Oil prices, gas prices, and refineries

Separately, DetNews had an excellent article on the economics of gas. They noted that the key issue for gasoline is refining, not the price of oil. They also pointed out that many oil refineries are currently running at a loss.

Yes, you heard right. Some of the refineries that produce our gasoline are running at a loss. That, better than any lunacy about how environmentalists are in control of the Bush Administration, (which is every bit as likely as Jerry Falwell running the Democratic Party, especially now that he’s dead), explains why there have been no new refineries constructed over the past decade. In fact, some years ago a major gas company closed down some refineries, because they weren’t making their target profits - and at that point, they weren’t even losing money.

One who is either paranoid or has a good memory of oil company shenanigans might think that ExxonMobil is doing its bit to shove some competitors over the edge, and perhaps into its gaping maw. ExxonMobil, you see, is doing very well in this climate, because they do quite a bit of drilling in addition to refining. Companies that mostly refine are probably losing money now; those that mostly drill are probably quite happy.

But what about antitrust law, you may ask? Do you remember a few years back when Microsoft was found guilty of violating such law? Do you remember the penalty? I’ll remind you, if not — they were made to promise not to break the law again. (This wasn’t their first offense, either.) There were a few more penalties, but none so vicious as those you would get for stealing a stick of gum, or parking in a handicapped space.

This article both shows why the price of gas won’t rise in a linear fashion with the price of oil - and why new refineries are unlikely to appear any time soon. It also shows why combining trips, driving with fuel efficiency in mind, and, yes, considering gas mileage when replacing a car, along with such apparently unrelated thoughts such as not buying unnecessary plastic toys, shutting off unused lights, and enabling Energy Star on our computers, are terrific ideas.

Mac version of SPSS reviewed

Those of you in that select, elite group — Mac users of statistical software - may be interested in our (sister site’s) SPSS 16 for the Macintosh review.

The ultimate Mopar holiday present

The ultimate Mopar holiday gift has just been introduced - by the Society of Automotive Engineers. It’s Willem Weertman’s long-awaited book, Chrysler Engines 1922-1998, and it’s about what you would expect from the company’s chief engine designer - the man in charge when the slant six, Hemi V8, and 2.2 liter engines were created.

The book is intensive in detail, discussing little-known aspects of every engine built by Chrylser (for car use) during the long time span from the company’s creation through to 1998. Weertman tells the inside story not only of the engines he was involved with, but also of the earliest engines used by Chrysler, even those not sold in Chryslers — the original engines from the cars that predated the company.

Chrysler Historical threw open its collection for Weertman, not surprisingly, since the book sprang out of an internal project which was to discuss the company’s engines and cars, as an educational piece for the new owners. As a result, the book is filled with rare photos, diagrams, and specifications, the like of which have never been seen in one place. Many of the diagrams have been greatly enhanced, so unlike the average car book where many pictures are less than the original, in Chrysler Engines 1922-1998, they are better. Photographs appear to have been digitally enhanced, so the black and white photography is also far more clear than we are used to. The two-column layout is clear and easy to read; and tables abound with specific details, in some cases year by year. Weertman also covers the cars the engines went into, goes into critical reviews and racing results, and in essence provides an almost complete story.

Every engine gets full attention in this book, unlike many others (including, for example, The Ultimate American V-8 Engine Data Book). That means development history, charts, diagrams, and photos. The largest share of attention seems to go into the first three Chrysler engines, with huge diagrams and cross sections carefully reconstructed so they are very clear and easy to see; but everything is covered. Weertman also goes over alternative choices - engines that were considered but not made, such as a V-6 based on the 318 (rejected for the Australian Valiant), and the aluminum-head slant six. The 2.2 liter and 2.5 liter engines get attention that is normally lacking, and even the foreign engines, including the Volkswagen 1.7 liter motor for the Rabbit, are covered to a degree (including cutaway diagrams, specifications, and photos of the cars it went into). Dodge Brothers engines, from the time the company was acquired, are also covered, as are AMC engines at the time of the acquisition (selected prior engines are discussed briefly). Not included were engines from cars that were actually engineered and built by other companies and sold with the Dodge labels (e.g. Mitsubishi Colt), diesels or gasoline engines purchased for use in Dodge trucks, or alternative-fuel engines other than the turbines; most experimental engines are also not covered, though, again, some are mentioned in passing and some are covered fairly well.

