The article also had this bombshell in it:

The oil company BP, known for thorough statistical analysis of energy markets, estimates that countries with subsidies accounted for 96 percent of the world’s increase in oil use last year — growth that has helped drive prices to record levels.

The same thought comes to my mind. Ship them to countries with subsidized fuel, like China, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia. This would help people here unload things that they would otherwise be unable to sell, but this only works if they don't do something stupid like go out and buy another SUV.

"I'm sure that someone has already started buying up cheap used SUV's in the US and shipping them overseas."

You can put them in with the ag equipment that's going to
places like Greece and Brazil.

I wonder if Greece has gotten 4 row pickers yet?

Westexas said:

I'm sure that someone has already started buying up cheap used SUV's in the US and shipping them overseas.

They're going to Mexico. Every month I see caravans running south on Interstate 35, for resale across the border.

I agree that the last thing we should want to do is to export our gas-guzzling vehicles to other parts of the world. (For the most part, those kinds of vehicles aren't already sold there because customers don't want them--high fuel prices being one reason.)

Rather, I'd like to see the US relax import restrictions on used vehicles from overseas. There are tons of compact diesel-powered cars and trucks in Asia, Europe and Latin America that aren't sold here. In Canada, you can import a foreign vehicle 15 years old or older, but in the US its 25 years. Up there, they import all kinds of low mile Japanese diesel powered vehicles, especially trucks, SUVs and vans, that get 30+ MPG and run great on biodiesel.

Many here in the US would like to choose smaller, but our choices have been artificially limited.

Okay, wolverine,
I've got one that's even more extreme, and sicker:

http://glocktalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=901919

"Would this help the economy?
What if, instead of recruitment bonuses, the military offered a new Ford/Chevy/Dodge truck/car after completion of their tech school? I'm sure the GOV could work out something with the Big 3 to provide vehicles at a reduced cost, increasing production/sales/etc..."

And the most mind-bending fact is that the replies don't exactly address the futility, much less the irony, of this whole blood-for-oil thing. I can imagine that Phase II of the program would pay a bounty in gallons of unleaded for every confirmed kill in-country.

Reading these conservative forums is a great way to get the pulse of the working class, if you have the stomach for it.

Well said.

The Chinese may be repeating the U.S. folly, but the U.S. was warned by the twin oil shocks of the 1970's that we needed to change our ways and we didn't heed the message. Here we are almost 30 years later again confronting the same problem. Seriously, folks, just why should the Chinese slow their rush to wealth? Their national consumption per person is way below ours and they have made a major effort to control their population, something the U.S. appears to be unwilling to even discuss, let alone do anything about.

All the while, the Chinese are building a capacity to produce electric vehicles, starting at the bottom with electric bicycles and scooters. There's no major company in the U.S. which is building such. Heck, we don't even have a company which builds modern motorcycles (sorry, Harley). We do here repeated claims that GM will begin to build EV's, sometime -- in a couple of years -- maybe, but the Chinese are already doing that. Remember how Honda grew from a maker of small motorcycles to being the builder of highly desirable, fuel efficient cars. The Japanese motorcycle manufacturers destroyed the British bike builders, who did not keep up the technical advances from Japan. BMW went thru a similar transition after WW II and now builds expensive vehicles in the U.S.

All those Chinese freeways will work equally well for EV's as for gas or diesel vehicles and also work with buses. I wonder whether the Chinese Government has a longer term view, as they will need the roads for whatever vehicles are available to use them. When they are done building, the roads will be new, unlike our U.S. Interstate system. We know how good the Chinese engineering can be, since we trained quite a lot of themselves over decades. In 30 or 50 years, the Chinese might still be a functioning nation, while the U.S. has become a second rate collection of city/states not unlike Europe after the 14th century. Could be that it's all part of the plan...

E. Swanson