[Beagle8U]

American automakers lose money on all the toy cars they are forced to sell, they have to make up the loss selling trucks/SUVs.

[thackney]

Exactly, buying a full size SUV or Pickup will include enough money to subsidize the purchase by someone else of a econocar.

[Zhang Fei]

American automakers lose money on all the toy cars they are forced to sell, they have to make up the loss selling trucks/SUVs.

It goes beyond that. They pad truck/SUV margins to subsidize barely-profitable/negative-margin small cars. Without CAFE, large cars would be cheaper, and small cars more expensive.