Senate Approves Mileage Increase; 35 mpg Required by 2020

JSOnline ^ | June 22, 2007 | Edmund L. Andrews

[P-40]

How about releasing restrictions and fines and letting Americans do what they do best, invent.

And perhaps have a contest for the winner. I've seen some engine prototypes that would win...today.

[oldenuff2no]

This law will get people killed!!!!
I drive a 1 ton 4X4 dually diesel. It is a tow vehicle for my heave stock trailers. it is part of my work and part of my play.
The way they make the mileage go up is to take weight out of the vehicles. For a tow vehicle that will get people killed.
The weight in my truck does a lot to keep the trailer behind me where it belongs. My trailers are set up with brakes on all axles but the heavy towing vehicle is a mandatory part of keeping myself and other drivers safe on the road. This is one absolute truth that is not going to change. Any law of this nature will have a huge detrimental effect on the rural citizens of this nation.
Nancy the house witch needs to step out of the pot filled haze of Frisco and let her mind clear a bit and then take a look at things. She and Diane are sure as heck going to get more people killed by pushing unsafe legislation like this.

[NVDave]

The VW’s will make more than 35MPG — 45MPG on the open road is what VW TDI owners see today.

You’re right they won’t make the current EPA regs, but VW is coming out with a 50-state diesel in 2008/2009 that will meet EPA standards.

[B Knotts]

I read the rest of the article, and discovered that this isn't as bad as it looks.

It allows the government to adjust the fuel economy target based on cost-benefit analysis.

It does mean that the White House is going to need to be controlled by reasonable people, though.

[Tarpon]

I think that everybody who wants to can drive around in turbo or otherwise small cars, I choose to drive bigger heavier more crash worthy cars. On the way home tonight a car jumped the median right in front of me, and ran headon into another unsuspecting driver. You just never know, the more mass you have, the better the design, the safer you are in the event of an accident.

I have nothing against small cars, but I do have a lot to say about not being given a choice, at a reasonable price.

My car gets 20 MPG in the city 28 on the highway and weighs about 4,000 pounds with no passengers. I just filled it’s near empty 20 gallon tank today for $50 dollars.

Small diesels are very popular in Europe, about 60% I think drive high mileage diesels because the taxes on fuel are so high. The US is different from Europe on many counts. We drive further, and many tend to carry a load when going to work. Why not small diesels here, simple, the emissions laws won’t permit them, although some manufacturers are saying they will have the small CRD diesels available soon.

Around my neck of the woods construction is the big job creator and pickups rule the roost. I do some rebuilding myself and have a 20 year old 1 Ton Diesel Ford F350 for hauling, and I do mean hauling. I throw everything in the back from 3,000 pounds of landscape rock, beams, plywood, refrigerators everything that fits. It is tow rated for 11,000 pounds with a GVW of 10,000. Pulling trees out of the yard is also one of the many uses the wife has found for it. When I need it to work, it works hard. My truck works like a farmer’s horse.

The government wants to control your freedom, your access to transportation and movement whenever and wherever you want to go. That is the real motive for passing an energy bill with no provisions for new exploration, drilling or more refining capacity. It’s what Liberals do, control people with their whacky schemes which always seem to blow up in their faces. Bird Cuisinarts instead of nuclear power plants, how much sense does that make.

[Boundless]

> Even those VW diesels won’t make 35mpg combined
> on the new EPA test.

Which means the EPA test has flipped from optimistic
incorrect to pessimistic incorrect.

Our “45mpg” TDI actually gets 38 in all-around driving,
which includes a lot of 70mph running.

But hey, there’s a solution for the Dems there:
just instruct the EPA to refine what MPG means.

Imaginary solutions to metaphorical problems.
No solutions for real problems .. indeed the
Dems excel at exacerbating real problems.

[Beagle8U]

Will it tow a 6000# trailer without falling apart?

