[Vwdiesel] Oil dipstick degrade

[William J Toensing]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I understand West European nations, largely after WW 2, but the UK even prior to WW2, started heavily taxing gas guzzlers to reduce fuel consumption, mostly out of concerns over balance of payment issues, because all petroleum products had to be imported, mostly from the Middle East. If I recall correctly, it wasn't till the '60s that oil was discovered off the coast of Norway in the North Shore oil fields, but this wasn't enough to cover Western Europe's oil needs, so the existing tax structure was kept in place. Although I don't like paying high prices for gas, I prefer the European way of taxing to discourage excessive fuel consumption to the American way where we use regulation rather than tax incentives & disincentives to encourage the types of cars we can drive. We are prevented from buying fuel efficient cars, cars  capable of getting over 40 MPG unless a manufacturer is willing to strongly commit to marketing such vehicles. So far, only two manufacturers have committed to do so. They are Honda with the Insight & Civic hybrid & Toyota with its Prius, all  of which cost over $20,000 new. I believe Big Oil has used its influence to keep highly fuel efficient cars off the American roads. In Europe, as I see it, the tax structure encourages the use of small fuel efficient cars, especially diesels. Since that is the type of car I prefer, I resent not being able to buy such cars here. 
I know some Europeans laugh over American's complaining about $3 a gallon gas when they have to pay $7 a gallon for gas & somewhat less for diesel, but remember you have an extensive public transportation that we don't have, except for a few large cities, our distances are much greater, & a majority of our cars seldom get over 25 MPG in a country extremely dependant on the automobile for its transportation needs.