I have a rental car right now, as my car is in the shop being painted. The rental is a
Ford Focus. A good, economical car.
I'm probably returning the car today, so I had to get the gas level back to where it was when I picked it up, 3/4 of a tank. So as I open the gas tank door, the gas cap reads "Ford recommends BP".
This scares me. I mean, if you believe the
conspiracy theories, then the gas companies already own the patents on engines that get 100 mpg. But now, there's an acknowledged alliance between the car manufacturer and a gas company? Yikes! What's next, Ford and BP merge?
I recently read (I think it was an article in the
Weekly Standard, but I'm not sure) that what the US auto manufacturing world needs is a brand new company, not affiliated with any of the existing companies, but the barriers to entry are too high. Too bad, as innovation is great - it's what drives the US economy.
Update: An interesting story on how
BP was involved in a price fixing scheme for propane makes news the day I make my post.