Comments on: Car Consumption: 8,000 Boring White Chevrolets in Dubai

By: richard

richard — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:13:56 +0000

Just checked with someone at GM Middle East. This car model is sold as a fleet vehicle in large numbers and a standardised colour. This is the distribution centre for the region.

By: Karin Kloosterman

Karin Kloosterman — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 07:49:16 +0000

My 4rth grade teacher told me that cars could be built to last decades but are not. It’s really bad for business.

By: Karin Kloosterman

Karin Kloosterman — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 07:48:26 +0000

Cars are not usually painted at point of retail. I used to work in a car factory in Canada – Chrysler. You are not even allowed to wear perfume or deodorant if you work in the body shop’s painting area. It’s a sterile lab where strange scents or specs of dust will ruin a paint job. Can’t imagine painting those babies in the desert. But white cars are best for beating the Middle East heat. Black cars are not.

By: richard

richard — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 04:33:29 +0000

Hi Bassemk, Sorry if you missed the irony. Seems like I don’t need a researcher when I have commentators like yourself! Many thanks for your contribution.
Hello again Michael, this is a distribution point for the region. I assume the cars are all white because they are painted to order at the place of retail. With regard to the surprising quantity; bear in mind that GM alone makes/sells something approaching 9 million cars a year. 9 million!!!! Imagine, for a moment, what a parking lot of 9 million cars would look like. And then there’s Toyota, Ford, Nissan, Chrysler, Mitsubishi, Honda, before we even start talking about the Koreans, Germans, French and Swedish…

By: Tafline Laylin

Tafline Laylin — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 18:33:26 +0000

This is art, not investigative journalism. But I am glad to see that it is provoking discussion. – Tafline Laylin, Managing Editor, Green Prophet.

By: bassemk

bassemk — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 18:28:04 +0000

Seriously? That is the extent of explanation? Wasting time on particle accelerators and the Internet? How about a conscious effort by the Auto and Oil industries to prevent any legislation that might promote fuel efficiency in the United States? Car manufacturers in both Europe and Japan made much more efficient cars because policy, including fuel costs that were much higher than in the US, reflected more socially- and environmentally-conscious governments than the industry-dominated revolving door government of the US. But even on a global level, how about some stats on fossil fuel subsidies and how they created perverse incentives for decades?

I appreciate the project, but I would recommend doing a little more (desk) research. Or maybe hiring an enviro-studies intern to fill in facts. @bassemk

By: Michael Lehner

Michael Lehner — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:05:50 +0000

Wow! This looks like about 15,000 cars to me. I did not understand why or how all these identical looking cars came to be in the same place at the same time. If they are surplus, why are they all the same color? Why didn’t they come from various enterprises in a multitude of colors and options?
Who could possibly need that many identical cars? UPS has less than 75,000 vehicles in their US fleet. This “lot” has 20% of that total sitting idle!