There are special sections for the military engines developed and built by Chrysler during World War II (mainly for tanks and aviation), for truck engines, for boats, and for the turbines. For every engine, specifications include bore spacing, number of main bearings, valve operation, and other details; often, horsepower and torque ratings are listed by year. The photos and detail on marine engines is welcome since this is an area where information tends to be hard to find; aviation engines used in World War II are also discussed, and in both cases, photos and diagrams are plentiful and high quality.

Willem Weertman - not surprisingly for a long-time Chrysler engineer wrote clearly, with craftsmanship, and is easy to understand. His language and fact base are exacting, as one would expect from him but not from many writers. One can feel confident that he got his facts right.

Chrysler Engines 1922-1998 has perhaps one fault; it generally does not mention any possible drawbacks or compromises in design of engines that were actually produced, and many interesting or colorful aspects of engine development revealed by other engineers of the company are skipped in favor of a more direct, purposeful, descriptive, but above all else 100% positive coverage. He does mention in passing items like the origin of the V-10 truck engine (a call from Bob Lutz asking if the 360 could have two cylinders added; its feasibility was shown on computer and then checked with a test engine), and provides the kind of looks at discussions of engine design that only an insider has access to.

That said, this book - measuring 381 pages plus appendices - is an invaluable resource that will provide Mopar fans and owners with a huge amount of knowledge they have probably never encountered before. As we write this, in early December, it seems like a good time to mention that for $75, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better, more engaging present for the Mopar fan in your life - and personally, I think we can buy presents for ourselves!

Available from the Society of Automotive Engineers. You can read the interview first (or after you order the book!)

PS: if you want to buy a Mopar-lovin’ friend a book and find Willem’s is too rich for your blood, take a look at our selection of books from Amazon.

Christmas means burial by catalog

It’s the time of year when retailers who lose money for ten months suddenly start to get profitable, and when, by the way, soup kitchens and other charities are in the most dire need for cash - which will start to come in starting in December (next year, make a mental note to contribute before Thanksgiving!). Our house is starting to get buried in an avalanche of unwanted catalogs, some from companies we’ve never heard of and never ordered from, others from companies we actually do order from, but not every three days.

Personally, I like the people who send out catalogs when they have a reason - like B&H, which appears to send two or three per year, or Digikey, which sends one per year. I loathe companies like Newport News, which appear to have dozens of names for reselling the same rubbish, and appear to believe that we have a bottomless recycling bin. I don’t think the mail carriers particularly like having to make multiple trips on their routes, one with the catalogs, and the other with actual mail. Our mailbox frankly is incapable of handling the holiday load.

This is why I was happy to find http://www.catalogchoice.org/ (NOT .com) — a web site set up by some environmental groups to help us cancel our catalog subscriptions without having to cut out and mail the back page of the catalog to each sender, which is rather time consuming. We took three days’ worth of catalogs and decided which ones we didn’t want. For my wife, that was 18 different catalogs; for me, it was three, two of which appear to have been related to my using FTD. Well, I won’t make that mistake again.

Unfortunately, it seems to take up to ten weeks for the mailers to stop sending catalogs, so we’ll have a glossy, full-color Christmas, but hopefully the new year will bring less four-color advertising delivered to the door. Personally, I can’t imagine that this policy of constantly sending catalogs to anyone and their dog pays off; and I did read, some time ago, that a few companies had actually looked through their mailing lists and struck off people who never ordered (and duplicates going to the same address) without any harm, and, indeed, a massive financial savings. Other companies automatically switch non-customers to a “now and then” catalog receipt category which also saves money, paper, and energy (moving thousands of catalogs across the country, then to recycling plants, then recycling them is not energy-free), while preventing toxic waste from being created.

Do yourself and everyone else a favor. Gather up the unwanted catalogs and instead of trashing or recycling them, put them into a pile, and once a week or so visit http://www.catalogchoice.org/ until you have no more unwanted advertising coming to your front door. Except, of course, from Bank of America. They’re incorrigible.

