New CAFE Mileage Numbers Announced

[griz]

that can't be the case.  GM is/was the parent company of both hummer, Saturn, Pontiac, Cadillac, and yet the higher MPG vehicles of Saturn offset the Cadillacs.

How do you/them define different companies?  Ferrari is just as much Fiat as scion and Lexus are Toyota.  U Ferrari/fiat different than Cadillac/GM?  Chevrolet/GM?  Lamborghini/VW?

Badge doesn't matter.

I think you're right.  I looked up the way they calculate it and it's confusing since they have exceptions and the rules change year to year.  Plus I think I was confusing the gas guzzler tax on individual cars with the penalties paid by the makers.  Anyway, millions are paid by some foreign brands, including Fiat, each year.

[charby]

55mpg hmmmm....
Sooo.... expect SUVs to continue to sell strongly as the only cheap large passenger vehicle available. I expect this will be the death blow to the  station wagon. If I am right about minivan classification, I expect they come out with a hybrid or diesel version. New minivans are already expensive, so I expect that market will also shrink.

Station wagons have been gone for sometime, minivan and SUV replaced them. I would imagine a station wagon built with today's engine technology would dow quite well MPG wise.

[Tallpine]

Station wagons have been gone for sometime, minivan and SUV replaced them. I would imagine a station wagon built with today's engine technology would dow quite well MPG wise.

The Chevy HHR sure looks like a station wagon 

[TommyGunn]

I dunno. I heard that if you order a Chevy Volt, Obama himself will deliver it to your door while wearing a Pope hat.

I think Chevy has stopped production on the Volt.   

[Tallpine]

I think Chevy has stopped production on the Volt.   

They were charging too much for it.

[ramis]

I think Chevy has stopped production on the Volt.   

Not stopped, just shut down for four weeks. Second shut down this year.

http://www.newsday.com/classifieds/cars/chevrolet-volt-plant-to-close-four-weeks-1.3934483

Article on the new CAFE regulations.

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/the-cafe-numbers-game-making-sense-of-the-new-fuel-economy-regulations-feature

The money quote,

In the end, there’s little question that the technology exists—or can be developed—to meet these standards. But even more certain is that such technology will make 2025 vehicles far more costly than today’s cars and trucks. Whether the increment will be tabulated using four- or five-digit numbers remains to be seen.

[Hutch]

   
Re: New CAFE Mileage Numbers Announced
« Reply #49 on: Today at 06:06:59 AM »
Quote
Increase CAFE and increase road deaths.

Let people / the market decide what the ywant to prioritize.

Bbbbut the might choose wrongly!  We as-global village couldn't permit tha, no, can we?

[MillCreek]

I think Chevy has stopped production on the Volt.   

Chevy could not keep current.

[Perd Hapley]

Station wagons have been gone for sometime, minivan and SUV replaced them. I would imagine a station wagon built with today's engine technology would dow quite well MPG wise.

Except for Subaru. And some cars might be considered station wagons (at least by your insurance company), even if they are smaller and sportier than Mom's old station wagon of yore. The Mazda 3 hatchback, for example.

[Northwoods]

Station wagons have been gone for sometime, minivan and SUV replaced them. I would imagine a station wagon built with today's engine technology would dow quite well MPG wise.

What about all those Subaru Outbacks?  Between my parents and sister alone they own 3.

[charby]

What about all those Subaru Outbacks?  Between my parents and sister alone they own 3.

Subaru markets them as a sport utility wagon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_wagon

[Northwoods]

And the difference is??

[charby]

And the difference is??

Size, passenger seating, tailgate vs hatchback.

[Perd Hapley]

So they're compact station wagons. Nothing new.

[Northwoods]

The station wagons I remember as a kid mostly had lifting hatches and seated 5-6 in 2 rows.  Other than maybe having a bit more truck space that current wagons there's not that much of a difference.

[drewtam]

Thanks Scout.

I think the wiggle room is this part:

CAFE has separate standards for "passenger cars" and "light trucks", despite the majority of "light trucks" actually being used as passenger cars. The market share of "light trucks" grew steadily from 9.7% in 1979 to 47% in 2001 and remained in 50% numbers up to 2011. [4] More than 500,000 vehicles in the 1999 model year exceeded the 8,500 lb (3,900 kg) GVWR cutoff and were thus omitted from CAFE calculations.[5]

This Wiki entry suggests there are 2 numbers. The 55mpg number everyone talks about. And the other number that affects SUVs, Sport Utility Wagons, and trucks that everyone who can afford to, decides to drive instead because of these stupid rules.

[longeyes]

CAFE is not about cars, it is not about auto technology, it is about mass transit and fulfilling, by imperial edict, the collectivist dreams hatched on European drawing boards back in the '30s. 

[RocketMan]

CAFE is not about cars, it is not about auto technology, it is about mass transit and fulfilling, by imperial edict, the collectivist dreams hatched on European drawing boards back in the '30s.

CAFE provides the Left with another tool to use in their quest to 'desuburbanize' America.  If POVs are too expensive and unobtainable for the middle class, then living in single family homes in the suburbs becomes impossible.  Americans will eventually be forced into dense multifamily urban housing via an assault on their pocketbooks.

A prime example of this is the expansion of the light rail system in the Portland area.  In reading the explanations and edicts that have come down from Metro (Portland area elected regional government), they make it very clear that urbanization is their goal. 
I suspect this is the case in much of the country.