[Vwdiesel] Diesel Prices

[Conway, Alan (IT)]

Have you ever tried to rent a truck that is capable of hauling a heavy
trailer. Here in the North East no-one will let you tow (all claim
insurance prohibits it and do not supply vecicles with receiver hitches)
except uhaul and they have 2 in balls that are generally NOT receiver
hitchs that pretty much limits you to 3500lbs - they are also very
expensive for long trips at about .80c a mile. I needed a truck to tow
6000lbs (boat) and I did find one 3 1/2 hours drive away - nothing local
and it was a huge inconvinience to pick up and drop off and it was such
a bad truck it was a scary tow. There was one other company that would
rent a truck with a receiver hitch (Hertz Truck Rental) for a 2 5/16
ball but they would not let me tow out of state and it was 2 hours drive
away to pick it up.

In the end I traded my Mercedes E300 Diesel that did 30+ mpg for a Dodge
Ram 2500 Diesel that gets about 18mpg as I tow this boat multiple times
year and did not want to spend many days a year picking up and returning
trucks. I had the same thought as you about renting when needed but it
does not work out depending on what you need and where you live - I am
sure in farm/horse country there are ample rentaly truck capable of
towing locally but not here.

Alan 

-----Original Message-----
From: vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com [mailto:vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com]
On Behalf Of William J Toensing
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 1:08 AM
To: vwdiesel at vwfans.com
Subject: [Vwdiesel] Diesel Prices

Erik Lane, you are not the only one with the idea of including insurance
premiums in the form of a gas per gallon tax. I first got the idea some
20 or more years ago when a caller suggested this on a talk show on KABC
radio in Los Angeles. The current Lt. Governor & former insurance
commissioner of Calif., John Garamendi, has also suggested this, that
the cost of auto insurance be included in the cost of gasoline. At a
prior Calif. Democratic State Convention I asked him how much it would
cost per gallon to fund his "Pay at the Pump" insurance. He said it
would cost only .17 cents per gallon. Such a program would go a long
ways towards what we have to pay for auto insurance & would also reduce
oil consumption. I would be in favor of a pay at the pump insurance
plan, even if the cost was 5 or more times what Lt. Gov. Garamendi said
it would be. This would also solve the problem of people driving with
out auto insurance. I have heard from 20% to 50% of the cars on Calif.
roads  are not insured, & this is a nationwide problems, as well. I
would also like to see annual license plate fees lowered to $10 a year
with the lost revenue recovered by an additional  gas tax.

With a system like this in place, you could have a diesel VW Polo or
Smart to drive for 95% of your driving needs & could own or rent a
pickup truck to handle those serious hauling needs. I don't know if such
a "Pay at the Pump" program has ever been used by any government in the
world. I do know the governments of Sackatchewan, Manitoba, & British
Columbia have government run auto insurance programs but the cost is
included in their annual license plate fees. Canadians, please correct
me if I am wrong & also tell us how you or don't like these government
auto insurance programs from first hand experience.
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