Ghosts of Newport

Despite the title, this is not a post about the Chrysler Newport.

An old friend (and soon-to-be owner of the toyoland.com site), John T. Brennan, has written an excellent book of Newport, Rhode Island history. While the focus is on, as the subtitle proclaims, “Spirits, Scoundrels, Legends, and Lore,” the book provides a large amount of background on Rhode Island, the Providence Plantations, and, of course, Newport itself.

If you ever go to Newport, one-time playground of the world’s wealthiest men, this book is almost essential; and even if you never plan to go, it’s interesting, well-written, and nicely illustrated. I was grabbed in the first chapter by the story of the Jailhouse Inn, a renovated colonial prison:

The Newport Jailhouse was not designed to be completely escape-proof. It was never considered particularly strong or secure. Especially early in Newport history, jail sentences were rare; colonists preferred public humiliation as punishment for crimes.

John is not just an old, old friend, or a lifetime denizen of Rhode Island (save for two mis-spent years in New Jersey). He is also a tour guide, actor, photographer, former caretaker of the mentally disabled, former car parts maker, and much more. Frankly, I’ve spent decades watching John and wondering when his unique talents and creativity would be put to good use, and it’s terrific to see his name finally appear on the cover of a book jacket - especially when the book is so well written. I was surprised myself to see just how good it was - and how good most of the photography was (though some photos are a bit muddy, which I believe is the publishers’ fault based on my experience with print).

I should also add that John is incredibly popular and probably has more friends than Allpar has regular forum posters, in an incredibly diverse set of groups. You can’t go anywhere with him unless you plan to spend half your time waiting while people say hello. None of this has ever gone to his head.

More to the point, John’s diverse background and travels with different groups of people - old sailors, actors, pub folk, historians, and others - have led him to have a rather well-rounded view of history and quite a diverse number of tales. I’m sure he also did considerable research, but then, he’s always been interested in Rhode Island history, and even when we were in college, I was fascinated by his stories of the little state.

It is, therefore, with some fervor that I recommend you visit your local book-sellers or the inevitable Amazon.com and pick up a copy of (here’s a clickable link!) Ghosts of Newport.

American shoes! (off topic)

This weekend, I went to replenish my supply of New Balance sneakers. I used to get whatever sneakers seemed cheap and decently made; then I refined the list by going with companies that pretended to have labor and environmental standards; then I switched to New Balance so my arches wouldn’t collapse and my back wouldn’t spasm, always wincing at the “Made in China” label that I really do try to avoid (usually without success - it seems like just yesterday Apple made computers in California and Ireland, but now, like everyone else, they switched everything to China, and that’s just one example.)

Not that I have any particular problem with Chinese people, because I don’t. I find China to be an interesting, enigmatic nation, with good and bad qualities. Like most Americans, I’ve mentally disconnected today’s China from the one we indirectly fought in Vietnam, and the one which is still doing rather nasty things to Tibet. I don’t know of any purely good national policies, though I’ll admit part of that is ignorance. Still, I’d prefer to support countries that provide meaningful civil rights to their citizens, and don’t turn their country into a toxic cesspool.

This time, I was pleasantly surprised to see that a number of New Balance shoes are made in the United States. Whether this has always been true or not I don’t know, but it seems new to me. They have five factories in the US, some of which produce shoes mainly of imported materials, and some of which use at least 70% American goods. Each shoe comes with a tag explaining what “Made in America” means in lawyer-speak.

The American-made shoes were $6 more than the imported ones. That’s about 10% higher, and I happily paid the price. It does make one wonder exactly how much is saved by exporting so much to China, when all is said and done. Is New Balance subsidizing American manufacturing, or is there really not such a huge pricing difference? When I was in retail I learned that the actual cost of production was often minimal compared with distribution, packaging, and markup. Doubling labor cost doesn’t mean doubling the price; it could mean a trivial increase.

Regardless, now I can have my healthy spine and arches, and American-made shoes as well. The lesson: just like the commercial used to tell us to “look for the union label,” we should be looking for the American (or Canadian or Mexican) label. Sometimes there actually are options.