[NewHampshireDuo]

And...in companion legislation, the Senate has just approved a redefinition of the mile. In 2020 the standard US mile will be reduced by 30% to 3700 feet.

[CindyDawg]

Yeah. 1 million dollars to the individual that can provide the best, roomy vehicle, that is efficient on alternative fuel and environmentally friendly.

[Colonel_Flagg]

The only way to achieve this MPG range is to build flat little cars, which now consume about 10,000 people a year. Anything less than 4,000 pounds GVW is headed into death trap category.

Bingo. And evidently none of these senators has ever lived in a state where you actually get winter, where during a storm you need all the weight and traction (read: 4WD) you can get. This vote is going to kill human beings. Bet on it.

[B Knotts]

The old EPA estimates were more realistic than the new one, IMO.

They were off quite a bit on hybrids, though, significantly overestimating their fuel economy, and slightly underestimated diesels.

Now, they're way off on just about everything.

[MainFrame65]

Now let’s pass a law that Pi = 3, and another that prohibits more than 2 significant digits after the decimal point. Who needs any more than that, after all?

[ricks_place]

The Big Three are on life support.

• Our government gives $3k subsides to hybrid buyers.
• Hybrid buyers get foreign made Toyotas and Hondas.
• Our tax money is killing the US auto industry.
• Autoworker taxes support their own job destruction.
• Subsidies would be unnecessary if hybrids were so great.
• Now the coup de grâce, increased cafe standards.

Good bye to Detroit's bread and butter. The Government at one time supported big business to the betterment of the Nation but now big business is evil. We are so stupid.

[listenhillary]

Get 50 mpg — in your own car

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveonaCar/Get50MpgInYourOwnCar.aspx?page=1

[ProtectOurFreedom]

"It's kind of scary because you just don't know where it's really going to end up"

Sorry, Rick. I know exactly where this is going to end up.

• 50 mph national speed limits
• Caps on the number of miles you can drive per year without incurring special surcharges for "excess mileage"
• Building space consitioning temperature limits -- 80 F summer temperature limits and 65 winter temperature limits, first in federal buildings, then your office buildings, then your homes. Penalties for profligate and unconscionable consumption beyond your allowable baseline in your home.
• No more SUVs. Everybody driving a Prius
• $25 / day to park at your office building
• Forced carpooling. 2, 3 or 4 carpool lanes on the freeway with only one noncarpool lane for the GW deniers
• Monster penalty taxes on excessively large and environmentally destructive vehicles with the taxes paid immediately as a bonus for buyers of environmentally correct vehicles
• Federally mandated compact fluorescent bulbs and the outlawing of incandescents
• Complete slavery

Almost all of these things have already been introduced in various state legislatures

Where it WON'T wind up is drilling more holes in the ground to discover and exploit our God-given natural resources.

[P-40]

efficient on alternative fuel and environmentally friendly.

I rode in one the other day...a VW running B80. :)

[P-40]

The Big Three are on life support.

If they would produce what we want to buy...they could at least get moved to the 'critical care' room.

[Beagle8U]

Without 4x4 you couldn’t go anywhere in the winter where I live.

There is no way they are going to make full sized pickups that will get 35mpg.

President Bush should veto this stupidity.

[Freedom4US]

I still maintain this will work out with lots of unintended consequences, if only due to the myriad of safety features inherent to a modern car. If it were simply a matter of getting to point B from point A, say a few miles everyday, then a golf cart would be fairly perfect. Except, after the mandated lights, flashers, signals, bumpers, mirrors (Objects are closer in mirror than they appear) speedometer, exotic batteries made of unobtanium, etc. etc.. Locally we had some public service radio announcements noting that a new Honda of some kind was not street-legal and could not be registered, apparently that has become an issue somewhere.

[CindyDawg]

Doesn’t qualify. Can't skip on quality. There must be room for at least 7 seats and it must be big enough to pull a boat or horse trailer:’)