Doesn’t matter. There won’t be anywhere worth going to by then.
They didn’t even mention that one of the reasons for the high price of good used cars is that so many were destroyed in the President’s “Cash for Clunkers” program. Less cars = higher prices.
I would rather drive an older Peterbilt than a new GM econfoilmobile.
Add human powered pedal cars to the product line and use them to skew the MPG average.
The author incorrectly assumes the consequences are unitended.
If the Volt II gets 300 MPG, and the other 9 models only get 30 MPG ... the average will be 57 MPG ... and the car company meets the regulations.
What an utterly stupid law.
The solution to the problem is obvious to any conservative - take CAFE out behind the barn, and kill it with an ax.
The government should not be dictating corporate average fuel economy. The marketplace should by the cars the individual buyers choose to purchase. Fire the bureaucracy that creates, tabulates, and enforces this nonsense and force them to get out and make an honest living.
Wonder what big brother’s plans are when people start raising cain over this. Even the most stupid useful idiot has his limits.
My motorcycle doesn’t get 54 mile per gallon.
Our Government is out of control and is destroying this Country........
But then this is only a money making scheme anyhow. No car company can have an entire line getting 54mpg by 2025 or likely ever. So as the deadline approaches and the car companies are not there yet the Government will grant waivers for “monetary penalties”
What a great article.
I have to laugh when I see folks driving around in those little roller-skate Fiat 500s or Fart Cars. They’re hardly any bigger than the bugs on my car’s grill. Splat...
Of course Zero can make that happen.
All downhill. Zero gallons a mile.
What’s being overlooked here is that you can’t legislate technology advances and innovation. That happens as a part of Capitalism & the free market economic model.
If the geniuses in Washington really believe that all they have to do is pass a law to fix a problem, why don’t they dictate that medicine develop a cure for cancer by 2015?
Don’t the care about us?
Sheesh...
Perhaps the worst “unintended consequence” of CAFE can be seen by examining the aftermath of the first round of standards begun in the late 70’s.
The automakers did succeed in increasing the fuel economy of cars by roughly 50%. This means that the cost per mile driven went down significantly.
Over time, these more efficient vehicles enabled the exodus from city centers to suburbs and beyond. Commuting an hour or more to work became the norm instead of the exception.
CAFE accelerated urban sprawl and created the shopping mall.
It is estimated that we drive some 35% more today than we did pre-CAFE.
Those of us already outside city centers probably cannot drive much more than we already do, but is it not possible that the future government mandated efficiency will engender further exit from our cities, and thus increase the amount of fuel we use?
In which alternative universe can the conservation of a commodity be increased by making it cheaper to use?
These kinds of policies always make me wonder: do progressives hate poor people?
Don’t you love Central Planning.
Pray for America
I agree with all but one word:
“Unintended”.
Nothing by this administration is unintended. It’s all going according to plan.
By 2025, we’ll all be dying in fiery crashes that today, would “buff out” with a little wax.
I just bought a 2002 Audi TT, AWD. Of course it’s a convertible. I spent $11K on it and can’t imagine any new car for under $30K I would like as much.
If you have basic mechanical skills, a used car can be a great option.
How about getting the inefficient Ethanol out of the fuel chain first. You’d see vehicle mileage increase accordingly.
C for C destroyed an incredible amount of perfectly good used cars. A total sin.
How much pollution and resources were consumed to create the new vehicles to replace these perfectly good used vehicles?
The idiotic fools in government destroy everything they touch.