Used Value vs Age

[jyoutz]

This makes me laugh!
Emissions have cost us fuel mileage since day one.
No direct comparrison for tractors but every car, truck and motorcycle I own with emissions has given less mpg than a similar vehicle before.

What? Non of the pre emissions 1970s vehicles I owned got more than 20 mpg. Now we’re driving vehicles with 30-40 mpg (except trucks).

 

[jyoutz]

Not only do they reduce efficiency, but they also create more heat.
Anyone who makes a living around machinery or vehicles knows those hot DPFs, Catalytic Converters, etc create equipment life-shortening heat which creates all kinds of issues, from the possibility of wild fires, to discomfort of operation, requiring more air conditioning in cabs to shortening of component life, requiring more parts and services, which means more parts to be made in factories, which means increased pollution. More service truck trips from the dealer to the farm, mine, etc means more air pollution from service truck exhausts. Also there’s a human component. More service truck trips means more possibilities of death or injury in vehicular accidents or service persons injured servicing pollution equipment.
People in colleges just don’t understand the impact of all this pollution stuff they force on us. It’s not thought through completely.

I’m sure that you’re old enough that you remember all of the terrible pollution, smog, and grey skies with acid rain that we experienced in the 1970s. Those conditions are rare today thank to air quality regulations that were advocated by the Nixon administration. The same with water quality. I wouldn’t want to go back to those days.

 

[jyoutz]

So yes, some components last longer, but the topic you introduced is efficiency in equipment (not vehicles) so I’m having a bit of trouble following.
But if we are veering over into cars and equipment lasting longer, Id venture to say the older equipment was built heavier and stronger than the newer plastic stuff. But the plastic doesn’t rust.
Look at older (like 20-50 year old) tractors. They were built when engineers were in charge.
Seen more than my share of million mile Chevy 350 engines and million mile 5.9L Cummins diesels. Anti rust has improved with the introduction of aluminum and plastic. Hardly hi-tech breakthroughs.
Now it’s bean counters and enviromentalists in charge of cars and equipment

I sure don’t remember any of those old 70-80s Chevy 350s going one million miles. I do know of several 1 million miles 5.9 Cummins. My recollection of the old 350 Chevy gassers was they were good for about 150k before rebuilding and pretty much unsellable after 100k miles. I owned 2 of those. I remember doing regular tuneups every 20k miles, plugs, points, condensers, wires, timing. And they would run good for awhile before needing another tune-up. And who can forget those damn carburetors and the rebuilding kits. Drum brakes? Oh yeah, an exciting ride in the mountains if you neglected the regular manual adjustments. I’ll take a modern vehicle any day. I spent a lot of wrenching time on those old vehicles.

 

[jyoutz]

Nuclear is a great option power wise, but the issue is the time it takes to create a viable plant. No one wants to do it because it is way more expensive than currently available NG plants. The ROI is bad. That said, perhaps taxpayers should fund it...but I really hate letting the government manage anything. They just suck at it.

Seems like the private electric utilities in Texas also kinda suck at building facilities that can handle cold weather.

 

[jyoutz]

Cop out?

Ok, so in your world, we manufacture widgets under strict pollution guidelines, at a much more costly rate.
Meanwhile China, India, Mexico produce same widgets without strict pollution guidelines at a much cheaper rate.

Now seriously, how long do you think we can compete for consumers worldwide or domestically if our widgets are the same widgets, but cost more?

Any idea what that will do to our manufacturing sector?

Labor costs including benefits affects US product competitiveness much more than environmental regulations. This is evident even in manufacturing of products not affected by environmental regulations. I wear Whites boots for work. They are 100% US made and they cost $500/pair due to the hand labor involved and wages for skilled workers. I also own some Allen Edmonds dress shoes made in Wisconsin at $400/pair. A nice wool cruiser jacket made by Filson in Seattle is $500. None of the manufacturers have facilities that involve pollution regulations, but these products can’t compete with mass manufacturers in Asia or Mexico at much cheaper labor costs. Also, I visited a Ford production plant in Chihuahua Mexico three years ago. The people conducting the tour were proud to explain that this modern plant exceeded the environmental standards of some of their US plants.

 

[5030]

Candidly, I don't much care one way or another currently because I have no intention of selling either of my M9's, but when I do, will be nice to see them bring as much as possible and the way the market is progressing, they are retaining the value and increasing as the currency is worth less, or should I say worthless.

 

[IndyJay]

Except we aren’t choking the economy. Solar, wind and natural gas energy is driving down electricity costs.

Wind energy is a losing proposition when you take away the subsidies. Amazing how "environmentalists" support wind mills considering how many eagles and other birds are killed. If it was a coal plant taking out so many large birds they would be screaming to shut them down... oh, wait.

 

[IndyJay]

What? Non of the pre emissions 1970s vehicles I owned got more than 20 mpg. Now we’re driving vehicles with 30-40 mpg (except trucks).

Do you think maybe electronic fuel injection and computer controls may have helped with that?

 

[jyoutz]

Do you think maybe electronic fuel injection and computer controls may have helped with that?

Yes, but these are all a system that works together.

 

[jyoutz]

Wind energy is a losing proposition when you take away the subsidies. Amazing how "environmentalists" support wind mills considering how many eagles and other birds are killed. If it was a coal plant taking out so many large birds they would be screaming to shut them down... oh, wait.

The subsidies are largely gone for wind. In my region wind farms are everywhere in the eastern part of my state, and Texas is covered with them. We also have huge solar farms and all coal plants have either been closed, converted, or scheduled for conversion to natural gas. Natural gas , wind and solar together are far cheaper than coal in 2022. Our largest power company says that when they convert the last coal plant in the state to natural gas in 2023, they will save $10m per year in costs.