And because of this wonderful marketing, that actually works.<br /><br />I ride around on my '81 XJ750 Seca a lot, and I never get noticed on it(less other bikers). I test rode a brand new '06 Yamaha FZ6 on Saturday, and I had(in about 15 minutes), 2 different girls wave at me. I wasn't on the bike for anyone but myself, but I did happen to notice that it makes a difference.<br /><br />Hell, tobacco companies CAN'T advertise on TV anymore, have to put out anti-smoking ads, and still people start smoking everyday. How's that for marketing? Advertise against yourself, yet increase user base.
Just so I understand you correctly Mr. Moore... <br /><br />You are for putting even more of your Michigan autoworker brothers and sisters out of a job? And not just Michigan, other states too. As the domino affect of the auto industry is vast. Higher taxes reduce sales which reduce jobs... go figure!<br /><br />You are for increasing the accident mortality and serious injury? So that in addition to higher gasoline costs and taxes, you want to raise our auto and medical insurance costs even higher. Forcing the public out of safer SUV type autos, into smaller, lighter, more fragile ones will lead an increase in serious injury and death on the roadway. Look at the statistics.
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Finally we agree!!!Originally posted by Haut Medoc:<br /> Nuke the border, invade Iran & pump them MOFO'S dry!
YOU SEE, THATS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! Lay out an opinion my man! Now we can talk! Screw all these ankle biting quips! Doesn't that feel good? Now don't you feel liberated? <br /><br />One question though RF. Who said anything about defining who gets to drive an SUV? Or deciding whether or not a hitch was used enough? The comment about the hitches not being used was in the context of a response to JasonJ's post. Where he stated that the automobile industry has a genius marketing program, because people are buying vehicles that they have no use for. I agreed and gave him an example of people driving vehicles that they don't have a use for. I guess I didn't read the part about defining what vehicles you get to drive and deciding if a hitch is used enough. Just merely admiring some stellar marketing. <br /><br />Maybe you should go back to the one an two sentence quips. You come off much more intelligent. Just kidding bud. I'll even put in the razzing faces.
Great observation Pointer! The USA better not try to become energy self sufficient, because we know darn well high interest rates and unstable government go hand and hand with energy self sufficiency. <br /><br />We really dodged a bullet when the United State emulated Hitler's interstate highway system. We're just darn lucky we're not all goose stepping down the street speaking German. Because we know interstate highways and brown shirted, black booted thugs go hand and hand! I'll go a long with your premise. But, hope your not trying to say that the government is the ones doing the gouging. The government usually has a fixed tax per gallon of gas sold. The government doesn't take in more revenue as gas prices rises. Price as no bearing. Its a fixed rate per gallon. Government may take in more revenue based on the oil companies profits. That is if they're one of the 40% of corporation that actually pay taxes. Some how I got the feeling the savvy oil companies have managed to avoid paying most of their taxes.<br /><br />Pointer wrote,<br /><br />"Profit margins in the 7-8% range don't bear out the persistant attacks of gouging levied by those who don't fully understand the market or expenses associated with this industry."<br /><br />Again I don't know this is fact, but I'll go along with your premise. Gas is a high volume selling commodity. The lower volume selling commodity you have the higher your profit margin needs to be per unit sold. My cousin is in the wholesale grocery business, he tells me the profit margin is just pennies on the dollar and in some cases just fractions of pennies. So when you say 7 or 8% profit margin, they could be enjoying windfall profits, when maybe 2 or 3 profit margins may in fact be plenty. <br />Or on the other hand a low volume selling product such luxury yachts or luxury jetliners maybe working on a 50% or higher profit margin.<br />The bottom line is we have two oil men in the White House and the oil companies are enjoying record profits. I may not be the sharpest knife on the tree but I do know 2+2=4, or in Bush's case 5. 
