Controlling What Is Sold
The New York Times has an article on the new Congressional mandate to raise average vehicle mileage standards from 27.5 mpg to 35 mpg. We have been here before.
The standards have usually turned into perverse incentives. SUVs were the result of discontinuing the station wagon, because the station wagon was a passenger vehicle. Perversely SUVs get worse mileage than station wagons.
I think this will cause a full fledged move into trucks. Which perversely get worse mileage than SUVs. It is one thing to mandate the vehicles sold. It is quite another to mandate which vehicles will be bought.
Cross Posted at Classical Values
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4 comments:
Weren't vans and mini-vans in that evolution?
The stereotype is for SUV owners to be male redneck hunter types, but I believe the majority of SUV owners are women. Who are indeed driving a vehicle that fills the same niche as the station wagon, allowing them to transport kids (and sometimes their gear) around.
Trouble is, trucks don't carry very many passengers, and a lot of women need a vehicle that can carry many passengers. Maybe a mini-bus?
If you check you might find early SUV popularity derived in part from many being classified as trucks, hence lower tax/title/registration fees. My 4Runner is in this catagory, I think.
I have to agree with the other commenters. I generally disagree with you on this one. I think you are ignoring mini-vans and the lack of space in trucks.
I also think that this is something congress should have done years ago and mandating that level of fuel efficiency by 2020 is a joke. They should crank those CAFE standard by 2012 and start hiking them every 2-4 years. I think you give the engineers a problem to solve and the suits a tax penalty to worry about and well get this problem knocked out in no time.
I also think there are two big reasons that congress needs to do this. One, use less oil. Screw global warming, lets use less oil so we can stop giving the Saudi's and the Venezuelans so much money. And two, unless the US car makers get off their duff's and start offering more fuel efficient products they are going get destroyed by the Japanese and Germans.
.They should crank those CAFE standard by 2012 and start hiking them every 2-4 years.
I looking forward to the 200,000 mi/joule car by the year 2100.
Heck, all we need are the proper laws and penalties and engineers can do almost anything in no time at all. Fookin' magicians they are.
I know one sure way Congress can fix this: mandate smaller people and eliminate families. Once people aren't allowed to have children then the average size of the auto ought to come down over time. Plus any one over 6 ft. tall gets 6" whacked off their legs. Over 200 lbs and you get your weight surgically lowered. Chopped and tucked.
It could work.
I don't know what they are waiting for.
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