https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...ca-s-cars-are-all-fast-and-furious-these-days

In short: We are all faster now than we were 40 years ago, but only because some of us got a lot more clever.

 

According to this article we're getting more for our money despite the cost of vehicles going up. Not sure if that really applies to pickup trucks though (esp. Ford); they seem to be approaching the cost of a house.

 

Right now, I own a car that, when it was new, 12 years ago, cost 20% more than I paid for my house 40 years ago.
The house was worth a mortgage to me. A car never will be. Good thing I can repair both of them.

 

Combustion engines on America’s roads are about 42 percent smaller than they were 40 years ago. At the same time, the EPA’s median measurement of miles-per-gallon has doubled, from 15 to 30. Most of those gains were made under pressure from federal efficiency mandates.

Personally I am both amazed and a bit off put by the overall technology.

Doubling the fuel economy form 40 years ago sounds like an impressive engineering feat but the thing is 40 years ago the first emission compliant engines were about half as efficient as most any decent common pre emission engine.
I and my family have owned a number of 1950's - 1970's farm trucks that to be honest despite being big slow heavy hauling vehicles have always impressed me with their fuel economy numbers despite their age and workloads. Impressive enough to say that our early 1970's Ford F600 grain truck with the 330 Ford industrial engine despite being used for hauling gravel from town and tipping the scales at 24 - 26,000 #'s loaded and begin driven 55 - 60 MPH typically runs within 1 MPG or less of my 99 Ford F250 in the exact same trip despite weighing 1/3 as much and being way more aerodynamic.

Now as for doing that trip with the 99 Ford while pulling a trailer and loaded to ~18,000 #'s the old grain truck will beat it up and take its lunch money on fuel economy numbers any day of the week. (hence the reason I run it on propane.)

 

Looks like it's not just cars.
https://energyathaas.wordpress.com/...decline-in-electricity-use-by-u-s-households/

Americans tend to use more and more of everything. As incomes have risen, we buy more food, live in larger homes, travel more, spend more on health care, and, yes, use more energy. Between 1950 and 2010, U.S. residential electricity consumption per capitaincreased 10-fold, an annual increase of 4% per year.

But that electricity trend has changed recently. American households use less electricity than they did five years ago. The figure below plots U.S. residential electricity consumption per capita 1990-2015. Consumption dipped significantly in 2012 and has remained flat, even as the economy has improved considerably.

 

Looks like it's not just cars.

Yep. Despite my increase in high powered shop equipment over the years my overall power consumption has dropped by a good 1/4 - 1/3 thanks largely to switching to CFLs then onto LED lighting.

Compared to my lighting power consumption 10 years ago I now light my whole house up brighter with less power than I once used to light one bedroom.

 

Looks like it's not just cars.
https://energyathaas.wordpress.com/...decline-in-electricity-use-by-u-s-households/

Yep. Despite my increase in high powered shop equipment over the years my overall power consumption has dropped by a good 1/4 - 1/3 thanks largely to switching to CFLs then onto LED lighting.

Compared to my lighting power consumption 10 years ago I now light my whole house up brighter with less power than I once used to light one bedroom.

Those government mandates are terrible - how could they overstep their authority and ban the incandescent bulb! Terrible.

 

Those government mandates are terrible - how could they overstep their authority and ban the incandescent bulb! Terrible.

They can mandate whatever they want. I however will only comply with what I find gainfully suitable to my wants and needs.

 

spend more on health care

This is not good. Are our generation healthier than our grandparents' generation or not?


The power of the engines has increased because they have to sell something new. To say they have innovated.They have to make you give up the old car and buy another one.

It's pretty much the same thing with the processors. Because they have reached a higher limit of speed, they went to dual core, quad core, octa-core and so on

 

Those government mandates are terrible - how could they overstep their authority and ban the incandescent bulb! Terrible.

Don't worry. They will start looking for ways to replenish the income lost due to banning the incandescent.