Bushamerica $3 gas is here NOW 4730On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 03:12:04 -0500, "Magnulus" This is *exactly* the thinking that got us SUVs. Remember, SUVs were a very small part of the road fleet before CAFE. Think "unintended consequences". And what...
If you raise CAFE enough, SUV's will become pointless. People who really need to haul stuff will fork over the additional money for one, and everybody else will either buy a compact truck-SUV or they will buy a car.
Besides, the Union of Concerned Scientists proved its possible to make a 27 mpg Explorer sized SUV with a gasoline engine, and it would only cost about 600 dollars more. Throw in about 1500 dollars and you can get one with a bit more fuel economy.
CAFE is good because it forces Detroit to build better cars, it holds the industry to some kind of standard. Gas taxes, OTOH, are a burden on the people least able to pay. I'd rather have CAFE guiding the auto industry than Motor Trend or Car and Driver.
SUV's, for all their bulk, are generally no safer than most cars now days, and they have poorer gas mileage to show for it. In fact, trucks often have the worst crash test data of any vehicle out there. Ford F-150's in particular got a "Poor" rating a few years ago from the IIHS in the frontal offset crash test. You can crash an F-150 into the front end of a Mini Cooper and the F-150 occupants will actually recieve more damage- the F-150 has a head injury criterion of over 750 in the frontal crash test, whereas the Mini Cooper is under 400. So big SUV's being safer is pure nonsense. It's not so much the weigth so much as the crumple zones and overall engineering of the vehicle- bigger cars might actually be somewhat safer but heavier cars it turns out offer little additional protection vs. a lighter car.
People who buy SUV's to commute to work or haul their worthless children around are killing the planet and funding persons. Time to stop making excuses for their behavior, time to demand some social responsability.
