MSNBC GX Article

[Tax Counsel]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26314061/

Contains some criticism, only some of it true.

[Beej]

Re: MSNBC GX Article

WHAT!?!? MSNBC reporting on something that only has partial truths and expresses a strong bias!?!?!? I am so shocked!

[Tax Counsel]

Re: MSNBC GX Article

Hey, most of the post was fair. Really.

[Larryect]

Re: MSNBC GX Article

Seemed like a fair article to me. Maybe slightly slanted to it's not worth it. But, then actually states a break-even at 7 years. And, that is about what I figured. Well, for some people I guess that won't be woth it, but for others it is. I hear the smae thing on this site...

[freedml]

Re: MSNBC GX Article

I don't mind having the negative points along with the positive, but it seems like the article was a catalog only of negatives.

[Tax Counsel]

Re: MSNBC GX Article

You're right...the article seemed to give only minimal lip service to HOV lane access.

Although I appreciate the environmental and fuel cost benefits of my CNG CrownVic, solo HOV access is the real prize. That benefit alone gives me back an hour of my life...every weekday...over 20 additional hours I get to spend with my family every month!

[arcook]

Re: MSNBC GX Article

They didn't consider the tax credit ramifications. I would never have bought the GX if I hadn't been eligible for the $4000 "carrot-on-the-stick."

They never even mentioned that in the article. That brings the markup down to $2890. With a gge of methane at 50% the price of a gallon of gasoline around here, I expect to break even in under 2 years-- probably sometime around Christmas 2009.

[CNG4RD]

Re: MSNBC GX Article

OK, I absolutely don't get the typical vanilla payback amount calculation everyone uses.

CNG Civic price
LESS Gas Civic price =
Amount you need to payback before you justify your purchase

Makes no sense to me at all.

If the car is worth more than a gas car because of HOV access alone (not to mention scarcity), then why would you use the Gas vehicle price as the basis for your payback calculation.

Your payback calculation minimally should be:

Your price for the GX
LESS the gas vehicle price
PLUS ++++ the permanent value is attached to your vehicle as an HOV, scarce, green ... vehicle.

Ignoring the permanent added value to your vehicle is just bad accounting, because you always receive that added value back when you sell or trade in your vehicle.

[CNG4RD]

Re: MSNBC GX Article

Most of the post was fair? give me a break.

1. The title, suggests that cng is "going nowhere"

My buddies at work (and maybe the friends of this "reporter") for good or bad fear being labeled an extremist that jumps onto fringe ideas too early, this type of title just makes them feel better about not buying cng. Who wants to embrace something going nowhere.

It is pure propaganda, my rating on the unfair schedule with 10 being completely unfair is a 9.

2. "and is sold only in New York and California, the two states where there are enough refueling stations."

Two lies here. One, you CAN buy a GX in other states than California and New York. Utah is at least one other state that sells them, i wouldn't be surprised if you could buy one at a dealer in Oklahoma or Arizona as well. The other thing that is so dishonest about this statement is the casual reader has no idea what "is sold only" means, they simply interpret that as not available to me (which of course is not true).

The second lie above is the comical idea that there are only two states with enough refueling stations. www.cngprices.com would have been all the research he needed to do. These are not small mistakes, this guy is a reporter, his job is to research claims and inform people, not copy and paste from a honda website or somebody's biased novel.

Unfair grade a 10. In my opinion, this article at this point can't be trusted at all.

3. Quotes author "In countries like that where there’s a lot of natural gas available for cars it makes sense and it’s a fabulous fuel, but it’s still a short-term transportation fuel here."

First, when a reporter quotes an author shouldn't there be some sort of confirmation that the statements are true. I mean what this comment is suggesting to the reader is A) natural gas is not available in the U.S. and B) you are short-sighted if you embrace CNG. Both of those suggestions are completely false. I am not sure if the reporter is quoting the author out of context, but at this point I am pretty sure both of these guys are idiots.

Unfair scale 10

4. "There are other drawbacks too"

Are there really? I am always blown away by the other drawbacks that people spit out.

The trunk is smaller than the gas version: but it holds more stuff than my mazda did

The price is more: well actualy your vehicle is worth more when you resell, and you recoup most of the extra price in government incentives, and if you have a friendly state like Utah, even better Not to mention that the payback calculations ignore added residual price of the vehicle as I mentioned in my previous post. Not even a negative issue at all, the affordability and simple math were the reasons I ordered a GX.

You might run out of CNG: Or gas to if you don't plan correctly

Long trips are out: Well true that some care about this, but not me, and probably a million other daily commuters that should all be spending $4 a day on fuel rather than $8 or $16 depending on what your CNG price is in your state.

Unfair grade an 8, at least.

Summary: Just because the article has a bunch of copied facts about CNG copied and pasted in, does not mean that the article is fair. Its overall message is very negative, and very biased, and worst of all just plain dishonest. I don't get the agenda of guys like this. I have a theory that he is like the guys i talk to at work, grasping for reasons to not feel like an idiot every time he pumps $100 into his gasoline powered vehicle. Sorry, if you are commuting with gasoline in a state with CNG, no amount of reasoning can justify your gratuitous spending.

A perfect example of why our country remains ignorant about this great alternative fuel resource.

[CNGLO]

Re: MSNBC GX Article

Great post CNG4RD. Have you considered sending it to the MSNBC editors so they can set the record (and the lame reporter) straight?

[kierandill]

Re: MSNBC GX Article

Personally, part of me hopes CNG doesn't take off, because if it does, so will the price. I'm fine with being part of the obscure fringe.
On the other hand, it would be nice to have greater fueling station coverage, particularly in the states south of me, so I could go on long trips. Plus a greater demand might see other players in the home fueling market to break the Fuelmaker monopoly.