, the big improvements have come due to innovations like seat 
belts; I'll check the numbers again some time.

> Maybe expensive cars are safer. The cheap bubble cars most of us
> seem to end up with aren't so decent.

They're probably better than the cheap cars of yester year, though.

jking


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